A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Very Interesting Video: “Interpreter Breaks Down How Real-Time Translation Works”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min

geralt / Pixabay This new video from Wired is pretty interesting:

Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

geralt / Pixabay I’ve just mailed out the July issue of my very simple free monthly email newsletter . It has over 3,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here . Of course, you can also join the eighteen thousand others who subscribe to this blog daily. Here Are 8 Ways You Can Subscribe For Free…

The Korean War Began On This Day In 1950 – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

JamesDeMers / Pixabay The Korean War began on this day in 1950. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About The Korean War . Today in 1950: The Korean War began when North Korea invaded the South at dawn, broadcasting a declaration of war at 11 a.m. https://t.co/huf1UJq49T pic.twitter.com/buxrlBEixa — NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) June 25, 2019

YESTERDAY

Ed Tech Digest – Special Edition Number Two!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Usually, I just publish this post once each week. However, the ISTE conference is happening, and there’s lots of ed tech news! Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You m

Video: “What Happens If You Get HIV / AIDS?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

I’m adding this new video from Life Noggin to The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS :

The Best Collections Of Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Policy Positions

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

Josethestoryteller / Pixabay The Democratic primary season is upon us, and media organizations have begun publishing impressive summaries of different policy positions candidates are taking. You might also be interested in: The Best Sites To Learn About U.S. Presidents The Best Sites To Learn About The 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections Here’s a beginning list of them: Politico’s Candidate’s View o

“Mistakes That Math Teachers Make”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

Mistakes That Math Teachers Make is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. This three-part series on mistakes made in math instruction “kicks off” with responses from Bobson Wong, Elissa Scillieri, Ed.D., Beth Brady, and Beth Kobett, Ed.D. Here are some excerpts:

Ed Tech Digest – Special Edition!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

Usually, I just publish this post once each week. However, the ISTE conference is happening, and there’s lots of ed tech news! Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You m

Ways To Help Refugees At The Border

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I think many are wondering how to help the many refugees at our southern border. Here’s a list of organizations that are mobilizing to help the influx of immigrants crossing the Texas-Mexico border is a very important article from The Texas Monthly that shares names and links to credible organizations to support. 5 powerful ways we can help detained immigrant children today is from Motherly, and

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A?

Alfie Kohn has written many books critical of competition and ranking in schools. This article appeared in the New York Times.

For a generation now, school reform has meant top-down mandates for what students must be taught, enforced by high-stakes standardized tests and justified by macho rhetoric — “rigor,” “raising the bar,” “tougher standards.”

Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year virtually every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from politicians, businesspeople, the media? Would these people shake their heads in admiration and say, “Damn, those teachers must be good!”?

Of course not. Such remarkable success would be cited as evidence that the tests were too easy. In the real world, when scores have improved sharply, this has indeed been the reaction. For example, when results on New York’s math exam rose in 2009, the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents said, “What today’s scores tell me is not that we should be celebrating,” but instead “that New York State needs to raise its standards.”

The inescapable, and deeply disturbing, implication is that “high standards” really means “standards that all students will never be able to meet.” If everyone did meet CONTINUE READING: Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem

In March, I published a post about a report detailing up to $1 billion in federal funds wasted on charter schools that never opened, or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons. The report — titled “Asleep at the Wheel” and published by the Network for Public Education, a group that advocates for public schools — also said that the U.S. Education Department does not adequately monitor how money it uses for grants in its Charter Schools Program is spent.

A few days later, the report was raised at a House subcommittee hearing by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), who asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about it. DeVos, a big supporter of charter schools, said that schools that don’t “make it” should be closed. The full House recently passed a spending bill that would provide more funding than ever for the Education Department, though charter school funding would be cut by nearly 10 percent.

Now, one of the authors of “Asleep at the Wheel,” Carol Burris, is back with an update. Her conclusion: The waste and fraud may be worse than the original report stated, as she explains in the following piece. Burris is executive director of the Network for Public Education and a former award-winning principal in New York.

[How does a $50 million charter scam work? Here’s what happened in California (before 11 people were indicted).]

It is worth noting that the original report said that the Education Department in Republican and Democratic administrations has “largely ignored or not sufficiently addressed” recommendations to improve the Charter Schools Programs made by the department’s own inspector general.

By Carol Burris

A few weeks ago, 11 people connected to online charter schools in California were indicted on criminal charges of grand theft, conspiracy, personal use of public money and financial conflict of interest. More than $50 million was stolen by the alleged conspirators. The nonprofit charter management company at the center of the scandal is known as Academic, Arts and Action Charter Academies, popularly known as A3 Education. CONTINUE READING: A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past

There is so much about the U.S. in the story of Kyle Kashuv.

Kashuv as a teenager has had thrust upon him a complex and accidental fame. First, he gained recognition by being among the high school student survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooing.

Next, Kashuv filled a partisan political niche by being the face of conservative activist students after that school shooting—an event that spawned a rise in what has been characterized in the U.S. as left-wing political activism by a number of his classmates.

And now, Kashuv is the face of consequences: He was first accepted in Harvard and then that acceptance was rescinded.

Conservatives across the country have rushed to expressed outrage, focusing on arguments that his actions (documented and repeated racist language) occurred while he was still young; these defenses of Kashuv have often been absent the fact that colleges, and Harvard, have rescinded acceptances for similar reasons in the past (with little media fanfare) and that the nature of all college admission is judging applicants for their behavior while only in their teens.

By the logic of apologists for Kashuv, Harvard—and all colleges—are irresponsible for admitting or rejecting students for the grades they earned and the accomplishments they achieved while teenagers.

But the larger problem with how conservatives have rushed to defend Kashuv is that it is grounded in a plea for license, not freedom.

Kashuv has not been denied his freedom to express racist language and bigoted ideology; Kashuv has not been denied the opportunity to rise above these deplorable displays of calloused youthful indiscretion (if that CONTINUE READING: Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity

Dehesa School District profited by cultivating charter schools - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Dehesa School District profited by cultivating charter schools - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Dehesa School District profited by cultivating charter schools 
The 138-student school district is in charge of watchdogging nine charter schools with 11,500 students.

The duty to watchdog multiple charter schools involved in a recent alleged charter school scam lay on the shoulders of Dehesa School District, a tiny district that consists of a single elementary school with 138 students in the hills of east San Diego County.

In May 11 people were indicted in connection with a statewide charter school scheme that prosecutors said funneled $50 million into the pockets of two executives of A3 Education. Three of the A3 charter schools were authorized and overseen by Dehesa.

In a statement, the district defended its authorization of its several charter schools.

“The Dehesa School District approved the charter schools believing we were making educational options available to students who could benefit from instruction in non-traditional settings,” the district said in a statement. “We recognize that several charter school reforms have been initiated at the state level, and our District is committed to ensuring legal compliance with all applicable laws and regulations concerning charter schools.”

Neither Dehesa Superintendent Nancy Hauer, who has been placed on paid leave and was one of the 11 people indicted, nor board members responded to requests for comment.

How could such alleged charter school fraud be allowed to happen? Some have argued that California’s charter school laws are too lax in what they require of charter authorizers. Others say that argument gives charter authorizers like Dehesa too much benefit of the doubt.

“You know, the [district attorney] made a statement about A3 and how they prey on small, naive districts, and there is no such thing as naive anymore,” said Terri CONTINUE READING:  Dehesa School District profited by cultivating charter schools - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Sacramento City School District Passes Budget Plan, Eliminating Nearly 400 Jobs - capradio.org

Sacramento City School District Passes Budget Plan, Eliminating Nearly 400 Jobs - capradio.org

Sacramento City School District Passes Budget Plan, Eliminating Nearly 400 Jobs

Sacramento City school board members were up late Thursday night passing a budget plan for next year, but the district still has major financial hurdles ahead of it.

The good news? The new fiscal plan avoids a state takeover for now. The bad news? The district cut nearly 400 teachers and school positions, and teachers and administrators are still deadlocked over labor negotiations.

“This budget is tolerable for now, but we really need to move forward so that we’re not having this fight every year, and we can start investing in the kids,” said Tara Thronson, founder of the group Parents United to Restore our Schools.

The school district still faces a state takeover in a couple of years if it doesn’t realize more long-term structural savings.

Thursday’s meeting ran late as parents pleaded that teachers and the district do anything they can to fix the district’s long term budget deficit.

“Everywhere where we have reduced costs or made cuts has been on the employee side of the equation, not on the student side,” said district spokesperson Alex Barrios. “And that has been 100% intentional. We want to say loud and clear to the community, our programs are staying in place.”

The district faces many more months of financial problem-solving. The county is expected to reject the city schools funding plan.

Sacramento City School District Passes Budget Plan, Eliminating Nearly 400 Jobs - capradio.org

Will Mississippi Supreme Court Allow Privately-Operated Charter Schools to Keep Seizing Public Funds from Public Schools? | Dissident Voice

Will Mississippi Supreme Court Allow Privately-Operated Charter Schools to Keep Seizing Public Funds from Public Schools? | Dissident Voice

Will Mississippi Supreme Court Allow Privately-Operated Charter Schools to Keep Seizing Public Funds from Public Schools?

A high-level court case is currently underway in Mississippi to decide if privately-operated charter schools can keep siphoning local property taxes from public schools.

Presently, Mississippi’s charter school law unconstitutionally diverts millions of dollars in local property tax money (ad valorem taxes) away from local public school districts to privately-operated charter schools.

Defenders of public schools and the public interest rightly note that privately-operated charter schools are harming public schools by draining money away from them and that opening more charter schools will only make things worse. They say that if privately-run charter schools are going to operate in Mississippi, they should find another source of funding.

Charter schools are not public schools in the proper sense of the word, therefore they have no valid or legitimate claim to public funds. Privately-operated charter schools differ legally, philosophically, organizationally, and operationally from public schools. To treat both types of schools as public and entitled to public funds is erroneous, misleading, and dishonest.

In Mississippi and other states, only public schools under local control by CONTINUE READING: Will Mississippi Supreme Court Allow Privately-Operated Charter Schools to Keep Seizing Public Funds from Public Schools? | Dissident Voice