Rahm’s and Arne’s Legacies Continue to Damage Chicago Public Schools, Especially in Black Neighborhoods | janresseger

Rahm’s and Arne’s Legacies Continue to Damage Chicago Public Schools, Especially in Black Neighborhoods | janresseger

Rahm’s and Arne’s Legacies Continue to Damage Chicago Public Schools, Especially in Black Neighborhoods

Corporate school reform was launched in Chicago back in 2004 in the form of a glittery new promise named Renaissance 2010.  By 2010, the school district said, it would close so-called “failing” public schools and replace them with one hundred new schools. Many of the new schools would be charter schools. There was a corporate flavor to every detail beginning with the formal announcement of the new scheme—at the Commercial Club of Chicago.

In Chicago, however, corporate school reform did not end in 2010. It continues to this day.

In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, her profound (2018) history of Chicago school reform, University of Chicago sociologist Eve Ewing contrasts the widespread community grief that has followed school closures—as parents, children, and teachers understood and loved their schools as community and even family institutions, while schools CEO, Barbara Byrd Bennett and her staff brought a technocratic corporate mentality.  Ewing quotes the Chicago Public Schools portfolio planner, Brittany Meadows, justifying (at a formal 2013 hearing) the reason for closing Mayo Elementary School: “(T)he enrollment efficiency range of the Mayo facility is between 552 and 828 students. As I stated, the enrollment of Mayo as of the 20th day of attendance for the 2012-2013 school year is 408. The number is below the enrollment efficiency range, and thus the school is underutilized.” (Ghosts in the Schoolyard, p. 100)

Ewing dissects the technocratic logic of the school reform imposed on Chicago by Arne Duncan, who ran the district before he became U.S. Secretary of Education and later Rahm Emanuel and a succession of mayoral-appointed school district CEOs: “Meadows closes with the language of logic: ‘This number is below the enrollment efficiency range, and thus the school is underutilized.’ Meadows presents this data using an ‘if… then’ statement, explaining the calculation of the metrics without explaining the validity of the constructs involved. In this manner the school closure proposal appears natural and inevitable. Well, of course, since this CONTINUE READING: Rahm’s and Arne’s Legacies Continue to Damage Chicago Public Schools, Especially in Black Neighborhoods | janresseger

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Things That Make You Go, Hmmm

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Things That Make You Go, Hmmm

Things That Make You Go, Hmmm

• How come Superintendent Juneau demoted Principal Emily Butler Ginolfi out of Washington Middle School and made it clear that EGB would be an assistant principal at lower pay and then reversed that by appointing EGB to Licton Springs K-8? 

How principals get so much grace and autonomy in their jobs is Reason #501 to wonder about this district.  The next person to complain about how "hard it is to get rid of bad teachers" needs to remember that about principals.  (Also, note to the district - everything that EGB did at Washington Middle School is now public record so if she messes up again, that will be quite the lawsuit on your hands.)

• I'm hearing that some/all SPS schools are checking visitors' IDs? And scanning them? The district needs to have the driver's license number of every visitor to SPS? I'm going to JSCEE this week so I'll be really interested to see if they ask for anything there.

• Want to hear some really good wordsmithing? Check out the back and forth from Superintendent in Tahoma as he and his Board decide to part ways. From the Covington Reporter:

The Tahoma School District Board of Directors made an unexpected vote during a special board meeting on Monday, Sept. 30, when it accepted the district superintendent’s resignation.  

District Spokesperson Kevin Patterson said the district came to an agreement regarding the statement with Giurado and his legal team. The resignation was a surprise for staff and parents alike. 

“The Tahoma School District Board of Directors and CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Things That Make You Go, Hmmm

Trump administration sides with Catholic school that fired gay teacher - The Washington Post

Trump administration sides with Catholic school that fired gay teacher - The Washington Post

Trump administration sides with Catholic school that fired gay teacher

The Trump administration is backing a Roman Catholic archbishop in Indiana who pushed a Catholic school to fire a gay teacher, saying in a legal document that the First Amendment protects the church’s right to make such decisions.

The Justice Department submitted a “statement of interest” on the side of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in a lawsuit filed by the teacher, Joshua Payne-Elliott, who was fired in June from Cathedral High School, where he had taught social studies and world language.

After refusing archdiocese’s order to fire gay teacher, school is told it will no longer be recognized as Catholic

In 2017, Payne-Elliott married a male teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis. The archdiocese told both schools they no longer would be considered Catholic if they did not fire the teachers. Brebeuf refused to dismiss Payne-Elliott’s husband, who was not named, and Archbishop Charles C. Thompson issued a decree in June saying the school would no longer be recognized as Catholic. Cathedral, apparently to avoid the same fate, fired Payne-Elliott after trying to protect him for nearly two years.

Last month, the Vatican suspended Thompson’s decree against Brebeuf while the school appeals the archbishop’s decision.

Payne-Elliott then sued the archdiocese in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, saying it had discriminated against him and illegally interfered with the contract he had with Cathedral to teach. He is seeking compensation for lost earnings and benefits, as well as emotional distress.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis makes clear on its website that the “Catholic Church believes marriage to be between a man and a woman,” and that teachers in its schools are “ministers” who “must uphold the teachings of the Church in their daily lives, both in and out of school.”

The Justice Department’s statement of interest says the First Amendment gives the church the right to CONTINUE READING: Trump administration sides with Catholic school that fired gay teacher - The Washington Post

IS TEACHING A CALLING OR A JOB? CAN IT BE A TEAM SPORT? | The Merrow Report

IS TEACHING A CALLING OR A JOB? CAN IT BE A TEAM SPORT? | The Merrow Report

IS TEACHING A CALLING OR A JOB? CAN IT BE A TEAM SPORT?

I begin with the negative, but I promise that–if you stick it out–you will encounter a vision of what teaching could be.

The first question: is teaching a calling, a profession, or just another job?  

“So, are they quitting because they’re fed up with their heavy-handed union bosses?” The hostility of the question took me by surprise. I was explaining to my dinner companion, a veteran lawyer, that 40% of teachers leave the field within five years, and right away he jumped to his anti-union conclusion disguised as a question.

No, I explained. Unions don’t seem to have anything to do with it; it’s most often related to working conditions: class size, discipline policies, and how much control and influence they have over their daily activities.

“It’s not money?” he asked, aggressively suspicious. Not according to surveys, I explained.

I described what I’d seen of a teacher’s daily work life. He interrupted, “How can it be a profession if you can’t take a leak when you need to?”

While that’s not a criterion that social scientists use to define a profession, my cut-to-the-chase acquaintance might be on to something.

Can teaching be a true profession if you can’t take a bathroom break when nature CONTINUE READING: IS TEACHING A CALLING OR A JOB? CAN IT BE A TEAM SPORT? | The Merrow Report

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching

I stood as I have many times in front of the two tea dispensers at a chain sub sandwich shop. But this time, I was suddenly struck with the choice I always make—the “unsweet tea.”

I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in the Deep South. My mother made tea that would rival pancake syrup and trained my sister and me in the meticulous ritual of steeping tea bags and then pouring the hot tea over a huge mound of processed sugar.

The tea pot was dedicated only to steeping tea, and the tea jar and the giant plastic sugar spoon were sacred as well.

Once I left home, my mother flirted with sun tea, but the syrup-sweet tea of my childhood later became my defining feature of what could rightfully call itself The South. When ordering tea, The South hands you sweetened ice tea; hot tea or tea without sugar are not even mentioned, or considered.

So with a great deal of shame, I must admit that only a week or so ago I was truck with the absurdity that is “unsweet tea,” which of course is just CONTINUE READING: Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers

By Anica Oaks

Employing just the right visual teaching tools can make a critical difference between science teachers bringing their material brilliantly to life before their students’ eyes and watching them grow frustrated and overwhelmed by the difficult concepts. Reluctant or struggling learnings may need to process information through a different channel for the lessons to stick. After all, around 65 percent of the population is comprised of visual learners. When you consider that humans visually process about 90 percent of all information in any given environment visually, that makes sense. The knowledge you present may not always inherently electrify the classroom all by itself, but recognizing and playing to your students’ strengths can keep them engaged.

Memes

Chuckle and roll your eyes if you want, but these ubiquitous visual gags are naturally sticky ideas ideal for making any notion easy to instantly recall. Try setting up a moderated classroom subreddit. Encourage students to use any of the countless online meme generators available now to creatively repurpose existing templates toward what you teach. Next, let them comment, upvote and reply with their own memes to each thread. It may sound ridiculous and even shallow to elder generations, but this is a downright devious way to sneak learning into the same motif kids choose to riff on sports, anime, video games, and life’s generally ridiculous minutiae.

Infographics

Depending on your school’s scheduling philosophy, you likely have CONTINUE READING: 4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

WARNING : TRY TO KEEP UP WITH DIANE AT YOUR OWN RISK: Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

WARNING : TRY TO KEEP UP WITH DIANE AT YOUR OWN RISK: Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW

Rob Schofield: The War on Public Education in North Carolina

by dianeravitch / 28min

There was a time when Norh Carolina was widely seen as the most progressive stTe in the South. That time ended abruptly when the Tea Party took control of the state in 2010 and began to decimate public services, especially public education. The Tea Party introduced charters and vouchers, killed the state’s successful NC Teaching Fellows Program for career teachers (giving its funding to Teach for

Michael Kohlhaas: The California Charter School Association’s Secret, Reprehensible Goals

by dianeravitch / 1h

Last June, blogger Michael Kohlhaas received a huge trove of documents from the Green Dot Charter Chain in response to his request filed under the state’s Public Record Act. He has been reviewing these documents and releasing them. In this post, he summarizes a Powerpoint presentation (and provides a link to the actual document) in which the California Charter Schools Association lays out its goa

Jan Resseger: Ohio Reduces Oversight of Failing Charter Operators and Gives More Money to Attend Low-Performing Voucher Schools

by dianeravitch / 2h

Jan Resseger reports here on Stephen Dyer’s astute analysis of Ohio’s state budget. Dyer is a former legislator who is now an Education Policy Fellow at Innovation Ohio. This is Dyer’s report. Read it and weep. Ohio’s rightwing Republicans care more about campaign contributors than they care about the state’s students or the quality of education. In looking at the plums for charters and vouchers,

Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: The Road to Unfreedom

44by dianeravitch / 3h

During the protests in Hong Kong, demonstrators carried placards of Timothy Snyder’s lessons about losing democracy. On Tyranny: the Road to Unfreedom Timothy Snyder – Yale University – Nov 15, 2016. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here a

NPE National Conference: Last Day to Get Early Bird Rate!

by dianeravitch / 4h

Register today for the Network for Public Education’s National Conference in March 2020 in Philadelphia. Today is the last day to get early bird discounted rate. Great speakers, great panels, and a chance to meet the leaders of the Resistance! Including you!

YESTERDAY

A New Year’s Greeting from Around the World

by dianeravitch / 20h

This is a lovely way to usher in the New Year 5780! Thanks to my dear friend David Berliner for sharing! And a happy New Year, L’Shana Tova, to all!

ProPublica: Trump Has Been Working the Ukraine Story in Plain Sight

by dianeravitch / 23h

ProPublica documents that Trump has been proclaiming his interest in the Ukraine investigation on Twitter for months. Why are we surprised when he has told the story out loud for months ? Conspiracy theorists convinced him long ago that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the 2016 election, to aid the hated Hillary. He also telegraphed his belief that Ukraine leaked damaging information about Paul M

Andrea Gabor: The Demand for A New Kind of Civics

by dianeravitch / 1d

Andrea Gabor wrote this article for Bloomberg News. Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of “After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform.” The College Board, which administers college entrance exams to high school st

Red Queen in L.A.: No, We Do Not Need a Yelp for Schools

37by dianeravitch / 1d

The charter Industry faction on the Los Angeles School Board wants to introduce a Jeb Bush-style evaluation system to rank and rate schools. It hasn’t worked anywhere else in the nation, so why not introduce it in Los Angeles. Every other state has demonstrated that the school grading system ranks schools by the income of parents. Schools that enroll the poorest children get the lowest grades. Sc

John Thompson: Can Online Learning Survive the Profiteers and Frauds?

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

John Thompson is a historians and recently retired teacher in Oklahoma. For more than two decades I’ve mourned the loss of opportunities for online instruction to augment and enhance student learning, as opposed enabling a Social Darwinian competition where charters attack traditional public schools. Educators seeking meaningful choices, such as real personalized learning, have been shackled by t

Peter Greene: Watch RAND Play “Corporate Reformy Buzzword Bingo”

by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene recognizes the RAND Institution’s adroit use of the Reformy vocabulary in its latest report. Almost all your favorite jargon and buzzwords are found there, he says. Check it out and see if they overlooked any of your favorite buzzwords. RAND Corporation, with its vision to be “the world’s mos

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all