Saturday, October 31, 2020

Texas Parent PAC: A Model of Action for Every State | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas Parent PAC: A Model of Action for Every State

Parents in Texas got disgusted 15 years ago when the Legislature almost passed a voucher law. They organized the Texas Parent PAC, which is a highly effective voice on behalf of public schools and more than five million students.

The website of Texas Parent PAC has a list of the endorsed candidates, both Democrats and Republicans.

Their guiding principles are a model for parents, grandparents, and civic activists in other states.

I recently heard from Dinah Miller, co-founder and co-chair, who explained the PAC’s origins. She wrote:

Texas Parent PAC formed in 2005 after taxpayer-funded private school vouchers failed to pass the Texas House by only one vote. Five PTA moms called a press conference during PTA Summer Seminar in Austin and announced we were forming a political action committee to elect better talent to the Texas House who would oppose vouchers and support public schools. We recruited Diane Patrick from Arlington who had local and state school board experience to run against hostile Texas House Public Education Committee Chair Kent Grusendorf who had been in office 20 years. We beat Grusendorf in the primary along with others and then CONTINUE READING: Texas Parent PAC: A Model of Action for Every State | Diane Ravitch's blog

The week in coveducation: Cancellations, unclaimed funds, public school oversight

The week in coveducation: Cancellations, unclaimed funds, public school oversight

Oklahoma faced intense winter weather this week that took down tree limbs, left more than 250,000 people without power and caused school cancellations.

Despite this freeze in the weather, the Oklahoma education news gears kept spinning to include a reported decline in enrollment at Tulsa Public Schools, 70 Oklahoma schools failing to submit vaccination data and an Oklahoma lawmaker who intends to seek the reorganization of public school oversight.

Catch up on the week’s education news with this coveducation recap of headlines from reporters around the state.

OKCPS changes CONTINUE READING: The week in coveducation: Cancellations, unclaimed funds, public school oversight

New data lays bare school funding disparities -- within districts, too

New data: Even within the same district some wealthy schools get millions more than poor ones

We’ve long known about spending disparities from one district to another; new federally mandated data lays bare within-district inequities, too

At Ronald D. O’Neal Elementary School, in Elgin, Illinois, none of the third graders could read and write at grade level according to state tests in 2019. Nearly 90 percent of the school population is considered low-income and nearly three-quarters are labeled English learners, meaning that the state language arts test assesses their reading and writing ability in a language they’re still trying to learn.

Just nine miles away sits Centennial Elementary School, where 73 percent of third graders met grade-level standards on that same test. A fifth of Centennial’s student body is considered low-income, and 17 percent get extra supports as they learn English.

The state has celebrated Centennial for “exemplary academic performance.” It designates O’Neal as a school in need of targeted assistance. But despite its low performance and its students’ needs, O’Neal received $9,094 per student in 2019 in state and local funding compared to Centennial’s $10,559. If O’Neal had received Centennial’s per-pupil funding, it would have meant an extra $789,905 in its budget: Money that could have covered more — or more experienced — teachers, social workers or home-school liaisons, or paid for new programs to address students’ academic and nonacademic needs.

While wealthier school districts routinely spend significantly more money to run their public schools, the disparity between Centennial and O’Neal can’t be attributed to the relative wealth in their communities. Both schools are part of a single district, U-46, Illinois’ second largest.

Kids who need more support to overcome barriers to academic achievement are routinely shortchanged. U-46 was one of 53 districts across the United States that spent a statistically significant amount less state and local money on high-poverty schools than on lower-poverty schools, according to a new Hechinger Report analysis of how districts disburse funding. In another 263 districts, the level of spending on each school had little to no connection to the number of students in poverty, despite the higher needs often present in low-income schools. It’s the first CONTINUE READING: New data lays bare school funding disparities -- within districts, too

VOICES: River City, Episode 103: SCUSD Candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips – VOICES: River City

VOICES: River City, Episode 103: SCUSD Candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips

BY: VOICES: THE PODCAST OCTOBER 30, 2020

We’re joined by Sacramento City Unified School District candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips, who are running in areas 4 and 7, respectively.

They share with us why they’ve been moved to run for office during such an acrimonious time between the existing board and the teachers union, and discuss the ways the district has historically failed students of color. We also discuss education in the time of COVID, the long overdue removal of cops in our schools, and how one particular newspaper columnist simply has it wrong on SCUSD’s challenges and solutions.

Finally, we take a moment to congratulate Dr Flo and the countless other advocates who worked tirelessly to make Sacramento the first city in the nation to incorporate prevention in its definition of public safety.

Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:

Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity

Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune

And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

VOICES: River City, Episode 103: SCUSD Candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips – VOICES: River City

NANCY BAILEY: Alien School Invasion and Reformers With Erased Memories

Alien School Invasion and Reformers With Erased Memories

Alien School Invasion and Reformers With Erased Memories

They don’t recall the alien invasion, or recognize those who had part in it. The school reformers and their friends condemn public schools, mortified by senior NAEP scores (how could those teachers not teach reading?). They’ve forgotten the rotten changes to remake public schools.

Parents once liked their public schools, and few were interested in privatization or charter schools. Teaching was a popular profession. Then the aliens came and changed things around to convince parents that they didn’t like their public schools after all.

School tampering included IDEA scandals, NCLB, Race to the Top, Common Core, ESSA, and much more. The school reformers today criticize the results of the policies they designed and supported.

They don’t remember.

It’s creepy to think about on Halloween and every day.

Their memories have erased the influence of billionaires around the country who CONTINUE READING: Alien School Invasion and Reformers With Erased Memories

Whatever Happened To Vocational Education? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened To Vocational Education?

Where and When Did Vocational Education Begin?

In the mid-19th century, school reformers made the distinction between the head and hand learning in children and youth–both had to be schooled. After the Civil War, reformers introduced “manual education” into schools. Working with tools to fashion wood, iron, and other metals into useful objects, balanced the nearly total focus on academic subjects (see here and here). While adding such courses to the high school curriculum was common in the closing decades of the 19th century, separate manual training high schools in cities were also built such as the duPont Manual High School in Louisville (KY), Manual High School in Denver (CO), and Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington, D.C.

But the economy that welcomed artisans in carpentry, brick masonry, and farriers was shifting to industrial workplaces where different skills and different gatekeepers to jobs were needed.

In the early decades of the 20th century, business and civic leaders called for a different kind of “hand” schooling to prepare youth for newly created industrial and manufacturing jobs as machinists, iron and steel workers, etc. Many of these leaders had visited Germany, a global competitor now outstripping the U.S. in selling its products. They saw how Germany had established vocational education and apprenticeships in secondary schools and how these schools provided a ready supply of workers fitted to a rapidly changing industrial economy. By World War I, U.S. high schools had added “vocational” subjects to the academic curriculum and districts opened newly established, separate vocational schools.

What Problems Did Vocational Education Intend To Solve?

incorporating vocational education into the high school curriculum sought to solve two problems. First, the wholly academic curriculum of the 19th and early 20th century high school drove most students to dropping out of school while in grammar school (grades 1-8) or immediately after graduating. Adding work-related courses that could equip students with workplace skills and lead to actual jobs enticed students to continue going to school. In a democracy, Progressive CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened To Vocational Education? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How is New York City Increasing Student Outcomes in the COVID World? How about More Standardized Tests and Evaluating/Rating Teacher Remote Instruction? | Ed In The Apple

How is New York City Increasing Student Outcomes in the COVID World? How about More Standardized Tests and Evaluating/Rating Teacher Remote Instruction?

Why is the NYC school leader giving a standardized test in the middle of October, in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of a world wide crisis of unparalleled proportions?

COVID positive rates are inching upward, the mayor threatening parents in an attempt to force kids back to in-person instruction, the teacher union president sharply criticizing the mayor,

UFT President Michael Mulgrew on City Hall’s decision to reduce the opportunities for parents to opt-in to blended learning:

“City Hall’s decision violates the plan New York City filed with the state, and it breaks faith with parents.”

“Families were told they would have an opportunity each quarter to decide whether their child returned to the classroom or remained fully remote. Such a decision undermines parents’ trust in the system.”

Is this the time to introduce another standardized test? Teachers and students are stressed each and every day, and now you’re kids are taking a standardized test.

For decade after decade education technology entrepreneurs have touted CONTINUE READING: How is New York City Increasing Student Outcomes in the COVID World? How about More Standardized Tests and Evaluating/Rating Teacher Remote Instruction? | Ed In The Apple

WHAT'S NEW AT THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

California Department of Education

WHAT'S NEW AT THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Verification Status Under the NSLP
Posted 30-Oct-2020
October 6, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar
Posted 30-Oct-2020
COVID-19: FFVP Operations Questions and Answers
Posted 30-Oct-2020
Nutrition Physical Activity Tip Sheets
Posted 30-Oct-2020
Advisory Commission for Special Education (ACSE) Meeting Webcast for October 21, 2020
Posted 26-Oct-2020

Mathematics CFCC Webcasts for October 19-20, 2020
Posted 26-Oct-2020
SBE Agenda for November 2020
Posted 23-Oct-2020
COVID-19 Guidance in the Child Nutrition Programs
Posted 22-Oct-2020
CNP COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
Posted 22-Oct-2020
CNP COVID-19 Policy Guidance
Posted 22-Oct-2020

Grants for California Community Schools Partnerships
Posted 30-Oct-2020
$420K in Grants Donated to Digital DIvide Fund
Posted 29-Oct-2020
2021 CA Teachers of the Year Announced
Posted 28-Oct-2020
SSPI Announces Face Masks Donation by GM
Posted 22-Oct-2020
CDE Emergency Response Fund
Posted 15-Oct-2020

Second Round of Ethnic Studies Virtual Series
Posted 02-Oct-2020
Tools for Teachers
Posted 30-Sep-2020
Thousands of Devices Available for Schools
Posted 30-Sep-2020
SSPI Issues Statement on CSA Report
Posted 29-Sep-2020
Mini Grants Available for Anti-Racism Training
Posted 25-Sep-2020

California Department of Education

BETTER WAYS TO SPEND OUR TIME – Dad Gone Wild

BETTER WAYS TO SPEND OUR TIME

“Sometimes I wonder if we’re livin’ in the same land.
Why do you wanna be my friend
when I feel like a juggler
running out of hands?”
― Elvis Costello

Throughout the ongoing pandemic, the one thing that has remained consistent is our endless belief that if we just ignore reality and recreate things the way they used to be, everything will be fine. As if by sheer will we can negate the impact of the coronavirus.

Case in point, MAP testing. We do it at the beginning of the year every year so by damn we are going to do it this year. For 3 weeks in August, and a week in September, MNPS had its principals running around chasing students down to administer a test nobody really wanted to take. They were charged with this challenge despite repeated warnings from parents and teachers about its lack of usefulness.

Two months later, district leadership is admitting that parents and teachers were right, the most valid data points we have are those supplied by teachers at the individual level.

To mitigate criticism, MNPS Executive Director Paul Changas at this week’s board meeting touted that NWEA wasn’t charging us for the assessment. Ah, but please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because MNPS is not delivering any cash to NWEA that there is no cost. Au contraire.

There was a huge cost to the district due to the decision to participate in MAP this year. A cost in both time and resources. Principals were forced to spend large amounts of precious time locating CONTINUE READING: BETTER WAYS TO SPEND OUR TIME – Dad Gone Wild