Saturday, November 21, 2020

The coveducation week: House Dems ask two SVCSB members to resign

The coveducation week: House Dems ask two SVCSB members to resign

As we head into Thanksgiving week, make sure you’re caught up on all the education news around Oklahoma to share with your family around the dinner table — or over Zoom. I hear people just love talking about the news over dinner, right?

This year, I am personally thankful for our readers and the reporters around the state working hard to bring you the education news that I get to compile into this weekly #coveducation recap.

House Democrats call on two SVCSB members to step down.

Members of the House Democratic Caucus education policy group released a statement this week asking two members of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to step down owing to alleged conflicts of interest with Epic Charter Schools.

SVCSB member Phyllis Shepherd is being asked to step down after it was discovered through social media posts that she is the aunt of Epic co-founder David Chaney. The Tulsa World looked into genealogy records showing that Chaney and Shepherd are related on Chaney’s fathers side of the family.

Mathew Hamrick is being asked to step down owing to the nature of his relationship with Chaney, as well. According to the Epic audit, in 2017 Hamrick received political CONTINUE READING: The coveducation week: House Dems ask two SVCSB members to resign

America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

America's teachers are running on empty

School districts nationwide are facing a worsening teacher shortage because of the coronavirus, further complicating the tough decisions about whether to have in-person classes.

Why it matters: When teachers test positive, fall seriously ill or are self-isolating from potential exposure, many districts don't have enough substitutes to keep up.

Where it stands: There's early evidence children and schools are not major vectors of the virus, especially with proper social distancing, ventilation and mask requirements, but the risk for adults at school is not zero.

Districts in Tennessee, Michigan and Maine and many other parts of the country have dozens of teachers absent at a time and had to close classrooms.
Since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, at least 751 Arizona teachers have resigned or quit, according to the Arizona Schools Personnel Administrators Association.
The risk of infection has also triggered some early retirements and sick-outs.

What they're saying: Teachers have demanded more personal protective equipment and better CONTINUE READING: America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

Charles Foster Johnson Is Hopeful about Biden Administration and Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Charles Foster Johnson Is Hopeful about Biden Administration and Education

Our friend and ally, Dr. Charles Foster Johnson, recently gave an interview in which he expressed his optimism about the incoming Biden administration. Dr. Johnson is leader of Pastors for Texas Children, which fights privatization and supports public schools. He has opened nine state affiliates, the latest one in Alabama. He is a champion of public schools and teachers and students. He understands that public schools need resources and community support, not competition and punishments.

Among his many insightful comments is this one:

Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos pushed private school vouchers. That is unlikely from the Biden administration. What is more of a threat is continued expansion of charter schools that, basically, are publicly underwritten private schools due to their independent private ownership. Traditionally, vouchers are the privatization model of choice for Republicans (rural Republicans excepted) and charters are the privatization model of choice for Democrats.

Accordingly, the standardized testing racket so enshrined in No Child Left Behind and Race to The Top must be CONTINUE READING: Charles Foster Johnson Is Hopeful about Biden Administration and Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

In the Public Interest: Beware the Privatization Racket! | Diane Ravitch's blog

In the Public Interest: Beware the Privatization Racket!

The nonpartisan “In the Public Interest” keeps close watch on privatization across all sectors, including education. Corporate interests are preying on the public sector, looking to extract profit from our public dollars. Be vigilant! Sign up to receive newsletters from ITPI.

Students are flocking to poor-performing online charter schools, straining public school budgets.Superintendents in Pennsylvania are warning that increasing enrollment in online charter schools could strain already burdened public school budgets. “There will be public schools, school districts, in a lot of trouble financially,” said Jeff Groshek, superintendent of the Central Columbia School District. Fox 56

Check out In the Public Interest’s two fact sheets on the widespread poor performance of online charter schools: “Why online education can’t replace brick-and-mortar K-12 schooling,” and “Frequently asked questions about online charter schools.”

“Passionate voucher advocate” joins Tennessee CONTINUE READING: In the Public Interest: Beware the Privatization Racket! | Diane Ravitch's blog

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic

Hundreds of teachers have died from Covid-19.

More than 1 million children have been diagnosed with the disease.

Yet a bipartisan group of seven state Governors said in a joint statement Thursday that in-person schools are safe even when community transmission rates are high.

Safe – despite hundreds of preventable deaths of school employees.

Safe – despite mass outbreaks among students.

Safe – despite quarantines, staffing shortages, longterm illnesses and mounting uncertainty about the longterm effects of the disease on children and adults.

State Governors must have a different definition of safety than the rest of us.

The message was signed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Delaware Governor John Carney, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, and CONTINUE READING: INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Report from South Carolina: Rasheem and LaRonda | Diane Ravitch's blog

Report from South Carolina: Rasheem and LaRonda

Arnold and Carol Hillman were educators in Pennsylvania. They retired to South Carolina and, instead of golfing and relaxing, they became involved with rural public schools. They created clubs for high school boys and girls and helped steer their kids towards college. I wrote about their work with students in rural schools several times. See here. Arnold wrote me recently to tell me about the devastating impact of the pandemic on rural students, and I asked him to write it up for the blog. He wrote the section about Rasheem, and Carol wrote about LaRonda.

They wrote:

Rasheem and LaRonda are two students in a rural South Carolina county. A review of county statistics will show that the county is 700 square miles. It is one of the poorest counties in the state. Over the past five years, the education system has declined in quality. The ACT scores have descended 15.8%. Even the state’s average ACT scores have gone down from 18.6 to 18.1.

When you travel around the county, you are struck by the endless roads that seem to include only a forested area on both sides and a town or two with some stores and maybe a gas station. You must travel to the county seat to go shopping at a supermarket or travel to the other urban center at the bottom of the county.

Choices in any aspect of normal life are limited. There is CONTINUE READING: Report from South Carolina: Rasheem and LaRonda | Diane Ravitch's blog

Cartoons on Life at Home and in School During Covid-19 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons on Life at Home and in School During Covid-19

For this month’s featuring cartoons, I collected a batch that tickled me and hope they will do the same for you in the eighth month of the pandemic. Enjoy!

MORE CARTOONS: Cartoons on Life at Home and in School During Covid-19 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

COVID-19 Required Reporting CNP Assessment + 2020–21 CACFP Mandatory Training + Annual Sponsor Verification Report - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

COVID-19 Required Reporting CNP Assessment - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

COVID-19 Required Reporting CNP Assessment

2020–21 CACFP Mandatory Training - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/cacfptrainingnowava2021.asp

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

Since March 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released many waivers and extensions for flexibilities to child nutrition program (CNP) operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The USDA requires assessment information) on the effectiveness of the waivers in providing improved services to program participants. In order to efficiently collect this information, the California Department of Education (CDE) is requiring that program operators complete the CDE COVID-19 Child Nutrition Program Waivers Assessment Survey by 5 p.m. on December 11, 2020.

Updates regarding the USDA waivers and any additional information operators need to implement the waivers are posted to the CNP COVID-19 Guidance web page.

We appreciate your participation in providing assessment information to the USDA. Thank you again for your efforts to provide meals to our most vulnerable participants.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact your respective program’s County Specialist. The County Specialist for each program can be found in the following Form IDs in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System Download Forms section:

Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)—Form ID SFSP 01
Seamless Summer Option, National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program—Form ID Caseload
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)—Form ID CACFP 01

Questions: Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

COVID-19 Required Reporting CNP Assessment - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

CURMUDGUCATION: Teaching Bad Test Prep Writing For Fun And Profit

Teaching Bad Test Prep Writing For Fun And Profit

This is the sort of thing that the Big Standardized Test has brought us--Top Score Writing.

TSW is the brain child and property of Lisa Collum, who bills herself as mompreneur. Collum graduated from Florida Atlantic University about 16 years ago and went to work in 2004 as a writing teacher in a Palm Beach County School District Title I school and the Florida Virtual School . She became concerned that the school didn't have a writing curriculum for her to implement, and she had trouble finding one, so she created lessons. So far that makes her exactly like the vast majority of teachers.

But then she turned it into a business. She turned that business into some other businesses, too-she bought a private school (Coastal Middle and High School). By 2012, she had left the classroom and was running her million-dollar business full time. She wants other women to know that they can have it all.

It's a heck of a story, for sure, and I'm glad that it stars someone who actually trained for and worked in a classroom. Her inspirational video says that you don't have to have business knowledge--just an idea you're passionate about.

So what idea has made Collum successful? The aim of Top Score Writing is right there in the name. This is a program with a single, focused aim--to get students a high score on the writing portions of the Big Standardized Test.

To its credit, it doesn't really pretend to be about anything else. It doesn't promise that students CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Teaching Bad Test Prep Writing For Fun And Profit

JUST MAKE THE CALL – Dad Gone Wild

JUST MAKE THE CALL

“Because of the movies I make, people get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I am difficult and angry, but they don’t expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor.”
― Martin Scorsese

We got a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s not waste a lot of time with formalities.

If you are a resident of Nashville, or you work for the school system, the biggest question on your mind is, what’s happening with the city’s elementary schools after today?

Like the rest of you, I have absolutely no idea what the plan is. Earlier in the week, everyone got an email from Dr. Battle giving them the heads up that after Thanksgiving break, the whole district would return to virtual, or maybe it wouldn’t. But then again, maybe schools would return to virtual before the break. The communication provided no real insight and only served to set people scrambling to make preparations. What kind of preparations? That was open to everyone’s interpretation.

Later in the week, Chief of Schools Mason Bellamy sent an email out to high school and middle school principals asking if they could put together a list of their staff that might be able to help out in elementary schools due to a lack of subs. Earlier in the year, I’d been criticized for “deficit thinking” by some administrators, seems to me this email would serve as a prime example of “deficit thinking”. It makes the assumption that since school buildings are closed, middle school and high school administrators are sitting at home popping grapes and watching new episodes of The Crown.

News Flash! They are not. They are engaging with teachers, students, and families to perfect CONTINUE READING: JUST MAKE THE CALL – Dad Gone Wild