A Word on the Special Session – Tennessee Education Report

A Word on the Special Session – Tennessee Education Report

A WORD ON THE SPECIAL SESSION

Gov. Bill Lee’s “Not So Special Session” on education starts tomorrow at the Tennessee General Assembly. Former Nashville School Board member Amy Frogge offers some insight into what to expect this week.

Here are her thoughts:

The Governor has called a special legislative session this week to address three administration bills. Heads up to educators, parents and friends- we need your help to reach out to legislators who will be voting on these bills!

1. Senate Bill 7001: This testing waiver/hold harmless bill would require school districts to test 80% of students in-person (with pen and paper) in exchange for exemption from the A-F district grading system, placing districts into the Achievement School District, and placing schools on the state priority list (bottom 5%). This bill would require districts to return to in-person instruction. It is unclear how this bill will effect teacher evaluations. The question to ask here is why we are even testing at all this year, during a pandemic and so much chaos. (Hint: follow the money.)

2. Senate Bill 7002 addresses “learning loss” during the pandemic. (This, by the way, is a political- not an education- term.) It would require districts to create in-person, summer mini-camps to help children who are struggling this year. While these camps could be helpful to students, the state is creating another unfunded mandate, because CONTINUE READING: A Word on the Special Session – Tennessee Education Report

Whatever Happened to the National Teacher Corps? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to the National Teacher Corps? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to the National Teacher Corps?

What was the NTC and when did it begin?

In the mid-1960s, I taught in and later directed a federally-funded teacher training program located in Grimke elementary school, Banneker and Garnet-Patterson Junior High Schools, and Cardozo High School in Washington, D. C. The Cardozo Project in Urban Teaching, as it was then called, prepared returned Peace Corps Volunteers to teach in urban schools. The paid “interns,” as they were called, taught for half-days under the supervision of master teachers, took university seminars on-site after-school, and in evenings and late-afternoons developed curriculum materials and worked in the community. At the end of the year the “interns”  were certified to teach in the District of Columbia and were on their way to earning a master’s degree in their field through two local universities (see here and here). Three-quarters of the intern teachers we trained became full-time teachers in the District of Columbia schools and other districts.

Within a few years, this district-based model of training new teachers became the poster-child for a federal initiative to put teachers into high-poverty urban and rural schools. Amid President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” education figured large–Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) remains a mainstay of funding schools enrolling poor children in 2021. The belief that minority and low-income students needed committed, smart, and well-trained teachers led Senator Gaylord Nelson from Idaho (his administrative aide’s wife taught at Cardozo High School) and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy to seize the Cardozo Project’s way of training teachers and expand it CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened to the National Teacher Corps? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

MLK warned that colleges could produce ‘close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists’ - The Washington Post

MLK warned that colleges could produce ‘close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists’ - The Washington Post

MLK: ‘If we are not careful, our colleges will produce … close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists’

Here, as I have published in recent years to mark the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., are some of his prophetic writings related to the purpose of education and the U.S. government’s efforts toward educating its citizens.

Just read these excerpts:

— King attended Morehouse College, and this is an excerpt from “The Purpose of Education,” a piece he wrote in the February 1947 edition of the college’s student newspaper, the Maroon Tiger:

As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.

It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life.

Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda.

At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he CONTINUE READING: 

MLK warned that colleges could produce ‘close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists’ - The Washington Post

Teacher Tom: Chaos or Community?

Teacher Tom: Chaos or Community?

Chaos or Community?

And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. ~MLK

What I'm saying to you this morning is that Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the Kingdom of Brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of Communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated. ~MLK

And I say to you, I have also decided to stick to love. For I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. ~MLK

On this Martin Luther King Day many of us will listen to snippets, perhaps all, of his great "I Have A Dream" speech, and we should, but civil rights was not the only cause this CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Chaos or Community?

NYC Educator: MLK and Making America Union Again

NYC Educator: MLK and Making America Union Again

MLK and Making America Union Again

MLK is famous for his life and work, and words of insincere reverence regularly escape the lips of people who'd have opposed him absolutely when he was alive. One thing a lot of people seem to forget about him was that he was passionately pro-union and pro-labor. In fact, at the time of his assassination in Memphis, he happened to be there to support a sanitation workers' strike. 

MLK was calling "right to work" a false slogan as early as 1961.  What people like Donald Trump call right to work is nothing more than the right to shirk union dues, thereby weakening union in favor of bosses. No one needs a right to work enforced. Our union keeps no one from working and never has. We don't select people for UFT. We simply support and protect everyone who joins. 

That's something in union concept and practice that's missing from the tapestry of modern American life. What Dr. King fought for now comes up as Black Lives Matter. Some people answer that with that American flag with a blue stripe, calling it Blue Lives Matter. What that says, to me at least, is Black Lives Don't Matter, the clarion call of racism in this country since its inception. 

In union, we don't discriminate. I get health care, you get health care, and we all get health care. I get retirement benefits and so do all of us. Who you are doesn't enter into it. Our retirement benefits are now better than those of most Americans. Those same politicians who support the white supremacists would take them away from us (and them) in a heartbeat. Mitch McConnell opposed the HEROES act saying states should go bankrupt. He said some states wasted their money on things like, yes, retirement CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: MLK and Making America Union Again

WSJ: Europe Is Closing Down Schools for Fear of COVID Spread | Diane Ravitch's blog

WSJ: Europe Is Closing Down Schools for Fear of COVID Spread | Diane Ravitch's blog

WSJ: Europe Is Closing Down Schools for Fear of COVID Spread

Last spring and summer, we read many articles about Europe’s success in keeping its schools open, based on the belief that young children are less likely to get sick with COVID-19 and less likely to spread it.

Ruth Bender reports in The Wall Street Journal that European nations are closing their schools because new studies show that children do get the disease and are likely to spread it.

As U.S. authorities debate whether to keep schools open, a consensus is emerging in Europe that children are a considerable factor in the spread of Covid-19—and more countries are shutting schools for the first time since the spring.

Closures have been announced recently in the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands on concerns about a more infectious variant of the virus first detected in the U.K. and rising case counts despite lockdowns.

While the debate continues, recent studies and outbreaks show that schoolchildren, even younger ones, can play a significant role in spreading infections.

“In the sec­ond wave we ac­quired much more CONTINUE READING: WSJ: Europe Is Closing Down Schools for Fear of COVID Spread | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Matters: Last week there were 172 student cases, 88 staff cases and nothing but crickets from the district.

Education Matters: Last week there were 172 student cases, 88 staff cases and nothing but crickets from the district.

Last week there were 172 student cases, 88 staff cases and nothing but crickets from the district.

Those numbers are beyond scary, and they beg the question, how can effective contact tracing occur? The answer is it can't, and that means more people will get sick and worse. So what is the district doing to improve it? If you guessed nothing you would be correct.

When I got COVID, I notified my school on Sunday. The health department got in touch with me on Wednesday and promptly did nothing, even though I had been within six feet of everybody in my class every day, including days when there was no doubt I was infected. 

I got this note last night,

Still, no word from DOH, and now the whole family has it, so he’s out another week. Another 5th grader has it in one of my switch classes! We were told to send packets home, but no concern for our safety or the other children who have been exposed!

Unfortunately, I get CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Last week there were 172 student cases, 88 staff cases and nothing but crickets from the district.

On This Holiday Honoring Dr. King, Consider the Plight of Children Today in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District | janresseger

On This Holiday Honoring Dr. King, Consider the Plight of Children Today in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District | janresseger

On This Holiday Honoring Dr. King, Consider the Plight of Children Today in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District

Posted on January 18, 2021 by janresseger

Today is the holiday set aside for reflection on the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.  Peter Greene’s new history of the ruination of Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland Public Schools, published last week in Forbes, ought to be required reading on this holiday to remind us how badly our society has stumbled along the journey for justice for America’s poorest African American children.

On Wednesday, Joseph R. Biden will be inaugurated as U.S. President.  Look for a new post on Friday, January 22.

Greene explains: “As the new year begins, one Pennsylvania public school district faces the prospect of being completely dismantled and handed over to charter operators. Chester Upland School District is poised to become an example of what can happen to a public school district that needs assistance, and gets nothing but trouble instead.  CUSD has weathered every sort of challenge a district can face, but may now be on its last legs, about to make history as the first Pennsylvania district to be completely privatized.”

I have known about the tragedy in Chester Upland since the mid-1990s, but Greene explains how its segregated history goes back to the years before Brown, when the district educated Black and white children separately as a matter of policy. Greene reports that only after 1964 was Chester Upland ordered to desegregate, but middle class white flight followed, and “the 1960s saw an exodus of major employers like Ford Motor and Baldwin Locomotive. People CONTINUE READING: On This Holiday Honoring Dr. King, Consider the Plight of Children Today in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy

CURMUDGUCATION: A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy

A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy

You know I love a good analogy. I spent four decades trying to help people understand one thing by connecting it to some other thing. So I love a good analogy. 

This is not a good analogy.

Nick Freitas is an army vet and Virginia politician, who served in the house of delegates before making a couple of unsuccessful runs for the US Congress (both House and Senate). In his bid for national office, he was backed by folks Rand Paul and Mike Lee, the Club for Growth, and Freedomworks. He has been writing for the ultra-right Daily Wire, where he usually sticks to war and the evils of communism. But this week, he decided to stick his oar into education waters with "We Wouldn't Let Government Control Our Grocery Stores. Why Do We Let Them Control Our Schools?" Transparency requires that I link to the article so you can check my work if you're so inclined, but I'm going to ask you to resist giving this thing any more clicks than you can help. So here's the link.

There are so many things wrong here. But it's worth poking through this pile because it's representative of how the anti-gummint school crowd views the issues.

Freitas opens by reducing the many debates about school to two sides--one side all for "choice and freedom" and  the other side "insists that improved education can only be achieved through strict government control of schools." Well, no, not really. It's not clear what exactly he means by "government control" or "strict," but a lot of straw is going to fly before he's done. We have locally elected school boards, which is government, but their control is not particularly strict in most case. We have oversight on the state and federal level, which is where most of the rules and regulations that he might be upset about come from, but if we were going to have strict control from that level, we'd have lefties CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy

Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.”

I expect my students to wear a school uniform shirt and an ID. It is my habit to check for these, and my students know so.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they always comply.

Last week, in one of my classes, I hit on a noncompliance bonanza of sorts. One had no school shirt. A second had no ID. A third had neither school shirt nor ID.

So, out come the detentions.

During the course of handling these incidents, I had an unusual response from one of these unfortunate three:

He thanked me for disciplining him:

His exact words: “Ms. Schneider, I appreciate you taking the time to discipline me.”

Now, my first thought was that he was being sarcastic, but he was not. He was serious.

As I was writing his detention, I congratulated him on his maturity and told him that the willingness to subject oneself to authority and to own one’s self-induced negative consequences are indispensable for living a peaceful, private life and for becoming a productive member of our greater society.

Then, I told him this story:

In my second year of teaching, 1992-93, I had a student (I named him in my telling but will CONTINUE READING: Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Letter from a Teacher to the Incoming Secretary of Education | Real Learning CT

Letter from a Teacher to the Incoming Secretary of Education | Real Learning CT

Letter from a Teacher to the Incoming Secretary of Education

A highly respected Connecticut teacher has written an open letter to Miquel Cardona, President-elect Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education, and hopes that the letter is the beginning of a state-wide effort to send a petition to Dr. Cardona about improving the teaching and learning in the nation’s schools. Here is that letter:

Dear Commissioner Cardona:

Connecticut is proud that you, our Commissioner of Eduction, was chosen as the Biden/Harris administration’s Secretary of Education.

Educators support your dedication to: increasing graduation rates, closing the achievement gap, and ensuring equity for all students. All educators should be committed to making these goals a reality. America’s children need and deserve this. 

However, educators also know that the regime of profit-driven standardized testing will not improve teaching and learning. They never have.

• If educators are forced to teach to a test in order to increase graduation CONTINUE READING:  Letter from a Teacher to the Incoming Secretary of Education | Real Learning CT

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

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_16.html

Must-Read NY Times Column On Miguel Cardona’s Experience As An ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

The Potential Plus of Having a Former ‘English Learner’ as Education Secretary is a NY Times column that every teacher of English Language Learners – and every education policymaker and district leader – is going to want to read. Here’s another excerpt: As education secretary, Mr. Cardona could push for federal funding for programs that have lagged behind the growing English learner population, a

Six Important New Resources For Learning About Martin Luther King, Jr.

21by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

Here are new additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King,Jr: The Youthful Movement That Made Martin Luther King Jr. appeared in The NY Times. The Words of Martin Luther King Jr. Reverberate in a Tumultuous Time is from The NY Times. Don’t ask what Martin Luther King Jr. would do today and then ignore his real message is from Vox. Embrace These 4 Lessons From Dr. Martin Lu

‘We Can’t Wait Until People Feel Comfortable Talking About Race’

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

is the headline of my latest Education Week column. White Fragility and Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School are two of many books on race suggested by four educators. Here are some excerpts:

YESTERDAY

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2020. Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners. In additi

Three Videos About The Importance Of Storytelling

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Ramdlon / Pixabay Here are three new additions to The Best Digital (& Non-Digital) Storytelling Resources : You can find the written transcript to this first video, a TEDx Talk, here : I watched Tom Hanks’ new movie, News of the World, yesterday, and it is a great one on the value of storytelling. Here are two videos from it that highlight that message:

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” 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 might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w

Muhammad Ali Was Born On This Day In 1942 – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

GregReese / Pixabay Muhammad Ali was born on this day in 1942. You might be interested in Muhammad Ali, R.I.P. – Useful Resources To Teach About His Life . On this day in 1942, the great Muhammad Ali was born. Shook up the world pic.twitter.com/zIUR2jWP8l — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 17, 2021

President-Elect Biden Says The Minimum Wage Should Be Increased To $15 – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

geralt / Pixabay President-Elect Biden wants Congress to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. In addition to lifting millions out of poverty, this effort offers an excellent learning opportunity for English, social studies, math and economics classes. You might be interested in The Best Resource

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