Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, February 15, 2021

NYC Educator: If We Can't Learn from Crisis, School Doesn't Matter

NYC Educator: If We Can't Learn from Crisis, School Doesn't Matter
If We Can't Learn from Crisis, School Doesn't Matter



Well, according to the NY Times, most pediatricians, all of whom had access to the vaccination well before we did, don't think we need it in order to return to work. I'm not surprised. Ever since the plague hit, I've been reading in the Times about how awful it is that schools were closed. The fact that schools are, in fact, not closed, and that they have not been closed is neither here nor there. And hey, why err on the side of caution when we can just hope things like this don't happen?

It's vital that we get those buildings open, and that we get those kids in there to study algebra, or whatever it is on their programs. Otherwise, how will Western Civilization continue its great march ahead? Obviously, living through a pandemic is not an educational experience. There is absolutely nothing to be learned from it.

One thing, for example, that cannot be learned is preserving the environment. Who cares if we've destroyed a whole lot of rain forest, and that animals out of their element bring us diseases that come from theirs? Who cares if we keep interacting with bats, and that they carry resistance to a whole lot of deadly diseases that we don't? As long as we have someone solving for X, let's forget about the earth, our home, altogether. That algebra cannot be allowed to simply go by the wayside.

Another thing we can't be bothered learning is it is not, in fact, a good idea to elect a self-serving, self-important, solipsistic serial liar to the Presidency of the United States. Why should kids bother learning things like that? That's cancel culture. We have an absolute right to select politicians who don't give a golly gosh darn about the environment (not to mention working people). If politicians choose not to take precautions in public, and if they get COVID and infect others with it, well, that's their right as Americans. Every time they breathe virus into one of our faces they're doing their sacred duty of owning the libs. 

So let's get those kids into physical classrooms, for goodness sake, and never mind if, in fact, it's only a distinct minority of children who actually attend. Never mind if the people themselves, by a margin of two or three to one, don't trust the NY Times or the pediatricians in the survey. Never mind a consistent history of medical mistreatment that leaves minorities (majorities in our area) wary of doctors and even the NY Times reporters who preach to us.

Who cares if the few students who make it into buildings are kept separated and masked? The important thing is to keep them doing that algebra, or whatever it is we happen to be offering them that day. It doesn't matter if we invite them into rooms and preclude social interaction. It's good for kids to sit masked and far apart from one another, and it's healthy that most of them don't come in, evidently. But NY Times reporter have yet other brilliant insights to share with us:

Yeah, it's an absolute disgrace we keep closing down schools so that CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: If We Can't Learn from Crisis, School Doesn't Matter

Lucy Diggs Slowe, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

Lucy Diggs Slowe, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward
LUCY DIGGS SLOWE, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME



E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.

But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History MonthFebruary is just the Blackest.

Today, our featured Black Educator is Lucy Diggs Slowe.

Lucy Diggs Slowe was a trailblazer for women and Black youth. Born in Virginia is 1885, Slowe lost both parents by the age of six. Lucy, fortunately, was taken in by her paternal aunt, Martha Price. Not long after moving to Lexington, VA with her aunt, Lucy experienced another trauma that too many elementary Black students experience today; she was expelled, as a six-year old, from school because of her academic struggles and her behavior. However, her aunt decided to move to Baltimore, in pursuit of better schools, and once in Baltimore’s segregated (read, all-Black) public schools, she excelled. Slowe graduated second in her class and was the first woman graduate of the Baltimore Colored School to receive a scholarship to attend Howard University.

At Howard, Slowe continued to excel, both inside and outside the classroom. CONTINUE READING: Lucy Diggs Slowe, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud with MemFox

Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud with MemFox
Reading Aloud with MemFox


The Australian Open Tennis tournament is going on right now, and while I watch and root for Serena Williams to defy advancing age and the encroachment of the responsibilities of a full life to win another major title, my reading teacher mind turns my thoughts to the great Australian writer for children, Mem Fox. Mem Fox's books have been a part of my read aloud repertoire ever since I discovered Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge back in the mid-1980s. From there it was Hattie and the Fox and what I have come to call  her Marsupial Trilogy: Possum Magic, Koala Lou, and Wombat Devine. Eventually, I got to hear Mem Fox speak at an International Reading Association Conference and discovered that not only was she a great author and a charming speaker, she was also a passionate advocate for reading aloud. You can read what she has to say on the subject in her book for parents Reading Magic - How Your Child  Can Learn to Read Before School - and other Read-Aloud Miracles.

Here are some of my favorite Mem Fox Read-Alouds.


My personal favorite Mem Fox book, deals charmingly with the very real issue of losing your memory as you grow older. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge is a bright and adventurous little boy who befriends  a woman who lives in the nursing home next door, Miss Nancy Allison CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud with MemFox



Whatever Happened To 1:1 Laptops? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened To 1:1 Laptops? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Whatever Happened To 1:1 Laptops?




When the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the nation in 2020, schools closed swiftly. Districts pivoted to remote instruction. Then inequalities showed up just as quickly, especially in big city schools and rural areas where the “digital divide” persisted. Stories surged in social and mainstream media of administrators distributing laptops and tablets to children and youth who had no devices at home and also setting up locations where the Internet could be accessed. Everyone had to have a device and use of the Internet to do remote instruction.

Quick distribution of devices to individual students reminded me of an innovation that began a few decades ago called 1:1 laptops. At that time policy entrepreneurs, vendors, and iconic technology companies claimed that if every single student had a personal laptop, then there would be more teaching and it would be faster and better. So whatever happened to this innovation?

When and why did 1:1 computer programs spread?

The rush to buy device that were inexpensive and lightweight occurred throughout the 1990s and early 2000s for three reasons. The strong belief among policymakers buyng laptops (and later tablets) was that new portable CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened To 1:1 Laptops? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice


CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post

CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post
CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen



For months, President Biden has been urging schools to reopen, and promised that guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would help them do so safely.

At the same time, public health experts including some at the CDC said available evidence suggested schools could safely open as long as precautions were in place. That raised expectations that the nation’s K-12 education system might accelerate its return to in-person learning.

But the much-anticipated guidelines released Friday were, in fact, more measured than some expected, with full in-person schooling recommended only when levels of community transmission are quite low, a standard that almost no place in the U.S. meets today.

Under the rubric laid out, the CDC recommends either fully remote or hybrid plans, where students spend some time in school and some at home, for areas with substantial community spread. Even though case counts are falling, the definition of substantial spread today includes the vast majority of the country. CONTINUE READING: CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post

Why is California rushing to reopen its schools? Most simply aren't ready | Salon.com

Why is California rushing to reopen its schools? Most simply aren't ready | Salon.com
Why is California rushing to reopen its schools? Most simply aren't ready
Newsom says schools can reopen safely, but many campuses can’t meet the state’s recent guidelines for being open



It's sorely tempting to reduce California's ragged school reopening effort to a couple of central forces. On one side, Gov. Gavin Newsom has maintained that campuses can open safely before all teachers are vaccinated against COVID-19 and expressed frustration over the prospect of long delays. On the other, five teachers unions recently set conditions that make such a spring return seem wildly far-fetched. (Disclosure: Several of the unions are financial supporters of this website.)

Below the waterline, however, this is a story playing out on several complex levels. They involve basic safety practices, adherence to science, the question of what "risk" even means in this context and the looming concern that a return to school under lax protocols will further race and income driven inequities that already pockmark the timeline of COVID-19 cases and deaths across the state.

And there is one number that ultimately trumps all others: 1,037. That is the number of school districts in California – and each will act in its own best interests.

"Everything is at the order of the district and the county," said Chris Nixon, a teacher in the giant Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento. "What happens in one district isn't necessarily going to happen in another."

In Los Angeles Unified, by far the largest district in the state, officials have resolutely refused to consider broad reopening, given that the communities it serves remain in the state's highest tier (purple) of COVID infection rates and that the state's teachers and staffers have no apparent priority for vaccination. CONTINUE READING: Why is California rushing to reopen its schools? Most simply aren't ready | Salon.com

A Reader: A Message for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Reader: A Message for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog
A Reader: A Message for Teachers




Gary Stein, a teacher in his last year of teaching, read the post by retired superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder and was inspired to share this message:

After reading Ms. Snyder’s article and all of the responses to it on the dianeravitch.net page, I was reminded of the best advice for all teachers, and what seems to me the best advice for teaching, always, regardless of social circumstance or historical situation. It comes from Chaim Ginott, (1922-1973), teacher, psychologist, theorist.

Dear Teacher,

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers,
Children poisoned by educated physicians,
Infants killed by trained nurses,
Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates,
So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.

For those of you who know this quote, I hope this isn’t perceived as either ‘trite’ or too idealistic. This passage has guided my teaching for over 30 years, including this year, my last as a certified public school teacher. For those of you new to either teaching/learning, or ‘education’, I hope you take this quote to heart as you engage with young citizens in every interaction. Peace.

By the way, Superintendent Snyder’s post went viral; it has been opened more than 200,000 times on this blog.

A Reader: A Message for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Tom: These Aren't the Same People We Sent Home Last Spring

Teacher Tom: These Aren't the Same People We Sent Home Last Spring
These Aren't the Same People We Sent Home Last Spring




A few weeks ago, a father whose daughter is currently in kindergarten told me that he wasn't in favor of the schools re-opening any time soon. "It's not that I'm worried about Covid so much. It's that my poor girl has finally adjusted to online classes." Months ago he told me about how much the girl had struggled with sitting in front of a computer screen, how she missed her friends, how she missed her teacher. For a time, she had cried every day, begging to be allowed to do anything other than "go to school." He told me back then that he worried that his child was learning to hate school, to hate learning, but now, many months have passed. Things have changed. 

Like most of us, his daughter suffered a loss. This pandemic took something she loved away from her. Naturally, she mourned the loss, but as Iris Murdoch wrote, "In order to survive a terrible loss one has to become another person," which is what has happened. All of our children, all of us, have suffered losses. I imagine some of us are still grieving, maybe most of us, but some, like this kindergartener have been transformed into someone new.

This isn't the only story like this I've heard from parents. Last CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: These Aren't the Same People We Sent Home Last Spring

Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog
Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers




Arthur Goldstein has taught ESL for decades in New York City. He is tired of being lectured by billionaires like Michael Bloomberg about how to teach or what a slacker he is.

He writes in The New York Daily News:

There’s lots of talk about whether or not school buildings should be open. European school buildings recently shut over concerns that children do indeed spread the virus. Yet former Mayor Mike Bloomberg now says, “It’s time for Joe Biden to stand up and to say, the kids are the most important things and important players here. And the teachers just are going to have to suck it up and stand up and provide an education.”

In fact we’ve never stopped doing that, but Bloomberg seems not to have received the memo. Bloomberg says kids are most important. Twelve years of working in New York City schools under Mike Bloomberg tell me to him, CONTINUE READING: Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

COVID Reopening and Building Safety Questions – Parents United for Public Education

COVID Reopening and Building Safety Questions – Parents United for Public Education
COVID Reopening and Building Safety Questions



During our recent set of webinars about Philadelphia schools’ facility conditions and safety, we had the opportunity to share information and hear questions from many caregivers and educators. (View a video of the Facebook Live recording of the webinar.)

Folks continue to be very concerned about long-term issues such as lead, asbestos, mold, and water quality, while also facing many unanswered immediate questions about safety precautions for reopening buildings in the midst of COVID-19.

Unfortunately, while we were able to gather many of these questions, we ultimately cannot answer most of them. They should be answered, but by district leadership, in public.

We’ve compiled a list below that summarizes the questions that were asked during our webinars. We encourage caregivers to reach out to city council and the school board to continue pushing for answers. It is critical that parent voices are heard!

In addition, please sign up to testify at the City Council hearing “Safely Reopening Schools” on 2/17/21 by emailing Nick.Spiva@phila.gov or calling 215-686-3420. You can also share your questions and concerns about the district’s current hybrid re-opening plan with Councilperson Gym via this form. 

The questions below are lightly edited for clarity and to combine/ remove duplicate topics. They were submitted via the Q&A function during the webinars and do not necessarily reflect the questions or priorities of Parents United as an organization.

Questions About General Facility Safety CONTINUE READING: COVID Reopening and Building Safety Questions – Parents United for Public Education

Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske: States Need an Equity-Oriented Accountability System for Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske: States Need an Equity-Oriented Accountability System for Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske: States Need an Equity-Oriented Accountability System for Charter Schools



Distinguished economist Helen Ladd and her husband, journalist Edward Fiske, studied the accountability system for charter schools in Massachusetts. They specifically addressed equity issues of access, fairness, and availability of a high-quality education, not test scores. They found considerable variation among charter schools, as one would expect. They also found that some charter schools had unusually high attrition rates and unusually high suspension rates. These should concern policy makers, whose goal is to offer better opportunities for disadvantaged students. Their aim in writing the paper is to alert policymakers to the value of an equity-oriented accountability system that goes beyond test scores.

Education Matters: Families, opt your children out of all the tests you can.

Education Matters: Families, opt your children out of all the tests you can.
Families, opt your children out of all the tests you can


 In an action news Jax piece the district was deceptive about having children take tests in the schools because they can always just say no to or taking the tests.


Mr. Pierce has to know parents have always had the ability to opt-out of the FSA tests. They can just say they don't want their children to take them. Also, this is just another example of the district passing the buck and I for one am tired of that. 

Now for some EOC tests, there are consequences because they count for a large percentage of the grade, but for grade-level tests, there are only two that count for promotion, 3rd and tenth, and both have CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Families, opt your children out of all the tests you can.

Biden’s Relief Package Moves Along—Including Child Tax Credit to Ameliorate Child Poverty | janresseger

Biden’s Relief Package Moves Along—Including Child Tax Credit to Ameliorate Child Poverty | janresseger
Biden’s Relief Package Moves Along—Including Child Tax Credit to Ameliorate Child Poverty




Last week, while America was reliving the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and listening to an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House continued marking up President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. In a society that has, over the past four years, not even managed to name widespread child poverty as a problem, the new President has—by  getting to work and immediately proposing a comprehensive COVID relief package—managed entirely to change the national conversation. I clipped seven different articles last week alone on Biden’s proposed provisions to reduce child poverty.

First Focus on Children’s Bruce Lesley explains: “(T)here were 12 million children in the United States living in poverty in 2019… Even before the pandemic and recession, the kids were not alright. In an international comparison, our nation is well behind other wealthy nations in a report by UNICEF on dozens of child well-being measures, including child poverty and child mortality.  In that report, the United States ranks… 36th out of 38 countries—behind countries like Romania, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, and Malta.”  Leslie points out that 31 percent of U.S. children live below the poverty line.

Leslie highlights a key provision in the President’s proposed COVID-19 relief plan, “What stands out is the Biden-Harris proposal to make the Child Tax Credit fully refundable to help… one-third of all our kids… whose parents make too little to qualify for the full child benefit, which is $2,000 annually under current law. The legislation also raises the amount of the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 to families with children 5 and under ($300 per month) and $3,000 to families with children 6-17 years-of-age ($250 per month).”

The Child Tax Credit is exactly that: a tax credit. It works by reducing a parent’s federal CONTINUE READING: Biden’s Relief Package Moves Along—Including Child Tax Credit to Ameliorate Child Poverty | janresseger

Choosing Democracy: How to safely re open schools

Choosing Democracy: How to safely re open schools
How to Safely Reopen Schools




CURMUDGUCATION: Another Biz-Friendly Edu-octopus

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Biz-Friendly Edu-octopus
Another Biz-Friendly Edu-octopus



We live in an era in which companies grow primarily through acquisition, and what looks like a world of options is just many limbs of the same animal. Here's one more display of what the sausage family looks like.

This journey starts with a simple question-- here at the Institute, the CMO (chief marital officer) pulled out one of her programs from school and asked, "Who are these guys, anyway? I was trying to follow up on them and ended up on some other site entirely," knowing that I'm always interested in these sorts of questions. So stay with me here:

Learning A-Z

These guys are the creators and publishers of Vocabulary A-Z, a program from the Learning A-Z family of education-flavored products focused on lots of ed techy solutions. They are "an education technology company dedicated to expanding literacy through thoughtfully designed resources," which is good, because wow do I hate those other thoughtlessly designed resources. They focus on the PreK-6 market; the product family includes Reading A-Z, Science A-Z, Writing A-Z, Vocabulary A-Z, Raz-Kids, Raz-Plus, Headsprout and some big collections of materials.

Learning A-Z was founded in 2000 by Robert Holl, who was president of the company for a couple of decades. Holl taught for ten years, then left to get into the publishing biz, working for Addison-Wesley, Scott Foresman Publishing, and the Wright Group. And if Headsprout seems out of place on the list of products, that because they were acquired in 2013 by Learning A-Z; Headsprout itself had been acquired by Mimio, which was purchased by Skyview Capital LLC earlier in that same CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Another Biz-Friendly Edu-octopus

Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper

Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper
Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again




FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DANIELS, BENNETT, AND PENCE

Ten years ago the Indiana General Assembly established the state’s voucher program to “provide children who attend failing schools grants to attend a school of choice.” At that time, the state provided tuition help for low-income students to attend religious schools (it’s actually “private” schools, but nearly all are religious). Families earning more than $60,000 were not included. The inflation rate over the last ten years has been about 16% so that $60,000 cap would be about $70,000 today. The General Assembly, however, wants to double that and the Indiana House will vote on the bill tomorrow (February 15).

We’ve spent more than half a billion dollars on vouchers since 2011. Has it helped poor students? Has it improved learning? Has it improved public schools as voucher proponents claimed it would? The state has yet to evaluate the program for anything other than political contributions. As with other voucher CONTINUE READING: Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper