Don’t force schools to give standardized tests this pandemic year, research scholars ask Education Secretary Cardona - The Washington Post

Don’t force schools to give standardized tests this pandemic year, research scholars ask Education Secretary Cardona - The Washington Post

Don’t force schools to give standardized tests this pandemic year, research scholars ask Education Secretary Cardona

More than 540 education researchers and scholars are asking Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to reconsider his department’s decision requiring school districts to administer federally mandated standardized tests this pandemic year, saying the exams will “exacerbate inequality” and “produce flawed data.”

A letter signed by 548 members of the academic research community was sent to the Education Department on Monday, urging that Cardona award states waivers from federal testing mandates. It also urges the department to invest in “more holistically evaluating school quality” by “developing new measures of educational opportunities.”

The Education Department announced in February — before Cardona was confirmed by the Senate — that public school districts had to administer exams in math and English Language Arts required annually by the federal 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the 2002 No Child Left Behind law.

One month in, Biden angers supporters who wanted him to curb standardized testing

And as late as last week, Cardona said at an education forum that the department was planning to go ahead with its testing decision.

The high-stakes tests are given every spring as a central part of the two-decade-old school reform movement. Testing advocates say the exams provide vital data on how all student groups are performing in school. Student test scores are used — at least in part — by some states to evaluate teachers and by states to evaluate districts and schools.

The academics’ letter notes that critics of high-stakes testing have warned for decades that “the high-stakes use of any metric will distort results,” and that documented consequences include “curriculum CONTINUE READING: Don’t force schools to give standardized tests this pandemic year, research scholars ask Education Secretary Cardona - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary

The billionaire Trump Cabinet member reaped nine figures during her four years in office, a watchdog group revealed.

Billionaire Betsy DeVos fattened her fortune considerably from various business interests during her four-year run as education secretary under former President Donald Trump.

DeVos, who is reportedly worth more than $2 billion, reported outside earnings from dividends, interest and rents of at least $225 million and “potentially well over $414 million” during her time in the Cabinet role, according to an analysis of her financial disclosures by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“It is impossible to know the exact amount because DeVos’s income is reported in broad ranges, but we do know for a fact that she made nine figures during her four years in office,” the group, known as CREW, said in a statement Monday.

At the most modest end of her reported income, DeVos would have raked in more than $158,000 each day of her 1,422 days in the position. That works out to more than $6,500 per hour.

At the most modest end of her reported income, DeVos would have raked in more than $158,000 each day of her 1,422 days in the position. That works out to more than $6,500 per hour.

DeVos, who pledged to donate her government salary to charity, resigned from her job after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. She cited Trump’s divisive rhetoric as an “inflection point.”

Critics, however, said DeVos’ condemnation of the then-president was too little, too late.

Last month, CREW reported that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned between $172 million and $640 million in outside income during their time in the Trump administration.

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Florida Voucher School Hires Unqualified Teachers, Ex-Con, State Doesn’t Care | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida Voucher School Hires Unqualified Teachers, Ex-Con, State Doesn’t Care | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida Voucher School Hires Unqualified Teachers, Ex-Con, State Doesn’t Care

The Orlando Sentinel has been covering scandal after scandal in the voucher schools of Florida, but the Legislature doesn’t care about their scandals and is planning to take even more money from public schools to fund more private voucher schools. The Sentinel published a story about one troubled voucher school that has received over $5 million from the state since 2015 despite the fact that it hires teachers without college degrees.

Leslie Postal and Annie Martin wrote about Winners Primary School in Orange County, which recently changed its name to Providence Christian Preparatory School:

The job applicant hoped to teach fourth grade at Winners Primary School, a small private school in west Orange County. She didn’t have a college degree and her last job was at a child care center, which fired her.

“Terminated would not rehire,” read the reference check CONTINUE READING: Florida Voucher School Hires Unqualified Teachers, Ex-Con, State Doesn’t Care | Diane Ravitch's blog

8 to 3 parent newsletter about kids, school and education - Los Angeles Times

8 to 3 parent newsletter about kids, school and education - Los Angeles Times

Introducing 8 to 3, a newsletter for parents about kids, school and education

A new chapter is opening for families of school-age children and teenagers. Campuses throughout California are finally opening after a year of coronavirus-forced closures — and for parents who have navigated distance learning alongside their children, their connection to education has been rewired.

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The perils of parenting through a pandemic

What’s going on with school? What do kids need? Get 8 to 3, a newsletter dedicated to the questions that keep California families up at night.

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The shared frustrations, struggles, empathy and resilience between parent and child has reshaped engagement in schooling. With a new newsletter called 8 to 3, The Times aims to be a part of the back-in-school life of parents and guardians as we recover from a year like no other and move forward.

We begin this endeavor painfully aware of how the pandemic has upended education and exposed the depth of inequities families face. Our foremost mission is to help navigate new challenges with powerful storytelling, useful guides, vital data and personal stories — whether on campus in a classroom or in front of a laptop in the living room. The Times’ coverage of COVID-19-era schooling places considerable attention on systemic inequities, which we will continue to explore in depth.

The newsletter, sent every Monday evening, is written by Sonja Sharp and edited by Mitchell Landsberg, with support from Education Editor Stephanie Chavez and education reporters Nina Agrawal, Howard Blume, Paloma Esquivel, Melissa Gomez, Laura Newberry and Teresa Watanabe.

A veteran journalist, Sharp joined the education team during the pandemic to cover the crisis in early childhood education and day care. She will draw on her experience as a reporter, the mother of a 5-year-old and a kindergarten-through-UC-Berkeley graduate of California public schools to help readers navigate everything from daily struggles of parenting school-age children to coping with thorny policy issues.

The name of the newsletter refers to the traditional school day — but we know that education never really stops, and that parents, above all, are their children’s primary teachers. We are ready to answer your questions, aiming to give you insight into both emerging and ongoing issues while offering a forum for dialogue. And we will also point readers to the best stories in California education, both our own and those from other publications.

Schooling these days is already overwhelming, but we are here to help. We hope you will add 8 to 3 to your reading list. Sign up here or on our newsletters page.

8 to 3 parent newsletter about kids, school and education - Los Angeles Times

Teacher Tom: Our Future Villages

Teacher Tom: Our Future Villages

Our Future Villages

"We still had a blacksmith in our town in those days, if you can believe it." 

I was talking to the great grandfather of one of my students. Most of the time, the grandparents aren't much older than me, but here was a man 30 years my senior. I make a habit of talking to older people about their childhoods. I like seeing how they tend to light up. I learn about recent history through intimate stories, and I'm especially drawn to childhood memories. 

"My friends and I used to walk into town to watch him work. He opened his doors up wide to get some ventilation. They were like barn doors. There was a counter, then behind it was the fire and the anvil. We boys would stand in the doorway to watch. Sometimes he'd come out a talk to us. His arms were like this." He showed me with his hands, then chuckled, "At least one of them was. And he was always covered in soot and sweat. For a long time, I wanted to be a blacksmith when I grew up."

Another grandparent told me about how she used to go CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Our Future Villages

Opening Up the Textbook (Sam Wineburg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Opening Up the Textbook (Sam Wineburg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Opening Up the Textbook (Sam Wineburg)

Sam Wineburg is a professor of education and history at Stanford University, He along with Susan Ramiraz and Peter Stearns authored Human Legacy, a high school world history textbook.This appeared in Education Week, June 5, 2007

History textbooks have long merited special scorn. Thicker than a Duraflame log (and weighing more), today’s books feature pages that rival news Web sites (think CNN) for busyness and clutter. Artwork with multiple call-out boxes, tricolored pictures with captions of “How to Read Me,” and pointers to end-of-chapter test questions cued to state standards (with special editions produced for your state) dominate the text like the bun that smothered the patty in that famous burger ad.

Years ago, when I first started teaching future history teachers, I urged them to do what I had done as a young teacher: Ditch the book in favor of primary sources. Now, with Google, the job of finding sources is infinitely easier than in my day.

I soon found, however, that of my yearly crop of 30 future teachers, maybe one was practicing anything remotely like what I preached. The vast majority were just trying to survive. Enough desks for each student, a working computer (Apple IIs do not count), a blackboard: This was a high bar. But in 2004, things got better in California. That’s when Eliezer Williams et al. v. State of California, a CONTINUE READING: Opening Up the Textbook (Sam Wineburg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NYC Public School Parents: Our testimony about why NYC kids will need smaller classes next year than ever before -- & the federal funding is available to achieve this

NYC Public School Parents: Our testimony about why NYC kids will need smaller classes next year than ever before -- & the federal funding is available to achieve this

Our testimony about why NYC kids will need smaller classes next year than ever before -- & the federal funding is available to achieve this

Council education budget hearings tomorrow start at 9:30 AM; public testimony starts at about noon.  You can watch and listen here, in Virtual Room 2.  

Our testimony advocating for a big chunk of the federal funds be used for smaller classes below for the sake of health, safety and to address the damage done by more than a year of remote learning.

NYC Public School Parents: Our testimony about why NYC kids will need smaller classes next year than ever before -- & the federal funding is available to achieve this

Will New York City Reimagine Education or Waste a Generational Opportunity? | Ed In The Apple

Will New York City Reimagine Education or Waste a Generational Opportunity? | Ed In The Apple

Will New York City Reimagine Education or Waste a Generational Opportunity?

We’ve been told for decades we can’t do anything about poverty, we can’t change property tax-based school funding, and we have to use our teaching skills to raise achievement.  Sadly states and school districts have relied on top-down edicts and standardized testing, teacher voice is absent.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, two Democratic Senators are elected in Georgia and President Biden’s American Rescue Plan is law.

The plan attacks childhood poverty. We may be the richest country in the world, we have turned out back on children.

  ,For more than half a century, we have failed to address child poverty in this country. This neglect has resulted in negative outcomes on child well-being and threatens our nation’s future. A child who grows up in poverty is far less likely to perform as well as their classmates in school, more likely to have food insecurity, more vulnerable to homelessness, and more likely to be subjected to violence, abuse, and neglect. While the United States proudly leads the world in science, technology, innovation, and sports, we sadly also leader in infant mortality, violence against children, and child poverty. Despite lots of expressed concern for children, our nation’s leaders have failed make needed investments in child well-being.

The Organization for Economics, Culture and Development, (OECD) studies the forty plus industrialized nations and takes a deep dive into the question: does income poverty affect child outcomes 

Childhood Poverty in the OECD?

The links between family poverty and subsequent child outcomes have been CONTINUE READING: Will New York City Reimagine Education or Waste a Generational Opportunity? | Ed In The Apple

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO?

“You’ll never decide what you want until you’ve decided who you are.”
― Noël Coward

 

Who’s in charge of education policy in Tennessee?

It seems like a pretty straightforward question, right? Those with a passing knowledge might answer that it’s the General Assembly who set’s policy.

Those with a little deeper knowledge might elaborate more by saying that the General Assembly expresses their priorities based on the desires of their populace. The State Board of Education takes the legislation created by elected officials and creates policy out of it. The TNDOE in turn implements and enforces that policy. Local districts use the boundaries created by DOE policy and mix them with local preferences to execute local governance.

While that is the way it is supposed to work, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests a different story in Tennessee. A story where two private entities, funded by a third, wield more power than that of elected officials. Entities that remain cloaked from the general public while they work their magic. Magic that seemingly benefits their friends and family more than the students and families of Tennessee.

This past week I was finally able to confirm that The New Teacher Project was the recipient of an $8 million state contract(69466 TDOE_TNTP_FA_Literacy_Services_Agreement_FY21 copy) for teacher training. The contract means that the training on foundational skills for all k-5 teachers mandated by recently passed legislation will be facilitated by TNTP, close associates of both SCORE and Commissioner Schwinn. It’s a contract produced by a flawed RFP CONTINUE READING: WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild

CURMUDGUCATION: Why We Don't Need The Big Standardized Test In One Quote

CURMUDGUCATION: Why We Don't Need The Big Standardized Test In One Quote

Why We Don't Need The Big Standardized Test In One Quote

This is taken from the reformy Jebucation ExcelInEd website:

If we don't have a strong accountability system, then students from low-income families and students of color will not receive the instruction and resources needed to be successful.

That's Pam Stewart, former education chief of Florida, the testocrat who famously demanded that a dying child take the Big Standardized Test. 

It's an illuminating quote. By "strong accountability system," she of course means high-stakes attached to the Big Standardized Test. Let me make a couple of observations.

1) If you already know that low-income families and students of color are the ones who need instruction and resources, what the heck do you need test results for? Seriously. Stewart is not saying, "Our legislators are poised with a big pile of resources, but they just have no idea where they're needed until we get those CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Why We Don't Need The Big Standardized Test In One Quote

Segregation factories, pt 4: The dark story of "Failure Factories" and "Schools without Rules" shows how power dominates education journalism, narrative, and humanity - Public Enemy Number 1

Segregation factories, pt 4: The dark story of "Failure Factories" and "Schools without Rules" shows how power dominates education journalism, narrative, and humanity - Public Enemy Number 1

Segregation factories, pt 4: The dark story of "Failure Factories" and "Schools without Rules" shows how power dominates education journalism, narrative, and humanity

Power used the Tampa Bay Times' Pulitzer tagline to strip mine Florida's public schools. It largely ignored the Orlando Sentinel's better, further-reaching voucher reporting. Why?

Part 1: Welcome to Jeb Crow Florida, 2021

Part 2: What "Jeb Crow" has wrought for FTC, McKay, and Gardiner kids -- and everybody else

Part 3: How to shop in a Jeb Crow voucher marketplace built to cheat and grift and harm your child

Today’s Part 4 is a comprehensive history and accounting of the consequences from Florida’s two most important pieces of newspaper journalism since 2015. Both concern education; and both illustrate how power determines the impact of journalism, in different ways. This article may be truncated in email delivery; so you should plan to click through to the website.

It would take a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, to which I am a subscriber, a couple of days at most to go through the Step Up for Students website and compile a spreadsheet of voucher schools for the counties in their coverage area — with the same information I put together in this spreadsheet. (I will send you the full sheet if you want it, TBT, for a template.)

I would bet my house that every county would have a giant list of racially and ESE-segregated voucher schools with no accreditation or oversight or capital. These voucher schools exist only because of direct taxpayer funding or because big corporations get a public dollar-for-dollar tax break for funding them directly rather than funding real public schools.

In Polk County, 16 voucher schools have enrollments that are at least 76 percent black. Twelve of the 16 schools are at least 95 percent black or greater. Six are 100 percent black. Not one of those schools has accreditation, of any kind. More than 800 black children attend these segregated, no-capital “schools.”

Beyond purely black segregation, 30 out of 65 Polk voucher schools are at least 70 CONTINUE READING: Segregation factories, pt 4: The dark story of "Failure Factories" and "Schools without Rules" shows how power dominates education journalism, narrative, and humanity - Public Enemy Number 1

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

 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

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_20.html

Video: “Drone flies above lava-spewing volcano in Iceland”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

12019 / Pixabay In case you haven’t seen it already, I’m adding this amazing video to The Best Sites For Learning About Volcanoes :

“Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom is the headline of my latest Education Week column. Four educators offer suggestions on helping students develop critical-thinking skills, including through the use of “evaluative praise.” Here are some excerpts:

Tuesday’s Must-Read Articles About School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING (& SHOWING) WHAT SCHOOLS LOOK LIKE DURING THE PANDEMIC (you might also be interested in SCHOOLS WENT REMOTE A YEAR AGO – HERE ARE MY CHOICES FOR THE BEST PIECES WRITTEN ABOUT SCHOOL REOPENING SINCE THEN): Less than 30% of students ready to return to LAUSD campuses, survey shows is from The L.A. Times. Schools already testing stu

What Is The Best Teaching Advice You’ve Received Or Have Given?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

This is next week’s question at my Education Week column. Feel free to respond in the ways listed on the image, or just leave a comment here on this post. I think it will be a great series!

Interesting Interactive: “Who Americans Spend Their Time With, by Age”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

geralt / Pixabay Who Americans Spend Their Time With, by Age is an interesting interactive from Visual Capitalist, and you can see their summary of it here. I’m adding it to The Best Visualizations Of How People Spend Their Days (the data is based on pre-COVID info).

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 19h

Ten 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 we

New Study Finds That The Presence Of Immigrant Students In Schools Helps Everybody, But Totally Misses Obvious Reason

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

A new study, titled Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S. Born Students , by David N. Figlio, Paola Giuliano, Riccardo Marchingiglio, Umut Özek & Paola Sapienza, comes to conclusions that many teachers already knew – that the presence of immigrant students definitely does not negatively impact non-immigrant students and, in fact, results in increased achievement

“Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking is the headline of my latest Education Week column. Four educators share tips for supporting the development of critical thinking in the classroom. Here are some excerpts:

Monday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

moritz320 / Pixabay California adopts 3-foot-spacing rule for classrooms, changing reopening equation is from The L.A. Times. Education secretary says school in the fall ‘will look more like what it was before Covid’ is from CNN. This is a video from The Wall Street Journal : 3 different parent poll

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