Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded

Salon wrote about a

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will have to testify in a class action lawsuit over her handling of the Education Department’s student debt loan forgiveness program.

Judge William Alsup said “exceptional circumstances” warrant issuing DeVos a subpoena, a move that goes against both Devos’ and the Biden administration’s requests to excuse her from providing testimony.

The lawsuit, which has been brought on behalf of about 160,000 borrowers, alleges that the plaintiffs were defrauded by for-profit colleges and then neglected by the federal government.

The controversy dates back to 2018, when the Department of Education unexpectedly stopped making decisions on “student-loan borrower-defense applications,” in which students could petition the CONTINUE READING: Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Day of Action: Educators Pledge to Teach the Truth, June 12 - PopularResistance Org

A Day of Action: Educators Pledge to Teach the Truth, June 12 - PopularResistance.Org

A DAY OF ACTION: EDUCATORS PLEDGE TO TEACH THE TRUTH, JUNE 12

Lawmakers in at least 15 states are attempting to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history.

In response, educators across the United States are signing a pledge to teach the truth. The pledge states: 

We the undersigned educators will not be bullied. We will continue our commitment to develop critical thinking that supports students to better understand problems in our society, and to develop collective solutions to those problems. We are for truth-telling and uplifting the power of organizing and solidarity that move us toward a more just society.

To raise public awareness about the danger of these bills, we invite educators to make that pledge public in gatherings nationwide on Saturday, June 12, 2021. This invitation is extended by the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) and Black Lives Matter at School.

This is a national call. While bills and budget resolutions are being proposed — and in some cases passed — in specific states (Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas), the threat to teaching — and the need for solidarity — is everywhere. 

How To Participate

• Select a site in your town or city that symbolizes or reflects history that teachers would be required to lie about or omit if these bills become law, which is already the case in some states. (It could be identified by an historic marker, statue, archive, burial ground, or museum.)
• Organize a rally at the site (or online) with fellow educators, family members, students, and community members. The group can be any size. (If you don’t have time to organize a group, pick a site and go on your own. Every voice and action counts!)
• Invite local associations to endorse or join your action, such as the state council for the social studies, teacher education programs, teacher unions, student groups, voting rights groups, climate justice groups, education advocacy and racial justice organizations
• Make signs or download them, when available, from this site
• Print handouts, when available, from this site
• Invite media 
• Prep participants to engage with the public and the media (toolkit will be posted by June 2 and an optional media prep session will be offered during the week before the event)
• Post photos and videos to social media with hashtags: #TeachTruth #WeWontLie #NothingButTheTruth

Fill out the form here to be updated with resources for June 12

A Day of Action: Educators Pledge to Teach the Truth, June 12 - PopularResistance.Org

More than Schools: J4J Launches New Quality of Life Agenda with Virtual Rally | Schott Foundation for Public Education

More than Schools: J4J Launches New Quality of Life Agenda with Virtual Rally | Schott Foundation for Public Education

More than Schools: J4J Launches New Quality of Life Agenda with Virtual Rally

The Journey for Justice Alliance (J4J) just launched a new Quality of Life Agenda initiative, as part of its Equity or Else campaign. Here's what makes it so important.

J4J, a coalition of organizations across more than 30 cities, has its roots in education justice, but in recent years has begun to articulate a vision that encompasses not just the classroom and schoolhouse, but the entire social community our children and parents live within. This is a framework echoed in Schott's Loving Cities Index, which examines community-wide factors that impact student opportunity and achievement. This initiative could be a pivotal for the education justice movement in a moment when federal resources are available to kickstart such an ambitious agenda.

J4J, along with the Center for Popular Democracy, National Alliance Against Racist and Police Repression, Network for Public Education, Alliance for Education Justice, Black Lives Matter at School Week and community-based organizations, labor unions, parents and students across the country held this virtual rally to help organize and mobilize their cities.

As J4J National Organizer Ronsha Dickerson put it, "Today we are building our quality of life platform that will give space and representation to BIPOC communities across the country. Today we show our resilience as people that call for justice to CONTINUE READING: More than Schools: J4J Launches New Quality of Life Agenda with Virtual Rally | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran

A grifter who can't make finalist in a university president search rigged for him is no match for the honest, competitive study of America -- which is an unpoliceable classroom without walls.

I was already in the process of writing and documenting this piece about The Great Migration’s relevance to today’s economic and social moment when the comical ball of failure and grift that is Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran did what he tends to do.

He helped me — by saying really dumb stuff.

Indeed, it’s hard to quantify all the usefully dumb stuff he said to an audience at Hillsdale College during his recent freestyle Facebook rant dressed up as a Q&A. I will try, bit by bit, in weeks to come.

But the passage that follows is most relevant to this article. It’s about the importance of indoctrinating your kids and mine with whatever nonsense Richard Corcoran claims to believe at any given time. I see no evidence he actually believes in anything but petty personal dominance, which means the “indoctrination” will morph from moment to moment if he think he can bully you with it. Indeed, note the part in bold at the end. I think it illustrates pretty well Corcoran’s embarrassing sense of himself as tiny dictator.

But you have to police it on a daily basis, it’s 185,000 teachers in a classroom with CONTINUE READING: Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

Teacher Tom: If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?

Teacher Tom: If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?

If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?

There was an old hamster wheel in our classroom. Most of the children had no idea what it was, but it was nevertheless an endlessly popular plaything. Someone was forever spinning it or turning it upside down to roll on the floor or otherwise employing it in their games. Over the years, I saw it used as a part of block castles, as a bulldozer in the sensory table, as a Ferris wheel for little people, as a play dough tool, and as a way to apply paint to paper. One boy spent weeks using it as a kind of impromptu puzzle, taking it apart, then putting it back together again.

Over the years, I watched hundreds of children play with it for the first time. They would mess with it for a few minutes, quickly figuring out that they could spin it, then take it from there, employing it in an endless variety of ways. In nearly two decades of playing with the hamster wheel, not a single child, ever, asked "What is this thing?" On occasion, however, a well-intended adult would take it upon themselves to provide this information. "You know what that is?" they would ask, "It's a hamster wheel," and then proceed to go into detail CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?

Carol Burris: Choice Zealots Accelerate Their Drive to Put Public Money into Private Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Choice Zealots Accelerate Their Drive to Put Public Money into Private Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Choice Zealots Accelerate Their Drive to Put Public Money into Private Schools

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education explains in an article at Valerie Strauss’ Answer Sheet in the Washington Post, that choice zealots have redoubled their drive to divert public money away from public schools and hand it over to unregulated private schools, religious schools, homeschooling, virtual schools, and entrepreneurs.

The privatization lobbyists claim that the pandemic inspired the drive for school choice because parents are angry that stubborn unions and school boards refused to open the schools.

Burris demonstrates that this assertion is false. The choice bills have moved fastest in states where most schools were open, and moved not all in states where there were lengthy school closures.

Bottom line: school choice bills have been most CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: Choice Zealots Accelerate Their Drive to Put Public Money into Private Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: GOP Election Preview: Our Children Were Robbed

CURMUDGUCATION: GOP Election Preview: Our Children Were Robbed

GOP Election Preview: Our Children Were Robbed

I live in Northwester Pennsylvania, and this is Trump country. We've got a GOP controlled legislature and a Democratic governor, and a great deal of contentiousness stemming from that situation. And in the recent primary election, voters passed a constitutional amendment that de-powered the governor in the case of, say, a massive pandemic and gave emergency powers to the legislature instead.

Though we don't have many votes to offer up here, we make a good place for conservative candidates for state office to try out their road show, because lots of folks are gunning for the governor's seat.

As with most states, there are peculiarities that apply only to this state (e.g. the ongoing feud between Philadelphia and the entire rest of the state). But it's still a good place to spot some of the upcoming arguments that the GOP will use in their next election bid. 

Lou Barletta just announced his run and swung through my neighborhood. Barletta was mayor of Hazleton, PA, where, teamed up with the infamous Kris Kobach, he spearheaded anti-immigrant rules that were declared unconstitutional. He then was a Us Representative for almost a decade, before having his ass handed to him by Bob Casey, Jr., in 2018. He went into private consulting, including helping boost Brexit, and he has maintained his Trumpist credentials--he was one of the "electors" who met up in 2020 to vote for Trump, just to, you know, keep options open.

Barletta stopped just up the road from me this week, and the local paper covered the visit (paywall--sorry). Some of his talking CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: GOP Election Preview: Our Children Were Robbed

A Case for Critical Race Theory, and More – radical eyes for equity #CRT #blm #BLACKLIVESMATTER

A Case for Critical Race Theory, and More – radical eyes for equity

A Case for Critical Race Theory, and More

White privilege is a system of advantage that benefits all white people (or to be more clear, all people who are perceived of as white).

That racial privilege, however, is no guarantee of success or shield of protection for some individual people who are white. White people fail, white people suffer inequity and disadvantages (such as poverty), and white people in some individual cases are substantially worse off than individual Black people.

Racism is a system of power and race that disadvantages all Black people in the U.S. (or to be more clear, all people who are perceived of as Black).

Racism is not a universal barrier to success or happiness or achievement, but it is a pervasive burden that tints every aspect of living for any Black person.

Black people are typically more starkly aware of racism (nearly moment by moment) than white people are of white privilege; white privilege works in an invisible way for white people while racism is a blunt object for Black people.

Race, however, is not biological; race is a social construction that has very real CONTINUE READING: A Case for Critical Race Theory, and More – radical eyes for equity

Why Is Cardona’s Department of Education Partnering with an Astroturf Parent Organization? | janresseger

Why Is Cardona’s Department of Education Partnering with an Astroturf Parent Organization? | janresseger

Why Is Cardona’s Department of Education Partnering with an Astroturf Parent Organization?

Parents whose children are enrolled in public schools across in the United States have traditionally joined the PTA—affiliated with the national Parent Teacher Association—or an unaffiliated PTO—a Parent Teacher Organization, but few would have had the opportunity to join the National Parents Union.  PTAs and PTOs embody the principle that parents and teachers are together responsible for the well-being of the school’s students.

On first glance, you might notice how the name of the National Parents Union is different from the names of the more traditional parents’ organizations. First, “teachers” are not named as collaborators. And the National Parents Union is called a “union.” Those two features of the organization’s name might make you suspicious that this is some sort of parents’ group against teachers unions. And, it seems you might be correct.

The National Parents Union is an Astroturf organization founded in 2020. Astroturf organizations pretend to represent the grassroots, but instead they advocate for the interests of their big funders. It is helpful to know who these groups are, so that you can keep straight about what they stand for and who they really represent.

Maurice Cunningham, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has thoroughly researched and exposed the abuses by Astroturf organizations in the past, most notably the New York dark money group, Families for Excellent Schools Action, CONTINUE READING: Why Is Cardona’s Department of Education Partnering with an Astroturf Parent Organization? | janresseger

Cartoons about Little Kids in School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons about Little Kids in School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons about Little Kids in School

This month’s feature is cartoons about little kids at school and at home. Enjoy!

MORE CARTOONS: Cartoons about Little Kids in School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

As I mentioned in another post, the minutes from the Board’s committee meetings are being written in a manner that makes it difficult to ferret out information. But what IS useful is when staff comes with a presentation so the entire thing gets uploaded and attached as documentation.

I was looking at the documentation for last week’s Student Services, Curriculum & Instruction meeting, agenda here.  

Under “Special Attention Items,” we see K-5 Mathematics. The adopted curriculum is Math in Focus. I’ll cut to the chase but flesh out details below  - Math in Focus is NOT being used in any real way in elementaries. 

Here are the basics on Math in Focus in SPS (except for the cost but we’ll get to that).

• Math in Focus was adopted in 2014 for a 7-year period.

• The adoption expires in 2020-21 school year.

• In 2014, instructional materials were used nearly exclusively in print CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

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

 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/2021/05/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_15.html

The OER Project Offers The Same Social Studies Texts In Different Lexile Levels – For Free!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

I’ve previously posted about The OER Project: Project Score is from the OER Project. It provides a lot of Social Studies prompts with scaffolded instruction and a free automating assessment tool for the student-written essays. I’m skeptical of computer-graded essays (see The Best Posts On Computer-Graded Essays ), but it may be worth a look. I’d be interested in hearing from teachers who use this

Friday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

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): Teachers have been asking the district to let high schools expand to 4 days a week in person learning, but district won’t do

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE FOURTE

Updated Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

badwanart0 / Pixabay What’s happening in the Middle East right now is awful (see Gaza children bearing the brunt in Israel-Hamas conflict ). I’ve just revised and updated The “Best” Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict .

Video: “What ADHD Feels Like – An Animation”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Ogutier / Pixabay I’m adding this new video to The Best Sites For Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes :

SEL Weekly Update

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I’ve recently begun this weekly post where I’ll be sharing resources I’m adding to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources or other related “Best” lists. You might also be interested in THE BEST SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO. Finally, check out “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources . Here are this week’s picks: Don’t Underestimate the Po

Malcolm X Would Have Been 96 Years Old Today – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

WikiImages / Pixabay Malcolm X was born on this day 96 years ago. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning & Teaching About Malcolm X .

“Students’ Questions Can ‘Drive Their Learning’”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

Students’ Questions Can ‘Drive Their Learning’ is the headline of my latest Education Week column. Four educators provide advice on how teachers can equip students with tools to support their asking “open-ended & relevant” questions. Here are some excerpts: I’m adding this series to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions — Help Me Find More .

Students Will Have A Lot Of Fun Easily Creating Music With These Three Google Tools

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

There are a number of free and easy online tools where students can create music (see The Best Online Sites For Creating Music ). I’m sure there are a lot of educational uses for them. I use them as part of the Language Experience Approach (LEA) with English Language Learners. Simply put, LEA means that students do something, and then they can write and talk about what they did. Many students lov

Here’s A Draft Plan For Our School’s Summer School Newcomer/Intermediate ELL Class

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

Wokandapix / Pixabay Our school will be having a summer school class that will be a combined Newcomer/ Intermediate English Language Learners one. I won’t be teaching it – I’ll be at home taking naps between finishing the second edition of our ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide and playing basketball and Pickleball. Each year for the past many years, one of my student teachers handles summer school

Wednesday’s Must Read Articles On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

mohamed_hassan / 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

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