New York City Department of Education Forbids Use of ZOOM Due to Concerns about Privacy, Security Many teachers are using the ZOOM videoconferencing tool for their online classes, but there have been numerous complaints about ZOOM classes being hacked, and intruders interfering with the class or expressing inappropriate comments. Consequently, the New York City Department of Education is forbidd
Pandemic, Public Health, Policing, And Pay For Success “Solutions” My research into “pay for success” over the past three years made it clear that health and behavioral health data would be used to fuel the growth of “social impact” finance around the world. Over the past three weeks, however, it has dawned on me that it will also likely be used as a tool of social control. As populations become
As economic crisis worsens, Sacramento school district approves dozens of layoffs Sacramento City Unified school board members approved to a motion to lay off classified employees Thursday night during a board meeting over Zoom. The 46.5 full-time equivalent positions, which include bus drivers, clerks, campus monitors, yard duty employees and instructional aides will be eliminated effective Jul
Newsom announces agreement between teachers and school officials amid closures This article has Unlimited Access. For more coverage, sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter . To support our commitment to public service journalism: Subscribe Now . Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a major agreement Wednesday between teachers and school management that provides guidance on pay, benefits and distanc
Carol Burris: Charter Schools Ask for Federal Money Though They Suffered No Loss Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, expresses outrage because the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has asked for federal rescue money for charter schools, although they have suffered no losses. She writes: Shame on the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools! I have
How Children With Disabilities Are Getting Left Behind Schools are struggling to educate 7 million students who receive special education services in the absence of physical classrooms. Adrienne Stuart’s 5-year-old son, Jack, has never told her “hello.” It’s a milestone she was hoping to reach within the next year. But in mid-March, his school was closed, at least until May. Now, she’s coming to
The First Taste is Free: Ed Tech Follows Drug Dealer Sales Techniques with Schools During Coronavirus Crisis “Pst! Hey, Kid! Come here!” Educational technologies are a multi-billion dollar industry . “Who? Me?” The coronavirus pandemic has closed schools across the globe, and districts have tried to solve this problem by putting their classes online. “Yeah, you. I’ve got some… candy I want to gi
Cartoons about Strange Times Amid the sick and dying from a virus, it is hard to see a funny side to the damage that this protein does to the individual, community, nation, and world. One way that I cope with my fears and anxieties in this bizarre moment in time that everyone is experiencing is to laugh–when I can. While that sounds macabre in of itself, I have managed my panic by seeing the hum
Like a bad penny, Vallas turns up again in Chicago. Bad penny. Paul Vallas is like that proverbial bad penny. He always turns up, uninvited. When he does, he's usually part of the problem rather than the solution. The bad penny turned up again this week in Chicago in the midst of the city's battle with COVID to offer us his unsolicited budgeting advice in a Tribune op-ed . Vallas decided to take
A Teacher in South Dakota: I Will Not Send Home Any Packets A teacher in South Dakota writes here about her love of teaching, her love of her students, and how she is handling the current crisis. She writes: Let me preface this by saying that I am passionate about education. I enjoy being a student, and I love being a teacher. Of all of the things that I joke about in life, my job as a teacher i
School Choice and Segregation: New Name, Same Game Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy A new book highlights how the movement to privatize education started with the effort to keep schools segregated. In Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement , Steve Suitts provides much needed context for the current debate raging over “school choice,” cha
New Guides for Researchers, Bloggers and Parents By Thomas Ultican 4/4/2020 Two new sources provide guidance for researching and decoding education jargon. At the beginning of the year, Teacher College Press published Diane Ravitch’s and Nancy Bailey’s EdSpeak and Doubletalk; A Glossary to Decipher Hypocrisy and Save Public Schooling . At February’s completion, Garn Press published Mercedes Schn
Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Beyond Does It Work: Meaningful Questions to Ask about Online Education Amid COVID-19 Beyond Does It Work: Meaningful Questions to Ask about Online Education Amid COVID-19 There are many meaningful and productive questions to ask about online education depending on the circumstance. Given that education systems and schools around the world ar
Children May Miss Meals As School Food Service Workers Fall Ill In Clark County, Nev., the nation's fifth-largest school district, a school food service worker has reportedly died of COVID-19 . That death is one of around 40 recorded in the state of Nevada as of Friday afternoon. Just a few weeks ago NPR reported on the swift efforts to continue to get meals to children and their families, as sc
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Cab Calloway: The Original Frontman by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d A profile of the "Original Frontman", the great bandleader Cab Calloway. -- Polyphonic Joel Leon: The Beautiful, Hard Work of Co-Parenting by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d ' "Co-parenting" isn't a buzzword -- it's a way of showing up for your family openly, consistently and lovingly, says storyteller and father Joel Le
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report 50-State Comparison: Secondary Career and Technical Education by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d Career and technical education came up in nearly half of governors’ State of the State addresses this year. It is often one piece of a statewide workforce development strategy, particularly as policymakers look toward building the structures and p
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 These Are Great! Six Free Tools Teachers & Students Can Use To Learn English, Spanish & Other Languages During The Coronavirus Crisis by Larry Ferlazzo / 16min thisisprabha / Pixabay I’ve previo
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all A Teacher in South Dakota: I Will Not Send Home Any Packets by dianeravitch / 2min A teacher in South Dakota writes here about her love of teaching, her love of her students, and how she is handling the current crisis. She writes: Let me preface
How students can learn during coronavirus without internet: Teacher union leader The coronavirus pandemic may offer a good opportunity for students working remotely to revisit term papers, or capstone projects, Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers president, said. “If we trust teachers, particularly for a high school graduating seniors, to kind of come up with projects, to sum u
What the Covid-19 Pandemic Should Teach Us about “Science” For about twenty years now, I have been writing about misconceptions about and misrepresentations of “scientific” as it relates to what evidence supports teaching practices and school policy. The problem that I confront over and over is complicated since scientific evidence absolutely does matter in making large and small educational dec
Friday’s Resources To Help Teachers Cope With The School Closure Crisis Ed Tech Digest by Larry Ferlazzo / 40min Eight 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 i
Advice to Parents: Forget the Worksheets! Joel Westheimer has advice for parents who are at home organizing their children’s days. FORGET THE WORKSHEETS AND TRYING TO REPLICATE SCHOOL I am really struck by the variety of media inquiries I’ve been getting about the impacts of Covid-19 on education, what parents should be doing at home, and so on. The interest doesn’t surprise me (I am an educatio
Another Teacher Dies of Corona Virus -- A disturbing timeline and possible coverup Unlike other city agencies, including the police department, the education department has declined to say how many of its employees have died due to the coronavirus or are infected. A principal , paraprofessional , and school safety agent are among those whose deaths have been publicly reported. Asked Wednesday ab
FL: Path Opens To Killing Public Schools If there was a state most likely to grab the coronaviral opportunity to gut its public school system, it would have to be Florida, some those ducks appear to be lining up. Florida Virtual School (FLVS ) has had its share of rough times . Started by the state in the 90s, spun into a private business (a " publicly-funded non-profit, " so a charter school),
"Their Language Will Always be Adequate for Their Own Understanding" We were on the playground, down on our knees in the wood chips, playing with rocks, sticks, general debris, and a variety of broken or otherwise orphaned toys. Sylvia suggested, "Let's play a story." We all knew exactly what she was talking about even though none of us had heard that particular phrase before. It delighted me, s
Federal Coronavirus Relief Act Will Provide Urgently Needed Money for Public Schools, But Not Nearly Enough Education Week ‘s Andrew Ujifusa contrasts the public education support in the new federal coronavirus stimulus passed this week by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump to the 2009 federal stimulus passed during the Obama administration to address the Great Recession: “Remember th
Better Than Nothing I've never done online instruction before. I've been trying different things almost every day, kind of throwing darts to see what sticks. The lesson I spent the most time on was a song called Morning Has Broken . I really love that song. My goal was to get students to love it too. The first time I taught it, it fell flat. The vocabulary was a little rugged for my newcomers. B
Several Colleges Waive ACT/SAT, Other Admission Requirements, Due to Coronavirus For high school seniors unable to take the ACT and SAT, a number of colleges and universities are waiving testing and other requirements as part of admission for fall 2020 and possibly beyond. From the March 30, 2020, Inside Higher Ed : Colleges are dropping the SAT or ACT for admissions, they are waiving fees and t
Of Pandemics And Teacher Motivation Remember that time that schools were shut down because of a pandemic, and all the teachers said, "Yippee! Extra vacation! I am out of here" and all jumped in their Porches and drove to their beach homes? Yeah, neither do I. Here's what I'll remember. Teacher after teacher, from the ones in my Twitter feeds to the ones in my email to the ones that I know person
Please take action NOW on the state budget & cancelling Regents exams! | Class Size Matters Please take action NOW on the state budget & cancelling Regents exams! Dear Friends, 1 -Sadly, it looks like the state budget that was just voted on by the NY Senate will freeze education funding for next year, which given increased costs will be experienced in many schools and districts like a cut. Please
The Great Zoom-School Experiment In some ways, the Lang School, a small, private school in the Financial District, was well-suited to the age of the coronavirus. Lang, which has students in grades two through twelve, is a “2e” school, which stands for “twice exceptional.” The term refers to gifted students who also have some form of learning disability such as dyslexia, ADHD, or mild autism. Suc
Los Angeles: Large Number of Students Get No Instruction Howard Blume and Sonali Kohl’s report on the large number of students in Los Angeles who are getting no instruction during the shutdown. About one-third of some 120,000 Los Angeles high school students have not logged onto online classes every day, and 15,000 are absent from all online learning as efforts to continue distance learning fall
Homeschooling Movement Sees Opportunity During Health Calamity - LA Progressive Homeschooling Movement Sees Opportunity During Health Calamity n the early days of the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S., when the number of known cases was barely cresting 1,000, advocates for homeschooling were greeting news of the outbreak as an opportunity to promote their cause. “While the virus has caused il
People’s Historians Online– Mini-Classes with Jeanne Theoharis and Jesse Hagopian in April: 1) Rebellious Rosa Parks; 2) Young People in the Civil Rights Movement; 3) Civil Rights Movement Outside the South I’m excited to announce that I will be joining the great people’s historian, Jeanne Theoharis for a series of racial and social justice online courses for the first three Fridays in April. I
Challenges, questions as special education shifts to homes during statewide school closure As many parents navigate the new reality of having students at home for at least another month under a statewide public school closure, students with disabilities may face even more challenges with online learning. Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the closure on March 13, part of an effort to slow the sprea
'Distance Learning' in Sacramento Means 20,000 Chromebooks School districts in the Sacramento area are ramping up the distribution of essential technology to households as formal "distance learning" programs are close to launching for tens of thousands of students. School districts in the Sacramento area are ramping up the distribution of essential technology to households as formal “distance le
Many public schools never recovered from the Great Recession. The coronavirus could spark a new education crisis. This may seem difficult to believe but public school funding has, in some places, never recovered from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Now, districts and states around the country are facing the prospect of a new financial crisis for public education as a result of the novel corona
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 TODAY’S UPDATE On New Resources To Help Educators Figuring Out How To Support Students During School Closures Statistic Of The Day: Nobody Is Going To School by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h It’s crazy out there. 9 Out Of 10 Children Are Out Of School Worldwide. What Now? is a new piece at NPR that puts it all i
Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility Monica Isza never got to say good-bye to her students, not really, not the way she had hoped. She settled for a FaceTime call, in which they asked a lot of questions that she couldn’t answer, like are we going to see you again? Isza, a Michigan State University (MSU) graduate and NEA Aspiring Educators member who was spending the academic y
California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges Newsom urged an agreement to reduce potential conflicts on employment issues At Gov. Gavin Newsom’s urging, school labor and management groups agreed Wednesday on principles to guide them as they switch to distance learning and continue providing meals for students in the months ahead. The 3-page “framework
The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved During Father Joseph O’Hare’s Long and distinguished tenure as President of Fordham University, I was honored to count him as a friend and well as an academic leader. We didn’t agree on all Issues, and locked horns on a few, especially athletics, but in several key instances, Father O’Hare made decisions which showed his love of justice, and his concern for our
The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching During my forty years as a consultant, I have often had teachers say to me, “I would love to use some of your ideas for instruction, Russ, but…The “but” was always followed by something like “the administration”, “the test”, “these kids”, any and all the reasons you’ve heard about why something couldn’t be done. Finally, at one session I sai
State Superintendent Thurmond Announces New Guidance on Grades and Graduation for Seniors SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California State Board of Education (SBE) have issued new guidance on graduation requirements and grading for seniors. The guidance is based on feedback from local ed
My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten This morning on my WBAI radio show, "Talk out of School", I spoke to Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, about what’s happening to schools, teachers and families during the coronavirus crisis, and Randi’s proposal that students should be engaging in completing a meaningful “capstone” project. A link to her essay des
How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model? If this was a normal year the education community would be focused on the race to the April 1 budget deadline. For months advocates and legislators have been dueling with the governor: Will the Foundation Aid formula be adjusted to benefit the lowest wealth aka, the poorest districts? Will the governor
April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online. This post and podcast originally appeared at Streetsblog Los Angeles. April 1 is Census Day! Every ten years, the United States government sends out a questionnaire to ask people living in America where they live and other questions about their lives. The final count of where people live helps determine how the
NO FOOLING TODAY: TEACHERS MATTER Although I left reporting more than four years ago, my blood still boils when people like Betsy DeVos, the supremely unqualified Secretary of Education, Senator Rand Paul, Representative Steve King, Laura Ingraham of Fox, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, convicted but pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza, and other uninformed public figures blast public school teachers an
Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy - Progressive.org Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy A new book highlights how the movement to privatize education started with the effort to keep schools In Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement , Steve Suitts provides much needed context for the current debate raging over “school choice,”
APRIL FOOLS’ BLOG POST SUSPENDED For the past 11 years I have posted an April Fools’ blog post in the vein of The Onion— satire about education (a quick search of the blog reveals some of the most epic, including last year’s about Besty Devos ). However, because of the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic (See April Fools’ Day pranks are not funny right now. Don’t do them ), I will delay this po
Educators continue census outreach, despite COVID-19 By Amanda Litvinov / image by Marka 27 for NEA’s 2020 census campaign Music teacher Yolanda Calderón had just five minutes on Monday to enter her school and get what she needed. What was the one thing she went in for? “My iPad!” says Calderón, because it has the app and information she needs to communicate with her students’ families directly.
How Schools Worldwide Are Tackling the Coronavirus Challenge Schools are closed for hundreds of millions of students, but educators, parents, and children are still learning—including how to keep a sense of connection. Cats, puppies, and stuffed animals prance across Tracy Westberg’s screen. A sixth grade social studies teacher north of Seattle, Westberg is conducting a virtual session on the Tu
Letter to Staff on Easter/ Passover Break Dear colleagues: This last week or two has gone by in a blur for me. Without actually leaving my home and going to work, it feels like one day just blends into another. Last night I was thinking about someone at the union who told me we were going to fight Cuomo on the rollback of Easter/ Passover break. It felt a world away but I’d only heard it 24 hour
Even Though Schools Are Closed, Advocates Must Keep on Pushing to End Dangerous School “Deformer” Policies Those of us who care about American public schools have spent nearly twenty years working to undo the damage of a school accountability and privatization movement that has ruined our schools, heaped pressure on teachers and children, and created a publicly funded, private education sector.
Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 2) When the coronavirus has run its course and Americans return to work, and try to restore their daily routines to what they recognize as “normal”–some things will change in schools. What all of those changes will be, I cannot predict. When I look back on my predictions about school reform and technology, it is clear that I am no seer. At best
Thoughts on schooling in the era of COVID-19 Well, a whole lot has changed since I returned to blogging a month and half ago. In case you didn't notice, and I'm sure everyone reading this did, there's a global pandemic. I also am going to suspend my new "brief post" practice for this one, so hang with me. First, I will share some twitter threads I wrote at different stages of this. 1. This came
California: State Superintendent Thurmond Says Schools Probably Will Not Open Again This School Year State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced that public schools are unlikely to reopen this calendar year due to the coronavirus. California public school campuses are unlikely to reopen for the remainder of the academic school year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, state Supt. of Public
The Student Coronavirus Creative Response Project: Youth Voices Countering COVID 19–submit your project and be heard! Seattle area educators have partnered with Colorful Pages , Black Education Matters , Families of Color Seattle (FOCS) to launch a citywide “ Student Coronavirus Creative Response Project ” to have students reflect on and take action to support those most affected by the pandemic
Why Teach Literature Stuff: #5 Language Is Power When I was teaching, and I had extra time on my hands, I would reflect on the work--the whys and hows and whats. So in solidarity with my former colleagues, I'm going to write a series about every English teacher's favorite thing-- teaching literature, and why we do it. There will be some number of posts (I don't have a plan here). Also, it would
Sacramento City Schools Superintendent Aguilar Takes a Big Pay Increase While Schools Closed Teachers union angry over Aguilar’s pay increase while refusing to pay substitute teachers In March 2019, California Globe reported Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and seven other administrators spent more than $35,000 to attend a six-day conference at the Harvard Bus
A model Google contract that has strong student privacy protections Slightly modified from Parent Coalition for Student Privacy blog . We have received many questions from parents and teachers over the last few weeks concerned about the privacy practices and policies of the various ed tech tools and programs being adopted hurriedly by schools and districts in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
Not All Schools Can #KeepLearning While educators promote online learning as coronavirus spreads, some Illinois students aren’t equipped with the broadband to even notice. This investigation is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune. ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to get weekly updates about our work. To encoura
We Are Just Trying to Protect Our Own At least three times in the past week, I’ve heard some variant of this statement: I’ve noticed that those who are community-spirited and positive about life have become even more so, reaching out to organize helping systems and cheer people up—and those who are naturally whiny, critical and self-involved have now gone into overdrive. It’s mostly true. Crisis
Ten Years of Jersey Jazzman I'll keep this short, I promise... Ten years ago, I found myself increasingly frustrated by the nonsense I kept reading and hearing about schools, teaching, and public finance. Here in New Jersey, a newly elected Republican governor began what was to become an eight year war against my profession, the union that represented me, and public education in general. This go
Will Online Instruction Replace Brick-and-Mortar Schools After the Covid-19 Crisis? While parents shelter-in-place maintaining a sense of normalcy for their children, those critical of public education won’t stop criticizing public schools. They believe that technology should replace teachers and brick-and-mortar schools. They imply that after this difficult period ends, we will move from brick-
Ltr1-19: SB 117 (CA Dept of Education) Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page Dear County Superintendents of Schools: First Apportionment for the SB 117 COVID-19 LEA Response Funds Fiscal Year 2019–20 This apportionment, in the amount of $100,000,000, is made from the General Fund as provided by Section 9 of Senate Bill 117 (Chapter 3, Statutes of 2020) to local educational agencies (LEAs) in suppo
Provide Aid To Farm Workers ACT NOW: Farm Workers left out of COVID-19 federal aid What would Cesar Chavez say? E-mail your Congressmembers today. The 3 trillion dollar COVID-19 stimulus package was signed last week. These funds will help many families, but leaves many farm workers out. There are 9.5 billion dollars headed for the agricultural sector and it's unclear if any of those funds will s
Take action now! urge NY legislators not to cut education funding for next year! | Class Size Matters Take action now! urge NY legislators not to cut education funding for next year! Please contact your legislators now, urging them NOT to cut education funding next year as Gov. Cuomo threatens to do, by clicking her e. Our full legislative agenda is below. Download (PDF, 188KB) Take action now! u
HOW TO SAFEGUARD YOUR FAMILY’S HEALTH WHILE THEY USE SCREENS AND DIGITAL DEVICES by Cindy Eckard, reposted from Screens and Kids Some basic measures could help protect your family from avoidable aches, strains, eye health impacts and sleep disruptions while using the schools’ digital devices at home. Some of the following suggestions also relate to the potential for these devices to cause fires.
Career And Technical Education Deserves A Resurgence. Let’s Not Mess-- Oh, Hell Amidst all his slashing of the education budget, Donald Trump has proposed an e normous spending increase for one area —career and technical education. The Trump budget includes an increase of $900 million in spending on CTE. Of that, $680 million would be directed through the Carl D. Perkins program , the main condu
Special guest on Wednesday's "Talk out of School" - Randi Weingarten of the AFT Join us on Wednesday from 10-11AM on WBAI 99.5 FM or at WBAI.org for "Talk out of School" when I'll interview Randi Weingarten , president of the American Federation of Teachers, about what schools should and should not be trying to do during the time of coronavirus, and how to prevent remote instruction from overstr
You Are Invited: A Webinar about the Koch Machine A valuable website called “Unkoch My Campus” is offering a webinar where you can learn how to identify the tentacles of the Kochtopus. Charles Koch and his late brother David have subsidized anti-government, anti-public school policies and think tanks for decades. They underwrote the voucher campaign in Arizona and other states. They work closely
We Want To Hear Your Stories Of Teaching At Home During The Coronavirus Shutdown The headline says it all. We’re looking for stories from parents, students and teachers about what they are doing to keep our kids on track during the Coronavirus shutdown. I have two kids, ages 7 (1st grade) and 10 (4th grade). Even though they go to the same school, their teachers are employing different strategie
Teachers Are the Leading Experts on Education We live in uncertain times. No one, even pandemic experts, knows what's going to happen. Yet, all day, every day, we're being offered advice, warnings, admonitions, and opinions, some of which are spot on, but most of which are, at best, partially based on incomplete knowledge, while a huge percentage of it is pure BS, including much of what's coming
How Did America’s Schools Cope with Spanish Flu vs. Coronavirus? They say history repeats itself. And if you’ve read any accounts of the bygone days of yesteryear, the current crisis certainly appears like a rerun. Look at all the closed businesses, frightened people venturing out wearing face masks or self quarantined in their homes. It sure looks a lot like 1918. The Spanish Flu epidemic that
San Diego Unified Asks the State for Tens of Millions More New costs to shift all students to online learning amid the coronavirus pandemic are expected to pile up, according to the superintendents of the San Diego Unified and Los Angeles Unified school districts, who asked state legislators for more emergency funds totaling $3 billion statewide this week. This post originally appeared in the Ma
Wired: Billionaire Philanthropists Should Not Be Responsible for Solving Public Problems Rob Reich and Mohit Mookim write in “Wired” about the efforts by Bill Gates, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to step in and do what the federal government has failed to do in responding to the coronavirus pandemic. They warn: Public health is a paradigmatic public good. We sho
Pushing Out Black Students With Disabilities Under COVID-19 Over the past two turbulent weeks, empty public schools and barren playgrounds have become stark symbols of how COVID-19 has exacerbated structural inequality. Massive layoffs, food insecurity, and lethal gaps in sick leave, healthcare, childcare provision, housing, and transportation have always been a way of life for people of color,
The Pandemic Reminds Us of the Value of Public Schools The global coronavirus pandemic reminds us of the importance and value of strong, effective public institutions. We are all in this together. “Everyone for himself” is a recipe for disaster. None of us can solve the problems on our own. The only way to address the disease is by collective action and public leadership. The widespread closure
Four things you need to know about the new reading wars A child reads a book at an elementary school in Mississippi. Kids who read more tend to score higher on reading assessments but research hasn’t been particularly supportive of using classroom time for unstructured, independent reading. Credit: Terrell Clark for The Hechinger Report The reading wars are back, reignited by radio journalist Em
Week 2 – Teaching Remotely – NYC in Pandemic There’s a lot to worry about today. Medical supplies, and infection rates. Emergency rooms. Goods in stores. Mortgage. Rent. Politics. Am I going to get it? In the midst of all this, tens of thousands (how many are we? sixty-thousand? seventy-thousand?) New York City teachers, and thousands more counselors, therapists, paraprofessionals – we’ve reache
NYC Public School Parents: How Pearson's revision of the EdTPA teacher certification process will create inequities for teachers being trained in districts with poor students by John Elfrank-Dana In order for NY teachers to get certification to teach, they have to produce a performance portfolio, called an EdTPA (Education Teacher Performance Assessment) administered by Pearson, an for-profit co
Ditch the desk, ignore the clock and more advice on helping your kids learn — from a teacher and former homeschooler There is plenty of advice on the Internet for parents who are suddenly at home with their children because of the coronavirus crisis, trying to be good stewards of their education but not really knowing how. And as usual with advice, you can find some that fits your own perceived
Kevin Huffman Promotes Entrepreneurial School Agenda in Commentary about Pandemic-Driven School Closings Kevin Huffman begins his recent Washington Post column with a warning about problems he expects to result from the widespread, coronavirus-driven school closures: “As the coronavirus pandemic closes schools, in some cases until September, American children this month met their new English, ma
The New Education: Finding ways to smile in hard times–Diary of a Teacher During the Coronavirus Crisis, Entry #4 What a week. The mounting COVID-19 crisis is wreaking havoc around the world. As of this writing there are about 726,187 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world and the U.S. has the highest number at 140,458–including my over 60-year-old cousin in New Orleans who I worry deeply abou
Please help stop looming budget cuts to schools! | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Please help stop looming budget cuts to schools! Dear folks: Hope you and your families are figuring out how to cope with all the new restrictions on life as we used to live it, as well as the new regime of remote learning – if that’s what your child’s school
Trump's crashing. Govs leading. Where's Biden? According to today's Washington Post-ABC poll , Trump and Biden are running neck-and-neck. One can only wonder how big a lead Biden would have if he was running as serious a campaign against DT as he is against Bernie Sanders and the party's left-wing? Since capturing the lead against Sanders in recent primaries, Biden has retreated to the sidelines
Mutual Parasitism: Coronavirus and Charter Virus When Kevin Huffman left Tennessee after four years of running down the State's public schools the way his ex-wife, Michelle Rhee, did prior to being run out of Washington, DC, Tennessee's teachers and superintendents were overjoyed. Under Huffman's toxic reign as Commissioner of Education, [m] ore than 50 superintendents . . . publicly questioned
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What Day Is This Edition (3/29) What Day Is This Edition (3/29) I feel like retirement gave me a head start, but yes-- after a while, the days kind of blend together. Still, we have some reading from the week. Remember, share safely. The Biggest Obstacle To Moving America's Public Schools Online Susan Adams, my editor at Forbes, takes a look at some of the problems with jus
Education Cannot Solve Poverty and Inequality | Dissident Voice Education Cannot Solve Poverty and Inequality One of the long-standing stubborn myths about education in American culture is that education is “the great equalizer” and that education is the way to overcome poverty and inequality at the individual and societal levels. The facts show, however, that poverty and inequality are generally
When Tech Makes Educational Decisions "The internet is a bad place. Young people really shouldn't use it at all." The speaker was not some cranky parent or enraged luddite. It was the guy in charge of maintaining the network in my high school. In other words, the guy responsible for making sure it was possible for our students to access the internet. This was many years ago, but it slapped me up
EdAction in Congress March 29, 2020 Congress heeds educators’ pleas to put people first, but still needs to do more The $2 trillion CARES Act was passed by the U.S. Congress this weekend. It is the third legislative package to address coronavirus crisis and addresses many—but not all—of the urgent needs of our students, educators, schools, and communities. Key provisions include: Immediate stimu
Critical Thinking in the Post-Truth World In 2012 Donald Trump claimed that climate change was a Chinese hoax. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. 67.3K 12:15 PM - Nov 6, 2012 Twitter Ads info and privacy 109K people are talking about this Once he took office, the Trump administra
First Focus Legislative Scorecard THE FIRST FOCUS CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD Our nation’s children face an array of problems, including poverty, violence, abuse, neglect, hunger, education inequity, poor nutrition, homelessness, lack of health coverage, infant and child mortality, and family separation in mixed immigrant households. These issues demand attention, policy solutions
I Won't Walk the Line I'm not sure exactly what prompted me to go back for that last week with my colleagues. I think it had a lot to do with my being chapter leader. I felt I had to. Looking back, I don't think I was very smart. Anyone could have taken off, no questions asked, and all if would have cost was a day from the bank. A lot of people did, and in retrospect they'd thought things out be
Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 1) I recently received a note from a colleague asking about what happens after the pandemic virus’s effects ebb, Americans return to work (if their workplace has not closed), schools re-open, and “social distancing” becomes an unwelcome memory. My colleague asked if at such a time would school reform sweep across the nation as it did for New Or
Sheltering in Place: Children, Parents and Teachers Coping With (What Could Be) the New Normal My phone “pinged,” time to confirm my reservation for the April Board of Regents meeting: not this month. Governor Cuomo just extended the state-wide school closing until April 15th , and probably for a lot longer. Online, or remote learning, has completed its first week in New York City. The enormous
Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Does it Work? The Most Meaningless Question to Ask about Online Education Does it Work? The Most Meaningless Question to Ask about Online Education An extended version of this post will be published in the journal of ECNU Review of Education . Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. ? Voltaire The scientist is not a person wh
Why Teach Literature Stuff: #4 Books Versus Video When I was teaching, and I had extra time on my hands, I would reflect on the work--the whys and hows and whats. So in solidarity with my former colleagues, I'm going to write a series about every English teacher's favorite thing-- teaching literature, and why we do it. There will be some number of posts (I don't have a plan here). Also, it would
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 3/28/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New
