CURMUDGUCATION: To Those Of You Worried About The Covid Slide
To Those Of You Worried About The Covid Slide
Dear concerned policy makers, bureaucrats, and edu-wonks:
Ever since NWEA, the testing manufacturer that promised it can read minds by measuring how long it takes students to pick a multiple choice answer, issued their report on the Covid-19 Slide, you have been freaking out a little because they hear you say that distance learning has been disastrous and if we do it again in the fall, we'll produce a generation of students too dumb to come in out of the rain. Everyone from the Wall Street Journal to members of Congress has been experiencing bovine birth events in response to the report. I just want to make two quick points for you.
First, you don't need to freak out over the study. Because it's not so much a "study" as a rough best guess about how students might do on a single not-great standardized test of math and reading. On the other hand, you can freak out a little bit, because while the report is ludicrous, if you actually talk to teachers and students and families, you'll hear that distance disaster school is not great. But you really don't need to base any of your argument on NWEA's totally made up numbers.
Second. Let's pretend that the numbers aren't made up. Let's pretend that it's true that, due to the CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: To Those Of You Worried About The Covid Slide
Latest News and Comment from Education
-
-
TODAY'S GREAT AI NEWS SMACKDOWN: SEPTEMBER 18th SHOWDOWN - *TODAY'S GREAT AI NEWS SMACKDOWN* *SEPTEMBER 18th SHOWDOWN* Ladies and gentlemen, gather ‘round for another thrilling episode of *The Great AI News Sma...3 hours ago
-
"The vice president's justifications for this ideological abuse of government power are obviously false" - On Monday, Vice President JD Vance hosted the Charlie Kirk show, ostensibly to pay tribute to his fallen friend. But that was not Vance’s sole purpose ...3 hours ago
-
Trump Mob Cancels Jimmy Kimmel - Oliver Darcy, media journalist, wrote in his blog Status about the events leading ABC to indefinitely cancel Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show. If you care ab...4 hours ago
-
The Truth Will Make Me Free - *The Truth Will Make Me Free* by Mister Rogers *What if I were very, very sad* *And all I did was smile?* *I wonder after a while* *What might become of ...4 hours ago
-
Right Wing Trump Allies Hide Study Showing That Right Wing Extremists Cause Most Domestic Terror Attacks - Here is the first part of that study, which was apparently not fully stored on the Wayback Machine. Click to access 306123.pdf7 hours ago
-
Two U.S. District Court Judges Protect Access to Head Start for Undocumented Children - Last week, two U.S. District Court judges blocked a July 10, 2025 demand by the Trump administration that Head Start must exclude undocumented immigrant ch...7 hours ago
-
Jimmy Kimmel Suspended: 10 Signs American Democracy Is Failing - When the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC publicly threatened ABC with regulatory retaliation unless it punished Jimmy Kimmel for a monologue about Charlie...7 hours ago
-
Here’s The Outline I Have ELL Intermediate Students Use To Write A Biographical Essay - I thought readers might find this simple outline I use with Intermediate English Language Learners and with English-proficient ninth-graders when they ar...10 hours ago
-
First Amendment Knowledge Rises—But the Press Is Still Under Siege - [My last post about Constitution Day (September 17) was in 2020.17 hours ago
-
Former Seeworth Academy Superintendent Janet Grigg receives deferred sentence, restitution order - [image: Former Seeworth Academy Superintendent Janet Grigg deferred sentence]Former Seeworth Academy Superintendent Janet Grigg received a seven-year def...18 hours ago
-
Seattle School Board Meeting, September 17, 2025 - I'm going to try to live blog the meeting so you won't be seeing full sentences. Agenda I see Gina Topp, Michelle Sarju, Evan Briggs, Joe Mizrahi, Liza R...19 hours ago
-
Ohio Charter Schools Keep Failing to Graduate Students - Ohio Charter Schools graduate students at a rate that's lower than all but 1 Ohio Public School District, likely costing our kids billions of dollars in lo...19 hours ago
-
The New Pirates of the Caribbean. - UN human rights experts have condemned recent U.S. military strikes on Venezuelan vessels, calling them “extrajudicial executions” and a violation of inter...20 hours ago
-
New Poll. Americans Prefer Democratic Socialism - New Poll: Democratic Socialism Is Now Mainstream The Editors of Jacobin September 15, 2025 Jacobin - - - - *A national poll from Jac...20 hours ago
-
Webinar: Tuesdays @ 2 School Nutrition Town Hall - School Nutrition Town Hall webinar for School Nutrition Program Operators and Food Service Directors.21 hours ago
-
A Superintendent Speaks Out from the Front Lines of Our Public Schools - I have long been a fan of Dr.23 hours ago
-
Curmudgucation: AI, Facing the Dark, and Human Sparknotes - Curmudgucation: AI, Facing the Dark, and Human Sparknotes The New York Times unleashed a feature section about AI, and it is just a big fat festival of aw...1 day ago
-
Kids less likely to be expelled from preschool when parents cooperate with teacher - Children who are expelled from preschool are subsequently more likely to experience academic failure and enter what scientists and advocates call the “c...1 day ago
-
The School Choice Movement Is Dead - The school choice movement is dead. Yes, there are a few advocates hanging on, and a zombified shell of the movement shambling about like the last remain...2 days ago
-
FAQ on the class size law & where we are now: updated Sept. 2025 - See our Myths vs. Facts sheet for more info. The prior FAQ from Sept. 2024 is here. September 2025 FAQ on the NY Class Size Law On June 2, 2022, the NY S...2 days ago
-
Please fill out and share our new class size survey! Thousands more NYC children are in smaller classes this year - are your children among them? - Sept. 15, 2025 Welcome back to another school year. Along with the cell phone ban, another important change is that 741 schools received funds to hire a...2 days ago
-
Professor from APSU Fired for Re-Sharing Social Media Post - Last week a full-time APSU professor was fired by Austin Peay State University for re-sharing a social media post. This morning I sent this letter to Au...2 days ago
-
-
Republicans Advance Federal Budget that Cuts Funds for Schools - House GOP makes it clear they stand with Trump on cutting funds for public schools2 days ago
-
-
Another "Donors Choose" project for my students - I teach in a small public magnet middle school, and I teach all 3 grades, 6-7-8. Many of my students are Free and Reduced Meals, have little access to p...3 days ago
-
Political Violence in the Classroom - In November of 2016, right after Donald Trump was elected for the first time, seventh graders at Royal Oak Middle School were captured on video shouting “B...3 days ago
-
Democracy on the Line - Democracy isn’t just under debate — it’s under threat. From extreme gerrymandering to the rise of election-denying rhetoric, the foundations of fair repr...4 days ago
-
Should An Essay Contest Winner Who Used A.I. Return the $1,000 Award She Won? ( Kwame Anthony Appiah) - Kwame Anthony Appiah has written a column called “The Ethicist” for the The New York Times Magazine since 2015. He teaches philosophy at New York Universit...4 days ago
-
A Decade of Accountabaloney - This week marks 10 years since we launched Accountabaloney. What started in September 2015 as two Florida moms worried about...4 days ago
-
Blogoversary #19 — Time to Move on - Times have changed. I had a nice long run here, but let’s face it, it ended a while ago. So I’ve moved. I’m not writing much any more, but when I do it wil...4 days ago
-
Celebrating Violence Is a Type of Violence—But So Are Words - [Header Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash] Somewhere around tenth grade, I began to recognize in myself a strong belief in nonviolence. One day in English cla...5 days ago
-
-
-
Breaking News: Tarbiyah School Closed - The Tarbiyah School, located in Bear, Delaware is done. Run by Dr. Amna Latif, wife of Christina Board of Education member Dr. Naveed Baqir, had been deali...1 week ago
-
AI is More Con than Reality - By Thomas Ultican 9/9/2025 The tech-industry bestowed name, “Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, is a head-fake; there is no intelligence, just algorithms. Sale...1 week ago
-
Join us at our 2026 National Conference in Houston! - Join us in Houston, Texas! We are especially excited to announce that next year’s conference will take place in Conroe, Texas (Greater Houston area) — ho...1 week ago
-
-
Skate Parties, Sacks, and the Price of Progress - “Don’t ever try to change her,’ my mother said, before she died. ‘The tusks of an elephant will never grow out of a dog’s mouth. You know that.” ― Mo Hayde...1 week ago
-
Higher Education in the Crosshairs/at a Crossroad - Let me begin with an assertion that may upset some readers: Most American colleges and universities are glorified vocational institutions whose primary pur...1 week ago
-
Selling New Orleans - Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, the sales pitch for the city's all-charter experiment is falling flat2 weeks ago
-
Is there really a decline in pleasure reading? - The mainstream media has been full of the bad news: new study shows that reading for pleasure has declined! Fewer people are reading for fun: From 2003 to ...2 weeks ago
-
NOLA’s Carver High School Legacy: “What We Stand to Lose” by Kristen Buras - I was born in 1967 in Chalmette, Louisiana (St. Bernard Parish), a suburb of New Orleans so close to the city that is is the actual site of the 1815 Battle...2 weeks ago
-
Linda McMahon’s Reckless and Scary Disregard for Special Education History - Linda McMahon appears unaware of the past progress made in serving students with disabilities in public schools. Nor does she understand the complexities...2 weeks ago
-
The Washington Post Celebrates The 20th Anniversary Of The New Orleans ‘Miracle’ - It has been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina wiped out the New Orleans schools system causing it to be replaced with all charter school. And it has been ov...2 weeks ago
-
Last call for ARC readers: Addicted to Glove - "Major League" meets "Ted Lasso" with a hint of "Three Men and a Baby" in this age gap, surprise pregnancy romcom set in the Pacific Northwest.3 weeks ago
-
-
August’s Parent Engagement Resources - Parental Involvement, Parenting Styles, and Children’s Academic Outcomes: A Second-Order, Three-Level Meta-Analysis journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3… [ima...3 weeks ago
-
Rows and Aisles (DC and Washington, Too) - DC is one of my favorite cities in the country. That’s different than me saying Washington, of course. I’ve visited Washington on multiple occasions in ....4 weeks ago
-
Rows and Aisles (DC and Washington, Too) - DC is one of my favorite cities in the country. That’s different than me saying Washington, of course. I’ve visited Washington on multiple occasions in ....4 weeks ago
-
The Story of the Rider and the Horse - History shows us there is a fast and slippery road from the loss of freedoms to the overreach of power. If we allow our rights to be stripped away, we lose...4 weeks ago
-
Where to Find the Best Unicorn Coloring Pages Online - Unicorns continue to captivate imaginations across all age groups, from toddlers discovering their first magical creatures to adults seeking stress-relie...1 month ago
-
Revisiting Deceitful Claims about School Funding and Outcomes (a thread) - I’ve had enough. This has to stop. I’ve explained on at least a few occasions that there exists a cottage industry for whom their bread and butter is telli...1 month ago
-
What Will Todd Blanche Discuss with Ghislaine Maxwell? One Guess. - Todd Blanche was Donald Trump's personal lawyer in his criminal trial in New York City.1 month ago
-
-
Analyzing UFT election results – from 2022 - JD2718 blog posts from May and June 2022. Post-UFT election for the last two decades I have done some analysis of the numbers. I am getting ready to start ...2 months ago
-
Alert: Urge your Senators to eliminate the ban on regulating AI from the budget bill! - There are many damaging aspects of the budget bill , but one that has received inadequate attention is a provision passed by the House that would impose a ...3 months ago
-
New “Teach Truth” Website & Study Guide: Launching TeachTruthBook.com on 5th Annual #TeachTruth National Day of Action! - I’m excited to announce the launch of a new website — TeachTruthBook.com — where you can now access the free study guide for my book, Teach Truth: The Stru...3 months ago
-
McGrath and Kaminsky: Key Names in the School Policy Debate - The landscape of American school policy is no longer shaped only behind closed doors. It’s debated in town halls, on social media, and through public prote...3 months ago
-
"Didn't do *that*," part 1: new Schofield case developments reveal crucial 10th Circuit/Ledger lie - The record is clear. Jeremy Scott confessed at least 40 times in a 2017 hearing. He never recanted. The Ledger must retract its lie to force Judge Kevin Ab...3 months ago
-
Achieve 3000 Answers Key (Updated 2023) - Are you on the hunt for the most recent Achieve 3000 answers for the year 2023? Your search is over! ... Read more4 months ago
-
Il Papa è Morto - Francis brought a distinct pastoral outlook to his papacy. A simple man, he lived in a small apartment in the guesthouse. He sought to make the church acce...4 months ago
-
Kemenangan Member Birutoto Main PG Soft Speed Winner - Kemenangan Member Birutoto Main PG Soft Speed Winner Birutoto – Situs Slot Gacor Terpercaya The post Kemenangan Member Birutoto Main PG Soft Speed Winner...4 months ago
-
Trump plays Putin’s Playbook - Recently Aleksander Dugin was interviewed on CNN, last week, and he stated that he believes Trump is closer ideologically to President Putin than to Washin...5 months ago
-
Mike Shulman the ARISE UFT Judenrat - I was surprised to learn that Mike Shulman has aligned himself with ARISE. I previously supported him, advocating that the Castle Doctrine could have bee...5 months ago
-
How Do We Fight Trump? - Dear Friends, I don’t know when and why it hit me. But I suddenly realized how serious Trump is about changing the country into something that horrifies. I...5 months ago
-
Can Students Expect a Relevant Education to be Delivered by Irrelevant Educators? - As a veteran teacher of forty years in the classroom, let me be clear, teachers are not completely at fault for becoming irrelevant in their profession. It...6 months ago
-
The US Department of Education Should not be Eliminated. Still, it must be reformed. - If you don’t have an attention span that lasts long enough to learn what I’m teaching in this post, start with the conclusion first. Then if you want to re...7 months ago
-
Site Index - Updated December 31, 2024 - BLOGGER’S NOTE: If you are new to this blog, and interested in the topic of immigration, I recommend you go right to the massive new post: “How Immigrat...8 months ago
-
Malcolm & John David Washington Talk NFL, Christopher Nolan & ‘The Piano Lesson’ - 'The Washington brothers built their careers apart—until an irresistible project drew them together. In The *Piano Lesson*, they tackle a father’s thorny...9 months ago
-
“I’m Done With Him; He’s A Douchebag” …And Other Tales From Distant Doors And Stoops - The Democratic Party has been joining with thousands of allied groups working feverishly to hold off TFG’s fever-dream. I’ve long… The post “I’m Done Wit...10 months ago
-
Student "Growth" Measures Are STILL Biased - This caught my attention: New Jersey school districts may soon be evaluated differently, *with a greater emphasis on student growth* as compared to stud...1 year ago
-
AIN’T IT AWFUL - As the terrible feelings of dread and angst spread across the world the great majority of the American people feel powerless before the onslaught of those ...1 year ago
-
Did Darryl Willie lie or interfere in the whistleblower investgation? Why not both? - Willie said below to Action News Jax [image: image.png] It's troubling for quite a few reasons. First he is saying the board knew about the complaint an...1 year ago
-
What Country Has The Longest School Day? A Comprehensive Guide - In today’s fast-paced world, education plays a crucial role in shaping the future of individuals and nations...1 year ago
-
Could This Be Gadfly’s End? Top 12 Articles From 2023 Read By Fewer Than Ever - After 9 years of pounding my head against the wall - well, it seems like the wall is winning.1 year ago
-
Redesigning School Governance: Beyond Mayoral Control - From time to time the legislature passes a bill with a sunset provision, unless the law is reauthorized by a specific date the law reverts to the law it re...1 year ago
-
POSTPONED: Florida’s Impact on Social Studies - POSTPONED: discussion with Florida and DC educators and advocates on the impact of Florida's new laws Continue reading2 years ago
-
Vote NO on the UFT Contract. Here is Why: - The best reason to vote no on this contract is this: UFT Unity* lied* to us in 2018. They misrepresented that contract. It was predicated on deals we wer...2 years ago
-
-
-
Testimony to the CPS Truancy Task Force - I prepared testimony for one of two public hearings held by the Chicago Public Schools Truancy Task Force, a body mandated by state legislation. The meetin...2 years ago
-
Tennis Memories from a Time When Racism and Anti-Semitism Still Prevailed - I learned tennis at a public park in Brooklyn- Lincoln Terrace- where the teaching pro was a mailman named Phil Rubell. Almost all the kids who took lesson...3 years ago
-
There Is A Teacher Shortage.Not. - THERE IS A TEACHER SHORTAGE. And just to be sure you understand, it’s not that teachers don’t want to teach. It’s not that there aren’t enough teachers cer...3 years ago
-
Reason #1 to pick Dr. Grace over Mr. Walters: The future we’ve already seen - In 2014, Oklahoma voters corrected the mistake we made in 2010. In 2022, let’s not make the mistake in the first place. Elect Dr. April Grace instead. She ...3 years ago
-
-
Want to know the condition of a Philly school building? New map to help. - [image: Two students walk by a Philadelphia school building.] Aging infrastructure has been an issue for Philadelphia schools for years. A new interactive...3 years ago
-
STREET LIFE - My mom told me, “You should treat all people equally, but don’t bring a “colored” into the house.” I believed … Continue reading →3 years ago
-
Schools Matter: Reflecting on Green Dot’s Disastrous Locke Takeover - *“Green Dot came and made it into more of a jail.” — Chris* My history of opposing the Green Dot Charter School Corporation back when I was an activist i...3 years ago
-
Book Banning Turns to Dick and Jane - Breaking News: Dateline February 4, 2022 - Parents in Dimwitty, Alabama have asked the Dimwitty Board of Education to ban the children's primer *Fun with...3 years ago
-
Have You Heard Has a New Website - TweetHave You Heard has a new website. Visit us at www.haveyouheardpodcast.com to find our latest episodes and our entire archive. And be sure to check out...3 years ago
-
Follow me at Substack - I've moved. Follow me at Substack I'm now posting regularly at Substack. You can subscribe for free to my new Edu/Pol blog at michaelklonsky.substack.com ...3 years ago
-
-
Milwaukee Bradley Foundation at Center of Attacks on U.S. Voting Rights - The Big Money Behind the Big Lie Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win...4 years ago
-
Milwaukee Bradley Foundation at Center of Attacks on U.S. Voting Rights - The Big Money Behind the Big Lie Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win...4 years ago
-
Aspiring Teachers Get New Help Paying For College - [image: colorful classroom pattern] *; Credit: shuoshu/Getty Images* Cory Turner | NPR New rules kick in today that will help aspiring teachers pay for c...4 years ago
-
Major victory over a corporate charter school chain and their trade association - Original post at Robert’s page on Medium. On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, I got my second big win in court against a charter school corporation. It was also a ...4 years ago
-
Tips Akses Situs Judi Qq Tanpa Perlu Takut Nawala - Kegiatan berjudi slot melalui situs judi qq online, sekarang sudah dilakukan oleh banyak penjudi Indonesia. Tentu, Kamu yang sedang membaca artikel ini a...4 years ago
-
The Threat of Integration - I have lived in the same house in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles for over 30 years, where up until now I have had little or no interaction with th...4 years ago
-
New Teacher Evaluation Report Released by the Network for Public Education - A new report on current teacher evaluation systems throughout the US was just released by the Network for Public Education. The report is titled, “Teachers...4 years ago
-
www.job-applications.com - https://www.job-applications.com/bed-bath-and-beyond-job-application/4 years ago
-
Teacher Creates National Database Tracking COVID-19 Outbreaks in Schools - Kansas educator Alisha Morris's online coronavirus news-tracker goes viral, now hosted on a new NEA website.5 years ago
-
Correction for July 10th Post on School District Audit - On July 10, 2020 we published a post “School District Caught Manipulating Attendance Records to Get More Money” which incorrectly cited Valley Park School ...5 years ago
-
We fight for a democracy worthy of us all! - The nation stands at a crossroads, said NEA President Lily Eskelsen GarcÃa in her final keynote address to the 2020 NEA Representative Assembly and it’s up...5 years ago
-
Giving Private Schools Federal Emergency Funds Slated for Low-income Students Will Shortchange At-risk Kids - Low-income Seattle students began to pick up bagged lunches in March after their school closed. Karen Ducey/Getty Images Derek W. Black, University of Sout...5 years ago
-
The Passing Of Chaz 1951-2020 Age 69 - I am the son of Chaz and like to inform you that he passed away this afternoon from the COVID virus. My father passed in peace beside his loved ones. We ar...5 years ago
-
Let The Next Round Of Anti-Semitic Ads Begin - All four pro-public education candidates came in first in their LAUSD school board elections, but two will face run-offs in November.5 years ago
-
The Fight For Our Children - *The number of suicides among people ages 10 to 24 nationally increased by 56 percent between 2007 and 2017, according to a new federal report showing the ...5 years ago
-
Love Grow Your Own (but not without the actual growth part) - The Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, recently announced a grow-your-own type of program for teachers. According to this piece: On Monday, Governor Ral...5 years ago
-
Another attempted cash grab by the corporate ed crowd in Washington State: House Bill 2788 - The League of Women Voters has opposed charter schools because they don’t have boards elected by the voters but instead the corporation running the schools...5 years ago
-
Some of Our Graduates Don't Even Know How to Tighten a Nut - Are schools neglecting practical knowledge and skills? Many of our students are graduating from high school with extremely limited practical knowledge essen...5 years ago
-
Read to Self: Just a Kid and a Book. - Date: Monday, January 5, 2020 Place: My classroom Student: Mrs.Mims, could we start doing Read to Self again because I got this great book for Christmas an...5 years ago
-
Reminiscences - I just finished dumping the rest of my lesson plans. I guess I held on to the calculus ones for so long because I spent so much time working on them an...5 years ago
-
Just Asking for some Teachers I know. - Recently Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers stated, We must … recognize that part of supporting our kids in the classroom means supporting the educators who t...5 years ago
-
Charging a terrified 10-year-old girl as a criminal is a very bad look for state attorney Dennis Ward - What the hell is going on? As a parent, I feel very comfortable using this exact wording to ask this … Continue reading →5 years ago
-
Cara Menang Bermain Judi Bola Online - Bermain judi bola online tentu saja memiliki kesenangannya tersendiri baik itu mendapatkan keuntungan maupun ketika menantikan hasil skor pada sebuah perta...5 years ago
-
Blaming Schools for Student Absences is Like Denouncing Doctors for Disease by Steven Singer - Originally posted at: https://gadflyonthewallblog.com/2019/08/25/blaming-schools-for-student-absences-is-like-denouncing-doctors-for-disease/?fbclid=IwAR1LV...6 years ago
-
Jersey journalist roughed up at session sponsored by charter school groups - The sponsors of an event that doesn’t like journalists An independent New Jersey journalist was roughed up, his video camera was seized, and he was ejected...6 years ago
-
K12 Inc. Data Breach Puts thousands of students at risk - It's hard to believe school districts are still contracting with this horrible company. K12 Inc. is the largest for-profit online alternative to actual pub...6 years ago
-
A Critique of Standards-Based Grading - It first happened to me about ten years ago. I was beginning my third year of teaching in a new school in Washington, DC. Social studies teachers were si...6 years ago
-
My First and Last Visit to Hudson Yards - Figuring I did not need to invite any more darkness and vulgarity into my head than that provided on a daily basis from Trump’s White House, and after read...6 years ago
-
Reduced time for testing? Not so fast. - NYSED and Commish Elia continue to say that the NYS Assessments are of reasonable length, I completely disagree. Here is what NYSED states are average expe...6 years ago
-
A Response to NorthJersey.com's Explosive "Cashing in on Charter Schools" Series - From NorthJersey.com's Cashing in on Charter Schools series Please note: THIS is what journalism looks like. For the better part of a *DECADE* I have wa...6 years ago
-
-
This Week in Education Organizing - February 15, 2019 - Coalition for Education Justice to Release Report on CRE Eighty-five percent of public school students in New York City are Black, Latinx, or Asian and y...6 years ago
-
The World According to Michelle Rhee - The men behind the curtain fashioning the brave new world of corporate run education in America! Michelle Rhee is the founder of StudentsFirst, The New T...6 years ago
-
Libraries, books and overcoming the effect of poverty - *Published in the New York Times, September 20, 2018* *To the Editor:* *Re “Why libraries still matter.” [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/opinion/sund...6 years ago
-
TSJ's 17th Annual Curriculum Fair - *TSJ's 17th Annual Curriculum Fair* *** REGISTER HERE *** *From Puerto Rico to Chicago:* *Reclaiming and Reimagining Our Communities* Saturday, November 1...6 years ago
-
Whose Opinions Matter in Education World? - It's hard to identify education heroes and sheroes. And perhaps even harder to pinpoint just whose work is slanted, paid-for and dishonest.7 years ago
-
Blockchain: Life on the Ledger - Originally posted on Wrench in the Gears: I created this video as a follow up to the one I prepared last year on Social Impact Bonds. It is time to examine...7 years ago
-
Book Review: The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools (2018, Garn Press) by Susan DuFresne - I recently had the privilege of reading Dufresne’s powerful illustrated history of educational and institutional racism in the United States. Dufresne blen...7 years ago
-
Corruption on Top of Corruption: How Rahm’s Response to Sexual Abuse of Students Reveals His Core Function - Rahm Emanuel’s response to the Chicago Tribune investigation that found CPS failed to protect hundreds of students from sexual abuse is cowardly. It is co...7 years ago
-
New Local Businesses in Sacramento - Starting a new local business in Sacramento is a monumental task, but can be accomplished with footwork, perseverance and knowledge. One must learn the loc...7 years ago
-
Lesson Plan: Rhyme and Rhythm in Poetry - I’ve started a recent unit on poetry with my class. I’m not a poet, and I’m not a poetry fan (I don’t hate it, but I’m a prose gal), so this makes it harde...7 years ago
-
The Apotheosis of Betsy DeVos - Betsy Devos has drawn few headlines in recent months, and that is a good thing for the Secretary of Education. Her tenure began with Vice President Mike P...7 years ago
-
A Teacher’s Tale in the Midst of the Terror in our Schools - Students’ active-shooter plan for teacher in wheelchair: ‘We will carry you’ Reprinted from Allison Slater Tate Feb. 21, 2018 at 4:58 PM Like teachers all ...7 years ago
-
Social Emotional Data. The new Cash Cow in the Corporate Assessment Industry - Recently I was asked to allow my son to participate in a survey at school. The "opt in" survey form specifically stated, "the questions on the survey rela...7 years ago
-
Education Is a Civic Question - In their final post to end Bridging Differences' decade-long run, Deborah Meier and Harry Boyte urge readers to put the energy, talents, wisdom, and hard w...8 years ago
-
Site News: New Home for Education News & Commentary - Quick! Get over there! The daily education news roundup and education commentaries that you're probably looking for are now being published over at The Gra...8 years ago
-
Should We Be Grateful? - In an odd turn of events, and with little explanation, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has decided to return the state’s School Reform Office back to the Dep...8 years ago
-
Parents Deserve to Know Who Is Being Appointed to State Board of Ed - I spent a rather surreal day at NJ Senate's Judiciary Committee meeting yesterday. This Committee, headed by Democrat Nick Scaturi, is responsible for a...8 years ago
-
An Open Letter to NC Lawmakers - An Open Letter to NC State Lawmakers and NC State Superintendent Mark Johnson: I am a NC native, voter, and public school teacher. I am addressing you all ...8 years ago
-
The Secret to Fixing Schools (My Next Bestseller) - The Secret to Fixing Schools (My next bestseller) Prologue I just finished watching a fascinating documentary on Netflix entitled, “The Secret”. The film p...8 years ago
-
CPS Targets Special Education Teacher Sarah Chambers - Here are the remarks from an action we did today at River Point Plaza, a new development that used over $30 million in TIF funds. CPS claims we are broke...8 years ago
-
Farewell, Sleep - Today is the official last day of my spring break. I've done a scientific survey: My natural bedtime is 2 AM, and my natural wake up time is 9:41 AM. Tom...8 years ago
-
March is nearly over and I didn't do anything for WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - I was inspired when I saw this meme I guess it can be called of WOMEN IN STEM and "IT'S OKAY TO BE SMART" And I began thinking about how the only subjec...8 years ago
-
REPORT: States With the Best and Worst Schools - States With the Best (and Worst)Schools By *Evan Comen, Michael B. Sauter, Samuel Stebbins and Thomas C. Frohlich* January 20, 2017- http://247wallst.com ...8 years ago
-
Test Refusal = People Power - In recent months, social media has been ablaze with talk of regular folk taking action to resist the Trump agenda. Protests are a daily occurrence, and ev...8 years ago
-
Attitude Determines Altitude* (*conditions apply)… and the Importance of Humane District Themes - It has been a tumultuous few years in the South Brunswick community, specifically the South Brunswick School District. All you have to do is google the dis...8 years ago
-
[video]Perils or Promises: Education in the Age of Smart Machines: Presentation at the City Club of Cleveland - On December 14th, 2016, I made a presentation at the City Club of Cleveland. Watch the presentation The Club’s website or Youtube. Title: Perils or Promise...8 years ago
-
What Is To Be Done? Trump, the Election, and the Student Loan Crises - President-elect Donald Trump delivering acceptance speech in New York, NY on November 9 (Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Ever since now Presi...8 years ago
-
Prison Gerrymandering: Incarceration Weakens Vulnerable Voting Communities - One person equals one vote: seems simple enough. Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked out for many Americans throughout history, specifically women and peop...9 years ago
-
Random Musings and Observations. . . . - I’ve been gone a while from the blogging scene. Some of my more regular readers no doubt noticed but did not hassle me about it. Thank you for that. Sinc...9 years ago
-
WTU Headquarters On The Auction Block: Union Prez Liz Davis Doesn't Pay Property Tax! - *June 30th is the last official day of WTU Prez Davis' constitutional term. Malcolm Barnes explores this unfortunate scandal in the article below. What r...9 years ago
-
AB 934: A LEGISLATIVE FIX FOR VERGARA? - By Michael Stratford | in the Politco Morning Education Report | via email 05/24/2016 10:00 AM EDT :: Two national education groups are backing a Califor...9 years ago
-
To simply say you have a growth mindset does not mean you actually have one - By definition, you cannot have a growth mindset when learning is anchored to standardized tests. Standardized tests are a one … Continue reading →9 years ago
-
MY NEW BLOG - My new blog will consist of fictitious headlines, meant to be a blend of humor and satire. I apologize ahead of time if any other satirical site has simila...9 years ago
-
Thank you - Dear Readers, Thank you for visiting *The Perimeter Primate*. This blog is being retired for the time being. Although I no longer post here, I do still s...9 years ago
-
A brief appearance in the Black Panther documentary - 1969 press conference: From left: Fred Hampton and Bobby Rush (Black Panthers); Cha Cha Jiminez (Young Lords Organization); Mike Klonsky (SDS) I have a s...9 years ago
-
GLSEN Massachusetts Educator Retreat - *GLSEN Massachusetts Educator Retreat* *SAVE-THE-DATEMarch 8-10, 2019 • Provincetown, MA* The GLSEN Massachusetts Educator Retreat in Provincetown is a s...10 years ago
-
I am Retiring - I have some news: I am retiring from the PBS NewsHour and Learning Matters. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other conte...10 years ago
-
A Call To Action – Tweet For Principal Jamaal Bowman and CASA Middle School Students - Originally posted on Poetic Justice: First – please watch this amazing video produced by the students and staff at CASA Middle School in the Bronx. It is b...10 years ago
-
Winter-Spring Speaking Schedule for Feminist Teacher, Ileana Jiménez - I’m excited to announce my speaking schedule for the remainder of the winter, spring, and early summer of 2015 (jump to the end for a full list). Last year...10 years ago
-
Joanne Barkan: One of my favorite writers on #EdReform… - I’ve been going through some of my Twitter “favorites” and retweeting them. I thought I would pass on to you some information about one of my favorite writ...10 years ago
-
New Beginnings: Kickstarter and EdWeek Teacher - Greetings to InterACT readers one and all! If you’ve been following posts here recently you might recall that I’m moving my blogging activity to other loca...10 years ago
-
Pay Teachers Less to Improve School Efficiency - hmmm! - As I was reading through education news on several of the news sites I regularly visit, I came...11 years ago
-
Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School - *“With Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School closing, Newark families must move on.”* The Star-Ledger (NJ), 6/25/2013 NEWARK — Bobby and Troy Shanks saw the...12 years ago
-
The Empowerment Parents Want: The LSC Model for School Reform - The Empowerment Parents Want: A Real, Effective Voice in our Children’s Education As corporate efforts to privatize and capitalize on public education are ...13 years ago
-
Kimberly Olson, Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2005 - Kimberly D. Olson, Colonel, USAF (retired), is currently the Executive Director of *Grace After Fire*, an online social support network for women veteran...14 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Monday, June 15, 2020
Inside the case for defunding police in schools - Los Angeles Times
Inside the case for defunding police in schools - Los Angeles Times
Inside the decade-long movement to defund police in schools
Inside the decade-long movement to defund police in schools
In the midst of the 1980s war on drugs and in the wake of devastating mass school shootings throughout the country, bolstering school police in Los Angeles was seen as a safety imperative by many educators and parents.
But for the last decade, a number of student advocacy groups have pushed the school board to reduce police presence in their schools, saying Black and Latino children are targeted for discipline more than others.
The Los Angeles School Police Department now employs about 470 officers and civilians, including placement of an armed and uniformed officer at every high school. In a highly publicized turn last week, the leadership of the Los Angeles teachers union voted to support the elimination of the $70-million school police budget.
The union’s public announcement on the steps of City Hall — compelled by two weeks of protests and outrage over police brutality against Black people and the killing of George Floyd — has increased the urgency of the debate within the nation’s second-largest school district. The union leadership joins a number of community-based organizations who say the $70-million school police budget should be used to hire more counselors and build restorative justice programs.
“This moment is different because if you all remember a couple weeks ago, people acted like ... the call to defund police was a radical call,” said Black Lives Matter Los Angeles co-founder Melina Abdullah, a Cal State Los Angeles professor of Pan-African Studies and an L.A. Unified parent. “We’re at a moment when all of a sudden, our most radical imaginings are possible. We can end the system of policing as we know it. We can defund the police. And we have to begin with our children.”
The Los Angeles schools movement comes as school districts and universities throughout the country have joined city debates over defunding or reorganizing police departments.
Ultimately it’s up to the school board, which authorizes police spending, to decide whether to take action — two of seven school board members said they did not support the move, one said the issue should be discussed during budget deliberations CONTINUE READING: Inside the case for defunding police in schools - Los Angeles Times
New research evidence for summer school programs
New research evidence for summer school programs
Research evidence for summer learning
Disappointing results for in-person summer school programs hint that short virtual programs may not be successful
On June 10, 2020, as the U.S. Capitol remained partially shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a virtual hearing on what schools ought to do. Speaking over a video feed from his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, former Obama administration Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. called for “summer distance learning” as one way to mitigate the months of lost learning from school closures.
Research evidence for summer learning
Disappointing results for in-person summer school programs hint that short virtual programs may not be successful
Summer school is on many policymakers’ minds. King, who is now the president of Education Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income students, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national teacher’s union, jointly argued for additional funding for summer schooling in an April editorial in the Hill newspaper. In June 2020, the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank based at the University of Washington, posted a survey of summer school plans around the country. Only slightly more than half of the 100 U.S. districts the organization is tracking were planning to offer summer school for elementary and middle school students in 2020, as of the latest update, on June 9. (Summer school is more prevalent for high schools students to retake failed classes.) For the schools that are holding summer school, instruction in most cases will be exclusively virtual — over the internet. But the type of instruction, hours and curriculum vary wildly, depending upon which city or town you happen to live in.
I was curious what lessons we could take from previous research on summer school to guide us during this unprecedented summer. I could find only one large, well-designed study, published in 2016, that tested how much kids actually learn in voluntary summer school programs. It was targeted at 3,000 low-income children in five cities in 2013. Most of the CONTINUE READING: New research evidence for summer school programs
Labels:
SUMMER SCHOOL
Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility – radical eyes for equity
Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility – radical eyes for equity
Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility
Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility
I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with daily contact with what Ta-Nehisi Coates labels as “oafish” racists. These white men of my childhood and teen years were brazen and arrogant in their racial slurs and embarrassingly ignorant philosophies about race.
One oafish racist calmly explained to me that Black people were the result of Cain mating with apes after being cast out of the Garden of Eden. His “it’s in the Bible” racism was common in my South Carolina life.
But this is not about some racism in the past. Oafish racists remain throughout the U.S., not some vestige of the Old South. Social media and the Trump presidency have allowed and even welcomed overt racists into the American “both sides” approach to the free press and free speech.
However, the specter of oafish racists allows white people to keep whiteness and white fragility centered while refusing to acknowledge the greater danger posed by whiteness throughout the twentieth century and in 2020; as Martin Luther King Jr. confronted:
A leading voice in the chorus of social transition belongs to the white liberal…. Over the last few years many Negroes have felt that their most troublesome adversary was not the obvious bigot of the Ku Klux CONTINUE READING: Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility – radical eyes for equity
Labels:
RACISM,
WHITE PRIVILEGE
John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa | Diane Ravitch's blog
John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa | Diane Ravitch's blog
John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa
John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa
John Thompson is a retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma. He writes here about the resumption of Trump’s big political rallies, beginning in Tulsa. The attendees will have to sign a waiver releasing the campaign of any liability if they fall sick with COVID.
Will Trump promote the disease amongst his enthusiastic base? He won’t wear a mask. To show their macho, his followers will copy him, in defiance of CDC guidelines. Why would Trump want to sicken and/or kill his own base? Will he tell them that the coronavirus is a hoax? Or will he spend his hour ridiculing Biden, Romney, Democrats, and his other enemies?
The headline which should have drawn Oklahomans’ attention was “OMRF: Virus Likely to Remain in Circulation for Decades.” The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation President Stephen Prescott expressed skepticism that a COVID-19 vaccine will “wipe out the virus,” because many Americans “don’t vaccinate because they don’t believe in it or don’t trust a new vaccine.” The news article cited a recent survey of Oklahomans which found that only 55% of those polled would get a coronavirus vaccine. It then cited Washington Post which “found that only 7 in 10 Americans were interested in getting vaccinated.”
The top headlines, however, were about President CONTINUE READING: John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa | Diane Ravitch's blog
Labels:
HATE
Ed Notes Online: Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always
Ed Notes Online: Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always
Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always

Today's racial discussions bring this to mind. It is not only some cops who have racial attitudes. I heard a number of racial insensitivities if not outright racism CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always
Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always
I've been thinking about the role police and teachers play - and there are some similarities. But I'm also thinking of how differently teachers and police are expected to react to disorder. Teaching required being a creative policeman. Which sometimes bothers teachers who hear stories of cops losing control in the face of recalcitrance and provocation. Cops are given a pass on reacting while teachers are put in the rubber room.
One of the first things I was told as a new teacher was that I must keep order in the classroom to survive. (They weren't wrong). That teaching and learning can't take place in disorder. And that the administration doesn't care what you do - teach effectively or not as long as you keep the kids under control - and don't bother the admin.
But that led some to view - and even enjoy the policing actions more than teaching. One of my colleagues hated the classroom but had perfect control through fear and manipulation - and when a full time dean disciplinarian position came up he grabbed it - and never went back to the class - be became a lawyer. I got his final class the year after and had a lot of ground to make up.

Good teachers were viewed as those who kept kids under control. Order in the classroom. After all, that was the external thing everyone in an elementary school saw -- teachers had to march their kids through the halls and staircases multiple times a day and it was embarrassing if they weren't orderly. When I was a kid in the 50s, our teachers in the upper grades weren't required to lead us around and we came up and down on our own - but by the late 60s things had tightened up quite a bit and the shifting racial balance in NYC schools probably had something to do with that - poorer kids with greater needs and not enough increases in services to handle those needs but that certainly led to some schools being a semi police state. In one JHS where we fed our students into they had an ex-cop running a discipline room where he would show the kids his gun as a threat. And kids being smacked was not unheard of.
Most children have their first experience with policing with their first teachers in crowded classrooms, more often in inner cities but not so much in suburban schools with smaller class sizes. Does race play a factor? And does the fact that the teachers ares more likely to be white also play some role? We hear a lot of the school to prison pipeline and the often harsher discipline in schools in inner cities gets kids used to more severe restriction.
Today's racial discussions bring this to mind. It is not only some cops who have racial attitudes. I heard a number of racial insensitivities if not outright racism CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always
As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post
As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post
As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice
As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice
And through it all, she has pressed her central agenda: that students and families should have choices beyond their traditional public schools, and that tax dollars should follow those choices. She calls it “education freedom.”
The coronavirus, she has said, offers a “silver lining,” showing Americans that traditional schooling is not the only way. “This really is a moment for transformation,” she told conservative talk show host Glenn Beck in April.
“Education freedom” is also part of the solution to issues raised by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, President Trump and DeVos said last week. Trump — at the urging of his education secretary, according to a DeVos aide — called on Congress to pass a school choice program, citing it as an example of how he is “leading efforts to revitalize America’s underserved communities.”
“School choice is a big deal because access to education is the civil rights issue of our time,” he said in Dallas.
Teachers unions and many Democrats oppose school choice plans because they divert money from public schools to private and religious schools, some of which discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation.
DeVos, though, was thrilled with Trump’s shout-out to her $5 billion tax credit proposal, which would CONTINUE READING: As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post
Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts | Diane Ravitch's blog
Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts | Diane Ravitch's blog
Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts
Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts
For many years, the Walton family has owned the state of Arkansas. Their collective wealth exceeds $150 billion, yet Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the nation. All that money, and very little has trickled down. Perhaps you have seen the ads on national television about how much Walmart cares about its neighbors. The people of Little Rock know better.
Veteran journalist Cathy Frye reports on a dramatic series of events that occurred yesterday. Peaceful protestors closed down four Walmart stores in Little Rock.
Frye writes:
But why? Why close Walmarts?
To these anguished pleas, I offer this by way of explanation.
Because the Waltons need to understand that it’s time to relinquish their iron-clad grip on the state of Arkansas, on its economy, and on its public schools.
I worked for three years for a Walton-funded “nonprofit” organization called the Arkansas “Public” School Resource Center. If you scroll down this blog, you will find numerous posts about how APSRC operates. Its mission CONTINUE READING: Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts | Diane Ravitch's blog
Labels:
BILLIONAIRES,
FUNDING,
PROTEST
RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio – radical eyes for equity
RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio – radical eyes for equity
RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio
RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio
I am 59 and am deeply saddened by his passing because he remains a powerful influence on my teaching, many decades after I sat in his classroom and then later taught with him at the same high school I attended.
In an open letter to my students in 2014, I wrote about Mr. Scipio:
Harold Scipio taught me high school chemistry and physics. He was a tall black man, very measured and formal. It is because of Mr. Scipio, I think ultimately along with Lynn Harrill, that I found my way to teaching after thinking I was going to major in physics (that was because of Mr. Scipio, but it was also because I was young and mostly misreading myself and the world).Mr. Scipio practiced two behaviors that were totally unlike any other teacher I ever had. First, he referred to all of us as Mr. or Miss and our last names, and he explained to us that since we had to call him Mr. Scipio, he should certainly return the courtesy.In the last days of my senior year at the National Honor Society banquet (Mr. Scipio was a faculty sponsor), as we were cleaning up afterward, he called me Paul, smiled widely, and told me to call him Harold because I was graduating and an adult.And throughout my junior and seniors years, each time Mr. Scipio CONTINUE READING: RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio – radical eyes for equity
Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief - The New York Times
Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief - The New York Times
Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief
Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, are securing coronavirus relief meant for businesses even as they also benefit from public school aid.
Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief
Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, are securing coronavirus relief meant for businesses even as they also benefit from public school aid.
WASHINGTON — Charter schools, including some with healthy cash balances and billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, have quietly accepted millions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief from a fund created to help struggling small businesses stay afloat.
Since their inception, charter schools have straddled the line between public schools and private entities. The coronavirus has forced them to choose.
And dozens of them — potentially more because the Treasury Department has not disclosed a list — have decided for the purpose of coronavirus relief that they are businesses, applying for aid even as they continue to enjoy funding from school budgets, tax-free status and, in some cases, healthy cash balances and the support of billionaire backers.
That has let them tap the Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress intended to keep businesses and nonprofits from shedding jobs and closing their doors. Parents, activists and researchers have identified at least $50 million in forgivable loans flowing to the schools, which, like all schools, are facing steep budget cuts next year as tax revenue, tuition payments and donations dry up.
“To me, either you’re a fish or a fowl — you can’t say you’re a public school one day, but now because it’s advantageous, say you’re a business,” said Carol Burris, the executive director of the Network for Public Education, a group that scrutinizes charter school management, and whose early donors included a teachers’ union.
The group identified at least $48 million in funds from the Paycheck Protection Program going to 27 charter schools across the country by watching virtual school board meetings and poring over meeting minutes and news reports, which were also reviewed by The New York Times. CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief - The New York Times
Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It? | janresseger
Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It? | janresseger
Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It?
Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It?
Last week I was out walking to get some exercise when I saw an old friend who is a retired school superintendent. Standing a careful six feet away, he greeted me this way: “So, where’s the money going to come from?” We talked for a minute or two, and as we parted, he asked again: “So where’s the money going to come from?”
If you read NY Times‘ reporter, Erica Green’s article about last Wednesday’s meeting of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, you will see that the topic of money and budgets threads quietly underneath the Senators’ conversation, but you’ll mostly read about a discussion of the logistics of opening school: “Across the country, school leaders are beginning to roll out plans to welcome more than 50 million students back, which include procuring 50 million masks; flooding schools with nurses, aides and counselors; and staggering schedules to minimize class size. But the high-dollar demands to meet public health guidelines and make up for setbacks that have disproportionately affected low-income students, students of color and those with disabilities could cripple their budgets.”
Green continues, citing data provided by the American Association of School Administrators: “The School Superintendents Association has estimated that districts would incur nearly $1.8 million in costs to meet federal health guidelines, from $640 for no-touch thermometers (one per school) to $448,000 for additional custodial staff; that is just for an average school district CONTINUE READING: Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It? | janresseger

Russ on Reading: Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading
Russ on Reading: Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading
The best predictor of how well children will read is the amount of time they spend reading. This time spent reading must be engaged reading, that is students must not just be looking at the book, but actively engaged in parsing the words on the page and making meaning from those combinations of words. Reading volume is defined as the amount of time children spend reading and the number of words they encounter during that time. As children encounter more words, they apply their problem solving skills to the novel words they encounter, reinforce the skills they already have, build vocabulary, build knowledge, and build stamina for further reading.
It makes sense then, that the best reinforcement a teacher can provide for all the good instruction they are doing in class, is to give students time for independent reading. We would also hope, of course, that children would be motivated by our instruction to do lots of reading outside of school, but in school independent reading, guided and reinforced by the watchful teacher, CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading
Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading
It makes sense then, that the best reinforcement a teacher can provide for all the good instruction they are doing in class, is to give students time for independent reading. We would also hope, of course, that children would be motivated by our instruction to do lots of reading outside of school, but in school independent reading, guided and reinforced by the watchful teacher, CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading
Labels:
READING
Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes | JD2718
Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes | JD2718
Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes
Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes
How should principals schedule for the fall? After a powerpoint, a letter, and a list of “guiding questions” the best the DoE has is “As we develop guidance on how to create your school’s schedule for the fall, updated resources will be posted”
Keep reading.
This is the letter that the principals received. I’ve un-linked all links. Sorry.
The attached capacity estimates were often wrong. In some cases, every room was wrong. In most cases the number of usable administrative rooms was wrong; their capacities were pretty universally wrong. Many of the registers were wrong.
But what’s worst, there is no guidance. There was no workable guidance in the DOE Planning Overview for Principal Meetings (the powerpoint).
There is a list of Guiding Questions for Principals. I’ve posted it at the end. They provide no guidance. In fact, they look like some idiots around a table batted around ideas, and every time they hit something way too hard for them to answer, they said, “That’s too hard for us. Let’s ask the principals.”
There are promises that the “guidance” will be updated. I do not believe that they will update, or if they CONTINUE READING: Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes | JD2718
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)