Dr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests - Network For Public EducationDr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests Dear Dr. Cardona: On December 14, 2019, President Joe Biden participated in the 2020 Public Education Forum held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Early childhood expert, Dr. Denisha Jones, explained the damage done by standardized testing and then asked, “If you are elected President, will you commit to the ending of standardized testing in public schools?” Joe B
NEA’s top priorities in Congress - Education VotesNEA’s top priorities in Congress By Barbara Moldauer and Amanda Menas Educators have high hopes for improving racial and social justice within school communities under the Biden-Harris administration during the 117th Congress. NEA, which represents 3 million educators nationwide, is calling on Congress to ensure that the lives of all of our students–Black, White, Latino, Native, LGBTQ+, and newc
A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_23.html Video: “Dr. Fauci joins AFT and NEA for vaccine discussion” by Larry Ferl
Teacher Tom: DisarmingDisarming There was once a time when I felt I always had to don my armor to go out into the world. You know what I'm talking about it, of course: everything from the clothing to the attitude that I wear when I leave the safety of home. It's the way we protect ourselves from a world that we fear will harm us if it sees who we really are. The hostility of the world is real. Black people better pro
Andrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us | Diane Ravitch's blogAndrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us Andrea Gabor has written recently about the importance of civics education. She has reminded us that the obsession with standardized testing has robbed students of the joy of learning and consumed time that could be better spent in other ways. The 22-year-old Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, who spoke so beautifully at the inauguration of
Ohio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter | janressegerOhio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter Ohio Auditor Keith Faber explained on Tuesday that, “The Auditor of State’s Office recently completed a performance audit for the Ohio Department of Education.” Faber says that the purpose is to make recommendations about “economy, efficiency, and/or effectiveness in the areas reviewed…” One of the subjects of the
NYC Educator: NY Times Continues Its Battle on Common SenseNY Times Continues Its Battle on Common Sense I've been amazed for years as the NY Times, with some notable exceptions, offered the worst education reporting in Fun City. This is a revered name, with generations of history, and yet you always feel they hate union as much as the tabloids. Of course, the Times has had to deal with union and likely would have made more money if all those who worked
Teacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom PracticeTeacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics I am fortunate to have many readers who are classroom teachers. I have published posts over the past few years about my research on exemplary teachers who integrated technology into their lessons. Some of those posts triggered responses from teachers. Here are a few of their comments. Louise Kowitch, retired Connecticut social studies teacher: ….The impact
Capital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District | Exceptional DelawareCapital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District For the past several months, teachers at Dover High School have been grappling with Covid, remote learning, hybrid learning and the district itself. But it appears their greatest enemy might just be their own union that is supposed to protect teachers. This past Monday, WDEL had an explosive article about teachers at
NYC Public School Parents: Reimagine our City Schools: alternatives to Mayoral control on Sunday at 8 PMReimagine our City Schools: alternatives to Mayoral control on Sunday at 8 PM The deep flaws and persistent problems with Mayoral control are even more evident to many people, given the de Blasio’s push to have the Pearson contract for the gifted test approved, and when it failed last night at the PEP , even among many of his own appointees, his insistence to continue this controversial program
CURMUDGUCATION: Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway?Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway? The quest continues--how to best market the notion of having student essays scored by software instead of actual humans. It's a big, bold dream, a dream of world in which test manufacturers don't have to hire pesky, expensive meat widgets and the fuzzy unscientific world of writing can be reduced to hard numbers--numbers that we know are objective a
For Data Privacy Day — take our Survey: online apps used by districts and their privacy provisions | Parent Coalition for Student PrivacyFOR DATA PRIVACY DAY — TAKE OUR SURVEY: ONLINE APPS USED BY DISTRICTS AND THEIR PRIVACY PROVISIONS Today, January 28th is Data Privacy Day, the international annual day of action and awareness to promote the privacy of our personal data. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy is researching which ed tech apps schools are asking students to use and whether they are sufficiently protective of ch
THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Thursday, January 28, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDVACCINEBig Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Analysis | Republicans assign QAnon supporter to House education committee — and top Democrats blast the move https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/01/27/qanon-supporter-put-on-house-education-committee/?tid=ss_tw Philadelphia plans hybrid school reopening next month - Chalkbeat Philadelphia - https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/
Iowa: Act NOW to Save Your Public Schools! | Diane Ravitch's blogIowa: Act NOW to Save Your Public Schools! Governor Kim Reynolds has proposed legislation to take money away from IOWA public schools and divert it to privately managed schools, vouchers for religious schools, charter schools, and home schooling. She is following in the footsteps of Betsy DeVos, who spent four years trying to eradicate public schools. If you live in Iowa, contact your legislator
Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona, Connecticut Hedge Funds, and Human Capital – Wrench in the GearsSecretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona, Connecticut Hedge Funds, and Human Capital Tonight my friend Zakiya Sankara-Jabar of Real Talk With ZSJ invited me to discuss the appointment Dr. Miguel Cardona, former Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning in the Meriden, CT School District, to the position of the US Secretary of Education. We covered a lot of ground including: how pay for
We Need a Democratic Approach to Reimagining Schools—Asking People, Not Billionaires and Ideologues, What They Want | Ed PoliticsWE NEED A DEMOCRATIC APPROACH TO REIMAGINING SCHOOLS—ASKING PEOPLE, NOT BILLIONAIRES AND IDEOLOGUES, WHAT THEY WANT As soon as Anna Grant’s busy workday at Forest View Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina, ended, she would head toward the next school where she was needed. “I would get off work and immediately drive to meetings, press events, whatever we had organized [for the school],” sh
Biden's first big Covid test: Keeping parents of school kids from losing it - POLITICOBiden's first big Covid test: Keeping parents of school kids from losing it A battle is brewing between teachers’ unions and Republicans. And so far, the White House is siding with the former. President Joe Biden’s vow to reopen most schools during his first 100 days is crashing into demands of one of his party’s most powerful constituencies: teachers’ unions. And the friction is creating an ear
The Whole Truth About Kids, School, and COVID-19 - The AtlanticThe Whole Truth About Kids, School, and COVID-19 F ederal health officials at the CDC this week called for children to return to American classrooms as soon as possible. In an essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association , they wrote that the “preponderance of available evidence” from the fall semester had reassured the agency that with adequate masking, distancing, and ventilation,
Teacher Tom: The Radical Idea of Treating Children Like PeopleThe Radical Idea of Treating Children Like People I sometimes forget how radical our ideas are about young children. I forget that not everyone trusts children even if most people say they do. I forget that most adults are convinced that children must be guided, coerced, tricked or otherwise manipulated to do "right" things, even as they genuinely profess a belief in their innate goodness. I for
Farewell to the SAT! We Hope. | Diane Ravitch's blogFarewell to the SAT! We Hope. The SAT is in trouble. Its business model is threatened by the more than 1,000 colleges and universities that no longer require it for admission. Many more higher education institutions dropped the SAT due to the pandemic. The SAT is big business. It collects more than $1 billion each year in revenue. Its CEO, David Coleman, was architect of the Common Core standard