Joel Westheimer: Three Essential Lessons That COVID Taught Us About Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Joel Westheimer: Three Essential Lessons That COVID Taught Us About Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Joel Westheimer: Three Essential Lessons That COVID Taught Us About Education

Joel Westheimer is a professor of education at the University of Ottawa. He wrote this article for The Ottawa Citizen and shared it with me. This is a good time for me to mention that I strongly believe in content. In the mid-1980s, I was involved with a large committee that wrote the California K-12 History-Social Studies Framework. We realized that whatever we wrote had to be feasible from the point of view of teaching and learning. We selected the key events and developments that teachers would focus on. When we finished our draft, we sent it to teachers across the state. We received more than 1,000 reviews and read each one carefully. We made many changes. We sought in-depth learning, not a swift canoe ride across the centuries. Depth matters more than breadth.

Westheimer wrote:

Three essential lessons COVID-19 has taught us about education

During the pandemic, we rediscovered what teachers and students have always known: that schooling is about relationships, learning is a social process, and a deep-dive into a topic of interest is worth more than a stress-filled endurance swim in the shallows.

When did the Assyrian empire’s reign over Mesopotamia begin and end?

If you don’t know, you have a lot of company and you’re CONTINUE READING: Joel Westheimer: Three Essential Lessons That COVID Taught Us About Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Learning to Earn – Have You Heard

Learning to Earn – Have You Heard

Learning to Earn

The idea that more education is the way to help workers get ahead is a cherished American principle. In fact, this “human capital” view of education dates all the way back to another period of roaring inequality in the US: the Gilded Age. In episode #107, historian Cristina Groeger joins us to discuss the origins of the “education fix,” and why the idea of educating our way out of inequality has always been doomed to fail.

Episode transcript is here. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon or donate on PayPal.

Have You Heard · #107 Learning to Earn

Learning to Earn – Have You Heard

¡Corran la voz!: “Exacerbated Inequalities” Webinar | Cloaking Inequity #MASBAwebinar

¡Corran la voz!: “Exacerbated Inequalities” Webinar | Cloaking Inequity

¡CORRAN LA VOZ!: “EXACERBATED INEQUALITIES” WEBINAR

¡Corran la voz! Check out #MASBAwebinar entitled “Exacerbated Inequalities” featuring Host @ProfessorJVH and a panel w/ @CarolBurris of @Network4PubEd, #GeorginaPerez of @TXSBOE, @DrDoraESauceda of @BrownsvilleISD & @AnneSung of @HoustonISD

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¡Corran la voz!: “Exacerbated Inequalities” Webinar | Cloaking Inequity

Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality

Historian of education Christina Groeger writes that Americans have long believed that education is the key to equality, but she thinks that this faith is misplaced.

She writes:

“The best way to increase wages and reduce wage inequalities in the long run is to invest in education and skills,” wrote economist Thomas Piketty in his landmark Capital in the Twenty-First Century. For nearly 200 years, education has been seen as a central means of reducing the gap between rich and poor. Today, this idea has become something of a national faith, as politicians across the political spectrum tout the power of education to shape a more egalitarian society. However, faith in educational expansion as a means of achieving the American Dream has obscured the ways the same process has in fact deepened economic inequality at different historical moments. If we don’t explore its full consequences, education as a policy tool can become a dangerous trap.

In the U.S., the relationship between education and social inequality points to a paradox. On the one hand, the U.S. has long had among the highest rates of school enrollment and attainment in the world. In 2017, the United States ranked second-highest globally for the CONTINUE READING: Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog

Does the Pandemic Help Us Make Education More Equitable? (Pasi Sahlberg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Does the Pandemic Help Us Make Education More Equitable? (Pasi Sahlberg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Does the Pandemic Help Us Make Education More Equitable? (Pasi Sahlberg)

“Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator who has worked as a schoolteacher, teacher-educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems and advised education leaders around the world..”

I have excerpted Sahlberg’s description of how Finland’s and Australia’s schools responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. For readers who wish to see the entire article, it appeared in Educational Research for Policy and Practice online October 31, 2020.

Australia and Finland, the two homes of mine at the moment, are not just geographically as

distant from each other than possible, but they are also very different societies with distinct

histories, traditions, values and cultures. Australia is sunny and hot. Finland is,many believe,

snowy and cool. The Australians prefer things big and fast. The Finns think small is beautiful.

In other words, Australia is fire, Finland is ice. These cultural distinctions make CONTINUE READING: Does the Pandemic Help Us Make Education More Equitable? (Pasi Sahlberg) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education Research Report: Education Equity in Michigan

Education Research Report: Education Equity in Michigan

Education Equity in Michigan

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission has released a 62-page report describing inequities in Michigan’s K-12 education system and detailing specific recommendations for action that policy makers and educators can implement to make achieving educational equity a priority in all Michigan schools.

The report is the culmination of a series of public hearings and a year-long examination of disparities in K-12 education in Michigan. From May 2018 through the end of March 2019, the Commission held five public hearings around the state and heard from dozens of subject matter experts, school administrators, teachers, parents and students on the ways Michigan is falling short in its obligation to effectively educate all its children.

“This Commission believes that an adequate education is the key to unlocking a lifetime of opportunities and also is a basic civil right,” said Stacie Clayton, Chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. “We learned during our education hearings that not all children receive the kind of education they deserve as their birthright. We urge policy makers, educators and other stakeholders across the state to view this report as a roadmap they can follow to help schools achieve educational equity and give all Michigan children – regardless of household income, race, residency or ability -- the education they need to lead productive and fulfilling lives.”

The Commission became increasingly concerned about educational disparities in 2016 during their examination of the racial implications in the causes of, and response to, the Flint water crisis. What they learned during these hearings led directly to their decision in 2018 to launch an exploration of inequity in Michigan’s education system.

Through the hearing process, Commissioners became increasingly aware that the effectiveness of public school systems is directly determined by the racial and economic makeup of the community. They also found that instead of a cohesive, statewide education system, Michigan is made up of independent systems that operate differently and are resourced in a variety of ways, leading to disparities between high-performing districts and those considered “failing.”

Specific obstacles identified to equity in education include:

• Lack of access to early childhood education
• Varying degrees of parental involvement
• Funding based on declining enrollment that leaves schools grossly underfunded
• Food insecurity
• Lack of specialized instruction, after school and summer school programs
• Lack of qualified, experienced minority teachers

To achieve equity, the report says public school systems must recognize differences and distribute resources based on an understanding of how differences impact equitable access. They must also implement strategies to break down biases and barriers to equity, including:

• Educating on implicit biases
• Developing racially conscious strategies for school integration
• Changing per-student funding and Proposal A
• Eliminating competition between schools
• Increasing teacher pay
• Eliminating legacy debt
• Increasing special education opportunities and funding

The report concludes with a list of recommendations for action, starting with the expansion of the Council for Government and Education on Equity and Inclusion, an MDCR-led initiative, to include representatives of the Michigan Department of Education, and establish the Council as the entity responsible for implementing and overseeing the following additional recommendations:

• Develop a Statewide Educational Equity Plan to enhance policies and accountability.
• Ensure that all data collected by government entities be disaggregated by race and ethnicity.
• Encourage schools to create local equity plans and contribute information and resources to support equitable practices.
• Provide year-round cultural competency/race and equity education and coaching.
• Increase internet access for students and families.
• Support a quality teacher training program, encouraging diversity in teaching roles and student enrollment.
• Encourage the placement of affordable public housing only in school districts that are educationally successful and can support new students who have additional needs.
• Recognize the overlapping roles that housing discrimination, employment discrimination, environmental racism and other racial disparities play in perpetuating educational inequity.
• Create a multicultural, student-led component of the Council for Government and Education on Equity and Inclusion to engage students and parents/guardians on the local level.

Education Research Report: Education Equity in Michigan

COVID-19 Widens Inequality Among America’s Young People, But So Far, There Is No Plan to Address It | janresseger

COVID-19 Widens Inequality Among America’s Young People, But So Far, There Is No Plan to Address It | janresseger

COVID-19 Widens Inequality Among America’s Young People, But So Far, There Is No Plan to Address It

What are all the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown obstacles in the paths of America’s poorest young people?  The numbers are staggering. Hardship is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible to grasp the deeper meaning of the data in the reports from major policy organizations.

Here is the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Households with children are more likely to have trouble affording food or paying the rent or mortgage than households without children. Based on five weeks of Census Bureau Pulse Survey data collected from June 18 to July 21, we estimate that: Approximately 19 million children, or 1 in 4 children, live in a household that isn’t getting enough to eat, is behind on rent or mortgage payments, or both. These levels of hardship are substantially higher among Black and Latino children, reflecting longstanding inequities that the current crisis has exacerbated.”

The Economic Policy Institute describes barriers to learning: “The pandemic has exacerbated well-documented opportunity gaps that put low-income students at a disadvantage relative to their better-off peers. Opportunity gaps are gaps in access to the conditions and resources that enhance learning and development, and include access to food and nutrition, housing, health insurance and care, and financial relief measures. One of the most critical opportunity gaps is the uneven access to the devices and internet access critical to learning online. This digital divide has made it virtually impossible for some students to learn during the pandemic.”

First Focus on Children tracks family suffering:”The Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau tracks food insecurity, financial hardship, and other indicators of child and family CONTINUE READING: COVID-19 Widens Inequality Among America’s Young People, But So Far, There Is No Plan to Address It | janresseger