MITCHELL ROBINSON: Now’s the Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests | Eclectablog

Now’s the Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests | Eclectablog

Now’s the Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests

f you’re wondering how even in a deadly global pandemic, standardized tests like the ACT and SAT are still surviving, like education “zombies,” just follow the money.

• Over $1.7 billion is spent on standardized testing in the US each year.

• Another $669 million is spent on elementary assessments.

• Between $34-65 per student per year is spent by the states on standardized testing.

• It costs $68 to register for SAT w/essay; $67 for ACT w/writing (college admissions exam). This money is either paid directly by families, or schools cover the costs for their students–either way, these dollars are coming from tax payers.

• The cost for AP exams (high school advanced placement exams) is $94 per test.

• The fee is $300 for the edTPA (new teacher exam).

Who is making all this money???

• $762 million in 2018 profits for Pearson, the education testing multinational conglomerate, on revenues of $5.511 billion.

• $89 million in additional profit for Pearson from its ownership stake in Penguin Random House Publishers, a major world school textbook publishing company.

• And that money is not being divided up very equitably among Pearson’s employees. The average Pearson salary ranges from approximately $25,000 per year for Test Scorer (not a lot more than CONTINUE READING: Now’s the Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests | Eclectablog

How Can We Reopen Schools If We Can’t Even Open Windows? | Eclectablog

How Can We Reopen Schools If We Can’t Even Open Windows? | Eclectablog

How Can We Reopen Schools If We Can’t Even Open Windows?

I’m seeing a lot of well-intentioned rhetoric lately about the importance of good ventilation in schools to mitigate the spread of Covid in school classrooms, with the best advice being to “just open a window,” and “use a simple box fan to circulate exhaled air.” The example shown was of a “real classroom” with an entire wall of windows, a teacher, and 9 students socially distanced at 6 feet between desks.

That disturbance in the force you may have just felt was created by every public school teacher in the country rolling their eyes, hard, in unison. Because they understand, in a deep, rich way, that nothing about these “simple recommendations” is, in fact simple.

Allow me to share a few thoughts, based on my time as a teacher…

• In my 41 years as a music teacher, I have never taught in a room with a window. I’ve taught in basements, closets, boiler rooms, trailers, and band rooms with no windows and egress doors permanently locked. The only time those doors could be opened was in the event of a fire drill, and then only if the CONTINUE READING: How Can We Reopen Schools If We Can’t Even Open Windows? | Eclectablog

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone?

I really tried to see “both sides” of this “reopen the schools” debate for the longest time…I know how hard it is to try to get anything done with little kids at home in normal times–multiply that by 100 during this pandemic. And I get the frustration that comes with trying to juggle work, bills, child care, and all the other responsibilities of day-to-day life, and then have big pieces and chunks of your “support system” just torn away–and not for a day or two, but for months, with seemingly no end in sight.

And add to that the stress and tension of uncertain income streams, business shutdowns, work from home arrangements, not being able to see your family…it’s bleak out there right now.

So I get it…

That is, until a school reopening advocate told me that teachers who were working virtually were nothing more than “curriculum couriers,” and if we weren’t careful we’d work ourselves right out of our jobs–that schools would just put kids in big rooms with “facilitators” and our lesson plans, and get rid of all the teachers who weren’t “willing” to “get back to work”.

That really shook me, on multiple levels.

1. The carefully constructed “mask” worn by so many in this camp (“we love our child’s teachers, but doctors and nurses are working…”, or “I’m trying to be patient with my community’s teachers, but I’m losing my patience…”) came crashing down–and despite their objections when called out, CONTINUE READING: What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

I’m a Teacher, and I’m Losing My Patience, Too | Eclectablog

I’m a Teacher, and I’m Losing My Patience, Too | Eclectablog

I’m a Teacher, and I’m Losing My Patience, Too

In spite of most of the US public being supportive of public education, our schools, and our children’s teachers, a small but vocal minority has been growing increasingly rambunctious about reopening schools. Recently, Dr. Ben Linas, a physician in Brookline, MA, added his apparently cranky voice to this debate, penning a piece for Vox titled, “I’m an epidemiologist and a father. Here’s why I’m losing patience with our teachers’ unions”.

According to Linas, “we have accumulated a massive amount of data about how to keep schools open safely,” and he points to evidence from Scotland, Singapore, and France to suggest that schools can be reopened, even without teachers receiving vaccines–a step he doesn’t believe is necessary to safely open up schools again. He goes on to say that while masks are a good idea, social distancing isn’t really a big deal…

One sticking point, for example, has been the union’s early and continued insistence that desks remain at least 6 feet apart at all times. This requirement mathematically determines whether there is enough space for learners in the building. Distancing is absolutely critical to Covid-19 mitigation, but there is no magical threshold that makes 6 feet the “safe” distance and 5 feet “dangerous.”

Curiously, Dr. Linas doesn’t include any “data” from Sweden. And there may be a reason… CONTINUE READING: I’m a Teacher, and I’m Losing My Patience, Too | Eclectablog

On Trans* Students and Level Playing Fields | Eclectablog

On Trans* Students and Level Playing Fields | Eclectablog

On Trans* Students and Level Playing Fields

Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas spent some time today questioning President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardonas, and decided to focus on the issue of transgender students playing sports in school. Here’s what Sen. Marshall had to say…

I’m going to take Mr. Marshall at his word, and instead of suggesting that he used his time with the microphone to engage in a cheap publicity stunt designed to roil up the far right fringe of his conservative base, that he truly believes that one of the biggest problems facing students and schools today is that allowing transgender students to play school sports means “there is not a level playing field.”

Given Mr. Marshall’s seeming fascination with matters of student and school equity and unfairness, I’m also going to assume that he shares my concerns about the following issues:

• how underfunded urban and rural schools are forced to “compete” against wealthy suburban teams in interscholastic athletics, pitting schools and players who practice on expensive playing fields, pools, tracks, and courts; with certified trainers; new equipment; experienced coaches; and many other advantages–while less well resourced schools struggle with (literally) uneven basketball courts, soccer and football fields with holes, rocks, and dead grass; no trainers; old and damaged helmets, shoulder pads, and leaky basketballs; and CONTINUE READING: On Trans* Students and Level Playing Fields | Eclectablog

MITCHELL ROBINSON: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers

The following post was written by an elementary school teacher. This person could be your neighbor…a friend…a family member…or just someone you know on social media. This teacher hasn’t shared how they feel with anyone outside of their family, because there is so much pushback from persons in their community, and angry demands that teachers “get back to work!”

As if teachers haven’t been working all this time.

As if teachers don’t care about their students, or miss their colleagues.

As if teachers aren’t suffering in this pandemic in the same ways that those parents demanding an immediate reopening of the schools are suffering.

So here, with a few of my own thoughts interspersed below, are the unfiltered thoughts of a public school teacher about to return to their school for the first time in nearly a year…in the hopes that persons demanding those schools reopen consider the thoughts of teachers as they grapple with this decision…

“Feeling so distraught and angry and frustrated and scared today about everything…I hope you CONTINUE READING: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: Stop Shaming Teachers into Reopening Schools | Eclectablog

Stop Shaming Teachers into Reopening Schools | Eclectablog

Stop Shaming Teachers into Reopening Schools

A friend of mine made a post on social media last night saying that she “wasn’t angry about people thinking schools should reopen,” and while I admire the measured tone and spirit of cooperation she displayed in her commentary, that sentiment left me feeling uneasy.

Because I AM angry about people demanding schools reopen ASAP.

I get the frustration, and the fear that so many have about possibly losing their jobs. But none of that makes it ok to try to shame teachers back into the classroom with comments like, “the kids need us”, “it’s going to be so powerful”, “we’re going to forget all our worries once we get into it”, and “remember why you became a teacher”. This is nothing more than cheap and lazy rhetoric designed to make teachers feel badly for trying to protect their own health, and the health of their families.

The solution isn’t rushing to open schools before they are safe–the solution is for Congress to pass a stimulus package large enough and bold enough to pay people to *not* go to work, and that provides bonus/hazard pay for those who *do* need to work–health care workers, public safety personnel (fire and police), grocery store workers, etc.

And that stimulus package also must provide the federal and state resources to actually *do* something about making schools safe, which to my knowledge has happened in very few places. It’s not enough for school districts to “encourage” their employees to get vaccinated–school systems should be proactively securing enough vaccine doses for all employees to get two shots, CONTINUE READING: Stop Shaming Teachers into Reopening Schools | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: How do you spell “hypocrisy”? “G-O-P.” | Eclectablog

How do you spell “hypocrisy”? “G-O-P.” | Eclectablog

How do you spell “hypocrisy”? “G-O-P.”

Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “national security”–except when it’s the security of the nation’s Capitol…

Storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021

“House Charges Donald Trump With Impeachment for ‘Inciting an Insurrection'”

Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “fiscal responsibility”–just don’t look at the national debt too closely…

“Trump Will Create More Debt Than Obama”

Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “personal responsibility”–but don’t ask their leader to take any responsibility for his words or actions…

“Defiant Trump denounces violence but takes no responsibility for inciting deadly riot”

Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “family values”–unless you think the president pardoning his son-in-law’s father for hiring “a CONTINUE READING: How do you spell “hypocrisy”? “G-O-P.” | Eclectablog

MITCHELL ROBINSON: Trump Has Incited…a Reckoning | Eclectablog

Trump Has Incited…a Reckoning | Eclectablog

Trump Has Incited…a Reckoning

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s attempted coup attempt by the sitting president of the United States, one thing is abundantly clear: There needs to be a major reckoning, and those responsible must be held accountable. We can’t function as a society if we have people among us who are so easily misled and hoodwinked.

 

People who believe that our elected officials are pedophiles and cannibals.

 

People who believe that our election was rigged.

 

People who believe that a man born to wealth, who has a gold toilet on his private plane, and who has never done an honest day’s work in his life, somehow is a “fighter for the average working person.”

 

As distasteful as it may be, we need to make sure that these people no longer have positions in our government. Or in law enforcement. Or the military. Or our public schools.

 

We can not have persons who believe in Qanon teaching our children. Or believers in conspiracy theories working as police officers or in the military. And it should go without saying that white CONTINUE READING: Trump Has Incited…a Reckoning | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: Betsy DeVos Resigns | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos Resigns | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos Resigns

I wish I could find more satisfaction in something I’ve hoped would happen for 4 years.

But as usual, Ms. DeVos did the absolute least she could do (resign), well past the time when it could have made a difference (with 13 days left in her lamest of all duck terms), and is probably only doing it to avoid doing something she doesn’t want to do (invoke the 25th Amendment).

DeVos resigned, allegedly, because her boss’ insurrection attempt was an “inflection point” she simply couldn’t ignore.

• Not gutting regulations intended to protect students, many of whom are veterans, minorities, and first-generation college attendees, from being defrauded by predatory schools and colleges, and putting the interests of these for-profit colleges—some of which she has personal financial interests in—ahead of students. She ignored that.
• Not dismissing civil rights complaints and ripping up guidance that urged public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms that conform to their gender identity. She ignored that.
• Not rolling back sexual assault policies on college campuses, establishing a higher bar for victims reporting complaints, and forcing survivors to be cross-examined by their attackers in CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Resigns | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: We Told You… | Eclectablog

We Told You… | Eclectablog

We Told You…

The inestimable Ron French is out this week with a terrific article in Bridge on the exploding Covid crisis in Michigan’s schools, and the situation is indeed dire. Readers across the state must be wondering how we got here.

“Kids don’t catch the virus!”, they said.

“And if they do catch it, they don’t get sick!”, they said.

Even if those statements were true—and they are not—they completely miss the point.

Can children drive themselves to school?
Cook and serve school lunches?
Provide first aid if they get hurt?
Clean and disinfect classrooms?
Teach themselves?

Schools are not just places for children. The adults in schools also matter. The teachers, administrators, school cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, and all of the other “grown ups” who help schools run and serve the needs of our children. And these adults deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.

I am so tired of people demanding that schools remain open in the midst of a surging, out-of-control infectious pandemic. In the best of times schools are Petri dishes full of germs and CONTINUE READING:  We Told You… | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Teaching in a Pandemic | Eclectablog

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Teaching in a Pandemic | Eclectablog

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Teaching in a Pandemic

It’s been 8 months now that many of us have been teaching and learning virtually, and I thought it might be time for a little reflection on what has worked out better than we may have expected, what is still a disaster, and everything in between. So, without further ado, I present The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of teaching in a pandemic.

Many thanks to my teacher friends on social media who helped to crowd source the following items. Hang in there, teachers…this too shall pass.

And if you have other suggestions for the list, please feel free to leave your ideas in the comments below!

The Good

• The commute is really short
• Real lunches are a thing
• All day coffee
• The Chat window is like a parallel class session
• “Permission” to teach and do things differently without the need/expectation to perform
• Wearing shorts to class
• The mute button
• The experience has heightened my sense of my students’ overall well-being — I find myself making more focused efforts to check in with students more often, and that’s one thing I hope CONTINUE READING: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Teaching in a Pandemic | Eclectablog

Mitchell Robinson: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let’s Focus on Public Education and Internet Access

In the aftermath of the most consequential election in our lifetimes, I thought I’d take this opportunity to offer some free advice for state Democratic parties interested in attracting even more new voters and turning more red state legislatures blue:

Let’s put a lot more focus on two issues that are critically important to building a stronger, more informed voter base, and have the potential to excite and unite both rural and urban communities…

1. Better, more affordable access to broadband internet service

In a digital age, access to fast, secure internet service is not only a basic human need–akin to utilities like electricity, water, and gas/oil–but it’s a requirement for candidates building a digital campaign infrastructure. Not being able to reliably connect to persons in remote areas of your state, or to those who live in urban areas plagued by internet deserts, severely hampers the ability to convey a candidate’s or party’s message, policy beliefs, or positions on issues. It also leaves persons without reliable internet access to the mercies of our information sources like Fox News or the Detroit News–meaning that they are less informed than someone with no media access at all.

2. Improve support for public education, including community colleges and state universities

One of the single largest predictors of voting patterns is the level of education among a group of potential voters. In general, the more educated a person is, the more likely that person is to vote, and to vote for Democratic candidates. Areas and states with a lower percentage of college-educated voters tend to vote Republican, and more educated areas tend to vote for Democrats. It CONTINUE READING: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog