CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, Joe

CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, Joe

Dammit, Joe

So up on my screen pops the headline "Biden says K-12 education isn't working--calls for fgre pre-K to 'grade 14'"

The good news is that the headlines is, as headlines will be, a bit inaccurate. The bad news is everything else. Starting with this lede:

President Joe Biden on Wednesday praised the nation's K-12 education system for fueling America's economic growth for almost a century. But, he stressed, that system may no longer be sufficient as the foundation for future prosperity.

We've been here before, starting with this fundamental misunderstanding of the problem:

Mr. Biden's American Families Plan is taking aim at an issue that has bedeviled economists as well as millions of families struggling to stay afloat financially: A high school diploma is no longer enough to secure a middle-class life.

If the situation has changed, if all the good stuff has been moved to a shelf that is too high for regular folks to reach, is the problem that regular folks are too short, or that somebody moved the good stuff to a too-high shelf? The democratic/neo-lib theory is based on the too-short-humans theory, in part because the MarketWorld thinking of neo-libs is that the economic CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, Joe

A School System Adrift: New York City Schools Search for Direction as the Political Landscape Evolves | Ed In The Apple

A School System Adrift: New York City Schools Search for Direction as the Political Landscape Evolves | Ed In The Apple

A School System Adrift: New York City Schools Search for Direction as the Political Landscape Evolves

The theory of action that describes the Board and the successor Department of Education are known as Newton’s First Laws of Motion … sometimes referred to as the law of inertia. An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction.

If you ask upper management in the Department why they’re following a particular policy the standard answer is, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” Newton’s First Law of Motion –the law of inertia.

Meisha Porter begins her tenure on March 15th, the third chancellor to lead the Department of Education during de Blasio’s seven plus years in office.

Can she change the direction of the leviathan?

Education policy has become inexorably intertwined with mayoral politics.

On June 22nd voters will select the Democratic Party candidates for Mayor along with the Comptroller, 37 of the 51 members of the City Council and three out of CONTINUE READING: A School System Adrift: New York City Schools Search for Direction as the Political Landscape Evolves | Ed In The Apple

School Openings: Political Gamesmanship Collides with Sound Educational Policy. | Ed In The Apple

School Openings: Political Gamesmanship Collides with Sound Educational Policy. | Ed In The Apple

School Openings: Political Gamesmanship Collides with Sound Educational Policy

President Biden set a target of school re-openings within his first hundred days in office; however, the decision to open schools is local; the 14,000 school districts across the nation have the authority to open and close schools. The national teacher unions (NEA, AFT) do not have the authority either; the local unions within school districts “negotiate” school openings.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) produced a “Roadmap to Safely Open Schools” (Read here)

Randi Weingarten, the AFT President favors reopenings, with safeguards..

Education Next, a widely read website was prescient, Schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2019–20 academic year but will reopen in the 2020–21 academic year (albeit with the potential of localized, rolling closures for 14–28 days triggered by additional waves of infection,

The Los Angeles School District has been closed since the pandemic hit in March, COVID positive rates in Los Angeles remain high as well as hospitalizations and deaths. The teacher union (UTLA) has been adamant, has threatened a strike and only in the last few days agreed to a phased reopening plan.

The conservative media has pummeled teacher unions.

The New York City teacher union (UFT) threatened a “safety strike” in August, CONTINUE READING: School Openings: Political Gamesmanship Collides with Sound Educational Policy. | Ed In The Apple

NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple

NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple

NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics

Richard Carranza, the New York City School Chancellor unexpectedly announced he was leaving his position.

The cognoscenti were not surprised, for months the chancellor and the mayor have been dueling; it was only a matter of time before the chancellor packed it in.

Highly effective leaders select subordinates and give them the authority to carry out their role. Interestingly a number of the mayoral hopefuls had major roles in city government: Kathryn Garcia was the NYS Sanitation Commissioner, Sean Donovan the HPD (Housing Preservation and Development) commissioner and Maya Wiley, the mayor’s counsel, all served with distinction. Micromanaging schools has a sad and long history; mayors claimed credit for positive education news and blamed and fired chancellors to deflect bad news.

Unfortunately from day one the mayor attempted to keep a tight rein on the Department of Education. He selected Carmen Farina, a retired Department deputy chancellor and friend to temporarily fill the job; she stayed for de Blasio’s entire first term. Farina’s one major initiative, the Renewal Schools, pumping mega dollars into the hundred lowest achieving schools was a dismal failure. Read here.

Renewal’s ideas were untested, and, almost from the start, the program was hobbled by bureaucracy and a tight timeline imposed by a mayor eager to show on a national stage that schools could improve without censure, CONTINUE READING: NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States?

Secretary of Education Designee Cardona testified at his Senate Education Committee confirmation hearing (Watch here); committee members have five minutes to ask and receive answers: a preview of Cardona policies? Maybe. One of the first questions was whether he would grant waivers allowing states not to administer standardized grades 3-8 tests. Chalkbeat reports,

Miguel Cardona sent mixed messages… how he would approach federally required standardized testing this year,

“If the conditions under COVID-19 prevent a student from being in school in person, I don’t think we need to be bringing students in just to test them,” But he suggested he still believes testing could be useful this year.

“If we don’t assess where our students are and their level of performance, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide targeted support and resource allocation in the manner that can best support the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this pandemic,”

Senator Burr followed up by asking whether states should be able to make their own decisions.

Cardona responded: “I feel that states should not only have an opportunity to CONTINUE READING: Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

NYS Board of Regents selects Lester Young as Chancellor | Ed In The Apple

NYS Board of Regents selects Lester Young as Chancellor | Ed In The Apple

NYS Board of Regents selects Lester Young as Chancellor

Over the last few years when an education leader was selected, i. e., head of NYC schools, or, US Secretary of Education I had to scramble to check them out.

The selection of Lester Young as chancellor of the Board of Regents culminates a lengthy career serving the children of the city and state of New York.

Back in the days of decentralization Dr. Young was the superintendent of District 13, a Brooklyn school district, mostly Afro-American with a corner in Brooklyn Heights. My colleague, Frank Lupo, was the union district rep. Frank and Dr. Young, in the roiling days of decentralization, when superintendents came and went, where school venality was all too common, District 13, lead by Dr. Young was a shining light.

When decentralization moved to mayoral control Lester led a new “experiment,” the city was divided into ten meg-districts, and, a range of services, guidance, attendance, community organizations, etc. worked with, not under, the regional superintendents, a leadership model that required enormous skills. I was CONTINUE READING: NYS Board of Regents selects Lester Young as Chancellor | Ed In The Apple

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy?

Last week I researched my blog topic, the role of the Congress in counting the electoral votes, a pro forma process; I reread the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and posted the blog.

“Will Republican Senators and House Member ‘Objections’ Prevent the Election of Biden/Harris? Why January 6th Will Be an ‘Interesting’ Day,” (Read here)

Little did I know …..

Wednesday morning, as usual, I donned my dri-fit winter biking clothes pedaled around the almost deserted roads; awaiting my steaming black coffee; and turned on MSNBC. The media announced the Ossoff-Perdue race – the democrats won both Georgia seats and will control the Senate – barely. Senator Schumer will be the majority leader and control the Senate calendar and the bills that come to the floor.  I pumped my fist, “Yes.”

The combined meeting of Congress gathered and I settled in to watch the constitutional process, it looked like a long day with thirteen Republican senators and over 130 Houses members “objecting.” 

The insurrection exploded.

Watching a momentous moment in history from your easy chair is  CONTINUE READING: Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Who is Miguel Cardona? [Why was he nominated for Secretary of Education?] | Ed In The Apple

Who is Miguel Cardona? [Why was he nominated for Secretary of Education?] | Ed In The Apple

Who is Miguel Cardona? [Why was he nominated for Secretary of Education?]

For sports fans a highly anticipated event is the draft: the commissioner walks to the podium and announces, “In the 2020 draft the Biden Team selects, [hesitates] Miguel Cardona” – who?

For weeks speculation circulated among the self-styled educational intelligentsia, would Biden nominate Linda Darling-Hammond, the leader of the education transition team, how about one of the teacher union leaders, Lilly Eckelson Garcia or Randi Weingarten, an urban superintendent, and on and on.

On the evening of December 22nd the Wall Street Journal wrote,

WASHINGTON—President-elect Joe Biden said he would nominate Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona as education secretary, tapping a third Latino for a role in his cabinet.

If confirmed, Dr. Cardona would be tasked with implementing Mr. Biden’s pledge to expand resources for public schools, make public college tuition-free for families making less than $125,000 annually and restore  CONTINUE READING: Who is Miguel Cardona? [Why was he nominated for Secretary of Education?] | Ed In The Apple

Will Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Change the Political Power Structure in New York City? Should We Use RCV in State and Congressional Elections? | Ed In The Apple

Will Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Change the Political Power Structure in New York City? Should We Use RCV in State and Congressional Elections? | Ed In The Apple

Will Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Change the Political Power Structure in New York City? Should We Use RCV in State and Congressional Elections?

The ballots in New York City elections commonly ask voters to vote on “ballot proposals” as  well as candidates, in 2019, an off year, no one was running for citywide or state office, the ballot contained four proposals, one of the proposals changed the method of voting in city elections: Ranked Choice Voting.

What is Ranked Choice Voting? How does it Work?

  Ranked-choice, or instant-runoff voting, allows voters to choose multiple candidates and rank them by order of preference. In New York City, primary and special-election voters will have the choice to rank up to five … You don’t have to rank all five – in fact, you can just choose one candidate. But the option is there for you to voice your support for multiple candidates. For the voter, that’s basically all they have to think about when going to the ballot box – which candidates to choose and how to rank them.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) replaces run-offs for citywide elections. If a candidate did not reach 40% of the vote in a primary or general election for Mayor, Comptroller or Public Advocate the two leading candidates formerly would contest in a run-off election.

Run-offs were not required in City Council elections, three, four, five or more CONTINUE READING: Will Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Change the Political Power Structure in New York City? Should We Use RCV in State and Congressional Elections? | Ed In The Apple