The History of the Future of Education (Audrey Watters) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The History of the Future of Education (Audrey Watters) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The History of the Future of Education (Audrey Watters)

From Audrey Watters’s self-description:

I am an education writer, an independent scholar, a serial dropout, a rabble-rouser, and ed-tech’s Cassandra.

“It’s a long story,” I often say. You can catch snippets of it, if you pay attention. I’ve got a CV if you care about such formalities. And I wrote an FAQ if that helps.

I love science fiction, tattoos, and, some days, computer technologies. I loathe mushy foods and romantic comedies. I’m not ashamed to admit I like ABBA and dislike Tolkien. I am somewhat ashamed to admit I’ve not finished Ulysses, and I’ve never even started Infinite Jest. I prefer cake to pie, unless we’re talking pastry projectiles. I pick fights on the Internet. I’m a high school dropout and a PhD dropout. I have a Master’s degree in Folklore and was once considered the academic expert on political pie-throwing. I was (I am?) a widow. I’m a mom. I have a hard stare that I like to imagine is much like Paddington Bear’s and a smirk much like the Cheshire Cat’s. I am not afraid.

I travel as much as I possibly can. “Home,” at least according to my driver’s license, is Seattle, Washington.…

My essays have appeared in multiple places, but mostly I write on my blog Hack Education. I’ve published four collections of my public talks, The Monsters CONTINUE READING: The History of the Future of Education (Audrey Watters) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Tom: The Pursuit of Happiness

Teacher Tom: The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness

I've asked thousands of parents the question, "What are your goals for your child?" It's something a lot of us ask at the beginning of a school years or when we are first getting to know a family. Far and away, the top answers have been some version of, "I just want my child to be happy," or "I just want my child to love learning." These are the answers I expect, especially from first time parents. 

The good news is that their children already love learning, they were born that way, so no problem there. Our only job, and it's made far simpler by a play-based curriculum, is to do no harm.

Happiness is, of course, another matter. It's the only emotion that tends to disappear the moment you become aware of it. It's a tricky, personal, and ephemeral thing, something we spot in others, but when we ourselves are happy we daren't look directly at it. It's like those phantom movements in our peripheral vision that Icelanders say are the "hidden people" (Huldufólk), elves and fairies and whatnot, who flee when you turn their way. Because of this phenomenon, Aristotle asserted that the only way humans can ever know if they've lived a happy life is in hindsight, from the perspective of our CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Pursuit of Happiness

Russ on Reading: The Reading Helper

Russ on Reading: The Reading Helper

The Reading Helper

I have a teaching certificate that says I am a qualified Teacher of Reading, and Reading Specialist and Supervisor, but from the time I got a certain Valentine's Day card from a student in 1993 I have thought of myself as a Reading Helper. That card was from a second grade vulnerable reader named Danielle who had been my student since that September. The cover of the hand made card was full of many colored hearts and flowers and said, of course, "Happy Valentine's Day." Inside was a message that I will never forget and which has defined my work ever since: "Thank you for hleping me read. Love, Danielle" Yes, exactly, "hleping." CONTINUE READING: 

Lee Continues Predictable Privatization Push – Tennessee Education Report

Lee Continues Predictable Privatization Push – Tennessee Education Report

LEE CONTINUES PREDICTABLE PRIVATIZATION PUSH

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is no fan of public schools as he makes clear time and again. Whether it is advancing voucher schemes, creating charter school slush funds, or refusing to invest in our underfunded public schools, Lee is working tirelessly to undermine public education in our state.

Now, Lee is seeking to reward charter schools in Memphis and trap more schools in the failed Achievement School District.

Chalkbeat has more:

When Tennessee started taking over low-performing schools and matching most with charter operators in 2012, the plan was to return the schools to their home districts when they improved in an estimated five years.

Now Gov. Bill Lee is proposing other options for schools that have remained in the state’s turnaround program for nearly 10 years — most notably to let some of the higher-performing ones move from one state-run district to another.

Under legislation introduced this week, Lee proposed letting some charter CONTINUE READING: Lee Continues Predictable Privatization Push – Tennessee Education Report

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money

Maurice Cunningham is a professor political science at the University of Massachusetts who has developed a unique talent for exposing the workings of Dark Money in education. The usual source of Dark Money is the multi-billionaire Walton Family, but they are not alone. In this post, he reviews the remarkable story told by the media in Rhode Island. A group of ordinary moms got together to demand charter schools. They set up a website and commissioned a poll done by President Biden’s pollster. Where did the money come from? The media forgot to ask that question. The media’s lack of curiosity about the funding behind this group of moms is curious.

On February 25, five “frustrated mothers” organized to raise money for their passion: charter schools.

What we see here is quite common, a front purporting to be parents but actually funded and acting for wealthy CONTINUE READING: Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

President Biden Breaks With His Allies on School Reopenings

President Biden Breaks With His Allies on School Reopenings

Biden’s First Big Break With His Allies Is Over School Reopenings

As Joe Biden took office, the Republican Party had no specific plan to discredit the genial and popular new president, but it did have one clean line of attack: Biden would be too beholden to teachers unions to permit a reopening of public schools. “ ‘Unions Above Children’ is the new motto of the Democrats’ plan to reopen schools,” proclaimed the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

It all made perfect sense. Teachers unions had lavished Democrats with donations and votes, and Biden had repeatedly promised during the campaign to give teachers (including, as he often mentioned, his wife) a strong hand in his education agenda. And indeed, Biden has broadly pleased his party’s left flank. He has given former Bernie Sanders staffers important posts and pushed aggressively for a generous stimulus bill while Larry Summers has wrung his hands from the sidelines. The left, which usually begins expressing its disillusionment within hours of a Democratic president’s inauguration, has instead enjoyed a honeymoon period that has lasted into the spring. On the whole, Biden’s presidency has taken on an unexpectedly progressive cast without the customary intraparty factional strife.

And yet on education, the issue on which most everybody expected Biden to veer left, he has instead swerved right. He has confounded and defied the teachers unions on a crucial policy decision. His choice to prioritize the rapid reopening of schools has surprised and dismayed his friends and his enemies alike.

The first sign that Biden might not follow the script came in late December, when he nominated Miguel Cardona as Education secretary. Biden’s staunchly pro-union campaign rhetoric had created the expectation that he would give the post either to a known union ally or perhaps a union CONTINUE READING:  President Biden Breaks With His Allies on School Reopenings

NANCY BAILEY: Why Do So Many Children Have Dyslexia? What is it Exactly?

Why Do So Many Children Have Dyslexia? What is it Exactly?

Why Do So Many Children Have Dyslexia? What is it Exactly?

Many parents and educators raise concerns about dyslexia, and some are pushing for state laws for students with dyslexia in schools.

But why do so many children have dyslexia? What is it exactly? What causes it?

Prevalence

LD Online states that a staggering 5 to 15 percent of Americans—14.5 to 43.5 million children and adults—have dyslexia, a learning disability that makes it difficult to read, write, and spell, no matter how hard the person tries or how intelligent he or she is. 

The British Dyslexia Association claims the number of individuals with dyslexia in the UK; they call a lifelong condition, is around 10 percent.

The Dyslexia International Association states…perhaps as many as 15–20% of the population as a whole—have some of the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words.

That’s a lot of people who struggle to read, but why?

What is Dyslexia? 

The International Dyslexia Association says they need to create a new definition. We now know that dyslexia is real; we know what it is and what to do about it. Is CONTINUE READING: Why Do So Many Children Have Dyslexia? What is it Exactly?

CURMUDGUCATION: GA: To Get A Voucher, Give Up Rights

CURMUDGUCATION: GA: To Get A Voucher, Give Up Rights

GA: To Get A Voucher, Give Up Rights

Georgia is on the voucher expansion bus that so many GOP-run states are vacationing on this year, but their vouchers (like those in some other states) have a special wrinkle--a requirement for students with special needs to give up their rights if they want a voucher.

Senate Bill 47 has a variety of the usual features, including a huge expansion of voucher eligibility (because, as many states are poised to re-demonstrate, the voucher playbook is to get a foot in the door by starting the program for the neediest students, and then expand expand expand). But it includes this fun paragraph: 

With respect to local school systems, the acceptance Acceptance of a scholarship shall have the same effect as a parental refusal to consent to services pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C.A. Section 1400, et seq., and a parental waiver of rights to educational accommodations under Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C.A. Section 701, et seq.

There's a bit of a one-two punch here, because SB47 also adds some language about funding-- whereas the old language said that the student should be followed by "an amount equivalent to the costs of the educational program that would have been provided for the student in the resident school system," the added language specifies that if the child had an Individualized Education Program (IEP), then the amount that follows them should factor in the cost of following that IEP. 

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the private school doesn't have to provide the IEP services, but it CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: GA: To Get A Voucher, Give Up Rights

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business

The Florida League of Women Voters has long been wary about the state’s rush to privatize public school funding through charters and vouchers. It has previously published reports on the conflicts of interests, the politics, and the money in the charter sector. In this report, it investigates the organization created to hand out money for vouchers, called “Step Up for Students.” I am posting only the introduction. To read the body of the report, please open the attached PDF file.

Step Up for Students

 Preliminary Investigative Report

League of Women Voters Education Task Force

For the past 20 years, a private organization has been growing exponentially using direct and indirect public funds largely out of public view. This organization is the conduit for an unregulated school system without standards being created by the Florida Legislature.

The organization is called Step Up for Students (StepUpForStudents.org), an SFO (Scholarship Funding Organization) that awards and manages tax credit scholarships for the state of Florida, as well as in Alabama.  According to Forbes, Step Up is the 21^st largest charity in the United States. To put that in perspective, the American Cancer Society is 18^th. In 2019 Step Up and Subsidiaries had $697,363,075 in total assets. 

Step Up began with a mission to award vouchers to low-income students to attend private schools. It has grown to include vouchers, now known as scholarships, for students with special needs, students who have been bullied, students who are homeschooled, and students with reading difficulties. The income threshold has been raised through the years to at least 300% of the poverty level, with no income threshold for homeschool or special needs students.

Step Up receives donations from corporations who CONTINUE READING: Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Contact: Dr. Sarah (Sally) Butzin

President, League of Women Voters of Tallahassee

sally.butzin@gmail.com

850-728-1097

March 2021

Introduction

I Have Begun to Worry about Where Miguel Cardona is Leading Education Policy | janresseger

I Have Begun to Worry about Where Miguel Cardona is Leading Education Policy | janresseger

I Have Begun to Worry about Where Miguel Cardona is Leading Education Policy

When my careful, watchful, and somewhat shy daughter came home for lunch on the first day of first grade, I heard the words every parent looks for on the first day of school: “After one morning, I already feel smoothed into school!” There are generations of parents in Cleveland Heights, Ohio who still wonder at the gifts, kindness, and dedication of Marlene Karkoska. What was it that she did to make our first graders feel “smoothed into school”?

What worries me right now is that despite the passage of the American Rescue Plan with lots of money for school districts and state governments to help get schools back up and running, I am still hearing a lot from policy makers about learning loss, the need for kids to make up the work in summer programs, and the need for testing to document what’s been lost. I’m not hearing enough about the calm, the encouragement, the confidence, and the enjoyment of being at school that Miss Karkoska provided for our children as the very foundation for their learning to read and compute.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s announcement last week that the federal government will mandate standardized testing for this school year came despite months of pleading for cancellation of this year’s standardized tests—advice from experts who know a lot about working with children, about learning theory, and about the problems of standardized test-based accountability for schools. My children started Kindergarten in 1985 and 1988, before standardized testing became the driver of American public education.  I wonder if people who have been creating education policy since the 1990s, when holding CONTINUE READING: I Have Begun to Worry about Where Miguel Cardona is Leading Education Policy | janresseger

Schools Matter: Scandal-Ridden TN DOE Lies to Parents about Opting Out of Tests

Schools Matter: Scandal-Ridden TN DOE Lies to Parents about Opting Out of Tests

Scandal-Ridden TN DOE Lies to Parents about Opting Out of Tests

Andy Spears recently shared a memo from the TN Department of Education denying denying parents the right to opt out of annual state testing.  Even though the invalid, unreliable, and racist tests have never been morally defensible, they are particularly indefensible during the present pandemic. 

Tennessee's corrupt Education Commissioner and former charter school CEO, Penny Schwinn, continues to circulate a one-page lie that tells parents that opting out of state testing is prohibited by state and federal laws. Any parent receiving this ridiculous memo should ignore it and keep their children safe from these irrelevant, racist, and mideducative tests that only companies that use public education as another vast revenue stream. 

Speaking of revenue streams, Broad Center alum Penny Schwinn has an established reputation for using her office to arrange lucrative no-bid contracts for her cronies in the ed industry. Before coming to Tennessee, she was caught up in a Texas-sized scandal based on playing favorites and passing out no-bid contracts.  

Since coming to Tennessee, Schwinn has continued her corrupt practices in awarding a no-bid management contract for a school voucher program and, more recently, another multimillion dollar no-bid contract for a  company to screen results on third grade reading tests.

As Bill Lee's mentor always said, only the best people. 

Schools Matter: Scandal-Ridden TN DOE Lies to Parents about Opting Out of Tests

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open

New Orleans-based James Singleton Charter School has been allowed to operate for almost two decades despite its established record as academically unacceptable and being riddled with scandal.

Here we go again, compliments of WWLTV on March 26, 2021:

NEW ORLEANS — The Dryades YMCA board of directors held a tense meeting Friday and had to scramble to deal with the retirement of its longtime president and chief executive officer as state and local police looked into allegations of employees’ falsified background checks.

It was the first time the board had met since a scathing letter earlier this month from New Orleans Public Schools alleged fake employee background checks at James Singleton Charter School, a public K-8 school run by and housed in the historic Y in Central City.

The board members gave the Y’s departing president and CEO, Doug Evans, a standing ovation after he made brief comments. He spent 45 years working for one of the few formerly segregated Black YMCA’s left in the country. Evans touted his team’s work supporting and educating the Central City community, providing youth programs and teaching water safety.

But there was no avoiding the fact that his resignation comes amid scandal.

The organization’s chief financial officer, Catrina Reed, resigned Friday.

It’s unclear what led to her departure, but federal court records show she CONTINUE REAING: NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP - Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants

Halfpoint / iStock

Late last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued updated guidance on school reopening, saying that 3 feet, not 6 feet, of physical distancing between students was sufficient in most elementary schools—regardless of the level of community spread of COVID-19.

At the same time that CDC officials were updating school policy, they were also warning that B117, a variant strain 50% more transmissible than the wild-type virus, would likely become the dominant strain in the United States by April. In some states, such as Florida and California, the variant, which was first detected in the United Kingdom, already accounts for 25% of cases.

Now several experts are concerned that schools may be opening during an inflection point in the pandemic and are being misguided about how to do so.

CDC, states struggle with school openings

Across America almost all schools closed in March and April of 2020 as the pandemic entered its first wave and peaked in places like New York City. A barrier to reopening in the fall, especially in crowded, urban school districts, was that classrooms could not accommodate students with the CDC-recommended 6 feet of physical distancing.

The CDC said mounting evidence shows little difference in school transmission rates when students are separated by 3 or 6 feet, and it points to mounting research on student mental health, physical health, and even parental job security that shows that in-person instruction is superior for most American children and families.

"It's a balance," said Ruth Lynfield, MD, Minnesota state epidemiologist. Minnesota, along with Michigan, and North Carolina, has seen school-related B117 outbreaks spread into the community in recent weeks.

"We are in a race to vaccinate as variants spread, and currently kids and their parents are not vaccinated, so communities need to work that much harder to make in-person school happen," CONTINUE READING:  Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm_27.html

KOAP In Conversation with: Fahamu Pecou (Part One)

by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h

" Layla Felder talks to Fahamu Pecou about his journey to becoming the internationally acclaimed artist he is today, his current works, and the exciting projects he’s been working on."

The Quarantine Tapes 176: Nathalie Etoke

by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h

"On episode 176 of The Quarantine Tapes , host Paul Holdengräber is joined by author Nathalie Etoke . Recorded during the time of the historic trials surrounding the death of George Floyd , Nathalie expands on the way that the pandemic has brought into focus many things that were dormant. In this moment of reckoning, Nathalie expertly addresses the truth about what shapes racism, and asks us all

Booker T. Jones – What's In My Bag?

by Mark Anthony Neal / 22h

"Soul legend Booker T. Jones went shopping at Amoeba Music in San Francisco before the pandemic. His latest album Note By Note is available from Edith Street Records." -- Amoeba

Independent Lens: Coded Bias (dir. Shalini Kantayya)

by Mark Anthony Neal / 22h

"In an increasingly data-driven, automated world, the question of how to protect individuals’ civil liberties in the face of artificial intelligence looms larger by the day. Coded Bias follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini , along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within algorithms now

Sidney Poitier on Applying Life Experiences in Acting

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

" Sidney Poitier on applying life experiences in acting, as told to American Film Institute Conservatory Fellows during a seminar in 1991."

Reimagining Blackness & Architecture: We Outchea | Sekou Cooke

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

"How can we empower people through public space? Architect Sekou Cook e discusses his project “We Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space” and his vision for transforming a public housing site in Syracuse, New York." -- The Museum of Modern Art

Invisible Blackness – The Rise of the Black Superstar, an Interview with Nelson George

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

" Nelson George is Hip-hops’ historian. A New York native, author and intellectual. Nelson has been documenting the culture with a legendary clarity since its inception. No one has articulated the nuances of Hip-hops' emergence like Nelson George. In this episode of Invisible Blackness host Adrian Younge and Nelson discuss Black popular culture and the consciousness of the African Diaspora in Ame

Cite Black Women: Dr. Koritha Mitchell on African American Women, Homemaking and Citizenship

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

"In this episode, Cite Black Women podcast host, Christen A. Smith sits down with Koritha Mitchell, a literary historian, cultural critic, and associate professor of English at the Ohio State University, to discuss her book From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture (August 2020, University of Illinois Press). In her most recent monograph, Mitchell illu

Overheard at National Geographic –The Secret of Musical Genius: Aretha Franklin

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

"Mozart wowed audiences as a child. The Beatles blew away Ed Sullivan. Beyonce hypnotized Super Bowl crowds. The world has been enthralled by those we call musical geniuses. But what defines a musical genius? And how does society recognize it? We probe these questions as we examine the life and career of Aretha Franklin , a transformational figure in American music, and the rise of a young prodig

Mudbone Grown Reimagines Black Farming in Oregon

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

"When Shantae Johnson and Arthur Shavers embarked on their “Mudbone Grown” enterprise in 2015, they were doing more than building a farm from scratch: they were changing the narrative of what it means to be a Black

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)