In Praise of the Unheralded | One Flew East

In Praise of the Unheralded | One Flew East

IN PRAISE OF THE UNHERALDED

allen watkin from London, UK [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D

Too much of what goes on around the teaching profession these days seems designed to undermine the confidence and effectiveness of teachers. I know, it’s not meant that way, not really. But low pay, false narratives about “failing” schools, imposed methodologies and mythical “outcomes,” the quantification of assessment, and the fallacious idea that “anyone can do it” (backed by training programs claiming a few weeks preparation is enough before entering the classroom) tell us otherwise.

Teaching is hard enough without this nonsense. It requires work and sacrificing one’s ego for the benefit of a room full of students, most of whom would rather be anyplace else. The teacher may seem to be the center of the classroom, but the teacher fails when that becomes the truth–and stopping that is exhausting. Teaching requires constant attention to two things (more, actually, but these are critical), the goals of the lesson and the paths of individual learners, two things that diverge as each class session evolves. Teaching requires adapting syllabi and lesson plans constantly as the reality of student progress unfolds.

No one cares about any of this, or so it seems when we look at discussions of teaching and teachers in the public sphere. Instead of recognizing the difficulties all teachers work to overcome (and do, much of the time), people keep telling me and others about brilliant “master teachers” who shine in the classroom. I’m supposed to be impressed when they mention the performances of colleagues who win teaching awards or have consistently high Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) scores. And I’m expected to applaud when I hear others brag about how tough they are in their grading or how far their star students have gone. I guess I’m supposed to be abashed or moved to shut up, sit at their feet and learn; after all, I concentrate only on CONTINUE READING: In Praise of the Unheralded | One Flew East

Repenning Is The Charter Candidate in LAUSD’s Runoff For Board District 5 – redqueeninla

Repenning Is The Charter Candidate in LAUSD’s Runoff For Board District 5 – redqueeninla

Repenning Is The Charter Candidate in LAUSD’s Runoff For Board District 5

Jackie Goldberg is on record, with great, deep, theoretical and experiential evidence, for not being “against charters”. Do listen to her nuanced and knowledgeable explanation here. Given the opportunity to elect someone with such practical understanding of Education not to mention education politics, there can be no excuse to reject the leadership of Jackie Goldberg. May 14 is the date every voter in LAUSD5 must turn out. Find your polling place here.

But if Goldberg is not against charters, is her candidacy favored by those who would privatize public education?  Positively not.  She has no record of campaign donations from folks associated with the privatization of education, not during the primary campaign or in this runoff:

Her opponent, however, repudiated charter money in the primary to some degree, conspicuously returning donations from KIPP’s Marcia Aaron, Celerity’sNadia Shaiq, and the online charter chain Options For Youth’s Bob Morales. Even while a minimum of 6% (from a very conservative association-count) of her private donations came from charter-associates. These included a fund-raiser and two maxed-out donations from YPI’s Dixon Slingerland and family, as well as thousands more from charter board members, staff and ideologues such as: Bill CONTINUE READING:Repenning Is The Charter Candidate in LAUSD’s Runoff For Board District 5 – redqueeninla

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

A version of this article originally appeared at The Progressive

In the ongoing national parent revolt against high-stakes standardized testing, New York has had the largest test refusal movement by far, with approximately one in five students refusing each year since 2015. The first round of this year’s grades 3-8 tests began last week amid fresh outrage over punitive new regulations and an official misinformation campaign designed to intimidate and confuse parents. The drama now unfolding in New York in response to this year’s testing troubles foreshadows a growing national clash over what really counts in our schools. 

Seeing their concerns ignored, New York parents began publicly sharing district letters showing threats, bribes, and false information. The chaos and contention was compounded by a large online system crash almost immediately after testing began April 2; reports emerged that the state’s computer-based testing platform would not let some students log on or submit tests they had worked on for hours. By day’s end, headlines from Long Island to Buffalo and everywhere between declared the online testing a “debacle”. 

According to the NY State Education Department, some 6,600 students were affected; all online testing was postponed one day as experts scrambled to troubleshoot the problem. Because a similar crashplagued New York schools last year (along with student data breaches), the NYS Council of School Superintendents, the largest state teachers’ union NY State United Teachers, and the NY State Parent CONTINUE READING: Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York