CURMUDGUCATION: Hanushek Offers Teachers A Grand Bargain

CURMUDGUCATION: Hanushek Offers Teachers A Grand Bargain

Hanushek Offers Teachers A Grand Bargain

If there is anything we don't lack in the education sphere, it's economists who know all about how to make education work real betterer. Two faves are Raj Chetty and Eric Hanushek, who have both pushed some super-great ideas. You probably remember the one about how the right first grade teacher can mean you'll make umpty-zillion more dollars in your lifetime, a piece of foolery that might be called speculative economics, a house of cards based on so many tissue-thin assumptions, guesses and Hail Marys that it's hard to believe-- well, it boils down to sexy, memorable headline, so that's why you've heard it.

Anyway. Hanushek is over at EdWeek this week with a proposition, a proposal, a Grand Bargain, if you will-- but you probably shouldn't.

This guy, still.

Much of this is vintage Hanushek, but he's hung it on the current vogue for noticing that teacher4 pay is lousy and teacher working conditions are failing to attract hordes of awesome meat widgets. Sadly, this is what some folks think would be a grand solution.

Hanushek opens with some concern trolling-- teacher pay etc really is bad, as witnessed by tough job actions across the country over the past years, but "sequential appeasement of these outbreaks of union combativeness and teacher frustration will almost certainly not help the students and will likely make teachers worse off in the long run."

Hanushek is clear on the pay thing; he's done some of the research on the teacher penalty, aka the money that people give up to join teaching rather than other similarly-trained professions. And he is trying to dance on a thin line. On the one hand, he CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Hanushek Offers Teachers A Grand Bargain

Big Win for Denver Public Schools | tultican

Big Win for Denver Public Schools | tultican

Big Win for Denver Public Schools

By Thomas Ultican 11/7/2019

Denver voters rejected the portfolio model of school management on Tuesday. Candidates endorsed by the teachers union were the victors and the “corporate school reform” candidates lost. Leading up to the election, the education focused publication Chalkbeat pointed out,

“If candidates backed by the Denver teachers union win at least two of the three seats, union-backed members will have a majority on the board for the first time in recent history. That could set the stage for a shift away from encouraging school choice and school autonomy to more heavily investing in traditional schools.”

The teachers union endorsed candidates won all three of the seats up for election.

Big Money No Longer Enough

The board of directors’ at-large seat is voted on by the entire city. There were three candidates vying for the at-large seat: Tay Anderson, Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Natela Alexandrovna Manuntseva. Anna DeWitt filed for the seat and raised some money but was not on the ballot. Manuntseva did not have enough resources or organizational support to compete. The race was essentially between Anderson and Harrigan.

Harrigan was the most politically connected of the nine school board candidates. A Denver Post biography noted,

“Menocal Harrigan currently works in advocacy for expanding computer science education. She previously was an education adviser to then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Denver City Council aide and a staff member for Sen. Michael Bennet, who helped launch DPS’s current reform agenda during his time as superintendent.”

Anderson’s biography on the other hand looks anything but formidable. The Denver Post reported,

“Anderson, a Manual High School graduate, ran unsuccessfully for the District 4 seat in 2017, when he was 18. He currently works as restorative practices coordinator at North High School.”

Tay is now 21-years-old.

Harrigan received large contributions from Colorado billionaire, Phillip CONTINUE READING: Big Win for Denver Public Schools | tultican

Call to Action: Weigh In On Changes to COPPA | Truth in American Education

Call to Action: Weigh In On Changes to COPPA | Truth in American Education

Call to Action: Weigh In On Changes to COPPA

A federal law protecting children under the age of 13, The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (or COPPA), is about to be weakened  by the FTC.  Parents, teachers, those who care about children should pay attention. If you think parents should have a say in how their young child’s information is collected and shared and used on the internet– NOW is the time to speak up.

If you are not familiar with COPPA, this November 3, 1999 notice in The Federal Register summarizes the intent and purpose of COPPA when it was passed. Below are a few excerpts

“Congress enacted the COPPA to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use, or disclosure of personally identifiable information from and about children on the Internet.”

“The Rule implements the requirements of the COPPA by requiring operators of websites or online services directed to children and operators of websites or online services who have actual knowledge that the person from whom they seek information is a child

(1) to post prominent links on their websites to a notice of how they collect, use, and/or disclose personal information from children;

(2) with certain exceptions, to notify parents that they wish to collect information from their children and obtain parental consent prior to collecting, using, and/or disclosing such information;

(3) not to condition a child’s participation in online activities on the provision of more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the activity;

(4) to allow parents the opportunity to review and/or have their children’s information deleted from the operator’s database and to prohibit further collection from the child; and

(5) to establish procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information they collect from children. As directed by the COPPA, the Rule also provides a safe harbor for operators following Commission-approved self-regulatory guidelines.” https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1999-11-03/pdf/99-27740.pdf

Bottom line, the FTC has made changes to COPPA guidance in the past but is now proposing several potentially big changes to COPPA, including removing parent consent for when a child’s school asks the student to use online apps and platforms (edtech) such as ClassDojo, iReady, Google, YouTube, etc. See here (Section E. Question 23 covers the edtech consent exception) Exceptions to Verifiable Parental Consent:

“Should the Commission consider a specific exception to parental consent for the use of education technology used in the schools? Should this exception have similar requirements to the “school official exception” found in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”)…?”

*Speaking of FERPA, we know that FERPA was also weakened in 2008 and 2011, and  removed parent consent before collecting and sharing student information with researchers, companies, contractors, consultants, volunteers, and other parties.  Gutting FERPA by removing parent consent usurped parental rights; we should absolutely not make that same mistake by removing parent consent in COPPA. 

The FTC is accepting public comment on these proposed changes to COPPA; the deadline to comment is Dec 9, 2019. Below is a short, easy to share CALL TO ACTION with links on how to comment and how to contact your Congressperson.  Please submit a comment and do SHARE this CALL TO ACTION widely.  Thank you.

Click the link below to download the CALL TO ACTION.

Call to Action: Weigh In On Changes to COPPA | Truth in American Education

“My Grandchildren Started Out Loving School” | The Merrow Report

“My Grandchildren Started Out Loving School” | The Merrow Report

“My Grandchildren Started Out Loving School”

“My grandchildren started out loving school at 4 years old, but have now grown to dislike it, as have so many children who are deprived of the arts, recess, and true learning.”

That’s one sentence from a very moving letter from someone who read last week’s post in which I reached out to Maria Montessori, John Dewey and Aristotle to get their reactions to 20+ years of ‘Education Reform’ and its impact on NAEP scores.

I wonder how many more grandparents and parents feel as she does, their hearts sinking as they see children’s vitality, their love of learning, and their curiosity diminishing or disappearing?  It doesn’t have to be this way.

In last week’s post I said that rescuing public education requires a new paradigm in which educators ask, ‘How is this child intelligent?”   Our current system, which is designed to sort students into ‘winners’ and ‘losers,’ uses test scores, parental status, income, residency, race, and social class to answer the wrong question, “How smart is this kid?”

While it’s easy to say, ‘Ask a different question,’ what can people who aren’t on School Boards actually do to change the direction of public education? What steps are required?

I believe that there are seven specific steps/tasks/actions that parents, other citizens, and change-oriented teachers can initiate.  While my book, “Addicted to Reform,” provides a 12-step program, several entail coming to grips with the expensive failures of “School Reform.”  In this post, I will briefly describe three of them: Measuring What We Care About; Expecting More from Students; and CONTINUE READING: “My Grandchildren Started Out Loving School” | The Merrow Report

Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education

John Thompson: Why School Integration Matters | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Why School Integration Matters | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Why School Integration Matters

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, reviews an important recent book. It is ironic that the evidence for the value of integration grows at the same pace as resegregation.

Surely we can agree with Malcolm Forbes on one thing: schools should nurture “the art of thinking individually together.” Can we agree that the path to such a goal requires school integration?

Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, by Rucker Johnson and Alexander Nazaryan, cites Forbes’ statement when presenting a powerful case for a new era of desegregation. Johnson and Nazaryan refute the widely held belief that integration and the War on Poverty failed. They offer a compelling, evidence-based vision of equality in education and the economy where diversity is a driving force.

https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/selected-publications/children-of-the-dream-why-school-integration-works

Misconceptions about school desegregation contributed to the contemporary school “reform” movement, which was based on the false premise and glib assertion that our children can’t wait for a victory over racism and poverty, so we must seek individual levers for immediately transforming schools. This simplistic hypothesis morphed into corporate school reform which used the stress of test-driven competition to overcome the stress of poverty, and segregation by choice to overcome the legacies of Jim Crow and de facto segregation.

Reformers have thus imposed a series of disconnected CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: Why School Integration Matters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Donate to Help Us Keep DeVos in the Hot Seat in 2020 - Network For Public Education

Donate to Help Us Keep DeVos in the Hot Seat in 2020 - Network For Public Education

Donate to Help Us Keep DeVos in the Hot Seat in 2020

This holiday season please remember to give a gift to save public education by donating to NPE. We cannot do the work we do without your financial support.

Last year, we put Betsy DeVos in the hot seat when it was time to defend her budget. Our major investigative report on the federal Charter Schools Program, Asleep at the Wheel, was quoted by four House members during budget hearings. Watch the video below and listen to Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro grill Betsy DeVos based on that report.

In 2020, we will release Asleep at the Wheel Part 2. We cannot let the DeVos agenda of school privatization continue.

Your donation to the Network for Public Education supports our advocacy work– our reports, toolkits, investigations, grassroots group work, email alerts and more. Each year we host, with NPE Action, an annual conference that we heavily subsidize. All we do depends on you.

We have big plans for 2020 as the battle to privatize our public school system pushes forward in nearly every state house. We will issue new reports, promote Public Schools Week, raise public awareness, and expand and mobilize our Grassroots network. We are making great progress. But to continue the fight, we need your help. Give generously here and know that your donation will be generously matched. Your donation is tax deductible and you will receive either an email or letter receipt.

If you prefer to send a check, please send it to:

Network for Public Education

PO Box 227

New York, NY 10156


Donate to Help Us Keep DeVos in the Hot Seat in 2020 - Network For Public Education

Big Education Ape: Help save public education by giving to NPE - If You Shop at Amazon, Please Designate the Network for Public Education as Your Charity - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/11/help-save-public-education-by-giving-to.html

How PTA Fundraising Makes Schools Less Equal - The Atlantic

How PTA Fundraising Makes Schools Less Equal - The Atlantic

The Power of a Wealthy PTA
Thanks to parents’ donations, some public schools can afford shiny extras like coding classes, camping trips, and classroom iPads.

Parent-teacher associations, or PTAs, are generally considered quaint and charming at best, and innocuous at worst. Run by volunteers, they are known for organizing bake sales and holiday parties, and buying gifts for Teacher Appreciation Day.

But PTAs, despite their wholesome reputation, can also wield significant financial power, helping determine which programs a school can afford to offer. A PTA at a well-off school might raise a million dollars or more to pay for additional teachers’ salaries, band or orchestra instruments, a new library, iPads for classrooms, field trips, or other initiatives.

Other PTAs can’t afford things like that, which can give different schools, even those close to one another, vastly different resources. When I toured pre-K schools for my son in New York City, I was surprised by how different the offerings were at sought-after schools in our area. Some had free violin lessons, yearly camping trips, and coding classes, in addition to art, science, and music teachers. My son ended up at a school that was close to where we live and felt friendly to us, though it didn’t have many “enrichments” beyond what regular classroom teachers provide.

I later learned that most of the shiny extras (and even some full-time aides and specialty subject teachers) at the other schools were funded by PTAs with budgets in the six and seven figures. Our school’s PTA had less than a thousand dollars in the bank. New York City’s public schools get funding for their core services mostly on a per-student basis (schools where 40 percent or more of students are from low-income households get additional money under a federal provision called Title 1), but PTAs account for many differences in funding for auxiliary programs.

Read: How marginalized families are pushed out of PTAs

Other things are also responsible for disparities between many schools in the United States—notably, in some communities, higher property-tax revenues in CONTINUE READING: How PTA Fundraising Makes Schools Less Equal - The Atlantic

Andre Perry: As Republicans stress political fiction over facts, students’ math and reading scores fall

As Republicans stress political fiction over facts, students’ math and reading scores fall

As Republicans stress political fiction over facts, students’ math and reading scores fall
GOP remedy for the decline? More of the policies that may have prompted it 

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics released the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for mathematics and reading in the fourth and eighth grades. The top-level findings of the report, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, show that academic achievement across the United States in these critical subjects has stalled. Gaps between the highest- and lowest-achieving students in most states have widened, and disparities among racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups have grown.

The report set off a heated debate about the reasons for this decline. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos weighed in, taking the opportunity to double down on old talking points, instead of offering potential new paths for moving forward.

“It’s way past time we dispense with the idea that more money for school buildings buys better achievement for school students,” DeVos said in a speech responding to the NAEP scores. She wasn’t the only conservative to peddle shopworn reform wares. Writing in Education Next, Paul Peterson of the right-leaning think tank The Hoover Institution stated, “The shift corresponds almost exactly with the abandonment of effective enforcement of the accountability system put into place by No Child Left Behind.” Conservative analysts can’t get enough of preaching accountability — to black and CONTINUE READING: As Republicans stress political fiction over facts, students’ math and reading scores fall

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How The State Supports Discrimination By Charters

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How The State Supports Discrimination By Charters

FL: How The State Supports Discrimination By Charters

A Florida news station has heard from the state's department of education exactly how charter schools can discriminate against students with special needs.

Part of the charter sales pitch has always been a claim that charters offer alternatives to all students. Just look at this happy blurb from the National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools:

The answer to “Can charter schools deny students?” is a beautiful-sounding “no.” Charter schools are free, public, and open to all students.

It may sound beautiful, but the reality is less lovely.

There's no surprise here. Charter schools are businesses, and no business thrives or survives without targeting certain customers for inclusion and others for exclusion. Every business has to have an answer to the question, "Which customers do we want, and which customers do we not want?" Wal-mart, McDonalds, Olive Garden, Louis Vutton-- they've all made choices and they all communicate clearly through marketing, store design, and product offerings which customers are welcome, and which are not. If you are committed to fine, upscale dining, you aren't forbidden to walk into Micky D's, but they've made it clear that they are not going to expend the money and effort involved in providing you with the kind of experience you desire.

This is normal, natural--even necessary- business behavior. And charter schools are businesses.

So charters have found ways to control their customer base. An involved application process. Just kind of ghosting applicants with special needs. Some charters just flat out deny admission  to CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How The State Supports Discrimination By Charters

Education Matters: The FLDOE admits they rig the game for charters and charters are allowed to discriminate.

Education Matters: The FLDOE admits they rig the game for charters and charters are allowed to discriminate.

The FLDOE admits they rig the game for charters and charters are allowed to discriminate.

You know it’s funny after these revelations, I thought there would be a bigger outcry. More people would be upset and maybe Tallahassee would want to do something to make the playing ground level, but thus far they have been met with a collective shrug.

In Jacksonville it was reported that an autistic boy was turned away from a charter school, because they said he wouldn’t be a good fit. You will find similar stories all across the state so where repellent it’s not that unusual, what is however is the state department of education said that was just fine. 

From Action News Jax,

It’s against the law for public schools and charter schools to turn away students because of special needs.

However, Action News Jax learned there’s a catch. 

The Florida Department of Education said it’s not discriminatory for charters to suggest a different school that would better serve a student with disabilities.

  

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/some-parents-say-some-north-east-florida-schools-are-turning-away-students-with-disabilities/1005049063

Well that’s quite the catch isn’t it. I mean what parent is going to want to send their child to a school who obviously doesn’t want them. The FLDOE has given charter schools CONTINUE READING:Education Matters: The FLDOE admits they rig the game for charters and charters are allowed to discriminate.

NANCY BAILEY: The Failure of Betsy DeVos and 30 Years of Corporate Influence on Public Schools!

The Failure of Betsy DeVos and 30 Years of Corporate Influence on Public Schools!

The Failure of Betsy DeVos and 30 Years of Corporate Influence on Public Schools!

Frustrated by public schools? Look no further than the corporate education reformers and what they have done to public education.

Education Secretary DeVos and her corporate billionaire friends have been chipping away at the fabric of democratic public schools for over thirty years!

The problems we see in public schools today are largely a result of what they did to schools, the high-stakes testing and school closures, intentional defunding, ugly treatment of teachers, lack of support staff, segregated charter schools, vouchers that benefit the wealthy, Common Core State Standards, and diminishing special education services.

Big business waged a battle on teachers and their schools years ago. The drive was to create a business model to profit from tax dollars. Now they want to blame teachers for their corporate-misguided blunders! It’s part of their plan to make schools so unpleasant, parents will have no choice but to leave.

Americans used to be relatively happy with their public schools. By 2019, they were frustrated, but they still believed in teachers!

Back up to the early 1970s. Ray Budde, a teacher turned principal turned college CONTINUE READING: The Failure of Betsy DeVos and 30 Years of Corporate Influence on Public Schools!

Breaking: Did Kentucky teachers turn out Bevins? What next? – Fred Klonsky

Breaking: Did Kentucky teachers turn out Bevins? What next? – Fred Klonsky

BREAKING: DID KENTUCKY TEACHERS TURN OUT BEVINS? WHAT NEXT?

Randy Wieck is a Kentucky teacher and pension activist. He sent this special to this blog as the Kentucky vote was still being counted. 

If the election results hold for the Governor’s race in Kentucky – Democrat Andy Beshear seems to hold a 5100 vote lead, and IF incumbent Matt Bevin recognizes the result (always in doubt with autocrats – think Robert Mugabe) THEN governor-elect Beshear faces a flock of angry birds in the Republican super-majorities in both Kentucky legislative chambers – think Tippy Hedron in Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Will Beshear’s likely vetoes of draconian attempts to continue Bevin’s/Devos’s charter agenda – even in Bevin’s absence (!) – end up in the courts?

Will the Kentucky legislature attempt to push through ANOTHER pension deform law – this time squarely taking aim at the teacher portion of the Kentucky pension system?

To this observer, we teachers have plugged a hole in the dyke – but with the rising of hostile seas, and with a down-ticket Republican sweep of the other offices on the ballot – think Daniel Cameron as the new Attorney General – we must prepare for a long twilight struggle against the powerful anti-public education forces which have CONTINUE READING: Breaking: Did Kentucky teachers turn out Bevins? What next? – Fred Klonsky

EdChoice Voucher Expansion in Ohio Creates a New Kind of School Funding Inequity | janresseger

EdChoice Voucher Expansion in Ohio Creates a New Kind of School Funding Inequity | janresseger

EdChoice Voucher Expansion in Ohio Creates a New Kind of School Funding Inequity

Steve Dyer’s new Innovation Ohio report on Ohio’s FY 2020-20121 state budget begins: “When Governor Mike DeWine signed HB 166 into law, he approved a budget that lawmakers had packed full of little-noticed gifts to those who seek to erode support for traditional public schools through a proliferation of charter and private school options funded at taxpayer expense.” He continues: “This is just the latest in a series of expansions of vouchers in Ohio law. The state has been on the front lines of the private school voucher fight for two decades.”

One of the ways vouchers were expanded in this budget is that, while in the past, all students except those entering Kindergarten must have been enrolled during the previous school year in the public school district from which the student seeks to carry away a voucher to a private or religious school, the new budget bill erodes this protection for public schools. The Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) explains: “Generally, students wishing to claim a voucher under the original EdChoice voucher program must have attended a public school in the previous school year. However, HB 166 codifies in law… (that) students going into grades 9-12 need not first attend a public school. In other words, high school students already attending a private school can obtain a voucher.” This change in state law means that Ohio’s public school districts will now be subsidizing the education of many students, primarily those in religious schools, who have never intended to use the public schools.

But the implications of the new state budget voucher expansion are not merely because a new group of students will be awarded vouchers. A new white paper ( Executive Summary or Full Report), released this month by the Heights Coalition for Public Education and written by the Ohio Federation of Teachers’ Darold Johnson and the Heights Coalition’s Susan Kaeser and Ari CONTINUE READING: EdChoice Voucher Expansion in Ohio Creates a New Kind of School Funding Inequity | janresseger

NYC Educator: Another Day, Another Vilification of Teacher Tenure.

NYC Educator: Another Day, Another Vilification of Teacher Tenure.

Another Day, Another Vilification of Teacher Tenure.

Sometimes there's so much to say, I'm puzzled just how to begin. I'll say this, though, We have a President of the United States who dozens of women have accused of rape, virtually wiping his ass with the US Constitution, attacking the free press, and the New York Post is attacking teacher tenure.

Here's the argument, which I've heard a million times, from Giuliani, to Bloomberg, to Campbell Brown and who knows who else--we found a few teachers accused of outrages and not fired, and therefore no teacher should have due process, otherwise known as tenure. This is akin to suggesting that Americans ought not to have trials or due process because sometimes guilty people go free. (Except for the guy in the White House, of course, who denies everything and anything and ought not to be charged with anything, let alone tried for anything. You see, any argument against him is "fake news.")

Here's part of one of the Post's awful stories:

The alleged victim recanted, officials said, but the city feared Miller enough to bar him from the classroom forever. His pay rose to $127,333 last year.

With no case, evidently, the city was expected to fire the teacher for no reason whatsoever. Nonetheless, it's an unpardonable sin that the teacher is getting paid. The fact that there's no case against him is neither here nor there.

Here's what you won't read in the New York Post, or from Campbell Brown, or from any local paper who prints these stories--there are a whole lot of teachers brought up on charges for little or no reason. I'm personally acquainted with some of them. Usually I can't write about them, but I did here. Most people facing outlandish charges don't want publicity. They're more concerned with protecting their livelihoods.

How many people lost their jobs for no reason? I'm thinking of one right now, and I can't tell you her story, even though I wrote it years ago. She's still fighting it and doesn't CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Another Day, Another Vilification of Teacher Tenure.

With A Brooklyn Accent: Memories of Another Election Three Years Ago- And My Game Plan for Resisting the Trump Presidency

With A Brooklyn Accent: Memories of Another Election Three Years Ago- And My Game Plan for Resisting the Trump Presidency

Memories of Another Election Three Years Ago- And My Game Plan for Resisting the Trump Presidency

As I woke up this morning, I had vivid memories of this time three years ago when the country woke up to learn that Donald Trump had been elected President

The impact at Fordham, in particular, stood out in my mind. In the days following the election,white nationalist flyers were posted all over the University and the students in my 8:30 Affirmative Action Seminar, which met that Friday, were frightened and traumatized. Some were silent, some were weeping openly, terrified that Trump's election meant that they and their families would be under attack, either directly from the government, or indirectly from Trump's White Supremacist followers emboldened to take action against immigrants and people of color.

Worst of all, they felt unsafe at Fordham, so I felt I had to do something, I pulled together a multi racial group of alumni I knew to create a "Rapid Response Unit to Bias Attacks" that
any Fordham student could call if they felt in danger of being attacked. I posted a picture of the group, and some contact numbers and my students felt reassured. Unfortunately, our unit upset some people in Student Affairs who insisted that they had a rapid response unit of their own, but the point had been made. There was a dangerous climate in the nation that people needed to address and come together to protect their more vulnerable neighbors

In the days and weeks that followed, I developed a "game plan" to survive the Trump Presidency. Because I had developed a national network of friends through my education activism, particularly the creation of the Badass Teachers Association, I decided to concentrate on building local networks to resist racists CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: Memories of Another Election Three Years Ago- And My Game Plan for Resisting the Trump Presidency