It’s crazy out there. 9 Out Of 10 Children Are Out Of School Worldwide. What Now? is a new piece at NPR that puts it all in good context, along with discussing its future implications….
cbaquiran / Pixabay I have several students who have had birthdays this week or having ones coming up, and I know they re less-than-thrilled with being at home. I’ve encouraged them to try video conference parties, but they’re not yet comfortable with using this kind of tech. I did send them some of the tools on this list and that at least said they enjoyed them. Of course, they might also have b
In addition to the technical and pedagogical challenges of teaching online, we teachers MUST be VERY sensitive to the impact of financial stress on our students’ lives https://t.co/7laopkVa4D — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) April 2, 2020 Our economy is in “free fall,” and we teachers have to bear this in mind when we’re leading distance learning over the next few months – as well as remembering
Author Interview: ‘Cultural Competence Now’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Vernita Mayfield agreed to answer a few questions about her book, “Cultural Competence Now: 56 Exercises to Help Educators Understand and Challenge Bias, Racism, and Privilege.” Here are some excerpts:
April is School Library Month. You might be interested in The Best Sites To Teach ELL’s About Libraries . You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Banned Books Week .
I’m adding these new resources to various “Best” lists. You can find links to all of those many lists that relate to race and racism at “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Teaching & Learning About Race & Racism: ‘Brilliant and politically savvy:’ The roles of African American women in the fight to vote 100 years ago is from USA Today. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Wo
Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay I’m adding tonight’s PBS NewsHour segment to I’m adding it to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:
geralt / Pixabay Today is Census Day. You might be interested in: The Best Resources To Learn About The U.S. Census The Best Tools For Analyzing Census Data The Best Articles Explaining Why It Would Be Terrible To Add An Immigration Status Question To The Census
geralt / Pixabay Some of these new resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To Support Teachers Dealing With School Closures: I was a guest on KQED Public Radio: California Teachers, Students Struggle with Distance Learning In theory, you s
Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. Today’s post is the 300th one in the series! Of course, this is a crazy time for “classroom” instruction…. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: LEARNING BY DOING: WH
Zillions (a scientific term ) of online education companies are offering free access during the school closure crisis (you can see a list of them at The “Best Of The Best” Resources To Support Teachers Dealing With School Closures ). Personally, I’m not using any tool that I haven’t used before, and you can see the ones I’m using with my students at HERE’S MY ONLINE TEACHING PLAN IF OUR SCHOOL CL
‘He Was a Very Good Listener’ – Students Write About Their Most Memorable Teachers is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Six students write about their most memorable teachers and why those educators
Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility
Monica Isza never got to say good-bye to her students, not really, not the way she had hoped. She settled for a FaceTime call, in which they asked a lot of questions that she couldn’t answer, like are we going to see you again?
Isza, a Michigan State University (MSU) graduate and NEA Aspiring Educators member who was spending the academic year as a student teacher at a Chicago elementary school, left her fifth graders early when MSU canceled all student-teacher placements.
Across the country, thousands of student-teachers like Isza abruptly said good-bye when the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and sent college students home. For students who are graduating next month and checking the last boxes on their licensure requirements, this cancelation has left them in limbo as states rush to implement extensions and waivers for student teachers. On top of other concerns related to the pandemic—like where to live when the dorms are closed—aspiring educators also are wondering how they’re going to get licensed to teach when they can’t complete the in-person, student-teaching requirements.
“I think about it every day,” says Homar Rodriguez, a senior at Delaware State University whose student-teaching placement was canceled when Delaware’s public schools were closed. “Hopefully they can work with us!”
California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges Newsom urged an agreement to reduce potential conflicts on employment issues
At Gov. Gavin Newsom’s urging, school labor and management groups agreed Wednesday on principles to guide them as they switch to distance learning and continue providing meals for students in the months ahead.
The 3-page “framework for labor-management collaboration” is not a mandate. By itself it won’t resolve acrimonious disputes over employee expectations, safety issues, hours and benefits that have slowed progress in distance learning in districts like Yuba City Unified and Sacramento City Unified. However, the document’s preface says, it could “spur collaboration” so that districts can get on with confronting the havoc created by the coronavirus.
“All districts and exclusive representatives should work together to find the best path for the students, the staff and communities,” it states.
Signers include associations representing school administrators, school boards and business administrators, and unions representing teachers and support staff of hourly employees (see agreement for the full list),
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond led the talks over the past month. The talks were difficult, and at one point came close to breaking down, according to some close to the discussions. Meanwhile, on their own, many districts reached either formal agreements or informal understandings on how to deal with safety threats and education challenges from the CONTINUE READING: California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges | EdSource
During Father Joseph O’Hare’s Long and distinguished tenure as President of Fordham University, I was honored to count him as a friend and well as an academic leader. We didn’t agree on all Issues, and locked horns on a few, especially athletics, but in several key instances, Father O’Hare made decisions which showed his love of justice, and his concern for our community’s most vulnerable members , which earned him a special place in my heart and in the hearts of my Departmental colleagues
I am going to share two stories which reveal this aspect of Father O’Hare’s character. Since I have not seen these mentioned in other tributes to him, i think it is important that I share them, especially in a time when we are all being tested by the worst crisis of the 21st Century
The first occurred right after Father O’Hare’s inauguration. For several years, Urban Studies majors I had been working with at Fordham were trying to persuade the University to create a Community Service Program to encourage students to get involved in a Bronx community that was fighting an uphill battle against redlining, disinvestment, drug epidemics and the stigma the Bronx carried in public discourse. Less than a month after Father O’Hare took the helm of University leadership, he agreed to meet with me and my students about this issue. After listening for more than an hour to what they had to say, he agreed, on the spot to implement what they were calling for. Within a year, Fordham launched a fully funded Community Service Program which has evolved over time into one of the best in the nation. Father O’Hare’s empathy, vision and ability to take decisive action made this possible
The second instance took place nearly five years later. At that time, the University authorized a search for a scholar of African American religion who would be primarily housed in the Theology Department, but in which the faculty in African and African CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved
The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching
During my forty years as a consultant, I have often had teachers say to me, “I would love to use some of your ideas for instruction, Russ, but…The “but” was always followed by something like “the administration”, “the test”, “these kids”, any and all the reasons you’ve heard about why something couldn’t be done. Finally, at one session I said, “Enough with the ‘buts’ from now on where you were going to say “but", you have to use the word “and.” This made a huge difference in the conversation. The word “but” qualifies a statement with a negative. The word “and” indicates a thought continues. “But” sets up roadblocks. “And” opens-up possibilities. I tried to express the concept in this poem.
Coordinating Conjunctions
If I were compelled to point a finger At the cause of educational malaise I surely wouldn’t need to linger Pondering the answer days on days.
State Superintendent Thurmond Announces New Guidance on Grades and Graduation for Seniors
SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California State Board of Education (SBE) have issued new guidance on graduation requirements and grading for seniors. The guidance is based on feedback from local education agencies, and was produced in collaboration and alignment with higher education institutions.
“We are thinking of our seniors and the impact that the current COVID-19 public health emergency and subsequent physical closure of schools has had on them, and we hope that this guidance will help relieve some stress and anxiety,” said Thurmond. “We are doing everything we can to support all our schools and students, and will continue to address seniors’ needs going forward.”
“All seniors who are on track for graduation should be able to graduate,” said State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond. “This new guidance further illustrates how students can and should be held harmless in grading, and how their work can be acknowledged.”
The guidance addresses A-G requirements and provides admissions updates for higher education for both current seniors and juniors.
For example, colleges have agreed to accept credit/no-credit or pass/fail grading where districts have decided to use it for A-G courses and other courses without impact on grade point averages. California is also extending flexibility on a wide range of issues, including testing requirements, timing of transcripts, and considerations about financial aid.
The CDE continues working with the University of California, California State University, community college system, and private and non-profit universities on solutions to many ongoing college admissions challenges.
Based on the public health emergency due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)established a nationwide waiver to support the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) while schools are responding to COVID-19.
This waiver makes the following adjustments to annual CEP deadlines:
CEP Requirement: Data Used to Calculate Identified Student Percentage (ISP)
Annual Data Deadline: April 1
New Extended Data Deadline: Anytime between April 1 and June 30, 2020
CEP Requirement: Elect CEP for Following School Year (SY)
Annual Application Deadline: June 30
New Extended Application Deadline: August 31, 2020
To review the complete language of the FNS CEP Waiver, please visit the USDA webpage.
For information on waivers and communication sent out to program operators, please refer to the California Department of Education Nutrition What’s New web page under the Disaster tab.
Background
The CEP is a four-year alternative meal counting and collection procedure included as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The intent of the CEP is to improve student access to free meals in eligible local educational agencies (LEA) and high poverty schools, while eliminating the meal application process. For more information on the CEP, please visit the California Department of Education (CDE) CEP web page.
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact your county’s School Nutrition Programs (SNP) Specialist. A list of SNP Specialists is available in the Download Forms section of the Child Nutrition Information Payment System, Form ID Caseload.
This morning on my WBAI radio show, "Talk out of School", I spoke to Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, about what’s happening to schools, teachers and families during the coronavirus crisis, and Randi’s proposal that students should be engaging in completing a meaningful “capstone” project.
A link to her essay describing her idea in more detail is below.
We also discussed the threat to schools from looming budget cuts, the risk to student privacy by the rapid adoption of unvetted ed tech programs, the Governor’s elimination of spring break in New York state, and more. You can download the episode here.
Some of the resources that we mentioned are below.
How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model?
If this was a normal year the education community would be focused on the race to the April 1 budget deadline. For months advocates and legislators have been dueling with the governor: Will the Foundation Aid formula be adjusted to benefit the lowest wealth aka, the poorest districts? Will the governor acknowledge the $3 billion plus dollars owed to school districts as a result of the CFE lawsuit decision? How will the differences in proposed school aid (governor: 800M, the Board of Regents 2B) be resolved?
Additionally, non-budgetary items may or may not have been added to the budget by the governor: possibly legalization of marijuana, rolling back bail reforms, easing the voting restrictions, etc.
We’re in a new world.
This year’s budget is unique: the governor will have almost total authority to allocate the budget dollars in slices, “tranches,” monthly or perhaps quarterly; as the year progresses slices of budget dollars may increase or decrease.
As I write, midday on April 1 the governor and the legislative leaders are still entangled in creating a budget.
The impact could be drastic cuts in school funding, perhaps layoffs.
Why can’t the state allocate endless dollars to avert economic calamities as the federal government has done?
April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online.
This post and podcast originally appeared at Streetsblog Los Angeles.
April 1 is Census Day! Every ten years, the United States government sends out a questionnaire to ask people living in America where they live and other questions about their lives. The final count of where people live helps determine how the federal government allocates resources. So the more people that fill out the census, the more money will flow into their community.
Today, SGV Connect broadcasts this half-episode with Active SGV’s Adriana Pinedo who is leading the advocacy group’s efforts to get as many people counted in the San Gabriel Valley as possible.
A quick note, in the interview I make reference to an old Saturday Night Live skit. After filling out your census, you can watch that skit here.
SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”
Although I left reporting more than four years ago, my blood still boils when people like Betsy DeVos, the supremely unqualified Secretary of Education, Senator Rand Paul, Representative Steve King, Laura Ingraham of Fox, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, convicted but pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza, and other uninformed public figures blast public school teachers and public education.
Because I’m retired, I have time to dig for the truth. And so, to find out how realAmericans feel about public school teachers, I decided to go to the grassroots. Do ordinary Americans respect teachers more than they respect lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants, and politicians?
I’ve devoted the past seven months to original field research on this subject, and I am releasing the results today.
A quick summary: Americans care deeply about public school teachers. And at the bottom of their list: politicians!
A second and entirely unexpected finding: Americans seem to have regained their moral compass, this despite the White House being occupied by a man who has paid off porn stars and boasted of grabbing women by the genitals. More about that below.
Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy A new book highlights how the movement to privatize education started with the effort to keep schools
In Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement, Steve Suitts provides much needed context for the current debate raging over “school choice,” charter schools, school vouchers, and other forms of privately operated schools that compete for public money. At 128 pages, the book is a fairly quick read but full of important content, through documentation and an impressive number of photos. Suitts, a founding director of the Alabama Civil Liberties Union, makes an impressive and convincing case that the phrase “school choice”—a term influenced by libertarian economist Milton Friedman—is the latest foray in the long effort to resegregate public schools. Overturning Brown begins with the origin of school vouchers in the Southern states, where they emerged as an attempt to keep schools segregated after the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that schools were to be desegregated in Brown v. Board of Education. After a decade-long battle, it was declared by the Supreme Court that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was unconstitutional. We are now hearing the term “school choice” again.
Mitt Romney, while on the presidential campaign trail in 2012, touted a proposal to overhaul public schools by providing vouchers to low-income students—even though he knew most students in that category would receive CONTINUE READING: Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy - Progressive.org
For the past 11 years I have posted an April Fools’ blog post in the vein of The Onion— satire about education (a quick search of the blog reveals some of the most epic, including last year’s about Besty Devos). However, because of the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic (See April Fools’ Day pranks are not funny right now. Don’t do them), I will delay this post until later in the year when we have a vaccine and the world has returned to normalcy. You have been warned. 😉 Stay healthy out there and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
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