CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Pet Recovery Day Edition (7/5)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Pet Recovery Day Edition (7/5)

 Pet Recovery Day Edition

Our current dog is impervious to pretty much everything other than people on our front porch. But my previous dog spent every July 4 cowering under a shed, and every year I think of him and all the pets like him. This year, a number of things derailed our usual Fourth celebration, including the cancellation of local fireworks. But today can still be a rest and reflect opportunity. And I have things for you to read.

Watchdog Report Shows DeVos Still Screwing Around With Stimulus Money   

You know that I sometimes paraphrase these headlines, right. Here's Wesley Whistle at Forbes with the latest in DeVosian misbehavior. 

Rule Followers, Unite! And Stay Alive...   

Nancy Flanagan spins off some meme wisdom.

Summit Study Follow Up (They're still shady)   

So, NEPC wrote a study that suggests that Summit Education is big on claims, low on actual evidence. This made Summit (even though they had steadfastly stonewalled NEPC while they were trying to do the study), and they wrote a rebuttal. Now you can read NEPC's rebuttal to the rebuttal, pointing out that Summit's "defense" repeats all of the problems they were called out on in the first place.

9 Things To Make Black Lives Matter In Our Public Schools

The Grio asked a slate of writers to contribute to this list, including Andre Perry and Jitu Brown.

Education Dept Left Social Security Numbers Exposed   

Along with everything else they've been up to, it turns out the department left a bunch of borrower SS numbers exposed on the web for at least six months. Yikes. From the Washington Post.  

America's Schools Are Named After Some Horrible People  

Rick Hess (AEI) at EdWeek makes a case for renaming the schools named after Confederate heroes. 

The Schools Situation Is A Complete Crisis.    

I have shied away at ICYM from the new sub-genre of "We can't open schools but we must open schools but we can't but here's how to do what can't be done" because, as I'[ve said repeatedly, solutions will be specific and local. But this is a pretty good example in plain language, from CNN of all places.

How Schools Work    

This one, too. Jersey Jazzman lays out some of the details that crafters of these nifty plans have overlooked (because they don't nbecesarily know them to begin with).

City Schools Trapped in Death Spiral   

York, PA schools are in a mess and have been for a while (extra notable because that's our governor's home town). Here the editorial board of the York Dispatch points some fingers and names some names about how this happens, and how bad it is.

The McNamara Fallacy and the Problem with Numbers in Education    

This Chronotope piece from 2015 recently resurfaced and it's worth a read-- a good explanation of how devotion to data over everything else leads to things like catastrophic land wars in Asia. Lots for education to learn.

Success Academy Parent: SA "Discriminatory, Hurts Public Schools."    

A Success Academy parent contacted Mercedes Schneider about problems with the infamous charter chain. Pushing kids out. Classroom bias. 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Pet Recovery Day Edition (7/5)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Report: PA Charters Game The Special Education System. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/07/02/report-pa-charters-game-the-special-education-system/#357e420c7828 by @palan57 on @forbes

SCOTUS Just Poked Another Hole In The Wall Separating Church And State; Schools Will Suffer. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/30/scotus-just-poked-another-hole-in-the-wall-separating-church-and-state/#2e2e64237172 by @palan57 on @forbes

New Report: Zuckerberg’s Favorite Digital Ed Program Is All Sizzle, No Steak - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/25/new-report-zuckerbergs-favorite-digital-ed-program-is-all-sizzle-no-steak/#248e700d6b5b by @palan57 on @forbes

Trump Comes After Public School Teachers

2Kby Peter Greene / 20h

Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains. One of the big pull quotes from Donald Trump's historically shallow paean to the idea of American exceptionalism on July 3rd at Mount Rushmore, an attack on public education and the teachers who work there e

Baradaran: The Neoliberal Looting of America

67by Peter Greene / 1d

Mehrsa Baradaran, who wrote The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap (a properly self-explanatory title), had a great piece this week in the New York Times-- not directly about education, but involving many points that folks in the education world will recognize. " The Neoliberal Looting of America " is behind the usual paywall, and if you have means to get past it, I recommend th

Oh Good Lord In Heaven We're Going To Mess With College Loans Again

78by Peter Greene / 2d

One hallmark of the DeVos era has been a deep devotion to debt-- specifically the debt of students who tried to go to college, and making sure that Those People don't try to wiggle out of it . She has stayed close to companies in the debt biz , a biz that she has her own ties to . All of this is why some folks have looked askance at her stated desire to shake up Federal Student Aid, the gazillion-

Betsy Devos's Happy Day

70by Peter Greene / 3d

There is plenty of joy in some Reformsterville neighborhoods these days, thanks to the not-unexpected ruling by the Supreme Court on Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue . As some education f olks have pointed out , it could have been worse. The court said that if states are going to pay for any non-public schools, they must include religious schools in the mix, which is not as bad as saying

To Everyone Who Was Never A Classroom Teacher, Re Pandemic School Openings

9Kby Peter Greene / 5d

To everyone who was never a classroom teacher but who has some ideas about how school should be reopened in the fall: Hush. Just hush. There are some special categories of life experiences. Divorce. Parenthood. Deafness. Living as a Black person in the US. Classroom teacher. They are very different experiences, but they all have on thing in common. You can read about these things. But if you haven

ICYMI: Yes, It's Still Happening Edition (6/28)

29by Peter Greene / 6d

I haven't reminded you for a while-- if you read something here that speaks to you, go to the original posting site and share that puppy. You have the power to amplify voices. Everything that ever went viral was shared one person at a time. So do your part and spread the word. An Experiment in the Socially-Distanced Classroom From the blog "Counting From Zero," some teachers head to the classroom

Florida Tightens The Public Education Noose

1Kby Peter Greene / 7d

I have run out of words for Florida. It's been a little more than a year since I dubbed them "the worst," and there really isn't anything to add to that, except of course there is. The leadership positions under Governor Ron DeSantis 

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

The Blessings of Liberty Include Fully Public Education | Teacher in a strange land

The Blessings of Liberty Include Fully Public Education | Teacher in a strange land

The Blessings of Liberty Include Fully Public Education

I wrote this blog on July 5, 2018–at a site that is now blocked by a paywall. Yesterday, I read Donald Trump’s speech at Mt. Rushmore, and his follow-up speech–pretty much the same blah-blah–at the White House, on July 4. When this popped up in my feed today, it felt as if I was naive then–that I had no idea just how far evil would rise, how a terrible crisis could drive the country even further apart. All of this still applies.

______________

I played my flute in a patriotic-themed outdoor concert last night with the Northport Community Band–as cooling breezes blew across Grand Traverse Bay and firecrackers popped in the distance. There were at least 400 people seated in lawn chairs, clapping along to You’re a Grand Old Flag, The National Emblem and The Stars and Stripes Forever. We played a service medley, as we always do, asking veterans to stand when the tune representing their branch of the service was played. This is standard for our summer concerts–and I usually think of this as hokey, the musical equivalent of a ‘Support Our Troops!’ bumper sticker.

But last night, instead of zoning out during the rests, I watched the crowd–the old men struggling to get to their feet or simply waving from their wheelchairs as the crowd clapped and cheered for them. And I thought of all the major sacrifices–not just lives of young, innocent men and women, determined to serve their country, but the endless struggles for civil rights and equity and justice. I reflected on the striving, loss and pain incurred in the ongoing process of trying to make this nation a true democracy (or republic–take your choice).

The people who tartly point out that we have never been a just and fair nation are correct. But I don’t remember a Fourth of July where I’ve felt more discouraged about the home of the brave, land of the not-really free.

I also still feel a deep commitment, an obligation, to the relevant principles, even as CONTINUE READING: The Blessings of Liberty Include Fully Public Education | Teacher in a strange land

Announcing The 2020 “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award” Winners! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Announcing The 2020 “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award” Winners! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Announcing The 2020 “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award” Winners!

Meet the new winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award!

All around the nation young people are joining an uprising for Black Lives. These youth are not only rejecting police violence, but increasingly rejecting a system that allow the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and so many other Black people. These young people have also made clear they also want to build a school system that teaches the truth about Black history and uplifts Black people.

These rebellious youth are exactly why I founded the Seattle based Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA). This award offers a $1000 package to deserving Seattle public school students who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice against institutional racism

The BEMSAA board recently honored four of the most dynamic students activists in the struggle for Black lives who have been doing this work for years. I am so inspired by this year’s winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award. They have all contributed greatly to undoing institutional racism in the schools and the boarder society and have demonstrated brave leadership in struggles for social justice.

2020 BEMSAA Awardees: CONTINUE READING: Announcing The 2020 “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award” Winners! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Wendy Lecker: Connecticut Charter Schools Are Double Dipping | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker: Connecticut Charter Schools Are Double Dipping | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker: Connecticut Charter Schools Are Double Dipping

Wendy Lecker is a civil rights attorney who writes often for the Stamford (Ct.) Advicate. she writes here about the disgraceful double dipping of charter schools in Connecticut, taking funds designated for public schools, then seeking and getting federal funds intended for small businesses.

Are charter schools to be defined as public schools or private businesses? When it’s time to get public money, they insist they are public schools, even though they are controlled by private boards. But when the money is for private businesses only, they line up to get the money. They are shape-shifters.

Lecker writes that the charters got their share of money intended for public schools:

With the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, Congress provided federal aid to public schools, and specifically directed that charter schools receive aid as public schools. Connecticut public school districts and charter schools are receive comparable aid under the CARES Act’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (“ESSERF”). For example, New Haven will receive about $8 million, so a CONTINUE READING: Wendy Lecker: Connecticut Charter Schools Are Double Dipping | Diane Ravitch's blog

EdAction in Congress July 5, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress July 5, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress July 5, 2020

New COVID-19 Senate bill provides relief for students and educators

As Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ignored the resurgence of COVID-19 and shut down the Senate for two weeks, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act to help reopen schools and campuses safely and save educators’ jobs. The bill would provide $175 billion for K-12 schools, $132 billion for higher education, and $4 billion for the E-Rate program to help narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap—all NEA priorities.

The bill would also provide $12 billion for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and prevent Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from using taxpayer dollars for voucher schemes instead of the public schools that educate 9 out of 10 students, as Congress intended. Learn more about McConnell and his enablers—five senators standing in the way of helping public schools now. And tell your senators to push for immediate action on the next coronavirus package. TAKE ACTION

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House votes to provide $130 billion for school modernization

By a vote of 233-188, the House passed the Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), which now includes the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act that provides significant support for modernizing public schools. Specifically, the bill would create a $100 billion grant program that targets high-poverty schools and a $30 billion tax-credit bond program for repairing, renovating, and modernizing school facilities that pose health and safety risks to students and staff. It would also provide $5 billion in funding to help close the digital divide and equip more students to go online. Nationwide, as many as 12 million students—1 in 5—are unable to do schoolwork at home due to lack of internet access. Now it is time for the Senate to act. TAKE ACTION

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Cheers and Jeers

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ)voted for the Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2).

Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to ensure internet access for all K-12 students so they can do schoolwork at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked for unanimous consent to pass the bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act passed by the House more than 400 days ago. The bill would create a path to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) objected to Sen. Durbin’s unanimous consent request on behalf of Senate Republicans.

EdAction in Congress July 5, 2020 - Education Votes

"Sesame Street" talked to our kids about racism. Parents need to keep teaching those lessons | Salon.com

"Sesame Street" talked to our kids about racism. Parents need to keep teaching those lessons | Salon.com

"Sesame Street" talked to our kids about racism. Parents need to keep teaching those lessons

Growing up as a brown child in Kentucky, my family didn't teach me about racism or white supremacy. I wish they had

"Sesame Street" hosted a televised town hall special with CNN on COVID-19 a month ago. It was informative and helpful, if a little dry at times: Elmo and Big Bird asking Dr. Sanjay Gupta and other experts questions that kids might have about the virus. "Sesame Street" made it not scary, while still emphasizing the gravity of the pandemic. Then they hosted another a couple of weeks ago, this one about how to talk to your kids about racism. But even though the content is kid-appropriate, "Coming Together: Standing up to Racism" is really for parents. Elmo's dad's clear and gentle explanation of the current wave of anti-racism protests is one many American adults might need to hear.

Sweet, big-eyed children with their siblings and parents made short videos of succinct and well-rehearsed questions, the kinds that kids are asking everywhere. A Black girl and her sisters on screen asks, How do I answer my friends when they respond, 'But all lives matter,' while still protecting myself? Brown twins ask, Why do people have different skin colors? A white mom asks, I thought teaching colorblindness was enough — what should I be teaching my white children instead?

The answers were fact-laden and given by a diverse panel of experts. The most helpful thing for me to hear, as a woman of color raising a racially ambiguous toddler, is that it's never too early to begin these conversations, and that age-appropriate children's books are an excellent starting point. This is not the first time that (white) parents have considered how to talk to their children about racism. More than 50 years ago, Mr. Rogers dipped his feet in a kiddie pool alongside Officer Clemmons, a Black police officer character, to talk about racism and segregation. This was at a time when public pools in the South would rather be dry and empty all summer than let Black kids swim.

I have seen and heard a few arguments to keep discussions about race and white supremacy away from CONTINUE READING: "Sesame Street" talked to our kids about racism. Parents need to keep teaching those lessons | Salon.com

As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme | Common Dreams News

As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme | Common Dreams News

As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme
"With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession, and structural racism, she's spied an opening to exploit this crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda."

With the Trump administration planning to demand that Congress devote a large chunk of the state and local education funding in the next Covid-19 relief package to a new grant program for private and religious schools, the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers on Thursday accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of attempting to exploit the pandemic to advance her privatization agenda.

"It is telling that, after spending more than three years doing nothing to help the public schools that 90 percent of children attend, Betsy DeVos races to divert resources into private hands 48 hours after the Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement, referring to the high court's ruling Tuesday that religious schools cannot be excluded from taxpayer aid programs.

"Secretary DeVos and President Trump are using this pandemic as an excuse to push an ideological privatization agenda that would divert much-needed funds away from our public schools."
—Sen. Patty Murray

"With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession, and structural racism, she's spied an opening to exploit this crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda," said Weingarten. "And it's especially sickening that, in the middle of a national reckoning over race, when poor schools are in desperate need of funds to reopen safely, DeVos hijacks the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act to shift support away from where it's needed most."

"DeVos' craven attempts to divide and privatize would be laughable if the stakes weren't so high," Weingarten added.

McClatchy reported Thursday that the Trump administration intends to ask Congress "for a 'one-time, emergency appropriation' for a new grant proposal" that would "be provided to states to distribute to nonprofit institutions that disburse scholarships to qualified students who want to attend non-public schools."

"The White House is seeking to have 10% of the amount that Congress approves for state and local educational agencies set aside for the grants," according to McClatchy. "Trump will also seek approval of $5 billion in federal tax credits for businesses and CONTINUE READING: As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme | Common Dreams News

Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post

Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post

Trump’s newest assault on America’s public schools: They teach kids to ‘hate their country’

President Trump started his administration with a dystopian inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in which he talked about “American carnage” and said the country has “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

This year, in his Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on Friday, he changed that narrative: Now, in his view, schools are teaching kids to “hate our country” with a “far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance."

At Mount Rushmore, Trump exploits social divisions, warns of ‘left-wing cultural revolution’ in dark speech

“If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,” he said.

Trump blamed public schools for the popular uprisings across the country that have led to the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy and other historical figures who owned slaves, such as George Washington.

“Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains,” he said. “The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.”

We will not dwell on the multiple ironies in his accusations, not the least of which is that Trump himself has ridiculed and fired people who haven’t agreed with him and has alarmed many Americans, who say he is ignoring constitutional norms and employing authoritarian tactics. That includes the violent removal of peaceful protesters in a park across the White House on June 1 so that Trump could walk across it to a church for a photo opportunity with him holding up a Bible.

We will note that Trump is pushing a view of public education in the country that has long been espoused by many Republicans: that public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education are CONTINUE READING: Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post

glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

Why a return to campus is a bad idea

People Who Are at Increased Risk for Severe Illness | CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-at-increased-risk.html via @CDCgov

“It might be time for parents to get into the conversation about reopening college campuses. University administrators are deciding they’re going to go for it, which is exactly the same thing as saying, ‘We’re going to do what we can, hope for the best, and gamble that infection rates will be low enough to justify the unavoidable threat to the students.’

“For sure, the data tells us that the health threat of COVID-19 increases the older you are. So in aggregate, across the broad sample set of students, the laws of large numbers might work out to the advantage of the university.

“Not so for the students who become victims of reopening decisions driven by economics over the well-being of the people paying for the privilege of becoming subjects of a large, uncontrolled laboratory experiment in the age of pandemic infection.

“So far, university presidents are suggesting that they can create safer classrooms, and therefore, provide a safe campus. That’s a dangerously flawed premise, which willfully ignores everything we know about social distancing.

“Parents, you know this. Human nature is an irresistible force. The inconvenient truth is that the public health issue has very little to do with safer classrooms. Adjusting classroom instruction is the easy part. What about the other 21 hours in the day of every student on campus?

“Even if every other enterprise in America can reopen with some semblance of reasonable social distancing in place -- a sketchy proposition, at best, CONTINUE READING: glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

NYC Educator: The School Safety Shuffle

NYC Educator: The School Safety Shuffle

The School Safety Shuffle

There's a recent Post article that suggests it's a bad idea to take school security from the police and assign it to the DOE. They trudge out Mona David and her mysterious parent organization, and offer two examples of bad behavior before the officers were under the supervision of NYPD. David, of course, is the woman who thinks teacher tenure will lead us to Armageddon. I'm sure she's good for a quote here and there.

The two examples are the kind of argument frequently used against us. This teacher is awful, and that teacher is awful, and therefore all teachers are awful. It's exactly the sort of argument people like Campbell Brown and Mona David like to use. Take away teacher tenure, and have them depend on the tender mercies of Joel Klein and Mike Bloomberg, or every single teacher will be terrible. They take a few sensational examples, a quote here or there from one questionable source or other, and the case is closed.

I don't know about you, but I could tell stories about rogue police officers and write a similar story. I could cite examples of rogue reporters and write a similar story. We have a President who tells stories about reporters who tell the truth and condemns them for it. If you want to make an argument against a group, you don't do it effectively via a few sensational arguments about outliers. Arguments of that sort are called stereotypes. I'm offended by them, and you should be too. They can be used against any and all of us.

Will the DOE do a terrible job supervising school safety officers? Of course they will. The DOE does a terrible job at everything. It's a monument to blithering incompetence, a master of bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake. I don't know how much time I've wasted over the last decade fighting with idiots employed by Tweed. Any chapter leader who CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The School Safety Shuffle

Trump Is the Second Coming of George Wallace | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump Is the Second Coming of George Wallace | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump Is the Second Coming of George Wallace

I am old enough to remember the original George Wallace, a hateful racist who was Governor of Alabama. He ran for president as a champion of white nationalism. His base is now Trump’s base. Trump is the second coming of Wallace.

This post says it succinctly.

Trump channeled Wallace in front of Mount Rushmore.

Racism is alive and living in the White House.

On June 10 the Lincoln Project, the effort of former-Republicans to defeat Donald Trump, posted this on Twitter: “Today @realDonaldTrump became the Confederacy’s Second President.” The reason: Trump’s relentless defense of “Confederate generals who fought against the United States of America to preserve slavery and uphold white supremacy.

In the weeks that followed, Trump has only doubled down on this defense, denouncing Black Lives Matter protesters as “vandals” attacking “our heritage,” and CONTINUE READING: Trump Is the Second Coming of George Wallace | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Comes After Public School Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Comes After Public School Teachers

Trump Comes After Public School Teachers

Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains.

One of the big pull quotes from Donald Trump's historically shallow paean to the idea of American exceptionalism on July 3rd at Mount Rushmore, an attack on public education and the teachers who work there echoed at other points in his speech.

There was never any doubt that we'd end up here, never any doubt that he would come at teachers.

There can't be more than 11 undecided voters in the country right now, and very little likelihood that this campaign will be about winning folks to one side or another. It will be a contest to see who can get the most people to actually vote. That means energizing the base, which in Trump's case means a steady diet of "They are coming to get you, and only I can protect you from them." The "they" includes all those brown and black folks (you know, except for the "good" ones) and anybody who wants to say anything critical about the country, or about this President. They are coming to get you, and only the strength of Beloved Leader can stop them. Also, Jesus, freedom, America.

So why teachers?

Well, the administration has been clear on its anti-public education bona fides. But it has also been CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Comes After Public School Teachers

27 Blank Pages | JD2718

27 Blank Pages | JD2718

27 Blank Pages

The Department of Education’s new PowerPoint for principals around reopening in September is little better than 27 blank pages. Really. I’ll go page by page later, but just an overview now.

Actually, there are some things in this powerpoint. But either we already knew them, or they are problems. If you are looking for actual content, beyond these notes, try pages 13, 14, 16 and 24. Or wait. I’ll try to write more in the coming days.

I downloaded the new power point: school-buildings-reopening_principal-meeting_07022020.  And here’s a link on the UFT site. Same file.

p1 Title page. Nothing.

p2 Warm up. “NEXT YEAR WILL LOOK DIFFERENT. Every school district in the country is trying something different. Up to this point, we have literally made the road by walking. I’m excited. I’m also anxious. Just like you.”

p3 Blank page to set the tone: “CHANGE IS HARD. We can’t predict the future. We don’t have all the answers. We won’t have all the answers all at once. There is high potential that our answers may change.  CONTINUE READING: 27 Blank Pages | JD2718