DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all

   Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all

The Most Moving Speech at the Democratic National Convention

by dianeravitch / 8min

Almost every reviewer of the Democratic National Convention agreed that this was the most moving speech of all. Thirteen-year-old Brayden Harrington met Joe Biden at a town hall in New Hampshire. When Biden learned that the boy stutters, he asked to meet privately afterwards. He told him how he had overcome his stutter and gave him some helpful,advice. Above all, he gave him hope and the confiden

Mike Klonsky: Biden and Harris Didn’t Say Much About Education But the Platform Does

by dianeravitch / 1h

Mike Klonsky notes that education was barely mentioned in the convention speeches of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. But he points out that the platform contains some strong language in the right direction on charters, vouchers, for-profit businesses, and testing. On testing, for example, it says: The evidence from nearly two decades of education reforms that hinge on standardized test scores shows

New York Times: How Trump Destroyed the C.I.A.

by dianeravitch / 1h

This article in the New York Times Magazine b Robert Draper confirms our worst suspicions about Trump. He has used his authority to eliminate any top official in the Central Intelligence Agency who is not personally loyal to him. He has suppressed any independent analysis of Russian efforts to interfere in our elections. His actions border on treason. In early July of last year, the first draft o

The Dismal GOP Roll Call of States

by dianeravitch / 2h

Robin Givhan of the Washington Post writes about the roll call of the states at the Trump convention. The roll call on opening day of the Republican National Convention was sleepy. Low energy. And sad. This American ritual, during which each state pledges its delegates to the winning candidate, was bereft of charm. It was technically stultifying. It was also devoid of Black people and sorely lack

Boston Globe: The Takeaway from the Trump National Convention

21by dianeravitch / 3h

James Pindell wrote in the Boston Globe about the Republican Convention. For the Republicans, America is a country on the verge of collapse because there is rioting in the cities, impending doom in the suburbs, and some concerted effort in the rural areas to prevent people from going to church or owning a gun. As one speaker put it: “Trump is the bodyguard of western civilization.” The Republican

An Open Letter to Biden and Harris from Washington State’s Superintendent of Public Instruction

200+by dianeravitch / 4h

Chris Reykdal, state superintendent of public instruction in Washington State, published this excellent letter to the Democratic candidates. It overflows with wisdom and common sense. An Open Letter to the Biden-Harris Ticket: Mr. Vice President and Senator Harris, there is so much at stake with this year’s presidential election, including the very foundation of our country’s democracy – the futu

Rabbi in St. Louis: The McCloskeys Are Bullies

100+by dianeravitch / 4h

The Republican Party—that is, the Trumps—made heroes of Patricia and Mark McCloskey, who had menaced peaceful marchers on their St. Louis Street with guns. The McCloskey property abuts a reform synagogue. Its rabbi, Susan Talve, spoke up and said the McCloskeys are litigious bullies. In 2013, the synagogue placed beehives along the wall to produce honey for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. One

Melania Cuts Down Jackie Kennedy’s White House Rose Garden

by dianeravitch / 20h

Jackie Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, redesigned the White House Rose Garden. Jackie also redecorates the White House. She was an icon of taste and style. Melania Trump decided to renovate the Rose Garden. Her efforts have been received with dismay. What was once a splash of color is now monochromatic white. Some may like this cold aesthetic. Many don’t.

Florida: Judge Blocks State Order to Open Schools

87by dianeravitch / 20h

In Florida, state officials ordered schools across the state to open fully without regard to safety or local officials. The Florida Education Association sued, and a judge blocked them reopening. A Florida judge Monday granted a temporary injunction against the state’s order requiring school districts to reopen schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying in a harshly worded decision tha

Reuters: Business Partner of Falwells Claims He Had Relationship with the Powerful Evangelicals

by dianeravitch / 23h

This article in Reuters reports that a young man says he had an affair for several years with the wife of Jerry Falwell, Jr., president-on-leave of Liberty University, which was founded by his famous father. He told Reuters that Falwell often watched as he had relations with Falwell’s wife. Ah, the hypocrisy of those who claim to be morally superior. The strict honor code of Liberty University fo

Politico: What Obama Really Felt About Biden

by dianeravitch / 1d

Alex Thompson of Politico wrote a fascinating article about the tensions between Obama and Biden. During his eight years as Vice-President, Biden was loyal to Obama. Biden thought he was the inevitable successor to Obama. But Obama preferred Hillary to Joe. Hillary and Barack were both Ivy League, both cerebral, both cut from the same cloth. Biden is an old school politician. He’s not Ivy League.

Bob Shepherd Opens the Republican National Convention

by dianeravitch / 1d

Today is the day when the Republican Party convenes to renominate Donald Trump as President of the United States. Trump has so thoroughly conquered the Grand Old Party that some call it “the Trump Party.” No member dare challenges his decisions, statements or policies, for fear that a humiliating tweet will end his or her career. A once-proud party that trumpeted its devotion to principles like f

McSweeney’s: The Schedule of Speakers at the Republican Convention

by dianeravitch / 1d

This post in McSweeney’s was inspired by the news that the gun-toting couple from Missouri who threatened BLM protestors have been invited to speak at the Republican Convention. Here is the first day: Monday, August 24 9:00 pm The Creatures From Beyond the Mist scream the national anthem. 9:05 pm Morgon, Devourer of Children, discusses his proposal to drastically decrease education spending. 9:20

Michael Hynes Pays Tribute to the Late Sir Ken Robinson

47by dianeravitch / 1d

Dr. Michael Hynes is the Superintendent of the Port Washington School District in New York and a friend of Sir Ken Robinson. The Legacy and Impact of Sir Ken Robinson The world lost an inspiring and incredible human-being 

   Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Virtual suspensions. Mask rules. More trauma. Why some worry a student discipline crisis is on the horizon - Chalkbeat

Virtual suspensions. Mask rules. More trauma. Why some worry a student discipline crisis is on the horizon - Chalkbeat

Virtual suspensions. Mask rules. More trauma. Why some worry a student discipline crisis is on the horizon

As America’s students head back into their virtual or real-life classrooms, new rules await.

In Jacksonville, Florida, students who don’t wear a mask repeatedly could be removed from school and made to learn online. In some Texas districts, intentionally coughing on someone can be classified as assault. In Memphis, minor misbehaviors could land students in an online “supervised study.”

It’s amounting to a flood of changes to school rules and discipline codes at a time of heightened stress for students, parents, and teachers.

Those rules reflect schools’ attempts to make learning during a pandemic safe and possible. But the increased attention to student misbehavior has advocates and many parents very worried that students who were disproportionately removed from classrooms before the pandemic — namely Black and Native students, and students with disabilities — will bear the brunt of these new consequences, undermining schools’ promises to provide students from hard-hit communities with extra social and emotional support.

“We have seen and felt the impact of having a Black child with learning differences and how that’s been treated disciplinarily. So I’ve got a lot of concerns,” said Cassandra Kaczocha, a parent of a son headed into eighth grade in Chicago, where schools are set to start virtually and monitor student engagement over a six-hour school day. “He can’t sit there and look at the screen the whole time and give the appropriate cues to CONTINUE READING: Virtual suspensions. Mask rules. More trauma. Why some worry a student discipline crisis is on the horizon - Chalkbeat

New Tool to Strengthen Distance Learning + August 11, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

August 11, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

August 11, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) hosted the seventh Tuesday @ 2 School Nutrition Town Hall webinar on August 11, 2020 for school food service operators, chief business officials, and community partners to listen to questions and answers on transitioning back to school and moving forward in meal service amidst COVID-19.

The webinar opened with a state update by Kim Frinzell, Director of NSD. Panelists included multiple managers from the CDE NSD and Child Nutrition Fiscal Services Unit. Panelists answered questions submitted by sponsors regarding the state meal mandate, meal counting and claiming, meal pattern flexibilities, at-risk after school component of the Child and Adult Food Care Program, community eligibility provision, as well as Prop 98 COVID-19 disaster claims.

The next Tuesday @ 2 School Nutrition Town Hall webinar will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 2 p.m. Join the Tuesday @ 2 School Nutrition Town Hall Webinar.

Password: 182792

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Julie BoarerPitchford, Nutrition Education Consultant, by phone at 916-322-1563 or by email at jboarerpitchford@cde.ca.gov.

August 11, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Additional Tools to Support Educators in Strengthening Distance Learning Instruction

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) has released a new tool—Guidance on Best Practices for Distance Learning Instructional Planning—to support educators that are implementing distance learning instruction.

“Distance learning will be with us in some form moving forward, even as schools may be allowed to begin reopening in various capacities. We are committed to offering real-time, actionable support to our educators as we all lean into this new reality,” Thurmond said. "Through continued investments in educator training—and increased, proactive family engagement—I am confident that our schools will reach and engage more students as we move through this challenging period together.”

The new guidance document offers suggestions in four key areas: clear definitions of instructional models and language, an overview of required daily minutes for the 2020-21 school year and considerations for instruction both with live interaction and without live interaction, research-based principles for school districts to consider as they prepare to re-open, and ideas for how educators may structure learning.

Other topic areas include digital platforms and assessments, along with ways to support families and staff when implementing distance learning

The Implementation Tool: Guidance on Best Practices for Distance Learning Instructional Planning is the latest update to the CDE’s Guidebook for the Safe Reopening of California's Public Schools web page. More updates are expected during the upcoming school year. Distance learning program questions should be referred to distancelearning@cde.ca.gov.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on a specific aspect of the digital divide known as the homework gap—the inability to do schoolwork at home due to lack of high-speed internet access. Nationwide, 15-16 million students are affected—roughly 1 in 3. A disproportionate share of those students are African-American or Hispanic, come from low-income households, or live in rural areas.

Congress has taken steps to aid students and educators during the pandemic, but NEA members are dismayed that Congress has refused to provide adequate direct funding for WiFi hotspots, connection devices, and mobile wireless service through the existing and successful E-rate program to help our students most in need. 

President Trump has promised to improve American infrastructure, including access to broadband, since his earliest days in office, but has failed to deliver. Educators called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Trump administration to provide at least $175 billion in education stabilization funds. In addition, NEA calls on lawmakers to include at least $4 billion to schools to ensure all students have internet access from home for the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the severity of the issue, NEA is calling on lawmakers to support at least this level of funding. 

Where the Trump administration and Senate leadership have failed, Joe Biden is prepared to step in and deliver a solution to the most immediate issues around the homework gap, and the underlying infrastructure issues that have perpetuated the digital divide. Here are three key pieces of Biden’s approach:

1. He supports an infusion of resources to help schools address the “homework gap”

During the pandemic, educators in high-poverty schools report lower class attendance, and believe that closing the homework gap aspect of the digital divide should be a top priority. Pew research shows that among families with school-age children, 25 percent of all Black households and 23 percent of Hispanic households lack high-speed internet, compared to only 10 percent of white households with school children. 

Biden has called time and again for the Senate to pass the HEROES Act, which would CONTINUE READING: Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump's Education Agenda

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump's Education Agenda

Trump's Education Agenda

Trump has released his agenda for his second term, and it's special. Cut taxes. Add jobs. Eradicate Covid-19. End reliance on China. Cover pre-existing conditions. Congressional term limits. Bring violent extremist groups like ANTIFA to justice. Dismantle human trafficking. Build the world's greatest infrastructure system (so, more infrastructure week!) Stop endless wars.

It's all familiar hooey, in bullet point list form (so not a word about how or why, but education gets its own subheading, under which we find these two bullet points.

Provide School Choice To Every Child In America

Teach American Exceptionalism

That's it. That's the whole thing. Get some of that good old ahistorical jingoism back in the classroom, and dismantle the public education system and replace it with a privatized one. It's a fun pairing because if you're going to have a school choice system, how are you going to force every school to teach  exceptionalism? For that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Trump's Education Agenda

Sorting Out the School Reopening Worries and the Political Issues Swirling Around Public Schools This Week | janresseger

Sorting Out the School Reopening Worries and the Political Issues Swirling Around Public Schools This Week | janresseger

Sorting Out the School Reopening Worries and the Political Issues Swirling Around Public Schools This Week

This morning we are poised between the Democratic and Republican conventions. Public education policy has become highly politicized in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that has upended the autumn opening of what we all expected would be the 2020-2021 school year.

While public education was unlikely to arise as the top issue at either convention, a mass of newspaper coverage shows us that public schooling is of urgent importance to many people. The papers are filled with all kinds of spreads about whether or not schools ought to reopen and what has begun happening in places where schools have reopened. While we may take our public schools for granted, we can see that when the opening of schools is disrupted, it touches our lives in the most basic way. And we know that problems with reopening school are likely to hurt the children whose needs are greatest: The coronavirus is not only exposing inequality in America, but it is at the same time exacerbating the challenges for disabled children, and very poor children.

The purpose of today’s post is to sort through some of the confusion about reopening schools and to sort out the policy issues swirling this week around public education. What follows is an attempt to provide some clarification.

The Pros and Cons of Reopening Schools Full-Time, In-Person

Everybody seems to agree that children would be better off educationally and psychologically if the 2020-2021 school year could open normally with children back in class.  However, as a team of writers at Politico reports: “Thousands of kids and… (college students) are getting sick, along with their teachers, triggering mass quarantines, campus closures and last-minute switches to online learning. Virus-proof kids who are ‘virtually immune’ to the scourge—that CONTINUE READING: Sorting Out the School Reopening Worries and the Political Issues Swirling Around Public Schools This Week | janresseger