Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Steve Suitts - Network For Public Education

Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Steve Suitts - Network For Public Education

Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Steve Suitts

Start: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 • 7:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

End: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 • 8:0 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

The Network for Public Education invites you to join us for a video conference with NPE President Diane Ravitch. Diane's guest will be author and adjunct at the Institute for Liberal Arts of Emory University, Steve Suitts. Join Diane and Steve in conversation about Steve's new book, Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement.

Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Steve Suitts - Network For Public Education

2020 Medley #19 – Civics: A Subject Left Behind | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Medley #19 – Civics: A Subject Left Behind | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Medley #19 – Civics: A Subject Left Behind

Civics Education

AMERICAN CIVICS EDUCATION

Ask someone disappointed by the extreme political and social polarization in America today, and it’s possible that you’ll get a rant about how Civics isn’t being taught in our schools anymore.

Fewer hours are now required in traditional Civics subjects — government, history, law, economics, and geography — than in the past. Nearly 80% of states require only one semester of Civics classes (beyond History) for a student to graduate from high school.

Pundits on both the left and the right have their own ideas on how to teach Civics. What they do agree on, however, is that Civics education as it currently exists in the US is inadequate…so bad in fact that a lawsuit was filed in Rhode Island claiming that the Civics education was so poor it violated students’ constitutional rights.

As usual, however, the claims about the poor quality of Civics education is only part of the story. Schools are once again being called on to solve the problems created by outside forces such as the elimination of the “fairness doctrine” the CONTINUE READING: 2020 Medley #19 – Civics: A Subject Left Behind | Live Long and Prosper

TALES OF THE SERIAL GRIFTERS – Dad Gone Wild

TALES OF THE SERIAL GRIFTERS – Dad Gone Wild

TALES OF THE SERIAL GRIFTERS

“If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs

“It takes just as much energy to be an asshole as it does to be kind.”
― LeVar Burton

The education world ain’t nothing if it ain’t a big old hamster wheel. People exit stage right only to re-enter stage left in a new costume. In the early part of this decade, the disruption movement was on the rise in Tennessee. But after a few initial success stories, the losses were beginning to mount. By the close of 2016 most of the controversial forces trying to disrupt public education scattered to the seven winds.

The end of 2014 brought signaled the beginning of the disinegration. First was the resignation of Kevin Huffman as Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education. Elliot Smally from the ASD left in 2015 for South Carolina and took former charter school administrator Taylor Fulcher with him. Ravi Gupta of RePublic Charter Schools headed back to NYC, 2 years later RePublic would settle a 2.2 million dollar lawsuit over “spam text messages” sent out during his tenure. Oprah’s favorite charter school guru Chris Barbic left in 2015 after failing in his promise to take the lowest-performing 5% of schools to the top 25% in 5 years. Yea, these weren’t the halcyon days predicted when the decade CONTINUE READING: TALES OF THE SERIAL GRIFTERS – Dad Gone Wild

CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

Texas is a happy playground for charter operators, but fans of school voucher program using public taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition-- well, they're been mighty disappointed on a regular basis. Even as US Senator Ted Cruz (yes, he's really from Texas) has tried to help push the Betsy DeVos voucher plan, a state-level program has been shot down again and again.

Mind you, they don't give up, and they keep coming back with assortments of bad arguments, like "vouchers will help rescue poor and minority students." You know-- "school choice is the new civil rights," say folks like Donald "I Haven't Recognized The Old Civil Rights Yet" Trump.

And every once in a while, a story comes along to help remind us why public tax dollars for private school tuition is a lousy idea.

Welcome to The Covenant School in Dallas, Texas. It's a highly-rated private religious school, with fancy things like a 7-1 faculty-student ratio. It get high marks for all sorts of things--except diversity. The state has a 38% Black student population, and Dallas itself has some segregation issues (only 6% of the Dallas Independent School District student population is white). Covenant's student body is only 6% Black. And with a tuition rate of $19K, not just anybody is going to be the "right fit" for this school.

But it turns out that Black students aren't the only group of students under-represented at CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

   Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

 

 

“Q&A Collections: Best of Classroom Q&A”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Q&A Collections: Best of Classroom Q&A is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. The “Best” Classroom Q&A posts (from the past nine years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST (WITH LINKS) OF ALL MY REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURES ). This is a relatively new addition to that list. Some of these 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

Sept. 16th Is Mexico’s Independence Day – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay September 16th is Mexico’s Independence Day. You might be interested in: The Best Resources For Learning About Mexico’s Independence Day The Best Sites For Learning About Mexico, Central & South America

U.S. Constitution Day Is On September 17th – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States .

Thursday’s Four Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos About School Reopening

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Teachers in Texas Are Fighting for Their Lives is from The New Yorker. Is it Safe to Send Your Kids to School? is from The NY Times.

How Would You Define Success This School Year?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

geralt / Pixabay I shared this on Twitter this afternoon: These r my criteria 4 success this year in 100% distance learning: *Do students come 2 my class? *Do they learn something valuable? * Do they feel coming 2 my class makes their lives better? What REALISTIC suggestions should b added (only from people doing distance learning)? — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) September 2, 2020 As you see,

Here’s A List Of The Primary Online Tools I’ll Be Using In Distance Learning This Year

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

472301 / Pixabay I have previously shared a number of posts (see HERE ARE DETAILED – & TENTATIVE – DISTANCE LEARNING PLANS FOR ALL MY FALL CLASSES ) laying out my plans for this school year, which begins TOMORROW! Those plans continue to be more-or-less accurate, though some of the online tools I mentioned in them might be a bit different. I made a point of writing that some things were likely to

Must-Watch Video: “Kid Superintendent”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

Maklay62 / Pixabay Exceptional teacher and colleague Jen Adkins shared this with our school’s faculty today as we prepare for the first day of school….TOMORROW! It’s well worth watching by everyone:

   Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007