CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: One More Damned Thing After Another (9/20)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: One More Damned Thing After Another (9/20)

One More Damned Thing After Another

Well, that week sucked. And there's a lot to read, too.

Let's start with something positive. Drum prodigy Nandi Bushell has been youtubing covers for a while, but a few weeks ago she challenged Dave Groh to a drum battle; it went two rounds, and then Groh finally upped the ante by writing her a song. So there's that in the world. Now on to the rest.

On Campus Testing for Distance Learners   
Oh, Florida. They agreed that parents should be able to keep their at-risk kindergartners at home. But test-lovers that they are, they may require those same littles to come in to take the kinder-readiness test. Because Florida... Accountabaloney has the story.

Proceed at Your Own Peril  
Dad Gone Wild checks in to see how things are virtually going, and reflects on how we keep asking everything from teachers.

When the Lights Go Out   
Grumpy Old Teacher provides a vivid picture of what it's like in the pandemic classroom. A nice piece of writing here.

No Way To Treat a Scholar   
Gary Rubinstein looks at one more way that Success Academy games the data and juices up their PR-- welcome to the 5th year high school program.

Selling the Future of Ed Tech  
Damn, but Audrey Watters is the best. Here's a look at some of the wacky ed tech treats that have been predicted for the future over the years. Fun, but deeply thought provoking.

How centrist Democrats paved the way for Betsy DeVos   
Have you heard talks to David Menefee-Libey about this sad bit of history. As always, you can listen to the podcast or read the transcript. Either way, Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire deliver a tasty slice of information in an entertaining sandwich.

Framing a new website forced us to consider public education's core principles    
Jan Resseger kind of gives away the game with her title. Friends of education in northern Ohio revamped their website, and it leads to a good reflection on what public education's really all about.

The Mighty Storm  
I'm glad that Russ Walsh is back to blogging. Here he starts with the Galveston hurricane disaster of 1900 and works his way over to building reading comprehension. 

Take It Easy on the Teachers, OK  
Nancy Flanagan takes through the taxonomy of pandemic school posts, including the ones that blame teachers, and she has some thoughts about those.

The difference between freedom and captivity  
Teacher Tom asks what adult sacred memories of childhood all have in common

Face-mask recognition is here  
Well, National Geographic wants your email to read this unhappy-making piece about facial recognition in general and the fact that your mask will no longer thwart it in particular.

DeVos Versus the IRS   
This is a bit wonky, but important-- it turns out that a revamp of SALT rules gets directly in the path of tax credit scholarship programs by limiting how much money rich folks can launder through this type of voucher program.

NC Judge backs $427 million to improve schools. Will anyone fund it.   
North Carolina has been working hard to bust public education. Here's one more battle on that front. From the News & Observer.

The pandemic and school building issues   
Pandemic responses are highlighting just what a rundown mess many US school buildings are. From Mat Barnum at Chalkbeat.

Betsy DeVos and the separation of church and state  
Nancy Bailey takes a look at the DeVosian view of the separation between church and state when it comes to education in the time of pandemic (Wall? What wall?)

The long history of politicizing history class   
Olivia Waxman at Time puts some historical perspective on Trump's demand that history be taught with a golden patriotic glow. We've been here before.

Ed Department has denied 94% of loan forgiveness applications   
Betsy DeVos can keep this up forever. Despite being scolded by Congress and spanked by the courts, she continues to avoid actually implementing the federal loan forgiveness program for students defrauded by predatory for profits.

I am only one person
Anya Kamanetz (NPR) said on Twitter that she has never had so many interview subjects cry during the interview. A look at how teachers (who are also parents) are coping with pandemic education.

When poorly veiled bigotry masquerades as choice   
Andre Perry at Hechinger Reports looks at how racists have always loved the word "choice"

An open letter to a parent afraid of anti-racist education   
Christina Torres is at EdWeek with a response to a woman upset and cranky about Black Lives Matter at school. I watched this twitter discussion unfold in real time before it was erased by the woman in question, and she was pretty nasty about the whole thing. Torres offers a more measured response.

Taxes on DeVos yacht could pay for school nurses  
Katelyn Kivel at The Gander takes a look at just how much tax the family avoids by registering their yachts elsewhere. It's a lot.

The ends do not justify the means  
Nobody has explained the problems with the science of reading movement better than Paul Thomas, who takes another swing here.

The epic screw-up of distance learning in Miami   
Wired has a great look at how Miami-Dade schools got themselves into such a mess by picking K12 as their distance education provider of choice. It's a tale of hubris and dumb. All it's missing is one little tidbit that you can find here--K12's large contribution to the superintendent's personal organization.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: One More Damned Thing After Another (9/20)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Where Is Joe Biden On Public Education? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/09/12/where-is-joe-biden-on-public-education/#74c57b142f9b by @palan57 on @forbes

Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/09/18/is-it-time-for-the-internet-to-be-a-school-managed-public-utility/#9f5699c2053d by @palan57 on @forbes

Will China Help Pay For Trump's History Project

by Peter Greene / 24min

This, believe it or not, is about the deal involving social media sensation, Tik Tok. At first, the whole Tik Tok business looked like a basic old-fashioned shakedown. "That's a nice little tech biz you have there," said Trump. "Be a shame if anything happened to it." Okay, not really that subtle-- it was more along the lines of "I'm going to ban your business unless you give my buddies a cut." Ti

The 1776 Unites Curriculum Isn't So Great

400+by Peter Greene / 22h

During Dear Leader's call for more patrio-centric re-education, he referenced and Betsy DeVos praised the 1776 Unites project as an example of the kind of thing he wants to see in schools. So I went to look at it, and, well, it has some problems. What Is It, And Where Did It Come From? The "curriculum" has been launched just last week as an "inspirational alternative" to the New York Times 1619 pr

Is Betsy DeVos Flip-Flopping?

by Peter Greene / 3d

Betsy DeVos visited a private school in Grand Rapids that is currently open for face-to-face school, and she observed that not re-opening school buildings is a "tragedy." This seems like a radical shift of direction for the secretary of education. For one thing, one of her mantras has been that we should fund students, not institutions or, presumably, the buildings in which those institutions are

Check Out "On Teaching" At The Atlantic

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

I've been poking through the thirty-three articles posted by The Atlantic as part of their On Teaching series , and it requires a little more recommendation than my weekly Sunday round-up. If you're only going to read one batch of articles this month, read these. And if you're only going to read one article this month, start with the anchor essay, just published today. In it, Kristina Rizga writes

Scrap the Big Standardized Test This Year

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

When schools pushed the pandemic pause button last spring, one of the casualties was the annual ritual of taking the Big Standardized Test. There were many reasons to skip the test , but in the end, students simply weren’t in school during the usual testing time. Secretary of Education issued waivers so that states could cancel their test (which is mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act ). Bu

SEP 14

Time To Deal With The Substitute Shortage

21by Peter Greene / 5d

This is not the biggest issue facing schools right now-- but it's not nothing. And in some districts, it's about to become a critical issue. The state regional education office for our area announced a special opportunity to get quick and easy training to become an emergency certified substitute teacher. And it only costs $25! And that sound you hear is me slapping my forehead hard enough to push

School Choice Is Not For Those People

20by Peter Greene / 7d

Choice fans promote the idea as one the provides each family with the school of their dreams. Everyone, declares Betsy DeVos, should have a school that provides the right fit. Well, almost everybody. Two recent stories underline that what families can choose is what the folks in charge of the marketplace decide they can choose. In Indiana, a lawsuit has emerged from one of several incidents of pr

ICYMI: Rainy Sunday Edition (9/13)

by Peter Greene / 7d

A quiet rainy morning here in PA. And can't we all use a little peace and quiet. I've got a few things for you to read this week. FLVS Frustrations A lot of money has ben pumped into the Florida Virtual School, but nobody seems to be in charge. How's that working out? Accountabaloney takes a look (and you should pay attention, because FLVS has contracted itself out to a few other states). POLITIC

About Those Digital Natives

100+by Peter Greene / 7d

Now that so many schools are leaping back into the ed tech abyss with both feet and a few other limbs as well, the term "digital native" is turning up again, and it's just as silly as ever. Everyone who is scared about facing off against the digital native tribe in the digitized computerized distance learning world 

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

It's Time for A Leadership Change at SCUSD

It's Time for A Leadership Change at SCUSD

In 46 days, voters have an opportunity to remake the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education. Four out of seven board of education seats are up for election.

There are four outstanding candidates who are running, each of whom has been endorsed by SCTA, SEIU Local 1021, the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the Sacramento County Democratic Party. They are:

Big Education Ape: OPPS: This Fall a Windfall: Sacramento City Unified School District Reports a Surplus of $23 Million Dollars - Sacramento City Teachers Association - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/opps-this-fall-windfall-sacramento-city.html

THIS FALL A WINDFALL: SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORTS A SURPLUS OF $23 MILLION DOLLARS

• The 2019-20 school year finished with huge $23 million surplus after originally projecting a $12.3 million deficit, a turnaround of $35.5 million

• This marks the eighth consecutive year of grossly inaccurate budget projections by SCUSD administrators

• Reserve fund hits highest mark ever at $93 million

SACRAMENTO — The Chief Business Officer of the Sacramento City Unified School District, Rose Ramos, will report to the district’s board of education today that the Sac City schools finished the 2019-20 school year with a large surplus of cash and record reserves. Only last month, SCUSD leaders were predicting that the district, which educates 40,000 students in California’s capital city, would run a deficit, be out of cash in February 2021 and face state takeover next year.

Contrary to the bleak forecasts presented to the public in August, the “2019-20 Year End Financial Unaudited Actuals” report documents that SCUSD ended the 2019-20 school year with a surplus of $23,113,422.98.  In July 2019, the district projected it would end the 2019-20 school year with a $12,344,416.83 deficit — a $35.5 million turnaround from the district’s dire predictions.  Just as significantly, SCUSD now has $93,048,610.81 in its reserve fund, $82 million more than the minimum reserve fund required by the state. 

“Parents, teachers and business leaders have been bombarded with ‘the sky is falling in’ messages coming out of the budget office that are parroted by both the school board and the Sacramento County Office of Education year after year,” said Sacramento City Teachers Association President David Fisher, who also is a SCUSD parent. “Every year SCUSD goes through this exercise of telling the public that it is running out of cash and better cut programs, only to end with ‘never mind, we actually ran a surplus.’”

It is the eighth year in a row that the district financial projections have been wildly inaccurate, falsely painting a picture of SCUSD on the brink of fiscal insolvency. Among other accounting problems, a budget officer previously hired by the school board based on recommendations from Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, was forced to step down in 2019 when it was revealed SCUSD forgot to count five of the district’s schools, a $25-million mistake.

“With a surplus of $23 million from last school year and a reserve fund that now exceeds $93 million, it’s time to focus on the positive and determine how we can best redirect those resources back to the classroom,” said Fisher. “Especially now, with the added educational challenges that the pandemic brings, we need to employ more school nurses, lower class sizes, improve special education services and provide help so that our teachers can tailor virtual learning to the needs of each student.”

This Fall a Windfall: Sacramento City Unified School District Reports a Surplus of $23 Million Dollars - Sacramento City Teachers Association

Big Education Ape: SCUSD No Longer Insolvent ? They Found the Money ?? - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/scusd-no-longer-insolvent-they-found.html

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

While K-12 enrollment has gradually decreased in recent years, the latest kindergarten numbers are abnormally low.

SACRAMENTO — Amy Neier carefully wrote “first day of kindergarten” on a whiteboard and posed her 5-year-old son Hunter with the sign to capture the milestone she had long waited for.

Then Hunter headed off for another year of preschool instead.

Neier and parents across the nation are skipping kindergarten in droves during the most tumultuous school year in generations. Frustrated by the thought of sticking their 5-year-olds in front of screens during the pivotal first year of school, they are sending their children to extended preschool, forming learning pods or foregoing formal instruction altogether.

“I thought my tears would be because I was sending my baby to school, not because I was worrying if the decision to keep him out of school this year was the wrong one," said Neier, who lives in Peoria, Ariz.

Given the choice, parents have sought alternatives, especially essential workers who need child care to stay employed. Teachers are doing their best to keep their students' attention — but also would prefer to return to their classrooms whenever conditions are safe. School administrators are imploring families to enroll their kindergartners, fearing a loss of attendance-based dollars.

And while affluent families can still find ways to give their 5-year-olds enrichment activities, low-income children may be losing out on a full year of instruction they would have received otherwise.

“Some parents are leaving their kids in their current pre-K or child care programs but a lot of parents don’t have that option, so where are these kids?” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of Early Edge California. “Kindergarten is not CONTINUE READING: Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

SomeDAM Poet on “Billyanthropy” | Diane Ravitch's blog

SomeDAM Poet on “Billyanthropy” | Diane Ravitch's blog

SomeDAM Poet on “Billyanthropy”

Our blog poet on the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

Gates never gives without getting a tax break and never gives without strings attached.

That’s how you know it is not real philanthropy, but Billyanthropy.

“The Billyanthropist”

Billyanthropist am I

I gave you Common Core

And testing to the sky

I’d like to give you more

Billyanthropist am I

I gave you teacher VAMs

A lovely Chetty pie

And lots of charter scams

Billyanthropist am I CONTINUE READING: SomeDAM Poet on “Billyanthropy” | Diane Ravitch's blog

More Cartoons on Covid and the New Normalcy | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

More Cartoons on Covid and the New Normalcy | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

More Cartoons on Covid and the New Normalcy

Getting through each day during the pandemic with masks and physical distancing, a cratering economy, protests against racial injustice, heat waves, fires, hurricanes, remote instruction—I will stop here–is a small victory. Sometimes humor helps to get through all of this by reminding ourselves that we are all in this together. I’ve collected some cartoons that should bring at least one smile to viewers’ faces. Enjoy!

MORE CARTOONS: More Cartoons on Covid and the New Normalcy | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

EdAction in Congress September 20, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress September 20, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress September 20, 2020

Strength in Diversity Act passes House with bipartisan support

The Strength in Diversity Act passed the House with bipartisan support by a vote of 248-167. The bill provides federal grants to support voluntary local efforts to increase racial and socioeconomic diversity—for example, expanding innovative programs that attract students from outside the local area and recruiting, hiring, and training educators for such programs. The legislation can also be used to fund collaborative programs by districts, recognizing that segregation occurs across district lines.

Most schools with majority Black, brown, Indigenous or poor populations do not have the resources to provide a broad and rich curriculum, including advanced courses and extracurricular programs that stimulate and engage students. The Strength in Diversity Act would help address this issue by taking concrete steps to encourage diversity. Students should not be educated in bubbles that expose them only to those who look like them, and whose backgrounds and experiences mirror their own. TAKE ACTION

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Pregnant Workers Fairness Act garners bipartisan support

With bipartisan support, the House passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by a vote of 329-73. The bill would create a uniform national standard for reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions. Such accommodations reduce health risks for women and their babies while helping employers reduce turnover and lost productivity. More than three-quarters of women—half the American workforce and nearly 80 percent of educators—will be pregnant and employed at some point in their lives. No one should be forced to choose between a paycheck and a healthy pregnancy. TAKE ACTION

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Cheers and Jeers

21 Republicans joined all Democrats present in voting YES on the Strength in Diversity Act.

73 Republicans joined all Democrats present in voting YES on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE), John Katko (R-NY), and Brian  Fitzpatrick (R-PA) voted YES on the NEA-supported Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, along with 229 Democrats.

14 Republicans joined all Democrats present in voting YES on H. Res. 908, “Condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment as related to COVID 19,” which was introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY).

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced a resolution that calls on President Trump to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for each federal borrower to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.

EdAction in Congress September 20, 2020 - Education Votes

Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools (The Tale of the Troubling Textbook) - Part Two | Blue Cereal Education

Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools (The Tale of the Troubling Textbook) - Part Two | Blue Cereal Education

Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools (The Tale of the Troubling Textbook) - Part Two

Tell Him About The Twinkie, Ray

In researching cases for the follow-up to “Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases, I came across a case from Tennessee that simply fascinates me, despite being a relatively minor decision in the larger scheme of things. Unable to resist chasing this particular rabbit trail, I posted last time about the basic complaint (fundamentalist parents didn’t like a literature textbook) and the summary dismissal by a federal judge in Eastern Tennessee. The case was appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, which is where we pick up today.

I’m simply giddy, aren’t you?

Let’s Phrase That Differently…

Part of the appeal of digging through the written records of this case as it bounced around the courts is that we lack easy access to the specific complaints, the textbook itself (although I’m working on that), and any verbal arguments made in various courts. Those things may be public record in Tennessee or Ohio somewhere, but short of a road trip (“Hey, honey? I know you were looking forward to seeing your parents over the holidays, but I’m super-curious about some obscure court transcripts from 35 years ago, so… can we go the other direction instead?”), all we have are the CONTINUE READING: Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools (The Tale of the Troubling Textbook) - Part Two | Blue Cereal Education

CURMUDGUCATION: The 1776 Unites Curriculum Isn't So Great

 CURMUDGUCATION: The 1776 Unites Curriculum Isn't So Great

The 1776 Unites Curriculum Isn't So Great

During Dear Leader's call for more patrio-centric re-education, he referenced and Betsy DeVos praised the 1776 Unites project as an example of the kind of thing he wants to see in schools. So I went to look at it, and, well, it has some problems.

What Is It, And Where Did It Come From?

The "curriculum" has been launched just last week as an "inspirational alternative" to the New York Times 1619 project. The 1776 Unites initiative was launched back in February with somewhat stronger language about the 1619 project. It came from the Woodson Center, the organization founded by Black conservative activist Bob Woodson, who said upon launching that it was intended to counter the "lethal" narrative of 1619.

"This garbage that is coming down from the scholars and writers from 1619 is most hypocritical because they don’t live in communities [that are] suffering," he continued. "They are advocating something they don’t have to pay the penalty for."

So, not a fan. He pulled together an assortment of other Black conservatives, and in February the website was launched:

1776 Unites is a movement to liberate tens of millions of Americans by helping them become agents of their own uplift and transformation, by embracing the true founding values of our country.

The website includes a library of essays, with titles like "The Cult of Victimhood," "Living by the CONTINUE READING:   CURMUDGUCATION: The 1776 Unites Curriculum Isn't So Great