Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely | Diane Ravitch's blog

Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely | Diane Ravitch's blog

Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely

Benjamin P. Linas, an epidemiologist, writes in VOX that both blue and red states are doing the wrong things about the pandemic. The blue states are too quick to close down schools and the red states are too quick to keep them open without proper safety measures. The Trump administration has provided no guidance at all and left it to states to craft their own responses, which mostly fall along partisan lines.

He describes a plan that he hopes the new Biden administration will adopt that will both contain the pandemic and enable schools to be open for in-person instruction.

Linas offers a plan that he hopes will be the basis for a new approach:

Our current political leaders are failing to provide a clear, national plan for reopening America’s schools. The incoming Biden-Harris administration has announced that it will provide new funds and guidance, but details have not yet emerged. Below are four essential elements for such a plan. 

1) Clear guidance for when and how to open (and close) schools

Such guidance includes two components. One is CONTINUE READING: Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely | Diane Ravitch's blog

Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us | janresseger

Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us | janresseger

Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us

The United States has become a textbook case, and I don’t mean merely a textbook case of pandemic denial, although that is also true.  Last July, two political science professors, Jacob Hacker of Yale University and Paul Pierson from the University of California at Berkeley, published a thorough analysis of the politics of today’s Republican Party. They explain that President Donald Trump is a mere symptom of what the Republican Party has become.

In Let Them Eat Tweets, Hacker and Pierson define “plutocratic populism.” They preview what we subsequently watched through the fall’s presidential election campaign, and what we were still observing this past weekend in Washington, D.C. as Donald Trump’s bullies paraded en masse, ending in a violent melee.  Here are Hacker and Pierson on the rise of Republican plutocratic populism over recent decades:

“As the GOP embraced plutocratic priorities, it pioneered a set of electoral appeals that were increasingly strident, alarmist, and racially charged. Encouraging white backlash and anti-government extremism, the party outsourced voter mobilization to a set of aggressive and narrow groups: the National Rifle Association, the organized Christian right, the burgeoning industry of right-wing media. When and where that proved insufficient, it adopted a ruthless focus on altering electoral rules, maximizing the sway of its base and minimizing the influence of the rest of the electorate through a variety of anti-democratic tactics, from voter disenfranchisement to extreme partisan gerrymandering to laws and practices opening the floodgates to big money. And more and more, it coupled this vote rigging with even more extreme strategies to undermine the checks and balances in our system, weakening CONTINUE READING: Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen

Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen

Every Monday, I'm making a donation to someone on Donors Choose, a well-rated charity site that lets folks offer financial support to teachers across the country. No, we shouldn't have to do this. Yes, some of the requests might raise an eyebrow (is that something you really need, really?) But we are where we are in the world right now, and this is a small way to help support individual classrooms in a concrete way.

This week I'm looking at a request for a second screen. Actually, there are many such requests on the site. If you have never had a second screen, well-- it's heaven. Two or three windows open at once, able to work on this without having to minimize that. And in the age of the zoom meeting (or Google Meet or whatever software you're using during the pandemess), a second screen can be one of those things that just makes life a bunch easier. It's exactly the kind of thing that a teacher can really benefit from and administration would label an unnecessary luxury.

So I'm donating to a teacher at the Young Women's Leadership School in the Bronx. The dollar CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen

America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January

Given President-elect Joe Biden’s “deliberative approach” in choosing his Cabinet, it seems that his selection for US ed sec may well follow the January 05, 2021, runoff elections for the two US Senate seats in Georgia.

If Democrats are tied with Republicans for the number of Senate seats– which can only happen if both Georgia Democratic contenders, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, win their races– then as president of the Senate, Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris becomes the decisive vote, thus giving Democrats de facto control.

Whether the Senate is controlled by Republicans or Democrats may well determine who, exactly, Biden is able to have confirmed in his Cabinet, including in the position of US ed sec.

Both former National Education Association (NEA) president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, and current American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president, Randi Weingarten, have been in the news as potential candidates for US ed sec. However, I think it is a bad idea for Biden to choose either Eskelsen Garcia or Weingarten because they have both had lengthy careers in national union leadership, which would make it seem that the position of US secretary of education is little more than an extension of a national teachers union. California State Board of Ed president, Linda Darling-Hammond was also mentioned as a contender (and is also heading Biden’s education transition team, which she did for Obama in 2008); however, Darling-Hammond has clearly removed her name from consideration.

Biden could choose from any number of state education superintendents, which may or may not lead to someone with a solid history as a classroom teacher. There is also the possibility of Biden selecting someone with a higher ed background, a door apparently left open by CONTINUE READING: America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?) | Ed In The Apple

Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?) | Ed In The Apple

Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?)

The late 1920’s saw seemingly everlasting increases in stock prices, the Hoover Boom Market; in September and October of 1929 the market stumbled and on October 29th, Black Tuesday the market tumbled and the nation fell into the Great Depression. President Hoover saw the “crash” as a “correction,” the “invisible hand” would intervene; the market and the economy would revive as it always had in the past; by November 1932 the nation was in a deep depression, unparalleled unemployment, and the economy continued to tumble,

On March 4th, 1933, Inauguration Day, FDR delivered his “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” speech – listen to excerpts here.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

In the inaugural address FDR also threatened Congress,

 “I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. …

And while he “hoped” Congress would work with him he made it clear,

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority CONTINUE READING: Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?) | Ed In The Apple

When we return from remote… | JD2718

When we return from remote… | JD2718

When we return from remote…

Will New York City public schools switch to all remote? Wrong question. First of all, it’s not “will we go remote?”, but “when will we go remote?”. But that’s not the right question either.

When we return from all-remote, how will we return? Because blended learning sucks. There’s the question. In the real universe, in person regular school is best. Remote is bad. But blended is the worst.

Already there are schools that have made their instruction remote, and do academic, emotional and social support in school. There are other schools where students come into the building, and sign onto zoom classes. There are other schools which are blended in name only, where instruction only happens when the kids come to the building. And then there are schools where the teachers are assigned to teach in person AND remote. Many of those teachers will burn out.

Blended, the way Carranza and de Blasio defined it, and the way Mulgrew pitched it, is not the reality in most NYC schools. Didn’t make sense. Couldn’t be.

The hand off between two teachers per class was unrealistic. The erratic in school / out of school schedule is problematic. Curricula were not redesigned for this strange modality. And the agreement to almost double class size for blended remote was ridiculous.

What other options do we have? My question is about what happens when the positive rate in NYC drops back down.

Short version:

• Expand the RECs
• Banish Blended. Bring some students in full time. Teach the rest fully remotely.
• Real PD, practitioner-led, for remote teaching.
• Lower class size
• Adjust curricula. Adapt curricula.
• Expand prep time.
• Go easy on the kids.
• Suspend standardized testing.

 

1. Expand the Regional Education Centers. “Staffed by DOE  CONTINUE READING: When we return from remote… | JD2718

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

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_14.html

“22 Strategies for Encouraging Students’ Intrinsic Motivation to Read”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

22 Strategies for Encouraging Students’ Intrinsic Motivation to Read is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Four educators share strategies for encouraging students to WANT to read, including by illustrating that it makes them smarter and that it makes them better writers. Here are some excerpts:

Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

(Note: I am going to publish this same post once each month to remind regular readers and inform newer ones about how to access my “Best” lists) As regular readers know, I have about 2,200 categorized and regularly updated “Best” lists. You can find all of them in broad categories here . The link to that page can also be found at the top right of my blog: My Best Of Series I also have them all on

A Look Back: Video: Watch…Me Get Interviewed On CNN About School Reopening In The Fall

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . I’m starting with posts from earlier this year. (Giselle Lundy-Ponce from the AFT was kind enough to send me some screenshots, so I replaced the original image on this post with one) CNN’s Brooke Baldwin interviewed me live on CNN toda

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2019 – PART TWO ): Lucy Calkins Says Balanced Literacy Needs ‘Rebalancing’ is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Balanced Literacy & The “Reading Wars” Prop 15 failed here in California, which was ve

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART ONE and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART TWO. A

Useful Teaching Video: “U.S. Presidential Election Results (1789-2020)”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

AnnaliseArt / Pixabay I’m adding this new video to: THE BEST RESOURCES FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION The Best Sites To Learn About U.S. Presidents

My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On “Using Education Data: What Works, What Doesn’t”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Using Education Data: What Works, What Doesn’t is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio show. I’m joined by Cindy Garcia, Lauren Nifong and Deedy Camarena, who have all contributed written commentaries to my Education Week Teacher column. I’m adding it to All My BAM Radio Show

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