NEPC: Another Useless Report from NCTQ | Diane Ravitch's blog

NEPC: Another Useless Report from NCTQ | Diane Ravitch's blog

NEPC: Another Useless Report from NCTQ

The National Education Policy Center frequently engages independent scholars to review think tank reports, which are often advocacy reports.

In this report, the NEPC scholars review the latest report from the National Center on Teacher Quality, which was formed about 20 years ago to take down teachers’ colleges. See this post.

NEPC Review: 2020 Teacher Prep Review: Clinical Practice and Classroom Management (October 2020)

Reviewers: Jamy Stillman and  Katherine Schultz March 16, 2021

NCTQ’s 2020 Teacher Prep Review focuses on two areas of teacher preparation: clinical practice and classroom management. The report uses an approach that is now familiar to readers of NCTQ publications: asserting a set of preferred practices and then applying those criteria to teacher education programs. Although NCTQ reports have been critiqued for their limited use of research and highly questionable research methodology, this report employs the same approaches as earlier NCTQ reports. Rather than analyzing the characteristics of successful programs preparing teachers for a wide range of contexts, the report is based exclusively on adherence to or compliance with NCTQ internal standards that are neither widely accepted nor evidence-based. Thus, the report’s value is diminished and is unlikely to transform teacher preparation

NEPC: Another Useless Report from NCTQ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud for Better Human Understanding: Asian-American Picture Books

Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud for Better Human Understanding: Asian-American Picture Books

Reading Aloud for Better Human Understanding: Asian-American Picture Books

Prejudice and hate crimes against Asian-Americans are not new in the United States, unfortunately, but the recent increase in bias related crimes against this segment of the American population reminds us that anti-bias efforts remain critical. The need to address the issues head on is made doubly important when political leaders are among the principal spreaders of this unreasoned hatred. One way to combat prejudice is through knowledge and understanding and one good way to spread knowledge and understanding is through a good book. Here are some great picture books that will help young readers learn about their Asian-American classmates and neighbors.

Long one of my favorite read alouds for children in grades 2-5, Angel Child, Dragon Child, by Michelle Maria Serat, with pictures by Vo-Dinh Mai, tells the story of Ut, recently arrived in the United States from Vietnam. Ut is teased by her new classmates for her different language and different clothes. School is a sad, dispiriting experience and home is a place where she misses her mother who has not made the journey with the family. Ut eventually makes an unlikely friend at school, a boy who was her chief tormentor, and the school community eventually unites around Ut and her family. Wonderful soft pencil and watercolor CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Reading Aloud for Better Human Understanding: Asian-American Picture Books

Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

Parents and school leaders celebrate new C.D.C. guidance lowering distance between students to 3 feet. Teachers aren’t on board yet.

Proponents of fully reopening schools got a major boost on Friday when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that elementary school students and some middle and high school students could be spaced three feet apart in classrooms.

The previous guidance of keeping most students six feet apart had in many school districts become a big obstacle to welcoming students back for full-time instruction because it severely limited capacity. Many experts now say a growing body of research shows that six feet is not much more protective than three, as long as other safety measures are in place, like mask wearing.

Public health experts, parents and school officials cheered the new recommendation. Teachers’ unions, which have used the six-foot guidance to oppose bringing children back for normal schedules, did not.

EDUCATION BRIEFING: The pandemic is upending education. Get the latest news and tips.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest educators’ union, said in a statement that she would “reserve judgment” on the new guidelines pending further review of research on how the virus behaves in schools, especially those in cities or that are under-resourced. Becky Pringle, president of the largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, raised similar concerns.

Nevertheless, the new guidance seemed to be having an immediate impact in some places. New York City, the nation’s largest school district, announced on Friday that it would give families another chance to select in-person instruction for their children. The city said that elementary schools, prekindergarten programs and CONTINUE READING: Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

Teacher Tom: Embodied Learning

Teacher Tom: Embodied Learning

Embodied Learning

I wasn't exposed to the works of William Shakespeare until I was 17-years-old. I can't even remember what play we had to read. It was probably one of the best known ones like Hamlet or A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I barely understood a word. I blamed the material, of course. It couldn't be me: I was a good reader, something I'd been told since first grade when I was placed in "Reading Group 1" by my teacher Mrs. McCutcheon. This archaic crap might have been a best seller back in the 16th century, but today, in the modern world of 1979, it had clearly lost its relevance. Forcing us to endure it was an example of academic hazing or something.

I wasn't the only one who struggled, so our teacher had the idea of reading parts aloud to us so we could "hear the poetry." Aside from making it feel a bit like we'd been transported back to kindergarten, she was right, it did help. Shakespeare's meaning was more clear and I began to make some of my first approaches toward something like CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Embodied Learning

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program

Last Thursday, March 18, 2021, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona rescinded a policy devised by his predecessor, Betsy DeVos, for processing complaints by students who claimed to have been defrauded by unscrupulous for-profit colleges and trade schools. DeVos’s policy denied debt relief for thousands of students whose complaints were not carefully or fairly considered.

The U.S. Department of Education manages an enormous higher education loan program which has been criticized by borrowers and members of Congress alike—all concerned that under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, student borrowers were left unprotected after for-profit colleges and trade schools induced them to take out big loans for shoddy education programs. Because these institutions are highly dependent on federal student loans to cover their operating expenses, they too frequently prey on students and military veterans with fraudulent advertising about the nature and quality of the programs to which they lure students. A federal rule called “the borrower defense to repayment” is supposed to protect students by cancelling their student loans when the students can prove the schools’ promises were fraudulent.

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel explains the significance of Cardona’s action last week: “About 72,000 people will have their federal loans canceled after Education CONTINUE READING: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

High School Classes Continue. High School Buildings Open. | JD2718

High School Classes Continue. High School Buildings Open. | JD2718

High School Classes Continue. High School Buildings Open.

Tomorrow is the day. High schools finally …..

Reopen? Bullshit.

High schools have been open since September. Even then, the bulk of our teaching was via zoom and other remote platforms. Tomorrow, the bulk of our teaching will be via zoom and other remote platforms.

In fact today more students will be fully remote than back in September.

Because they chose to be remote.

Something ridiculously high in high schools – what, 70%? More?

In fact high schools are reporting additional families switched to remote instruction since the de Blasio/Porter announcement.

So what’s happening?  

Tomorrow all high school buildings are opening, and some minimal version of “blended learning” will engage 10-20% of high school students. Over 90% of classes will remain on-line.

All buildings will open. With 15% of students. With less than 10% of classes. de Blasio will be talking about buildings, not students or classes.

Tomorrow de Blasio is making a great show out of opening the buildings. That’s all. It is a show. Instruction will continue for most students and most teachers on  CONTINUE READING: High School Classes Continue. High School Buildings Open. | JD2718

Why I'm Opting My Son Out Of Standardized Testing (And You Can, Too) | The Jose Vilson

Why I'm Opting My Son Out Of Standardized Testing (And You Can, Too) | The Jose Vilson

WHY I’M OPTING MY SON OUT OF STANDARDIZED TESTING (AND YOU CAN, TOO)

Recently, my son revealed the difficulty in observing his ninth birthday. Usually joyous occasions, this past birthday was mired in nervousness over the perpetual, coordinated assaults on American ideals of democracy. Just as he was finishing online class, government representatives over 200 miles away openly opined on election malfeasance on the US Senate and House floors to the delight of former President Trump’s glee. A few minutes later, the news reports would show the waves of insurrectionists cruise into this usually impenetrable building like knives through unrefrigerated butter. His stubborn parents shook off the nonsense to center him, even as, in the back of our minds, we worried whether the insurrection at the Capitol was the first of a continuous set of actions between that moment and the inauguration of President Biden.

He’s sitting there, smile in tow, brimming at another year around the sun even as he observes the world we’ve brought him into. What, to this nine-year-old, is a learning loss?

He’s learned a lot this year. He learned how to create his own school schedule, how to advocate for himself and his learning, how to flip between several different computer programs, how to use Zoom and Google Meet depending on the Department of Education’s policies, and how to work independently while his parents navigated their own set of works. He learned how to put on his own mask, wash his hands for 20 seconds, and stay physically distant from strangers who he senses do otherwise. He’s got a larger vocabulary and can read our expressions well. He’s got a way with puns and jokes beyond what I had at his age. His CONTINUE READING: Why I'm Opting My Son Out Of Standardized Testing (And You Can, Too) | The Jose Vilson

New CDC Guidelines to Reopen Schools Could be Dangerous - Institute for New Economic Thinking #tbats #openonlywhensafe #edchat #K12 #learning #edleadership #edtech #engchat #literacy #edreform

Institute for New Economic Thinking

New CDC Guidelines to Reopen Schools Could be Dangerous

School re-opening push based on outdated science is poorly timed in face of coronavirus resurgence

The scale of disaster visited on the world by the COVID-19 pandemic defies any easy summary. But it is safe to say that the question of keeping schools open is among the most fateful decisions facing public authorities. As the pandemic stretches into its second year, it is now becoming among the most contentious.

In the U.S., after some hesitation, the Biden administration seems to be encouraging rapid opening of schools, despite high levels of community transmission in many places, before robust mitigations are completely in place. Many Republican governors and officials also demand the step, including former President Trump in his recent CPAC address. Languishing under lockdowns and zoom or hybrid classes, many exhausted parents, anxious employers, and bored students seem receptive, though polls show widespread reservations about whether premature reopening might trigger new waves of infections. In recent days, more and more states have moved to mandate full in-person classroom instruction within a few weeks.

Accompanying these decisions are organized efforts to recycle earlier studies of school safety[1] designed to reassure skeptics that reopening schools to full-time instruction is really safe, even as new variants of COVID-19 spread that are more contagious and possibly more dangerous than earlier forms. Even the Center for Disease Control is joining this rush to CONTINUE READING: Institute for New Economic Thinking

A simple proposal. Give public school teachers an extra year of retirement service credit for the pandemic year. – Fred Klonsky

A simple proposal. Give public school teachers an extra year of retirement service credit for the pandemic year. – Fred Klonsky

A SIMPLE PROPOSAL. GIVE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS AN EXTRA YEAR OF RETIREMENT SERVICE CREDIT FOR THE PANDEMIC YEAR

I’ve been out of the classroom for nearly a decade.

But as I speak to my colleagues who have taught this year it is mind boggling.

That is true whether they taught remotely, in-person or hybrid.

I have a simple proposal. It doesn’t begin to demonstrate what should be our profound thanks.

The Illinois legislature can act to give every public school teacher an extra year of creditable service.

Now some Republican state representative has introduced a bill that offers that up, CONTINUE READING: A simple proposal. Give public school teachers an extra year of retirement service credit for the pandemic year. – Fred Klonsky

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm_20.html

Reimagining Blackness & Architecture: Black City: The Los Angeles Edition | Yolande Daniels

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2h

"What do we find when we revisit the past? Designer J. Yolande Daniels discusses her project “Black City: The Los Angeles Edition” and the stories she uncovered while researching Black inhabitants throughout the history of Los Angeles." -- Museum of Modern Art

The Rematch with Etan Thomas: Rex Chapman on His Top NBA Moments, Jawing w/ Michael Jordan, Racism in Kentucky & More

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2h

"Former NBA Star Rex Chapman joins The Rematch with host Etan Thomas to discuss his NBA career, adjusting to being a pro, dunking on Manute Bol , and the racism he experienced while playing at Kentucky."

FRONTLINE – Policing the Police: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in Conversation with Jelani Cobb

by Mark Anthony Neal / 21h

" Ras Baraka has served as the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, since 2014. He sat down with the historian, staff writer for The New Yorker and FRONTLINE PBS correspondent Jelani Cobb to discuss policing and race relations in Newark."

No Justice, No Peace: Rapsody on Art, Activism, and the Power of Music

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

"The Tight Rope host Professors Tricia Rose and Cornel West invite Rapsody to discuss the legacy of the Black music tradition and how it continually reiterates itself within “new genres” creating a cultural archive. Additionally, Rapsody discusses her journey ‘making it’ in the business without compromising her vision for her artistry and the stories she wants to tell. As they discuss both the le

The Quarantine Tapes 174: Thelma Golden

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

"Paul Holdengräber is joined by Thelma Golden on episode 174 of The Quarantine Tapes . Golden is Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by artists of African descent. She tells Paul about that museum’s history and

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)