Big Education Ape

Friday, March 1, 2019

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

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

New Ed Week Video: “K-12 Performance Assessment Terms Explained”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

PDPics / Pixabay I’m adding this new Ed Week video to The Best Resources For Learning About Performance Assessment :

Gold Mine: “Teach About Climate Change With These 24 New York Times Graphs”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

geralt / Pixabay The New York Times Learning Network has just published this amazing resource: Teach About Climate Change With These 24 New York Times Graphs . It includes both the graphs and teaching ideas on how to use them. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change .

The Web As We Know It Began Thirty Years Ago – Here Are Related Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

geralt / Pixabay Though there are a lot of different dates out there for when the Internet was invented, it appears that the Web as we know it began thirty years ago this month . You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About The Internet .

World Poetry Day Is On March 21st – Here Are A Ton Of Related Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

MorningbirdPhoto / Pixabay World Poetry Day is on March 21st. You might be interested in The Best World Poetry Day Resources – Help Me Find More .

Good Commentary On Harmful ELL Study

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

Last week, I published a popular post about a harmful study suggesting that grade retention in third grade was beneficial to English Language Learners (see SCHOLARS APPROPRIATELY RIP RESEARCH SAYING GRADE RETENTION GOOD FOR ELLS). Today, Ed Week posted a similar commentary from researchers, and it’s definitely worth reading. Check out Don’t Be Too Quick to Retain English-Language Learners .

YESTERDAY

Check Out The Weather Channel’s Newest “immersive mixed reality” Video: “The Science Behind Ice Thickness”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay I’ve previously shared all the Weather Channel’s wild “immersive mixed reality” videos , including ones on ice storms and tornado. They just unveiled this latest one (you can read more about it at The Washington Post’s article, The Weather Channel uses virtual reality to reveal the terrifying danger of frozen lakes ):

CURMUDGUCATION: Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching

CURMUDGUCATION: Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching

Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching

Teach for America has always been a work in progress, an evolving enterprise in search of a reason to keep existing. Once upon a time it was all about teaching and plugging holes in the system. Then it was about supplanting traditional teachers (and trying not to say out loud that they needed to be supplanted because they sucked and the Best and the Brightest had better swoop in like a shining white cavalry to rescue the poor children). And then maybe were about building a resume and getting yourself prepped for your real career (their slogan at one point was literally "change and be changed"). And then, sensitive about that shining white cavalry thing, they decided to be a force for diversity in the teaching force.

Kudzu.

But I recently was hanging about the TFA website and discovered that more morphing of a sort has occurred, and TFA is now leaning into what has always been one of their missions. It was just never a part of the mission that they expressed so directly.

Here's some copy from their front page:

Teach For America is looking for promising leaders to take on educational inequity.

The Challenge

In America today, the circumstances children are born into predict the opportunities they will have in life. Our education system was not designed to enable all children to realize their potential or achieve their dreams.

The Opportunity

While no single solution is enough to bring about an equitable and excellent education for all CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching

Ohio Voucher Promoters Mislead: EdChoice Vouchers Eat Up Local Dollars and Ruin District Budgets | janresseger

Ohio Voucher Promoters Mislead: EdChoice Vouchers Eat Up Local Dollars and Ruin District Budgets | janresseger

Ohio Voucher Promoters Mislead: EdChoice Vouchers Eat Up Local Dollars and Ruin District Budgets

On Tuesday evening, the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and the American Federation for Children—the group affiliated through the years with Betsy DeVos—sponsored a meeting at my local public library, where the speaker, representing School Choice Ohio,promoted Ohio’s taxpayer-funded, EdChoice school vouchers.

Ohio’s EdChoice Vouchers are available to students living in the attendance zones of what are considered “failing” schools. Ohio is emerging from a three year “safe harbor” period following a change in the high stakes test by which Ohio judges school quality. Next fall, the number of EdChoice voucher-eligible, so called “failing” schools will double—to 475 across the state—reports Patrick O’Donnell of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The list of local public schools whose students will be able to qualify for the vouchers next fall is nearly 12 pages long and includes a mass of schools in every big city and a growing number of the state’s inner-ring suburbs. (Cleveland schools do not appear on this list, because the state maintains a separate voucher program in Cleveland.)

The meeting on Tuesday night at the Cleveland Heights Main Library offered coffee and donuts along with several packets about the voucher program and information for prospective voucher parents about School Choice Ohio’s counseling services to help parents qualify for a voucher. Alyson Miles was Tuesday’s primary speaker. She is not currently listed on the staff of School Choice Ohio but appears instead as the Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the Ohio office of the American Federation for Children. She is also, according to the website of School Choice Ohio, one of the three members of School Choice Ohio’s board of directors. The other board members are Rabbi Yitz Frank, the Ohio Director of Agudath Israel of America in Cleveland Ohio, and Ann Riddle, Executive Director of the Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund, located in Sylvania, Ohio—a suburb of Toledo.

In Ohio, to qualify for an EdChoice Voucher, students must have been enrolled previously in a public school unless they are entering Kindergarten. Once a Kindergartner receives a CONTINUE READING: Ohio Voucher Promoters Mislead: EdChoice Vouchers Eat Up Local Dollars and Ruin District Budgets | janresseger

Guess which state spends the most public funds on private and religious school education. (Hint: Betsy DeVos has a house there.) - The Washington Post

Guess which state spends the most public funds on private and religious school education. (Hint: Betsy DeVos has a house there.) - The Washington Post

Guess which state spends the most public funds on private and religious school education. (Hint: Betsy DeVos has a house there.)

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos just announced she is backing Senate legislation that would create the first federally funded school tax credit, so it seems like a good time to see which states spend public money to send kids to private and religious schools — and how much.

To be clear, the new legislation has virtually no chance of passing Congress; Democrats now control the House and most of them wouldn’t support it. A similar idea couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm a few years ago when Republicans controlled the House and the Senate.

And it is worth noting that DeVos opposes federal involvement in education — she once said “government sucks” — and she believes that choice programs, like all education, are best at the state and local level. She couldn’t, of course, oppose a federal choice program. But she isn’t likely to appreciate federal restrictions that would necessarily be attached to the money.

[‘Government really sucks’ and five other principles promoted by Betsy DeVos]

Tax credits are just one of the programs that fall under the branch of the “school choice” movement that seeks to use public money to send children to private and religious schools — even when those schools can legally discriminate against LBGTQ students and other groups of students. There are, however, differences in how the programs work throughout the country, structured according to the laws of each state.

The issue is central to the national education debate. Supporters say families should have options for their children. Opponents say it is unconstitutional to use public funds for religious education and that these programs drain resources from public school districts that educate most of America’s children. The Supreme Court is expected to soon get a case that addresses the constitutionality of voucher programs.

Under tax credit scholarship programs, donors take tax deductions for contributions they make to a state-sanctioned entity that distributes those contributions to qualified students who then use the money for private and religious schools.

There are, according to the pro-choice nonprofit group EdChoice, 23 tax-credit scholarship programs in 18 states: Alabama, Arizona (4), Florida (2), Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania (2), Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia.

EdChoice is an Indiana-based nonprofit with a mission to privatize the public education system through a universal voucher system. (You can learn about its philosophy in this 1995 op-ed written for The Washington Post by Milton Friedman, who funded the predecessor organization that is now EdChoice. The headline: “Public Schools: Make Them Private.”) CONTINUE READING: Guess which state spends the most public funds on private and religious school education. (Hint: Betsy DeVos has a house there.) - The Washington Post

Louisiana’s Teach for America Contracts: Not As Lucrative as They Used to Be, But Still There. | deutsch29

Louisiana’s Teach for America Contracts: Not As Lucrative as They Used to Be, But Still There. | deutsch29

Louisiana’s Teach for America Contracts: Not As Lucrative as They Used to Be, But Still There.

On February 22, 2019, I submitted a public records request for “all contracts between the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and Teach for America (TFA) from 2016 to date.”

The result yielded four contracts between LDOE and TFA:

The objectives of these continuously-issued TFA contracts includes “sustaining a TFA presence across Louisiana.” From the 2015-16 contract:

Objectives:

To place approximately 380 Teach for America corps members in high needs public schools serving low-income populations in Southen Louisiana and the Louisiana Delta, within the following Parishes: Ascension, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Madison, Orleans, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Helena, and Tensas.

To support these corps members, through ongoing professional development and support, to achieve ambitious and measurable results with students.

To work with the Louisiana Department of Education to sustain Teach for America’s teacher and alumni presence across Louisiana.

In 2016-17, the same 14 parishes were listed, but the number of TFA recruits dropped to 285. However, in both 2015-16 and 2016-17, the contract amount CONTINUE READING: Louisiana’s Teach for America Contracts: Not As Lucrative as They Used to Be, But Still There. | deutsch29

NYC Public School Parents: The reality vs the hype of Teach to One

NYC Public School Parents: The reality vs the hype of Teach to One

The reality vs the hype of Teach to One

On February 28, Digital Learning day.

Last week, two different studies came out about the results of the well-known blended learning program originally called “School of One” and now called “Teach to One”, created and sold to schools by an organization named New Classrooms. If you want to cut to the chase, you can read about the contrasting analyses in Education Week, Chalkbeat or the Hechinger Report. If you want to know about the history of this much-hyped program that was first developed for use in NYC public schools and uses software programs and algorithms to deliver instruction, read on here. It provides lessons in how insistent the promoters of online learning have hyped programs with little or no evidence behind them, how negative evaluations have been suppressed or discounted and how conflicts of interest have been ignored – all in the service of convincing schools to adopt these programs far and wide.

According to his Linked-in profile, Joel Rose was a Teach for America corps member for three years, until he was hired to work at the headquarters of Edison charter schools in New York City, a national for-profit chain of charters headquartered in NYC. By 2003, he was running a division of Edison called Newton Learning that provided tutoring to students through the supplementary services program (SES) that was included in No Child Left Behind. NCLB required public schools with low test scores to pay for their students to receive tutoring services from private companies. In 2003 alone, Newton Learning was paid more than $5 million by the NYC Department of Education for its tutoring services.

According to NCLB, parents of students at these schools were supposed to be provided with the choice of tutoring companies. Yet in 2005, the NY Post found that in some NYC schools, principals and parent coordinators were incentivized to recruit students for Newton. In one Bronx school, as a result, the school distributed flyers to parents saying “Newton Learning is your best SES choice. The Newton Learning Adventure offers FUN and EXCITING activity-based lessons.” Some parents were told by their schools that the only choice was for them to enroll their children in Newton Learning, or they would receive no tutoring at all.

In March 2006, the NYC Special Investigator of Schools Richard Condon released a report, revealing how several SES providers, including Newton Learning, had engaged in a number of “questionable business practices” in their dealings with DOE officials, parents and students. These companies had been involved in the “misappropriation and misuse of confidential student information and the offering of self- serving incentive programs”, and Newton staff had been improperly allowed entry into schools to directly solicit students. In one case, a principal permitted Newton reps to perform skits in front of students during class time to promote their services.

Newton staff had also improperly obtained student contact information from school staff and had offered financial incentives to principals and teachers if their students signed up. They had promised gifts to students in exchange for enrolling, including CD players and $100 gift cards. This sort of chicanery continued even after DOE told Newton to stop these practices, according to Condon’s report. Newton also had failedto carry out required fingerprinting and background checks for the staff they hired as tutors.

According to the DOE rules, Newton and other tutoring companies could use classroom space in the public schools free of charge, if granted a “permit” by the school’s principal. Yet in return, any company was also supposed to give students a 9% reduction in fees. Yet every company which had asked for a waiver from this discount was granted one by David Ross, the head of DOE’s Division of Contracts and Services. (Remember that name, David Ross; it will come up later.) Here’s an article in the NY Times, with more about the special investigator’s findings.

Condon’s report and news articles about his findings were apparently ignored by DOE, as shown by the fact that a few months later, in December 2006, Joel Klein hired Chris Cerf, to be his Deputy CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: The reality vs the hype of Teach to One

Big Education Ape: CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/02/ca-schools-freed-from-costly-after.html

Big Education Ape: Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/05/feds-new-13m-tutoring-scam-uncovered-at.html

Big Education Ape: Where is Education Secretary Duncan’s Head? - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2014/04/where-is-education-secretary-duncans.html

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Are Your Students Watching History? | Teacher in a strange land

Are Your Students Watching History? | Teacher in a strange land

Are Your Students Watching History?

One of the more intriguing aspects of Wednesday’s fascinating, glued-to-the-tube Congressional train wreck was the backchannel Twitter conversation among teachers. Specifically: How do we talk to our students about this? Are we watching this with our seniors in government class? It’s history in the making, all right. How do teachers deal?

If you’ve taught as long as I have, you (and your students) have witnessed several crises happening in the world, including politically and socially sensitive events. Anyone who thinks that a teacher can avoid talking about a public tragedy, a politically contentious election outcome or the death of an iconic American is a fool. School is where kids collect, every day. School is where they talk about stuff. Adults can’t and shouldn’t suppress this, but they can provide context.

Even small children talk about big events, often confusing fact and fiction. When Pope John Paul died, in 2005, I was teaching younger children. The funeral took up a lot of time on mainstream TV, and my littles talked about it endlessly. I eventually figured out that some of them didn’t know who the Pope was, why he was important. A couple of my students thought he was ‘old fashioned Santa Claus’ (St. Nicholas) because of his red robes and tall hat. They were bereft.

That’s kind of sweet and chuckle-y. But the morning Kurt Cobain died, there was genuine grief among some of my 8th graders. A mixture of emotions, in fact—confusion, fear, horror and faux detachment. The wanted to present as chill and aloof, but the idea of someone so tuned into their self-image taking his own life was CONTINUE READING: Are Your Students Watching History? | Teacher in a strange land

I Used to be a Reporter. Now I’m a Teacher. I’ve Become What I Used to Observe | gadflyonthewallblog

I Used to be a Reporter. Now I’m a Teacher. I’ve Become What I Used to Observe | gadflyonthewallblog

I Used to be a Reporter. Now I’m a Teacher. I’ve Become What I Used to Observe

A long time ago, in a newsroom far, far away; your humble narrator was a respected journalist.

Today I am a beloved school teacher in a suburban middle school.

Okay. That may be laying it on a bit thick.

Like any human being whose job it is to get children to do their best and learn something, I’m beloved by some and beloathed by others. And if I’m honest, when I was a reporter, I was never all that respected. But I did win several state journalism awards.

The point I’m trying to make is that like a caterpillar into a butterfly or a tadpole into a frog, I made a startling transformation in career paths that flies somewhat in the face of popular wisdom.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “There are no second acts in American Lives.” Well, I’m on my third or fourth act and nowhere near ready for the curtain to come down yet.

It’s shocking how far I’ve come, though there’s a surprising amount of overlap between my two professions. In fact, the biggest difference is one of orientation.

I used to get up at 4 a.m., weave into the newsroom and type away for a few hours about the previous night’s school board or city council meeting before my deadline came down, the presses rolled and the morning edition went on sale.

Now I get up at 5 a.m., hobble into the classroom and go to meetings, grade papers or otherwise get ready for a 7-hour invasion by 12- and 13-year-olds, followed by more meetings and papers and planning.

I used to go into the classroom to interview teachers and students about special lessons, state and federal programs or standardized tests.

Now I’m in the classroom questioning myself about my students and what works best to help them learn, trying to navigate the state and federal programs so they get the CONTINUE READING: I Used to be a Reporter. Now I’m a Teacher. I’ve Become What I Used to Observe | gadflyonthewallblog

Newsom fast-tracks legislation to hold charter schools to same standards as public schools - Los Angeles Times

Newsom fast-tracks legislation to hold charter schools to same standards as public schools - Los Angeles Times

Newsom fast-tracks legislation to hold charter schools to same standards as public schools

BREAKING NEWS! SB 126 has passed both houses of the legislature and is now headed to Governor Newsom’s desk! Thank you to all our supporters for your phone calls and advocacy to bring accountability & transparency to charter schools. #KidsNotProfits

A proposal championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to require new transparency standards for charter schools across California was passed by state legislators Thursday, an effort that would align the campuses with guidelines followed by traditional public schools.

The legislation marks a symbolic shift in the long proxy war between teachers unions and charter-school backers over education policy, after back-to-back election cycles in which the two sides spent tens of millions of dollars on rival candidates in California’s top statewide races. CONTINUE READING: Newsom fast-tracks legislation to hold charter schools to same standards as public schools - Los Angeles Times

Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, March 1, 2019

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

YESTERDAY

CURMUDGUCATION: Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching

Ohio Voucher Promoters Mislead: EdChoice Vouchers Eat Up Local Dollars and Ruin District Budgets | janresseger

Guess which state spends the most public funds on private and religious school education. (Hint: Betsy DeVos has a house there.) - The Washington Post

Louisiana’s Teach for America Contracts: Not As Lucrative as They Used to Be, But Still There. | deutsch29

NYC Public School Parents: The reality vs the hype of Teach to One

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Are Your Students Watching History? | Teacher in a strange land

I Used to be a Reporter. Now I’m a Teacher. I’ve Become What I Used to Observe | gadflyonthewallblog

Newsom fast-tracks legislation to hold charter schools to same standards as public schools - Los Angeles Times

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