CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Good Lord Is Thanksgiving Really Next Week Edition (11/24)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Good Lord Is Thanksgiving Really Next Week Edition (11/24)

ICYMI: Good Lord Is Thanksgiving Really Next Week Edition (11/24)

I find that in retirement holidays sort of sneak up on me. I suppose it's because I'm not exposed to the daily reminders from students and the school calendar. Mostly I like it, but sometimes I'm surprised. In the meantime, here are some readings from the week. Don't forget-- share what you like (from its original source). That's how the word gets out.

Rising Tide Review

Fordham released a "report" suggesting that having charters in a community improves all the schools. Yongmei Ni has a review of that report at the National Education Policy Center. Spoiler alert: Fordham's work is not entirely believable.

A Strike for Racial Justice and Democracy in Little Rock Schools

At Jacobin, Eric Blanc has a terrifically thorough look at what exactly has been going on in Little Rock, and how this is one more strike that is about the common good.

An Army of Children Toils in African Mines

Not about US education, but an eye-opening look at one of the horrifying evils that feeds our modern tech.

When Testing Trumps Teaching, the Students Suffer

Tiffany Moyer-Washington in the Hartford Courant makes a good case for what we already know. Share it with someone who doesn't get it yet.

East Lansing Public Schools Had a Surplus

All kinds of unusual in this story from the Lansing State Journal, from the surprise surplus to what the board decided to do with some of the extra money.

PA Tax Credits Don't Benefit Poor

We have tax credits in PA, and the secrets of how they are used is carefully guarded, but Avi Wolfman-Arent did figure out that private schools are not exactly filling up with voucher-bearing poor kids.

LA Federation for Children and Out Of State Money

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider takes a look at how out of state money pours into local school board elections.

Voucher Programs Hurting Rural Schools

About that whole "vouchers will help students escape failing schools" thing. Turns out it's  not entirely accurate. Patrick Redmond at the News Sun has the story.

Unequal Access and Denial of Opportunity

Jan Resseger looks at how the portfolio school reform model is just not working.

Trump's Pledge Delayed By Education Department

One not-awful Trump pledged to do  was erase the student loan debt of disabled veterans. But the ed department is stalling it. Not so much nefarious as the kin d of incompetence when someone with no administrative experience takes over an agency she wants to kill. Politico has the story.

Howard Schools Plan In Motion

The Howard district has actually tried to balance the level of poverty across it schools. They plenty of rough pushback, but they did it anyway. The Baltimore Sun tells the story of how they managed to do the right thing in the face of nasty threats.

The New Deal For Education 

Cheri Kiesecker tracks another move toward implementing the cradle-to-workplace pipeline. It's not a happy story.

2019 Bulwer-Lytton Awards

This annual competition celebrates really bad opening lines for unwritten bad works. I do love it.


CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Good Lord Is Thanksgiving Really Next Week Edition (11/24)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

YESTERDAY

President Grant and the Reconstruction That Wasn't

by Peter Greene / 21h

I've finished the biography Grant by Ron Chernow, the author who famously wrote that bio of Alexander Hamilton (and a really good one of Rockefeller, too). In the end, Ulysses S. Grant remains a little more opaque than some of Chernow's other subjects, but the history that Grant himself lived through is a striking reflection of our nation in a troubled time. He failed at business. His in-laws were

NOV 22

Booker Returns To The Corporate Fold

52by Peter Greene / 1d

On Monday of this week, Cory Booker went full charter school in an op-ed for the New York Time s, a choice that made a little more sense when I looked at my Wednesday e-mail from Whitney Tilson. Whitney Tilson is a successful hedge funder who started Democrats for Education Reform mostly because at that point, Republicans for Education Reform would have been unnecessary. The GOP was already behind

The Waltons Try To Disrupt Elizabeth Warren (updated)

64by Peter Greene / 2d

Elizabeth Warren was in Atlanta at Clark Atlanta University to talk to black voters, when the rally was disrupted by a group of charter school supporters , angry about the hard line stance Warren has staked out on the charter school industry. The group of grass roots charter supporters had, they said, "come from all over the country," and if that doesn't send up a little red flag, then perhaps the

The One And Only Lesson To Be Learned From NAEP Scores

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

It has been almost a month since the NAERP scores have dropped, and some folks are still trying to torture some sort of useful insights from the numbers (here's Mike Petrilli at Fordham writing a piece that should be entitled " What to learn about being better a hitting the wrong target "). The world of education is a fuzzy one, with some declaring that teaching is more art than science. But then

NOV 21

Yes And

81by Peter Greene / 3d

Why do I see such a profound lack of “yes and” in education conversations? “YES we can criticize bad data AND advocate for preparing students for the jobs of the future.” “YES we can advocate for abolishing the the tests AND argue to improve education.” — Akil Bello (@akilbello) November 13, 2019 This tweet (shared with permission) really hit me where I live. Because defenders of public education

NOV 20

David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

35by Peter Greene / 3d

Somewhere on the other side of the Wall Street Journal paywall, David Osborne is bloviating about why charters are swell and Democratic candidates should stop telling "big lies" about them. The WSJ undoubtedly considers this a real stroke of some kind because Osborne is nominally a Democrat, the kind Arne Duncan hugging , Al Gore assisting Democrat who loves him some charters just as deeply as any

NOV 19

PA: Charter Drains Public Schools, Now Wants To Absorb Them

72by Peter Greene / 4d

This week the Philadelphia Enquirer ran the story of a charter operator that wants to take over all of a district's public elementary schools. This is perhaps a logical next step in a district that has been steadily and methodically starved over the past decade. Once you've sucked out the blood and consumed the flesh, what is there left to do but feast on the bones? The school district is Chester

NOV 18

PA: Vouchers Are One Step Closer To Ugly Reality

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

HB 1800 , the bill intended to pilot vouchers in Pennsylvania, made it out of committee today . The vote was 13-12, with two GOP representatives (Rosemary Brown and Meghan Schroeder) voting no. The precipitating excuse for this bill is the school system of Harrisburg, a system that has suffered from financial mismanagement and so was put in financial receivership, a sort of state takeover, last J

Pondiscio: Success Academy Is Better And Worse Than You Think

37by Peter Greene / 5d

Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a thinky tank steeped in conservative ed reform and staunch advocates of school choice, so one might expect that his book about Success Academy, the famous/infamous charter chain in New York City would be something of a puff piece, one more example of founder Eva Moskowitz’s broad and endless PR campaign. Indeed, the title Ho

NOV 17

ICYMI: Soup Party Day Edition (11/17)

by Peter Greene / 7d

My nephew and his wife are hosting a big soup party today, which I'm pretty sure is a first for me. Kids these days. In the meantime, here an assortment of reading material from the week. Remember-- share the stuff that really speaks to you. That's how bloggers become rich and famous- okay, well, not actually. But it is how media outlets find out they should do education coverage, and it's how peo

NOV 16

FL: Yet Another Bad Plan To Not Increase Teacher Pay

44by Peter Greene / 7d

So previously there was the Best and the Brightest program, which awarded teacher bonuses based on student test scores and the teacher's own SAT scores. From high school. It had a variety of problems (above and beyond the basic boneheadedness of the idea) and the new governor, Ron DeSantis found it "confusing." Yes, you can still buy swampland in Florida This newer, betterer plan comes along with

Betsy DeVos Accuses FBI Of Ignorance, Blames Public Education (And More)

1Kby Peter Greene / 8d

Never let it be said that Betsy DeVos won't go out of her way to blame US public education for all the ills of the country, real or imagined. In retrospect, it seems like an oversight that she hadn't had a "Kids These Days" moment, but 

CURMUDGUCATION

MURPH AND FRIENDS: 7 Ways To Bulletproof Your Teaching Career + Mistakes To Avoid When Teaching Writing To Kids - Teacher Habits

7 Ways To Bulletproof Your Teaching Career - Teacher Habits

7 Ways To Bulletproof Your Teaching Career

Many teachers I know live with fear. They fear failing their students. They fear angering vocal parents. They fear the judgment of their colleagues. But above all, many teachers fear a poor evaluation from an administrator that leads to the loss of their job and puts their teaching career in jeopardy.

This fear is why so many teachers are nervous when their principal walks in the room. It’s why they can’t sleep the night before an observation. It’s why they keep a close eye on the economy, state funding, and the financial health of their district. And it’s why so many teachers are afraid to speak up about harmful policies, unrealistic expectations, the misuse of data, and systemic exploitation.

Teachers can never fully bulletproof their careers. Because we work for a government entity that receives funding from the state, we’ll always be at the mercy of recessions and budget cuts. Because we work for other people, we’ll always be vulnerable to petty tyrants, budget-slashing Superintendents, and office politics. Still, there are simple things teachers can do to protect themselves from poor evaluations, dismissals, and layoffs. Here are seven things every teacher can do to make their career as bulletproof as possible.

1. Provide Uncommon Value

You don’t need to sign up for every committee and attend every after-school event to ensure that your principal values you enough that you’re never vulnerable to layoff. You don’t need to be a yes-man or a suck-up. But if you want to bulletproof your career, you should stand CONTINUE READING: 7 Ways To Bulletproof Your Teaching Career - Teacher Habits

Mistakes To Avoid When Teaching Writing To Kids - Teacher Habits - http://teacherhabits.com/?p=2496 via @Teacher_Habits

How Teachers Can Use Video Games in School - Teacher Habits - http://teacherhabits.com/?p=2491 via @Teacher_Habits

Why 15,000 Indiana teachers just walked off the job | Salon.com

Why 15,000 Indiana teachers just walked off the job | Salon.com

Why 15,000 Indiana teachers just walked off the job
Tuesday’s statewide walkout of teachers in Indiana could lead to an illegal strike

After making waves in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina and beyond, the Red for Ed movement has now spread to Indiana. Fed up with disinvestment in public schools and disrespect for their profession, teachers from across the Hoosier State are converging in Indianapolis today to hold lawmakers accountable and demand change.

More than 15,000 teachers and supporters are expected to rally at the Republican-controlled statehouse for today’s Red for Ed Day of Action, organized by the Indiana State Teachers Association and AFT Indiana. While the protest is not officially a strike, nearly half of the state’s school districts have been forced to cancel classes because so many educators have taken the day off to participate.

The rally coincides with the state legislature’s “Organization Day,” where lawmakers discuss their priorities for the next legislative session which begins in January.

Teachers are demanding raises to their salaries, which average around $50,000 — well below the national average of $60,000 — but can be as low as $30,000 for new hires. After years of state budget surpluses, Indiana now has $2.3 billion in reserves. At the same time, Indiana teachers have seen the smallest salary increases in the nation, receiving an overall increase of only $6,900 between 2002 and 2017.

Rather than simply tapping into the state’s massive reserves to pay for teacher raises, Republican lawmakers say that any salary increases would have to be paired with cuts to other school expenses such as administration and transportation.

Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb agreed to a one-time allocation of $150 million to pay down schools’ pension liability, freeing up $70 million per year in the school districts’ budgets. While Holcomb framed the move as a roundabout way to provide teachers raises, schools were not required to use the savings for salary increases — and apparently haven’t done so.

The low salaries compared to neighboring states has resulted in a statewide teacher shortage.  “Class sizes have ballooned because we don’t have the staff — we can’t fill the positions that are open and we can’t find the money to hire staff,” explained Daniel Brugioni, president of the Lake Ridge CONTINUE READING: Why 15,000 Indiana teachers just walked off the job | Salon.com

EdAction in Congress November 24, 2019 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress November 24, 2019 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress November 24, 2019

Tell Congress to increase Title I and IDEA in final funding bill

On the heels of passing yet another short-term funding bill—this one expires Dec. 20—House and Senate negotiators continue to seek agreement on a final funding bill for fiscal 2020, which began Oct 1. NEA is pushing for significant increases like those in H.R. 2740, the education appropriations bill passed by the House. The House bill includes a $1 billion increase for Title I, which provides extra financial help for school districts with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families, as well as a $1 billion increase for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In contrast, the pending Senate education appropriations bill provides no additional funding for either program.

Federal funding for Title and IDEA have not kept pace with inflation, growing enrollment, or student needs. This year, more than half the nation’s Title I-eligible school districts will have their Title I funds reduced, according to U.S. Department of Education allocations. The federal share of the excess cost of educating students with disabilities has declined for five consecutive years and is now just 14 percent—far below the 40 percent Congress promised to provide. Tell your senators and representative to match the House increases for Title I and IDEA in any final funding bill.TAKE ACTION

Tell Congress to put rural schools on a firm financial footing

A new report from the Rural School Community Trust underscores the urgent need to put rural schools on a firm financial footing—the same message conveyed by NEA’s letter urging Congress to renew the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) and Community Self-Determination Act and take additional steps to ensure long-term, reliable funding. First enacted in 2000, the law supports public education and community services in over 4,400 schools in 770 rural counties located near national forests. But funding has been inconsistent for the last three years—SRS expired at the end of 2018.

Now, rural areas across the country are facing budgetary shortfalls that could force big cuts in public education and other essential community services. Tell your representatives it’s time to put rural schools on a firm financial footing. TAKE ACTION

Cheers and Jeers

Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) is leading a letter that urges President Trump and Congressional leadership to include a renewed commitment to investing in public schools in any national infrastructure plan.

EdAction in Congress November 24, 2019 - Education Votes

Students were illegally punished for Black Lives Matter posters, ACLU says - Los Angeles Times

Students were illegally punished for Black Lives Matter posters, ACLU says - Los Angeles Times

Students were illegally punished for Black Lives Matter posters, ACLU says 

A group of young Sacramento students was unlawfully singled out and punished for creating posters that supported the Black Lives Matter movement as part of an art class led by a parent volunteer, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

Four students at Del Paso Manor Elementary School created the works after a lesson on how art is used in activist movements. They were improperly forced to redo their posters during class time, the civil liberties group said in a letter to San Juan Unified School District this week. One student’s art was thrown away.

“By censoring and punishing the students, the school violated their constitutional free speech rights, and sent the damaging message that supporting black lives is not welcome in their classrooms,” Abre’ Conner, staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said in a news release.

The school also violated the 1st Amendment rights of the parent who led the students’ art lesson in September by banning her from coming back to the classroom in retaliation for speaking to the principal about the incident, the ACLU said.

 A district official said in an emailed statement Friday that the allegations are serious and that the district is investigating. However, there are inconsistencies between the ACLU’s account, the district’s prior knowledge of the incident and what it has learned since receiving the ACLU’s letter on Thursday, said Raj Rai, the district communication coordinator.

“It is inconsistent with our values and never our intent or desire for any student to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome to discuss issues that are important to them. We sincerely apologize if this experience made any student feel such discomfort,” Rai said. “Censoring a student’s assigned work because of its content would not be acceptable.”

According to the ACLU letter, a Del Paso Manor parent and frequent volunteer identified only as Ms. Kincaid taught a lesson on art and activism as part of the school’s “art docent” program on Sept. 16. She showed posters that referenced immigration, housing rights and Black Lives Matter, among other topics.

After the lesson, the students were assigned to focus on a change they wanted to see at their school. Four students created Black Lives Matters posters, including one who CONTINUE READING:  Students were illegally punished for Black Lives Matter posters, ACLU says - Los Angeles Times

New Orleans: Nearly Half of the District’s Charter Schools Receive a D or F from State

New Orleans: Nearly Half of the District’s Charter Schools Receive a D or F from State | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Orleans: Nearly Half of the District’s Charter Schools Receive a D or F from State

Ouch!

New Orleans is the nation’s first all-charter district.

New Orleans is supposed to be the shining star of the charter movement, proving the value of school choice and market-based reforms, closing schools and replacing them with new schools, then closing failing schools, ad infinitum.

But newly released state grades reveal that nearly half of the district’s charter schools (49%) received a grade of D or F, meaning failing or near failing.

Della Hasselle writes in the New Orleans Advocate:

The release of the state’s closely watched school performance scores earlier this month offered an overall update on New Orleans schools that seemed benign enough: A slight increase in overall student performance meant another C grade for the district.

But a closer look reveals a startling fact. A whopping 35 of the 72 schools in the all-charter district scored a D or F, meaning nearly half of local public schools were CONTINUE READING: New Orleans: Nearly Half of the District’s Charter Schools Receive a D or F from State | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Pinkston: Time for School Districts To Set Standards for Charter Applications, not the Charter Industry’s Lobbyists | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Pinkston: Time for School Districts To Set Standards for Charter Applications, not the Charter Industry’s Lobbyists | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Pinkston: Time for School Districts To Set Standards for Charter Applications, not the Charter Industry’s Lobbyists

Will Pinkston, who served on the elected school board of the Metro Nashville school district, writes here that school districts should not outsource their charter application process to the charter industry’s lobbyists.

The timing is right because the Koch Network has targeted four states for unlimited charter school proliferation: Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Up until now, many school districts are using the guidelines and standards developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, which wants minimal oversight of charter schools.

But NACSA, Pinkston notes, is not a neutral arbiter, but an organization dedicated to the growth and expansion of the charter industry.

Asking NACSA for advice about how to grant charters is akin to asking the Tobacco Industry Association whether cigarettes are good or bad for your health.

Many districts, Pinkston notes, are having budget problems because of the expansion of charters.

He advises:

Strengthening public school districts’ charter application reviews is a logical first step toward disrupting the school CONTINUE READING: Will Pinkston: Time for School Districts To Set Standards for Charter Applications, not the Charter Industry’s Lobbyists | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: DOE Coaches Principals on Instructional Leadership Teams

NYC Educator: DOE Coaches Principals on Instructional Leadership Teams

DOE Coaches Principals on Instructional Leadership Teams

Good morning principals. It's great you all came here for our Instructional Leadership Team training! You'll be happy to know that we're going to reach out to all constituencies and make sure they get rigorous instruction! We want equity and excellence for all. I see a hand.

Do we have to include UFT in this? My chapter leader is a pain in the ass.

No, of course not. When we talk about reaching out to all constituencies, we don't mean actual UFT chapters. What the hell are they good for? And by the way, we absolutely support teachers. We just have issues with the unions.

Aren't the unions made up of teachers?

Back in the good old days, when Mike Bloomberg was mayor, we knew how to handle them. We offered them a 16-page contract that eviscerated all their rights and they just whined and moaned about it. You know, they want this, and they want that, and they have rights. Blah, blah, blah. Now Bloomberg's running for President, and once he buys that election, he'll show those teacher unions what's what.

No, you can put anyone you want on your team. It's your school, and honestly, how the hell are we going to reach out to all constituencies if we have to include teachers? This is the problem with this new chancellor, being seen in public with the union president, going to their events, even marching with them in parades. In fact, I've even heard him say he wants to end his career as a teacher. What the hell is up with that?

Back when Bloomberg hired us, he told us principals could do any damn thing they wanted. Those were the days. We closed hundreds of schools and filled them full of newbies who knew nothing about union. Fact--this chancellor will be gone in two years but we'll be here forever.

Wouldn't it be a good idea for us to get buy in?

Why? Did we need buy in when we imposed the workshop model? Did we need buy in the year we made everyone do portfolios? Did we need buy in the next year when we CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: DOE Coaches Principals on Instructional Leadership Teams

An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

The term equity is being used a lot these days in education circles, certainly more than when i began teaching in 2006. On the surface, that seems like a good thing. A lot of us would like to prioritize equity. But, the more it gets thrown around, the more it seems like it's being used in ways that are so superficial that they actually perpetuate inequity.

Understandably, some folks, having seen this happen over and over again, are beginning to lose hope for the possibility of equity to move us in the direction we want to go, namely the direction of justice.

In this blog post, I'd like to attempt a somewhat complex but extremely important argument concerning the way school districts and educators are approaching the concept of educational equity in 2019. I believe that in order to understand what's required for educational equity, we have to a) significantly broaden the way we talk and think about what equity truly demands, and b) we must identify and understand the roots of equity.

Let's begin by looking at a common definition for equity. This one comes from an EdWeek article on equitable education funding from 2014 written by Marin Gjaja, J. Puckett, and Matt Ryder. They write:

"Equity should require that every student receives sufficient resources to have the same chance to succeed, rather than that every child gets the same level of funding."

This is pretty typical of the way i think equity is being discussed in school districts across our country, the idea being that equitable treatment of students and families is different than equal treatment. And this doesn't just go for dollars. Educational equity is also about culturally responsive curriculum and instructional practices, proper and appropriate special education evaluation and services, socially and emotionally supportive learning environments, and much more.

In other words, the basic premise of our current equity conversation encourages us to understand CONTINUE READING: An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

CURMUDGUCATION: President Grant and the Reconstruction That Wasn't

CURMUDGUCATION: President Grant and the Reconstruction That Wasn't

President Grant and the Reconstruction That Wasn't

I've finished the biography Grant by Ron Chernow, the author who famously wrote that bio of Alexander Hamilton (and a really good one of Rockefeller, too). In the end, Ulysses S. Grant remains a little more opaque than some of Chernow's other subjects, but the history that Grant himself lived through is a striking reflection of our nation in a troubled time. He failed at business. His in-laws were a slave-owning Southern family. He won the Civil War, and then he presided over Reconstruction, a period that is both hugely important and hugely ignored by US citizens. We are still paying the price for that ignorance.

There are better and deeper studies of Reconstruction than the handful of chapters that it gets in this book, but the context underlines just how quickly things fell apart and how little time and space Grant had to come up with a federal response.

The challenges started with the moment of Confederate surrender; Grant earned the loyalty of many Southern military leaders by allowing officers to keep firearms at surrender. It gave Grant unique leverage in dealing with the returning states.

The problems of Reconstruction were both simple and, perhaps, unsolvable. How to bring the Southern states back into the country they had rebelled against; under what terms to you welcome traitors back to the fold? At the same time, how to bring former slaves into the nation as full citizens. These had been faced by Johnson, whose solution so clashed with that of Republican Congress that he was impeached.

But the bigger problem was left to Grant. You can abolish the institution of slavery, but how do you CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: President Grant and the Reconstruction That Wasn't