It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY 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

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE TWELFT

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this we

“How Can Instructional Coaches & Teachers Work Best Together?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

How Can Instructional Coaches & Teachers Work Best Together? is the new question-of-the-week at my Ed Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave responses in the comments sections there or here…

YESTERDAY

Video: How big is the Solar System?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Comfreak / Pixabay I’m adding this video to The Best Web Tools That Show You Objects To Scale :

A Look Back: Who Should Teachers Take Seriously When They Give Advice About Classroom Instruction?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’m beginning to republish posts that made it onto my A LOOK BACK: 2019’S BEST POSTS FROM THIS BLOG – PART TWO list. GDJ / Pixabay This is a question I’ve been thinking about for awhile, and I’m eager to hear answers from readers. Lots of people give advice about classroom instruction, but who should we really take seriously? There seems to me some fairly obvious people who go on the list, like o

“It’s a Great Lesson When Students ‘Want to Continue Their Own Learning'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 19h

It’s a Great Lesson When Students ‘Want to Continue Their Own Learning’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. This two-part series on best social studies lessons is “wrapped up” today by commentaries from Rachel Johnson, Dawn Mitchell, Julie Stern, Cynthia W. Resor, Andrew Sharos, Lori Oczkus, and Keisha Rembert. Here are some excerpts:

Three New Resources For Teaching About Thanksgiving

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

ulleo / Pixabay Here are new additions to The Best Sites To Teach and Learn About Thanksgiving : Teaching Thanksgiving is from NPR. The Year Abraham Lincoln Declared Thanksgiving is from Slate. Lesson plan: After helping Pilgrims, today’s Wampanoags fight for their ancestral lands is from The PBS NewsHour.

We’ve Just Begun Work On The Second Edition Of “The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

Katie Hull and I have just begun work on the second edition of our popular The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide . We’re about a year behind our original timetable for revising it because we spent the past twelve months editing three books in our Toolbox series (see The Math, Science & Social Studies Books We’re Editing Are Now Available For Pre-Order! ). The second edition of The Survival Guide w

New Study Questions Use Of VAM In Teacher Evaluation

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

There are a lots of questions about the use of “Value-Added Measurements” in teacher evaluations (see The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation ). Now, another study questions its use in hiring and firing decisions. Check out Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Cautionary Tale (it’s not behind a paywall).

“World AIDS Day” Is On December 1st – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

GDJ / Pixabay The United Nations has declared December 1st to be World AIDS Day . You might be interested in The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS .

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

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity - Schott Foundation for Public Education

Schott Foundation for Public Education

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign 

Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

TODAY

Friends of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

by psj / 1h

is a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy, a 501(c)(3) public charity, designed to strengthen the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), an independent, nonpartisan executive branch agency. Friends of USCCR conducts strategic communications efforts & community outreach, & sponsors events, to amplify the non-partisan voice of USCCR, increase public engagement with its work, & support

Communities for Just Schools Fund

by psj / 1h

The (CJSF) is a national donor collaborative that supports constituency-led organizing efforts to create positive and supportive school climates, which affirm and foster the success of all students. Building upon the groundbreaking initiatives of the Just and Fair Schools Fund, the Communities for Just Schools Fund is relaunching that body of work and expanding its efforts to support locally-bas

Campaign for Black Male Achievement

by psj / 1h

The (CBMA) is a national membership network that seeks to ensure the growth, sustainability, and impact of leaders and organizations committed to improving the life outcomes of Black men and boys. CBMA is a growing member network that currently includes more than 4,703 leaders representing nearly 2,555 organizations and programs across the country. https://www.blackmaleachievement.org/ Region: N

Breaking Our Chains

by psj / 1h

https://www.breakingourchains.org/ Region: West

Beyond the Bricks Project

by psj / 1h

The mission of is to produce media based work that engages local communities around issues that impact equity in education for all students. http://www.beyondthebricksproject.org/ Region: National

Allied Media Projects

by psj / 1h

cultivates media strategies for a more just, creative, and collaborative world. http://www.alliedmedia.org Region: National

Schott Foundation for Public Education

White Lies, Black Incarceration, and the Promise of Reading in Prison | radical eyes for equity

White Lies, Black Incarceration, and the Promise of Reading in Prison | radical eyes for equity

White Lies, Black Incarceration, and the Promise of Reading in Prison

“The curiosity that may be deemed a sign of genius in a white male child is viewed as trouble making when expressed by black boys,” observes bell hooks in Chapter 3 of her We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity.

The book’s title echoes the wonderful and precise poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, which also in its powerful concision offers a portrait of the dire consequences of toxic masculinity for Black men.

I came to this work of hooks along with The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love through an online documentary, The Feminist on Cellblock Y:

The documentary features Richie Reseda who, while incarcerated, began seminars on the patriarchy and toxic masculinity grounded in the writings of bell hooks.

hooks begins Chapter 3 with “More than any other group of men in our society black males are perceived as lacking in intellectual skills,” a claim both represented and refuted by the men who animate the documentary through personal reflections and candid filming of them investigating the texts written by hooks and then navigating prison seminars that rival and even surpass the sorts of college classrooms these men have been systematically denied.

From reading hooks, Reseda came to recognize the systemic forces—patriarchy, toxic masculinity, rape culture—that shaped him and his CONTINUE READING: White Lies, Black Incarceration, and the Promise of Reading in Prison | radical eyes for equity

CURMUDGUCATION: TN: Doubling Down On Bad Reading Policy

CURMUDGUCATION: TN: Doubling Down On Bad Reading Policy

TN: Doubling Down On Bad Reading Policy

Among the worst policy ideas of the past decades, we have to count third grade reading retention laws. These laws can sometimes give schools a brief bump in test scores, but the consequences for actual human students are not good. And some folks in Tennessee have decided that more of a bad idea would be super.

Why tell a eight or nine year old child that they failed third grade, even though they did passing work on everything but the reading test? The theory is that third grade reading ability correlates with later academic success, and since too many policy makers don't know the difference between correlation and causation, well, let's just hold them back. If you are cynical, you might also notice that this keeps the bad test-takers out of fourth grade, where the more high stakes testing occurs ("Look! Our fourth graders now read better than ever!").

Time to get to work, you little slackers

The policy also latches onto the idea that punishment, threats and fear are the best motivators. Maybe it's the teachers who have been holding back, or maybe it's those little eight year old slackers, but if we threaten them all with some tough consequences, maybe they'll try a little harder and the teachers will really teach and the students will try to learn, because that's probably the most likely explanation for why the third grade test scores are low.

In Memphis, school leaders have decided that's still going to easy on the little punks.

Proposed last spring, the district has now implemented a failure rule for second graders.

The policy comes courtesy of chief academic officer Antonio Burt, who is steeped in reformia, from his time with TNTP to his stint improving TVAAS scores to his time with the Achievement School District to his work as Director of School Transformation in Pinellas County, Florida.

The policy is now in place, and this year's kindergarten students will be the first to be affected, so they had better stop messing around and get to work. The chicken littling that put this policy in CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: TN: Doubling Down On Bad Reading Policy

News: Big REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Exits the Charter Real Estate Sector | Diane Ravitch's blog

News: Big REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Exits the Charter Real Estate Sector | Diane Ravitch's blog

News: Big REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Exits the Charter Real Estate Sector

Carol Burris writes about the latest news from the charter industry. This is the same company that Valerie Strauss wrote about, called “Entertainment Properties Trust.” It’s CEO, Dennis Brain, told an interviewer that charter schools were a sound investment, had long waiting lists, and were guaranteed government revenues.

But that rosy picture has dimmed. The long waiting lists are fictional. Charters are likely to close down suddenly. In some states, charter enrollment is declining. The REIT lost confidence in the future of charter schools and liquidated its charter school holdings.

Burris writes:

EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) is a  triple net lease real estate investment trust (REIT). What that means is that it buys properties and then rents them with the tenant picking up costs like insurance, improvements, and all utilities. Therefore, every dollar EPR makes off the lease is profit. 

EPR used to love the charter sector. It would buy buildings and then rent them to charter schools. In 2017 it had 66 charter schools in its portfolio. By 2018, that number dropped to 60. 

EPR had a special relationship with Imagine Charter Schools. School House Finance, Imagine’s related organization, would buy the property. It would sell it to EPR. EPR would lease it back to School House, which would then lease it to one of Imagine’s charter schools at very high rates. 

EPR also had a special relationship with the for-profit charter management firm CSMI. It would buy their charter school’s buildings and then lease them to the CONTINUE READING: News: Big REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Exits the Charter Real Estate Sector | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Billionaire Pres Candidate Michael Bloomberg Has Been Pumping $$ into La. Elections for Years. | deutsch29

NYC Billionaire Pres Candidate Michael Bloomberg Has Been Pumping $$ into La. Elections for Years. | deutsch29

NYC Billionaire Pres Candidate Michael Bloomberg Has Been Pumping $$ into La. Elections for Years.

Billionaire and former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg has entered the 2020 presidential race in hopes to secure the Democratic nomination.

Bloomberg, whose estimated worth is $54B and who says he will not accept campaign contributions, is a man who is used to buying what he wants, even in elections in other states.

In NYC, where schools are under mayoral control, Bloomberg promoted school choice, and he now purchases school choice around the country—including in Louisiana where Bloomberg has taken a particular interest in school board elections.

An additional layer to Bloomberg’s money-toss into Louisiana school board elections includes Bloomberg’s connection to Louisiana state superintendent, John White.

During Bloomberg’s time as NYC mayor, White was a deputy chancellor of education immediately prior to his arrival in Louisiana, and immediately prior to his rapid ascent from Recovery School District (RSD) superintendent to Louisiana state superintendent.

That rapid ascent required a favorable 2011 state ed (BESE) board– which Bloomberg helped to purchase.

Retaining White also required a favorable 2015 BESE– which Bloomberg also helped purchase.

Below is a comprehensive listing of Bloomberg’s donations to influence Louisiana elections to date, totaling over $1.6M:

• Alliance for Better Classrooms (ABC) PAC: $100K (10/18/2011)
• Russell Armstrong: $5,000 (10/24/2011) (BESE)
• Holly Boffy: $5,000 (10/19/2011) (BESE)
• Melinda Bourgeouis: $2,500 (10/28/2014) (Jefferson Parish School Board) CONTINUE READING: NYC Billionaire Pres Candidate Michael Bloomberg Has Been Pumping $$ into La. Elections for Years. | deutsch29