CURMUDGUCATION: Ed Tech Reporters Should Make These Eight Resolutions For 2020

CURMUDGUCATION: Ed Tech Reporters Should Make These Eight Resolutions For 2020

Ed Tech Reporters Should Make These Eight Resolutions For 2020

This ran three weeks ago over at Forbes. Three weeks into 2020 it still applies.

Audrey Watters bills herself as “an education writer, an independent scholar, a serial dropout, a rabble-rouser, and ed-tech's Cassandra.” Her Hack Education blog is required reading for anyone who cares about technology in education. Since founding the blog in 2010, she has provided a meaty, thoroughly researched and well-thought-out end-of-year assessment of ed tech. This year, she looked back over the entire span with “The 100 Worst Ed-Tech Debacles Of The Decade,” and it deserves a spot on every list of education end-of-decade lists.

There are several threads that run through the list of 100 failures, including hubris, wild over-promising, and simple ignorance of what the education field actually needs or wants from tech. But one of the biggest recurring themes is the failure of journalism to adequately cover stories. Time after time, journalists cover a new ed tech story with uncritical breathlessness. In almost none of the 100 examples can you point to early press coverage that said, “Hey, wait a minute. Here are a few reasons to think this might not really be a thing.” In just the last few months, the Washington Postpublished a glowing report of serial edupreneur Chris Whittle’s latest venture, and theNew York Times plugged Bakpax, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Ed Tech Reporters Should Make These Eight Resolutions For 2020

New Orleans High School Records Are Finally Audited. There Are Holes. | deutsch29

New Orleans High School Records Are Finally Audited. There Are Holes. | deutsch29

New Orleans High School Records Are Finally Audited. There Are Holes.

Almost-all-charter New Orleans has had a free pass for years from any audit of their record keeping. That’s part of the cutting-edge nature of a portfolio district: Make each charter school its own island in a sea of choice; neglect to build into this non-system any mechanism for assuring that the school can verify that its students are actually completing state-mandated educational requirements, and then scurry to effect “now-we’ll-audit” damage control when a nationally-embarrassing mega-crisis results from neglecting to audit student records in the first place.

Such a crisis occured in June 2019 for the Class of 2019 at Kennedy High School, operated by New Beginnings Schools Foundation, when a grade-fixing scandal led to the discovery that 49 percent of seniors being found to lack necessary credits and/or exam scores to graduate.

Once the transcripts hit the fan, so to speak, New Orleans schools superintendent, Henderson Lewis, decided to audit student records for all New Orleans high schools.

On January 23, 2020, Nola.com published an article based upon the audit findings of the  records for 8 out of 25 New Orleans high schools. (Nola.com requested results for the other 17 schools but has not received a response from the district as of the writing.)

From the article:

The Orleans Parish school district’s first-ever audit of local public high CONTINUE READING: New Orleans High School Records Are Finally Audited. There Are Holes. | deutsch29

Upcoming Symposium Examines Toll of Mass Incarceration | Cloaking Inequity

Upcoming Symposium Examines Toll of Mass Incarceration | Cloaking Inequity

UPCOMING SYMPOSIUM EXAMINES TOLL OF MASS INCARCERATION

A two-day symposium at the University of Kentucky will connect academic and community voices on issues surrounding mass incarceration. Organized by the UK College of Education, Punishing Trauma will examine the impact and consequences of punishment and surveillance on children, families, and communities.

“Punishing Trauma looks at the systemic effects of racial disciplinary practices, public policy gaps, the criminal justice system, and mental health disparities for marginalized students in their schools and communities. This symposium will continue the work of the late sociologist Dr. Devon Tyrone Wade and carries the title of his dissertation,” said Dr. Serena M. Wilcox, UK College of Education postdoctoral scholar and event organizer.

Speakers will include community organizers and activists, policy-makers, academic researchers, and individuals directly impacted by mass incarceration and mass supervision.

“When someone goes to prison, the impact has a domino effect. As a College of Education, we want to peal back the layers, reveal the hidden toll being taken, and partner with community voices on how we respond,” said Dr. Margaret Mohr-Schroeder, UK College of Education associate dean for clinical preparation and partnerships.

The symposium will link the voices of those who work with, study, and confront these pressing concerns.

“The trauma created when a family member is incarcerated greatly impacts the quality of life of thousands of children and teens. When it manifests in emotional, behavioral and academic ways, traditional forms of punishment often create more problems. Research shows the benefits of having access to restorative justice practices, counseling, drug treatment, and other social services within the school setting. This is an opportunity for us to come together and move the conversation forward,” said UK College of Education Dean Julian Vasquez Heilig.

Register to attend the symposium, taking place Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Gatton Student Center on the UK campus.

UK Sponsors:

• Office of Institutional Diversity
• Lewis Honors College
• College of Social Work
• Martin School of Public Policy and Administration
• Center for Equality and Social Justice – College of Arts & Sciences
• Department of Sociology – College of Arts & Sciences
• Martin Luther King Center
• Vice President for Research
• College of Education
• Office of Clinical Preparation and Partnerships – College of Education

External Sponsors:

• NAACP-Lexington
• University of Tennessee-Knoxville College of Social Work
• Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA)-Lexington Chapter

Please pass this symposium along and Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Check out and follow my YouTube channel here.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Upcoming Symposium Examines Toll of Mass Incarceration | Cloaking Inequity

Who Will Protect My Right NOT to Pay for Your Child’s Religious Education? | gadflyonthewallblog

Who Will Protect My Right NOT to Pay for Your Child’s Religious Education? | gadflyonthewallblog

Who Will Protect My Right NOT to Pay for Your Child’s Religious Education?

When I was a kid back in middle school, I had a crush on this girl, let’s call her Patty.

She wasn’t the most popular or beautiful girl in class, but I kinda’ liked her.

Of course, she had no idea I was alive.

Or so I thought, until one day she walked straight up to my desk and started rubbing my hair.

I was shocked at first, but then I just closed my eyes and went with it.

I remember the soft caress of her fingers in my mop of curls. She seemed to massage every inch of my scalp. Then she asked, “Where are they?”

“Where are what?” I asked.

“Your horns,” she said. “I want to see your horns.”

“What?” I said. “I don’t have any horns.”

“Of course you do,” she said. “My pastor said all you Jews have horns but you hide CONTINUE READING: Who Will Protect My Right NOT to Pay for Your Child’s Religious Education? | gadflyonthewallblog

Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Update - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Update - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Update

The Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) was charged with developing an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that shall be a guide to allow school districts to adapt their courses to better reflect the pupil demographics in their communities. Last week at the IQC meeting, California Department of Education (CDE) staff presented a brief update on the status of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. CDE recommended that revisions to the draft follow the State Board of Education guidelines and follow Assembly Bill 2016, the legislation that directed the state to create a model curriculum. This will ensure that the curriculum is written to encourage cultural understanding of how different groups have struggled and worked together, as well as highlight core ethnic studies concepts such as equality, justice, race, ethnicity, and indigeneity. CDE also recommended that it be written in language that is inclusive and supportive of multiple users.

Since the last IQC meeting in November, much work and outreach has been done by CDE after receiving thousands of public comments about the draft released in summer 2019. In October, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted a panel discussion that included subject matter experts as well as legislators. The panel provided different perspectives on ethnic studies implementation at the K–12 level. CDE staff have also used this time to review, analyze, and synthesize the more than 20,000 public comments to make recommendations to the IQC in spring 2020. WestEd is currently conducting focus groups for CDE that are comprised of teachers with ethnic studies experience as well as teachers who have not taught ethnic studies but may in the future. CDE is also working with districts that have implemented ethnic studies to utilize their learnings in our recommendations.

Keeping in mind that ethnic studies has traditionally been a higher education course, the model curriculum that the IQC is charged with developing will serve as a guidance document to schools that choose to implement ethnic studies in the K–12 system. Over the course of history, both in our state and nationally, specific ethnic groups have had unjust treatment even from respected institutions of authority. The curriculum taught in our schools has not done enough to highlight and preserve the contributions of people of color and has actually minimized the importance of their role. A movement to create a better model of inclusion to be taught in our K–12 system was established in the hopes of teaching a history that is more representative of what actually occurred. Ethnic studies as a whole should represent a broad range of topics, but it must devote a special emphasis to people of color, including their experiences and their important role in our state and national history.

Therefore, our recommendations will acknowledge and honor the four foundational groups: African American, Asian American, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, and Native American. By providing guidance to teachers on how to make connections to student population demographics utilizing various resources, including the History and Social Science Framework, we must also honor the human experience and the intersectionality of all students that we serve.

We are proud of the efforts that have been made since our last update, and we look forward to providing our recommended revisions to the IQC in spring/summer 2020. As of now, the legislation allows that a final draft will go to the State Board of Education for adoption in March 2021.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Update - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

JAN 21

The Lost Black Neighborhood Under New York's Central Park

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3d

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JAN 19

If You Like to Play, this City-Building Game is a Must-Have.

by InnoGamessponsored

Play Forge of Empires now.

"To be Black is to be a dissident": In Interview with Author Howard Bryant

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'NPR's Scott Simon speaks to ESPN senior writer — and regular Weekend Edition contributor — Howard Bryant about his new book, Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field.'

How To Like Deep House, For The Uninitiated

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

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Sax Great Jimmy Heath 'Walked With Giants'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

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JAN 18

Artist Otobong Nkanga: 'Imagining the Scars of a Landscape' |

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Otobong Nkanga reflects on the politics of land and body through tapestry, drawing, photography, installation, video and performance. Her work engages with the difficult histories of land acquisition and ownership, as well as the processes and consequences of the extraction of natural resources. This ongoing exploration into the transformation of minerals into desirable commodities - including

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

'Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas taught in public schools for several years after graduating from Florida A&M, a historically Black university in Tallahassee, Florida. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2010, she returned to her master's degree institution, Wayne State University, as an assistant professor of Reading, Language, and Literature in t

The Veiled Rapper Breaking Taboos for Women in Senegal

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Mina La Voilée is a female rapper from Parcelles, Dakar, who is breaking taboos by rapping about women's rights. As a woman who chooses to wear a veil, she explains how criticism from industry professionals who told her "the veil and hip hop don't flow together" drove her to succeed, and inspired her to tackle other controversial societal issues in her lyrics such as child marriage, rape and in

#BackChannel: The Year of Lizzo, Nipsey Hussle’s Booklist, Plus the Ghost of Atlantics, The Tulsa Race Riots and 1960s Harlem

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

On this episode of #BackChannel, State of Things host Frank Stasio is joined by regular contributors Natalie Bullock Brown and Mark Anthony Neal to discuss the impact of Lizzo, the late Nipsey Hussle’s reading list, as well as HBO’s The Watchman , EPIX’s The Godfather of Harlem and the new film Atlantics , directed by Mati Diop.

Left of Black S10:E7: Historian Peter Cole on Race, Activism and Dock Workers in South Africa and San Francisco

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) is joined in the studio by Dr. Peter Cole ( @ ProfPeterCole ), an assistant professor in the Department of History at Western Illinois University. His latest book Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area (University of Illinois Press 2018), won the Philip Taft Labor History Book Award in 2019 awarded by the L

NewBlackMan (in Exile)