CLASS SIZE MATTERS THE TESTIMONY BINGE-WATCH - NYC Public School Parents

NYC Public School Parents

CLASS SIZE MATTERS 

THE TESTIMONY BINGE-WATCH

Curtis D. Young on how large classes contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline

by Leonie Haimson / 21h

Curtis D. Young, a member of CB12 Youth and Education Committee and the Executive Director of a juvenile justice nonprofit, testifies at the Class Size Hearings on Feb. 28 about how large classes in NYC schools contribute to high suspension rates and the school-to-prison pipeline. His written testimony is below the video. Testimony of Curtis Young at Class Size Hearings from Class Size Matters on

Shino Tanikawa on how Fair Student Funding system works against class size reduction and how small classes would facilitate integration

by Leonie Haimson / 22h

Testimony from Feb. 28 class size hearings at City Hall from Shino Tanikawa, a NYC public school parent leader. Shino is a member of the Fair Student Funding (FSF) taskforce, and discusses the difficult decisions principals must make regarding class size when the FSF system devised by DOE incentivizes them to overcrowd their schools and keep class sizes large. Also a member of the School Diversit

Karen Sprowal on how large classes caused her son to melt down

by Leonie Haimson / 23h

See the video of Karen Sprowal testifying at the City Council hearings on class size on Feb. 28. Karen described how large classes in her son's public school starting in the 4th grade caused him to melt down. Now he is doing well in a private school with small classes, with tuition paid for by the city at $93,000 per year. She explains how lowering class size would not just benefit so many NYC ch

Lorraie Forbes and Tiffani Torres speak out about how NYC students are being robbed because of excessive class sizes

by Leonie Haimson / 1d

High school students Lorraie Forbes and Tiffani Torres from Teens Take Charge testify about how important it is for NYC to lower class size to give students like them a real chance to succeed. As Lorraie put it, " I feel as if my fellow students and I are being robbed of the opportunity to be as big as we can be." When asked by Council Member Treyger how important class size is from one to ten, t

MAR 03

Must see video: Regent Kathy Cashin and City Council Education chair Mark Treyger on the importance of class size

by Leonie Haimson / 1d

See the video of Regent Kathleen Cashin's observations about class size which she made during the City Council hearings on Feb. 28 about what happened when she lowered class size in the District 23 schools when she was Superintendent. As she puts it, when you reduce class size, the "whole world changes." She explained how smaller classes are important both for students and their teachers, and lea

MAR 01

Testimonies of four mothers, speaking about how their children have been affected by the unacceptably large classes in city schools

36by Leonie Haimson / 3d

The testimonies of parents, educators and advocates at the class size hearings at City Hall on Friday were so powerful that I am going to post many of them on this blog. Here is video of the proceedings -- nearly six hours. The hearings would have lasted even longer if many of the parents who wanted to testify hadn't been shut out because the room was too crowded. Here's an article about the hear

FEB 28

Council hearings on class size so overcrowded that scores of parents and advocates are turned away

61by Leonie Haimson / 5d

credit @TeensTakeCharge For immediate release Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 Contact: Leonie Haimson; leoniehaimson@gmail.com ; 917-435-9329. Today, from 10 AM to 3:45 PM, the City Council Education Committee held hearings 

NYC Public School Parents

On Super Tuesday, the LA Teachers’ Strike Paid Off Again

On Super Tuesday, the LA Teachers’ Strike Paid Off Again

On Super Tuesday, the LA Teachers’ Strike Paid Off Again

Last January’s Los Angeles teachers’ strike saw some 30,000 educators walk out of the classroom in the nation’s second-largest school district and return six days later with a new contract. The teachers fought not only for wage increases but broadened their demands to include schooling conditions for the district’s more than 500,000 students. They called for caps on class sizes and extra support staff, including a full-time nurse in every school and a librarian for all middle and high schools. They pushed for greater oversight of charter schools and against their further expansion. The community overwhelmingly supported the teachers, and, by and large, the teachers won.

Now, the strike’s legacy is helping fuel electoral victories, which will determine school funding decisions and the district’s approach to charters. “One contract doesn’t solve all the decades of disinvestment in our schools,” says Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). “When you have privatizers knocking at the door—no, they ain’t knocking. They’re bulldozing our doors in.”

The issues at stake in the strike were on the ballot on Super Tuesday in Los Angeles. School board elections in the district typically pit the union against charter school advocates. The UTLA backed candidates in all four of the seats up for grabs. One, George McKenna, ran unopposed. Another, local progressive luminary Jackie Goldberg, won an outright majority of her district’s votes. Scott Schmerelson, an CONTINUE READING: On Super Tuesday, the LA Teachers’ Strike Paid Off Again

The National Reading Panel: Still Misrepresented After All These Years | Live Long and Prosper

The National Reading Panel: Still Misrepresented After All These Years | Live Long and Prosper

The National Reading Panel: Still Misrepresented After All These Years

THE “READING WARS” AND THE NATIONAL READING PANEL

Jay Matthews is a long-time education writer for the Washington Post. Matthews has written about education for years though he has no training or experience in education other than as a student (BA in government, Harvard University, MA in East Asian regional studies). To be sure, he has studied and written about education extensively as a journalist, but that isn’t enough to replace actual classroom experience.

In the following article, Matthews mentions the National Reading Panel report. He implies that the low test scores of poor children is because their schools and teachers ignore the “proven” science of systematic phonics, which we will see, is not proven science after all.

The reading wars flare in Virginia. ‘I am sick to my stomach,’ one parent says.

It is one more sign of rising concern over failure to give all children the intensive phonics lessons proven many years ago to be essential to mastering reading.

Reading is becoming a lively issue in many parts of the country. California recently agreed in a lawsuit settlement to spend $53 million over three years in 75 low-performing elementary schools to improve reading instruction. Only about half of third-graders have met that state’s reading standards, part of a national failure to teach the vital skill to impoverished children.

It has hit hard in Virginia. Walker and two other leaders of the Arlington CONTINUE READING: The National Reading Panel: Still Misrepresented After All These Years | Live Long and Prosper

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

TIME Features “100 Women Of The Year”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h

tiburi / Pixabay TIME Magazine has published a new feature called 100 Women of the Year . It includes articles about, and images of, 100 key women throughout history. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Women’s History .

YESTERDAY

Getting Nutrition Advice the Easy Way

by Noomsponsored

The Noom weight loss app allows you to progress through your wellness journey from anywhere and everywhere.

A Look Back: Here’s My Chapter On Elements Of A Successful Lesson, Along With Student Hand-Outs THEY Use To Teach

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . I originally published this post in 2015: I’m a big advocate and practitioner of creating opportunities for students to be teachers (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates ). I’ve previously posted about how I sp

Two Good Interactives Showing Ancient Human Migration

47by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Thanks to Google Maps Mania , I learned about two interactives that map ancient human migration: One is the Human Odyssey Map from the California Academy of Sciences (pictured above). The other is the Map of Human Migration from National Geographic. You might also be interested in The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History .

World Water Day Is On March 22nd – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

28by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

3345408 / Pixabay The United Nations has designated March 22nd as World Water Day. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day .

Good PBS NewsHour Video Segment Tonight: “How painter Jacob Lawrence reframed early American history with ‘Struggle'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Nietjuh / Pixabay The PBS NewsHour describes the segment this way: Amid the McCarthy hearings and the launch of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, painter Jacob Lawrence sought to frame early American history the way he saw it. His ensuing work, the sprawling series “Struggle,” has been reassembled and is now on a national tour, with its first stop at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusett

Statistic Of The Day: 290.5 Million Students Out Of School Because Of COVID-19

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

290 million students out of school due to COVID-19: UNESCO releases first global numbers and mobilizes response is a new alarming report from UNESCO. It’s offering some resources related to Education In Emergencies . I’ve been publishing a series of posts offering support for teachers trying to figure out how to provide remote learning. You can find them at The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online

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

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts

Keith E. Benson is president of the Camden (New Jersey) Education Association. In his view, the underlying goal of the charter industry is gentrification, and he worries about its long-term implications for his community and its families.

He writes:

Admittedly [my] fight for Camden’s public schools is personal. Both my grandmothers were teachers, numerous aunts, and two of my uncles were employees of the District where I, myself, taught before becoming president of the city’s teacher union in 2017. My daughter goes to school here and has since she was three. My wife went to school here until her freshman year of high school, and she grew up here. We all live here now. Because of such deep and intimate connections I have with this public school district and city, anything that threatens the sustainability is triggering.

 The planned dismantling of our public-school system coupled with a massive redevelopment effort dubbed “Camden Rising”, reduces merely existing here in the future to a tenuous proposition for many working class and poor residents. For generations of Camden’s current residents, and new arrivals here from Latin America, this city is one of the last affordable places in New Jersey CONTINUE READING: Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

The Gentrification of Oakland Unified School District & The Precarious Position of Dewey Academy

Gentrification is a long-standing process that targets the lower waged group to displace, dislocate, and disperse in favor of the higher income community. Gentrification has been a reality in the bay area for long. For the past few months, this reality is hitting the students’ community in the OUSD hard.

The Oakland Unified School District’s administration revealed that the gentrifying developers are targetting the Dewey academy, a public continuation high school.

It was known to the masses that the developers were planning to forge a twenty-four story condominium right in front of the Dewey academy, eclipsing it like a tower. But recent developments have put the very existence of this public institution at risk.

What entails is a close view of the reasons and the Causes why the Dewey Academy and the Admin building are under threat of displacement.

Dewey Academy: A Surplus Land?

The duty to ascertain the fate of Dewey academy was entrusted upon the ‘7-11 CONTINUE READING: Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing

Blaming teachers for the woes of US public schools and beyond is as old a pastime as public education itself. Historian Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz takes us through 100 years of teacher blaming and the love-hate relationship the US has with its teachers. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll want to pre-order her book, Blaming Teachers: Professionalization Policies and the Failure of Reform in American History.

Complete transcript of the episode is available here. And if you appreciate Have You Heard, consider making a small donation via Patreon.com. Thanks for your support!

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Here is an article informing us that the reduction of recess time so that children could spend more time being drilled for the almighty standardized tests has actually resulted in lower test performance! How can that be? Why isn't constant drilling on test taking skills at the expense of recess, PE, art, music, vocational education, and other "less important" instruction producing higher test scores? Maybe because the current trend to ignore fundamental child development principle's is harmful in every way, including killing the joy of schooling for both children and teachers! Teachers in Finland, whose students perform at the top of the rankings on international achievement tests, routinely take young children outdoors where they can play, investigate nature and develop normally as they are programmed by their genes to do. Why do American reformers insist on counteracting nature and instead have transformed our education system to motivation killing test drudgery?

Here is another new article challenging the removal of teachers from the decision making process of what kids really need in school. This outrageous trampling on the rights and critical input of the teaching profession in education decisions has actually resulted in the opposite of what our non-educator reformers said they wanted to do. Do you think our government can stop the Corona virus by ignoring the recommendations of the highly trained CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia

In the idealism of youth, I came to believe deeply in the power of education to transform not only individuals (as it had done for me) but also society. More than a decade before I discovered my intellectual home, critical pedagogy, I was compelled by John Dewey’s philosophy of education, democracy, and their relationship.

This idealism was tinted with a naive lack of awareness about my own privilege and the corrosive power of systemic inequities driving racism, sexism, classism, and many other social biases. I was raised in a home, community, and region of the country steeped in rugged individualism and bootstrap narratives among working-class (and racist) whites.

Over the course of my first decade-plus of teaching, I certainly could see that I was shaping individual lives, but I grew increasingly skeptical of the revolutionary power of education to transform society.

By the spring of 2005, then, after I had secured my doctorate and moved from K-12 to higher education, I sat in a hotel room in New Orleans watching George Carlin talk about being a non-voter. I recognized that day my skepticism had turned into full-blown cynicism, and I then joined the ranks of non-voters who argued there was little discernible difference between the two major political CONTINUE READING: The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead

As the election results rolled in last night, much of the media focused on the drama in the Democratic Presidential Primary. But a lot happened in local races as well. The battle over whether or not the Los Angeles Unified School Board is controlled by supporters of public education and the UTLA or “school choice” and unfettered charter school expansion remains up in the air.

But first, let’s discuss Proposition 13 and what its failure means for the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative this fall. While the two ballot initiatives are very different, the failure of Proposition 13 doesn’t bode well for supporters of robust funding for public education.

Prop 13 (2020) was a bond measure that wouldn’t actually raise taxes, but was still opposed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association. We understand the Prop. 13 was complicated and that plenty of people reading this likely voted against it. But some of the opposition was based around mis-information that Prop 13 (the 1978 ballot measure that capped property taxes) was under attack.

The Schools and Communities First ballot is anticipated to require “50% -plus-1” voters to pass this fall. But it will more directly affect voter’s CONTINUE READING: Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun

IN: Child Labor Is Fun

Some legislators in Indiana are boldly taking on one of the great problems of their state-- too many restrictions on child labor.

The bill intends, among other things, to do away with the requirement for student work permits for teens. Because the fact that a teenager is flunking high school should not stand in his way when it comes to serving as a useful meat widget for employers.

Full day of school, full shift of work, then homeworkkkzzzzz

Rep. Randy Lyness (R) is stumping for the bill, which is advancing through the legislature. In civilian life, Lyness is the owner of Randy Lyness Builders, and he thinks that it should be "more attractive" for employers to hire minors, which means, apparently, being able to get plenty of work out of the little buggers. The bill proposes that students be allowed to work forty hours a week during the school year (and, as mentioned above, that the student's performance in school not be a factor). On holidays, students could put in a 48 hour week. Also, it gets rid of mandated CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun