'Distance Learning' in Sacramento Means 20,000 Chromebooks

'Distance Learning' in Sacramento Means 20,000 Chromebooks

'Distance Learning' in Sacramento Means 20,000 Chromebooks
School districts in the Sacramento area are ramping up the distribution of essential technology to households as formal "distance learning" programs are close to launching for tens of thousands of students.

School districts in the Sacramento area are ramping up the distribution of essential technology to households as formal “distance learning" programs are close to launching for tens of thousands of students.

Students and parents lined up Monday at Mira Loma High and El Camino Fundamental high schools for laptop computers. Natomas Unified announced it will be distributing nearly 7,000 Chromebook laptops and about 2,000 Wi-Fi hot spots to families.

And the union representing teachers in the Sacramento City Unified School District proposed that the district spend $1.7 million in savings from a new health plan to purchase Google Chromebooks — and potentially Wi-Fi hot spots — for students.

“Our proposal would immediately redirect that $1.7 million in savings to purchase Chromebooks and/or hot spots for students to enable them to participate, to the extent feasible, in Distance Learning instruction beginning on April 13,” said Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) President David Fisher. “The use of these funds has been at dispute between the district and SCTA up to this point. We believe this use of funds should be sufficient to provide every student who lacks a computer or tablet with a device and should be immediately applied so that we can serve our students who suffer from an opportunity gap.”

Sacramento City Unified officials said that, while they appreciate the SCTA’s proposal, the $1.7 million in savings cited by the union is still a matter of dispute and currently in arbitration.

The district said it has worked with the Sacramento County Office of Education to identify resources to purchase laptops, and told The Sacramento Bee that it used $5.1 million in Measure Q funding to order 20,000 Chromebooks last week. (The district notified the union of the purchase Monday afternoon, after the union’s announcement.)

In recent weeks, school districts across the country have announced they were remaining CONTINUE READING: 'Distance Learning' in Sacramento Means 20,000 Chromebooks

Many public schools never recovered from Great Recession of 2007-09. The coronavirus could spark a new education crisis. - The Washington Post

Many public schools never recovered from Great Recession of 2007-09. The coronavirus could spark a new education crisis. - The Washington Post

Many public schools never recovered from the Great Recession. The coronavirus could spark a new education crisis.

This may seem difficult to believe but public school funding has, in some places, never recovered from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Now, districts and states around the country are facing the prospect of a new financial crisis for public education as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Insufficient education funding and low teacher pay sparked the 2018 Red for Ed movement, in which teachers, first in Republican-led states, went out on strike to demand more resources for their schools and higher salaries. Some states settled the strikes with promises to pay teachers more money, but now, some of those raises are in jeopardy.

With the economy reeling from the closure of most public life in America due to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress just passed a $2 trillion assistance package that includes about $13.5 billion for public schools.

But it was far from the minimum of $75 billion that the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s two major teachers unions, had asked for in a recent letter to Congress. And educators say schools will need far more help from Congress in the coming months.

This post looks at the lessons that emerged from the efforts to recover from the recession more than a decade ago and how they could be applied today. It was written by Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and author of the 2016 book “Ending Zero Tolerance: The Crisis of Absolute School Discipline.” He also writes the Education Law Prof Blog.

By Derek W. Black

During the Great Recession of the late 2000s, Congress hoped that most of a $54 billion set-aside in stimulus funds would be enough to save public school budgets, which had been savaged by state and local governments. It wasn’t enough. CONTINUE READING: Many public schools never recovered from Great Recession of 2007-09. The coronavirus could spark a new education crisis. - The Washington Post

TODAY’S UPDATE On New Resources To Help Educators Figuring Out How To Support Students During School Closures | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

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

TODAY’S UPDATE On New Resources To Help Educators Figuring Out How To Support Students During School Closures

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cbaquiran / Pixabay I have several students who have had birthdays this week or having ones coming up, and I know they re less-than-thrilled with being at home. I’ve encouraged them to try video conference parties, but they’re not yet comfortable with using this kind of tech. I did send them some of the tools on this list and that at least said they enjoyed them. Of course, they might also have b

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay I’m adding tonight’s PBS NewsHour segment to I’m adding it to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

geralt / Pixabay Today is Census Day. You might be interested in: The Best Resources To Learn About The U.S. Census The Best Tools For Analyzing Census Data The Best Articles Explaining Why It Would Be Terrible To Add An Immigration Status Question To The Census

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

geralt / Pixabay Some of these new resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To Support Teachers Dealing With School Closures: I was a guest on KQED Public Radio: California Teachers, Students Struggle with Distance Learning In theory, you s

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. Today’s post is the 300th one in the series! Of course, this is a crazy time for “classroom” instruction…. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: LEARNING BY DOING: WH

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

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