CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Summer Vacation Edition (6/14)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Summer Vacation Edition (6/14)

Summer Vacation Edition

Whatever summer vacation means this year, it has finally arrived at my house. Which mostly just means that my wife has shifted from working on things for this year to working on things for next year. Here are some things to read.

Predecessors Try To Fill Void Left By DeVos 
This is a strange little thing. First, that Duncan and Spelling see themselves as somehow way different from DeVos. Also, there's apparently an Old Secretary's Club, and DeVos is very not interested.

Yale Goes Test-Optional
Blame the corona pirates (that's what the Board of Directors calls the current pandemic), but this is the fifth ivy to dump the test for the next class. Susan Adams at Forbes has the story.

If Black Lives Matter, Then Let's Prove It By Fixing Our Schools  
An editorial from the Detroit Free Press points out the obvious-- you don't help launch lives that matter in underfunded, poorly maintained schools.

Teen Girls Organized Nashville's Largest Protest  
Speaking of students undertaking large projects. A great story of teens stepping up. At The Lily.

Teach for America 2020 Trainees To Enter Classroom With Only Tutoring Experience    
The indispensable Mercedes Schneider looks at how TFA is managing to lower the bar even further.

Where's All These Woke White People Come From?   
Michael Harriot at The Root is one of the best writers out there, and this piece is Exhibit A. Thoughtful and nuanced and just a great piece of writing.

Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Are Going To Schools That Push Conversion Therapy  
Rebecca Klein at Huffington Post has an enraging story about some of the private schools that are scooping up taxpayer money. She'd previously shown how some of these schools discriminate against LGBTQ students; now it turns out that's not the worst of it.

University students aren't cogs in a market.   
This story is from Australia, but you'll recognize the issues in the discussion of why students deserve to get more education than simply being loaded wit skills that employers want them to have.

How Betsy DeVos Is Using the Pandemic To Get What She Wants 
The story has been told in bits and pieces, but Jeff Bryant at Alternet steps back for the full picture of how DeVos is using this crisis to push her own agenda in education.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Summer Vacation Edition (6/14)

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AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Who Should Biden Pick As Education Secretary? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/10/who-should-biden-pick-as-education-secretary/#6e6022e78b3f by @palan57 on @forbes

Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do In The Fall? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/12/teachers-face-a-summer-of-soul-searching-what-do-they-do-in-the-fall/#286014632993 by @palan57 on @forbes

AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

32by Peter Greene / 19h

Last week, the Alabama Public [sic] Charter School Commission took an unprecedented action and revoked a charter school's charter before it even managed to open. It's a tangly story, with connections to several charter school issues. Woodland Prep was supposed to be a hot new charter school, but it came with so much baggage that t here is an entire blog following the entire mess. Believe me-- I'm

Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead.

43by Peter Greene / 1d

As the education world scrambles to figure out what next fall will look like, many, many voices are speaking up for reimagined schooling. One particular model has surfaced repeatedly, and it’s not at all new—but it could be. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has set aside some of the stimulus fund for a competitive grant that would reward state-wide virtual schools, much like the model she admir

Five Examples Of What's Wrong With Ed Tech

24by Peter Greene / 2d

I get pitches-- e-mails from PR folks who have noticed that I write about education and want to offer me a chance to talk to an up-and-coming visionary who can tell me all about Bunkadiddle Corporation's new program! The pitches have taken on a pandemic sheen for a few months now ("In these trying times, when students and teachers are all struggling, we offer this Shiny New Thing!"). Mostly they h

John Oilver and Defund the Police

by Peter Greene / 3d

I don't do this often, but all I'm doing in this post is asking you to watch this video from John Oliver looking at the police, how we got here, what we could do. And you must watch through to the very end.

Without The Big Standardized Test, Would Schools Be Flying Blind?

68by Peter Greene / 4d

The future of the big standardized test is in doubt. This year’s pandemic pause made the annual rite of spring both logistically impossible and generally pointless as a means of data collection. With the year thoroughly disrupted, there was no chance that the tests would generate any sort of usable information, but their cancellation raises two more questions—wouldn’t testing next year be equally

PA: Charter Advocacy Chief Booted For Offensive Post

by Peter Greene / 5d

Ana Luiza Lannes Meyers is known to folks who follow the charter school debates in Pennsylvania as a vocal charter advocate as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public [sic] Charter Schools. But as of yesterday, she is out of a job, one more casualty of emotional blowback from the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Working on her resume Meyers has previously worked as

No Teachers Teach Average Students

by Peter Greene / 5d

The average height of the staff here at the Curmudgucation Institute is about 4.5 feet (the Board of Directors really pulls the average down). Yet if you buy clothes that fit a 4.5 foot frame, those clothes will not fit anyone here. The average guy named Peter Greene has made at least one major film. And yet, here I sit, with no IMDB entry or residual checks coming in for my work. So here's one re

Six Months From Now

34by Peter Greene / 5d

I've whittled away at this post for days, which is unusual for me and usually means I'm making things worse, not better. And my first impulse in these days has been to stay quiet and listen, because a national conversation about racism doesn't really need one more white guy's voice. But 1) silence is not an option right now and 2) this all has implications for educators. But I warn you-- if I have

ICYMI: Just One Thing After Another Edition (6/7)

21by Peter Greene / 6d

So things have been a little quieter than usual on this page (and I'm late today) in part because what the current conversation about Black Lives Matter needs is not more input from middle aged white guys, and partly because 

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

EdAction in Congress June 14, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress June 14, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress June 14, 2020

NEA warns COVID-19 could lead to loss of up to 2 million education jobs

Nearly 2 million education jobs—one-fifth of the public education workforce—could be lost if the Senate fails to act soon to close growing state and local budget gaps caused by COVID-19, a new NEA analysis and state-by-state breakdown warned. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 500,000 public education jobs have already been lost. By comparison, 300,000 education jobs were lost during the Great Recession.

NEA also cautioned that financially struggling states and localities need federal help to make the costly changes necessary to reopen schools safely. Those changes include modifying classrooms, cafeterias, and school buses to permit social distancing; intensive instruction and support for students traumatized by the impact of the coronavirus on their families and communities; providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for students and educators; and more.

“The American economy cannot recover if schools can’t reopen, and we cannot properly reopen schools if funding is slashed and students don’t have what they need to be safe, learn, and succeed,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García.

Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) maintains wait-and-see is the best approach. He refuses to take up the HEROES Act, passed by the House a month ago, which would provide $915 billion in direct relief for state and local governments that can be used to pay vital workers such as educators and $90 billion in additional education funding that could save more than 800,000 education jobs.

NEA’s priorities for the next coronavirus package include at least $175 billion to stabilize education funding, at least $4 billion to equip students with hot spots and devices to help narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap, at least $56 million in directed funding for personal protective equipment, relief for student loan borrowers, and at least $4 billion to protect voting rights and make voting by mail more widely available. LEARN MORE TAKE ACTION

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Congress contemplates legislation to end police brutality

The renewed—and long overdue—push for racial justice sparked by George Floyd’s death is spurring congressional action. This week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing in preparation for marking up the Justice in Policing Act introduced by Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-CA) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY); Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced the measure in their chamber.

NEA supports the Justice in Policing Act, which calls for an end to no-knock warrants, using force only as a last resort, mandatory de-escalation training for police, and prohibiting potentially fatal maneuvers like the one that killed George Floyd, along with racial and religious profiling. It also calls for an end to the transfer of military weapons to state and local police agencies and creating a national public registry of misconduct by law enforcement officers to inform hiring decisions. This bill is but the first step in much-needed reform of the many practices and policies undermining the push for racial justice. TAKE ACTION

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Cheers and Jeers

USDA is extending a nationwide waiver that allows school meal programs to serve free meals to all students, not just those living in low-income areas, for the rest of the summer. The waiver is the latest in a series of similar actions to help ensure children do not go hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic advocated by NEA and our partners.

Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) wrote an op-ed urging their colleagues to vote against the nomination of Justin Walker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because he supports throwing out the Affordable Care Act and stripping tens of millions of Americans of their health coverage.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the Pandemic Service Award Act, which would create a GI-Bill style benefits program for healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

EdAction in Congress June 14, 2020 - Education Votes

Florida reports 3,400 kids with coronavirus — 10 stricken with severe illness – Raw Story

Florida reports 3,400 kids with coronavirus — 10 stricken with severe illness – Raw Story

Florida reports 3,400 kids with coronavirus — 10 stricken with severe illness

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With summer camps opening around the state, health officials just shared a report detailing new coronavirus infections among children.

These statistics show 37,211 children have been swabbed, and 9.2% of them, or 3,407, tested positive.

There have been 73,552 confirmed COVID-19 cases among all ages in Florida, ranging from 218 babies to a 108-year-old Miami-Dade County woman, according to the state.

The report released Friday also says 103 children have been treated in hospitals and none have died from COVID-19 illness.

There have been 10 cases of a rare condition called “Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.” Four of these cases associated with the new coronavirus were in Miami-Dade County, one was in Broward and one was in Palm Beach County.

Next is Palm Beach County, with 507 pediatric cases. The data show 16.6% of children were diagnosed from the 3,049 who were tested.

Broward has the third-highest total of childhood cases, with 309. The county had 3,221 kids get tested and 9.6% were positive.

The three counties — home to 28.9% of Florida’s population — have had 42.2% of the cases among people younger than 18.

The new report also breaks down the number of childhood cases among different age ranges. It shows 6% of the cases were among kids who had not CONTINUE READING: Florida reports 3,400 kids with coronavirus — 10 stricken with severe illness – Raw Story

Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic - LA Progressive

Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic - LA Progressive

Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic

As American deaths from COVID-19 crested 100,000, the New York Times reported U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re receiving through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on private schools.

Going beyond the traditional practice of education secretaries to issue guidance on how states should interpret federal law, she now wants to write the laws herself.

Her actions are akin to the executive orders President Trump routinely issues to bypass Congress in order to implement his extremist agenda.

While DeVos is radicalizing education policy at the federal level, her agenda is trickling down to Republican lawmakers proposing extremist school policies at state levels.

Trump has been mostly able to get away with this. Can DeVos?

Since her bumbling appearances at congressional committees and in media interviews, DeVos has often been caricatured as “incompetent”and “ignorant,” and she may indeed be all of that and more, but it’s dangerous not to see how her agenda is advancing during the current crisis.

No one knows how public schools will be able to reopen for a new school year, and the economic recession caused by the pandemic will likely crush school budgets, but the Trump-DeVos agenda remains public education’s most existential threat, and Republicans either cheerlead these efforts or shrug them off while Democrats muster a haphazard defense. Some may find it hard to believe what DeVos proposes can be carried out successfully, but Republican obsequiousness to radicalism and the amazing knack Democrats have to undermine their own opposition to extremism may ensure she gets her way.

DeVos’s Most Brazen Move Yet CONTINUE READING: Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic - LA Progressive

Trump picks a side: DeVos over military veterans and other low-income students - Education Votes

Trump picks a side: DeVos over military veterans and other low-income students - Education Votes

Trump picks a side: DeVos over military veterans and other low-income students

After more than 1,200 days in office, President Donald Trump issued his first presidential veto of domestic legislation last week.  

The legislation that provoked his unique ire? A bipartisan resolution, passed by the House and Senate this spring, that would have helped low-income Americans, including many military veterans, to restart their lives after being defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges.  

With his rare veto, Trump opted to stand with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and against three dozen veterans’ groups that had urged him to support their access to student loan forgiveness. 

In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had sent Trump the bipartisan resolution to sign, called his veto “an act of staggering cruelty.” 

The bipartisan resolution that Trump vetoed was Congress’ effort to stop DeVos’ September 2019 revision of the federal Borrower Defense of Repayment rule. This 30-year-old federal rule enables students who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges to get relief from the federal government in the form of student loan cancellation or forgiveness.  

Because of their access to G.I. Bill benefits, which they gain through service to their country, many of the defrauded students are military veterans, who unfortunately have been seen as cash cows by predatory, for-profit colleges.  

 “President Trump’s veto of my bipartisan bill to help our veterans was a victory for Education Secretary DeVos and the fraud merchants at the for-profit colleges,” said Senator Richard J. CONTINUE READING: Trump picks a side: DeVos over military veterans and other low-income students - Education Votes

CURMUDGUCATION: AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

CURMUDGUCATION: AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

Last week, the Alabama Public [sic] Charter School Commission took an unprecedented action and revoked a charter school's charter before it even managed to open. It's a tangly story, with connections to several charter school issues.

Woodland Prep was supposed to be a hot new charter school, but it came with so much baggage that there is an entire blog following the entire mess. Believe me-- I'm going to give you the broad strokes, but if you want to go down this rabbit hole, it runs deep.

At the center of all of this is Soner Tarim. Tarim has a degree from Texas A&M, is a trained biologist, and if you look at any of his bios, he sounds like a heck of a well-trained guy. He's a certified trainer via Texas Education Agency, and ran Harmony Public [sic] Schools, a Texas chain that likes to make claims like a 100% college acceptance rate. He's even connected to the Pahara Institute, a virtual education outfit connected to the Aspen Institute. Pahara-Aspen is connected to all sorts of cyberschool nonsense, and even has ties to our old friend David Hardy, the TFA-grown superintendent who crashed and burned in Lorain, Ohio. Oh, and he also is studying at Eli Broad's fake school for training superintendents.

On top of all these reform credentials, Tarim has one other important connection, and that's to the Gulen Charter empire. The Gulen chain is infamous and huge--centered around a Turkish political leader-in-exile now located in eastern PA. The chain is charged by, well, many many people of being a device for sucking up US tax dollars and using them to finance Fetulleh Gulen's. Again, there are entire websites devoted to following the many abuses and scandals.

In addition to the huge Harmony chain, Tarim also owns Unity School Services, a company that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

I’m Not UFT President but this is what I would have said: | JD2718

I’m Not UFT President but this is what I would have said: | JD2718

I’m Not UFT President but this is what I would have said:

I did not send out a letter to the membership. I’m not the president. But it would have been far better than the letter that did get sent (copied at the bottom of this post. It is an embarrassment.)  Excuse my mediocre writing. But I think the ideas are solid:

Dear UFT members,

With this school year drawing to a close, we remain focused on finishing things out. We have two more weeks of classes, grading, and reports. I believe you have done an exceptional job in the face of nearly impossible circumstances. The mayor and governor don’t call you essential workers, but you are. Two more weeks. And while I am still trying to get you compensated for the Mayor taking your Spring break, he can’t touch your summer. Enjoy it. You’ve earned it. You’ve more than earned it.

September

Some of us, though, need to focus on September. We need to plan for next year. Chapter Leaders, Programmers, and other UFT members who are leaders and planners in your school, we need your help.

Safety First

My highest priority is keeping UFT members safe. I will not compromise on that. We are also desperate to return to some form of live class.  Society at large wants this. But I will not agree to return to buildings unless we are certain our members will be kept safe.

The Department of Education held discussions with the UFT and others. They are proposing reopening school buildings in September. They don’t think we can fully open – neither do I. They think we can CONTINUE READING: I’m Not UFT President but this is what I would have said: | JD2718

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Shut Up and Teach!:Silence is Golden?

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Shut Up and Teach!:Silence is Golden?

Shut Up and Teach!:Silence is Golden?

This tweet. (See below)

When I read it, someone else had retweeted it, the first thing that stood out to me was her use of the simile, "like wild animals." Hmmmm.....

So she, and I am sure she is not the only one, has a problem, because educators aren't being silent about the issues America has with systemic racism. Educators had the audacity to bring what is happening in the world into #Edutwitter! Gasp!

She doesn't believe that educators should post their anger, sadness, their emotions, that they should continue to "share resources and build each other up, and model digital citizenship." (She said model digital citizenship and then compared educators to wild animals)

WTH? ANOTHER black man was killed by a police officer!!!!! 

And the world exploded. The world!

And educators should continue to just share resources and ignore the fact that the world is changing? Eyes are being opened?  Why shouldn't this happen on #Edutwitter? We are teaching black and brown children, and they need an ally.

Sharing resources is not all there is.

We should be sharing, even if it makes people uncomfortable, sharing how to be CONTINUE READING: DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Shut Up and Teach!:Silence is Golden?

NYC Public School Parents: In the midst of its budget crisis, DOE asks the PEP to approve six million dollars for Pearson

NYC Public School Parents: In the midst of its budget crisis, DOE asks the PEP to approve six million dollars for Pearson

In the midst of its budget crisis, DOE asks the PEP to approve six million dollars for Pearson

Amid the Covid pandemic which will require smaller classes and new health and safety measures,  and despite huge proposed cuts to schools next year, DOE is asking the Panel for Educational Policy to approve six million dollars to be awarded Pearson at its Thursday, June 18 meeting (though the meeting is wrongly dated on the list of proposed contracts as Wed. June 17.)

Of that six million dollars, $1.7 million is for a one -year extension of Pearson's controversial assessment to test four-year-old children for their “giftedness” – a standardized exam which many experts say has little reliability or validity, and is highly correlated with race and class.  

Another $4.8 million is to be awarded Pearson for a one-year extension to its SchoolNET platform, used to administer  interim assessments and report scores.  

The document that lists these contracts, known as the RA for Request for Authorization, reveals that in 2016, DOE asked the NYC  Technology Development Corporation (NYCTDC), to  recommend an alternative, and they recommended that this be outsourced  to another vendor, “as the DOE did not have the internal resources and/or expertise to develop, maintain, and continuously enhance an assessment platform to meet its needs, particularly given the number of external solutions readily available assessment platform to meet the needs for a formative assessment platform.”

At the recommendation of the NYCTDC, DOE released a new RFP for an assessment platform in March 2018, more than two years, ago, with multiple responses from vendors, CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: In the midst of its budget crisis, DOE asks the PEP to approve six million dollars for Pearson