DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all

John Thompson: Save My Former Student’s Life

by dianeravitch / 47min

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, makes an urgent appeal to save the life of his former student Julius Jones. He writes: I just watched the rebroadcast of ABC’s “20 20” documentary, “The Last Defense,” about my former student, Julius Jones, who is on Death Row even though he’s probably innocent. It was an abridged version that left time to update the case’s developments ov

New York City: Teachers Worried about Risks of Reopening

by dianeravitch / 1h

Teachers in New York City are fearful about returning to classrooms without adequate protection for their health. Some educators and union leaders say fear and mistrust over the partial reopening plan is pervasive… “There’s a lot of fear and anxiety out there,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “A lot of school staff passed away. And they’re like we’re not going back unless the rules are follow

How the Never Trumpers Got into Trump’s Head

by dianeravitch / 2h

Several groups of Never Trumpers have created a media campaign that has gotten under Trump’s skin. He responds to them on Twitter, enlarging their audience. They don’t have loads of money, but they understand very well his egotism, narcissism, and vanity, and they hit their target time and again. One recent ad from The Lincoln Project is a “Breaking News” headline in which the White House Press S

Ohio: Charter Schools Received 5X As Much Federal Coronavirus Aid as Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 3h

Stephen Dyer crunched the numbers and discovered that charter schools in Ohio received more than five times as much federal coronavirus relief money as public schools. Some received more than entire districts. He wrote: Included in the $2.3 trillion CARES Act passed in March to cope with the COVID-19 crisis was something called the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER.

Jan Resseger: If Trump Wants Schools to Open, Why Won’t He Pay for It?

by dianeravitch / 4h

Jan Resseger reviews the Catch-22 situation in which schools are trapped: Trump demands that they open in a few weeks or he will cut their federal funding. The CDC says that a safe opening requires hyper-vigilance about health, safety, social distancing, small classes, cleaning, masks, etc. But Trump and Congress have refused to pay for reopening. Bottom line: schools can’t reopen unless it is sa

Lawfare Blog: Federal Police in Portland Cannot Be Justified

by dianeravitch / 5h

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes of the Lawfare blog wrote in The Atlantic about federal police in Portland . Their presence cannot be justified, they wrote. Thousands of protesters turned out last night in Portland, peaceably rejecting the presence of armed federal agents in their city. The men in camouflage apparently cone from the Border Patrol and ICE. The authors say they are not trained i

David Dayen: Why Florida’s Teachers Are Suing to Block Reopening

47by dianeravitch / 22h

David Dayen explains why Florida’s teachers are suing to block Governor DeSantis’ order to reopen all public schools for full in-person instruction. The short version: 1) Florida is in the midst of a surge in the pandemic. 2) Neither the state nor the federal government has put up the money to provide even minimal safety for students and adults. First Response Last Friday the governor of Missouri

Leonie Haimson: Obstacles to a Safe Reopening

by dianeravitch / 23h

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, wrote an open letter about the steps required before schools can begin to reopen. She wrote: Last week, Governor Cuomo, the State Department of Health, and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and safety as well as provide instructi

New York: Billionaires Get Richer During Pandemic

21by dianeravitch / 1d

A group called Americans for Tax Fairness has tracked the remarkable increase in the wealth of billionaires during the rise of the pandemic. Shouldn’t billionaires pay higher taxes to help the children of their state? What profiteth a man to gain additional billions if the society he lives in is overrun with starving, unfed, uneducated children? WASHINGTON—New York has 118 billionaires who collec

California: Billionaires See Vast Increase in Wealth During Pandemic

by dianeravitch / 1d

A group called Americans for Tax Fairness reported that the state’s billionaires saw a dramatic increase in their wealth during the pandemic. Shouldn’t billionaires pay higher taxes to help the children of their state? What profiteth a man to gain additional billions if the society he lives in is overrun with starving, unfed, uneducated children? California’s 154 Billionaires Saw Net Worth Jump $

When Did Trump and DeVos Fall Out of Love with Distance Learning?

53by dianeravitch / 1d

As we have seen in recent weeks, Trump and Betsy DeVos want public schools to reopen for full-time, in-person instruction. Yesterday, in an interview with Chris Wallace of FOX News, Trump reiterated that he will stop federal funding of any schools that don’t comply. He said that children don’t get the virus and they don’t die from the virus. He said nothing about the vulnerability of educators. W

Teacher: This Is How I Will Teach when School Reopens

1Kby dianeravitch / 1d

Mamie Krupczak Allegretti teaches French. She described how her teaching will change when school reopens during the pandemic. The lesson I draw from her note is that the most pressing issue facing our nation is not opening the schools but getting the disease under control so it is safe to return to school. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I am actually going to teach if we go back to school in

Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening

40by dianeravitch / 1d

Public Education Partners is the leading volunteer advocacy group for public schools in Ohio. They issued this statement last night. We are public education experts. Public Education Partners (PEP) is a statewide, grassroots public education advocacy group whose mission is to preserve, protect, and strengthen Ohio’s public schools. Public Education Partners is an integral part of education policy

Missouri Governor: Of Course Kids Will Get COVID!

86by dianeravitch / 1d

The most horrifying statement of the week: In a radio interview, Governor Mike Parson stressed the importance of getting schools open regardless of the risks: “These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson told Cox. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going

Portland, Oregon: Trump’s Military Invades and Occupies an American City

79by dianeravitch / 1d

What’s happening in Portland should frighten us all. Trump sent in military force to rout peaceful demonstrators over the objections of the mayor and the governor. The men in uniforms used tear gas and carried weapons to disperse crowds. The uniforms bore no identification. They arrested people 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Outflanking CTA From The Left: How Anti-Racist Demands Are Captured By Privateers – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Outflanking CTA From The Left: How Anti-Racist Demands Are Captured By Privateers – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Outflanking CTA From The Left: How Anti-Racist Demands Are Captured By Privateers

The death of George Floyd in custody of the Minneapolis City Police has roiled our nation. There can be no tolerance of murder, which is all the more abominable at the hands of authority. As citizens everywhere rise – and continue to rise – to protest injustice, and we collectively contemplate systemic and institutional racism, prejudice and bias, our school community reflects these politics and the raising of consciousness in microcosm.

On the last day of its fiscal year, the nation’s largest school district with a democratically elected school board (LAUSD BOE) voted to decimate its school police department (LASPD).

But What Happened?

During the first of what became two sequential meetings focused on LASPD, the school board debated three policy resolutions (from 8:12.45m) examining and limiting LASPD operations. The board failed to muster majority agreement on any directive, and their prerogative was preempted by the Superintendent’s personally selected Task Force on School Safety (@8:09 and Fig. 2 below). Then the following week in an end-run around CONTINUE READING: Outflanking CTA From The Left: How Anti-Racist Demands Are Captured By Privateers – Los Angeles Education Examiner

‘It's insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires - POLITICO

‘It's insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires - POLITICO

‘It's insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires
Families haven’t had to prove their income in recent months, but the Trump administration hasn’t extended that flexibility

The Trump administration is resisting calls to make it easy for tens of millions of students to get free meals at school this year, even as childhood hunger rates have risen to the highest levels in decades.

During the spring and summer, as the coronavirus health crisis exploded, the government allowed most families to pick up free meals from whichever school was closest or most convenient without proving they were low-income. But that effort is on the verge of expiring as states prepare for children to return to school, and as school systems are pushing the federal government to continue the free meals program through the fall.

So far, President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department isn’t on board with an extension. School leaders are now asking Congress to force the government’s hand as lawmakers buckle down to work on the next coronavirus aid package.

“It’s impossible. It’s insane,” said Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, which represents the largest school districts in the country, including those in New York, Chicago and Dallas. “Our districts have been screaming about it. They’re panicked.”

Schools already face enormous logistical challenges as they decide whether to have students learn online, in classrooms or in some combination of both this fall. Expanding free meal access would also cut down the pile of paperwork needed to enroll the millions of children expected to become newly eligible for government-subsidized or free meal programs.

If USDA doesn’t extend the flexibility through the fall, families may be able to CONTINUE READING: ‘It's insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires - POLITICO

Larry Ferlazzo: Teacher: 8 school concerns robbing me of sleep - The Washington Post

Teacher: 8 school concerns robbing me of sleep - The Washington Post

Teacher: Eight concerns about school this fall that are robbing me of sleep

The beginning of the 2020-2021 school year is just weeks away for millions of students — and some districts have yet to provide clarity on what is going to happen then.

With covid-19 cases rising — sometimes exponentially — in numerous states, a growing number of districts have announced that they will start the year with remote learning but shift to in-person instruction when (if?) the pandemic eases.

Teachers, school staff, students and parents all have strong concerns about how the year will unfold, and here are eight that are robbing a California teacher of sleep. He is Larry Ferlazzo, who teaches English and social studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento.

Ferlazzo has written or edited 12 books on education and is about to publish his 13th, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week Teacher and has a popular resource-sharing blog. He has also written pieces for this blog over the years, including one on how teachers can help students motivate themselves and this one, a favorite of mine, titled: “NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’ ”

By Larry Ferlazzo

With the decision to have most California schools going to full-time distancing learning in the fall, we have received the gift of clarity.

At the same time, I have begun working up very early in the morning with thoughts running through my mind about how all this is going to work, and what I have to figure out over the next few weeks.

I had a pretty positive experience with emergency long-distance learning in the spring, with high class participation, and, Katie Hull and I recently completed a chapter on distance learning in our upcoming book — “The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide” — that will be released for free soon.

I know a lot of teachers did not have a positive experience in the spring, and haven’t necessarily been able to take the time I have to process the experience through writing.

So, if I’m losing sleep and am anxious about the fall, I suspect that I am not alone!

Here are my top eight worries (not in order of importance): CONTINUE READING: Teacher: 8 school concerns robbing me of sleep - The Washington Post

Where Lynching Terrorized Black Americans, Corporal Punishment In Schools Lives On | HuffPost

Where Lynching Terrorized Black Americans, Corporal Punishment In Schools Lives On | HuffPost

Where Lynching Terrorized Black Americans, Corporal Punishment In Schools Lives On
These counties had high rates of lynchings. Now their schools are more likely to paddle Black children, a new study reveals.

DURANT, MISSISSIPPI ― Justice Grisby, like every other student in Holmes County School District, knew about the paddle. Long, smooth and wooden, it was kept locked away in the principal’s office, except for the occasions it was taken out and used as a weapon of punishment. Grisby, a recent high school graduate, was lucky to survive her K-12 experience without ever getting paddled, but she will never forget the time she saw it happen to someone else.

Grisby, who is Black, was in the sixth grade. It was 2014 and her class was working on a reading project. As usual, the class bully was acting out. The girl was grabbing another student’s poster board when a school administrator walked through the classroom and caught the misbehavior. 

Paddlings were supposed to occur in the main office, behind closed doors. This time, it happened in front of a class of around 30 rowdy kids. The student was made to stoop over and the administrator wound up his arms, and struck her behind twice with his wooden paddle, Grisby recalled in an interview with HuffPost. The class broke out in jeers and laughter.

“You know how when you’re hurt and you laugh so people won’t see you cry?” Grisby asked, explaining the situation. “She kind of laughed, but I think she wanted to cry.”

Most states ban corporal punishment in schools. But Grisby lives in Mississippi, a state that not only allows it, but has the highest rate of the practice in the country. 

For almost a century, Mississippi was one of the nation’s leaders in another category of punishment: lynching. 

Between 1865 and 1950, at least 708 confirmed lynchings took place in the state; the vast majority of victims were Black, according to prior research by professors E. M. Beck and Stewart Tolnay. They included Black teenagers falsely accused of crimes; Black men accused of offenses as minor as “insulting a white woman”; and Black women who were shot simply because of “race hatred.” Often, white mobs tortured victims, while others CONTINUE READING: Where Lynching Terrorized Black Americans, Corporal Punishment In Schools Lives On | HuffPost

Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening | Diane Ravitch's blog

Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening | Diane Ravitch's blog

Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening

Public Education Partners is the leading volunteer advocacy group for public schools in Ohio.

They issued this statement last night.

We are public education experts.

Public Education Partners (PEP) is a statewide, grassroots public education advocacy group whose mission is to preserve, protect, and strengthen Ohio’s public schools. Public Education Partners is an integral part of education policy deliberations through legislative consultation, Statehouse testimony, and community forums, among other actions. Over 90% of Ohio’s children attend public schools, and Ohio’s public-school system is the largest employer in the state.

The PEP Board is an entirely volunteer group comprised of:
active and retired educators and administrators with a collective total of over 350 years of teaching experience in Ohio’s public schools’ urban, suburban and rural districts;
public school board members;
city council members;
parents and grandparents of Ohio Public School students CONTINUE READING: Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening | Diane Ravitch's blog

Audio: When Can Kids Go Back To School? Leaders Say 'As Soon As It's Safe' | 89.3 KPCC

Audio: When Can Kids Go Back To School? Leaders Say 'As Soon As It's Safe' | 89.3 KPCC

When Can Kids Go Back To School? Leaders Say 'As Soon As It's Safe'

Ann Levett's worst day as superintendent of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System wasn't March 26, the day Georgia's governor first closed schools, keeping Levett's more than 37,000 students home in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Her worst day came just a couple of weeks ago, Levett says, when she realized the infection numbers around Savannah were so high that she wasn't going to be able to reopen schools.

Levett had hoped to welcome students back on Aug. 5, right on schedule, but says she can't do that safely while COVID-19 continues to spread in Georgia — and many nearby states. Every day, Levett wakes up and checks the numbers. "And I'm like, 'Please, please let them go down. Please let them go down. And they're not going down.' "

As President Trump criticized school leaders for not reopening fully or quickly, NPR reached out to superintendents across the country, to hear their side of the reopening story. And from Georgia to New York, Texas to Ohio, they were consistent:

School leaders say they are determined to open school safely, and feel dismayed by the Trump administration's efforts to politicize and rush decisions that could have CONTINUE READING: Audio: When Can Kids Go Back To School? Leaders Say 'As Soon As It's Safe' | 89.3 KPCC

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design?

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design?

Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design?

The Jacksonville press is reporting only 7 percent of students have signed up for some sort of virtual learning. Tampa's media is reporting half their children are and nationally seventy percent of parents think sending children to school is risky, so is Jacksonville and outlier, or is something else going on?

From News4Jax,

With three weeks until the first scheduled day of school, Duval County Public Schools is still working on a plan for how students will safely return to class.

Public records show less than 10% of Duval County families have signed their children up for virtual learning options. The district said some applications are still processing. 

District leaders have been questioning whether all students should be learning online. Board members have also been considering a delayed start date.

As of Friday, records showed 6,900 students were enrolled in Duval County’s distance CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design?

Reopening Schools Issues and Evidence | tultican

Reopening Schools Issues and Evidence | tultican

Reopening Schools Issues and Evidence

By Thomas Ultican 7/21/2020

The President of the United States and his Secretary of Education have demanded schools open with in-person classes five days a week. Many parents are not confident their children will be safe and significant numbers of teachers are profoundly frightened. How does the rhetoric square with credible scientific evidence concerning the Covid-19 pandemic?

President Trump has tweeted,

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway,  Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”

Michelle Goldberg of the NY Times wrote, “… with their crude attempts at coercion, they’ve politicized school reopening just as Trump politicized mask-wearing and hydroxychloroquine.”

Goldberg goes on to cite American Federation of Teacher President, Randi Weingarten, as saying the administration just made reopening schools more CONTINUE READING: Reopening Schools Issues and Evidence | tultican

NYC Safety Plan for Schools – Needed, Doesn’t Exist | JD2718

NYC Safety Plan for Schools – Needed, Doesn’t Exist | JD2718

NYC Safety Plan for Schools – Needed, Doesn’t Exist

Each school is working, planning. Shouldn’t each school come up with a safety plan? Isn’t each school unique?

Schools do need to apply safety guidelines to their individual situations. But those guidelines need to come from the New York City Department of Education – a citywide safety plan. And, as of today, no dice.

There is a New York State document, reopening guidance. But it is the NYCDoE’s responsibility to use it come up with district health and safety policies.

I’m a “programmer.” I schedule my school. My progress is limited by the NYCDoE not meeting this basic responsibility to the schools.

Entry and Movement

There are decisions that need to be made locally. How the kids enter the building for instance. Each building is different.

But that decision cannot be made until the New York City Department of Education has laid out CONTINUE READING: NYC Safety Plan for Schools – Needed, Doesn’t Exist | JD2718

NYC Public School Parents: Please urge your legislators now to support our schools so they can reopen safely next year!

NYC Public School Parents: Please urge your legislators now to support our schools so they can reopen safely next year!

Please urge your legislators now to support our schools so they can reopen safely next year!

Last week, Governor Cuomo, the State Department of Health, and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and safety as well as provide instructional and emotional support to their students. If the COVID positivity rates of all regions of the state remain under 5%, as they do currently, their schools  will be eligible to reopen if they adopt the recommended protocols.

Yet little or nothing was said in these instructions about how schools can afford the expensive health and safety measures, as well as the extra staffing and space necessary to keep students engaged in learning while attending school in person in shifts to ensure social distancing.

As the National Academy of Sciences pointed out, “Many of the mitigation strategies currently under consideration (such as limiting classes to small cohorts of students or implementing physical distancing between students and staff) require substantial reconfiguring of space, purchase of additional equipment, adjustments to staffing patterns, and upgrades to school buildings. The financial costs of consistently implementing a number of potential mitigation strategies is considerable.”
 
Even to do an adequate job with full-time remote learning requires funding for additional devices, faster internet access, and more teachers and counselors, to provide more individualized and ongoing support and to keep group sizes small.

Our schools’ desperate need for more funding has been aggravated by the fact that Governor Cuomo hijacked the extra dollars that were funded by Congress in the CARES ACT to fill holes in state aid, instead of sending these dollars to schools to help them address the COVID crisis.

Now is the time for the Governor and our State Legislators to stand up for our schools and protect our children by providing them with the funds that are badly needed. They could do that easily by boosting taxes on the ultra-wealthy,  including the Ultra-millionaires Tax on residents who earn above $5 million annually (S.8164 / A.10364), or above $1 million annually (S.7378/A.10363); and the Pied-a-Terre tax (S.44 / AA.4550), a surcharge on non-primary residences worth over five million dollars.

There is no doubt that the ultra-wealthy can afford this. In NY State,  118 billionaires saw their wealth increase by $77.3 billion during first three months of the pandemic. Michael Bloomberg saw his net worth increase by $12 billion during this period alone.  All New Yorkers, including the ultra-wealthy, need to pitch in during this time of need, to ensure the health, safety and education of our kids. Below are links to your Legislators’ contact information and a script you can use. They will be back in session starting tomorrow.

Directions: Call your Legislators in their district offices – unless their phones are busy and then please call their Albany offices.

You can find your Assemblymember’s  phone number here and your State Senator’s phone number here.

Script: Hi, my name is ________ and I am a constituent.
Our public schools desperately need more state aid to deal with the pandemic. I want to urge [Elected Name] to support the Fund Our Future package, including the Ultra-Millionaires Tax, the Billionaire Tax Shelter Tax and the Pied-a-terre Tax, so our kids can attend school safely next year. Can I count on [Elected Name] to sign onto these bills, and to ask the Legislative leaders to bring them to a vote? 

Afterwards, if you have time, please enter their responses into our Google form here. Thanks!



NYC Public School Parents: Please urge your legislators now to support our schools so they can reopen safely next year!