Big Education Ape: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Big Education Ape

TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Indiana teachers union calls on lawmakers to expand bargaining rights amid COVID https://in.chalkbeat.org/2020/11/16/21570324/ista-indiana-teachers-union-calls-on-lawmakers-to-expand-bargaining-rights-amid-covid via @ChalkbeatIN

Illinois teachers union calls on Gov. Pritzker to close school buildings again because of COVID-19 surge - Chicago Tribune - https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-covid-19-illinois-teachers-union-close-schools-20201116-bbt6svkkvbcbnjpxxicccme7xy-story.html#new_tab via @chicagotribune

One Denver family’s fight for special education services during remote learning https://co.chalkbeat.org/2020/11/16/21570424/denver-family-special-education-remote-learning via @ChalkbeatCO

Nebraska teachers union leaders call on governor to issue state mask mandate and other measures | Education | journalstar.com - https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/nebraska-teachers-union-leaders-call-on-governor-to-issue-state-mask-mandate-and-other-measures/article_bdffe358-3602-5365-bd6e-08aef2a4c4a0.html#new_tab by @https://www.twitter.com/LJSreist on @JournalStarNews

students sue NYC DOE over racial discrimination - New York Daily News - https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-civil-rights-act-admission-screens-20201116-wjpy2dbvgjaftgcl5cjmsoutge-story.html#new_tab via @nydailynews

More than 1 million children in the U.S. have had Covid-19 - https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/more-1-million-children-u-s-have-had-covid-19-n1247913#new_tab by NBCNews on @NBCNews

CCSD families’ lawsuit over distance learning headed for hearing | Las Vegas Review-Journal - https://wp.me/p8qdWm-9ard on @reviewjournal

'Betsy DeVos made a mess' of the U.S. student loan system, teachers' union boss says - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/betsy-de-vos-made-a-mess-of-the-us-student-loan-system-teachers-union-boss-says-142905766.html#new_tab on @Yahoo

How do you get a luxury apartment in Oakland for $350 a month? Become a teacher - SFChronicle.com - https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/How-do-you-get-a-luxury-apartment-in-Oakland-for-15731704.php#new_tab on @sfchronicle

Thousands of students are 'no-shows' this year, almost twice as many as in years past - https://idahoednews.org/Vm7K0 via @idahoednews

Schools Update: NYC Catholic Schools Will Stay Open Even If Public School System Closes https://gothamist.com/news/schools-update-nyc-catholic-schools-will-stay-open-even-if-public-school-system-closes?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=shared_twitter via @gothamist

How school discipline — and student misbehavior — has changed during the pandemic | EdSource - https://edsource.org/?p=643758 on @edsource

Monroe teachers who resist in-person classes could be fired | HeraldNet.com - https://www.heraldnet.com/news/monroe-teachers-union-defiant-over-in-person-first-grade/#new_tab via @everettherald

Howard County school board rejects hybrid model, votes to stay with virtual learning through mid-April - Baltimore Sun - https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/cng-ho-virtual-hybrid-vote-20201117-bmrlj4vuvngqbmjb7ey2644zte-story.html#new_tab via @baltimoresun

Maps: How employment in education has changed in each US state - Business Insider - https://www.businessinsider.com/maps-teacher-education-jobs-percent-change-states-2020-11#new_tab

Montgomery's Jawando, Riemer propose eliminating School Resource Officers - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-school-resource-officers/2020/11/17/6ad7d0ba-284f-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_local-education

Students to Biden: Include us in picking DeVos’s successor - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/11/17/students-biden-include-us-selecting-devoss-successor-education-policy/

These educators ran for office—and won! - Education Votes

by Mike Simpson / 1d

These educators ran for office—and won! By Amanda Menas When Kenneth Tang retired from teaching elementary school in California’s Garvey School District , it was his mission to do all he could to continue to help his students. When a position on the school board for his district became open, his former students urged him to run. “[My students] were telling me that they felt unheard [at to school

The Election Is Over. How Do We Help Our Students (And Ourselves) Heal? - Philly's 7th Ward

by Mike Simpson / 1d

THE ELECTION IS OVER. HOW DO WE HELP OUR STUDENTS (AND OURSELVES) HEAL? “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” -Audre Lorde After one of the most tumultuous and fraught elections of our lifetime, Joe Biden was chosen to be our next President, and Kamala Harris the next Vice President. A time for celebration in many corners, t

Teacher Tom: Time Travel

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Time Travel I don't catch a whiff of cigar smoke very often these days, but I recently passed a couple of men enjoying stogies over glasses of wine and the scent carried me instantly back to my youth, playing baseball under the lights at Legion Field in Corvallis, Oregon. There was always a fan or two smoking a cigar in the stands and in an instant, my mind was transported over four decades back

Betsy DeVos' Legacy: Transforming How The Education Department Treats Civil Rights | HuffPost

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Betsy DeVos’ Legacy: Transforming How The Education Department Treats Civil Rights The Education Department has been slow to investigate complaints of discrimination related to COVID-19, HuffPost has learned. Employees say it’s part of a pattern of disorganization that has emerged under Trump. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has spent months failing to make meaningful

Students deserve an explanation for the origins of the Electoral College

by Mike Simpson / 1d

TEACHER VOICE: The United States is not a democracy. Stop telling students that it is “Students are commanded to vote, but not to judge the fundamental questions of governance not on the ballot — like the legitimacy of the Electoral College” W hen U.S. voters recently cast their ballots, an unchecked pandemic raged through the nation, uprisings against racism and police violence stretched into t

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

by Mike Simpson / 1d

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_14.html “22 Strategies for Encouraging Students’ Intrinsic Motivati

Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely | Diane Ravitch's blog

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Epidemiologist: How to Reopen Schools Safely Benjamin P. Linas, an epidemiologist, writes in VOX that both blue and red states are doing the wrong things about the pandemic. The blue states are too quick to close down schools and the red states are too quick to keep them open without proper safety measures. The Trump administration has provided no guidance at all and left it to states to craft t

Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us | janresseger

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Donald Trump Exemplifies Plutocratic Populism Run Amok: the Implications for All of Us The United States has become a textbook case, and I don’t mean merely a textbook case of pandemic denial, although that is also true. Last July, two political science professors, Jacob Hacker of Yale University and Paul Pierson from the University of California at Berkeley, published a thorough analysis of the

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Donors Choose Monday: The Extra Screen Every Monday, I'm making a donation to someone on Donors Choose, a well-rated charity site that lets folks offer financial support to teachers across the country. No, we shouldn't have to do this. Yes, some of the requests might raise an eyebrow (is that something you really need, really?) But we are where we are in the world right now, and this is a small

America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

by Mike Simpson / 1d

America Might Not Know Biden’s Choice for US Ed Sec Until January Given President-elect Joe Biden’s “deliberative approach” in choosing his Cabinet, it seems that his selection for US ed sec may well follow the January 05, 2021, runoff elections for the two US Senate seats in Georgia. If Democrats are tied with Republicans for the number of Senate seats– which can only happen if both Georgia Dem

Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?) | Ed In The Apple

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Who’s Whispering in Biden’s Ear? (And who is he listening too …?) The late 1920’s saw seemingly everlasting increases in stock prices, the Hoover Boom Market; in September and October of 1929 the market stumbled and on October 29th, Black Tuesday the market tumbled and the nation fell into the Great Depression . President Hoover saw the “crash” as a “correction,” the “ invisible hand ” would int

When we return from remote… | JD2718

by Mike Simpson / 1d

When we return from remote… Will New York City public schools switch to all remote? Wrong question. First of all, it’s not “will we go remote?”, but “when will we go remote?”. But that’s not the right question either. When we return from all-remote, how will we return? Because blended learning sucks. There’s the question. In the real universe, in person regular school is best. Remote is bad. But

Big Education Ape

CURMUDGUCATION: Music and the Death of Shared Spaces

CURMUDGUCATION: Music and the Death of Shared Spaces

Music and the Death of Shared Spaces

I play in a town band (or at least, I do in years without pandemics) that has been around since 1856. I've dug into the history (actually wrote a book about it) which has just extended my lifelong interest in popular music and culture, and if you trace all of that history, I think you can see how we ended up where we are, both politically and in the education world.

As the 19th century turned into the 20th, music was almost exclusively a rare, shared experience. You could only listen to music that was live. If you had a piano and someone who could play it, maybe you could listen at home (a hit song was one that sold lots of sheet music), but for anything more complex, you had to wait for a band or orchestra performance. As an audience member you had zero control of what you listened to, nor could you pick the where or when. 

Pre-1920, the majority of Americans lived in small towns, so entertainment resources were limited. The period of 1880-1920 was the peak for town bands--if you wanted live music, you got some folks together and sis it yourself. There were parallels. In our area, for instance, there was a single amusement park, a destination park owned and run by the trolley company. On major holidays, everyone was there--all the towns, all the members of the family. Opportunities were few, and technology didn't favor personally choosing, so everyone shared the few chances over which they had little control or choice.

In the 1920s, things change. Our local amusement park died, killed by the automobile, a piece of technology that let people decide when and where they wanted to go. Meanwhile, recorded music finally become commercially viable. Suddenly, you can buy a pressed recording of a song that you like and listen to it any time you want in the comfort of your own home. 

The next few decades gave us improved record technology and better automobiles, which expanded personal control and choice. They also saw the rise of radio, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Music and the Death of Shared Spaces

John Thompson: COVID and Schools in Oklahoma | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: COVID and Schools in Oklahoma | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: COVID and Schools in Oklahoma

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, is concerned about the lackadaisical responses of elected officials in his state and reliance on Big Data, not science.

The headlines could not be clearer; we’re headed for a disastrous surge in COVID-19. But many of the same public health experts who previously called for shutdowns and, recently, some top journalists are pushing the position that we should continue to reopen schools, even as they warn that community transmission of the virus continues. I am becoming more worried that some of those data-driven public health experts, who I respect, are stepping out of their lanes and giving advice to institutions, urban schools, that they may not understand, and the result could be disastrous.

The motivation is the sincere concern for children, especially the most vulnerable, who suffer from school closures.  A common meme in this debate, however, involves noneducators describing their children’s CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: COVID and Schools in Oklahoma | Diane Ravitch's blog

Black Lives Matter / United Federation of Teachers Resolution | JD2718

Black Lives Matter / United Federation of Teachers Resolution | JD2718

Black Lives Matter / United Federation of Teachers Resolution

Thanks to Arthur Goldstein for sharing this in advance. 

Delegates and Chapter Leaders should always, where feasible, receive resolutions, memoranda, etc in advance of a vote. I’m not sure why this does not always happen. Perhaps our leaders are used to dealing with members of their political caucus, Unity, whose members always vote as they are told, and don’t need to see the documents. But perhaps the resolutions for tomorrow’s Delegate Assembly will be sent out early enough in advance (this afternoon or evening?) for us to have a chance to read them before being asked to vote.

In any case, this is a good resolution. I will support it. I am especially interested in the five points at the end:

1. End Zero Tolerance discipline in schools
2. Mandate Black and Ethnic Studies in schools
3. Hire more Black educators
4. Fund more counselors, social workers, and mental health specialists
5. Fully integrate our schools with proper and equitable funding for librarians, PSAL sports, and access to technology.

Each of them addresses something that is really necessary today. I am glad to see #3 – not enough of us are aware how Bloomberg/Klein’s policies targeted Black educators, and shifted hiring away from Black educators. My school is working on #2 right now. And frankly, I would put #4 higher on the list. And am I reading 5 correctly, it calls, among other things, for integrating our schools? Wow, completely needed.

Black Lives Matter resolution

WHEREAS, the United Federation of Teachers reaffirms Black Lives Matter, and

WHEREAS, the statement Black Lives Matter means that until people of African descent are treated CONTINUE READING: Black Lives Matter / United Federation of Teachers Resolution | JD2718

How Will Biden Approach School Reopenings? - The New York Times

How Will Biden Approach School Reopenings? - The New York Times

How Will Biden Approach School Reopenings?

Answer: Schools over restaurants, for now.

This is the Coronavirus Schools Briefing, a guide to the seismic changes in U.S. education that are taking place during the pandemic. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.

Several months into the 2020-2021 school year, things are bad and getting worse. Most American children are not in classrooms, with many suffering ill effects. The country seems doomed to face increasing coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. There seems to be little chance of improved conditions for the rest of the year.

So what will President-elect Joe Biden do about it when he takes office on Jan. 20?

The incoming president’s coronavirus task force has said it would prioritize open schools over open businesses like restaurants, bars and gyms.

“I would consider school an essential service,” Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of the task force, told our colleague Apoorva Mandavilli. “Those other things are not essential services.”

Biden has promised money — lots of money — to help schools function safely. He has backed plans to send at least $88 billion to local and state governments, which would pay for protective equipment, ventilation, smaller classes and other expenses.

“Schools, they need a lot of money to open,” he said during the last presidential debate.

Biden has also said his administration would create national guidelines for school reopenings. It would also provide advice about remote learning and distance learning, and conduct research into how the coronavirus affects children. Systemically, it would work to close gaps “in learning, mental health, social and emotional well-being, and systemic racial and socioeconomic disparities in education that the pandemic has exacerbated.”

President Trump, by contrast, pushed to keep schools open and threatened to restrict federal funding from noncompliant districts, but did not offer significant funds or guidelines to help meet that goal. Trump’s Education Department, reported our colleague Erica Green, “has all but absolved itself of tracking the virus’s impact and offering solutions.” CONTINUE READING: How Will Biden Approach School Reopenings? - The New York Times

Shanker Blog: One Page Summaries of Your State's School Finance System | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: One Page Summaries of Your State's School Finance System | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: One Page Summaries of Your State's School Finance System

For the past few years, the Shanker Institute has been collaborating with Bruce Baker and Mark Weber of Rutgers University to publish the School Finance Indicators Database (SFID), a collection of finance and resource allocation measures for policymakers, journalists, parents, and the public. 

The State Indicators Database (SID), the primary product of the SFID, is freely available to the public, but it includes about 125 variables. So, even if you know exactly the types of measures you are looking for, compiling the data for a state or a group of states might present a challenge. While we have tried to make the data accessible for non-researchers, we realize that it can still be difficult for a lot of people. 

We have therefore just published 51 state school finance profiles (with help from ASI fellow Lauren Schneider), which pull together a digestible amount of information into one place for each state (and D.C.). You can download the profiles individually or as a group.

As with our annual report, the profiles present SID data for three "core" measures, which together offer an effective overview of the fairness and sufficiency of each state's finance system: 

1. Effort: how much of a state’s total resources or capacity are spent directly on public K-12 education;
2. Adequacy: whether states provide districts with resources sufficient to meet common outcome goals;
3. Progressivity: whether states allocate more resources to districts serving larger proportions of disadvantaged students. CONTINUE READING: Shanker Blog: One Page Summaries of Your State's School Finance System | National Education Policy Center

Teacher Tom: How to Begin Fighting a Viral Pandemic With Viral Learning

Teacher Tom: How to Begin Fighting a Viral Pandemic With Viral Learning

How to Begin Fighting a Viral Pandemic With Viral Learning

First there is denial, then anger, then comes the bargaining, depression, and acceptance. That is the progression of grief. Most of us who have made our careers in early childhood education are somewhere along this path right now, a journey that began abruptly in March as the reality of the pandemic finally caused us to take action.

I know this has been true for me. At first, I welcomed the closures as an accidental holiday, but as it dragged on I found myself angry: at the virus, at my government, at suggestions that we would be plopping young children in front of computer screens. I then spent time casting about for middle ground that I could live with, writing posts here and making videos with suggestions and ideas for how we could continue giving children hands-on, face-to-face opportunities while somehow keeping them safe. I didn't identify the depression when I was in the midst of it, but rather, as is often the case, only after the "black dog" began to release its fangs. 

What's left is acceptance. 

Yesterday, my good friend John Yiannoudis wrote a long piece about acceptance on his Facebook page (John wrote in Greek and here I've taken the liberty of smoothing out the automatic translation):

We can sit and mourn over the spilled milk, but we can also ride the wave of changes, experimenting for a new condition that will fit the world of the 21st Century, and beyond . . . Let us not forget that a child born in 2015 will one day be 35 years old. He won't even remember what the world was like, just as I was born in 1969 and don't remember the world without an electric fridge . . . If we adults continue to mourn the evil that has found us for much longer, the children will first look on sadly and feel sorry as well, but then they will get bored and hate us very quickly.

I had to sit with this for some time and I came to realize that without putting it into words, I've actually been sitting with CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: How to Begin Fighting a Viral Pandemic With Viral Learning

Looking Back: On Raising the Academic Quality of Student Writing – radical eyes for equity

Looking Back: On Raising the Academic Quality of Student Writing – radical eyes for equity

Looking Back: On Raising the Academic Quality of Student Writing

My first-year writing seminars are grounded in two concepts—workshop structure (multiple drafts of essays combined with conferencing over long periods of time) and portfolio assessment (a portfolio of all course work is submitted for the final exam).

In that final portfolio, students submit final versions of all four essays, rank those essays in order of quality according to them, and submit a reflection that details the key lessons they have learned about writing as well as a few areas they need to continue improving.

This pandemic semester has added a significant and noticeable layer of stress to first-semester first-year students so I have adjusted the final weeks of the seminars this fall, ending in just a few days. One change has been to replace the usual Essay 4 assignment (an open assignment in which students submit a proposal for the type of essay and topic before submitting a first full draft) with the end-of-course reflection usually required in the final portfolio.

In class yesterday, we began brainstorming what key lessons my students have learned and what they see as areas still needing improvement. Over this past weekend, as well, I sent out an email that framed the organization of the semester, outlining how the essay assignments have been scaffolded in order to prepare these students to be academic writers (student writers) in the CONTINUE READING: Looking Back: On Raising the Academic Quality of Student Writing – radical eyes for equity

Education Secretary Pick: From Betsy DeVos to Union Boss? | Politics | US News

Education Secretary Pick: From Betsy DeVos to Union Boss? | Politics | US News

Education Secretary Pick: From Betsy DeVos to Union Boss?

After more than a decade of playing defense, two prominent labor leaders stand poised to potentially be nominated education secretary.

THE REASON president-elect Joe Biden has for nominating as his education secretary the president or former president of one of the national teachers unions is as easy to understand as the reason he has for not doing that.

The next education secretary will have a monumental task at hand in getting more than 50 million children back in schools for in-person learning during a pandemic, and Biden needs someone with experience organizing and rallying millions, someone who already knows the mechanisms of Washington and the major players in Congress, as well as the state education chiefs and big-city superintendents.

[ 

READ: 

Virus Infection Rate Among Children Surges ]

Yet in a hyper-partisan political landscape, choosing a union boss risks sowing further division in the wake of the most divisive education secretary in the history of the Education Department – this from a president-elect who ran on the promise of restoring the soul of the nation and unifying the country and who won in part thanks to the teachers unions' powerful fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts

Betsy DeVos, Education Standards and Teachers: Editorial Cartoons on Education

https://www.usnews.com/news/cartoons/2018/11/28/betsy-devos-education-standards-and-teachers-editorial-cartoons-on-education?src=usn_tw

As Biden ruminates over a deep field of contenders, two names continue resurfacing within education policy circles as legitimate front-runners: Lily Eskelsen García, who served as president of the 3 million-member National Education Association for nearly a decade before she stepped down earlier this year, and Randi Weingarten, the current president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers.

Both are political powerhouses in their own right, having steered their respective unions through a tumultuous time in K-12 education, including a brutal campaign by GOP governors to curb workers' rights and some detrimental Supreme Court decisions that resulted in dwindling membership and dues. And while staving off the Trump administration's pursuit of school choice and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' blistering criticism, which they returned in equal measure, they also managed to harness the power of their members to launch one of the most effective and successful educator movements of the 21st century – one that motivated millions of teachers to strike and hold sick-outs and walk-outs in dozens of cities and states across the country to demand better pay and more funding for nurses, social workers and librarians.

[ 

MORE: 

Teacher Deaths Reignite Virus Fears ]

Now, after more than a decade of playing defense, Eskelsen García and Weingarten stand poised CONTINUE READING: Education Secretary Pick: From Betsy DeVos to Union Boss? | Politics | US News

Dr. Biden is “Ready to Get to Work” for Community Colleges

Dr. Biden is “Ready to Get to Work” for Community Colleges

Dr. Jill Biden is “Ready to Get to Work” on Behalf of Community Colleges

Dr. Jill Biden, a lifelong educator and soon-to-be first lady, spoke to college students via video conference on Monday, offering advice on how to adapt to a changing workforce amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

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What You Need To Know

• Dr. Jill Biden delivered the opening address at the College Promise Careers Institute Monday


• During the event, Dr. Biden promised to be an ally to educators


• Biden touted the work of the College Promise Campaign, "a non-partisan initiative that builds public support for funding the first two years of hardworking students’ educations — starting in America’s community colleges"


• The future first lady promised to work with Washington lawmakers and business leaders to ensure that Americans have access to affordable community college

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Dr. Biden delivered the opening address at the College Promise Careers Institute, a conference where the “nation's leading practitioners, educators, employers, and thought leaders (...) tackle the most complex challenges American workers face — from the rise of artificial intelligence to the role free college plays in maintaining a competitive edge.” 

Biden thanked those who supported her husband, Joe Biden, during his bid for president, promising to be an ally to educators in the White House. 

“You aren’t alone, and neither are the millions of students just like you, who want nothing more than to work hard and make a good life for themselves,” Dr. Biden began. “I'm grateful and excited, and most of all, I'm ready to get to work with you.” 

Biden went on to tout the work of the College Promise Campaign, which she helped launch nearly five years ago with a simple goal in mind: “Every hardworking student should have the chance to go to community college tuition free.”

According to the Biden Foundation website, the College Promise Campaign is "a non-partisan initiative that builds public support for funding the first two years of hardworking students’ educations — starting in America’s CONTINUE READING: Dr. Biden is “Ready to Get to Work” for Community Colleges