“Young, Gifted, & Black”: #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Virtual Talent Showcase, Friday, 2/5, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST. – I AM AN EDUCATOR #tbats #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH

“Young, Gifted, & Black”: #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Virtual Talent Showcase, Friday, 2/5, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST. Don’t miss this culminating event of the week of action to support our Black youth! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

“Young, Gifted, & Black”: #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Virtual Talent Showcase, Friday, 2/5, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST.

Don’t miss this culminating event of the week of action to support our Black youth!

The Seattle area NAACP Youth Council (N-YC), Puget Sound Black Lives Matter at Schools, and Social Equity Educators (SEE) are proud to co-sponsor this year’s “Young, Gifted, & Black Student Talent Showcase,” one of the keynote event of the 2021 Black Lives Matter at School week February 1-5. This event will be held on-line from 5:30pm–7:30pm Pacific. You can visit the Facebook page and find the link or click this link to view the event: Online: us02web.zoom.us

2020 Young, Gifted, and Black Showcase

Centering the creative and intellectual brilliance of African-American students throughout Seattle Public Schools and nearby districts, these youth–dancers, poets, filmmakers, singers, speakers, and more–follow in the footsteps of Nina Simone. Many considered her 1969 song “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”, dedicated to the late Lorraine Hansberry, to be an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. These students today carry on the tradition of her and other civil rights activists by making the case for how to uproot institutional racism in education!The four national demands of the Black Lives Matter at School movement are:

1.) End “zero tolerance” discipline, and implement restorative justice
2.) Hire more Black teachers
3.) Mandate Black History and Ethnic Studies in K-12 curriculum
4.) Fund counselors not cops

For more national information on the week:
https://blacklivesmatteratschool.com and also see other events around the country at: https://www.blacklivesmatteratschool.com/blm-at-school-events.html

Check out Nina Simone’s song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, the inspiration for the event’s title:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hdVFiANBT

We hope to see you there!

2020 Young, Gifted, and Black Showcase

“Young, Gifted, & Black”: #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Virtual Talent Showcase, Friday, 2/5, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST. Don’t miss this culminating event of the week of action to support our Black youth! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

It’s not enough! | Live Long and Prosper

It’s not enough! | Live Long and Prosper

It’s not enough!

MASKS WORK…

I feel like we’re living in an Idiocracy.

Wisconsin’s Republican legislature is fighting the mask mandate ordered by the Democratic governor…because, of course they are.

Wisconsin’s Legislature repealed Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate. He issued a new one.

Fearing more deaths statewide, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers reissued a mask mandate Thursday, standing up to a Republican Legislature that had repealed his previous mask order earlier in the day.

“We know that wearing face coverings can save lives and prevent death. We know it’s supported by science,” Evers, a Democrat, said in a two-minute video.

He said repealing his previous mandate to wear face coverings in public places put at risk about $50 million a month in federal funds to help hundreds of thousands of vulnerable residents.

Experts, i.e. those who are educated and actually know things, understand that masks, along with other mitigation measures, help prevent the spread of COVID-19 (See here, here, and here. The idiocrats in the Wisconsin legislature aren’t experts.

…BUT MASKS ARE NOT ENOUGH FOR SCHOOLS TO OPEN

So what do experts say about opening schools during a pandemic? Teachers are worried about their own safety, as well as the safety of their students, co- CONTINUE READING: It’s not enough! | Live Long and Prosper

Jo Ann Robinson, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

Jo Ann Robinson, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

JO ANN ROBINSON, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME

E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.

But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month. February is just the Blackest.

Today, our featured Black Educator is Jo Ann Robinson

Jo Ann Robinson was an eduactivist who wasn’t afraid to engage in civic action.

Born in Georgia on April 17, 1912, Robinson graduated valedictorian of her class, enrolled at Fort Valley State (HBCU), and earned her bachelor’s degree, becoming the first person in her family who attended college. Robinson began her career in K-12 education. She was a teacher for Macon Public Schools while obtaining her master’s degree and later teaching at Alabama State College in Montgomery, AL.

Once in Montgomery, Robinson, the eduactivist, got to work, organizing, activating, and empowering Black people.

Robinson became an active member of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church; then CONTINUE READING: Jo Ann Robinson, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Full Neo Voucher Assault On Public Ed

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Full Neo Voucher Assault On Public Ed

NH: Full Neo Voucher Assault On Public Ed

You may have heard that there is a bad voucher proposal up in New Hampshire. How bad is it? Pretty bad. I'll give you the history, the long detailed read, and the short story here.

Attempts to gut public education in the granite state are not new. Back in 2017, the GOP made an attempt to push Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) through to, as always, dodge that troublesome church-state wall thingy.

How We Got Here

Those neo-vouchers were relatively small, a mere $4,400, but came with the usual idea that the money could be spent on any education-ish thing that parents wanted to spend them on. That bill also included virtually no oversight; taxpayers would have no idea how their tax dollars were being spent. 

That attempt ultimately failed, but it highlighted the forces arrayed against public education in New Hampshire, like the GOP bill sponsor and head of the Senate education committee John Reagan who claimed that the lack of voucher accountability was no big deal because they have no idea how public schools are spending money now, which is a sign of either astonishing mendacity or astonishing incompetence.

Frank Edelblut also made an appearance in that legislative adventure. Edelblut was a businessman, venture capitalist, and one-term NH state representative. He ran for governor in 2016, but got clobbered in the primary by Chris Sununu, son CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Full Neo Voucher Assault On Public Ed

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing

Betsy DeVos is gone as education secretary — but what we’ll call “DeVosism” certainly isn’t. You only have to look at what Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kansas and some other states are now doing to see that her agenda to privatize public education is alive and thriving.

DeVos, a Michigan billionaire, served as President Donald Trump’s education secretary for four years after working for decades in states across the country to expand initiatives that allowed the use of public funding for schooling outside traditional school districts — including private and religious schools and home schooling.

She made no secret of her disdain for traditional public schools — calling them “a dead end” in 2015 and derogatorily referring to them as “government schools.” Her selection as education secretary was applauded by religious conservatives and detractors of public schools — and decried by those who opposed her evangelism for the privatization of public education.

What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’

While she was education secretary, she unsuccessfully tried for years to persuade Congress to pass a $5 billion tax-credit program that would have funded scholarships to private and religious schools. Some said her failure to pass education legislation limited her impact — but she always made clear that she believed state legislatures were the vehicle for creating alternative school options for families. CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Carol Burris: Cardona Is a Public School Guy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Cardona Is a Public School Guy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Cardona Is a Public School Guy

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, watched the Senate confirmation hearings of Miguel Cardona for Secretary of Education. She was delighted to hear his responses on issues that matter to friends of the public schools.

She wrote for this blog:

On February 3, I tuned in and listened to Dr. Miguel Cardona’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Education.  I was anxious to hear his response to questions about school choice, integration, equity, testing, and schools’ reopening.

I was curious to see if Dr. Cardona would, like his three predecessors, Duncan, King, and De Vos, carry the banner for charter schools and seek to expand the Federal Charter Schools Program. Was he someone who believed that setting schools in the arena to compete benefits students?  Does he prefer the private governance of schools?

The first question on school choice was asked by Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, who voiced his CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: Cardona Is a Public School Guy | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Hampshire: “Historic” Turnout Against Proposed Universal Voucher Plan | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Hampshire: “Historic” Turnout Against Proposed Universal Voucher Plan | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Hampshire: “Historic” Turnout Against Proposed Universal Voucher Plan

New Hampshire has a Republican Governor, Chris Sununu, who appointed the state Commissioner of Education, Frank Edelblut. The commissioner home-schooled his children. He hates public schools and would like to defund them. If you thought Betsy DeVos was bad because of her zeal for privatization, Edelblut is far worse.

At the first public hearing about Edelblut’s radical voucher plan, public turnout was huge and onerwhelmingly opposed to the destruction of public schools.

Members of the public registered resounding opposition to HB 20, a bill that would create a universal school voucher program, at a public hearing on Tuesday afternoon. Due to the unprecedented and historic turnout, with 85% of it in opposition, the House Education Committee recessed and will continue the hearing on Thursday, Feb. 11, to hear from all 131 people who had signed up to speak at the virtual hearing, and they are accepting additional registrations to testify for those who have not signed up already. 

About 30 people — including parents, educators, lawmakers, experts, and one student — testified over the course of four hours, and another 3,800 signed on to CONTINUE READING: New Hampshire: “Historic” Turnout Against Proposed Universal Voucher Plan | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Tom: Even If We've Forgotten

Teacher Tom: Even If We've Forgotten

Even If We've Forgotten

I'm guessing, but we probably planted the tree around 1965 or 1966, but it could have been earlier. What I do know is that the tree wasn't always there. 

This would have made me around three or four when Dad, with my help, dug the hole in our front yard, right through the lawn we kids weren't supposed to dig up. We kept putting the sapling's rootball into the hole to measure its depth. Dad showed me on the tree's skinny trunk how deep we wanted it to be, so we dug and measured until it was perfect. Then we pushed the pile of dark, somewhat clayey soil back into the hole, packing it in around the roots.

It wasn't much of a tree. Our neighborhood in Columbia, South Carolina was populated with the towering remnants of a pine forest that had been carved out for our suburban cul-de-sac. This tree wasn't a pine, although it was an evergreen of some sort. I remember thinking it looked a lot like a tiny Christmas tree.

We fertilized and watered, then Dad stood up, leaning on his CONTINUE READING:  Teacher Tom: Even If We've Forgotten

How Are the Children? U.S. Senate Republicans Don’t Worry About That. | janresseger

How Are the Children? U.S. Senate Republicans Don’t Worry About That. | janresseger

How Are the Children? U.S. Senate Republicans Don’t Worry About That.

This week a group of so-called moderate U.S. Senate Republicans proposed to negotiate with President Joe Biden about his proposed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan stimulus bill.  But even the ten senators, who profess themselves to be moderates and who came forward with a $618 billion alternative proposal, proved themselves willing to neglect the needs of America’s children. The United States, the world’s richest nation, posts an alarming child poverty rate, but, apart from the voices of a handful of social justice advocates, any level of concern about child poverty is inaudible. Hardly anybody seems to have noticed that one of the great strengths of Biden’s American Rescue Plan is the President’s inclusion of funding for programs that would significantly ameliorate suffering among America’s poorest children.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Chuck Marr did recently recognize the significance of the pro-child provisions in Biden’s new American Rescue Plan: “President Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency relief plan includes a Child Tax Credit expansion that would lift 9.9 million children above or closer to the poverty line, including 2.3 million Black children, 4.1 million Latino children, and 441,000 Asian American children. It also would lift 1.1 million children out of ‘deep poverty,’ raising their family incomes above 50 percent of the poverty line. To do that, the Biden plan would make the credit fully available to 27 million children—including roughly half of all Black and Latino children—whose families now don’t get the full credit because their parents don’t earn enough….”

On Monday, VOX‘s Li Zhou and Emily Stewart reported on the alternative, $618 billion plan CONTINUE READING: How Are the Children? U.S. Senate Republicans Don’t Worry About That. | janresseger

Hybrid Teaching: Classroom Dilemmas | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Hybrid Teaching: Classroom Dilemmas | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Hybrid Teaching: Classroom Dilemmas

With the pandemic, dilemmas have become legion. Is health and safety more or less important than the economy? Is wearing masks more or less important than personal liberty? When highly prized values conflict and the parent or teacher has to figure out compromises to manage the internal conflict, dilemmas pinch.

Individual rights, family pressures, and community imperatives clash. Most schools shifted immediately to distance learning. With 13,000 school districts and no national plan for closing or re-opening schools, superintendents, principals, and teachers faced one dilemma after another. Some districts stayed open since March, closed and reopened and then closed again. Ditto for schools. Concerned about their health and that of their families, many teachers chose remote instruction. Other teachers who could choose in-school instruction teach students they sorely missed. None of this, of course, is new to teachers who must figure out compromises that work when personal and professional values tug at one another.

Such difficult choices occurred around one of the ways that teaching and learning have been reconfigured due to the pandemic: hybrid schooling. Many districts blend in-person classroom lessons with remote instruction. Some students sit in the classrooms masked and physically distanced while the teacher also deals with those students on Teams or Zoom. Variation in how much of CONTINUE READING: Hybrid Teaching: Classroom Dilemmas | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

CURMUDGUCATION: Pandemic Lesson #1: Trust Matters

CURMUDGUCATION: Pandemic Lesson #1: Trust Matters

Pandemic Lesson #1: Trust Matters

There are many lessons to be learned from this mess, including lessons about the usefulness of government. Also, I'm sure, plenty of scientific disease stuff.

But I notice that, particularly in the education arena, we keep coming back to trust. Black and brown families are hesitant to return to school buildings because they aren't sure they can trust the institutions that have failed them so often before. Teachers are reluctant to return to the buildings in those districts where they don't believe they can trust their district to keep them safe and/or follow through with their promises to do so. Critics of teachers unions don't trust (or at least pretend not to) teachers to do their jobs, or to even want to do their jobs. And distance learning, lacking the immediacy of face-to-face gathering in the same room, suffers from students and teachers unsure of just how much they can trust each other.

Where trust is strong, these issues shrink to insignificance. And that provides a major--well, two really--lesson about trust.

Trust is a basic, absolutely essential part of the foundation of a functioning school (any workplace, really--go reread the works of W. Edwards Deming). It has been demonstrated time and time again (here's a source for examples). And yet so many leaders resort to the stick, to management based on fear and distrust. 

I've watched school administrators who approach every discussion with staff worried first and fore CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Pandemic Lesson #1: Trust Matters

Marjorie Taylor Greene Removed from House Ed Committee | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Marjorie Taylor Greene Removed from House Ed Committee | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Marjorie Taylor Greene Removed from House Ed Committee

On February 04, 2021, the House of Representatives voted 230-199 to remove Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments (Education and Labor, and Budget).

Eleven Republicans joined 219 Democrats in supporting Greene’s committee removal:

• Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)
• Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)
• John Katko (R-NY)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)
• Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
• Carlos Gimenez (R-FL)
• Chris Jacobs (R-NY)
• Young Kim (R-CA)
• Maria Salazar (R-FL)
• Chris Smith (R-NJ)
• Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL)

Greene has proclaimed the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL) and Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, CT) staged events (more on that here) and has called Parkland survivior, David Hogg, an “idiot” who is “trained like a dog” to advocate for gun control. In January 2020, Greene posted this Youtube video of herself badgering Hogg, who was in Washington, DC, to speak to Congress about gun control:

Marjorie Taylor Greene does not belong on an education committee.

And now, she is not.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

_____________________________________________________________________________

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Removed from House Ed Committee | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions”

The giant lumbering beast known as the US Economy–akin to a conveyor belt with countless moving parts–wants public schools to reopen.  The beast needs workers, but right now too many adults are at home, supervising their children’s ‘remote learning.’  Open the schools, and the adults can go to work: it’s that simple….

But of course it isn’t simple.  Putting kids back in schools will allow adults to work, and that’s important, but it is what happens inside schools that matters more.  

A quick history lesson: We’ve always sent our children to school for three reasons: 1) Acquisition of knowledge, 2) Socialization, and 3) Custodial care.  The internet has turned that upside down because it puts infinite information at everyone’s fingertips wherever they happen to be and because thousands of apps allow for ‘socialization’ with anyone and everyone.  That left only custodial care as a vital school function, until the pandemic made even that impossible. 

However, students swimming in a sea of infinite information need guidance, because ‘information’ is not knowledge.  It takes a certain skill set to distinguish between CONTINUE READING: The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

NYC Educator: Nobody Wants to Talk to the Principal

NYC Educator: Nobody Wants to Talk to the Principal

Nobody Wants to Talk to the Principal

You know, any job you take in which you're a nominal leader of anything will be inconvenient. People don't always agree, and where there's disagreement, there's often blame as well. Someone is always mad at you for something or other. It's part and parcel of the job, no matter how much (or little) power you actually have. 

But usually, someone will stand up for you too. I'm not sure about principals, though. You'd have to ask them, I guess.

In my classes, whenever I give the first assignment of the day, I take attendance. I've gotten it down to a science. Zoom is very odd in that it generally alphabetizes students by their first name. Why that is I have no idea. And there are inexplicable exceptions.

We use Skedula to take attendance, and I've  CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Nobody Wants to Talk to the Principal

NANCY BAILEY: The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

Pressure is being placed on teachers to return to in-person classes. Here’s why that’s a problem.

1. Precautions

The CDC  and Dr. Fauci and President Biden want all schools to return to in-person learning with precautions in place. But precautions are exactly what many schools often lack.

Teachers know best whether or not precautions are in place at their schools. Their views should be heard and respected.

Schools have classrooms with no windows or windows glued shut. They still have lousy ventilation systems and maintenance problems. Some schools are overcrowded. School districts may face shortages of qualified teachers, school staff, and substitute teachers.

2. Vaccines

Americans are repeatedly told about the importance of getting vaccinated and to remain cautious afterward.

Some Americans have trepidation about getting vaccines that have been rolled out quickly, but most teachers have been eager to get vaccinated to return to the classroom safely. Some states have worked to get teachers vaccinated, and others have not.

Yesterday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a White House news briefing that teachers don’t need vaccinations to return to classrooms. This sounds disingenuous.

3. Funding

States and school boards should seriously consider how Covid-19 money will be spent CONTINUE READING: The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

See the eloquent letter below by NeQuan McLean, President of CEC 16 to Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP NYS Conference and Christine L. Waters, Education Chair about the DOE "gifted" program.

 [One correction to this excellent letter: NYC DOE is not "the most well-funded public school system in the country."  There are other districts in the state and the nation that spend more.]

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree