Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility - NEA Today

Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility - NEA Today

Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility

Monica Isza never got to say good-bye to her students, not really, not the way she had hoped. She settled for a FaceTime call, in which they asked a lot of questions that she couldn’t answer, like are we going to see you again?

Isza, a Michigan State University (MSU) graduate and NEA Aspiring Educators member who was spending the academic year as a student teacher at a Chicago elementary school, left her fifth graders early when MSU canceled all student-teacher placements.

Across the country, thousands of student-teachers like Isza abruptly said good-bye when the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and sent college students home. For students who are graduating next month and checking the last boxes on their licensure requirements, this cancelation has left them in limbo as states rush to implement extensions and waivers for student teachers. On top of other concerns related to the pandemic—like where to live when the dorms are closed—aspiring educators also are wondering how they’re going to get licensed to teach when they can’t complete the in-person, student-teaching requirements.

“I think about it every day,” says Homar Rodriguez, a senior at Delaware State University whose student-teaching placement was canceled when Delaware’s public schools were closed. “Hopefully they can work with us!”

Fortunately, Rodriguez isn’t alone. As a member of NEA Aspiring Educators, a campus-based association of more than 50,000 future teachers, he’s one of many future teachers advocating for a solution, alongside their union family. “You are not facing these issues alone,” NEA Aspiring Educators Chair Rachel Immerman recently CONTINUE READING:  Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility - NEA Today

California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges | EdSource

California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges | EdSource

California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges
Newsom urged an agreement to reduce potential conflicts on employment issues

At Gov. Gavin Newsom’s urging, school labor and management groups agreed Wednesday on principles to guide them as they switch to distance learning and continue providing meals for students in the months ahead.

The 3-page “framework for labor-management collaboration” is not a mandate. By itself it won’t resolve acrimonious disputes over employee expectations, safety issues, hours and benefits that have slowed progress in distance learning in districts like Yuba City Unified and Sacramento City Unified. However, the document’s preface says, it could “spur collaboration” so that districts can get on with confronting the havoc created by the coronavirus.

“All districts and exclusive representatives should work together to find the best path for the students, the staff and communities,” it states.

Signers include associations representing school administrators, school boards and business administrators, and unions representing teachers and support staff of hourly employees (see agreement for the full list),

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond led the talks over the past month. The talks were difficult, and at one point came close to breaking down, according to some close to the discussions. Meanwhile, on their own, many districts reached either formal agreements or informal understandings on how to deal with safety threats and education challenges from the CONTINUE READING: California school unions, district leaders pledge to cooperate on coronavirus challenges | EdSource

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved

The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved

During Father Joseph O’Hare’s Long and distinguished tenure as President of Fordham University, I was honored to count him as a friend and well as an academic leader. We didn’t agree on all Issues, and locked horns on a few, especially athletics, but in several key instances, Father O’Hare made decisions which showed his love of justice, and his concern for our community’s most vulnerable members , which earned him a special place in my heart and in the hearts of my Departmental colleagues

I am going to share two stories which reveal this aspect of Father O’Hare’s character. Since I have not seen these mentioned in other tributes to him, i think it is important that I share them, especially in a time when we are all being tested by the worst crisis of the 21st Century

The first occurred right after Father O’Hare’s inauguration. For several years, Urban Studies majors I had been working with at Fordham were trying to persuade the University to create a Community Service Program to encourage students to get involved in a Bronx community that was fighting an uphill battle against redlining, disinvestment, drug epidemics and the stigma the Bronx carried in public discourse. Less than a month after Father O’Hare took the helm of University leadership, he agreed to meet with me and my students about this issue. After listening for more than an hour to what they had to say, he agreed, on the spot to implement what they were calling for. Within a year, Fordham launched a fully funded Community Service Program which has evolved over time into one of the best in the nation. Father O’Hare’s empathy, vision and ability to take decisive action made this possible

The second instance took place nearly five years later. At that time, the University authorized a search for a scholar of African American religion who would be primarily housed in the Theology Department, but in which the faculty in African and African CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: The Father O'Hare I Knew and Loved

Russ on Reading: The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching

Russ on Reading: The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching

The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching

During my forty years as a consultant, I have often had teachers say to me, “I would love to use some of your ideas for instruction, Russ, but…The “but” was always followed by something like “the administration”, “the test”, “these kids”, any and all the reasons you’ve heard about why something couldn’t be done. Finally, at one session I said, “Enough with the ‘buts’ from now on where you were going to say “but", you have to use the word “and.” This made a huge difference in the conversation. The word “but” qualifies a statement with a negative. The word “and” indicates a thought continues. “But” sets up roadblocks. “And” opens-up possibilities. I tried to express the concept in this poem.


Coordinating Conjunctions


If I were compelled to point a finger
At the cause of educational malaise
I surely wouldn’t need to linger
Pondering the answer days on days.


I could indicate that a single word CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: The Power of "And": Taking Charge of Your Own Teaching

UPDATE New Guidance on Grades and Graduation Announced - COVID-19: Nationwide Waiver for CEP Deadlines (CA Dept of Education)

New Guidance on Grades and Graduation Announced - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Thurmond Announces New Guidance on Grades and Graduation for Seniors

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California State Board of Education (SBE) have issued new guidance on graduation requirements and grading for seniors. The guidance is based on feedback from local education agencies, and was produced in collaboration and alignment with higher education institutions.

“We are thinking of our seniors and the impact that the current COVID-19 public health emergency and subsequent physical closure of schools has had on them, and we hope that this guidance will help relieve some stress and anxiety,” said Thurmond. “We are doing everything we can to support all our schools and students, and will continue to address seniors’ needs going forward.”

“All seniors who are on track for graduation should be able to graduate,” said State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond. “This new guidance further illustrates how students can and should be held harmless in grading, and how their work can be acknowledged.”

The guidance addresses A-G requirements and provides admissions updates for higher education for both current seniors and juniors.

For example, colleges have agreed to accept credit/no-credit or pass/fail grading where districts have decided to use it for A-G courses and other courses without impact on grade point averages. California is also extending flexibility on a wide range of issues, including testing requirements, timing of transcripts, and considerations about financial aid.

The CDE continues working with the University of California, California State University, community college system, and private and non-profit universities on solutions to many ongoing college admissions challenges.

Please find the grades and graduation guidance document as well as more school information and resources regarding coronavirus on the CDE’s COVID-19 web page.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

New Guidance on Grades and Graduation Announced - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

COVID-19: Nationwide Waiver for CEP Deadlines

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

Based on the public health emergency due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)established a nationwide waiver to support the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) while schools are responding to COVID-19.

This waiver makes the following adjustments to annual CEP deadlines:

CEP Requirement: Data Used to Calculate Identified Student Percentage (ISP)

Annual Data Deadline: April 1

New Extended Data Deadline: Anytime between April 1 and June 30, 2020

CEP Requirement: Elect CEP for Following School Year (SY)

Annual Application Deadline: June 30

New Extended Application Deadline: August 31, 2020

To review the complete language of the FNS CEP Waiver, please visit the USDA webpage.

COVID-19 Resources

For updated information, sponsors are directed to visit the California Department of Education COVID-19 Guidance for K–12 Schools and Child and Adult Day Care Meals web page. This page is updated Fridays with new information.

For information on waivers and communication sent out to program operators, please refer to the California Department of Education Nutrition What’s New web page under the Disaster tab.

Background

The CEP is a four-year alternative meal counting and collection procedure included as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The intent of the CEP is to improve student access to free meals in eligible local educational agencies (LEA) and high poverty schools, while eliminating the meal application process. For more information on the CEP, please visit the California Department of Education (CDE) CEP web page.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact your county’s School Nutrition Programs (SNP) Specialist. A list of SNP Specialists is available in the Download Forms section of the Child Nutrition Information Payment System, Form ID Caseload.

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

COVID-19: Nationwide Waiver for CEP Deadlines

SSPI Announces Covid-19 Response Funding Available - 
Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel0401.asp

NYC Public School Parents: My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten

NYC Public School Parents: My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten

My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten

This morning on my WBAI radio show, "Talk out of School",  I spoke to Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, about what’s happening to schools, teachers and families during the coronavirus crisis, and Randi’s proposal that students should be engaging in completing a meaningful “capstone” project.

A link to her essay describing her idea in more detail is below. 

We also discussed the threat to schools from looming budget cuts, the risk to student privacy by the rapid adoption of unvetted ed tech programs, the Governor’s elimination of spring break in New York state, and more.  You can download the episode here.

Some of the resources that we mentioned are below.

AFT links:
Randi Weingarten’s essay,  On how teachers and students should cap this unprecedented school year
Share My Lesson with teacher resources.
Colorín Colorado! A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners

Privacy links:
The Educator Toolkit for Student and Teacher Privacy – written by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and Badass Teachers Association (with support from the AFT )
The ACLU recommendations on what should be demanded of ed tech companies at this critical time
Advice to parents from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy on maximizing privacy and minimizing screen time
A model privacy-protective Google contract negotiated by  NYS administrators  that other districts could adopt

NYC Public School Parents: My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten

How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model? | Ed In The Apple

How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model? | Ed In The Apple

How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model?

If this was a normal year the education community would be focused on the race to the April 1 budget deadline. For months advocates and legislators have been dueling with the governor: Will the Foundation Aid formula be adjusted to benefit the lowest wealth aka, the poorest districts? Will the governor acknowledge the $3 billion plus dollars owed to school districts as a result of the CFE lawsuit decision? How will the differences in proposed school aid (governor: 800M, the Board of Regents 2B) be resolved?

Additionally, non-budgetary items may or may not have been added to the budget by the governor: possibly legalization of marijuana, rolling back bail reforms, easing the voting restrictions, etc.

We’re in a new world.

This year’s budget is unique: the governor will have almost total authority to allocate the budget dollars in slices, “tranches,” monthly or perhaps quarterly; as the year progresses slices of budget dollars may increase or decrease.

As I write, midday on April 1 the governor and the legislative leaders are still entangled in creating a budget.

The impact could be drastic cuts in school funding, perhaps layoffs.

Why can’t the state allocate endless dollars to avert economic calamities as the federal government has done?

Washington can issue as many dollars as they please, through the Federal CONTINUE READING: How Disastrous is the NYS Budget? Why Can’t the Governor/Legislature Follow the Federal Model? | Ed In The Apple

April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online.

This post and podcast originally appeared at Streetsblog Los Angeles.

April 1 is Census Day! Every ten years, the United States government sends out a questionnaire to ask people living in America where they live and other questions about their lives. The final count of where people live helps determine how the federal government allocates resources. So the more people that fill out the census, the more money will flow into their community.

Today, SGV Connect broadcasts this half-episode with Active SGV’s Adriana Pinedo who is leading the advocacy group’s efforts to get as many people counted in the San Gabriel Valley as possible.

In this time of Sheltering in Place and Safe at Home, there’s no excuse to not fill out your census form online today. Right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

A quick note, in the interview I make reference to an old Saturday Night Live skit. After filling out your census, you can watch that skit here.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”

Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

April 1 is Census Day! Take a Break from Homeschooling to Fill Your Form Out Online. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

NO FOOLING TODAY: TEACHERS MATTER | The Merrow Report

NO FOOLING TODAY: TEACHERS MATTER | The Merrow Report

NO FOOLING TODAY: TEACHERS MATTER

Although I left reporting more than four years ago, my blood still boils when people like Betsy DeVos, the supremely unqualified Secretary of Education, Senator Rand Paul, Representative Steve King, Laura Ingraham of Fox, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, convicted but pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza, and other uninformed public figures blast public school teachers and public education.  

Because I’m retired, I have time to dig for the truth.  And so, to find out how real Americans feel about public school teachers, I decided to go to the grassroots. Do ordinary Americans respect teachers more than they respect lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants, and politicians?

I’ve devoted the past seven months to original field research on this subject, and I am releasing the results today.

A quick summary: Americans care deeply about public school teachers.  And at the bottom of their list: politicians!

A second and entirely unexpected finding: Americans seem to have regained their moral compass, this despite the White House being occupied by a man who has paid off porn stars and boasted of grabbing women by the genitals.  More about that below.

(A side note to those expecting my annual attempt at tomfoolery: I jumped the April Fools Day gun when I published “No Glove Left Behind, Season Two,” a misguided CONTINUE READING: NO FOOLING TODAY: TEACHERS MATTER | The Merrow Report

Dora Taylor: Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy - Progressive.org

Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy - Progressive.org

Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy
A new book highlights how the movement to privatize education started with the effort to keep schools

In Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement, Steve Suitts provides much needed context for the current debate raging over “school choice,” charter schools, school vouchers, and other forms of privately operated schools that compete for public money. At 128 pages, the book is a fairly quick read but full of important content, through documentation and an impressive number of photos.

Suitts, a founding director of the Alabama Civil Liberties Union, makes an impressive and convincing case that the phrase “school choice”—a term influenced by libertarian economist Milton Friedman—is the latest foray in the long effort to resegregate public schools.

Overturning Brown begins with the origin of school vouchers in the Southern states, where they emerged as an attempt to keep schools segregated after the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that schools were to be desegregated in Brown v. Board of Education. After a decade-long battle, it was declared by the Supreme Court that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was unconstitutional.

We are now hearing the term “school choice” again. 

Mitt Romney, while on the presidential campaign trail in 2012, touted a proposal to overhaul public schools by providing vouchers to low-income students—even though he knew most students in that category would receive CONTINUE READING: Why ‘School Choice’ is Rooted in White Supremacy - Progressive.org

April Fools’ Blog Post Suspended | Cloaking Inequity

April Fools’ Blog Post Suspended | Cloaking Inequity

APRIL FOOLS’ BLOG POST SUSPENDED

For the past 11 years I have posted an April Fools’ blog post in the vein of The Onion— satire about education (a quick search of the blog reveals some of the most epic, including last year’s about Besty Devos). However, because of the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic (See April Fools’ Day pranks are not funny right now. Don’t do them), I will delay this post until later in the year when we have a vaccine and the world has returned to normalcy. You have been warned. 😉 Stay healthy out there and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Sharing is caring:  

April Fools’ Blog Post Suspended | Cloaking Inequity

Educators continue census outreach, despite COVID-19 - Education Votes

Educators continue census outreach, despite COVID-19 - Education Votes

Educators continue census outreach, despite COVID-19

By Amanda Litvinov / image by Marka 27 for NEA’s 2020 census campaign

Music teacher Yolanda Calderón had just five minutes on Monday to enter her school and get what she needed. What was the one thing she went in for? “My iPad!” says Calderón, because it has the app and information she needs to communicate with her students’ families directly.

Colorado music teacher Yolanda Calderón

She teaches at Wheeling Elementary in Aurora, Colo., but she hasn’t been there since Gov. Jared Polis closed schools on March 25 to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Among the most critical messages she needed to send the parents of her students via the ClassDoJo app: “Don’t forget to fill out the U.S. Census!” She’d been planning to host a census information booth at an event that had been cancelled. Now she needs to connect with the parents online to encourage them to participate.

Educators have a long proud history of supporting the important work of the United States Census, through both classroom lessons and advocacy work in undercounted communities. The census is crucial to direct over $1.5 trillion in federal funds to communities nationwide, and to ensure full political representation in our democracy.

But COVID-19 has presented a new barrier to advocacy that typically involves face-to-face conversations and community gatherings. The pandemic has shuttered schools around the CONTINUE READING: Educators continue census outreach, despite COVID-19 - Education Votes

How Schools Worldwide Are Tackling the Coronavirus Challenge - Yes! Magazine

How Schools Worldwide Are Tackling the Coronavirus Challenge - Yes! Magazine

How Schools Worldwide Are Tackling the Coronavirus Challenge
Schools are closed for hundreds of millions of students, but educators, parents, and children are still learning—including how to keep a sense of connection.

Cats, puppies, and stuffed animals prance across Tracy Westberg’s screen.

A sixth grade social studies teacher north of Seattle, Westberg is conducting a virtual session on the Tuesday after her Washington state school district’s switch to all-online education, because of the coronavirus.  Westberg had planned a session about world religions, only to watch her students erupt into silliness and gleeful chaos, as they seized the chance to share their most cherished home items with classmates during a show-and-tell break.

It’s been an unexpected joy amid a massive online education experiment.

“OK, time out!” Westberg says, clicking “mute” to regain control of the group of about 60. After a pause, her students continue to astonish her. As she launches an overview of Buddhism, her students post queries in a shared virtual chat. Other students jump in to answer.

“I’m super excited,” Westberg says after closing the session Tuesday. The sidebar chatting among students would not have happened in a brick-and-mortar classroom.

As authorities worldwide attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus by closing schools and universities, more than 420 CONTINUE READING: How Schools Worldwide Are Tackling the Coronavirus Challenge - Yes! Magazine

NYC Educator: Letter to Staff on Easter/ Passover Break

NYC Educator: Letter to Staff on Easter/ Passover Break

Letter to Staff on Easter/ Passover Break

Dear colleagues:

This last week or two has gone by in a blur for me. Without actually leaving my home and going to work, it feels like one day just blends into another. Last night I was thinking about someone at the union who told me we were going to fight Cuomo on the rollback of Easter/ Passover break. It felt a world away but I’d only heard it 24 hours earlier.

It’s not easy for me to find words now, and I usually have them bubbling around everywhere. Here’s the thing—like you, I’ve been working around the clock trying to manage these online classes I’m giving. Like you, I’m on a pretty steep learning curve. We’re not the first to do this. There are a whole lot of cyber charter schools, and they are terrible. Bill Gates did an online program at a city school and it bombed, The students walked out in protest. Yet here we are trying to do this thing with virtually no prep whatsoever.

And now, while we’re already under all this pressure, we learn that our much-needed break has been pulled out from under us by Governor Cuomo. Cuomo looks like a big hero on TV, as he’s evidently a grownup who’s not insane. (Our standards for heroes have dropped since we were kids.)  It’s hard for me to see him like that. One of the reasons there are not enough hospital beds is that Cuomo has been closing hospitals for ten years. He’s also about to turn down almost seven billion dollars in Medicaid funding and talking cuts to education as opposed to taxing the New Yorkers who could best afford it.

Cuomo is responsible for our cumbersome and much-dreaded evaluation system. So forgive me if he’s your hero. He’s certainly not mine. That said, the legislature CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Letter to Staff on Easter/ Passover Break

Even Though Schools Are Closed, Advocates Must Keep on Pushing to End Dangerous School “Deformer” Policies | janresseger

Even Though Schools Are Closed, Advocates Must Keep on Pushing to End Dangerous School “Deformer” Policies | janresseger

Even Though Schools Are Closed, Advocates Must Keep on Pushing to End Dangerous School “Deformer” Policies

Those of us who care about American public schools have spent nearly twenty years working to undo the damage of a school accountability and privatization movement that has ruined our schools, heaped pressure on teachers and children, and created a publicly funded, private education sector. School privatization on top of widespread state tax slashing has robbed education budgets—ensuring that our children can have neither the basic services they need nor the kind of stimulating, exciting and rigorous education our wealthiest society in the world ought to be able to provide for them.

The pause this month, as public schools are closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, has forced a lot of people to notice that public schools are a more important institution than many had perhaps realized.  We are noticing, for example, that virtual learning cannot substitute for real live teachers working personally to support children as they learn together. And we’ve been forced to notice all the ways we count on schools, as a universal system that provides care and supervision every day and even ensures that hungry children are fed.

At some point, however, schools will reopen, and when they do, I hope those of us who have been working for decades to repair the damage of twenty years of “school deform” won’t have been distracted.  Because we are a society with a short memory, it’s worth reviewing the goals we were working to realize before March, 2020 when the pandemic shut down our public schools.  There is a likelihood that the economic damage from the pandemic may bring added challenges, and we will no doubt be told that the new crisis, whatever it is, is the only thing CONTINUE READING: Even Though Schools Are Closed, Advocates Must Keep on Pushing to End Dangerous School “Deformer” Policies | janresseger

Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 2)

When the coronavirus has run its course and Americans return to work, and try to restore their daily routines to what they recognize as “normal”–some things will change in schools. What all of those changes will be, I cannot predict.

When I look back on my predictions about school reform and technology, it is clear that I am no seer. At best, my trying to look around the corner has been half-right and half-wrong. Not an enviable record. Especially because economic, political, and social policymaker decisions produce consequences that touch people’s lives. So being half-right ain’t too good. Nonetheless, I plunge ahead.

One change I do believe will occur is about how much time children and youth will spend in school after they return to their desks. One result of the pandemic has been the loss of the last quarter of the school year and decisions will be made about whether school should be held during the summer of 2020 to make up for lost time and whether students should be promoted to the next grade. Spring testing of students, an annual rite for decades, has vanished. Test scores for 2019-2020 to crow or despair about–won’t circulate in mainstream and social media this year.

Moreover, nearly all states require 180 days of school of six or so hours daily in classroom instruction. For 2019-2020, that’s gone. Remote learning may recover some of the time but states and districts will either waive their requirements or mandate a new calendar for the summer and autumn to recoup losses in time or do a mix of both. State-required seat-time in school to get credentials in a highly CONTINUE READING: Schools, the Coronavirus, and the Near Future (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

All Things Education: Thoughts on schooling in the era of COVID-19

All Things Education: Thoughts on schooling in the era of COVID-19

Thoughts on schooling in the era of COVID-19

Well, a whole lot has changed since I returned to blogging a month and half ago. In case you didn't notice, and I'm sure everyone reading this did, there's a global pandemic. I also am going to suspend my new "brief post" practice for this one, so hang with me.

First, I will share some twitter threads I wrote at different stages of this.

1. This came before and during Virginia Governor Northam ordered all Virginia public schools closed for minimum two weeks, dated March 13th, and presented some rudimentary thoughts on Virginia school divisions' response to/navigation of COVID-19:

Rachel Levy@RachelAnneLevy

FWIW, I have some rudimentary thoughts on Virginia school divisions' response to/navigation of #Covid_19 that might be informative and helpful. (Or they might not be at all. . .)

Thread.

7

7:10 AM - Mar 13, 2020

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2. This one was written for anyone trying to navigate learning at home who has children in Virginia public schools, dated March 17th:

Rachel Levy@RachelAnneLevy

Thread for anyone trying to navigate learning at home who has children in Virginia public schools who might want to hear from a Virginia public high school teacher & parent.

6

4:27 PM - Mar 17, 2020

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3. This one came on March 20th, at the end of the first week of the initial 2-week school closure and discusses what local school districts should keep in mind to prepare and discussed differences between "precaution" and "last resort":

Rachel Levy@RachelAnneLevy

So, as we are at the end of Week 1 of pandemic-based public K-12 school closures in Virginia, I have some thoughts.

Thread.#Covid_19

4

1:28 PM - Mar 20, 2020

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Of course, by now, Governor Northam has ordered all Virginia public schools closed through the end of the academic school year. This has not been easy news for schools and families to process and it will have devastating consequences for Virginia's families and children, but as I explained in this thread, this is a measure of last resort focused on saving lives, meaning more people will die if the schools aren't closed:

Rachel Levy@RachelAnneLevy

 · Mar 20, 2020

Replying to @RachelAnneLevy

Many/some (how many I don't know) Virginia public schools stakeholders, including local schools' and school district leadership, think of this 2-week closure as a mere precaution, a measure take out of an "abundance of caution." I have heard it described by some as a "break."

Rachel Levy@RachelAnneLevy

In reality, this mandated 2-week closure of all VA public schools & other measures were measures of "last resort," which means:

"to be the only person or thing that might be able to help you, when every other person or possibility has failed" or "if all other methods fail."

1:28 PM - Mar 20, 2020

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As I explained in this thread, school districts were given guidance by the Virginia Department of Education to come up with food services and continuation of instruction plans during extended school closures. In terms of the continuation of instruction plans, we have been told and are being told to put together sets of activities that will last 10 days each through some point in April. As far as I understand, these activities cannot be graded, they cannot present new material, and they cannot require the internet, and they should be project-based and not worksheets. I teach US & Virginia Government to seniors so it's not so hard to put such a set of activities together. I am also pretty creative so it's not hard for me to think of projects (and in fact, I am looking forward to using some of these whenever I teach face-to-face again). But it is tough assuming no access to the internet. At some point, starting some time in April, as far as I understand, we will be able to present new content and to use internet resources and forums to do so.

Second, there's a great deal of discussion of out there about COVID-19 related school closures and the lack of equity CONTINUE READING: All Things Education: Thoughts on schooling in the era of COVID-19