CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

Texas is a happy playground for charter operators, but fans of school voucher program using public taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition-- well, they're been mighty disappointed on a regular basis. Even as US Senator Ted Cruz (yes, he's really from Texas) has tried to help push the Betsy DeVos voucher plan, a state-level program has been shot down again and again.

Mind you, they don't give up, and they keep coming back with assortments of bad arguments, like "vouchers will help rescue poor and minority students." You know-- "school choice is the new civil rights," say folks like Donald "I Haven't Recognized The Old Civil Rights Yet" Trump.

And every once in a while, a story comes along to help remind us why public tax dollars for private school tuition is a lousy idea.

Welcome to The Covenant School in Dallas, Texas. It's a highly-rated private religious school, with fancy things like a 7-1 faculty-student ratio. It get high marks for all sorts of things--except diversity. The state has a 38% Black student population, and Dallas itself has some segregation issues (only 6% of the Dallas Independent School District student population is white). Covenant's student body is only 6% Black. And with a tuition rate of $19K, not just anybody is going to be the "right fit" for this school.

But it turns out that Black students aren't the only group of students under-represented at CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Why Vouchers For Private Schools Are A Bad Idea

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

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

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

 

 

“Q&A Collections: Best of Classroom Q&A”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Q&A Collections: Best of Classroom Q&A is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. The “Best” Classroom Q&A posts (from the past nine years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST (WITH LINKS) OF ALL MY REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURES ). This is a relatively new addition to that list. Some of these resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To

Sept. 16th Is Mexico’s Independence Day – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay September 16th is Mexico’s Independence Day. You might be interested in: The Best Resources For Learning About Mexico’s Independence Day The Best Sites For Learning About Mexico, Central & South America

U.S. Constitution Day Is On September 17th – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States .

Thursday’s Four Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos About School Reopening

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Teachers in Texas Are Fighting for Their Lives is from The New Yorker. Is it Safe to Send Your Kids to School? is from The NY Times.

How Would You Define Success This School Year?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

geralt / Pixabay I shared this on Twitter this afternoon: These r my criteria 4 success this year in 100% distance learning: *Do students come 2 my class? *Do they learn something valuable? * Do they feel coming 2 my class makes their lives better? What REALISTIC suggestions should b added (only from people doing distance learning)? — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) September 2, 2020 As you see,

Here’s A List Of The Primary Online Tools I’ll Be Using In Distance Learning This Year

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

472301 / Pixabay I have previously shared a number of posts (see HERE ARE DETAILED – & TENTATIVE – DISTANCE LEARNING PLANS FOR ALL MY FALL CLASSES ) laying out my plans for this school year, which begins TOMORROW! Those plans continue to be more-or-less accurate, though some of the online tools I mentioned in them might be a bit different. I made a point of writing that some things were likely to

Must-Watch Video: “Kid Superintendent”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

Maklay62 / Pixabay Exceptional teacher and colleague Jen Adkins shared this with our school’s faculty today as we prepare for the first day of school….TOMORROW! It’s well worth watching by everyone:

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

Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers

It's a back-to-school sale on your data.

With the coronavirus pandemic pushing schools online out of public health concerns, parents and teachers are turning to digital alternatives like apps to bridge the virtual gap. While kids can learn via these apps, hundreds of advertisers are learning about them, too. 

Researchers from the International Digital Accountability Council looked at 496 education apps across 22 countries, finding privacy issues with many of these services. Several apps were providing location data to third-party advertisers, and also collected device identifiers that can't be reset unless you buy a new phone. 

While the majority of apps examined in the report met privacy standards, the scale of data collection discovered raised alarms about the nature of education apps. 

Researchers found that 79 out of 123 apps manually tested were sharing user data with third parties. That data going to advertisers could include your name, email address, location data and device ID. The study also found that more than 140 third-party companies were getting data from ed tech apps, the majority of which went to Facebook, followed by Google. 

Security researchers often find privacy issues with apps, many of which harvest data from devices even when you don't give consent. 

Even if you do give permission, the data is often shared with multiple third parties that use the data in their own ways. You may allow your weather app to get your location for accurate forecasts, but that app's data partners can use it for advertising or law enforcement purposes. 

App creators often also use software development kits, or SDKs, as shortcuts rather than making their software from scratch, which can also lead to data-stealing schemes. 

Security researchers will analyze network traffic and examine code on apps to figure out where the data is going, but the average person shouldn't be expected to learn this skill to protect their privacy. 

These privacy concerns are common across apps, but it's a bigger issue among education apps since the majority of people using them are children. Education apps CONTINUE READING: Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools

On Wednesday, Joe Biden will seek to put a spotlight on President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, particularly when it comes to safely reopening the country’s schools.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., pressing his argument that President Trump is failing the country with his handling of the coronavirus, plans on Wednesday to make the case that Mr. Trump is hurting the nation’s parents, teachers and schoolchildren with his push for schools to reopen.

Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, a community college professor, are scheduled to receive a briefing in Wilmington, Del., from a group of experts, including Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who served as secretary of health and human services for President Barack Obama and is now the president of American University, and Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the California State Board of Education.

Mr. Biden will then give a speech on what his campaign described as Mr. Trump’s failures on the pandemic as well as Mr. Biden’s plan to reopen schools safely.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign, said Mr. Trump was “barreling forward trying to reopen schools because he thinks it will help his own re-election.”

“We believe this is a key contrast for voters,” Ms. Sanders said. “President Trump, who continues to ignore the science and has no plan to get the virus under control, and Joe Biden, who is working with the experts and putting together an effective plan to beat the virus and reopen schools safely.”

Mr. Trump has demanded that schools reopen this fall and threatened to cut federal funding for school districts that defied his wishes. But his effort to pressure schools did not have the effect he desired, and many districts decided to begin the school year with remote instruction.

The lone exception among the country’s largest school districts is New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio reached a deal with unions on Tuesday to begin remote and in-person classes on Sept. 21, 10 days later than had been planned.

In July, Mr. Biden released his own plan for safely reopening schools, which emphasized deference to local decision-making on whether and how schools could reopen in a safe manner. His plan also called for Congress to pass an emergency funding package to help enable schools to adapt for reopening. CONTINUE READING: Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

The only rule we ever had surrounding our swing set is that the adults didn't push the kids. Other than that, we took things on an ad hoc basis, allowing the children to experiment and explore as they saw fit, negotiating and re-negotiating as new circumstances and new children arrived. 

Many of our four- and five-year-olds, partly because adults were not pushing them, had figured out how to "pump" themselves, a rite of passage skill like whistling, snapping, or winking. This meant that the kids were starting to experience some of their classmates swinging higher and faster than they did at the beginning of the school year. There may have been a time when the adults felt compelled to warn the kids about the danger of swings, but it had been months since I'd heard one. That's because the children, of their own accord, perceiving the potential for injury should one not remain alert around a swing in motion, had taken on that role for themselves, listening to their inner voices of experience CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience