Saturday, November 28, 2020

Shawgi Tell: Why Are Embezzlement, Fraud, and Indictments So Rampant in the Charter School Sector? | Dissident Voice

Why Are Embezzlement, Fraud, and Indictments So Rampant in the Charter School Sector? | Dissident Voice

Why Are Embezzlement, Fraud, and Indictments So Rampant in the Charter School Sector?

The simple answer is that there are lax standards, poor oversight, and little accountability in the segregated charter school sector. This decades-old set-up is consciously built into many charter school laws, which exist in 44 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

It is no accident that charter schools are deregulated schools.¹ Charter schools are not required to uphold most of the laws, rules, and regulations public schools are required to follow. Public schools, which educate 90% of America’s youth, have to uphold many public standards that charter schools do not have to even consider. In many cases, charter schools even dodge the federal laws they are supposed to follow. In addition, charter schools frequently do not report on things they are supposed to report on. Some commentators have aptly called charter schools “schools with no rules” or “free schools.” The official literature goes so far as to call charter schools “autonomous schools” or “independent schools.” These are all different ways of saying charter schools can essentially do as they please, often with impunity. This is all connected to the antisocial idea that charter schools are “free market” schools that should be treated like any private business. In French, the term “laissez-faire” means “hands off” or “leave us alone.” The “logic” here is that you live and die by the market alone and only “the fittest” survive in this inhumane dog-eat-dog world. Apparently, there is no alternative to a life based on instability, insecurity, and “might makes right.”

While fraud, corruption, nepotism, and embezzlement are endemic to most institutions and organizations in capital-centered societies, charter schools out-do most institutions, organizations, and sectors in this area. Pound for CONTINUE READING: Why Are Embezzlement, Fraud, and Indictments So Rampant in the Charter School Sector? | Dissident Voice

Dr.Leana S. Wen | Most schools should close and stay closed through winter - The Washington Post

Opinion | Most schools should close and stay closed through winter - The Washington Post

Most schools should close and stay closed through winter

In recent weeks, prominent economists, public health experts and commentators have argued that schools shouldn’t be closing because they aren’t major contributors to the surge in covid-19 cases.

I disagree. With much of the United States engulfed in exponential virus spread and many hospitals already overwhelmed, most schools should close and stay closed through the winter.

Those who say schools should remain open point out that bars and restaurants have led to far more documented infections than schools. They point out, rightly, that we as a society set the wrong priorities in the summer. If we had kept high-risk settings closed and followed mitigation measures such as universal mask-wearing, the infection rate could be low enough for schools to safely open.

That didn’t happen. As a result, about 1.5 percent of Americans are currently infected with coronavirus. In some areas, in a room of 20 people, there is a nearly 1-in-4 chance that someone has covid-19. The high rates of community spread impact children as well; the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on Tuesday that nearly 1.2 million children have been diagnosed with covid-19, constituting nearly 12 percent of total infections. During the last week for which data are available, the week ending Nov. 19, there were more than 144,000 new cases of covid-19 in children, by far the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began.

Imagine you’re a teacher who works in a poorly ventilated classroom for multiple hours a day. It’s challenging to keep physical distancing, and there’s a high likelihood that one of your students has the coronavirus and could transmit it to you. Being told that school transmission isn’t the main driver of community spread is hardly reassuring when you’re the one shouldering the individual risk. One in 4 teachers are older or have chronic health conditions that predispose them to serious illness if they contract covid-19. Others might have household members for whom exposure is more likely to result in hospitalization or death.

It’s important to note that many proponents of keeping schools open cite studies that show low risk of transmission when effective mitigation methods are put in place. Some well-resourced schools have implemented measures including decreased classroom capacity, improved ventilation and strictly enforced mask-wearing. Some have even moved entire classes outdoors. With all these measures, students, teachers and staff have a much-reduced risk of acquiring covid-19. But most schools lack the resources to implement such changes.

Why haven’t there been more cases in schools if many schools haven’t implemented all those safety measures? A few things are possible. Maybe there have been more infections than we know about. Children with covid-19 tend to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. Testing is limited, and it’s hard for parents to find testing sites for younger children. Parents wishing to keep their kids in school might not want to know the result; some mothers are reportedly forming pacts to not test their kids.

CONTINUE READING: Opinion | Most schools should close and stay closed through winter - The Washington Post

CURMUDGUCATION: No, There Really Doesn't Need To Be A Big Spring Test In 2021

No, There Really Doesn't Need To Be A Big Spring Test In 2021

Many folks fear that schools will not trot out the Big Standardized Tests this spring, that neither the pony nor the dog will be called on to perform. Among those people, you can count Chester E. Finn, Jr., Big Boss Emeritus of the Fordham Institution and former player in the U.S. ed department; nowadays he serves the Hoover Institution (ever a source of reliable and not-at-all misleading info) as a senior fellow.

Finn popped up in the Washington Post this week to make his case that we just really so much need the BS Tests this year. I remain unconvinced. In all fairness, as regular readers know, I'm not convinced that we need them ever, but especially not this year. But let's hear Finn out.

He notes that this will be one of the first calls the Biden administration will have to make (though hours after Finn's argument went live, Betsy DeVos called to postpone the NAEP aka "the nation's report card" for a year). Finn also admits that cancelling last year's BS Tests made sense, but only because students weren't in school so they couldn't take the tests.

But don’t think for a moment that such diversions of the student data stream are without cost. The results from those state assessments are the main source of information about school performance and about pupil learning in the core subjects of the K-12 curriculum. The results also indicate whether America’s appalling CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: No, There Really Doesn't Need To Be A Big Spring Test In 2021

NYC Educator: I'm Thankful, and We're Lucky

I'm Thankful, and We're Lucky

COVID is a plague, and it strikes at the whole world. People are sick, People are dying. The national government is even more inept than the city government, and that's saying something.

It's hard to conceive of a national government that would ignore a plague because they originally saw it affecting only blue states, but given their incredible mendacity, it's easy to believe. Nonetheless, they plodded on with no national program even as it moved to red states, so even if it isn't willful cruelty, it's absolute ineptitude.

NY suffered from COVID. I know people who've died from it. I know people who've lost parents from it, and who may spend the rest of their lives wondering whether or not they brought it into their parents' homes. All over the country, there are millions of Americans left jobless by the pandemic. Idiot Trump looks at the stock market and ignores suffering Americans, many of whom vote for him anyway. They wear those red caps and hope he'll move us back to the good old white supremacist days, or something.

Hey, online learning sucks. I've been doing it since March and I don't love it. I don't love not really getting to know my students. I don't love missing interaction with my colleagues. I don't love not doing what I'm born to do. For my money, masked and socially distanced live classes are even worse, horrifying to contemplate and take part in. If I can't walk around and interact with students I may as well be online.

This notwithstanding, online learning is the best option we have right now. We're lucky to have it. Where would we be if we didn't have this technology? What would we be doing right now? Would we be having outdoor classes CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: I'm Thankful, and We're Lucky

Reflections on Teaching » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Responding to the call from Pocketful of Primary to answer questions about how teaching during the pandemic is going.

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Contact Tracing Does NOT Prove Schools Are Safe During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Contact Tracing Does NOT Prove Schools Are Safe During a Pandemic

“No close contacts were identified within the school district.”

That’s what it says on today’s email from my district reporting that two elementary staff and one student tested positive for COVID-19.

That’s what it said on Tuesday’s email about a different elementary staff member testing positive.

And the email from last Sunday about two elementary staff, and last Monday about a middle school staff member, and the one from Nov. 19 about an entire Kindergarten class and its teachers being quarantined.

Actually, that last email said the outbreak was limited to the Kindergarten class and teachers – that no close contacts were identified beyond its doors, in the building or the wider district as a whole.

However, considering that at least five more elementary teachers and another student tested positive later, I’m not sure I believe it.

All of which prompts the question – how accurate is contact tracing?

How Contact Tracing Works CONTINUE READING: Contact Tracing Does NOT Prove Schools Are Safe During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

When school choice advocates tout their vision for the future, it has tended to be a picture of parents soberly examining hard data about possible schools in order to select the "best" or "most fitting." But if folks are going to great education like a commodity, then it's going to be sold like toasters or breakfast cereal or panty hose. And that means--

Marketing!

There is no sector of the free market where folks just make their product and let it speak for itself. The free market does not foster superior quality; the free market fosters superior marketing. But while schools are staffed with lots of people who know education, school marketing is mostly not their thing. And so school choice ignites a burgeoning industry--the school marketing companies.

I've been getting peppered on Facebook by ads from Schola Inbound Marketing. The company is run by Ralph Cochran, a "leading national Christian school growth marketing authority." He went to college at Grove City College, a private Christian-ish school just CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

POST TURKEY DAY BLUES – Dad Gone Wild

POST TURKEY DAY BLUES

― Horace Mann

Another Thanksgiving has passed, and while this year was markedly different than past years, it provided a welcome opportunity to reconnect with friends and family while providing time to inventory our blessings. Gatherings were smaller this year, but still provided the means to connect with those we love. I hope that for all of you the day brought some much-needed respite.

For my family, we checked all the boxes – close friends, traditional food staples, football, board games, a walk to work off added calories – all with a touch of overindulgence. In other words, much like life, it was different, but still, all in all, pretty damn good.

On Wednesday I touched on recent revelations that MNPS was out of compliance with Tennessee state law due to its use of the Florida Virtual School curriculum. This is a tricky subject and one which, in my opinion, falls squarely in the lap of the Tennessee Department of Education. Let me try to walk you through it all, but I forewarn you, much of this is subject to interpretation, and hence, probably raises more questions than it answers.

Let me take you back to early summer. Everybody was focused on getting schools open for in-person instruction in August. Very little energy was being expanded towards developing robust CONTINUE READING: POST TURKEY DAY BLUES – Dad Gone Wild

THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS Dad Gone Wild Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS
Dad Gone Wild
Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

POST TURKEY DAY BLUES

by TC Weber / 18h

“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.” ― Horace Mann Another Thanksgiving has passed, and while this year was markedly different than past years, it provided a welcome opportunity to reconnect with friends and family while providing time to

SOMETIMES ITS WHAT YOU DON’T SAY

by TC Weber / 2d

“The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then shut up.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land Another Tuesday night and another board meeting has left me scratching my head – trying to decipher what I just witnessed. One thing that is becoming more and more clear is that the MNPS’s leadership is growing increasingly disconnected f

WHAT’S A LITTLE LAW BREAKING AMONG FRIENDS?

by TC Weber / 4d

“The future is called “perhaps”, which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.” ― Tennessee Williams, Orpheus Descending I’ve been struggling this weekend with organizing some thoughts. Thoughts connected through two disparate sources – the release of ACT scores and my reading of Kathy Valentine’s biography. Valentine in case

JUST MAKE THE CALL

by TC Weber / 7d

“Because of the movies I make, people get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I am difficult and angry, but they don’t expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor.” ― Martin Scorsese We got a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s not waste a lot of time with formalities. If you are a resident of Nashville, or you work for the school

ITS CALLED EDUCATION, NOT PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

by TC Weber / 11d

“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.” ― Voltaire Last Thursday I had the pleasure to attend, along with my 10-year old son, an event honoring former Overton High School athletic standout Mookie Betts. Betts, for those unfamiliar with him, is what is often referred to as a generational athlete. he is in a class with the likes of Tom Brady and LeBron James. Sin

Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.