Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 1)

I have completed a draft of my next book called “Confessions of a School Reformer.” The first part of the Introduction to the book follows.

Just see wherever we peer into the first tiny springs of the national life, how this true panacea for all of the ills of the body politic bubbles forth—education, education, education.

                        Andrew Carnegie, 1886[i]

School houses do not teach themselves – piles of brick and mortar and machinery do not send out men. It is the trained, living human soul, cultivated and strengthened by long study and thought, that breathes the real breath of life into boys and girls and makes them human, whether they be black or white, Greek, Russian or American.

W.E.B. DuBois, 1903[ii]

At the desk where I sit in Washington, I have learned one great truth: The answer for all our national problems comes down to one single word: education

                        President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964[iii]

[E]ducation is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little CONTINUE READING: Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teachers start getting coronavirus vaccines -- but only in some places - The Washington Post

Teachers start getting coronavirus vaccines -- but only in some places - The Washington Post

When will teachers get vaccinated? Some already have — but most are nervously waiting

A small number of teachers and school nurses in a few states have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, but most are still waiting amid a stumbling rollout of the vaccine across the country.

Even as a new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus has been confirmed in some U.S. states and a few thousand people are dying from covid-19 each day, officials in many districts are making plans to reopen schools soon and teachers are coming under increasing pressure to return to classrooms.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants to see most U.S. schools reopen in the first 100 days of his administration, which begins Jan. 20. And Congress recently approved a coronavirus relief package that includes $54 billion for K-12 schools, which could help districts cover expenses for measures aimed at stemming the spread of the virus in schools.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that states prioritize teachers as part of the second group of people eligible for vaccines — but each state will make its own decision, and there are big differences in approach among governors.

In Indiana, teachers in rural Knox County began receiving the vaccine on Dec. 28 — but not because they were prioritized over health-care workers and the elderly but because there were extra vials, CONTINUE READING: Teachers start getting coronavirus vaccines -- but only in some places - The Washington Post

The New York Times Should Add a Former Teacher to Its Editorial Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

The New York Times Should Add a Former Teacher to Its Editorial Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

The New York Times Should Add a Former Teacher to Its Editorial Board

The New York Times published an editorial correctly blasting Betsy DeVos as the worst Secretary of Education in the 40-year history of the Department of Education. Unfortunately, the balance of the editorial was a plea to administer tests to find out how far the nation’s children had fallen behind because of the pandemic.

This is a misguided proposal, as I have explained many times on this blog. See here.

The Times wrote in this editorial:

Given a shortage of testing data for Black, Hispanic and poor children, it could well be that these groups have fared worse in the pandemic than their white or more affluent peers. The country needs specific information on how these subgroups are doing so that it can allocate educational resources strategically.

Beyond that, parents need to know where their children stand after such a sustained period without much face-to-face instruction. Given these realities, the new education CONTINUE READING: The New York Times Should Add a Former Teacher to Its Editorial Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids

The year 2020 was tough for everyone — and unprecedented for the U.S. educational system, which was forced to go online overnight, with innumerable glitches at the start and long-term consequences that are still becoming clear.

But while school districts grappled with health metrics and decisions to open or close buildings, hard-working teachers across America found ways to reach their students. Ideas ran the gamut — making art from laundry, taking bike rides as a class, teaching from an old treehouse.

The Washington Post gathered stories of creative teaching from throughout the Washington region. The anecdotes collected below do not represent everyone’s experience, but they highlight notes of grace — and offer sparks of hope.

'Everyone's got laundry!'

As the weeks of online learning stretched into months, art teacher Abigail Dillingham was struggling.

She kept thinking about the projects cut short by the pandemic: The crown-wearing dinosaurs her kindergartners would never finish painting. The cityscapes her second-graders would never finish crafting.

Dillingham, who teaches at James K. Polk Elementary School in Alexandria, was also concerned about her students’ lack of engagement — so few were completing the assignments she emailed to parents. She couldn’t be sure whether her kids were uninterested or whether they lacked the necessary pens, paper and crayons at home.

That’s when she spotted it, shared on an online forum for art teachers: Someone had twisted the CONTINUE READING: Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

A Warning: Who Is Paying for Your State’s Civics Courses? | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Warning: Who Is Paying for Your State’s Civics Courses? | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Warning: Who Is Paying for Your State’s Civics Courses?

If you have a few minutes to do some research, you might wonder about the connections among these three links:

First is from the extreme rightwing group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), funded by DeVos, Charles Koch, and major corporations. ALEC has 2,000 members who are state legislators. They get a free trip every year to a posh resort, where ALEC gives them model legislation to introduce in their state to promote the libertarian, anti-regulation, anti-government agenda.

Second is an article in the conservative journal Education Next about “reimagining civic education for the digital age.” It promotes the organization iCivics, a digital platform to teach civics.

Third, read about the award by the Trump Administration’s National Endowment for the Humanities and Betsy DeVos’s U.S. Department of Education of $650,000 to the curriculum and advocacy group iCivics and several university partners, to design a CONTINUE READING: A Warning: Who Is Paying for Your State’s Civics Courses? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Matters: Greene and the school boards silence is deafening

Education Matters: Greene and the school boards silence is deafening

Greene and the school boards silence is deafening

The pandemic is out of control as staff and students are about to return, and all we get is silence from the superintendent. Veteran teachers are about to get a pay cut and the school board a raise, and they have been silent on that as well. The district is pushing more children and staff back into schools without commenting on how both will be kept safe. Their silence is deafening. Their silence is complicity. 

There is no doubt the state sucks. Little Boot Corcoran acts more like a mad dictator than an education professional. That being said, where has been the push back from the superintendent and school board? It's been nonexistent, that is where.

If any board member thinks it's a little dangerous to return to school and how couldn't that they haven't said it.

If the super and board think it's a travesty that veteran teachers got %$@#ed they haven't said that either.

Likewise, the super and board haven't even offered token resistance to CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene and the school boards silence is deafening

NYC Educator: What Is De Blasio Waiting For?

NYC Educator: What Is De Blasio Waiting For?

What Is De Blasio Waiting For?

School buildings open tomorrow, despite an explosion of COVID in Fun City. You look at this and you have to ask yourself why exactly it's so important. There are a number of possibilities.

The most obvious is that the upper middle class white community has leaned on him to keep schools open. I am, frankly, shocked at some of the people who have clamored for building openings. A few months ago, they were indignant about it. Positivity is below 1%, they bellowed. Those of us who opposed opening buildings were ridiculous. We were hysterical. 

What are the open building advocates saying now? Who knows? Have they got a shiny new rationale? Are they just hoping none of us recall what they were saying back in September? It doesn't much matter, because the mayor is still persuaded. Why is that?

My pet theory is that he thinks, by keeping schools open, he makes himself a hero. No other city has done what NYC has done. Mayor de Blasio believes, perhaps, that this will resuscitate his burnished reputation. Maybe people will forget that last year he walked off his job for months in a self-indulgent run for President, an effort in which he garnered no more votes than my dog. 

Maybe teachers, by being forced to teach masked children six feet apart, will fail to notice it's something straight out of Black Mirror.  Maybe we'll forget that just weeks ago de Blasio tried to steal a billion dollars from us. Maybe CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: What Is De Blasio Waiting For?

CURMUDGUCATION: The New York Times Adds One Plus One And Gets Three

CURMUDGUCATION: The New York Times Adds One Plus One And Gets Three

The New York Times Adds One Plus One And Gets Three

You might have been excited yesterday if you saw a New York Times editorial board headline talking about "The Wreckage Betsy DeVos Leaves Behind" and thought that maybe, for a change, the greyest lady was going to stands up for public education. 

But then you read it.

Sigh.

There is much that they get right. They open by noting that the department has not just failed, but refused to lead, during the pandemic. It's a cruel irony that Covid arrived during the administration of folks who think that government should not do anything, ever, including helping keep its citizens alive. 

They also correctly note that there is a lot of undoing to undo, specifically in the area of civil rights protections where, again, it was DeVos's devout belief that government should not ever be helpful. 

They note a "striking" contract between DeVos and Cordona, offering the understatement "Ms. DeVos had almost no experience in public education and was clearly disinterested in the department's mission."

Then the board barrels boldly into the weeds.

They accept the NWEA's baloney pronouncements on "learning loss" as gospel, and from there it's CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The New York Times Adds One Plus One And Gets Three

John Thompson: What Teachers Should Do When Schools Re-Open | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: What Teachers Should Do When Schools Re-Open | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: What Teachers Should Do When Schools Re-Open

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, followed the debate about what to do “after COVID,” and he shares his wisdom here.

I’ve been wrestling with two quandaries regarding post-COVID schools. Yes, in the short-run, the tactical use of digital technology has been prioritized, but the longer term priority must be human-to-human relationships. The last thing we want are 21th century schools driven by screen time. So, what can we do to recover from the pandemic which came on the heels of the corporate school reform disaster that was imposed on teachers and students?

Last spring, I timidly made suggestions but I knew that educators were overwhelmed, and it wasn’t time to be pushy about future visions of schooling. It’s unlikely that many of today’s teachers would be allowed to do so, but I used to start my inner city high school classes’ orientation week with music, poetry, and film clips like Amiri Baraka’s “The X is Black,” Bruce Springsteen’s “American Skin,” and Denzel Washington in Cry Freedom, playing Steve Biko, explaining colonialism.

So, if I were still teaching high school, I’d have used CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: What Teachers Should Do When Schools Re-Open | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will they close school buildings in NYC in January? | JD2718

Will they close school buildings in NYC in January? | JD2718

Will they close school buildings in NYC in January?

There are so many issues with the QUESTION!

Schools are open – the question is about the buildings

Notice “school buildings”? That’s because our schools have remained open, and will remain open, for remote instruction.

High Schools and Middle Schools are open –
but those buildings are closed and will remain closed.

Also, high school and middle school buildings were closed before break, and will remain closed for the foreseeable future (probably not up for real reconsideration until February). So we are really only talking about half the schools in NYC. Oh, and also, even if that half are open, as we saw in December, many of them get closed because – well – COVID-19. So maybe we are asking “will they open 30 – 40% of the school buildings in NYC?”

New York State counts funny (their counts are low) CONTINUE READING: Will they close school buildings in NYC in January? | JD2718

Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920 | Live Long and Prosper

Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920 | Live Long and Prosper

Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920

On the occasion of Isaac Asimov’s 101st birthday, I offer some quotes relevant to today’s political and cultural environment.

ON IGNORANCE

A Cult of Ignorance,  by Isaac Asimov. Newsweek, January 21, 1980

It’s hard to quarrel with that ancient justification of the free press: “America’s right to know.” It seems almost cruel to ask, ingenuously, ”America’s right to know what, please? Science? Mathematics? Economics? Foreign languages?”

None of those things, of course. In fact, one might well suppose that the popular feeling is that Americans are a lot better off without any of that tripe.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that CONTINUE READING: Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920 | Live Long and Prosper

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

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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html

‘I No Longer Give Grades on Student Writing Assignments, and It’s the Best Thing Ever!’

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Five educators share how they have helped students motivate themselves to revise their writing. Here are some excerpts:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Is On Jan. 18th – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

WikiImages / Pixabay Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be celebrated on January 18th this year. You might be interested in The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King, Jr .

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE THIRTE

Sunday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos On School Reopenings

20by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Memed_Nurrohmad / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Schools in India have been closed since March. The costs to children are mounting. is from The Washington Post. 4) Given this evidence, I think we need to rethink school reopenings until we get this new B117 variant strain under control. We need every teacher and school worker (

A Look Back: Here’s My Chapter On Elements Of A Successful Lesson, Along With Student Hand-Outs THEY Use To Teach

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . This post originally appeared in 2015. Kidaha / Pixabay I’m a big advocate and practitioner of creating opportunities for students to be teachers (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates ). I’ve previously posted

“substack” Looks Like An Easy Way To Create Email Newsletters

by Larry Ferlazzo / 20h

I had heard a little about substack , but didn’t really have any idea about what it was until I read this week’s New Yorker article headlined Is Substack the Media Future We Want? I thought it was a pretty interesting article, and it’s not very long. It’s easy to use it substack to “monetize” an email newsletter by charging for a subscription, but it appears just as easy to create a free one. I’m

Saturday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos on School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

congerdesign / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : What Gov. Newsom’s $2 billion school reopening plan means for Sacramento-area districts is from The Sacramento Bee. Covid fears spark revolt by unions over return to school in England is from The Guardian. Ministers urged to close all schools in England for two weeks is from The Gu

This Would Be An Interesting Social Studies Assignment: Choose The Best & Worst Years In History

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

johnhain / Pixabay In my ELL World and U.S. History classes, I’ll often have students do projects where they have to identify who they think were the most influential figures, or the most important events (of course, they have to back-up their claims with evidence). I use materials from The Best “Lists Of Lists” Of Influential People, Events & Ideas as models. I’ve recently seen pieces arguing ab

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TE

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