TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 6/20/20 #REDFORED #tbats #ICantBreathe #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #justiceforfloyd #BlackLivesMatter

Police Reform and School Reform (Part 3) Just as a half-century ago when the Kerner Commission Report laid out a series of police reforms, cities were also in turmoil over low academic performance of minority students, traditional curricula, mostly white staffs and insensitive superintendents. Urban disturbances in 1967-1970, for example, caused school closures and rapid turnover of school chief

No, Software Still Can't Grade Student Essays One of the great white whales of computer-managed education and testing is the dream of robo-scoring, software that can grade a piece of writing as easily and efficiently as software can score multiple choice questions. Robo-grading would be swift, cheap, and consistent. The only problem after all these years is that it still can’t be done. Still, ed

John Thompson: Trump in Tulsa: Come for the Racism, Stay for the Plague John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, is keeping a close watch on the Trump rally and its risks to public health. He reports from the front lines of a city that’s about to dare COVID-19 to show its stuff at tonight’s indoor rally for 19,000 people. You can be sure that Trump will not wear a mask. Not wear

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AEI And The Commodification Of Education The American Enterprise Institute comes from that part of the ed reform spectrum devoted to free market approaches. But a new report from AEI really pushes the boundaries of treating education as a commodity like a house or a piece of jewelry. Really. The report is entitled " An Appraisal Market for K-12 Education " and it's authored by Lindsey Burke, the

Student Support Circle on Implicit Bias - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Hosts Virtual Student Support Circle on Institutional Racism and Implicit Bias with California Surgeon General SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education (CDE) hosted an online panel of students Thursday to create a space

Oh no. Look who's back. It's General Tata Sarah Palin with Gen. Tata I first wrote about Gen. Anthony J. Tata back in 2012. Back then it was considered hip for some reason, to put generals and admirals and such, in charge of the schools. We did it here in Chicago when Rahm Emanuel appointed Marine Col. Tim Tyrrell and paid him $180,000/year to run his mass school-closing operation. Tata, a briga

NewBlackMan (in Exile) Marcus Strickland—"On My Mind Remix” (feat. Bilal, Pharoahe Monch & Greg Tate) by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h ' ON MY MIND , a film by Petra Richterová & Jennifer Galvin , is an abstract, Afro-cosmic film, aesthetically and symbolically grounded in African culture and New York history. Based on vanguard saxophonist and composer Marcus Strickland ’s latest track "On My Mind rem

Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Higher math or science achievement among women STEM majors than men by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d While some STEM majors have a one-to-one male-to-female ratio, physics, engineering and computer science (PECS) majors consistently have some of the largest gender imbalances among U.S. college majors - with about four men to every woman in

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 YESTERDAY New Resources For Teaching About Confederate – & Other – Monuments by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h bmoreprep / Pixabay Here are some very important and impressive additions to The B

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all John Thompson: Trump in Tulsa: Come for the Racism, Stay for the Plague by dianeravitch / 21min John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, is keeping a close watch on the Trump rally and its risks to public health. He reports from

Educators of Color and Education Scholars of Color Speak Out Against Failed Billionaire-Backed “Reforms” Over 600 educators of color and education scholars of color have signed a statement opposing failed billionaire-backed “reforms” intended to privatize public schools and deprofessionalize teaching. The statement was drafted by Kevin Kumashiro and can be found on his website , along with the l

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 SPECIAL EDITION PROTEST AND EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 MANY New Resources For Learning About Juneteenth by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h Here are many new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Juneteenth : Why Juneteenth Ma

Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools Funding Private Enterprises With Public Funds Must Be Outlawed. Defund Charter Schools. Now is not the time to divert even more public funds to private businesses like charter schools. Disaster capitalism has harm

Going Back to a Better School: NEA Issues Guidance on Reopening Many schools across the country will in all likelihood reopen in the fall for the 2020-21 school year. States are currently reviewing potential models that maximize both learning – whether in-person or continued remote instruction – and health and safety. Still, because of continued uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic,

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 When Donald Trump planned a campaign rally for June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was a double insult to African Americans. There are many events in American history that most white adults would not be able to identify, much less appreciate their significance. The Red Summer of 1919, the Rosewood Massacre, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. In 1923, in Rosewood, F

A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the ‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For Critics say online learning is failing low-income students. But some for-profit companies are pushing to make it the new normal. When schools nationwide began closing their doors this spring as the result of Covid-19, many students, parents and teachers felt stress and uncertainty. Online education companies s

Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening - LA Progressive Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening Teachers Must Set the Terms for How and When Schools Reopen dc]I[/dc]n a matter of days in mid-March, educators were expected to move classes online, work from home, and manage their own fear and uncertainty—all while worried for students whom they suddenly couldn’t see, talk to, or reassure. Even

Schott Commemorates Juneteenth On June 19, 1865, a group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were read General Order No. 3, announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves. Starting in 1866, Juneteenth has been celebrated annually not just for emancipation in Texas, but as a symbol of freedom from slavery across the country. While General Order No. 3 was announced by Maj. Gen. Gordo

Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation Let’s say your community has two schools. One serves mostly white students and the other serves mostly black students. How do you eliminate such open segregation? After all, in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education as essentially separate and unequal . It’s been nearly 70 years. We must have a rec

History of Juneteenth “Later attempts to explain this two-and-a-half-year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the

Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts In early May, after it became clear that COVID-19-driven business closures and growing layoffs had already resulted in a precipitous drop in tax receipts, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine cut the current Ohio budget by $775 million, including $300 million from the state’s 610 school districts. The

Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff? A world turned right side up … the grandchildren of the civil rights demonstrators of the sixties seized the day, injustices centuries old bubbled and erupted, maybe our quiescent world is changing. In New York State a number of police accountability and transparency concepts rapidly passed the legislature, signed by the governor

DACA: The Supreme Court is on the right side of history Today the Supreme Court, this Supreme Court, handed a huge blow to the Trump administration by supporting our Dreamers! The Court’s decision is a stinging rebuke of the Trump administration’s ill-conceived attempt to end DACA, deeming it “arbitrary and capricious.” The DACA ruling comes the same week the Court decided a landmark case uphold

Banks should “social distance” from education An artist’s conception of Rep. Jim Banks, R-IN, and Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-WI pontificating about education. NO (in-person) SCHOOL, NO MONEY! U.S. Congressman, Jim Banks (IN-03), along with a colleague from Wisconsin, have decided that the health of those who attend school, work in schools, or are related to those who attend or work in schools doesn’t m

Police Reform and School Reform (Part 2) Public schools and police departments are core community institutions. Locally controlled, there are 18,000 police departments and over 13,000 school districts in the U.S. State legislatures and city councils levy taxes to fund these institutions. One is charged to protect and serve; the other to make responsible citizens, prepare the young for the workpl

DIANE RAVITCH IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIAN VASQUEZ HEILIG Last night I had a chance to sit down with Diane Ravitch on Zoom and discuss what should be next for the US public education system. A ponderous Diane Ravitch Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others. Check out and follow my YouTube channel here . Twitter: @ProfessorJVH Click here for Vitae.

Send a letter TODAY to NYC Council Speaker & leaders that school budgets must be increased, not cut Please send a letter to the Speaker Johnson today and the Education and Finance Council chairs to say that the DOE budget should NOT be cut next year , as the Mayor has proposed; but instead, school funding should be increased so they can hire more teachers, counselors, nurses, custodial staff as

In the Public Interest: Charter Schools in Oakland Are Tapping into Coronavirus Relief Funds The nonprofit, nonpartisan “In the Public Interest” joined forces with Parents United for Public Schools in Oakland to investigate whether charter schools in that city were double-dipping, taking public school money and also taking federal funds intended for small businesses. Their conclusion: Oakland ch

It’s mid-June and schools still aren’t sure how they will open for 2020-21. Here’s why — and what’s likely to happen. It’s mid-June and most school district superintendents still haven’t announced exactly what schools will look like when they open for the 2020-21 school year. In many places, reopening will be in August, which doesn’t give them a lot of time to decide and put the plans in motion.

Staff at Success Academy Complain about Eva Moskowitz’s Insensitivity to Racism A teacher at the acclaimed Success Academy charter chain in New York City publicly complained about Eva Moskowitz’s silence after the murder of George Floyd. Alex Zimmerman of Chalkbeat reported: Four days after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, a Brooklyn Success Academy teacher emailed her netw

Arrested Development: How Police Ended Up in Schools Have You Heard had a question: how did cops end up in US public schools in the first place? To find the answer, we head to Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. With the aid of a trio of experts—historians Matt Kautz, Judith Kafka, and Louis Mercer—we learn about what prompted the entry of police into each city’s schools. And some common themes eme

Leaders of the New School Photo: Courtesy Wade Kyle T uesday marked the first day of summer vacation and I took to the streets to march for student rights. I drove to Miguel Contras Learning Center in Los Angeles, expecting to hear UTLA’s new president, Cecily Myart Cruz, speak on defunding the police. Something entirely different took place. I saw people of all ages in the crowd—Whites, Blacks,

‘It’s just way too much to take on’: School systems struggle with the politics of reopening Governors promise to put kids back in class in a matter of weeks, but school officials are largely stuck navigating the messy details. School superintendents and principals are staring at an impossible equation. Governors are promising to put kids back in classrooms in a matter of weeks, but it’s mostly s

Instruction for the Vulnerable Reader: Assessment In order to help a child become better at reading, a teacher needs to have a handle on what the child knows and is able to do. All learning builds on prior learning, so a good clear idea of a child's understanding at the point where instruction begins is clearly a priority. This information is not readily available from standardized tests, invent

Rebecca Friedrichs Still Hates The Teachers Unions In 2014, Rebecca Friedrichs, after twenty-some years in the classroom, decided to go ahead and be the face of a lawsuit that would be derailed when Justice Scalia died. The court would eventually get to take their shot at unions with the Janus case. But while Friedrichs may have lost a lawsuit, she did manage to launch a career as a far-right Ch

antiracismdsa: Defend DACA And All Undocumented Defend DACA And All Undocumented Editor’s Note: On Monday morning, Latino Rebels received the following open letter for publication. It has since been published on Medium by the organizers who drafted the letter and gathered signatures. On the eighth anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, we’re releasi

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Free Statewide Online Suicide Prevention Training Program SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE), in collaboration with the San Diego County Office of Education, is launching a free online suicide prevention training program available to middle and high scho

Special Education Paraeducators Navigate Distance Learning Whitney Barber, a special education paraprofessional at Middlebury Union Middle School in Middlebury, Vermont, admits she’s a worrier by nature. But her worries about her students and the COVID-19 pandemic are a constant cascade. “I worry about all of the children and the unknown traumas; what their daily life is like stuck at home, espe

School Field Trip Turns Into a Tour of Our Nation’s Unhealed Scars You’ve got to be a little crazy to take a bunch of teenagers on a field trip – especially overnight and out of town. But that’s what I did, and – yeah – guilty as charged. For the second time in my more than 15-year career as a public school teacher , I volunteered along with a group of parents and other teachers to escort my cla

National Education Policy Center Interview of the Month: Yours Truly This is a really fun interview with Chris Saldana of NEPC, in which we talk about the important education issues of our time. I think you will enjoy it. Tuesday, June 16, 2020 Publication Announcement NEPC’s June Education Interview of the Month: Teacher Strikes, Philanthropy, and Public Education KEY TAKEAWAY: NEPC Education I

On Comparing Education Spending Across Time I’ve noticed a lot of back-and-forth recently on social media about education spending – specifically, on how spending has changed over the years in the United States. The usual context is someone complaining about how spending in K-12 schooling has soared over the past few decades, but outcomes haven’t improved. I and others have repeatedly pointed ou

Talk out of School podcast on charter schools getting PPP funds and how teachers and parents should talk to kids about race and racism This morning on the Talk out of School podcast on WBAI, I spoke to Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education , about their research on charter schools that applied for funds under the Payroll Protection Program, meant for struggling sma

University of California Votes to Restore Affirmative Action 24 Years After Its Repeal In 1996, the state of California passed proposition 209 which prohibited race and gender from being a factor in university admissions. Now, some 24 years later, the University of California voted unanimously to restore affirmative action. The move was made in the hope of diversifying their student population,

WHEN “PROGRESSIVE” WHITE PEOPLE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE RACISM AND CALL IT “ALLYSHIP” Good people, it looks like the smoke rising from Minneapolis has inspired so many “allies” to ask: “what can we do to help.” And, as a matter of solidarity, folks have focused intently on defunding or reforming or lightly tapping the Minneapolis Police Department. That is a fine goal if people are serious (hint: th

What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently They view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching. Editor’s Note: In the next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. The Baby Boomers are leaving behind a nation of more novice educators. In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades later, that numb

Billionaire Reed Hastings Plans Luxury Resort to Train Teachers to Think Like Him VOX reports on billionaire Reed Hastings’ grandiose plans to build a fabulous resort in Colorado for teachers, where they will learn to love charter schools, high-stakes testing, test-based accountability for teachers, and other failed reform strategies. Hastings has $5 billion and he doesn’t seem to know what to d

Federal CARES Act Public Education Relief Dollars Quietly Flow into the Coffers of Charter Schools and Private Schools Many charter schools are taking advantage of their public/private status to double dip into more than one stream of federal CARES Act dollars. And Betsy DeVos has also been shifting the rules on distribution of CARES Act education dollars to support private schools at public sch

Stewart Swoons, Eva Evades I recently listened to two illuminating podcasts about Success Academy. Hosted by Education Post CEO Chris Stewart on the Citizen Ed podcast, the first interview was with Robert Pondiscio, author of ‘How The Other Half Learns’ and the second was with Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz. The first thing that struck me about these podcasts was that Chris Stewart, when he i

USDA CNP Nationwide Waiver Revision and Extensions Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page In early June 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released several policy memorandums to state agencies and Child Nutrition Programs Operators during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency. The policy memos are: COVID-19: Child Nutrition Response #9, Nationwide Waiver of Onsite M

Sanity Through Math This has been a tumultuous three months. I have been overwhelmed, frightened, angry, excited. The world has been horrible. My employer has been heartless. My union has been too often passive. My friends are distant. And my work has been exhausting. The grading – absurdly slow. Lessons? Maybe I’ve figured something reasonable out. I’m not certain, not about that. It’s taken me

Police Reform and School Reform (Part 1) Amid widespread protests against police violence against African Americans, calls for reform from ending neck restraints to “defunding” police departments have monopolized TV newscasts and newspaper headlines. Social media traffic prompted by smartphone videos of incidents between police officers and blacks have gone viral. State and city officials across

Teachers’ Unions Are Demanding Police-Free Schools A major lesson from the recent teachers’ strike wave was the necessity for unions to bargain for the common good of the entire working class. By joining the nationwide protests against police brutality and demanding police-free schools, teachers’ unions have taken that lesson to heart. It’s been three weeks since Minneapolis police officer Derek

Police-Free Schools: Lessons on Racial Justice from Minneapolis and the Nation Realizing racial justice in public education is impossible when Black and Brown students are criminalized in their own schools. Students, parents and education justice groups have long known this, and while we've seen some inspiring reforms in school discipline thanks to tireless grassroots organizing efforts, the pre

American Federation Of Teachers Launches Ad Campaign To Support The HEROES Act The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has launched an ad campaign telling people to urge their Senators to pass the HEROES Act . The influential teachers’ union is spending $1 million to support the legislation passed by House Democrats. “We must fund our public schools and community services,” the ad’s narrator s

The Paradoxes of Dismantling Racism and White Privilege If you just clicked on a link and are reading this, you are experiencing one of the paradoxes of dismantling racism and white privilege because by writing this and making it available across the Internet, I have centered my whiteness and the voice of (yet another) man. As a white man, I simultaneously have an ethical obligation to dismantle

June 2020 Information Memoranda Background information and updates on issues of interest to the State Board Members. Periodically, the State Board Members may receive information memoranda from State Board staff and the California Department of Education. The information memoranda may include background information, updates on issues of interest to the State Board Members, and reports on a varie

A Teacher Ponders Risk Of Returning To Work While Being Paid Less Than Unemployment Lainy Morse is an essential worker who has been out of work since the middle of March. She teaches preschool and ordinarily provides a vital service for working parents. "Without us, moms [mostly] can't go back to work," Morse says. Lainy Morse shows students Wesley Schmidt and Celeste Abraldes a bearded dragon i

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all TODAY Andrea Gabor Asks for Your Help to Elect a Texan by dianeravitch / 1h Andrea Gabor is a friend and a wise writer about education. She sent the following appeal: Dear Friends, First and foremost, I hope this note finds you safe and healthy. As

For teachers retiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, a bittersweet end: ‘There’s no closure without being able to say goodbye to my students’ For the roughly 1,600 Illinois public school teachers who are retiring this month, stepping away from the classroom in the midst of a global pandemic that shuttered schools is proving especially heartrending. With scuttled in-person goodbyes. and their fina

Shanker Blog: Teaching During School Shutdowns Should be a Team Sport This post is part of our series entitled Teaching and Learning During a Pandemic , in which we invite guest authors to reflect on the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic for teaching and learning. Our guest today is Susan Moore Johnson, the Jerome T. Murphy Research Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Oth

FairTest: More Than Half of Nation’s Universities Drop Entry Tests for 2021 FairTest has been battling the abuse, misuse, and overuse of standardized testing since the early 1970s. It took a global pandemic to demonstrate that students applying to college need not take a standardized test for admission. How will colleges decide whom to admit? They will figure it out. Just watch. Many colleges an

Circles of Women On Thursday, I walked up to Capitol Hill where the Black Lives Matter protests have taken an expected turn. When the Seattle police abandoned the East Precinct, the protesters turned a six block area of this densely populated neighborhood into a peaceful, educational, police-free zone that is being called the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). As I entered the area, a man ask

LDOE Shakeup: Brumley Arrives; TFA Leadership Hits the Exits On June 08, 2020 , Louisiana’s new state education superintendent, Cade Brumley, officially began his tenure. Brumley was not the choice of ed-reformers favoring former state superintendent, John White. Thus, it comes as a pleasant non-surprise that top hires from White’s administration are leaving the Louisiana Department of Education

This Week’s Headlines: School’s Out for Summer, How Should It Reopen?, and #DefundTheLASPD If we thought the 2018-2019 school year was a weird one, we had no idea what this past school year would have in store. It started out normal, and then the virus hit, and two months later people were in the streets asking for the school police to be disbanded. But the school year is finally over, with clas

Art at Home, Then Put it Back In Public Schools! Art at Home, Then Put it Back In Public Schools! Teachers teach remotely, and parents are helping students at home. Hopefully, children and teens are doing art. Self-expression is important, and art calms and leads to self-discovery. When public schools reopen, when it’s safe to do so, parents and teachers must demand a return of art education with

UFT Executive Board June 15, 2020--UFT Supports Black Lives Matter, HEROES Act, and a Not Insane September 5:50 Roll Call UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr --All resolutions and minutes have been passed via email. Reports from Districts Janella HInds --Sterling R. and she just hosted HS committee meeting, over 500 members, discussed September other things, 90 minutes. Rashad Brown --Pride Committee met,

Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief WASHINGTON — Charter schools, including some with healthy cash balances and billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, have quietly accepted millions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief from a fund created to help struggling small businesses stay afloat. Since their inception, charter schools have s

BUT I DO LIKE HAMBURGERS “I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence.” ― Vaclav Havel “A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the cha

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 SPECIAL EDITION PROTEST AND EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Should Teachers Wear Face Shields, Masks, Or Both? by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min dapple-designers / Pixabay Many of us now wear masks when we go to places where we will be in c

To Those Of You Worried About The Covid Slide Dear concerned policy makers, bureaucrats, and edu-wonks: Ever since NWEA, the testing manufacturer that promised it can read minds by measuring how long it takes students to pick a multiple choice answer, issued their report on the Covid-19 Slide , you have been freaking out a little because they hear you say that distance learning has been disastro

Inside the decade-long movement to defund police in schools In the midst of the 1980s war on drugs and in the wake of devastating mass school shootings throughout the country, bolstering school police in Los Angeles was seen as a safety imperative by many educators and parents. But for the last decade, a number of student advocacy groups have pushed the school board to reduce police presence in

Research evidence for summer learning Disappointing results for in-person summer school programs hint that short virtual programs may not be successful On June 10, 2020, as the U.S. Capitol remained partially shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a virtual hearing on what schools ought to do. Speaking over a video feed from hi

Confronting White Responses to Racism: De-centering Whiteness and White Fragility I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with daily contact with what Ta-Nehisi Coates labels as “oafish” racists . These white men of my childhood and teen years were brazen and arrogant in their racial slurs and embarrassingly ignorant philosophies about race. One oafish racist calmly explained to me that Black people we

John Thompson on Trump’s Big Rally in Tulsa John Thompson is a retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma. He writes here about the resumption of Trump’s big political rallies, beginning in Tulsa. The attendees will have to sign a waiver releasing the campaign of any liability if they fall sick with COVID. Will Trump promote the disease amongst his enthusiastic base? He won’t wear a mask. To show

Keeping Order in the Classroom is highest priority - Teachers Are Police Without Guns - But Not Always I've been thinking about the role police and teachers play - and there are some similarities. But I'm also thinking of how differently teachers and police are expected to react to disorder. Teaching required being a creative policeman. Which sometimes bothers teachers who hear stories of cops l

As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has long believed that the federal government should have little to do with education. This spring, with schools facing their most significant crisis in decades, DeVos has stuck to that core conviction. She hasn’t weighed in on how schools might teach remotely. She’s said little about what they sho

Little Rock: Peaceful Protestors Shut Down Four Walmarts For many years, the Walton family has owned the state of Arkansas. Their collective wealth exceeds $150 billion, yet Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the nation. All that money, and very little has trickled down. Perhaps you have seen the ads on national television about how much Walmart cares about its neighbors. The people of Lit

RIP, Mr. Harold Scipio I am 59 and am deeply saddened by his passing because he remains a powerful influence on my teaching, many decades after I sat in his classroom and then later taught with him at the same high school I attended. In an open letter to my students in 2014 , I wrote about Mr. Scipio: Harold Scipio taught me high school chemistry and physics. He was a tall black man, very measur

Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, are securing coronavirus relief meant for businesses even as they also benefit from public school aid. WASHINGTON — Charter schools, including some with healthy cash balances and billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, have quietly accepted m

Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It? Last week I was out walking to get some exercise when I saw an old friend who is a retired school superintendent. Standing a careful six feet away, he greeted me this way: “So, where’s the money going to come from?” We talked for a minute or two, and as we parted, he asked again: “So where’s the money goin

Instruction for Vulnerable Readers: Independent Reading The best predictor of how well children will read is the amount of time they spend reading. This time spent reading must be engaged reading, that is students must not just be looking at the book, but actively engaged in parsing the words on the page and making meaning from those combinations of words. Reading volume is defined as the amount

Did the DoE really tell principals they are on their own? Yes How should principals schedule for the fall? After a powerpoint, a letter, and a list of “guiding questions” the best the DoE has is “As we develop guidance on how to create your school’s schedule for the fall, updated resources will be posted” Keep reading. This is the letter that the principals received. I’ve un-linked all links. So

Big Education Ape HAPPY BIRTHDAY BATS Badass Teachers - https://www.badassteacher.org/ Badass Teachers Association on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BadAssTeachers/ Badass Teachers Asso @BadassTeachersA THE BATS: EARLY HISTORY OF THE BADASS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION ON THE BIG EDUCATION APE Big Education Ape: Don’t just test … Don’t just teach #BeABadAss | Continuing Change - http://bigedu

Florida reports 3,400 kids with coronavirus — 10 stricken with severe illness FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With summer camps opening around the state, health officials just shared a report detailing new coronavirus infections among children. These statistics show 37,211 children have been swabbed, and 9.2% of them, or 3,407, tested positive. There have been 73,552 confirmed COVID-19 cases among all a

Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic As American deaths from COVID-19 crested 100,000, the New York Times reported U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re receiving through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on private schools. Going beyond the traditiona

Summer Vacation Edition Whatever summer vacation means this year, it has finally arrived at my house. Which mostly just means that my wife has shifted from working on things for this year to working on things for next year. Here are some things to read. Predecessors Try To Fill Void Left By DeVos This is a strange little thing. First, that Duncan and Spelling see themselves as somehow way differ

EdAction in Congress June 14, 2020 NEA warns COVID-19 could lead to loss of up to 2 million education jobs Nearly 2 million education jobs—one-fifth of the public education workforce—could be lost if the Senate fails to act soon to close growing state and local budget gaps caused by COVID-19, a new NEA analysis and state-by-state breakdown warned. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nea

Trump picks a side: DeVos over military veterans and other low-income students After more than 1,200 days in office, President Donald Trump issued his first presidential veto of domestic legislation last week. The legislation that provoked his unique ire ? A bipartisan resolution , passed by the House and Senate this spring, that would have helped low-income Americans , including many military v

AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time Last week, the Alabama Public [sic] Charter School Commission took an unprecedented action and revoked a charter school's charter before it even managed to open. It's a tangly story, with connections to several charter school issues. Woodland Prep was supposed to be a hot new charter school, but it came with so much baggage that t

I’m Not UFT President but this is what I would have said: I did not send out a letter to the membership. I’m not the president. But it would have been far better than the letter that did get sent (copied at the bottom of this post. It is an embarrassment.) Excuse my mediocre writing. But I think the ideas are solid: Dear UFT members, With this school year drawing to a close, we remain focused on

Shut Up and Teach!:Silence is Golden? This tweet. (See below) When I read it, someone else had retweeted it, the first thing that stood out to me was her use of the simile, "like wild animals ." Hmmmm..... So she, and I am sure she is not the only one, has a problem, because educators aren't being silent about the issues America has with systemic racism. Educators had the audacity to bring what

In the midst of its budget crisis, DOE asks the PEP to approve six million dollars for Pearson Amid the Covid pandemic which will require smaller classes and new health and safety measures, and despite huge proposed cuts to schools next year, DOE is asking the Panel for Educational Policy to approve six million dollars to be awarded Pearson at its Thursday, June 18 meeting (though the meeting is

Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 6/13/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New