TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 7/25/20 #REDFORED #tbats #EducationVotes #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLS #edJustice #DEMOCRACY #BIDEN2020 #JohnLewis

Confused by CDC’s changing guidance on school reopening? Here are recommendations from experts not pressured by the White House The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week issued new guidance on how schools can reopen safely for the 2020-21 school year — and, as it turns out, some of it was edited in the White House. That could help explain why there is little discussion about

The New CDC School Reopening Guidelines Should Be Ignored The CDC finally released new guidance to aid school administrators in their Herculean (and in some cases, Sisyphean) task to reopen schools to in-person learning this fall. Unfortunately, the guidelines suffer from a number of faults, starting with the credibility of the agency itself. The CDC makes its position clear, releasing a documen

Marion Brady: When Face-to-Face Learning Is Impossible Marion Brady is a veteran educator who has been trying to reform the school curriculum for many years. He persists. He writes: When face-to-face schooling isn’t possible There’s no getting around it. Firsthand experience is the best teacher. If what’s attempting to be taught is worth knowing, it’s going to be complicated. And if it’s complic

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Florida's circular firing squad with schools in the middle. The state says schools can close at the guidance of their local health department. However, the local health department says they don't have the authority to advise schools to close. UM, WHAT!!!! Andrew Atterbury, education reporter for politic tweeted this. Who can decide when Florida schools should close? “I do not have the authority

Please Don’t Make Me Risk Getting Covid-19 to Teach Your Child (Rebecca Martinson) Rebecca Martinson is a teacher at Northwest Career & Technical Academy in Mount Vernon, Wash. This appeared in the New York Times, July 18, 2020 . I write often about the inescapable personal and professional dilemmas that each educator (including myself) confronts as we traverse our daily lives. Martinson express

Who Got the Money? See for Yourself: ProPublica’s COVID-19 PPP Loan Search To view recipients of the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to businesses and nonprofit organizations during the coronavirus pandemic, use ProPublica’s marvelous search engine. *** In researching nonprofits, I find ProPublica’s nonprofit search engines to be incredibly resourceful. For example, ProPublica of

Are principals being set up to take the fall? The mayor was planning to reopen NYC public schools in September. It is a disaster on the NYC horizon. But it is far enough away to be avoided. The mayor now coyly claims he doesn’t know which way he will decide , and that he won’t decide until the eleventh hour . The UFT and CSA (principals union) are talking about problems with plans. The UFT has f

Social-Distance Traveling during the Covid-19 Pandemic For nearly a decade, I have been taking about a 2-week trip in July or early August for a cycling/brewery vacation. Many of the trips have been to Colorado, but also Asheville, NC and Fayetteville, AR (where I am sitting now). To insure a good place to stay, reservations must be made many months ahead of this trip; so for the summer of 2020,

THE ANTI-SUCK BUTTON VS FUNDING AN EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT “All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.” ― Molière “When I was a kid, the county in which I lived was dry. That is, you had to buy your booze from a bootlegger in order to keep the

NewBlackMan (in Exile) New Wharton Business Dean Erika James Says Lack Of Diversity Stems From A Lack Of Prioritizing by Mark Anthony Neal / 14h 'One of the country's leading business schools — the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania — has never had a woman or a person of color as its dean since it was founded nearly 140 years ago. Until now. Erika James was named as Wharton's 15th

Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report The Continued Underrepresentation of Black and Latino Undergraduates at the Nation’s 101 Most Selective Public Colleges and Universities by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 23h THIS REPORT EXAMINES how access for Black and Latino students at the nation’s 101 most selective public colleges and universities has changed since 2000, and whether these

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “Eight Ways to Use Movement in Teaching & Learning” by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h Eight Ways to Use Movement in Teaching & Learning is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. F

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 Mercedes Schneider: No State Has Met CDC Guidelines But Schools Are Opening Anyway 32 by dianeravitch / 21min Mercedes Schneider reviews the current condition of many states and points out that no state has met the conditions described in the CDC

EXAMINING HIGHER EDUCATION APPROACHES TO ADVANCING TEACHER DIVERSITY I’m looking forward to the conversation today entitled “Examining Higher Education Approaches to Advancing Teacher Diversity” on zoom sponsored by Education Deans for Justice . Education Deans for Justice and Equity ( EDJE ) is a nationwide alliance of education deans that advances equity and justice in education. The panelists

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 You Won’t Want To Miss This NY Times Podcast On School Segregation: “Nice White Parents” 23 by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h mohamed_hassan / Pixabay The New York Times just announced that they are unveiling a new podcast next week called “Nice White Parents.” : “Nice White Parents” is a new podcast from Seria

Resources Identified to Support Distance Learning - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Identify Resources, Partnerships Available to Support Successful Distance Learning in the Fall SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and leaders serving on the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force identified new resour

How Many People Have to Die Here? In Israel, the reopened the school buildings. A 64-year-old teacher died of Coronavirus after having reported that parents failed to quarantine students with the virus. Could that happen in a country where a President generally pretends the virus doesn't exist? Could someone be unfamiliar with the symptoms and assume it's something else? Could someone decide to

Who's With Us? These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Today is the final day of the free part of The Play First Summit , a project that my friend Sally Haughey from Fairy Dust Teaching proposed to my wife Jennifer and me a mere three months ago. Three months. That's hardly enough time to plan a decent dinner party, let alone an international gathering of early childhood educators and parent

The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools this Fall | CDC The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools this Fall As families and policymakers make decisions about their children returning to school, it is important to consider the full spectrum of benefits and risks of both in-person and virtual learning options. Parents are understandably concerned about the safety of their children at scho

Perhaps a Paradigm for the Entire Country: Washington Education Association demands safety first in any plans to return to school this fall As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to grow across Washington [and elsewhere], we are sadly faced with a choice between two bad options – either return to schools and put our educators, students, and community at risk or return to a distance learni

Our Children Need Us to Bring the Pandemic Under Control: Only Then Can Public Schools Fully Reopen This blog will take a one week break. Look for a new post on Monday, August 3 . Widespread disarray as schools struggle to figure out how to reopen is a catastrophe we have permitted to occur this summer as we all watched. Most of us failed to pay enough attention. On some level, I have begun to w

DCPS gives "SOME" i.e poor families an impossible choice while telling OTHER i.e. well off families to opt for safety. DCPS gives "SOME" i.e poor families an impossible choice while telling OTHER i.e. well off families to opt for safety, they exacerbate the inequalities between groups and further harm the families they think they are helping. In short with fronds like superintendent Greene and t

Will the Tech Industry’s Obsession for Disruption End my Blogging Last Saturday, July 18, 2020, my blogging was disrupted by WordPress, and my temper, calm for months, exploded. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had lunch with friends every week and joined others in group meetups. Thanks to the virus, I have lived alone since March 13. No one has visited me, and I have visited no one. Zoom, e-mail

Review of Updated School Guidance Webinar July 20 - Health Services & School Nursing (CA Dept of Education) Review of Governor's updated COVID-19 guidance for schools Webinar Recorded webinar on the Review of Updated School Guidance from the California Department of Education on July 20, 2020. During this webinar, officials from CDE and the California Department of Public Health will provide loca

Providence Journal Blasts Governor Raimondo for Acting Like Trump The Providence Journal published a scathing editorial about Governor Gina Raimondo’s dereliction of duty in demanding the full opening of schools next month while failing to provide sensible plans to do so. It is titled “Rhode Island’s Education System Goes from Mediocre to Just Plain Chaotic.” Raimondo is a former venture capital

HOW TO MOTIVATE A READER? MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD The First Question to Ask of a Vulnerable Reader In this recent blog post, Russ Walsh provides us with seven thing s teachers can do to foster a desire to learn to read in their students. Unfortunately, if students come to school without the desire to learn to read, it just makes it that much harder for teachers to convert them into avid readers. The

Polls: Parents Are Hurting Without Child Care But In No Rush To Reopen Schools For American families with children, the pandemic has meant lost income, increased child care responsibilities, worry and stress. But a majority are not eager for schools to reopen this fall, given the health risk. That's according to two new national polls of parents by the Kaiser Family Foundation and ParentsTogethe

Rachel Cohen: Pandemic Creates Opening for Public Funding of Home Schooling Rachel Cohen writes that the pandemic is encouraging many parents to consider home schooling and to pressure Congress to pay them to do it. I disagree. Before the pandemic, about 2 million children were home schooled, mostly by parents who were either evangelical Christians or who worried about the diverse culture of the

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Slideshow: Sketchnotes From Books About Teaching ELLs by Larry Ferlazzo / 19min Katie Toppel is the founder and coordinator of a fabulous online book study group for teachers of English Language Learners. She makes “sketchnotes” about the different books, and she agreed to let me share a

Families Of Children With Special Needs Are Suing In Several States. Here's Why. Vanessa Ince's daughter, Alexis, has a rare chromosomal abnormality and autism. Alexis has thrived at her public school in Wailuku, Hawaii, and loves spending time with her classmates. Ince says when the COVID-19 pandemic closed her school in Wailuku, the effect on her daughter's well-being was "devastating." "Alexi

Making the Grade When the pandemic shuttered schools, it also put grades on hold, and exposed an underlying problem frequently ignored before the crisis: A-F grades serve several different and conflicting purposes. In the latest episode of Have You Heard, historian of education and friend of the show Ethan Hutt joins us to discuss the origins of our high-stakes grading system and what we might d

Teachers May Use Federal Disability, Medical-Leave Laws to Fight Return to Classroom Teachers who fear returning to the classroom due to COVID-19 might consider using federal disability and medical-leave laws to force schools to allow them to teach remotely from home, according to a legal memo prepared for the national American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union. But the memo and the union cauti

Some Students Should Go to School, Most Should Stay Home by Shayla R. Griffin, PhD, MSW THE PROBLEM Currently, the U.S. education debate is stuck in an either/or trap — either we open schools for face-to-face instruction, or we pursue only online teaching and learning. People from both camps say their thinking is informed by a commitment to equity and social justice. Those who think schools must

Cartoons on Re-Opening during Pandemic As barber shops and tattoo parlors open, as customers return to bars and restaurants, as parents are called back to work, louder and louder calls for children to return to school mount. I have collected cartoons that poke at the re-opening of “normal” life including schools. Enjoy! MORE CARTOONS: Cartoons on Re-Opening during Pandemic | Larry Cuban on Schoo

1st NYC school planning all-remote for September – more will follow Gotta start somewhere. NEST+ is planning to go all-remote . Carranza will say no. But that’s only the first. New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math High School is a highly regarded Manhattan K-12 school. They’re going to get attention. They’re reasoning will be good. They will better serve their community, while keep

"Talk out of School" podcast on Outdoor Learning with Liat Olenick and John Allgood In my latest podcast, I spoke to Liat Olenick and John Allgood, both NYC teachers who have led students in outdoor learning, who explained how this would be a great option for schools to adopt next year, both for health and safety reasons and for its educational benefits. They also discussed issues related to sch

NAACP Sues Betsy DeVos Over Federal Aid Money For Private Schools The NAACP has become the latest organization to sue the Education Department over the distribution of more than $13 billion in federal aid intended for K-12 schools. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a rule that says if states want to use the funds to provide services for all students, such as tutoring or extra school buses t

Today in Flip Flops--de Blasio Comes to His Senses, Maybe It's hard to say which mayor we want to see. This notwithstanding, I'm going to opt for this week's mayor . A few weeks ago, Bill de Blasio was telling the entire world that New York City schools would be open for business in September. That was a remarkable thing to hear. After all, NYC hasn't even opened indoor restaurants yet. Broadway

It Will Take a Village to Open Schools Safely | The Merrow Report It Will Take a Village to Open Schools Safely When public schools closed in March because of the pandemic, a different U.S. President would have said to the education community, “Children, their parents, teachers, and the economy will need schools to open in the fall, so please tell me how the Federal Government can help.” Unfortun

NewBlackMan (in Exile) Phi Beta Sigma International President Hon. Bro. Micheal E. Cristal on the Passing of Congresman and Hon. Bro. John R. Lewis by Mark Anthony Neal / 1h 'Bro. Rod Carter, 2nd VP of Sigma Xi Sigma and news anchor for WFLA News Channel 8, talked with International President, Hon. Bro. Micheal E. Cristal , on the passing of Congressman, Hon. Bro. John R. Lewis .' Yolonda Wilson

IN FOR A DIME, IN FOR A DOLLAR…or 5 MILLION OF THEM “He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex

What is the HEROES Bill? How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple What is the HEROES Bill? How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson] In May the Democratic-majority in the House of Representatives passed the HEROES bill, a $3 trillion (yes, a 3 with twelve zeros), a bill that included f

Five (Conservative) Ideas about Going Back to School in the Fall Could you give us some of your wisdom? Hard to turn down a request like that, from a friend. This particular friend created a freebie news magazine for parents 20 years ago, filled with local ads and feature stories. It’s professionally assembled and well-known locally—and has just shifted to a glossy online platform. And now, my f

Ten things parents could and should do to help schools safely reopen There are a mountain of stories every day about what schools and districts have to do to reopen schools in a manner deemed safe for the 2020-21 year. Schools and districts are, for example, spending enormous amounts of money to buy masks to give students and teachers, thermometers to take temperatures of kids before they walk o

In Defense of Our Teachers When it comes to the daunting question of reopening schools, America’s educators deserve a plan, not a trap I hate to break it to you, but I was a terrible student. Each day, I desperately waited for the final bell to ring so that I could be released from the confines of my stuffy, windowless classroom and run home to my guitar. It was no fault of the Fairfax County Pu

| Diane Ravitch's blog John Thompson: Save My Former Student’s Life John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, makes an urgent appeal to save the life of his former student Julius Jones. He writes: I just watched the rebroadcast of ABC’s “20 20” documentary, “The Last Defense,” about my former student, Julius Jones, who is on Death Row even though he’s probably innocent. It was an

School reopening plans must ensure safety of custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and substitutes We need millions more from the federal government to protect the most vulnerable school staff if we’re going to keep everyone safe in schools “Students want and need to come back to school,” Kimberly Martin, a principal of Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. told me last week. Marti

Educators Prepare for Reopening with Living Wills and Life Insurance As school districts and college campuses get ready for the school year, and as COVID-19 cases rise across the U.S ., anxious educators have a message for administratorhttp://neatoday.org/wp-admin/upload.phps and lawmakers: We want to teach our students, but we don’t want to die doing it. “I want to be in my class, teaching them

Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief Back in session this week following a two-week, July 4th recess, Congress must now pass emergency fiscal relief for states and local school districts to make it safe for students and their teachers to return to school this fall. To rescue school districts whose funding has already begun to erode as the recession has undermin

Greene's apathy towards teachers is disturbing (draft) I would like you to listen to the 1:06-1:10 mark of the meeting. There Superintendent Greene answers the question, if there was no executive order what would she do, start with distance learning, go with a hybrid, or something else. https://www.facebook.com/watchparty/593166871393231/?entry_source=USER_TIMELINE She says she would still push

Discussing Safety while Looking at Educational Justice and Equality My primary focus for the last few days, weeks, months, has been safety. And Black Lives Matter. And the pandemic. But for the last few days, as the NYC Department of Education has issued directives that they have mislabeled “plans,” it has been just safety. A friend asked me to reframe the conversation in a way to bring the need

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Wednesday’s Three “Must-Read” Articles On School Reopening Plans by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Here are today’s new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FAL

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 John Thompson: Save My Former Student’s Life by dianeravitch / 47min John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, makes an urgent appeal to save the life of his former student Julius Jones. He writes: I just watched the rebroadcast of A

No State Has Met CDC Guidelines for Steadily-Decreasing COVID Cases, So Let’s Open Schools Opening school buildings at this point nationwide represents different levels of crazy across the country. Coronavirus is on the rise across the nation, and it is certainly more than “just the flu.” The virus is a crap shoot for those who contract it. Maybe they will show no symptoms . Maybe they will be m

Finally Integrating Public Education Is All The Reparations We Need Finally integrating and raising the academic level of all our schools- public and private- is all the reparations we as a people would need for this country to finally reach its potential for ALL our people. As superb writer and intellect James Baldwin and many others have known for generations, an "educated people, of any color

| A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Contact your legislators now – schools desperately need funding to reopen safely next fall! Last week, Governor Cuomo , the State Department of Health , and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and sa

Outflanking CTA From The Left: How Anti-Racist Demands Are Captured By Privateers The death of George Floyd in custody of the Minneapolis City Police has roiled our nation. There can be no tolerance of murder, which is all the more abominable at the hands of authority. As citizens everywhere rise – and continue to rise – to protest injustice, and we collectively contemplate systemic and institut

‘It's insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires Families haven’t had to prove their income in recent months, but the Trump administration hasn’t extended that flexibility The Trump administration is resisting calls to make it easy for tens of millions of students to get free meals at school this year, even as childhood hunger rates have risen to the highes

Teacher: 8 school concerns robbing me of sleep - The Washington Post Teacher: Eight concerns about school this fall that are robbing me of sleep The beginning of the 2020-2021 school year is just weeks away for millions of students — and some districts have yet to provide clarity on what is going to happen then. With covid-19 cases rising — sometimes exponentially — in numerous states, a growing

Where Lynching Terrorized Black Americans, Corporal Punishment In Schools Lives On These counties had high rates of lynchings. Now their schools are more likely to paddle Black children, a new study reveals. DURANT, MISSISSIPPI ― Justice Grisby, like every other student in Holmes County School District, knew about the paddle. Long, smooth and wooden, it was kept locked away in the principal’s of

Public Education Partners: Ohio Is Not Ready for a Safe Reopening Public Education Partners is the leading volunteer advocacy group for public schools in Ohio. They issued this statement last night. We are public education experts. Public Education Partners (PEP) is a statewide, grassroots public education advocacy group whose mission is to preserve, protect, and strengthen Ohio’s public schools

When Can Kids Go Back To School? Leaders Say 'As Soon As It's Safe' Ann Levett's worst day as superintendent of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System wasn't March 26, the day Georgia's governor first closed schools, keeping Levett's more than 37,000 students home in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Her worst day came just a couple of weeks ago, Levett says, when she realized the infe

Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design? The Jacksonville press is reporting only 7 percent of students have signed up for some sort of virtual learning. Tampa's media is reporting half their children are and nationally seventy percent of parents think sending children to school is risky, so is Jacksonville and outlier, or is something else going on? From News4Jax, With three week

Reopening Schools Issues and Evidence By Thomas Ultican 7/21/2020 The President of the United States and his Secretary of Education have demanded schools open with in-person classes five days a week. Many parents are not confident their children will be safe and significant numbers of teachers are profoundly frightened . How does the rhetoric square with credible scientific evidence concerning t

NYC Safety Plan for Schools – Needed, Doesn’t Exist Each school is working, planning. Shouldn’t each school come up with a safety plan? Isn’t each school unique? Schools do need to apply safety guidelines to their individual situations. But those guidelines need to come from the New York City Department of Education – a citywide safety plan. And, as of today, no dice. There is a New York State d

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Guest Post: How Teachers & Students Can Use Google Classroom’s Calendar Most Effectively – Part Two 31 by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h JCamargo / Pixabay Editor’s Note: Yesterday, Kara Synhorst

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 New York: Billionaires Get Richer During Pandemic by dianeravitch / 51min A group called Americans for Tax Fairness has tracked the remarkable increase in the wealth of billionaires during the rise of the pandemic. Shouldn’t billionaires pay higher

Please urge your legislators now to support our schools so they can reopen safely next year! Last week, Governor Cuomo , the State Department of Health , and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and safety as well as provide instructional and emotional support to their students. If the CO

Those Zany Madcap NY State Guidelines--Up Against the Wall, Teacher They say you should watch your back. Well, you can't really watch your back without mirrors, and you won't have any of them anyway. But your students will be watching your back very carefully. On page 29 of this document it states the following: Turn desks (including teachers) to face in the same direction rather than facing eac

WHEN DOES CRISIS BECOME EVOLUTION “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg “I will baptise her,” he said. “You have walked a long way for something you believe in. In our day that is rare. People seldom walk long distances for their faith. That’s why the world looks the way it does.” ― Henning Mankell, Sidetracked For

The First Question to Ask of a Vulnerable Reader When I was six years old, I was given my very first "big boy" two wheel bicycle for Christamas. I loved it. I can still see it all shiny and red and huge by the Christmas tree. As soon as my Dad would let me, I took it out the side door into the driveway, leapt aboard (it was too big for my six-year-old legs) aimed it down the steep drive, and rod

Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before! Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before! For years this country has ignored school infrastructure due to attempts to privatize public education. This includes indoor air quality (IAQ). It has been a part of the overall disinvestment in America’s public schools. We’re told by the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),

No-Excuses Charter Chain Fires Principal for Caring About Children and Teachers Emily Hoefling was principal of Leadership Prep Canarsie in Brooklyn, which is part of the Uncommon Schools charter chain. She was fired because she dared to express views that ran counter to the authoritarian culture of the chain. Yes, she writes, it is an authoritarian regime, and it always was. When she led a prof

Waiting For a Teaching Assignment This Year is Like Anticipating a Death Sentence Going to the mailbox each time, my heart flutters. I open the lid and see a stack of letters. My heart sinks. Is today the day? Has my teaching assignment finally arrived? It’s not that I’m so anxious to find out what grade I’ll be teaching this year or whether I have lunch duty or have to monitor in-school suspens

Introduction To My Next Book (Part 4) This is the final part of my draft Introduction to “Confessions of a School Reformer.” The research literature on children’s academic performance has shown time and again that anywhere from over half to two-thirds of minority and white students’ test scores—lower, middle, and upper class–can be attributed to family’s socioeconomic background. Yet many educat

Betsy DeVos Isn't Serious About Reopening Schools: Here's How We Know | Eclectablog Betsy DeVos Isn’t Serious About Reopening Schools: Here’s How We Know You know how I know that the corporate education reformers, and their leader, Betsy DeVos, were never serious about actually improving public education? Because now, in the midst of a global pandemic, and a complete lack of national education po

Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely he Oklahoma City Public Schools ’ “ Roadmap to Readiness ” is a good blueprint for reopening schools. It is consistent with the leaked 69-page Center for Disease Control analysis that the Trump administration refused to release, which also described school reopenings as the “highest risk” for

We need time & faith & funds to reopen schools safely As a rule, whenever you see something Trump is doing, do the opposite, That may seem like a no-brainer, but right now, with all the conversation going on about whether schools should, or shouldn’t open, I think it bears remembering. Lately, in many of the “pod” conversations sprouting up on social media, I’m noticing that parents and caregive

New Study: Children As Young As 10 Can Spread the Virus The New York Times reports on a new study from South Korea that finds that children as young as 10 can spread the coronavirus. Will the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC revise their guidelines based on this new information? A large new study from South Korea offers an answer: Children younger than 10 transmit to others much less o

Trump vs. Biden on reopening schools There are, not unexpectedly, big differences between the approaches that President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden are taking about whether and how to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has been repeatedly saying that all schools should open fully — even in areas where coronavirus infection rates are spiking — and that he wants to

Disappointing but Not Surprising: Trump and DeVos Ignore Equity and Abandon Safety In Demands to Reopen Schools There is lots of penetrating writing about the collapse of our society’s ideals in these months since mid-March, when we suddenly realized the coronavirus was among us. As the weeks wore on last spring, and children were thrust into online lessons provided by their schools, a vast invi

Daycare for working families is a city and state problem not a school problem. Let me say everyone wants to be back in school, and my heart breaks for those working families put in impossible positions, but that being said, teachers and school staff members shouldn't have to risk their lives because the cities and state won't do their #$%@ing jobs. You hear it all the time, schools need to open

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Vacation Edition (7/19) Vacation Edition The Institute staff and board of directors are headed for a corporate retreat in a place where the internet doesn't really reach, so things will be quiet here for a bit. But before I go, here's some reading for you to do. Sorry for all the paywalls today. There have been several recurriing themes in this week's coverage. For instance

COVID-19: Teachers are ready to open classrooms if Congress acts Randi Weingarten: Teachers want to be in a classroom — Congress must make it safe Teachers aren't waiting for a vaccine to reopen schools, but we do need to keep students and educators safe. Where is the support from lawmakers? We can usually count on a president and Education secretary to prioritize children’s and teachers’ well-be

As fear of the virus wins out, a fast retreat from in-person learning From the moment schools shuttered unceremoniously in March, one thought dominated: How to return. Officials across the Washington region huddled to make plans for a triumphant resumption of in-person learning. Discussions persisted into the summer: Superintendents held listening sessions to solicit safety suggestions, parents

There are no good choices when it comes to opening schools in the fall. I'm still hoping for something better TOTAL U.S. CASES 3,630,587 74,710 New Cases* TOTAL DEATHS 138,782 918 New Deaths* TO BE SURE, THERE ARE DECENT PEOPLE, MAINLY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL, TRYING TO COME UP WITH HUMANE PLANS FOR THE FALL—PLANS THAT KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE, TEACH THEM, AND DON’T KILL THOUSANDS OF TEACHERS WHILE DOING S

The Safest and Best Education for our Students If you read my NY Post piece yesterday , you know I'm less than bullish on Mayor de Blasio's opening plan. In that piece, I give some suggestions on how we best approach September. Hong Kong's in its third wave of Covid, closing its Disney Park and movie theaters. Chancellor Carranza and Mayor de Blasio appear determined to set us on our second wave

Betsy DeVos wants to turn millions of America’s children into pandemic lab rats The trouble with actually listening to Education Sec. Betsy DeVos and other Trump cabinet members is that their words lead nowhere. They are circular arguments: Schools should open despite coronavirus because, well, schools should be open. Clearly DeVos is backing Trump’s demand for schools across the country to be f

This teacher and mother of 3 says she may quit if forced back to school, and so will other educators like her Heather Mace is a teacher mentor in Arizona, where coronavirus infections are rising, a teacher working in summer school died of the disease and educators are calling on Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to start the 2020-2021 school year online. Some districts have already announced they are going to

EdAction in Congress July 19, 2020 McConnell’s coronavirus bill to be unveiled this week Two months after the House took bold action and passed the HEROES Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is finally expected to reveal his vision for the next coronavirus bill. Initial indications are that it will provide insufficient support for education and contain multiple poison pills, inclu

A Teacher's Letter: “Our students are not problems” by Kirstin Roberts “I've been struggling to put into words my thoughts about CPS re-opening plans: Terrifying, Nope, and Heartbroken are definitely up there. Then, reading about the police violence carried out on young people at the demonstrations last evening in Chicago--a 16 year old young Black woman had her teeth knocked by club-wielding co

Joe and Jill Biden Speak Out About Reopening Schools This is an excellent message from the Bidens about reopening schools safely. They say what most educators and parents say. We want schools open but we want them open safely. Job one: lower the infection rate in the community. Job two: Make sure schools have the resources so that students and adults are safe. Biden pledges to follow through on

About those teacher raises When DeSantis declared this the year of the teacher, little did we know that he meant, the year he would use them as a prop and put their lives in danger, but that is sure what happened. Now about that teacher raise. He put 500 million towards them but then took out 480 million by eliminating the best and brightest and school recognition funds. Now I didn't like either

Why NYC's school reopening plan fails students and teachers Why de Blasio’s school reopening plan fails students and teachers alike Many people argue it’s important for the social and emotional well-being of our students to be in school. That’s not even debatable. It’s essential to children and teenagers to interact with both peers and authority figures. They must practice skills to navigate our

Heroes Act Matters for NYC Schools (but too late for September) The Heroes Act would send money to the states, and NY State would send some to localities, including NYC, which could then spend it on essential workers and teachers: …nearly $1 trillion in aid for state and local governments so they can pay “vital workers like first responders, health workers, and teachers” Right now, the Chancello

Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 7/18/20 ‘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 Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post TOP POSTS THIS