Parents struggle to find resources, fit into new role as their children’s teacher Parents throughout California have been forced into a role they never expected by the coronavirus pandemic: They are now their child’s teacher. With different job pressures and resources at home, families’ responses have varied. Some have put their children on school schedules to give them a semblance of normalcy,
Shop Class, Over Zoom How one career and technical high school is going remote Editor’s Note: This story is the 16th in our series “ On Teaching ,” which aims to collect the wisdom and knowledge of veteran educators. As the coronavirus pandemic has forced the majority of American students to learn at home or remotely, we’re asking some of the country’s most experienced and accomplished teachers
May 4-8 is Teacher Appreciation Week Now more than ever, it is fitting that we celebrate educators—teachers and ESPs—and their unwavering fortitude, optimism, creativity, and love for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bipartisan resolutions, introduced in both chambers to designate May 4-8 Teacher Appreciation Week , note that educators “have stepped up in new ways to support their students
Sahlberg and Doyle on the Play Revolution on Long Island Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle celebrate the importance of play in their new book, Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive , published by Oxford University Press. This article, excerpted from their book, features the work of Superintendent Michael Hynes and the Patchogue-Medford school district
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Closing the Digital Divide Task Force Call for Free Internet for California's Students SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that his Closing the Digital Divide Task Force is asking the leaders of major internet service providers to provide free guest access to all of California’s students. Executives from these
Congressional Leaders Rebuke DeVos for Excluding 7.5 Million Students from Emergency Aid Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a hard, cruel woman. We all knew she is a billionaire. What was not yet clear is that she is utterly heartless. She drew up a list of students who would not get any federal assistance during the pandemic, although Congress did not authorize her to exclude anyone. FOR IMM
How will school districts determine local budgeting priorities? Governor Cuomo announced that New York State schools are closed till the end of June, 4800 schools in 700 school districts, CUNY, SUNY and private colleges. Over 4 million students scattered across the state. The decision whether summer schools will be open will be made by the end of May and September openings will be driven by the
| A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Update on busing contracts, my birthday request, and interview with Michael Mulgrew next week Dear Friends, 1. On Wed., the Panel for Educational Policy was scheduled to meet and vote on several huge contracts, including school busing for $200 million for March and another $200 million for April, though all
NewBlackMan (in Exile) All Of It: ''The Last Dance' Director Jason Hehir by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d 'Director Jason Hehir discusses The Last Dance , his 10-part documentary miniseries about Michael Jordan on ESPN.' -- All Of It Robin DiAngelo Wants to Be a Little Less White by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d 'Author and educator Robin DiAngelo wants white people to ask themselves “What does it mean to be
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report YESTERDAY NAEP scores: Pre-Common Core improvement replaced by declines after Common Core was implemented by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 17h U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and ma
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 “Six Weeks Into Remote Teaching & Still Learning …” by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h Six Weeks Into Remote Teaching & Still Learning … is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher colum
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 Congressional Leaders Rebuke DeVos for Excluding 7.5 Million Students from Emergency Aid 46 by dianeravitch / 15h Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a hard, cruel woman. We all knew she is a billionaire. What was not yet clear is that she is u
Trump Teams Up With Catholic Church For School Vouchers The Tablet is a magazine of Catholic news and opinion; they got their hands on a recording of the April 26 conference call phone meeting between some 600 prominent American Catholics and the "best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church." According to Christopher White, reporting for The Tablet, the call included Cardinal Timothy
A Conversation about the Pandemic and Early Childhood Education Every Wednesday at 7:40 pm EST, the Network for Public Education has hosted a conversation about education. All the conversations are archived here. In the first one, I discussed my new book SLAYING GOLIATH with Carol Burris. In the second one, I talked to Pastor Charles Foster Johnson of Pastors for Texas Children about their fight
Survey: Parents Overwhelmingly Support Educators During Pandemic When the coronavirus pandemic forced school buildings across the country to close the doors in March, educators reacted quickly, not only to continue students’ education, but help them stay fed, supported and healthy. Teachers moved their classes online , cafeteria workers are preparing and distributing meals at grab-and-go station
‘Students simply need us’: Educators urge Congress to fix homework gap now By Amanda Litvinov Even before he launched his distance learning classroom last week, middle school band director Blake Bogan knew he faced some unique challenges. “Most of my job is listening to students and helping them mix and blend their sound with their peers,” says Bogan, who teaches at Raceland Middle School in Rac
Education Equity or Else: The Danger and Opportunity for Public Schools in an Era of Covid The widespread closure of public schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic have put a spotlight on their importance not just in educating children, but providing nutrition, mental and physical health support, and critical services to the neighborhoods and communities in which they’re located. But just because t
DeVos sued for seizing student loan borrowers' wages during pandemic The lawsuit claims that the Education Department hasn’t actually halted the practice and is continuing to garnish wages in violation of the CARES Act. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to garnish the wages of federal student loan borrowers who fall behind on payments even though Congress suspended the practice in th
LeBron James Celebrates 2020 Class With Star-Studded TV Special NBA superstar LeBron James is once again proving himself to be a hero both on and off of the basketball court. The three-time NBA champ is putting together an all-star event to honor the 2020 high school graduating class since graduation ceremonies aren’t happening due to the ongoing pandemic. According to AP News , the LeBron James
Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of the U.S. Department of Education: The Transformation of Federal Education Politics Source: Cato.org. Kosar remarks start at 29:50. Chris Cross and Ron Kimberling have spoken of the creation of the Department of Education and its earliest years in operation. My own comments will focus on a broader issue of the Department of Education (ED) an
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 TODAY It’s “May Day” – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h jonye123 / Pixabay Though May Day is an ancient celebration , since the late nineteenth century i
Survey: Parents Overwhelmingly Support Educators During Pandemic When the coronavirus pandemic forced school buildings across the country to close the doors in March, educators reacted quickly, not only to continue students’ education, but help them stay fed, supported and healthy. Teachers moved their classes online , cafeteria workers are preparing and distributing meals at grab-and-go station
Sounds about White All Lives Matter “Karen” is the same as the “N” word We value diversity but will hire the most qualified candidate I don’t see color, race I grew up poor and built this from hard work Heritage, not hate Traditional family values Just follow the law/rules, and you don’t have anything to worry about Blue Lives Matter Make America CONTINUE READING: Sounds about White – radical ey
Appeals Court Decision Guarantees Basic Literacy as a Federal Fundamental Right for Detroit’s Children In a court decision last week in a case brought by students in Detroit, Gary B. v Whitmer , a three judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel recognized that a basic level of education is a federal right under the “due process” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The appeals co
School Principals As Reformers Sometime ago, I taught a one-day session for 30-plus secondary school principals in the San Francisco Bay area. The subject was “Principals as Change Leaders.” Seems like a contradiction in terms at first since these principals from affluent suburbs and inner cities are often caught in the middle between bosses who tell them to implement district policies in their
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Hosts First Virtual Parent Support Circle Event with California Surgeon General SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond hosted the first online event for the new Virtual Parent Support Circle yesterday in the form of a panel discussion with California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and partners from the California Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
WILL MAY BE ‘MORBID’ OR ‘MAGICAL’? May has been an educational ‘dead zone’ for years. Because of our national obsession with standardized test scores, teachers–particularly in low income areas–spend class time showing students how to guess at answers, giving practice tests, and even teaching children how to fill in bubbles for the standardized, multiple choice ‘bubble’ tests that await them. The
How Will The Free Market Save The Most Challenging Students Yesterday, Debbie Meyer put up a post at Project Forever Free that, unfortunately, does not strain the limits of credulity. It's about her journey as a parent and advocate, about the struggle to get her child the educational services that he's entitled to, and her subsequent work in helping other parents learn how to do the same. Strugg
‘Coronavirus Capitalism’ Is Coming for Public Schools Watch out Seattle Amid the pandemic, superintendents are gaining the power to sell out public education for private gain. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, public schools in Seattle have closed for the remainder of the school year. But before that decision was made, the local school board gave away one of the public’s most critical needs in a
New efforts to close America’s deep digital divide - Th e Washington Post Coronavirus pandemic shines light on deep digital divide in U.S. amid efforts to narrow it When schools around the country began to close this spring because of the spread of the coronavirus , millions of students had the resources to transition to online learning — but not in Detroit. Some 90 percent of the 51,000 students
Grassroots Education Network- April 2020 Newsletter The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 140 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education
School Districts Are Preparing To Lay Off Thousands Amid Coronavirus-Related Budget Shortfalls Big city districts have warned that they may have to cut as many as 275,000 staff members combined as tax revenue plummets due to economic shutdowns. Robert Runcie, superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, is currently preparing for a disaster. It’s not related to the multitude of lo
In Gary B. v. Snyder, a federal court rules giving children a chance at literacy is a constitutional right A federal court says underfunded schools in Detroit violated students’ right to a basic education. Advocates hope the case is the beginning of a trend. At his Detroit high school, Jamarria Hall loved the classes where students could share textbooks, passing six torn and outdated hardcovers
Do We Need a National Gap Year? It was the worst of times, and then…it got even worse. The age of foolishness, incredulity and the winter of our darkness and despair. But now, it’s spring, and even in Michigan, the snow patches in the woods have receded and everyone’s talking about what comes next. Because, clearly, Plans Must Be Made. We have to get back to normal. Even though normal wasn’t wor
Social Media and the Marketplace of Ideas When I was first married, we lived in the room of my parents’ house that had been converted from a garage. My sister and her husband also lived with my parents, them in her old bedroom inside the main house. One night, we were awakened by my sister pulling the screened door to the room free of the flimsy latch, yelling that my father needed help. That wa
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 Statistic Of The Day: 300,000 Teacher Lay-Offs? by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h Yesterday, I posted Statistic Of The Day: Upcoming Budget Cuts Will Devastate Schools. For even more depressing
Andy Hargreaves: What We Have Learned So Far from the Coronavirus Pandemic Andy Hargreaves consults with eight education ministries about education strategy, after a long career as professor and researcher at Boston College. He is currently working with Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Uruguay. This article in The Conversation summarizes what schools have
With Safety a Priority, What Will Teaching Look Like? Mulgrew has a piece in the Daily News that discusses safeguards for returning to work. He's spoken about pretty much all these things at various meetings I've attended. Of course testing for corona virus is little more than a cruel joke these days. I know someone whose partner, a nurse, suffered for two weeks with fever, and was denied pay fo
Why Johnny Cant Read, Part 2: Income Inequity In an earlier post, here, I laid out what I believe to be the multiple reasons for reading failure in this country: income inequity, racism and segregation, brain-based reading disorders, environmental factors, and quality of instruction. Without addressing all of these issues, some societal, some child-based, and some school-based, we will never ade
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces New Statewide Benefit Program to Help Food Insecure Students During Coronavirus Pandemic SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a new food assistance program for children throughout the state who are living in households struggling with food insecurity. T
This Is Not What School Will Look Like Good lord-- the advice/guidance/clever thoughts about how to re-open schools, particularly if any state decides to follow Trump's latest unfiltered brain fart , seem to have been generated, once again, by people who have not been inside a school since they became adults. In some cases, the advice appears to come from people who have never met tiny humans at
"Talk out of School" with Naomi Peña and Matt Gonzales Check out our latest " Talk out of School" podcast with advocate Matt Gonzales and parent leader Naomi Pe ñ a, President of Community Education Council District 1. We discussed many of the challenges confronting families facing with remote learning, the pandemic and the just-announced DOE announced grading policy. NYC Public School Parents:
We Could Not Pick a Better Time Yesterday, I read that the President wants state governors to "seriously consider and maybe get going on opening schools." It wasn't a surprise, of course, given that he's been advocating for a rapid end to our nationwide quarantine. As anyone who has been reading here knows, I'm more concerned about the social-emotional toll this is taking on us, than I am either
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Research suggests that online learning has been sho
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 Statistic Of The Day: Upcoming Budget Cuts Will Devastate Schools by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h It’s unfortunately no surprise, but schools are going to get creamed by upcoming budget cuts.
AFT PRESIDENT WEINGARTEN DENOUNCES DEVOS’ MISUSE OF COVID-19 FUNDS Weingarten: “DeVos is using what little discretionary money was provided for education in the CARES Act to move full-steam ahead with turning our public schools into online cash cows for her corporate friends." U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is apparently misusing COVID-19 funding to promote her privatization
Christine Langhoff: The Great Boston School Heist Christine Langhoff is a retired teachers in Massachusetts who is an activist on behalf of public schools. She warns here about the unfolding plot to impose a state takeover of Boston public schools. Having been decisively rebuffed at the polls by the state’s voters in 2016, the Walton allies on the state board have found another way to disrupt an
The Importance of Public Schooling and What Has To Change When Schools Reopen You may remember the outrageous paean to school choice delivered by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council back in the summer of 2017: “Choice in education is good politics because it’s good policy. It’s good policy because it comes from good parents w
Los Angeles: UTLA Responds to Governor Newsom’s Suggestion to Open Schools in Mid-Summer Governor Gavin Newsom laid out his thoughts about a phased reopening of the state, including the possibility of opening schools as early as late a July or early August. The United Teachers of Los Angeles responded with their thoughts. The union said: An early start to the school year in LA would have to be b
DeVos’ “COVID Emergency” Competition Funding to be Awarded… in July(?) US ed sec Betsy DeVos is having a COVID competition to *rethink education* for “states with the highest coronavirus burden.” From the US Department of Education (USDOE) “new grant competition” press release , dated April 27, 2020: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced today more than $300 million in discretionary
SOME REMAINDERS FROM THE “MOVING FROM EQUALITY TO EQUITY AND JUSTICE” WORKSHOP FOR NCTM If you’d like to watch the video, you gotta go to them . Thanks to the 800+ of you who attended and the other 3000+ of you who’ve watched it afterward. I’m so deeply appreciative. Some thoughts about this work. Last year, I set to elevate a conversation about belonging within the National Council of Teachers
Khan Academy:This Is Better We are just going to keep seeing these kinds of headlines until this mess is behind us: Khan Academy founder: Balance between in-person, online learning could be ‘silver lining’ of crisis . Is it? Is it a silver lining that some ed tech folks are going to grab some market share over this? Khan Academy has seen a steady uptick in the use of their product, which, for th
KIPP Sinks To New Low. Uses COVID-19 As An Opportunity To Abandon Two Memphis Schools. The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter network is renowned as the ‘gold star’ of charter schools in the country. With over 200 schools throughout the country and over 100,000 students, KIPP is the kind of network that reformers are referring to when they talk about ‘high quality charters.’ In researchin
Tell Congress: Stop DeVos from using emergency funding to advance her privatization agenda It’s outrageous. Betsy DeVos took $180 million in federal coronavirus relief funds and is using the money to create a competition for states to get millions for voucher-like grants and for private virtual, online education. Send your letter and tell Congress to direct DeVos to stop using CARES Act funding
VIDEO: The Schools Seattle Deserves Press Conference–Vote for Jon Greenberg, Marquita Prinzing, and the full slate of social justice educators! “Even in the best of times the Seattle Public Schools has needed the union to…hold it accountable. And during a global pandemic, when more and more people are starting to understand the pivotal role that schools play in our society well beyond academics,
Another View: AV #208 - Being Together in the Classroom - Part 1 (Laughing) Distance learning: Not remotely or virtually the same as the classroom I stopped teaching after five years – in 1981—thinking there might be something else I could do. I asked a veteran teacher at that time—who seemed happy in his job—why he kept at it. He answered: “In what other job can you have two good laughs a day?”
Teachers union: 'Scream bloody murder' if schools reopen against medical advice Schools in most states have been ordered to stay closed the rest of the year or strongly urged to do so. The nation's two biggest teachers unions say they would consider strikes or major protests if schools reopen without the proper safety measures in place or against the advice of medical experts — raising the possi
Charter Schools Continue Seizing Enormous Sums of Public Funds During Pandemic | Dissident Voice Charter Schools Continue Seizing Enormous Sums of Public Funds During Pandemic While private businesses like non-profit and for-profit charter schools have been seizing enormous sums of public money for decades, 1 they continue to seize hundreds of millions of public dollars during the “COVID Pandemic
IDEA charter school network landed grants with political help from Education Department, congressman says A U.S. congressman is demanding answers from the U.S. Education Department, alleging department employees complained to his office about political interference in the awarding of a multimillion-dollar federal grant to the controversial IDEA charter school network. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) se
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 TODAY This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST
The Writing Models Dilemma: On Authentic Writing and Avoiding the Tyranny of Rubrics While my journey to the fields of English and teaching started with science fiction and comic books, a love of reading that was steered to so-called “literature” by my high school English teacher, Lynn Harrill, I walked into my first high school classroom as a teacher of English primarily committed to teaching y
A School Experiment to Remember Between 1933-1941, thirty high schools in the country and over 300 universities and colleges joined an experiment sponsored by the Progressive Education Association. Called “ The Eight Year Study ,” each high school decided for itself what curricula, schedules, and class sizes would be. There were no college admission requirements or must-take tests. Old lesson pl
Eleven Warning Signs that Privatizers Are Invading Your School District During the Pandemic “In The Public Interest,” a nonpartisan organization that supports a healthy public sector, has identified eleven warning signs that privatizers are targeting your school district. Read them and be prepared to defend your public schools from privatizers and profiteers! Here are the first six. Open the lin
Pearson and COVID-19: At Least We Have Connections Academy The widespread cancellation of standardized testing across America during this COVID-19 pandemic had me wondering about Pearson Learning ( PSO as it is known in the stock market), a mammoth education corporation located in the United Kingdom and with offices in the United States. I have written about Pearson a number of times over the ye
School in the time of Coronavirus #3 – Some Questions Sadly, this post consists mostly of questions. What is the impact that the pandemic-induced closure of America’s public schools has had and will have on our children? How are families coping with teaching and learning at home? How are teachers coping with learning the new skills needed to reach their students? How will public education cope w
How will the decision to re-open schools be made? What will re-opened schools look like? “You can’t bring back a life; you can start a new business” “There’s no on/off switch” Sunday morning Mayor de Blasio outlined his “Restart” proposals (See here on Twitter) and a few hours later Governor Cuomo outlined his “Reimagine” Plan (Read here). Perhaos, just perhaps, de Blasio and Cuomo could shake h
Headlines: LAUSD Earns High Marks For “Grab And Go”, Rough Financial Times Coming and More on Elections. In addition to providing educational opportunities for students during the shutdown, LAUSD has also been distributing meals though its “Grab and Go” program at schools throughout the district. The program is earning mostly high marks, and was profiled in the LA Times last week as an example o
Parents, teachers, students, advocates and elected officials urge the Mayor, "Cut the Contracts, Save Our Schools" Cut the Contracts Save Our Schools Press Conference April 27, 2020 from Community Education Council, D3 on Vimeo . Here is a recording of the press conference. An article about this is already posted in Bklyner . Please sign up to speak against these wasteful contracts at the Panel
Indianapolis: Home of America’s Second Most Privatized School System By Thomas Ultican 4/27/2020 With the introduction of Innovation schools in 2015, Indianapolis Public Schools quickly became the second most privatized taxpayer supported schools system in America. It has zoomed past Detroit and Washington DC in the privatization sweepstakes to only trail the poster child for disaster capitalism
NEA Educator Voice Academy Addresses COVID-19 Equity Gap With distance learning, the digital divide has widened into a chasm, swallowing whole populations of students who are now off the educational grid. They’re unreachable because they have no Internet access, or not enough home devices, or nobody at home to help them with learning packets. The equity gap, exacerbated by COVID-19, will continu
The Secret to Being a Parent There is scant evidence that the little things we do as parents, be it co-sleeping or tiger mommy-ing, have much of a predictable impact on how our children turn out. I have my opinions about parenting trends and can't help but feel that some of them have the potential to do damage, while others have the potential to do good, but the truth is that the world is so lar
C URMUDGUCATION: Rethinking Accountability For Education, Post-Pandemic. Rethinking Accountability For Education, Post-Pandemic. It made sense for states to cancel the big end-of-year standardized reading and math test even before it became obvious that many students will never be back to school this spring to take the tests. In this extraordinary year, the tests were never going to supply valid
What comes next for public schooling BY JOHN KING AND RANDI WEINGARTEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered elementary and secondary schools across the country, with many closed for the remainder of this academic year. Students are learning at home from educators who worked heroically to transition to remote learning, sometimes with barely a day’s notice, and who are find
Teachers, parents and principals tell their stories about remote learning The emotional toll The Network for Public Education, a nonprofit group that advocates for public schools, recently conducted a survey of parents and teachers to see how they were experiencing the sudden shift to remote learning because of the covid-19 crisis — and the results paint an interesting portrait of the homeschool
2020 NEA Representative Assembly to Go Virtual In July, NEA members from across the nation will once again assemble at the annual NEA Representative Assembly (RA) to plan out and prioritize the association’s activities over the next year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the RA this year will be virtual for both active and retired delegates with a limited agenda. Throughout this crisis, public
An Archaeological Dig for VAM The following is an edited log of an asynchronous online discussion of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) for assessing teachers. This discussion took place in late 1994 and early 1995 on an internet LISTSERV known as EDPOLYAN, which was housed at the Arizona State University College of Education. The TVAAS was one of the first techniques proposed f
Do as I Say, Not as I Do: Lessons My Father Didn’t Know He Taught Me My childhood home, the place of my single-digit life, sat just outside Enoree, South Carolina, a very small crossroads of a town near where I typically call my hometown, Woodruff. This house my parents rented throughout the early to mid-1960s had a large barn beside it, apparently intended as a garage, and a redneck beer joint
Under pressure to reopen this fall, school leaders plot unprecedented changes From the White House podium to harried homes, pressure is building to reopen the nation’s schools. But the next iteration of American education will look far different from the classrooms students and teachers abruptly departed last month. Many overwhelmed school systems remain focused on running remote education that
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 “Visualization of ‘Tips for Remote Teaching With ELL Students'” by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h Visualization of ‘Tips for Remote Teaching With ELL Students’ is the headline of my latest Edu
AP Exams Are Still On Amid Coronavirus, Raising Questions About Fairness A lot is at stake for students taking Advanced Placement exams, even in normal times. If you score high enough, you can earn college credit. It's also a big factor in college applications. But for some students, the idea of studying right now feels impossible. "I'm constantly thinking about making sure my family doesn't get
Why Johnny Can't Read? It's Complicated, Ms. Hanford. H.L. Mencken, American journalist and social satirist once said, "For every complex problem there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong." In reading instruction for the last 65 years or so, the simple wrong answer has been systematic phonics instruction. Rudolph Flesch published Why Johnny Can't Read in 1955. He argued for a phonics-
HBO’s “Bad Education” Aims at Public School Theft While Ignoring More Frequent Fraud at Charter Schools & Testing Companies “Bad Education” is a frustrating movie to watch as a public school teacher. It does a fine job telling the true story of a wealthy New York district where administrators stole millions of dollars for themselves. But it ignores the far more frequent waste and malfeasance cau
The Coming Recession Threatens Severe Cuts to Public Schools An economic recession is inevitable and public schools are likely to suffer. Across many states, the public schools have finally recovered from deep cuts to state funding during the 2008 recession; other states have not yet caught up. Now we are headed into another recession. The Learning Policy Institute’s Michael Griffith describes t
Updated Resources (annotated) I like tracking the data the experts are citing. I feel an obligation to track data that politicians are citing or mis-citing (how do we know which unless we watch? The alternative is to trust them…) Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University Confirmed cases and fatalities, keyed to a zoomable world map. In the US,
Some Friends Of TFA Join In On The Teacher Bashing During a Pandemic A big topic among teacher bashing reformers, nowadays, is now easy teachers have it as they attempt to work remotely. In my last post I wrote about how some prominent reformers found no shame in kicking teachers while they were down. Most reformer are either TFA alumni or are big supporters of TFA. In this post I want to look a
8 Ways to Save Public School Funding During and After Covid-19 Everyone’s worried about the budgetary fallout that will affect public schools after the corona virus pandemic is over. The situation appears grim. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her friends are still seeking to privatize public education. The CARES Act has given her free rein. Governor Andrew Cuomo warns that without
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: How Many Weeks Has It Been Now Edition (4/26) How Many Weeks Has It Been Now Edition (4/26) Well, on it goes. Here's some reading from the week. Remember, your choices about which voices to amplify make a difference. COVID Stimulus Funds for Private School Vouchers The indispensable Mercedes Schneider takes a look at Jeb Bush's old crew at ExcelInEd (formerly FEE) and their
DOE Grading Policy Is a Big Nothing It's funny. You build something up. You say it's crucial, vital, the most important thing ever. You say it's coming tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday, next week for sure. Then the thing finally comes out, vetted by multiple committees, after weeks of deliberation, and it's something you could've made up yourself off the top of your head after
Oklahoma: Governor Stitt Puts Trumpism Above Reality and Common Sense John Thompson writes about the latest madness in his home state of Oklahoma: The shocking headline was that the price of oil dropped to below $1 a barrel. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt was on the phone with Vice President Mike Pence when he heard the news. The legislature now faces “a loss of $1.3 billion in revenue for approp
Sanity-saving advice for parents now trying to teach their kids This is the first in a weekly series on The Answer Sheet for parents who have found themselves learning to home-school their children on the fly now that the covid-19 pandemic has closed schools across the country. The series is written by Roxanna Elden, who combines 11 years of experience as a public-school teacher with a decade of
To Access Online Services, New Jersey Students With Disabilities Must Promise Not To Sue Special education groups are taking issue with waivers from schools — but the districts say they’re necessary in this unprecedented time. Some New Jersey schools have been forcing students with disabilities to sign waivers promising not to sue the district before giving them access to special education servi
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 TODAY My Most Popular Tweets Of The Month by Larry Ferlazzo / 28min PhotoMIX-Company / Pixabay I used to post weekly collections of my best tweets, and used Storify to bring them tog
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Ronnie Dyson: A Transitional Soul Figure Lost To Time by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h 'For One-Hit Wonders/Second-Best Songs, Mark Anthony Neal recommends Ronnie Dyson 's "Ain't Nothing Wrong." He's known mostly for 1970's "(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?"' Unladylike2020: Meta Warrick Fuller: Trailblazing African American Artist by Mark Anthony Nea
EdAction in Congress April 26, 2020 Coronavirus crisis threatens education funding An economic downturn that could rival the Great Depression is upon us—and threatening the ability of state and local governments to fund public education and other essential services. Costs are up as the nation struggles to contain COVID-19 and cope with dramatically rising unemployment—in the last five weeks, 26.
Defending the Future of the Big Standardized Test What has happened to our beloved Big Standardized Test? Why do people keep picking on it? And can we lift it back up to its hallowed heights of the past? I have a report sitting in one of my tabs here that wants to answer those questions, yet somehow falls short. It's FutureEd's report The Big Test , and it is yet another attempt to repackage ref
| A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Emergency press conference on Monday to fight $825 million cuts to schools Please join us via Zoom on Monday, April 27 at 3 PM to fight the Mayor’s $825 million cuts to schools by cutting contracts and other unnecessary spending instead. RSVP here or at http://tiny.cc/6pdrnz Emergency press conference on Mon
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 4/25/20 ‘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
