TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 5/30/20 #REDFORED #tbats #ICantBreathe #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #justiceforfloyd #BlackLivesMatter

by Mike Simpson / 45min

Schools issue warning: Coronavirus testing and tracing are needed before campuses reopen Raising the possibility that campuses won’t reopen in the fall, leaders of the state’s two largest K-12 school systems on Friday demanded that public health authorities, not school districts, take the lead on setting up coronavirus testing and contact tracing of students and employees. Los Angeles Supt. Aust

by Mike Simpson / 45min

Idiots at Tweed Expect Us to Concurrently Teach and Take PD Evidently Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza have determined that teachers now have plenty of time even as we offer remote learning. That's why, just yesterday, after schools like mine had already begun planning for next Thursday, they decided that we could somehow teach even as we were taking whatever PD they'd placed on their web

by Mike Simpson / 45min

FOR DISCUSSION | Bill Ayers FOR DISCUSSION The Schools We Want/the Schools We Deserve A New Deal for Public Education The Schools We Want/the Schools We Deserve A New Deal for Public Education (DRAFT: 10-Point Program) PREAMBLE Education is a fundamental human right and a basic community responsibility. Every child, simply by being born, has the right to a free, accessible, high-quality public ed

by Mike Simpson / 45min

Persistent Billionaire Financed Attack on Oakland Public Schools Continues By Thomas Ultican 5/29/2020 This month, a survey was launched in Oakland, California with the claim “This survey is a primary partnership between OUSD and GO Public Schools Oakland.” Apparently some Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) board members were stunned by the news and were not happy about raising the stature o

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Robert Kuttner: Say It Ain’t So, Joe Robert Kuttner is editor of The American Prospect. Here he writes that Biden has asked Rahm Emanuel to advise him. What Kuttner fails to mention is Rahm’s disastrous control of the Chicago public schools. He should be forever stigmatized by his decision to close 50 public schools in a single day. He was continually at war with the Chicago Teachers Union. To k

by Mike Simpson / 3h

REFLECTIONS AND ANOTHER LOOK AT HB 2229 “If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest” ― Daniel Webster “Like so many other pathological personalities in positions of power a million years ago, he might do almost anything on impulse, feeling nothing much. The logical explanations for his

by Mike Simpson / 3h

FOXES, HEDGEHOGS, MEDIA, AND PARTISANSHIP There hasn’t been much good to come out of the Coronavirus Pandemic. But it has led me to catch up on a lot of reading. Two books I read, David Epstein’s RANGE, and Ezra Klein’s WHY WE’RE PARTISAN, hit me like a ton of bricks. Together, they explained to me… and I hope now to you… the connection between how we think, and how we are manipulated by media,

by Mike Simpson / 3h

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD PARENTS CONCERNED ABOUT THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY OF CHILDREN’S DATA SHARED WITH ZOOM AND GOOGLE The below post expresses concerns that are widely shared by parents throughout the country whose children are using programs like Zoom and Google Classroom that have not been thoroughly vetted for privacy and security protections. by Joel Schwarz, Esq., CIPP To say that 2020 has

by Mike Simpson / 3h

With A Brooklyn Accent: An Historian's Thoughts on the Uprisings in Our Cities An Historian's Thoughts on the Uprisings in Our Cities As an historian, I am am hardly surprised at the uprisings taking place in cities throughout the country The murder of George Floyd pushed people filled with rage at their position in Trump's America over the edge. It is not just that repeated murders of unarmed Bl

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Governor Cuomo: Machiavellian, Presidential, or Both? The rumors began only a few weeks before the Democratic National Convention, New York State Governor Cuomo’s national popularity numbers were off the chart . Cuomo consistently maintained he had no interest in any other office; however, every one of his press conference was a mixture of science and FDR like fireside chats. New York State has

by Mike Simpson / 3h

School Year 2020–21 Annual Update Now Open - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) School Year 2020–21 Annual Update Now Open The California Department of Education (CDE) has opened the School Nutrition Programs (SNP) Annual Update in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System (CNIPS) for School Year (SY) 2020–21 (July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021). The CDE recognizes the challenges that Sch

by Mike Simpson / 6h

NewBlackMan (in Exile) YESTERDAY Ainissa Ramirez – The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Mark Anthony Neal / 17h 'On this episode of The Open Mind with Alexander Heffner , materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez discusses her new book The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another .' -- cunytv75 From Basketball to The Boardroom with Entrepreneur and ES

by Mike Simpson / 6h

Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report YESTERDAY More than half ofcollege presidents surveyed say they are very likely to allow in-person classes for at least some portion this fall. by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 22h As institutions move past their initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, college and university leaders are most concerned about summer/fall enrollment and how to

by Mike Simpson / 6h

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 The Results Are In! Here Is How My ELL Newcomer Students Evaluated Our Distance Learning Class by Larry Ferlazzo / 5h geralt / Pixabay I had previously posted the questions I was goi

by Mike Simpson / 6h

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 Robert Kuttner: Say It Ain’t So, Joe 56 by dianeravitch / 15h Robert Kuttner is editor of The American Prospect. Here he writes that Biden has asked Rahm Emanuel to advise him. What Kuttner fails to mention is Rahm’s disastrous control of the Chi

by Mike Simpson / 23h

Remote Learning is Failing Our Most Vulnerable Students - Jonathan Kantrowitz Remote Learning is Failing Our Most Vulnerable Students Source: ParentsTogether Action As schools prepare for distance learning to continue in some form, Congress must provide resources to prevent low-income students and students with learning challenges from falling further behind ParentsTogether Action, a national par

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Coming Back to Breath – Parenting for Liberation Coming Back to Breath Yesterday while I was still reeling from the fact that George Floyd, yet another loved one , has been taken by an act of police cruelty, my soul brother Eric Darnell Pritchard began sharing this poem as a resource. I wrote this poem in 2014 and first shared it at the BOLD national gathering as part of a Black Feminist Breathin

by Mike Simpson / 1d

California students to wear masks, get daily temperature checks under Newsom rules SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reopening guidelines for schools include recommendations that students and teachers wear face coverings and receive daily temperature checks, according to a summary of the not-yet-released state guidance. A summary of the guidance obtained by POLITICO suggests keeping desks

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Coronavirus anxiety is real, but schools have to try to reopen: Q&A with teachers' union It’s not good for kids to be home like this, says Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. This week, as U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 100,000 and President Donald Trump tweeted that “ schools in our country should be opened ASAP ,” the USA TODAY Editorial Board spoke with Randi Weinga

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Rumors of Public Schools’ Death Are Greatly Exaggerated These are scary times for those who support public schools. Legislators in most states are preparing the public for deep funding cuts. The federal government does not seem to be in a hurry to bail out states. The Secretary of Education continues her crusade to ram her personal affinity for private schools down everyone’s throats. There’s co

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Betsy DeVos Ignores Congress: Orders Distribution of CARES Act Dollars to Private Schools Instead of Public Schools Serving Poor Children On April 30, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released informal guidance directing federal Covid-19 stimulus funds to private schools at the expense of the public schools that educate 50 million American children and adolescents. DeVos is using the pandemi

by Mike Simpson / 1d

What do you think? Are charter schools public schools or small businesses? What do you think? Are charter schools public schools or small businesses? On her recent blog , Diane asked an important question. “Are charter schools public schools or small businesses with government contracts? They claim to be public schools, even though they have private, unelected boards and private management.” Dia

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Nutrition CARES Act Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page On May 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance regarding the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act provides funding to Child Nutrition Programs to assist with the impact of COVID-19. The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) is providing c

by Mike Simpson / 1d

School Custodians Are Essential Frontline Workers For Our Students Juan Ramos has been a school custodian and union member for nearly 30 years. His father was a custodian before him, and Ramos spent summers helping his dad starting out when he was just fourteen-year-old. With that much experience under his utility belt, Ramos definitely has the know-how to protect students and educators from cor

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Beware of Education Frenemies! Beware of Education Frenemies! Frenemies are everywhere when it comes to public education, while many of us fear disaster capitalism as the future of public schools. Dictionary.com defines frenemy as a person or group that is friendly toward another because the relationship brings benefits, but harbors feelings of resentment or rivalry. What makes an education frene

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Betsy DeVos, the Catholic Church, and Public Tax Dollars The Trump administration and the Catholic Church have seemed extra tight lately. And an awful lot of it has to do with public education. Cardinal Timothy Dolan (New York) took the lead in a fun conference call last month in which Trump , along with Betsy DeVos, swapped personal admiration and what is either some quid pro quo or just a shar

by Mike Simpson / 1d

We're re-imagining post-corona schools. So are they. Using federal school rescue funds to feed private school operators. I find myself wishing for a storm in Chicago — an unpredictable, haughty, devastating swirl of fury. A dramatic levee break. Geysers bursting through manhole covers. A sleeping city, forced onto the rooftops. " -- Kristen McQueary, Chicago Tribune Editorial Board Rethinking co

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Problems with remote learning from the perspective of a NYC student and a NYC teacher First, here is testimony from Joshua Applewhite, NYC high school student, at yesterday's City Council hearings, who said that because of remote learning, " I feel like a robot. As a matter of fact, I feel like this whole situation is handled like we’re robots and we’re not humans with different feelings and dif

by Mike Simpson / 2d

David Berliner: Kids Missing School? Don’t Worry. David Berliner, one of our nation’s most eminent researchers, advises parents not to worry that their children are “falling behind.” School is important. Instruction is important. But “soft skills” and non—cognitive skills matter more in the long term than academic skills. Relax. He sent this advice to the blog: Worried About Those “Big” Losses o

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Parents teaching kids: Teachers weigh in on what’s most important Are you trying to teach your kids too much at home? Teachers weigh in on what’s most important For parents of young children who are still trudging along with homeschooling, the early years pose some of the most flummoxing challenges: Many children are trying to learn to read basic words and write simple sentences, yet they aren’t

by Mike Simpson / 2d

The Great Recession Badly Hurt Kids’ Schooling; Today’s Recession Could Do Much Worse - Jonathan Kantrowitz The Great Recession Badly Hurt Kids’ Schooling; Today’s Recession Could Do Much Worse Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Whenever our kids return to school, a severely diminished learning experience awaits them unless the federal government learns an important lesson from the pa

by Mike Simpson / 2d

School Reopenings: Expect Masks, Tiny Classes, Staggered Days The L.A. County Office of Education released a detailed plan for returning to school, featuring stark changes for students and teachers. LOS ANGELES, CA — The L.A. County Office of Education released a detailed plan for returning to school in the fall, and it's like nothing American schools have ever seen before. Under the new guideli

by Mike Simpson / 2d

This summer, we can test-drive best practices for safely reopening schools Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. Parents, educators and students are wondering whether, and how, public schools will reopen in the fall. It’s a daunting challenge. But with real investment and planning, the next few months could provide an opportunity to test-drive best practices for s

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Burris and Kilfoyle: The Charter Schools That Are Double-Dipping Federal CARES Funds Are charter schools public schools or small businesses with government contracts? They claim to be public schools, even though they have private, unelected boards and private management. Yet many charter schools applied for and received federal funds from the CARES Act, at the urging of their lobbyists, the Nati

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2) That the 2020 pandemic closed public venues including schools for three to six months across 13,000 districts in the country startled American families upending familiar daily routines. Most Moms and Dads had never experienced such a turnabout in their daily lives. Then many Americans learned of earlier influenza and polio ep

by Mike Simpson / 2d

May Revise Presentation with comments - YouTube BEST DOG AND PONY SHOW OF THE SEASON SCUSD May Revise Presentation with comments May Revise Presentation with comments - YouTube

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Annie Tan: My First-Year Disaster with Teach for America On May 26, 2020, a tweet by NYC teacher Annie Tan caught my attention: I first heard of Teach for America (TFA) in 1991. I was finishing my undergraduate degree in education, and a friend who was not an education major told me that upon graduation, he would be teaching for a couple of years via provisional certification in a city with teac

by Mike Simpson / 2d

TELL CONGRESS TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY’S PRIVACY HR 6172, the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act , would reauthorize portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governing the intelligence agencies’ search and surveillance activities. A critical privacy amendment introduced by Senators Wyden and Daines failed by only one vote in the Senate last week that would have prohibited the government

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Latest podcast of "Talk out of School": My Interview with Chancellor Betty Rosa Check out the latest "Talk out of School" podcast of my interview with NY Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa on today's "Talk Out of School" on the Regents task force on reopening schools, the search for a new NYSED Commissioner, the process of reviewing t he Regents HS exit exams , the need to revisit the state 3-8th gra

by Mike Simpson / 2d

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Renews Call for New Investments as Technology Needs Still Unmet for Many California Students and Schools Look to Reopen SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Wednesday called on California’s cross-sector partners to accelerate investments that can help all California students access the technology they need to succeed academical

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year? Testing in the fall? Let's talk about that idea. Thomas Toch is one of those reformsters who has managed to bounce from job to reformy job . Currently, he's head honcho at FutureEd , an ed reform advocacy group that bills itself as a thinky tank, and there isn't an educational disruption that they haven't tried to make a case for. This sp

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Shanker Blog: What's Next for Schools After Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Big Issues and Opportunities This is post is our first in a new blog 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 contributor today is Andy Hargreaves who is Research Professor at Boston College.

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Polls: 20 percent of teachers not likely to return to classrooms if schools reopen this fall Twenty percent of U.S. teachers say they are not likely to return to their classrooms this fall if schools reopen — and most parents and educators believe that school buildings will open, according to polls published Tuesday. The polls — one taken of K-12 teachers and the other of parents with school-age

by Mike Simpson / 2d

Former Leaders of SDS, Meet the Current Members of DSA The authors of “An Open Letter to the New New Left From the Old New Left” failed to grasp several things about the Democratic Socialists of America. Generic anti-Trumpism and leftward tut-tutting is not a winning campaign strategy. It is choosing ease over effort, convenience over organizing. As the Trump administration abdicates its respons

by Mike Simpson / 3d

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 Three New Resources That Might Hold Clues To What Our Schools Could Look Like In The Fall by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Wokandapix / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICT

by Mike Simpson / 3d

NewBlackMan (in Exile) Nduduzo Makhathini And Omagugu Makhathini: Alone Together Duets by Mark Anthony Neal / 1h '2020 looked mighty bright for Nduduzo Makhathini . In January, jazz fans and critics alike jammed themselves into the Zürcher Gallery at the NYC Winter Jazzfest to get a glimpse of the rising star pianist. The buzz was real for the first South African artist ever to be signed to Blue

by Mike Simpson / 3d

A Bold Pitch To Boost School Funding For The Nation's Most Vulnerable Students School district lines have become engines of inequity in many states. Not only can they be used to keep children out of a neighborhood's schools, they can also keep a district's wealth in . But with many districts facing severe budget cuts because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report proposes a radical solution:

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Why Does Children's Play Enrage So Many Adults? Back in the olden days, children, we used to fly on jet airplanes that took us to new and exciting places to meet new and exciting people. Some of us remember the airports, places where people dashed and dawdled from jet airplane to jet airplane. What they don't tell you in your history books, however, is that most of what we did in airports during

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Congress Must Pass Additional Fiscal Relief to Prevent Alarming Cuts to School District Budgets There is plenty of confirmation from the experts about the 50 states’ desperate need for additional federal relief dollars for school districts to open public schools next fall. Without immediate help from Congress, state budget cuts will diminish educational opportunity especially for the school dist

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The University of California System Abandons the SAT/ACT: Will SUNY Follow? How Will Prospective Students Be Selected? In a historic move likely to have national repercussions, the University of California Board of Regents voted … to stop requiring students to submit college-entrance tests the SAT or ACT for admissions purposes. The vote was a unanimous 23-0. The system has given itself until th

by Mike Simpson / 3d

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Work Toward Solutions to Inequitable Internet Access for Students SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and state leaders serving on the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force continued their work today on behalf of California’s most vulnerable students and families who continue to experience barriers t

by Mike Simpson / 3d

WHAT HAVE 50 YEARS BROUGHT? “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour tr

by Mike Simpson / 3d

College Credit for High School Students? It's Not Working. So says Professor Nicholas Tampio , of AP courses, and I couldn't agree more. There is a whole lot involved in college courses that may or may not be covered in AP courses. The fact is these courses are a financial bonanza for the College Board, which uses us and our schools as resources, then shares nothing back with our system. My frie

by Mike Simpson / 3d

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 Juan Gonzalez: The Struggle to Save a Public School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from Corporate Clutches by dianeravitch / 55min Juan Gonzalez is a veteran journalist who wrote a regular column for the “New York Daily News” for many years. He retir

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Boutique Virtual Pre-School For The Littles (I Am Not Making This Up) Here's another entry in the swanky virtual pre-school field. It's Bumo Virtual School , and it is the brainchild of an influencer and an entrepreneur. They originally wanted to start a café where parents could hang out while their littles played and learned stuff. It was going to be "a chic little spot in the Los Angeles neigh

by Mike Simpson / 3d

More US schools teach in English and Spanish, but not enough to help Latino kids Classes taught in both languages help students from various backgrounds, but many districts have fought to keep Spanish out of schools. Leer en español The USA TODAY Network is launching a series on the Latino community in the USA called Hecho en USA, or made in America. Roughly 80% of all Latinos living in the USA

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Schools call parents “co-teachers,” but we have no idea what we’re doing Learning only happens with a high-quality teacher, but parents have been dropped into the role with no training and little support The assignment was simple: Write a story about a realistic character. Draw pictures showing the action, and then write down what’s happening. An hour in, my 6-year-old daughter was in tears. She

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Jitu Brown Start: Wednesday, June 03, 2020 • 7:30 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00) End: Wednesday, June 03, 2020 • 9:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00) The Network for Public Education invites you to join us for a video conference with NPE President Diane Ravitch. Diane's guest this week will be Journey for Justice Natio

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Why Johnny Can't Read? Part 6: Quality of Instruction In order to be highly successful literacy instruction must be informed, balanced, and responsive. To the extent that literacy instruction fails to meet these three components it surely contributes to why Johnny can't read. The other causes outlined in this series, income inequity, racism and segregation, brain-based learning difficulties, and

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The Citation/Plagiarism Trap An adult more than a decade out of college and working as a staff member in a local public school contacted me about a discouraging experience in an on-line course for a graduate degree. This person’s story is one I have encountered quite often over almost four decades of teaching at both the high schools and college levels. This person received a zero on an assignme

by Mike Simpson / 3d

COVID-19 Exposes America's Broken Social Safety Net As the saying goes, when the average American coughs, a person of color catches the flu. While COVID-19 is far more serious than the flu, its intensity — as measured by loss of life, lost wages, and learning gaps — has been devastating to people of color. Across the nation, we are now forced to reckon with just how inequitable and inadequate ou

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The educational value of having a black teacher in a classroom The educational value of a black teacher Coronavirus is offering a chance to ‘reimagine’ education, but if the new landscape doesn’t include efforts to recruit and retain more black teachers, reform will be a farce Adapted and reprinted from Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities by Andre Perry, wi

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Who knows how to teach remotely? For the past nine weeks 70,000 New York City teachers have been teaching remotely. So have, I don’t know, three million more? across the US. But I know more about New York City. So who doesn’t know how to teach remotely? Pretty much anyone who has not tried it. Mayors and Governors and Presidents, Members of Congress, State Legislators, Senators… None of them rea

by Mike Simpson / 3d

An Open Letter to Joe Biden More than 200 advocates of public education endorsed this open letter to Joe Biden, which was published on Valerie Strauss’s blog “The Answer Sheet” at the Washington Post. They call on presumptive Democratic nominee Biden to reject the stale and failed policies of the past 20 years. Their letter (our letter, since I signed it) begins with this preamble and then offer

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The Children are Not Fine: None of Us are Fine We've all seen recordings of children playing in refugee camps and in war zones. In Peter Gray's book Free to Learn , he tells about the games Jewish children played even in concentration camps. They were games of survival, for the most part, like challenging one another to touch an electrified fence, but they were games and it was play. Children pl

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching. Due to the threat of COVI

by Mike Simpson / 3d

The Pandemic Is Driving America's Schools Toward A Financial Meltdown Austin Beutner looked haggard, his face a curtain of worry lines. The superintendent of the second-largest school district in the nation sat at a desk last week delivering a video address to Los Angeles families. But he began with a stark message clearly meant for another audience: Lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Getting a conversation going about September What will September look like? What needs to happen for us to be safe enough to go into school? If we are remote, based on our experience so far, what would you do the same? What would you change up? Does a hybrid model make sense? Testing? Live lessons? We had a chapter meeting coming up. And so, in preparation, I sent out a survey. It was explicitly

by Mike Simpson / 3d

Separating Home And School For Teachers Watching my wife deal with the challenges of doing crisis pandemic distance learning, I've been having flashbacks to my first job. I taught in Lorain High School (not the current LHS but the one that stood where there is now a vacant lot), and I rented an apartment right across the street from the school. When I found the place, I was delighted-- the ultim

by Mike Simpson / 3d

How Does It Feel to Be One of the Beautiful Tweedies? Chancellor Carranza says the budget it cut " to the bone. " There's absolutely nothing left at Tweed to be cut. Otherwise, why would they be cutting so much from the classroom ? The city has proposed $827 million in DOE cuts, including slashing school budgets by $285 million. This would reduce arts programs, counselors and social workers in n

by Mike Simpson / 3d

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 New NPR Video: “Tracing The Origins Of The Coronavirus” by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h MiroslavaChrienova / Pixabay I’m adding this new NPR video to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FO

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Calling Bill Gates! Calling Mark Zuckerberg! Calling Jeff Bezos! People have many times asked me if I had some good ideas for the billionaires who have been foisting terrible ideas on our public schools. What could they do instead of screwing up the nation’s public schools? Like they have nothing better to do than to make students and teachers miserable with endless testing, pricey consultants,

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 1) Natural disasters have closed schools over the past century. Earthquakes and hurricanes destroyed Christchurch, New Zealand (2011) and New Orleans (2005). The Influenza pandemic in 1918-1919, polio epidemics in the 1940s, and currently the coronavirus-19 have achieved the same result in country after country across the globe.

by Mike Simpson / 5d

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 Three Resources About Our World’s Different Cultures by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay I’m adding these resources to The Best Sites For Learning About The Wor

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Sac City Unified struggles to contact hundreds of students since stay-at-home order SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — As the Sacramento City Unified School District is working to make sure students are learning, there are 600 students who they haven’t been able to reach since the day the schools closed more than two months ago. There are 47,900 students in the district. When some sites closed, the dis

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Trump tweets schools should open ‘ASAP’ (after a Fox News host said the same thing Sunday night). Here are some responses. After a morning of golf, President Trump was up late Sunday night tweeting, this time about the reopening of America’s schools, most of which were closed in March during the covid-19 pandemic. At 10:41 p.m., Trump tweeted: “Schools in our country should be opened ASAP. Much

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Diane Ravitch on Pandemic School Privatization COUNTERSPIN This week on CounterSpin : One teacher described it as a “gut punch” hearing New York Governor (and current media crush) Andrew Cuomo talk about “re-imagining” education in the wake of the pandemic, without what he called the “old model” emphasis on teachers and classrooms. Cuomo announced an initiative with the Bill and Melinda Gates Fo

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Memorial Day 2020 On Memorial Day, I have often dusted off an old column I originally wrote a dozen years ago . It’s about how I never lost my love and appreciation for Memorial Day as an opportunity for school bands and community members to commemorate the sacrifices made so we could live peacefully. It always seemed like a great lesson for public school children to learn: gratitude and civics.

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Why Does the Center for American Progress Support the DeVos Agenda? The Center for American Progress is identified by the mainstream media as a “liberal think tank” and as the think tank of the Democratic establishment. It protects the Ibama legacy, including the toxic legacy of Arne Duncan’s failed Race to the Top. Billions were squandered for a program that was built on the foundation of Georg

by Mike Simpson / 5d

In Press: How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP) [excerpt from Introduction] How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: An Overview The chapters that follow are not intended to document how we should or can teach reading. In fact, there is abundant work that has existed

by Mike Simpson / 5d

Open Letter: Education Week’s Coverage of the Life, Career, and Death of Ken Goodman The May 21, 2020 article in Education Week by Stephen Sawchuk fails to honor the remarkable life and career of Ken Goodman on the occasion of his death. Instead, the publication has used this significant loss to the field of literacy as well as the Goodman family and friends for yet another opportunity to perpet

by Mike Simpson / 5d

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: A Year Older Edition (5/24) A Year Older Edition I had a birthday this week, but I feel pretty much the same. I might have taken a couple of half-days off, so let's see if the reading list looks any shorter. After online learning flopped... The continuing saga of failed online learning in Fairfax, VA, continues with a flood of Google-based student-on-student harassment. Stu

by Mike Simpson / 5d

‘So many kids were sad before this’ We are hearing increasingly about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the mental health of young people. But as T. Elijah Hawkes, a veteran public school principal, explains in this post, it is important to remember that many of them weren’t doing well even before the crisis. Hawkes is the author of the recently published book “ School for the Age of Uph

by Mike Simpson / 5d

‘I’m on edge all day long.’ Schoolwork a mere afterthought for homeless youth As homeless youth attempt to shelter in place without a shelter, taking care of their basic needs and ingratiating themselves with their hosts take priority over distance learning. On a recent weekend, Destiny, 17, spent an unusually sunny spring day canoeing near her temporary home in Western Washington. Technically h

by Mike Simpson / 6d

EdAction in Congress May 24, 2020 COVID-19 bill passed by House stalls in Senate—for now Senate Republican leadership is in no rush to take up—or even amend—the HEROES Act passed by the House despite the urgent need to help struggling families cope with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The longer Congress delays, the greater the likelihood we’ll see a repeat of the Great Recession, during whi

by Mike Simpson / 6d

For Schools, the List of Obstacles Grows and Grows A s schools around the world cautiously reopen, we in the United States are seeing an unsettling glimpse of our future. Some images filtering in from other countries are deeply depressing (French children cordoned off in white squares on a playground) while others evoke wary amusement (Chinese children in masks and handmade propeller beanies wit

by Mike Simpson / 6d

NEPC Interview of the Month: Frank Adamson on Privatization Internationally Chris Saldana of the National Education Policy Center interviewed Frank Adamson on privatization of education in an international context. If you have 30 minutes in your busy day, this is definitely worth listening to. BOULDER, CO (May 19, 2020) – In this month’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, NEPC Researcher Chr

by Mike Simpson / 6d

College Board’s AP-botch Lawsuit: No “PR Stunt” On May 19, 2020, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (“Fairtest”) and several individuals filed suit against the College Board, Educational Testing Service (ETS), and 50 individuals in a “nationwide and California class action complaint” related to College Board’s et al. botching of the 2020 administration of its Advanced Placement (AP) t

by Mike Simpson / 6d

What Would Re-Opened Schools Look Like? Who Decides? The UFT President Michael Mulgrew has been holding virtual meetings with teacher union (UFT) members: focus groups to get 1:1 feedback, scores of them as well as Town Halls, virtual meetings with many hundreds of members. One of the first questions was about school re-openings. Mulgrew was frank, the re-opening meetings are just beginning, not

by Mike Simpson / 7d

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by Mike Simpson / 7d

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by Mike Simpson / 7d

Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 5/23/20 ‘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