Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans The university’s site tracks where each state currently stands on safety, health and academic help. The go-to site for the latest national and world COVID-19 data has launched a special tracker for U.S. school reopenings . Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is monitoring which states have addressed 12 criteria, including safety and
The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools On Tuesday, July 7th, President Donald Trump said : We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open,” Mr. Trump said at a forum at the White House. “It’s very important. It’s very important for our country. It’s very important for the well-being of the student and the parents. So we’re
King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio You may have heard the biblical story about King Solomon. Two women claim a baby is theirs. King Solomon the wise says cut the baby in half and let them share it. One woman says sure, go ahead. The other says no, give it to the other woman. King Solomon then gives the baby to the second woman, since she is the only one concerned with the baby's welfare. Of cours
Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning People talk about the upcoming school year as if we have a choice between in-person classes or distance learning. We don’t. The fact is there will be NO face-to-face learning this year. Neither in our school buildings or on-line. No matter which path we choose, we will be teaching behind a mask or behind a computer screen. T
Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Why can't schools go to distance learning and provide some limited child care as well? - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2020/07/why-cant-schools-go-to-distance.html Okay yeah talking in the third person is annoying but I think it is important people know they should talk to whoever will listen. Fro
Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2020 Contact: Bethany Meyer OEA Secretary and Communications Chair (510) 575-7060 bethanynmeyer@gmail.com This week, educators from the Oakland Education Association began talks with the Oakland Unified School District to determine what learning will look like for students
Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety) Thursday Carranza released the plan. I did a quick survey of the school scheduling part (not good), but need to return to that in depth. But today I want to take a first look at safety. There are now three documents to look at. There’s the June 9 doe-planning-overview-for-principal-meetings Powerpoint-is-not-a-Plan powerpoint, the July 2 school
Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School The American Academy of Pediatrics once again plunged into the growing debate over school reopening with a strong new statement Friday, making clear that while in-person school provides crucial benefits to children, "Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics." The statement also said that "scienc
Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona Two weeks ago, the battle was raging over cops in the schools. Who should decide whether Chicago schools get to keep or lose their SRO -- the school board or the city council? Or should it be left up to each local school council to opt-in or out, as the mayor had argued? Should the $33M contract between CPS and the CPD be broken or renewed? And if it
MY THOUGHTS ON THE KENTUCKY COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DECISION For many reasons I am very relieved that the Kentucky commissioner search has completed. Working with the Bluegrass community as Dean of @UKCollegeofEd, the @USNews top ranked College of Education in Kentucky (top 30 among publics in nation), is an incredible honor. I was glad for the opportunity to discuss with the entire Board a vi
NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN “Things happen. The only thing that matters is how we deal with the now. Either we face the difficult moral decisions with ever-stronger responses, or we do not. This is what separates the mensch from the asshole. Full stop.” ― Olen Steinhauer, All the Old Knives: A Novel “It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.” ― H
COVID AND SCHOOL VENTILATION Ventilation systems in most schools are outdated and barely work as designed. Even before Covid teachers often felt the effect of poor ventilation in their rooms. Research shows that when room air is not adequately vented out and replace with fresh air CO2 levels rise sharply in s short period of time and as those levels increase cognitive abilities decline by 50% or
NewBlackMan (in Exile) How Pholk Beauty Grew Its Brand By Embracing Authenticity by Mark Anthony Neal / 11h ' For Niambi Cacchioli , Black people have always been green folk. Growing up in Kentucky she was used to being around gardens, but after traveling around the world, she realized there weren’t many skincare companies catering to skin’s needs. She switched careers as an academic and started
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Higher fruit, vegetable and whole grain intake linked to lower risk of diabetes by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 15h Higher consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole grain foods are associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to two studies published by The BMJ today. The findings suggest that even a modest increase
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 Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to E
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 Pennsylvania: The Death Spiral of York City Public Schools by dianeravitch / 52min This is a powerful editorial written by the editorial board of the York Dispatch. The Republican-controlled legislature has imposed a funding system that is litera
People talk about the upcoming school year as if we have a choice between in-person classes or distance learning. We don’t. The fact is there will be NO face-to-face learning this year. Neither in our school buildings or on-line. No matter which path we choose, we will be teaching behind a mask or behind a computer screen. There is no middle ground here – nor should there be. Even if schools try
‘Big Mess’ Looms if Schools Don’t Get Billions to Reopen Safely - The New York Times ‘Big Mess’ Looms if Schools Don’t Get Billions to Reopen Safely Bus monitors to screen students for symptoms in Marietta, Ga.: $640,000. Protective gear and classroom cleaning equipment for a small district in rural Michigan: $100,000. Disinfecting school buildings and hiring extra nurses and educators in San Die
Schools Are Not the Problem | Eclectablog Schools Are Not the Problem If children are at more risk out of school than in school, then the problem isn’t school. If kids who aren’t in school are hungry, then increase funding to food pantries and community kitchens. (BTW–many public schools have been feeding kids all summer.) If kids who aren’t in school are in greater danger of abuse, then improve
In rebuke to Trump, Los Angeles teachers’ union says campuses should stay closed for start of school year The union that represents teachers in Los Angeles, the second-largest school district in the country, said late Thursday that it wants school campuses to stay closed in August when the 2020-2021 academic year is scheduled to begin. The decision by the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the firs
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Four School Reopening-Related Articles From The Past Day That Are Worth Reading by Larry Ferlazzo / 21min Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay Wow, school reopening has been getting a lot of attention the past few days. I’ve already shared some of the most interesting and useful resources that have appe
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 The Report of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force: Good But Weak Pablum on Charters by dianeravitch / 17min The Biden and Sanders campaigns created a “Unity Task Force” to make recommendations on important issues. Here is their report with recommenda
BLACK LIVES MATTER at SCHOOL 2020 National Student Voter Toolkit This work embodies the Black Lives Matter principle of Loving Engagement, in that it is the commitment to practice justice and liberation. We dedicate this collection itself to honor Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, who both taught us so deeply about challenging unjust systems. We offer this to acknowledge and support the efforts of
“I Can’t Breathe.” It Happens at Schools, Too. Students in Illinois schools said “I can’t breathe” while being restrained at least 30 times over the time period we investigated, according to our analysis of the records. The practice of face-down restraint is still legal in Illinois. ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to get weekly updates about
Taking a radio break. – Fred Klonsky TAKING A RADIO BREAK My brother and I have been doing our radio show, Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers for over three years. We started doing our hour-long show every Friday morning at 11am in February of 2017. The studio at Lumpen Radio in the always sunny neighborhood of Bridgeport on Chicago’s south side made for a welcoming home. In early 2017 our fr
DeVos and Trump Throw Cyberschools Under Bus Here is Betsy DeVos speaking as part of a coronavirus task force presentation back in March: Learning can and does happen anywhere and everywhere. It's a sentiment that she has expressed numerous times in connection with the idea that technology could be the brand new key to better education. As in, cyberschool or its fancier name, "virtual learning."
Can Public Schools Open Safely for Children and their Teachers? Trump Worries Instead About His Own Political Future Should public schools reopen this fall? Is there a single plan that will work everyplace? Can school districts make social distancing workable with some kind of hybrid plan in which children are sometimes in class personally and sometimes online? Should schooling go online full-ti
UTLA: It Is Not Safe to Open Schools This Fall Media Contact / Anna Bakalis 213-305-9654 For immediate release / June 9, 2020 Press release: https://www.utla.net/news/utla-recommends-keeping-school-campuses-closed UTLA recommends keeping LAUSD school campuses closed; refocus on robust distance learning practices for Fall LOS ANGELES — Amid COVID-19 infections and deaths surging to record highs,
COVID School: Breathing the Air, Staying Apart, and Shortening the Day As one might expect, since I am a classroom teacher, I have been thinking a lot about the COVID-19 school day. In this post, I offer a number of thoughts on physically returning to school during this coronavirus pandemic. To begin, I have been thinking about how children may not be manifesting COVID symptoms and still have th
How the city's "plan" for re-opening schools highlights the cruel inequities of class size as never before Yesterday, the DOE released the preliminary outlines of a “plan” for how schools will be restructured in the fall is they are reopened next fall. DOE officials have determined that to maintain proper social distancing, a range of 9-12 students per classroom will be allowed , varying accordi
KIPP Drops the Motto But Keeps the Brutality Four out of five students who started school at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute during the decades just after the Civil War never earned their certificates of completion, even though academic expectations were far below schools for white students. Getting booted from Hampton's residential program, you see, was more likely to come from a
Tell Congress: The Trump/DeVos Plan for School Reopening is Reckless and Dangerous Send your email by clicking here and let Congress know that you oppose the Administration’s reckless plan to reopen schools. Read our official statement below: The Network for Public Education opposes the Trump Administration’s dangerous and reckless proposal to reopen schools without regard to safety or resources
UFT Executive Board July 9, 2020--Riding a Hybrid Safely Roll Call 2:50 UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr welcomes us. Minutes--approved. UFT President Michael Mulgrew --You all saw mayor's "blended plan." In April, after multiple models, there were two options to open safely. Either we triple classrooms and teachers, or have one third of students present. We are okay with the model as the way to go. The
Trump and DeVos Can't Make Up Their Damned Minds About Schools It doesn't seem all that hard to figure out how Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos feel about public schools in this country. And yet, they seem oddly conflicted. DeVos famously called public schools a "dead end." Just last week, reflecting on the SCOTUS decision, she opined that the history of American education is "sad and static" and "t
Is it Time to Cancel Teach Like a Champion? Teach Like a Champion, the best-selling guide to effective teaching by Doug Lemov, has sold millions of copies. But a growing group of critics charge that Lemov’s approach is racist and embodies “carceral” pedagogy. And because we have a thing about education history, we go all the way back to 1895 to explore another controversial teacher training mode
What Happens When They Don’t? States have finally started to release guidance to school districts for the “safe” reopening of buildings for in-person instruction. My state’s Return to School Roadmap takes a phased approach, with each phase providing guidelines that are either “required,” “strongly recommended” or “recommended.” In Phase 4, some of the requirements are: “Facial coverings must be
What it could cost to reopen schools with covid-19 safety measures The San Diego Unified School District has come up with a plan for the fall: It will reopen school buildings for all students who want to come, full time, five days a week. But, its leaders say, the district needs more emergency funding from Congress to promise this for the entire 2020-21 academic year. If that money doesn’t come
NEA President: No One Should Listen to Trump, DeVos on Reopening Schools In a flurry of tweets, President Trump condemned CDC guidance on reopening schools and threatened to withhold funding to schools that don’t reopen for fall, creating more panic for stressed families seeking leadership and assurances that their children can return to school safely during a deadly pandemic. Then he politicize
For Teachers Who Are Parents, Schools Reopening In The Fall Is Bad News Educators share the thoughts and questions racing through their minds right now. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, many parents have already faced a major challenge: homeschooling their children while working full-time. As back-to-school season starts gearing up, many parents are getting updates from their school districts
Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (scheduling) Yesterday Carranza released the plan. Let’s start by comparing it to my “ What to Look for ” guide. Variety of levels – Look not just for multiple models, but for multiple models at each level . They have separate D75 models, but not models tailored to HS, MS, ES (they really are all ES models) 2/5 Details – lack of details would be a tell
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “Q&A Collections: Cooperative & Collaborative Learning” by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Q&A Collections: Cooperative & Collaborative Learning is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts sharing advice on Cooperative & Collaborative Learning (from the past nine years!) ar
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 Kevin Welner on Trump’s Failure to Make It Safe to Open Schools 21 by dianeravitch / 52min Kevin Welner is the director of the National Education Policy Center and a Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He writes: The definition of ch
Thoughts on "opening" schools From the perspective of someone who has taught every grade from 7 through 12, in public, charter, and private (both religious and secular) schools. CLASSROOMS — It is impossible in most schools to have 6 foot between students. Last year I had up to 30 seniors in a room at a time, with a social distance rarely even 2 feet between them. To get to 6 feet I would have t
The Chancellor Writes Us Again Dear Colleagues, I hope you and your families are staying healthy and safe as we transition to the 2020-2021 school year. Earlier today, Mayor de Blasio and I announced our latest planning for bringing students back to school buildings in September—a plan that was informed by an internet survey with no controls whatsoever. I want to make sure you hear my rationale,
No Force on Earth Can Stand Before Us Yesterday, I awoke to learn that the President of the United States and his education secretary are talking about punishing public schools that don't open in the fall by withholding federal funding. They've walked that back a little in the intervening 24 hours, but the message is clear: they are willing to sacrifice children and their families in the name of
Betsy DeVos Is Failing Hard In the midst of all this chaos and confusion, it's perhaps easy to miss how thoroughly Betsy DeVos is doing a terrible job as Secretary of Education. And by so many measures. There's the business of managing college loans. DeVos, you may recall, has been pointedly spanked by the courts for going after students who owe money on their college loans even in those cases w
The AAP's school guidance principles don't align with Trump/DeVos mandated reopening. President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are threatening to cut federal funding if schools don't fully physically reopen in the fall, regardless of the state of the pandemic and with or without required CDC safety measures being in place. They may think they think their reckless mandate is supported
When It Comes To Reopening Schools, 'The Devil's In The Details,' Educators Say Jeanne Norris is a teacher, the wife of a teacher and the mother of an 8-year-old in St. Louis. She'd love to send her son back to school in August. But, she says, "I feel like my government and my fellow citizens have put me in a position where it's not really in the best interests of our family." Norris has a long
Intro to Next Book (Part 1) I have been writing posts for this blog over a decade. One of the purposes for it is to take drafts of a forthcoming book that I am working on and use them as posts to try out new ideas (or renovated old ones) and see how readers respond. I am now working on a book about the three major reform movements over the past century that have swept over schools and what I exp
Chutzpah and the Push for In-Person Instruction The definition of chutzpah, according to the old joke, is the kid who kills his parents and then asks the judge for mercy because he’s an orphan. President Trump has added a twist on the joke: the kid who kills his parents and then complains that they don’t drive him to school. When the European Union was hit early and hard by the COVID-19 pandemic
Reopening Plans Translated FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 8, 2020 CONTACT: pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov, (212) 788-2958 MAYOR DE BLASIO AND CHANCELLOR CARRANZA ANNOUNCE PRELIMINARY SCHOOL REOPENING PLANS FOR FALL 2020 Health and safety will lead all planning, even though health and safety are concepts rather than leaders. This, however, takes us off the hook, since we’ve publicly committed ourselve
Governor Cuomo on School Re-Opening: Data-Driven State Guidance, Local Input and Many Unanswered Questions Governor Cuomo has emphasized and re-emphasized; pandemic decisions will be made by the governor, including decisions on school re-openings “The state law governing schools and business closings or openings has been in effect since the pandemic first started and all such decisions are made
SCHOOL REOPENING: TEACHER AND LIBRARIAN VIEWS WITH WTU AND AASL Equal access, inclusion at a distance, and basic health and safety are crucial and urgent concerns for schools and their libraries amidst pandemic. WTU President Elizabeth Davis and AASL President Kathy Carroll share teacher and librarian perspectives on reopening plans in DC and across the nation. On We Act Radio’s July 8 “Communit
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Hosts First Virtual Classroom Session in Ethnic Studies Featuring Educators and Students SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today convened the first in a series of virtual classroom events on ethnic studies. The event today engaged students in a real-time dialogue about on the importance of ethnic studies and offered a lesson an
Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report – Raw Story Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report President Donald Trump plans to blow off the recommendations issued by his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by releasing his own set of guidelines for reopening American schools d
Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools The president also threatened to slash federal funding to schools that do not physically reopen. President Donald Trump on Wednesday publicly disavowed his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, arguing the federal recommendations were too burdensome as he ramped up his bid to have
Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe. People are uber-touchy, even panicky, about the questions around returning to school—it’s a life and death issue, all right, including potentially gambling with our most precious asset: our children. Like any venture that is launched before all the facts and outcomes are available—marriage and childbirth spring to mind here—both in-person schooling in some fashio
