There is a political push to reopen schools before the November elections. Since there is still a deadly pandemic raging, opponents of that policy will have to be vilified in order to counter the protests. Educators will be the scapegoats. #RefuseToReturn
Now, like children at the check-out, both our national employers and our authorities are screaming and kicking, I want my candy; trying desperately to make this the schools’ problem.
Read MoreThere are too many hidden factors to be able to say for sure what our chances are exactly. And in the presence of such ignorance, we should assume the worst.
Read MoreWhat states are working on their task-forces to reopen schools? What states already have plans released? What are educators saying about these plans? What states and districts are taking a critical look at their curriculum and staff? Latest edition of the BAT State news recap for June
Read MoreThe US is not ready to open schools. We blew it. Let’s face reality squarely and quit making outcomes in our country even worse.
Read MoreNeither the President or Betsy DeVos consider details of how the virus could affect children and their families in states and school districts across the country. The President has turned the virus into a political dispute. Until the President, Congress, and scientists get their act together, it is irresponsible to put the nation’s students in the crossfire.
What if we, as parents, refuse to send our children back to school until it is safe for all of them? I know that will be an impossibility in this divided country, but if we could all coalesce on just one issue, I have to believe it would be the safety of our children over racism and greed.
Read MoreThis disease is too bizarre and there are still too many unknowns for Americans to risk their children’s health by placing them in school. It isn’t worth it, especially when schools are a shell of what they should be.
Read MoreMy best guess is that there was no intentional fraud or purposeful financial misleading in SUHSD. It looks like there was a significant budget creation error that collided with state created structural deficits. I do not expect any prosecutions. If significant changes are not made to California school financing, there are going to be many more districts running into these same structural deficits with no good solutions.
Read MoreAre we really going to open the school buildings and teach in-person? While that would be much better from an academic standpoint, there’s still the problem of a global pandemic.
Read MoreThe time, energy and money that will no doubt be squandered this summer to develop hybrid models should instead be put into one place: solidifying the actual virtual element that undergirds the whole enterprise. Making this call now will enable schools to marshal their forces into preparation, and mitigate a tremendous anxiety for the students, parents, and teachers facing nothing but uncertainty.
Read MoreWe need to fully integrate our schools, for instance. We need to reform our criminal justice system so that Black people are not arrested and convicted at higher rates than White people who commit the same crimes. We need to stop police or others from killing unarmed Black people and getting away with it. We need to stop denigrating Black people for the “crime” of having Black-sounding names.
Read MoreBut the real prompt to return to school was to say a proper goodbye to my students, from our classroom. One last video lesson in the form of a concluding ceremony; a feeble attempt to close the broken circle of this unfathomable year. An ending without closure never takes up comfortable residence in memory, like a door always left just slightly ajar. The year felt endless, because it was in fact without an end.
Read MoreThe reality is that we are facing a highly contagious virus to which human beings have no defense. This means that some cultural norms are not possible. Formerly in addition to academics, schools also were effectively daycare centers. In this environment, they cannot safely perform that function. Businesses, parents, schools and communities must work together to mitigate this unmet need.
Read MoreLet’s put all this together. Covid-19 gives election officials the excuse to consolidate polling places, which impacts negatively the right of all persons, especially black persons, to exercise their 15th Amendment right to the ballot box.
Read MoreIt feels like standing on the plank of a pirate ship with swords at our backs, forcing us to jump into the ocean filled with sharks. Then claiming that we took the steps on our own. When the inevitable wave of coronavirus hits these politicians will be safe on the deck, counting their treasure while students and staff tread water and fight off the covid sharks. It almost seems like perhaps the politicians don’t actually have our best interests at heart.
Read MoreIntegration is absolutely essential. We must ensure that all of our students get to go to school together – but not just in the same buildings, in the same classes. This requires an end to standardized testing but maybe also an end to advanced placement courses as we know them. Why focus on higher order thinking only for the privileged kids – do it for all. Individual student needs can be met with dual teachers in the room, pullout resources and the like.
Read MoreWe are looking ahead and hoping that social justice will be about fairness, generosity of spirit, tolerance, calm and respect.
Read MoreTest-obsessed policy makers will tell educators to manage everything with a clipboard and a spreadsheet – for example, to increase the percentage of positive interactions vs negative ones in a given class period. But such a data-centric mindset dehumanizes both student and teacher.
Read MoreNSVF along with scores of billionaire funded Foundations has been spending staggeringly large amounts of money to privatize public education and monetize it. This spending has been going on for decades now. So, why are about 90% of America’s students still attending public schools? The answer is simple. The “disrupter” products are bad and Americans are not buying what their selling.
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