Six on History: Schools
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"The National Education Policy Center is a think tank known for its incisive reviews, studies, and reports. In this post, it demolishes five myths about teaching.
Myth 1: Evaluating teachers based on student test results is fair, objective, and effective. Wrong.
Myth 2: We’d get better performance out of teachers and attract better candidates to the profession if we handed out bonuses. Doesn’t work.
Myth 3: Five or so weeks of training prepares you to start teaching. Experience and preparation matter.
Myth 4: Education is more equitable and more rigorous when teachers are required to use a scripted curriculum that tells them what to say and when. Bad idea.
Myth 5: Teaching is easy—after all, you get the summers off and you play with kids all day! Try it for a day."
Teaching Learning Technology
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"As I discussed in a previous post, one of the most controversial approaches to school discipline in the U.S. is the use of zero-tolerance policies. These policies include exclusionary practices, such as office referrals and suspension, which remove students from their classroom and isolate them from the school community. Zero tolerance policies in schools have been shown to have a detrimental effect on all students, particularly Black and Brown students. Skiba et al (2011), for instance, wrote about how these punitive methods cause students to miss critical instructional time and feel less connected to their teachers and peers.
Zero tolerance policies are embedded in high-stakes accountability structures. As White (2020) states, these policies overly focus on student behavior and the idea that individual hard work is the best way to promote high test scores. They do not foster a sense of community- and relationship- building. While policymakers had positive intentions in promoting a more rigorous and equalitarian experience for students—laying out each infraction and punishment with the intention of applying discipline uniformly across student groups—that is not what has happened. According to the aforementioned research, Black and Brown students were still punished more harshly for the same infractions than were their peers. Thus, the negative consequences of these policies have far outweighed the benefits.
Many schools are implementing alternative methods of discipline that stress the importance of taking proactive measures to reduce exclusionary practices. In the previous post, I focused on the importance of restorative justice policies as a strong strategy to support children and their development. But there are also multiple alternative models that have been shown to be effective among students of varying ages and demographics. These models focus on relationship development, and staff training, which I will discuss below. Specifically, the three other models include: School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), Monarch Room, and Inclusive Skill-Building Learning Approach (ISLA). In short, the idea that zero tolerance is the only approach is unsupportable.
School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is a system-level, positive and preventative behavior approach that can be organized into three tiers of support, depending on how much structure the student needs (Simonsen et al., 2012). The Monarch Room is a trauma-informed alternative to suspension policies that provide a physical safe space for students when they are expressing challenge behaviors (Baroni, 2020). Finally, the Inclusive Skill-Building Learning Approach (ISLA) is an extension of PBIS and not only trains staff members to use preventative strategies schoolwide, but is also designed to “minimize the use of exclusion, respond effectively to problem behaviors, and establish systematic processes to ensure that students are equitably supported” (Nese, 2020). ... "
"The executive director of StudentsFirstNY, Jenny Sedlis, has taken a leave of absence from her job to manage a fundraising PAC for Eric Adams, one of the leading candidates for mayor. The election is this November.
Sedlis previously was the lead spokesperson for Success Academy, Eva Moskowitz’s charter chain.
The new entity plans to run digital and TV ads supporting Adams’ candidacy, without being beholden to the strict spending limits imposed by the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Ahead of Sedlis establishing the PAC with the Board of Elections, StudentsFirstNY released a poll showing Adams closing the gap with frontrunner Andrew Yang. A poll published yesterday showed Adams in the lead.
Sedlis has not begun raising money yet, but the group is hoping to secure $6 million — matching the stated aim of political consultant Lis Smith in her fundraising effort for Andrew Yang, Adams’ chief rival in the race…
“New York City’s comeback starts with Eric Adams as mayor,” Sedlis said in a prepared statement. “He’ll make our streets safer, bring real police reform and get COVID under control so we can get the city back open for business.”
Though the promotions will not address charters, Adams has been an ally of the well-heeled movement to expand the schools.
“We need to identify those charter schools that are failing and those are the schools we need to replace with the schools who are doing a good job. The goal is to scale up excellence,” Adams said following an endorsement on Monday. “We have too many charter schools and district schools that are not meeting the standards that are needed … to talk about caps and non-caps is just the wrong conversation. What we’re capping is excellence.”
Meanwhile, Adam’s chief rival is Andrew Yang, who gained attention because of his failed candidacy for president in 2020. Yang won the endorsement of major Orthodox Jewish groups by agreeing with them that their Yeshivas should not be required to meet state standards or to teach the courses in English, instead of Hebrew.
Yang is advised by venture capitalist Bradley Tusk, who previously worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is an avid supporter of charter schools.
The outlook for public schools in New York City is not good."
"A year after the coronavirus set off a seismic disruption in public education, some of the remote programs that districts intended to be temporary are poised to outlast the pandemic. Even as students flock back to classrooms, a subset of families who have come to prefer online learning are pushing to keep it going — and school systems are rushing to accommodate them.
The districts are racing to set up full-fledged online schools even as concerns mount that remote learning has taken a substantial toll on many children’s academic progress and emotional health. Parents and lawmakers, alarmed by the situation, have urged schools to reopen. Last month, Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, went so far as to say there should be no remote learning option for children in New Jersey this fall.