NYC-based writer, mother, teacher, socialist. I write at https://xitter.cf/t.co/9GuukNnWEl & run a newsletter on schools in the time of COVID at https://xitter.cf/t.co/h7UPW8Pp3t.
New York, NY
Joined June 2013
- Tweets5.5K
- Following283
- Followers1.4K
- Likes9.7K
Pinned Tweet
You'd never know from the media that Black, Latinx and low-income families oppose reopening schools by significant margins. Why aren't they being heard & whose interests does it serve to say we must open schools for the sake of the most vulnerable?
link.medium.com/EBEO15cGk8
This data is incredibly misleading. It posits an inverse relationship bet school spending & test scores. Graph starts in 2013: the deepest point of decline in school spending after the 2008 recession. The rising line is spending starting to barely recover, not absolute increase.
Find each state's graph here: edunomicslab.org/roi-over-ti…
For more context, see this report on school funding after 2008
cbpp.org/research/a-punishin…
Grown adults missing more work than they ever imagined. Can't we consider that more kids are missing more school than they ever imagined to similarly environmental/physical causes?
This quoted post is unavailable.
This is not my experience. I have 8th graders who couldn't decode well & scored at the bottom of class. But they could keep up when it came to something like analyzing irony in Animal Farm. They needed intervention for decoding but would suffer if we withheld rigorous content.
unavailable
So, so many people have comments on this-most judging the mom or lamenting that schools are forced to accommodate kids like hers. So, so few acknowledge the fact that he had few problems in 2nd gr when his behavior plan was followed & things went downhill in 3rd when it wasn't.
"What would you do if your third-grader shoved teachers, destroyed his classroom, and hid from everyone?"
Behavioral Problems in NYC Schools: One Third-Grader’s Story thecut.com/article/behaviora…
Jen Roesch retweeted
CNN (accidentally?) interviewed Mustafa Barghouti about Israel-Palestine. Can’t think of the last time I saw anything like this on mainstream U.S. television. Zakaria seems not even to know who he’s talking to.
This quoted post is unavailable.
I am 100% for helping kids learn to read Shakespeare in the original because the language itself is playful & powerful. However, the comments in this thread are ridiculous. Languages evolve & his is not ours. The syntax & vocabulary are radically changed. 1/2
The mutual hostility I'm seeing between sped & gen ed teachers is disheartening. I feel very lucky to work in a school where all classes are fully co-taught & both teachers share equally in supporting all kids. I think this has to be the model, which ofc requires more $$/time.
One very important value of reading I believe is that it can be an escape-from painful reality, into other worlds, into other ideas. How do we teach that/give that experience in schools? How do we reconcile that w/ the fact it might mean "losing instructional time"? 1/
I say this as someone who sees the urgency of teaching the actual skill of reading with automaticity, accuracy & fluency & has embraced structured literacy as critical. But school may also be the only place kids learn reading as refuge/escape, which can be a lifelong tool. 2/
I really get the "heavy load" aspect & how you can get caught in a spin cycle of constantly finding/creating resources. BUT...I struggle w/ separating content from delivery. I'd rather teachers were treated as professionals & given time & resources to think deeply about both.
Given the well-documented positive impact of teachers of color on student achievement, the city's use of a discriminatory test that barred more than 5,000 teachers of color is the real scandal. A much greater cost has already been paid; this is just a very partial redress.
I hope this outlay of $1.8 billion will be carefully investigated. As long as the same test was used for all teacher applicants it’s hard for me to see a major civil rights issue here. But there are two sides to all stories. 1.8 billion dollars could likely buy 100 million much needed new textbooks.
nypost.com/2023/07/15/nyc-bi… via @nypmetro
Yes. Eg, how many school districts have to allocate $1.9 million for "rat reduction"? Drop in the bucket but illustrates the immense costs running a massive school system in a city with failing infrastructure & high costs of "doing business".
This Post is from an account that no longer exists. Learn more
Jen Roesch retweeted
a casual reminder of JFK’s college essay
(this is real theatlantic.com/education/ar…)
As an 8th grade ELA teacher who sees the huge academic & emotional costs for struggling readers, I find the science of reading compelling & actionable. But I am deeply uncomfortable w/ this framing. Child poverty & hunger are unacceptable. Where is the urgency for fixing these?
“Mississippi has shown that it is possible to raise standards even in a state ranked dead last in the country in child poverty and hunger and second highest in teen births.”
AND with low spending.
AND with union support.
Please read @NickKristof:
nytimes.com/2023/05/31/opini…
The hypocrisy is too much to stomach. "Schools should do education & academics" - except when they should form a particularly narrow view of "moral character". As sympathetic as I am to knowledge building, this shines a spotlight on all the problems implicated in the concept.
This quoted post is unavailable.