Jeanette Deutermann on the one word everyone needs to remember right now

The following is from a Facebook post of Jeanette Deutermann, founder of Long Island Opt Out and co-founder of NYSAPE.  It's reprinted here with her permission.

All of our Facebook feeds are filled with posts of parents furious with teachers giving too much work, too little work, teachers furious about kids not logging on, kids sleeping in, and kids not completing the work. I want to implore everyone to keep one word in the front of their brains right now: EMPATHY. We all like to think we have empathy for others, but now is the time to prove it. 

For parents: if you think a teacher is assigning too much work, just realize - some teachers are untenured with chairpeople scrutinizing each and every assignment. Some are getting nasty emails from parents demanding more work. Some just are unaware of how long it is taking students to complete their work. Communicate with them. Most teachers will respond “no problem! Just do what you can!”.

If you think a teacher isn’t assigning enough work, just realize- maybe the teacher is sick themselves. Maybe they are trying to lighten the load for the student. Maybe they have three kids of their own that they are dealing with. Maybe they are dealing with the loss of someone they love. Just today I heard of a teacher who lost both parents to the virus but has continued to work putting out assignments. Assume everyone is doing the best they can. Communicate. 

Teachers: if you think a student is being lazy or not taking responsibility for not completing work, just realize - maybe the student has to help taking care of siblings. Maybe the student is sick themselves. Maybe the student is struggling with mental health issues that are now exacerbated by this issue. Maybe they are dealing with the loss of a loved one. Maybe it’s something as simple as sharing computers and devices with family members. Or maybe it’s more complicated. Are some just refusing to do work? Maybe, but most likely there is something else going on. Students that were in therapy before this started now have to have phone therapy or none at all. For some, being in school WAS their safe space. Kids that were active and on sports now have no access even to most fields to run around or exercise. For many, their home is a stressful environment. That is only going to increase tenfold now. Sleep issues are escalating for both kids and parents, so waking up early isn’t possible, reasonable, or healthy for many. 

My advice to everyone: HAVE EMPATHY. No one truly knows what is happening in each other’s lives. WE’RE ALL DOING THE BEST WE CAN. Stop tearing each other down and lower your expectations. For some their best will be a full day of homeschooling, board games and a home cooked meal. For others it will be surviving the day. Both are normal, both are acceptable. Breathe, take care of each other, and realize that these are the little things. Let’s come out of this proud of how we treated each other. #crisisschooling

Jeanette Deutermann
The Printed Pillow
Author, Opting Out-The Story of the Parents' Grassroots Movement to Achieve Whole-Child Public Schools jeanettedeutermann.com 

My Interview with AFT President Randi Weingarten

This morning on my WBAI radio show, "Talk out of School",  I spoke to Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, about what’s happening to schools, teachers and families during the coronavirus crisis, and Randi’s proposal that students should be engaging in completing a meaningful “capstone” project.

A link to her essay describing her idea in more detail is below. 

We also discussed the threat to schools from looming budget cuts, the risk to student privacy by the rapid adoption of unvetted ed tech programs, the Governor’s elimination of spring break in New York state, and more.  You can download the episode here.

Some of the resources that we mentioned are below.

AFT links:
Randi Weingarten’s essay,  On how teachers and students should cap this unprecedented school year
Share My Lesson with teacher resources.
Colorín Colorado! A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners

Privacy links:
The Educator Toolkit for Student and Teacher Privacy – written by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and Badass Teachers Association (with support from the AFT )
The ACLU recommendations on what should be demanded of ed tech companies at this critical time
Advice to parents from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy on maximizing privacy and minimizing screen time
A model privacy-protective Google contract negotiated by  NYS administrators  that other districts could adopt

You can download our "Talk out of School" podcast on standardized testing now!

Update:  You can now download this show as a podcast here.  It's my first one done through an app communicating remotely from home to the WBAI studio, so I was a bit nervous, but Akil Bello was great!

Please join us tomorrow Wed. March 25 at 10 AM for "Talk out of School" with Akil Bello of FairTest  on WBAI-FM 99.5 when we'll talk about what's happening with standardized testing during the period of schools being shut down and remote learning -- both here in NYC and nationally -- and what should happen with high-stakes testing in general.

And please call in with your questions and concerns!

Some advice and guidance for the week ahead

March 22, 2020

Dear all:

• A lot of news to catch up on.  Tomorrow starts remote learning for NYC public school students.  If you don’t have an online device, the Chancellor said on Friday that you can pick up written packets of suggested homework at the 400 school sites distributing food.  [UPDATE: apparently these packets are not yet available — as I learned after sending this message.]  If you need a device, you can fill out this form or call 718-935-5100 and then press  #5.  But be aware that for many kids, paper and pencil works better anyway.  Here is also the link for the Regional Enrollment Centers which will be providing child care for health care and transit workers, as well as first responders

• Here is a Parents Guide on how to set up Google classroom, available in several languages.  The ASD Nest support group at NYU has also provided advice, primarily meant for Autistic spectrum kids in how to establish a calm and focused learning environment, but this could be beneficial for any child. Here is some basic guidance from my Parent Coalition for Student Privacy on how to retain maximum privacy and minimizing screen time while doing so.

• Encourage your child to read books! If you don’t have enough physical books at home, you can sign up for a library card here and download books for free on an ipad or kindle. Just log into https://nypl.org and log into the catalog. If you don’t have a card, download SimplyE on iTunes or Google Play.

•  Don’t force yourself or your kids to focus on academics too much.  Check out this great piece in the NYT by an educator; or the wise counsel of Audrey Watters on my Talk out of School podcast, which also featured Jasmine Gripper of AQE on the state education budget and CM Mark Treyger on next steps for NYC schools.  See also this terrific letter from CSA President Mark Cannizzaro to principals.

•  FYI, the NY State Education  has now wisely cancelled most all state-mandated tests.  Next Wed. at 10 AM on WBAI-FM 99.5 we will interview Akil Bello, testing expert, on what is happening with other exams,  including the SATs and ACTs, and what he thinks should happen in the future with high-stakes tests in general.  We will be letting listeners to call in with their questions and concerns.

• Finally, I’d love to hear from each of you — parents, students and teachers — about what’s working here in NYC and elsewhere with our new national experiment with online learning, as I described it to LoHud News.  Please let me know by responding to this message or emailing me at info@classsizematters.org .   I’d like to feature some of your experiences as well on my blog;  let me know if I can share them, and if so, if I should remove your name to preserve your anonymity.

Hoping you and your family all stay strong and healthy during these challenging times,  Leonie

Letter from CSA President Mark Cannizzaro to principals

I thought this letter to NYC principals from Mark Cannizzaro, President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the principal union, was terrific -- with advice that we should all listen to, no matter what our respective roles, whether administrator, teacher or parent.  Feel free to share it widely. -  Leonie Though I have been actively involved in CSA’s communications over the last two weeks, I wanted to personally share my appreciation for your heroic efforts as well as a few thoughts on what comes next. Since late last week, the CSA felt that the closing of our schools was a drastic but necessary step to safeguard school communities and slow the spread of COVID-19 in our city. Therefore, while aware that transitioning over 1,700 schools to distance learning in just a few days would be a near impossible task, we strongly advocated that the mayor do so. Since then, as expected, you have been inundated with information and directives that have been sometimes confusing and conflicting, sometimes unrealistic and have often left you with unanswered questions. Through it all, you have been the calming, positive and steady presence your staff needs. You have instilled confidence and trust in them even when your own confidence was shaken. I recognize it, the chancellor recognizes it, and we both thank you!   With all the confusion, I would like to offer some clarity. Your primary responsibility over the next several weeks is to do the best you can to provide your students with quality learning opportunities. It is understood that some schools and some individual teachers are much further along than others in their distance learning capabilities. You will not be disciplined if you are unable to accurately or completely fulfill every expectation or strictly adhere to deadlines outlined in the DOE’s “expectations memo.” You are not expected to offer the same level of supervision as you are able to during the typical school day. You and the assistant principals should be checking in on staff and offering support and ideas for how they can best serve students. You do not, however, need to concern yourself with scrutinizing teacher schedules and other minutiae. Continue to encourage and remain a source of strength for your teachers. Be available for them, model as best you can, and be open to their feedback and concerns. While not under the roof of your building, I know you will find innovative and real ways to keep your community connected for the benefit of your students. We are in unchartered territory and everyone understands it. The goal is not to recreate a normal school day given that the sudden changes in our lives and routines are anything but normal. The goal must be to provide some semblance of stability and learning for our students while paying careful attention to their social and emotional health. In turn, we must acknowledge the anxiety and fears in the adults around us and provide an outlet for them as well.   Finally, you must take care of yourself.  When things speed up, you must slow down.  Make sure you do the things that bring you peace of mind and body so that you can be present for those who look to you for guidance.    Please know that CSA will be by your side throughout this process and that we are diligently working to bring clarity and get your questions answered. Please feel free to reach out to us at any time and, in the meantime, just do the best that you can!

You and your team have done a great job thus far, and I know you will continue to do so. It is an honor to represent you! Stay safe! ­­­­­­

Important update on just-announced NYC school closings and other important developments

After several weeks of resistance, Mayor de Blasio just announced that starting tomorrow, Monday March 16, NYC public schools will be closed, and will remain closed until at least April 20, to stem the rapid spread of coronavirus.  For the next week, schools will be open only as a place for parents to pick up food if they need it for their families, and teachers will be trained in online learning starting Tuesday.

The following week, starting March 23, students will begin to engage in “remote learning”, and “Regional Enrichment centers” will be opened throughout the city to provide child care for first responders, health care and transit workers, and “our most vulnerable populations.”
Chancellor Carranza said that online devices will also be provided to the approximately 300,000 kids who don’t have them. A schedule of events is available on the DOE website here. The Chancellor strongly urged all parents to sign up for School Accounts to stay in the loop, if you haven’t already; instructions here.

• The Mayor delayed this necessary decision for weeks, even after most public health experts, parents, teachers, union officials, and other elected leaders had begged him to close the schools, as nearly every other large district and more than 15 states have already done. More on about this in a blog post I wrote on Thursday. With more than half a million kids in overcrowded schools, and more than 325,000 in classes of 30 or more, it would be simply impossible to prevent the rapid spread of the virus among our children, teachers and other staff, which currently is our best chance to prevent our health care system from becoming quickly overwhelmed.
  

• Yet I am also very skeptical as to the value of online learning even under the best of conditions; and there is growing consensus among independent researchers that it doesn’t work well, especially for kids who need help the most.  I and others also have many privacy concerns, some of which are outlined on our Parent Coalition for Student Privacy blog, where I also offer some alternative suggestions as to what might be better ways to keep your kids engaged, both physically and intellectually, during the weeks ahead.  

When online instruction begins in NYC, I will be eager to hear from all of you, including parents, teachers and students, as to what your experiences are with whatever programs are adopted by the DOE.

• Most importantly, it will be important for you to keep yourselves and your children safe by maintaining an acceptable “social distance” from others who may be unknowingly infected. I urge you to consult the most reliable information on how to do this best; for example, this site from the Harvard Medical School.

Though Mayor de Blasio has repeatedly claimed that asymptomatic individuals, including children, do not spread the disease, this is contrary to several recent scientific studies that show otherwise. In any event, much of the city will be shutting down in the coming days, including the City Council budget hearings that were due to start next week.

I wanted to get this update to you quickly and will try to keep you informed as events unfold. Meanwhile, I hope that whatever situation you find yourselves in, at work and at home, that you and your family remain healthy in the days ahead.

Yours, Leonie

Schools and coronavirus: listen to the experts

Today, Governor Cuomo held a press conference where he announced that all gatherings with more than 500 people in the state would be banned from now on, and any gathering under 500 would have to cut their legal occupancy level in half, in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Yet schools and public transit will be exempt from these directives.

When asked why schools are exempted, Cuomo’s Secretary Melissa De Rosa responded that there’s no reason to close schools that have classes of forty students at most.  Yet with class sizes as large as they are, and classrooms as small as in most city schools, the person-to-person density is so extreme that the recommendation of “social distancing” of staying six feet apart will be impossible. See the photos above.

Today, the Archdiocese of NY announced it would be closing all its elementary schools (which include Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island, but not Brooklyn and Queens.)  The Governor of Ohio ordered all schools in the state--public, private, charter--closed for at least three weeks, starting next week, even though only five people in the entire state have tested positive for coronavirus, compared to 328 confirmed cases in New York state, and 98 infected in NYC.  The governors of Maryland, Kentucky and New Mexico have followed suit, with only 13 and 8 and 5 confirmed cases respectively.

When Gov. DeWine of Ohio was asked about the possibility kids would miss the state testing, he said,  “If we can’t have testing this year, we will not have testing this year. The world will not come to an end.”  The US Department of Education also issued guidance tonight that waivers from mandated state testing would be considered for those districts where schools were closed due to the epidemic. 

Yet both Cuomo and De Blasio seem adamant that they won’t close the public school system – and even at schools where students or staff have tested positive, they would close those individual schools for only a day, and then consider whether to extend that period.  See this article, about two schools sharing a building in the South Bronx which were closed for one day after the report of an infected student, which de Blasio called a “pinpoint” approach.  The DOE has even apparently refused to close a school in Park Slope, even temporarily,  where a parent tested positive after having gathered with other parents and school staff a week ago at an open school night before knowing he was infected.

At his press conference today, the Mayor said “We will fight tooth and nail to protect our schools – its where children are safe” and it allows parents to go to work.  Yet does keeping schools open really “protect” them, or keep children and their families safe?   

A reporter asked what parents who have medically fragile conditions keep their children at a distance.  The Commission of the NYC Health Department Oxiris Barbot said no, they should keep them close especially at this stressful time, until they are showing symptoms .  But this  ignores what is generally understood  by most medical experts, which is that children may be asymptomatic themselves and still be infected and thus extremely effective vectors for further contagion.

Today, a list of 36 eminent virologists sent a letter to the Mayor, urging him to immediately close the schools.

Some of our elected leaders agree.  See this proposal  from the NYC Council Education chair Mark Treyger, which he calls a “temporary contingency plan.”  He suggests that most schools should be closed except for a few in each borough which would be supplied with grab and go meals, medical services, and provide space for those students whose parents do not have any child care alternatives.

Council Members Brad Lander and Richie Torres released a similar comprehensive plan today, devised by doctors and public health officials, calling for city to immediately close schools, among other steps, to stem the contagion:

Suspend classes at public schools, while keeping schools open for emergency childcare for essential workers and vulnerable families. Keep childcare groups small, under 10 kids per group. Close schools immediately and reopen some as centers of family support and mitigation.  

For states or districts where schools are closed for extended periods, Doug Harris suggests that the school year could be extended for six weeks over the summer, funded with federal stimulus dollars.

Like Doug Harris, I am extremely skeptical of the efficacy of online learning in general and its privacy implications are seriously problematic, even if most NYC students had sufficient devices and broadband to go online, which they don’t.  Not only does the research show that online learning doesn’t work, it works worst for those students who need the help most, and thus exacerbates the achievement gap.  In this way, it is the opposite of small classes, which narrow the gap.

If the schools do end up closing here or elsewhere,  I believe it would be far better for students to be assigned math workbooks  or packets and independent reading rather than asking them to go online. I highly recommend the Singapore math workbooks which are excellent and relatively inexpensive. 

All in all, I would listen to the medical experts, the virologists and epidemiologists. NYC should be following precautionary principle, described this way by Wikipedia: “There is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to such harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections should be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.” In other words, better safe than sorry.

The letter from virologists follows.