I remember how it was -- JR
Dems' Attack On Smart Kids
Parents whose kids excel in school need to be on guard. Leftist school administrators across the country -- not just in New York City -- are banning gifted programs in elementary and middle school and Advanced Placement courses in high school.
Typically, without any notice to parents, an eight grader's accelerated science class or a fifth grader's fast-track math class is merged into the regular classroom. Top students lose out. They need accelerated programs every bit as much as children with learning challenges need special education. It's discrimination.
The left is seizing on a newly published study of Ohio students from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute to call for banning gifted programs. The study, "Ohio's Lost Einsteins," looks at what became of second and third grade students who were identified as high performers. By eighth grade, only 30% of Black students, 39% of Hispanic students and 34% of economically disadvantaged students in the group were still outstanding performers. Most had floundered.
Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews misreads the findings to argue that gifted programs are unproven and probably a waste of money. But many of the Ohio students labelled as high achievers were never placed in a "gifted" program. Fordham's experts actually recommend more students be tracked into gifted programs.
The study also underscores the importance of helping gifted children early on overcome barriers to success. They may lack a place to study and, most importantly, an involved parent. Some parents don't insist their children do their homework, concentrate in class and aim for AP classes. These parents need guidance on buying into the educational achievement culture.
Instead, school administrators are scapegoating gifted kids for the sake of equity. Boston suspended enrollment in its Advanced Work Classes program for fourth, fifth and six graders, citing the fact that the school district is 80% Black and Hispanic, but AWC enrollment is 70% white and Asian.
The rhetoric attacking gifted programs is vicious and divisive. The Hechinger Report, based at Columbia University's Teachers College, claims "gifted education has racism in its roots," arguing that the scientist who popularized IQ measurement was a eugenicist.
California proposes eliminating accelerated math before eleventh grade and requiring all students to study math together. "We reject ideas of natural gifts and talents," the state's math plan declares. That's like declaring that all students can play on the varsity football team. Ridiculous.
Educators are peddling a false claim that students of mixed abilities learn better together. A website addressed to school administrators deplores tracking as "segregation" and announces, "It's good for students to be in classrooms where there's a robust exchange of perspectives; perspectives that are shaped by racial, ethnic and economic identities." Maybe in homeroom or social studies, but not physics. Gifted children in slow classes grow bored and even drop out.
Leftist educators are also targeting AP high school classes. But a study by the left-leaning Center for American Progress shows that students who succeed in AP classes have higher grades in college and are more likely to graduate. Eliminating them would be a mistake.
Fewer Black students enroll in AP, and those who do are less likely to pass the AP exams. Approximately 69% of Asians, 65% of whites and 46% of Hispanics who take AP tests pass, but only 28% of Blacks pass. The country should be deeply concerned, but the solution is to better prepare disadvantaged kids.
The equity warriors are also attacking the nation's 165 competitive public high schools. From Boston to Alexandria, Virginia, and San Francisco, they're eliminating entrance exams and allocating seats by lottery or zip code. Georgetown University's Anthony Carnevale calls it "a direct populist rebellion." Don't buy it. The real populism is parents rising up to resist dumbing down their children's education. These parents, including Asian American immigrants, know their best shot at the American dream is to have their children succeed in a highly competitive public school. No one should take that away.
https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2021/10/13/dems-attack-on-smart-kids-n2597348
********************************************'We are parents, not domestic terrorists: 'Lifelong liberal' mother-of-four who was hounded out of her public defender role 'because she is white' blasts the FBI's attack on families who disagree with CRT
A former New York City public defender has slammed the city's school system for imposing CRT on kids and the FBI's attack on parents who disagree with it, writing on Bari Weiss' substack channel Common Sense that they are parents 'not domestic terrorists.'
Maud Maron is a former public defender who claims to have been wrongfully dismissed earlier this year because she is white. She sued the Legal Aid Society at the time for wrongful dismissal.
The mother-of-four is now taking on the NYC school system. She says she is becoming increasingly concerned about how critical race theory is imposed on young kids.
Maron, who is also running for city council, also slammed the Department of Justice and FBI for treating concerned parents like her as if they were 'domestic terrorists' by threatening to prosecute them if they are perceived to be violently threatening towards teachers.
'I am a mother of four, a criminal defense attorney and a lifelong liberal who is deeply concerned about the direction of New York City’s public schools. I’ve been outspoken about my views, along with an untold number of frustrated parents. 'For that, the FBI is considering using the PATRIOT Act against me,' Maron wrote.
She was among millions of parents who the FBI is warning it will target if they become aggressive against school staff who they disagree with.
Attorney General Merrick Garland gave the warning in a memo last week in response to a letter that the National School Board Association wrote to Joe Biden the previous week, asking for his help.
Maron said she read the school boards' letter with 'grave concern', 'as would any American who cares about our public schools and the safety of teachers and students.'
She was aghast when she realized the threat they were talking about was her. 'What was the nature of this threat? And would my own children be at risk?
'As it turns out, the threat is me. The threat is parents showing up to dress down school boards over their dereliction of duty. That is what the NSBA considers a crime.'
'I urge you to read the letter in full You will see that it contains 24 footnotes. The worst of the so-called crimes include prank calls; a single individual in Ohio yelling a “Nazi salute in protest of masking requirements”; another individual in Washington State whose disorderly conduct prompted the board to call a recess; “spreading misinformation” online, and disorderly conduct arrests. In New York, where I live, disorderly conduct is not even a criminal offense.'
She said she was treated worse by the woke mob when it chased her out of her role as a public defender in the city, and as a member of Manhattan's largest school board.
'From 2017 until June of this year, I was elected to two consecutive terms on Manhattan’s largest school board in what is our nation's largest school system. I chaired many school board meetings attended by hundreds of parents often voicing contentious opinions around the highly charged topics of admissions and curriculum. Ultimately, I became the board chair.
'As a school board chair, I was harassed, bullied, smeared and subjected to online campaigns demanding my resignation. Activists who disagreed with me regularly showed up at my school board meetings to give me a piece of their minds. When I decided to run for City Council in 2020 they continued their public attacks, accusing me of “harming” students because I would not agree with their policy proposals, including eliminating merit-based admissions, scrapping objective tests and dismantling gifted and talented programs. Some protesters even crashed an outdoor, pro-merit rally I organized with fellow parents.
'It is not fun to listen to people call you names or falsely accuse you of racism. But when you are an elected board member you have an obligation to listen to everyone — everyone —at public meetings,' she wrote.
'You may disagree with parents like me who do not want our children indoctrinated with Critical Race Theory, masked during recess, or told that their biological sex is is not real. But in a free society, we don’t call the feds to police our fellow Americans because we don’t share their politics.'
Maron also slammed the NSBA for claiming in its letter to Biden that it doesn't enforce CRT on kids.
She says it is clear that this is not the case, and that teachers take it even further than CRT text books - which she herself had to read when she was a law student.
'I read the classic Critical Race Theory textbook in law school. I would much prefer to have my children read that impenetrable tome than be subjected to the ideological grooming that takes place in their classrooms — a phenomenon that I and parents across the country witnessed over Zoom this past year-and-a-half.
'Why should our children — in class, in front of their peers — be required to discuss their sexual orientation? Give their pronouns? Renounce their “privilege”?
'Plumbing children for this kind of personal information is grotesque and inappropriate, and it has everything to do with the worldview of Critical Race Theory.
'Anyone who denies as much is lying,' she wrote, adding: 'That’s not domestic terrorism. It’s good parenting. It’s patriotism. And it’s a basic American right — one we all need to defend.'
Earlier this year, Maud sued Legal Aid Society for wrongful dismissal, claiming that she was forced from her job and 'discriminated against on the basis of race'.
Legal Aid denied her claims as 'frivolous' at the time.
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Australia: Classroom windows to be open at all times so schools meet COVID-safe air standards
Students and teachers will have to put up with heat, noise and pollination in classrooms when school returns for some next week as new ventilation advice provided to the NSW Education Department says windows should be opened in all possible circumstances to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.
If windows are kept open at all times – including after lessons, over lunch and during hot weather or rain – independent modelling released on Tuesday shows the average public school classroom will meet global standards for fresh air changes and indoor carbon dioxide levels.
The department is also releasing 2200 school-level ventilation reports which are available to parents before students in kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 return on October 18. Other years return on October 25. They have divided school spaces into two categories: rooms that can have full capacity with their windows open, and rooms that need to implement the one person per four square metre rule.
For the latter category, which mainly affects staff offices, schools have been told how many people can be in that space safely.
Engineering consultancy Steensen Varming was contracted to provide independent advice to the department. It used guidelines from the World Health Organisation and the Harvard School of Public Health to gauge whether natural ventilation in classrooms met global standards for mitigating COVID-19 transmission.
The report assumes the typical NSW classroom has a 65 square metre floor area, 2.7 metre ceiling height, and accommodates 25 students and one teacher. It also assumes there are 3.25 square metres (or 5 per cent of floor space) worth of open windows – which is the standard that schools have been built to under construction codes – and that windows are positioned on one side of the room, which is a worst-case scenario.
“There are obviously numerous variables that would need to be considered ... However, known industry tools have been used to estimate likely [air changes per hour] of natural ventilation together with conservative assumptions of some variables for a typical classroom,” the report says.
The calculations indicate classrooms will achieve the main benchmarks of fresh airflow: there would be six air changes per hour and carbon dioxide levels would be about 726 parts per million, which is safely below the accepted threshold of 850. When the number of students in the room increases to 30, estimated CO₂ levels are 772.
“The typical classroom satisfies and exceeds the WHO road map first strategy approach of providing the nominated fresh air ventilation rate of 10 [litres per second] per person. Additionally, the results also show satisfactory CO₂ levels in the typical classroom,” it says.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the Steensen Varming report would allow schools to implement expert ventilation advice at a classroom level.
“Parents can be assured that everything is being done to ensure schools are safe for students,” she said. “We need to listen to the experts when it comes to ventilation, just as we do with vaccines.”
Steensen Varming said there was no “zero risk” scenario and that some of its advice may not apply to all school buildings, while issues such as hot weather had not been accounted for.
“As we are currently in spring external temperatures are mild and favourable for natural ventilation. However as we approach summer, and with rising ambient temperatures, the reliance on natural ventilation will lead to thermal comfort issues in classrooms,” the report says.
Classrooms that use air conditioning units on hot days will still need to keep their windows open, meaning rooms will not be as cool and students may be less comfortable.
High outdoor air pollution or pollen levels, loud outdoor noise for schools near construction sites or under flight paths, and security concerns might also affect a school’s ability to open windows. “If it is windy, hot, cold or raining then it may not be practical to fully open the windows or vents,” the report says.
But in all cases the advice says the “highest tolerable” amount of outdoor air should be used, even if it means students and teachers have to adjust their clothing to be comfortable: “[Windows] should be open as far as reasonably possible without causing intolerable discomfort.”
The report also says that wind pressure and certain temperatures – two factors that ensure successful natural ventilation – will inevitably vary based on weather, the position of the classroom and its windows, as well as obstructions like mesh or fly screens.
School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning said the design criteria governing the state’s schools with regards to window sizes meant classrooms would generally have all the fresh air they needed. His team will be working with schools in coming weeks as they adjust to the new edict.
“We’ve said to schools, you can run your wall-mounted air conditioning systems [for heat], you just have to run them with the windows open. They won’t be as effective, but they will provide some level of comfort. The idea is we’ll work with schools to understand all those issues [such as heat and noise] and find alternative ways of doing it,” he said.
The department is also sourcing about 10,000 air purifiers that schools can use if natural ventilation is not sufficient, or in the event of bushfire smoke or poor air quality.
The state’s infrastructure staff are finishing maintenance tasks before all students return on October 25. This includes fixing window frames that have been painted shut and fitting mesh or restrictors on windows above ground level so they can open safely.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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