I remember how it was -- JR
Jumaane Williams calls for return to remote learning as COVID surges in NYC
New York City’s Public Advocate says schools should immediate return to remote learning as the Omicron coronavirus variant sweeps across the city.
“NYC schools should go remote starting Mon (should’ve been last week). A no-brainer as we near recess,” Jumaane Williams said in a tweet Saturday.
Even as city schools report record numbers of COVID-19 cases, Mayor Bill de Blasio has resisted a return to lockdowns.
“No no no,” he told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on Friday when asked if he supported closing schools. “Don’t fight yesterday’s war … This is not March of 2020. We’re one of the most highly vaccinated places in the United States of America.”
Williams, who may soon be facing de Blasio in a Democratic primary for governor, also took a swipe at the outgoing mayor — and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“My guess is that even with all of the recommendations and insistence that we prepare a viable remote school option for just this type of scenario the Mayor stubbornly still has not. Likely the same across the state. Almost 2 years in there is simply no excuse for that.”
Though schools are staying open for now, individual shutdowns have occurred in isolated pockets of the city. Three schools were closed Thursday by the Department of Education over local outbreaks
De Blasio will leave office at the end of the year when he is replaced by mayor-elect Eric Adams. As Public Advocate, Williams is automatically next in line for the city’s top job should the sitting mayor leave office.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/18/jumaane-williams-calls-for-nyc-schools-to-return-to-remote-learning/
**********************************************Schools Chancellor-to-be David Banks continues to offer good sense on what NYC schools need
Schools-chancellor-to-be David Banks continues to impress with his sterling vision for advancing city public schools: accountability, innovation and results.
Banks’ push for accountability began the day Mayor-elect Eric Adams introduced him as the next chief of the city Department of Education: “Any agency that has a $38 billion annual budget . . . and yet we have 65 percent of black and brown children who never achieve proficiency,” he said. “That should be outrageous, it’s a betrayal.”
Certainly, the career educrats at the DOE’s Tweed headquarters started to squirm in their seats. Rightly so, as their incoming boss believes the school system is flawed — and needs fixing from the bottom up. That is, the voices to guide that change are principals and parents, not bureaucrats.
And where recent chancellors have sought to basically destroy the city’s specialized high schools, Banks would rather expand these academic jewels. He told PIX 11 News that he’s open to creating new ones, with their own admissions criteria.
His approach to Gifted & Talented programs is similar. Instead of gutting the programs, as Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered, Banks will look to enlarge G&T so more students of all races can benefit — and, not incidentally, get on the track to win admission to the elite high schools.
Among the deep experience Banks brings to his new job is time working as a school safety officer: With that perspective, he wants the NYPD to continue to handle school safety. But he’s also sensitive to students’ concerns about the airport-style metal detectors deployed at schools where weapons have been seized. He has vowed to bring in newer, less obtrusive detection systems.
And his years as a hands-on educator have led him to endorse relying on phonics to teach reading, rather than the “blended” and/or “balanced literacy” approaches pushed by theorists and (naturally) embraced by the bureaucracy.
“They’re teaching wrong,” Banks told CBS2’s Marcia Kramer. And abandoning the “phonetic approach” has “been a huge part of the dysfunction.”
In his media rounds, Banks also talked of changing how teachers, parents and students view the academic year. To teachers unwilling to work a longer school year, he said: “If we continue to do things the way we’ve been doing them, we’ll continue to get the same results.”
Bottom line: Banks is intent on bringing sanity as well as accountability to the school system. Increase opportunity by expanding it, not by dropping standards to allow for race-obsessed social engineering. Empower the people who care most about kids. Focus on what works, not what’s trendy among academics or favored by agenda-driven politicians.
After eight years of chancellors appeasing the system’s vested interests and playing divisive race-baiting games, Banks’ focus on what’s actually best for students is a welcome relief.
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Academics seeking promotion at UCL told to overhaul courses to limit the number of 'dead white men'
Academics seeking promotion at one of the country’s leading universities have been told they should overhaul courses to limit the number of “dead white men”.
Researchers applying for any teaching roles at University College London (UCL) should “engage” with the institution’s Liberating the Curriculum initiative and be prepared to "demonstrate the impact" of this.
According to an internal university guidance document, titled UCL Academic Careers Framework, this is listed as a core requirement for those applying for lecturer roles.
It says that all academic, research and teaching staff are expected to demonstrate “at least some core activities” when applying for a promotion.
The document explains that an "indicator of impact" could be either introducing new or making “substantial” revisions to old modules in response to student feedback.
UCL describes its Liberating the Curriculum initiative as a policy aimed at “challenging traditional Eurocentric, male-dominated curricula and ensuring the work of marginalised scholars on race, sexuality, gender and disability are fairly represented in curricula”.
Many disciplines 'deeply exclusive and unfair'
The initiative also encourages academics to “be the change” and “acknowledge the prejudices baked into a field” as well as “check their privilege”.
It claims that many academic disciplines are “deeply exclusive and unfair” in their current form as they are overly represented by “dead white (able-bodied European) men”.
One academic told The Telegraph they are deeply troubled about this initiative. “I think this whole woke avalanche is really concerning because it is like a religious fervour," he said. "Instead of looking at the evidence, it says some answers have got to be accepted and others cannot be accepted. That is poisonous - it is the wrong direction for a university to go in”.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) has written to UCL’s vice-chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, urging him to remove this stipulation immediately from its guidance.
Toby Young, general secretary of the FSU, said: "Insisting that anyone in a grade 8 job at UCL, or applying for one, has to remove 'dead white able-bodied European men' from reading lists, 'check their privilege' and 'acknowledge the prejudice baked into their field' is an infringement of their right to free speech and almost certainly unlawful.”
The Telegraph last week revealed how Oxford dons are furious that a candidate’s “woke score” could be part of the criteria for hiring academics, under new proposals aimed at boosting staff diversity.
Hiring from ethnic minority backgrounds
The university’s race equality task force has published a series of recommendations aimed at increasing the number of people it hires from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In a consultation document, the task force said it was “important to embed EDI” - which stands for equality, diversity and inclusion - into “all recruitment”.
One Oxford academic questioned whether this would mean academics need to have a “minimum woke score” to get a job at the university.
A UCL spokesperson said that their Academic Careers Framework document gives “illustrative examples of activity undertaken by some people at a specific job grade and these are categorically not a checklist for promotion".
They added: “The descriptions are not exhaustive and no individual would be expected to meet all of the criteria highlighted. They offer broad and varied indicators of different types of activity and ‘Liberating the Curriculum’ is just one example of how staff can demonstrate their work on the curriculum.
“Irrespective of the activity, the evidenced impact and reach of a person’s work is the vital aspect for promotion and contribution will be considered in the round.
“We have a long tradition of safeguarding freedom of speech and are strongly committed to upholding academic freedom of enquiry in our teaching and research."
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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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