Student protests in France

 Not sure about you, but I often feel that there is so much that is an ongoing catastrophe here in the U.S. that what's happening elsewhere---even within education--can be overwhelmed by just our stuff. So I hadn't caught that students in France have been protesting in what began in Paris but has now swept across the country. The reason?

Demonstrators have voiced a range of grievances, often centering on a lack of resources and opportunities for students in disadvantaged schools, despite the promise of France's national motto: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

Students have drawn attention to rundown classrooms that lack basics such as desks and chairs, become sweltering in summer without air conditioning and, in some cases, are infested with rats. Other common complaints include staff shortages and exhausting workloads. French high school students' compulsory classroom hours are among the highest in Europe.

Significant numbers of schools have been closed this week; it's estimated that a quarter of a million people were protesting in Paris. 

The way that the protests are being met by the national leadership is increasing support for students:

 Nearly 500 people were detained Tuesday, the ministry said. The widespread use of arrests, tear gas and riot-control weapons against teenagers is fueling defiance and angering some parents and teachers. Some student groups called for new protests Thursday....in the latest case, a 15-year-old boy lost a hand Monday in an incident involving a police stun grenade. 

There is video circulating online of  Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko shielding student protestors from riot police, as well as being treated for having been tear-gassed.

School buses as tourist attraction

 

You may not know this, but not everywhere on earth has yellow school buses. For many, well, let me quote a visitor: 

“I have waited my whole life for this,” said Martin Friel, a teacher from Scotland, explaining that the only time he’d ever seen a yellow school bus before Saturday was in an episode of “The Simpsons.”

I mentioned back in May that the Scottish soccer fans--the Tartan Army--rented school buses to take them from Providence, where many of them are staying, to the matches in Foxboro. WGBH rode along on one of the buses this weekend. 

And if you've ever wondered why it is a U.S. thing to have yellow school buses, just today, that question was asked over on Ask Historians on reddit, and you can find that thread here.

Also, if you find school buses interesting, I recommend Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation by Matthew Delmont. This is particularly true if you are engaged in Massachusetts education and have been given the impression that the Boston busing decision was a failure of policy. 

Was the school struck accidentally?

 Both Al Jazeera and NPR have looked more closely at the bombing of Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Mina in Iran.

Schools are protected by international law

 Among the first places we heard were bombed in Iran over the weekend was the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, which is in southern Iran, where as of yesterday, the death toll had risen to 165 dead, 96 injured.

The strike on school appears to be the worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli-led bombing campaign on Iran so far.

The United Nations education agency, UNESCO, on Saturday released a statement: 

UNESCO is deeply alarmed by the impact of the ongoing military escalation in the Middle East on educational institutions, students, and education personnel. 

Initial reports indicate that an attack on a girls' primary school in Minab, southern Iran, has resulted in the deaths of over 100 individuals, including numerous students. The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law. 

Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education. In accordance with its mandate and with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2601 (2021), UNESCO recalls the obligations of all parties to protect schools, students and education personnel.

In response to those who commented that the girls' school was next to a military barracks, one should note that currently there are 161 schools on military bases in the United States. 

Things to read this week

•  EdSurge has the thing I keep pointing out on early ed: everyone wants to talk about universal pre-K--which is great!--but we don't even have universal free public kindergarten across the country.
  ...including in Massachusetts, where education is not required until age 6. 
  
  
• The 74 did a good look at Google's new AI "partnership" for teachers, 'though I would also urge you to read Benjamin Riley's full rant (I think that's fair, and I don't mean it disparagingly at all!) . Google, of course, has said that they're looking to create a "network of future users" by getting into schools. If you get the teachers, you get the students.
  
  
• Speaking of technology looking out only for themselves, the school shooting last month in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia has Canadian leadership demanding answers from OpenAI, where the shooter had a history of descriptions of violence, which, among other things, the company did not bring to the attention of the police when interviewed following the shooting. While the company is how "vowing safety changes," Canada says they don't go far enough.
  It is a wildly unregulated industry. 
  
  
  
• And speaking of school violence, we in the U.S. are going to know less now, because the Trump administration "gutted the Department of Education office responsible for collecting and analyzing most school-related data," including data on kids bringing guns to school. 

Two ways the news isn't good today

 Happy Monday back from Thanksgiving! 
Two pieces of not great news today:

• We are just failing all over the place on vaccinations, and that has consequences. Last week, the United Nations warned that 30 million children around the world have missed measles vaccinations, and "...outbreaks continue to rise sharply." To wit:
  

  In 2024, 59 countries experienced large or disruptive outbreaks – almost three times as many as in 2021 – and a quarter of them had previously eliminated measles.

  At the same time, here in the U.S., whooping cough numbers are outpacing those of last year. A third baby in Kentucky died last week. 
  
  

• I will admit the phrasing here made me laugh, but it turns out an "old fashioned web search" is better for learning than using large language models (generative AI). This is from research published in October through the National Academy of Sciences. 
  And at the same time, the argument schools have been hearing on why students need to be 'taught' AI seems to not be panning out: AI use in businesses has flatlined.
  

  Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology looks surprisingly flimsy.

  That one's from The Economist, by the way, the "we're looking to see if there is money to be made" coverage, so perhaps we can take that to the bank? 

Some things to read this week

From tabs I have open today:

• I thought this look at the "anti-conviviality" of generative AI was very interesting and important for those who are in education: 
  

  The expertise you would have gained by growing your own fruit, by trying in fits and starts to make your own vision a reality—these opportunities for growth are completely lost. Unless you actively work against the natural way to use these tools, you become increasingly dependent on them. You can produce and produce without ever growing yourself. Even worse, it's not hard to see how the skills you do have will slowly atrophy from lack of use.

•  Intriguing question being raised by the courts in Canada on if social media companies might hold a "duty of care" to school boards: 
  

  Should the Court recognize a novel duty of care in this case, social media companies could be found liable to individual users and public institutions, such as school boards. 
  
  

• And speaking of Canada, a recent report from the Ontario Ministry of Education yielded this post on the importance of recess: 
  

  As researchers who have long studied the links between school environments and children’s well-being, we know that reducing or restructuring recess time can negatively impact learning and development.
   Indeed, research consistently shows that recess plays a vital role in academic success, mental health and overall well-being.

• You should always read what Zahava Standler at New America writes; today she writes on the crucial role a national Department of Education fulfills and what we stand to lose by not having that: 
  

  Across these policies runs a common thread: We are not in this together, we owe each other nothing, and the future is not our concern. It is a small, mean vision of America.

• Relatedly, the New York Times has a lengthy piece on the damage the Trump administration is doing to community colleges, and, by extension, our communities: 
  

  Community colleges already subsisted on budgets that most four-year schools would find laughable, lean operations that delivered hefty returns on investment for their areas. Get care at a local doctor’s office, or prepped for surgery at a hospital, or treated after an accident, or have someone come to your home to do repairs — “those are all community-college grads, all of them,” the community-college leader told me. “This collateral damage is going to end up being regional economic damage.”

  and the joy in this quote! 
  

  “Milton is the GOAT!” he cried out. “‘Paradise Lost’ is everything that I love!”

To read this week

Smith College Palm House

• The former principal deputy under secretary at the US Department of Education explains what the Department, the "least understood and most efficient cabinet agency," actually does.
  
  
• Excellent coverage from The Hechinger Report on Ryan Walter's one man crusade in Oklahoma. This particularly does a nice job of talking to practicing Christians who don't want it to be the state religion. 
  
  
• AI is still completely and massively failing to give accurate information. 
  
  
• Students at Department of Defense schools around the globe are continuing to protest.
  
  
• I really appreciated Jim McDermott's ode to what universities can do.

What I'm reading about what comes next

I feel as though I behind in posting on here about what I'm reading; I'm doing better on keeping Twitter and Facebook updated on that. Here are the latest round of links I've been reading on what comes next for schools during the pandemic:

• First, a blog post from Oakland teacher Harley Litzelman has rightfully gone viral for walking through what a school day looks like in an urban high school, and what the pandemic means for it. His conclusion is his title: "We Cannot Return to Campus This Fall"
  

  I’ve often heard teachers respond to suggestions on how to reopen with a common phrase: Have you ever met children? I hope this article leads you to ask the same question in response to politicians’ claims that schools could safely reopen this fall if they implement physical distancing and adequate sanitation. As a high school history teacher, let me show you what it would look like for a school to reopen in the middle (yes, in the middle) of a global pandemic.

  In particular, let me note that I know of many teachers pleading with those in authority to read it.
  
  
• Next, I've backed off linking to EdWeek because their paywalls are rough, but the headline does a lot of the work on this one: "Too Expensive to Reopen Schools? Some Superintendents Say It Is." Note also this piece from Brookings calling for "unprecedented federal aid" for schools.
  
• This coming week's edition of The New Yorker has a piece "The Complex Equation of Reopening Schools" which also looks at the challenges of reopening, and adds the equation of the inequities of the system:
  

  There is a risk that the reopening process will only amplify those divisions, with wealthier districts (and private schools) raising money for infrared thermometers and contract tracers, and poorer ones left to scrounge for bandannas and disinfectant wipes. Before the pandemic, public school teachers spent hundreds of dollars a year of their own money on classroom supplies; they can't just be handed a new, longer shopping list.

• There are of course countries that run on a different calendar than ours that are sending kids back now. This Learning Policy Institute brief reviews what is being done in China, Denmark, Norway, Singapore, and Taiwan as they reopen their schools. It looks at attendance, social distancing, and hygiene and cleaning. Note that the U.K., where Prime Minister Johnson had announced that schools would reopen on June 1, is now instead having a staggered opening, with only primary schools (more or less our elementary schools) opening then in England, with Scotland and Northern Ireland not opening until August and Wales announcing no date as yet, much of that as a result of a pushback by parents and teachers. Closing note of that article from the Guardian:
  

  Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector of schools in England, told Sky News that implementing social distancing for children as young as five “is going to be like herding cats, it’s going to be really difficult. But other schools are doing it abroad and we should be doing the same.”

• Finally, there have started to be some attempts to model what is being lost during the pandemic of student learning; see here for one example. 

More as I have it, and if there are things you'd share, please send them along.

How Europe is reopening schools

I read this and just...we aren't doing any of this as a country, and I don't see anyone creating the systems to do so.

But teaching in the time of a pandemic comes with a host of challenges: In the high school in Neustrelitz, roughly a third of the teachers are out because they are older or at risk. Germany announced that all children would see the inside of a classroom again before the summer break after a two-week trial run in high schools. 

Germany announced that all children would see the inside of a classroom again before the summer break after a two-week trial run in high schools. 

There are not enough classrooms to allow all 1,000 students to come to class and still keep six feet apart, which means at most a third can be in school at any one time. Teachers often shuttle between classrooms, teaching two groups at once.

And Neustrelitz is testing children every four days.

June Board of Education: Our Way Forward from Commissioner Riley

You can find his report here.
Riley: said he'd take the year to meet with stakeholders
does not replace strategic plan: road map that denotes where we've been and ponders where we should consider going
Ed reform act ushered in a new era
propelled Massachusetts to the top on various national assessments
"so much to be proud of and grateful for"
"my fear is that we may be like Blockbuster video in 1992...thinking that we're the next great American company when we're about to be taken over by Netflix"

Parenting style and its connection with public policy

Good piece in the Washington Post covering how a country's income inequality appears to correlate with what we might otherwise think of as parenting "style":

...we have found in our research that varying parenting styles among nations are rooted primarily in economics — specifically, economic inequality. The common denominator in countries where intense, achievement-oriented parenting abounds is a large gap between the rich and the poor. Conversely, where inequality is low and governments provide safety nets, a more relaxed, permissive parenting style holds sway.

Yong Zhao says to ignore PISA

The idea of nations competing to reach the top of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) league tables makes as much sense as university students competing to see who can drink the most beer, according to Professor Yong Zhao, from the University of Oregon in the US. 

He told TES: “You’re maybe the best drinker but you’ve got to think, ‘Is it good for you and does it matter?’”

The rest is here.

No Time to Lose: National Council of State Legislatures weighs in on the post-NCLB universe

The National Council of State Legislatures after 18 months of study today released a report on what successful school systems around the world are doing. Their interest is in influencing the post-NCLB, state-focused, U.S. education universe. The full report can be downloaded here.
NPR has a good summary of the first three points in their report:

1: More Help For The Youngest Learners In the U.S., poverty is a powerful drag on the youngest learners, with too many children showing up to kindergarten both hungry and lacking important cognitive and noncognitive skills. Research suggests that preschool, when done well, can have a profound impact on children's lives, but too often in the U.S. it's done badly or not at all...

2: Teachers Need To Be Better And, in this case, "better" is a big tent. The report's authors say it starts when future teachers are still students...Once these top-flight teachers enter the classroom, they also enter a very different professional reality — one that involves as much training as teaching. In some places, the report says, just "30 percent to 35 percent of a teacher's time is spent teaching students, while the rest is spent on activities such as working in teams with other teachers to develop and improve lessons, observing and critiquing classes, and working with struggling students." Too often in the U.S., teachers work in isolation, cut off from their fellow teachers. In contrast, Stephenson says, many high-performing countries have embraced a team-teaching model, where newer teachers are constantly observing veteran teachers and being observed, fine-tuning their skills in real time. Overseas, observation is about improvement — not just accountability. And then there's pay. Yes, other nations have higher standards for their teachers, but with those standards come increased respect and pay, on par with engineers and accountants. Imagine that. 

3: Fix Career And Technical Education (CTE) You know, the classes formerly known as "voc-ed" — auto repair, welding, carpentry, etc. The report suggests that, in the U.S., many schools have failed to adapt their CTE offerings to fit the needs of the modern economy, preparing students for jobs of the past instead of matching them with today's employers. It's strange given the mantra heard often from U.S. policymakers and educators, that today's schools should prepare students to be "college and career ready." In reality, Takumi, the Hawaii Democrat, says many schools "have kind of pushed career to the side." As a result, too often students need college in order to be career ready. To make matters worse, in the U.S. CTE also has a perception problem. Stephenson, the Utah Republican, says "it is considered a second tier for low-performing students. ... That is our tradition in America." . It's a chicken-or-egg problem. Whether that perception created the current reality or was created by it, both need to change.

The fourth item is "reforms that are connected and aligned as parts of a clearly planned and carefully designed comprehensive systems," which is not only difficult to summarize: it's also difficult to do.

It'll be interesting and informative to see which states do anything about any of this at all. 

Pasi Sahlberg on "Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn?" at MASBO

Pasi Sahlberg is keynoting this morning at MASBO's annual institute. Updating as we go...
Sahlberg notes that his presentation will have some things cross posted on his Twitter feed. UPDATE: he has posted the slides from today here. The chart in particular is key to this!  
speaking about some concerns he has with American education as now

Yong Zhao, Keynote MASC

his website is here; he comments that most of his slides are on it
great to follow the state auditor
school boards "are a unique American thing"
around the world people don't understand what it is
China "saves the money and bypasses the election process" (yes, that's a joke. There will be many)
something "that America has done very well"
"you are here to work with the people...most places, they're branches of the government"
but you've lost most of the power of the last twenty years
"I'm not a member of the Tea Party; I'm fron China, and we do have tea..."
"have lost most of the most precious control"
"in your hands is the future of Massachusetts, the future of this nation"
"not how hard you work; it's what you're working on"

Parents literally giving their blood for higher test scores for their children

From the "you can't make this stuff up" file, here's China:

In July, Pujiang county in Zhejiang province announced a program allowing children of parents who gave blood to get extra points on their high school entrance exams. Under the program, local children of “gold medal” donors offering 8,000 milliliters would be granted an extra three points, while children of “silver medal” donors and “bronze medal” donors who gave comparatively less blood could be given an additional two and one points, respectively.

Taking care of kids

This is horrifying:

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Anthony O. Castellanos disappeared from his gang-ridden neighborhood on the eastern edge of Honduras’s most dangerous city, so his younger brother, Kenneth, hopped on his green bicycle to search for him, starting his hunt at a notorious gang hangout known as the “crazy house.”

They were found within days of each other, both dead. Anthony, 13, and a friend had been shot in the head; Kenneth, 7, had been tortured and beaten with sticks and rocks. They were among seven children murdered in the La Pradera neighborhood of San Pedro Sula in April alone, part of a surge in gang violence that is claiming younger and younger victims.

I would urge you to read all of today's New York Times cover story on this. It is not illogical for parents to be fleeing and sending their children away from these conditions. Of course they are. Any of us would do the same.
And we shouldn't be sending the kids back to that, either.

Imagine an entire elementary* school was kidnapped

...and it barely made the news.
That's about what has happened in Nigeria, where over 200 girls were kidnapped while at their school to take their final exams. They were kidnapped BECAUSE they were in school, taking their final exams, by a group that doesn't want women to be educated.
I'd recommend Mika McKinnon's (so angry she's swearing about it) post to get up to speed. About the only thing we can offer is collective public outrage, so I'd ask that you do that, too. If you're on Twitter, the hashtag they're using is #helpthegirls and #bringbackourdaughters.
They could be your daughters, or mine.


*that's how many. The girls are in secondary school.

"I even want education for your children as well"

In case you haven't already seen it, Malala Yousafzai was on Jon Stewart this week, talking about education.Well worth watching.