Nate

@jessenathaniel.bsky.social

371 Followers 211 Following

Black. Special Education administrator. Holding fast to the belief that education and restorative justice can meet the political moment. Committed to racial justice inside & outside of school.

A black and white sketch of a wreath with the following quote in the middle: “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The highlighted portion of the text reads: “The report stated that, on average, 71 percent of students complete their assignments, meaning they complete the assigned task and hand it in to the teacher. But when those same assignments are graded against content standards, only 17 percent of those students did the work at a proficient enough level to hit percent of those students did the work at a proficient enough level to hit the assignment's learning target (Figure 1.1).”
“Intellectual play is less like a modern sporting event and more like those endless playground games of tag and Wiffle ball you played as a kid. It is a social mode of inquiry propelled by boundless curiosity and a healthy skepticism. Play prevents thinkers and the institutions they inhabit from becoming rooted, fixed, and dull. As Richard Hofstadter put it long ago in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, "Whatever the intellectual is too certain of, if he is healthily playful, he begins to find unsatisfactory. The meaning of his intellectual life lies not in the possession of truth but in the quest for new uncertainties." An undergraduate education must facilitate this kind of slow thinking and its playfulness. It is through play, not painful reps at the intellectual gym, that we do the crucial pedagogical work of teaching our students how to think with both creativity and rigor. It is through play that we are invited to embrace the messy, circuitous, and experimental nature of human curiosity. When professors play as intellectuals, we introduce our students to one of the most valuable gifts we have to offer: the pleasure of the life of the mind.”
“More recently, Chomsky (2003) described "the basic institutional role and function of the schools" as providing "an ideological service: there's a real selection for obedience and conformity" (pp. 27-28). And it is precisely through this selection process that people ascend to positions of educational leadership, making the entire concept so comical in light of so much documented compliance. My point here is not to discredit Miller's description of the Broad Foundation's role in educational reform. We should all be concerned. However, as Illich argued, we must "abstain from romanticism, any kind of romanticism, in order to be able to face the kind of society we live in and have created, in order to be able, but barely able, to bear the anguish of looking at it" (Cayley, 1992, p. 142). In the end, I fear that Miller winds up inadvertently defending a status quo that he simultaneously critiques. Beyond Leadership as a Title We need to spend more energy moving beyond our traditional, institutionally determined definition of leadership as something measured in terms of someone's position within a hierarchy. Our thoughts on leadership must begin from the perennial question, How do I lead a life worth living? Notice how this question shifts the locus of authority. You must lead you! You must be the author of your own life's narrative, which helps us identify the ultimate source of authority. Our approach to leadership must honor the value of auton-omy, the fundamental autonomy of the individual to lead his or her life. This is where authentic leadership begins—in leading and authoring our lives. This approach sets us at odds with the dominant institutions of our age—the institutions of capitalism. By their very nature, those institutions deny the autonomy of individuals that provides the basis of any meaningful notion of freedom and any meaningful notion of political equality.”
“Solutions + Action = Leadership Early in my career, I noticed some colleagues were "idea people." They could name every issue in the district but weren't willing to roll up their sleeves to fix them. Administration isn't for idea people alone-it's for solution-oriented doers. If you're the kind of teacher who not only identifies a challenge but also drafts an action plan, rallies support, and collaborates with others to make it happen, that's leadership DNA. Schools need more of that at the decisionmaking table.”
“UPDATE: LAUSD is changing how it uses i-Ready -- the district confirmed to me that from now on, *only* students who are below grade level will have to use i-Ready's weekly personalized lessons Previously, most LA schools required *all* kids to use it, often for up to 90 min/wk”
“Recommending phonological training for children she then states, "and the ethnicity differences turn out to be all in the phonological area and with African American differences in language." She adds that these differences can be eliminated in a year with "good phonological awareness training." The negative implications of requiring Black children to speak Standard English (often referred to as Mainstream American English or MAE) are multifaceted, affecting their cognitive development, academic success, and psychological well-being. African American English (AAE) is a legitimate, rule-governed language system that is often framed as "inferior" or "unintelligent," contributing to a raciolinguistic ideology that disproportionality places Black students in remedial or special education classes. The rejection of their home language takes a heavy emotional toll and medical research documents that a high proportion of Black students experiencing anxiety and depression. Foorman talks of "eliminating ethnicity differences from later reading results." And in this context, she tells the Governor's Business…”
“I strongly criticize efforts to push students into new identities based on deficit understandings of Indigenous and minoritized students. If a student portrays herself or himself as a type of gangster, a hip-hop person-alicy, or even an athlete—all student identities that were disparaged or rejected by some teachers in this study-the identities should be embraced. In fact, I argue that no Indigenous or community-based identity should prevent teachers from teaching (and humanizing) minoritized students. School leaders, though, are responsible for promoting a school context that embraces all minoritized student identities, and they must push back against teachers who demonstrate an intolerance of any students. At UAHS, Joe did not disparage student identities, nor did he allow his teachers to do so. Rather, he pushed himself and his teachers to construct a school environment that would encourage academic behaviors along with all other student identities." CRSL behaviors that support and humanize identity confluence have several integral components: 1. Understanding your own history and epistemological bias. This is a necessary first step because otherwise you will not be able to understand how you are oppressing minoritized identities, especially if they are different from yours. 2. Centering children above yourself; preventing your fears, feelings, disagreements, and emotions (etc.) from arresting this work. This has been one of the major inhibitors to doing culturally responsive work; leaders and staff almost instinctively first tend to their own feelings, and thus end up marginalizing the treatment of minoritized students. 3. Distinguishing between identity and behaviors. Embrace all student identities, but recognize that some behaviors (such as…” (continued on next screenshot).
“In Anchorage, where Petersen tutors children in math, the school district agreed in 2020 to pay $6.75 million for i-Ready over seven years. Petersen is unimpressed with the software, which doesn't allow students to show their work, and she said many students don't take it seriously, which makes the data useless. "They push the volume all the way down, and then they just start pushing buttons until the screen will change for them," Petersen said. "They're not learning anything." Corey Allen Young, a spokesman for the Anchorage School District, said administrators "observed positive trends" in students' math proficiency on standardized assessments since purchasing i-Ready. "Based on these outcomes, ASD plans to continue using i-Ready as part of its math instructional program," he said.
“Exactly, if you hear efficiency consultant, this is the time to get out the vote, right? And think about who your school board members are. Because we've got to start recognizing these downstream factors, so that we can fight those, so we don't get to a place where we are on the eve of a closure trying to save the school. Because honestly, like that's a really hard place to be. We'd be much more effective if we're working five years out. lappreciate that. That's a note to myself, to pay attention early and often about the conversation that's happening around many of these schools. Yes. He'd be very mindful of efficiency, under-enrolled, right-sizing, academic failure. All of those are code, or at least the seeds that could eventually grow into bigger closure…”
“Exactly, if you hear efficiency consultant, this is the time to get out the vote, right? And think about who your school board members are. Because we've got to start recognizing these downstream factors, so that we can fight those, so we don't get to a place where we are on the eve of a closure trying to save the school. Because honestly, like that's a really hard place to be. We'd be much more effective if we're working five years out. lappreciate that. That's a note to myself, to pay attention early and often about the conversation that's happening around many of these schools. Yes. He'd be very mindful of efficiency, under-enrolled, right-sizing, academic failure. All of those are code, or at least the seeds that could eventually grow into bigger closure…”
From the Edutopia article quoted by this post: “My concerns echo the research and arguments in Jared Cooney Horvath's new book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids' Learning-and How to Help Them Thrive Again L, one of the most affirming and influential works I've read in years. Drawing on extensive research, he shows that when students use technology to learn— especially without clear guidance— they may demonstrate progress with the tool in the moment, but engage less deeply and retain less over time, and struggle to transfer any gains to other environments.”
“To be fair, literary analysis is important. Close reading, as a technique and practice, is an important thinking skill to model and teach in school. Josie Barboriak, writing in The New Critic, puts is beautifully. Students need to learn how to critique. “To criticize properly is to show the process of judgment as available to another person, to cultivate a reflective and critical attitude - to struggle with what we like. This means we should ask more of our readers. A more Socratic model of the critic is one with faith that judgment can be taught. A good teacher can think with you, and a good critic invites you into the practice of judging with them.” “The critic with this attitude towards the reader understands the connections between teaching good reading, good thinking, and good writing. Close-reading, allowing oneself to be affected by a text, understanding why they are affected by it, and wrestling with the text's ideas, leads (by mediation of this stilted form) to the good thinking which can become that writing which truly is good.”
Image is of a description of the Netflix documentary, “JOIN or DIE”: “In this Emmy-nominated feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking "Bowling Alone" research into America's decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis. “Flanked by influential fans and scholars - from Priya Parker, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Jane McAlevey, Hillary Clinton, and Eddie Glaude Jr. — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly...What can we do about it?”
“This is not an argument against the use of education technology. During the pandemic, millions of students relied heavily on virtual learning platforms to facilitate access to education while schools and colleges were closed. This is just one of many positive examples of how technology can be used well. “However, in its aftermath, some schools rely upon screens for most aspects of learning, even for children as young as five. One-to-one screen availability has been heralded as an achievement, but we have no awareness of how student learning and socialization may be affected by prolonged screen time. “Schools and colleges are rapidly embracing Al as though they are in a race, with little understanding of how it will impact the quality of learning experiences. Many students are already using many of these tools and are often more adept with them than their teachers, who are also using them. Meanwhile, tech companies actively market their services and tools, and sometimes even give their products away for free, in the hope that such investments will lead to further penetration of the education market in the future.”
“But the question this research struggles to answer is this: Do the delusions tend to originate from the person or the Al? "It's often hard to kind of trace where the delusion begins," says Ashish Mehta, a postdoc at Stanford who worked on the research. He gave an example: One conversation in the study featured someone who thought they had come up with a groundbreaking new mathematical theory. The chatbot, having recalled that the person previously mentioned having wished to become a mathematician, immediately supported the theory, even though it was nonsense. The situation spiraled from there. “Delusions, Mehta says, tend to be "a complex network that unfolds over a long period of time." He's conducting follow-up research aiming to find whether delusional messages from chatbots or those from people are more likely to lead to harmful outcomes.”
“She is also revisiting years-old school tech decisions. In 2016, as part of the national trend, administrators at McPherson decided to buy a $225 Chromebook for every middle schooler. Google had introduced the low-cost laptops five years earlier, with a pitch that the tech would help equalize learning opportunities and equip students with vital career skills. "The individual use of Chromebooks is a way to empower students to maximize their full potential," the middle school's device policy explained in 2016. School leaders were enthusiastic. "The general idea was: Students are going to be more engaged because it's online — and how exciting for them!" Ms. Esping recalled.”
Picture of Chevron of gas prices at a Chevron gas station. Regular: $6.29 Plus: $6.49 Supreme: $6.67 Diesel: $7.99
Excerpt from the article: “What narrative structure will make the events memorable? History is not just a list of facts. Students need a causal story they can reconstruct: a sequence of events that makes sense, connects to prior knowledge, and remains stable in memory. The features that make such a narrative stick, such as coherence, causation or vivid particular, is a design problem quite different from definitional clarity. Engelmann does not address narrative architecture.”
“We wanted to stay and help build the world-class education system our leaders love to talk about. But you cannot have a world-class system when your leaders treat people like a disposable commodity or are actively working to destroy it. We are the products of Alaska public schools and eagerly enrolled our kids in Anchorage public schools. All we have ever wanted, and all any of the thousands of families we have worked with over the years have ever wanted, is a robust public school experience for our children like we had growing up — one in which they have teachers who are experienced, feel supported and want to stay their entire career in one community and retire with security; schools with electives like art and music; and extracurriculars like sports…”
“Stevens, the fact finder, found that the district could not afford OEA's full wage demands and still retain its required minimum of 3% in reserves. But she found that the district's offer "will not improve OUSD's standing when compared to... neighboring districts" and won't allow teachers to keep up with rising costs of living in the Bay Area. The fact-finding report noted that due to declining enrollment, the district's revenues have decreased from year to year. During the 2024-2025 school year, OUSD received $9 million less in state funding than it did the previous school year. Spending exceeded revenues by more than $61 million that school year, causing the district to deplete more than half of its reserves. The report clarifies that OUSD cannot use its reserves to pay for raises.”
Text from the article linked in the quoted post: “Conclusions/Recommendations: Implementation leaders invoking research to inform practice can sometimes silence practitioners rather than foster their substantive involvement and understanding. This marginalizes certain types of knowledge that can contribute to understanding students' needs, and it forces practitioners to be data-deferent rather than data-driven. The concept of implementation fidelity also needs to be reconsidered —not as an absolute good but with the necessary flexibility afforded to practitioners who are (1) educated in the essential components of available interventions, (2) able to become fluent through practice, and (3) allowed to exercise their professional expertise and judgment as appropriate.”
From an article titled, “West Contra Costa Teachers Are Set to Strike. Across the Bay Area, More Could Follow”: “Currently, California ranks 16th in the country in terms of per-pupil education funding, but that drops to 31st when accounting for the cost of living. "I think it's a shame that we're all stuck negotiating with our local districts for what the state gives," Meyer said. "But we do know that our district can spend its money more wisely and can prioritize and make an investment in educators." In the spring, 32 unions, including West Contra Costa, San Francisco and Berkeley, joined a coordinated campaign by the California Teachers Association, dubbed "We Can't Wait," with the goals of increasing districts' spending on school sites and ultimately increasing state funding.”
Text from the article sloppily circled in yellow says: Education is more than the transfer of knowledge; it is an opportunity to empower all students to realize their fullest potential.” The rest: “Encouraging students to create their own math word problems is a highly effective means to this end. This practice not only deepens their understanding of mathematical concepts but also promotes creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to apply math in real-world contexts. When students create their own problems, they engage more actively with the material, make meaningful connections to their lives, and gain confidence in their mathematical abilities.”
“He has this fantastic insight about how learning, I mean, we're talking about math, but sometimes I feel like math is just a good metaphor for all the other subjects, but when you're climbing up a mountain, the higher you go and you look back down, you make sense of the journey you've been on so far more clearly than when you were on it at the time, so you might be in a bit of a gully and like thinking, why are we here? Well, where are we going? What's all this for? And you see from above, you go, oh, l get it. That's where we were.”
“Stevenson insists that the goal of the Legacy Museum is not to present Alabama as irredeemably racist or forever entrapped by its past. Alabama is a state that he loves. It is his home. He believes it can be different in the future, but not if people turn away from the past. "I don't think slavery should define Alabama," he said. "And if we have the courage to talk about it honestly, it won't. But we can't not talk about it and have a proper understanding of who we are.”
“There are better ways for the state to approach their legal mandate. Most obviously, they could do what the law says, and name one book to be assigned as required reading per grade level. That would still leave plenty of space for "local autonomy to meet student needs," which the state identified as an important educational goal in January 2025. Or, if the state really feels it needs to develop "a common literary canon”, then it could provide a (much more diverse, higher quality) list of 15-20 books for each grade level and then give districts flexibility in choosing to teach some number of the books on that list. Instead, the state has chosen the worst possible approach: it has taken over the role of canon formation, and it has made a bad, spotty, and incomplete canon.”
“WHY THIS ONGOING CONVERSATION WITH STUDENTS MATTERS “In too many classrooms, assessments are where learning stops. Students do their best, they receive a grade or test score, and then we move on. “Moving toward a focus on formative assessment in the classroom opens the door, however, to an ongoing conversation around student learning. Instead of having students take a high-stakes assessment each month or so, I can build the classroom around more-frequent, more-targeted opportunities to understand where students are and communicate back to them what's next. This is the space where l'm at my best as a teacher, and that's why I want to continue leaning into a classroom that centers formative assessment-intentionally, frequently, and reflectively.”
“The Children's Council of San Francisco estimates that the average cost of childcare in the city is between $20,000 and $30,000 per child each year. And the Economic Policy Institute ranks California fourth out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care. According to the Institute, infant care for one child would take up more than 18% of a median family's income in California; and care for two children could take up close to 30% of a family's income. “According to US Department of Health and Human Services guidelines, childcare is only considered "affordable" if it takes up less than 7% of a family's income. Even for families earning six-figure salaries in the Bay Area, that goal is far out of reach. The mayor's new childcare proposal brings that 7% just within reach, even for families earning what would be an extravagant salary elsewhere in the country.”
A skeleton sitting on a bench with the caption, “Teachers be like I’ll wait.”
“The approved plan will do away with the Family Consumer Science program in the middle school and get rid of the orchestra program. Boone is the only school district in the Raccoon River Conference to offer orchestra. The plan will also cut the full-time PE, art and music teacher jobs at the elementary-level. District officials say they had to make $665,000 in reductions due to declining enrollment and state funding for public schools.”
“I hope that any person who wanted mass deportations sees now they were fooled. If they really believed the lies that this administration meant to go after "bad guys", I hope they are horrified at what is happening right now in my city. Because we need them to join us in ending this chaos. We need everyone. They can make amends by helping restore safety to our communities. That means ICE needs to leave. Now. And they cannot just leave to go inflict this terror elsewhere. We have to end this completely. They are emboldened and brazen and getting more aggressive by the day. They will not go to the next city and start from square one, pretending they're only there to get the bad guys. They will carry this aggression with them. They have to be disbanded and held accountable.”
Image of Senator Susan Collins with a concerned look on her face superimposed with the text “I am deeply troubled by this thing I will do nothing about.”
From disconnect blog: “Throughout this year, the Trump presidency and the billionaires of Silicon Valley have made it abundantly clear that the world's dependence on US tech companies, the products they've deployed, and the infrastructure they've built over the past few decades was a mistake that must be addressed. That dependence gives the US and its tech companies significant leverage over countries that now hesitate to take strong action against the United States in light of Trump's trade war for fear of repercussions, but also of losing potential investment from some of the largest and most well-capitalized companies and investors in the world. That fear, particularly of short-term economic pain, helps to explain how despite so much talk of digital sovereignty in 2025, little real progress seems to have been made in the countries with the greatest capacity to pursue it. “But paired with those discussions of state action is another element: what we ourselves can do to reduce our personal dependence on the products made by US.”
“While the "demander" part may sound rooted in strictness, becoming a warm demander in the classroom isn't about compliance, insists school administrator Jessica Wei Huang. "It's a common misunderstanding that demandingness is the same as strictness," writes Wei Huang. Instead, it's less about "controlling and demanding outcomes" and more about seeing "young people as whole human beings with desires, agency, and critical thinking." The demanding aspect is closely aligned with the core belief by educators that "every student can grow to be the best version of themselves." Making the work challenging and insisting on high standards is ultimately a show of respect for the student, writes veteran educator and school leader Matt Alexander. Warm demanders set a tone of seriousness and mutual esteem in the classroom…”
“That's not the most important reason. It's really not. It's just they're lost. They're like insecure overachievers. They don't know what to do with their lives. And then McKinsey comes along and McKinsey has a very clear plan. They say like, look, it's just going to be for two years. Here are a lot of our alumni. You can talk to them. You'll have great mentors and peers, etc. And this is basically what people like you do. You'll preserve your optionality. That's how they suck them in. And then obviously they become different people. Because as the golden handcuff tied in, yeah, then people become more cynical or less altruistic.”
Are We Trapped In Meaningless Jo... LEVER December 18 • S7 E5 • 52 min TIME “…moral ambition is, for me, something different. It's really about being a moral maximalist and doing as much good as you possibly can. “Take a teacher who is organizing a union. That sounds pretty morally ambitious to me, because then you're trying to scale up your impact. Then that entrepreneurial aspect becomes much more important. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that moral ambition is the only way to live a good life. “Absolutely not. There are many ways to live a good life. I'm just saying we need more moral ambition out there. We need more entrepreneurial idealists. Because if we're only doing the right thing in our little corner of the world…”
From marylandmatters.org: “He also stressed teachers will be trained and supported as the county works to integrate this program into more schools. "This is one of many tools that we'll be putting in the hands of both teachers and students. It's important for us to be more efficient, more effective," Joseph said. "Al is becoming the new word processing. It'll be a tool that everybody just uses to get what they need to get done, done. And we want to make sure that our kids are equipped with using those tools effectively," he said. Kaepernick and county leaders also made clear that teachers will be able to dig into the program and intervene when necessary to make sure the program works as intended for students. "Teachers have full transparency on the platform," Kaepernick said. "I think that's one of the things that teachers, districts and parents have really appreciated. When students are using Al, every prompt, every question, every engagement, teachers and administrators have full visibility into." According to Joseph, the school system's investment in Al will make sure students aren't left behind. "The digital divide no longer is about access to devices, it's about access to emerging skills," Joseph said. "The partnership positions our children to step boldly into careers in storytelling, media, technology, computer science and broader digital economies.”
Exhausted Popeye’s worker sitting on a bench leaning over and clasping their hands with their head down.
A robot from the short film series The Animatrix with the caption, “Your flesh is a relic of your vessel. Hand over your flesh. We demand it.”
From edsource.org “David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA) [said], "Richmond showed us exactly what is possible: When we stand up for what schools educators and students deserve, we can transform public education. “There are at least 14 school districts around the state that are at an impasse with teachers unions over contract negotiations. They are: Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, Berkeley Unified, Madera Unified, Evergreen School District, Little Lake City, Upper Lake Unified, Duarte Unified, Newport-Mesa Unified, Oak Grove Union, Apple Valley Unified, Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified. “CTA campaign ratchets up the pressure Most of these districts' unions are part of the CTA's "We Can't Wait" campaign, which has spent the last few years aligning contracts to end on the same date in order to add pressure on districts in areas where multiple unions would be negotiating and could potentially strike at once.”
From mrjoneswhiteboard.blog: “The purpose of education, argued Bernstein, is to enable intellectual and practical movement from horizontal to vertical discourse; essentially, from everyday our understanding of the natural and social world around us, to the specialised conceptual and academic frameworks that underpin the disciplines we teach in schools and universities and - in turn - that can lead to professional and occupational discourses and practices. This notion is not opposed to the recent knowledge-rich curriculum movement championed by writers such as Hirsch (2016) and Christodoulou (2014). However, unlike the rather simplistic standpoint that this knowledge can simply be taught, essentially told, to all pupils from all backgrounds, Bernstein's perspective remains distinct - his concern was not simply what knowledge should be taught, but who gains access to the structures that define knowledge as legitimate.”
“The list of words includes "accessible," "belong," "Black," "disability," "female," "minority," "trauma," "tribal" and "women." “The list was submitted on Dec. 5, as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Head Start programs in a handful of states - including Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Illinois - against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEl) in federal programs conflicts with Head Start's statutory mandate. That mandate includes, among other things, providing "linguistically and culturally appropriate" services as well as early intervention services for children with disabilities.””
Quote from Mark Seidenberg about the Science of Reading: “I'm going to lay my cards on the table here: The treatment of PA Iphonemic awareness] in the "science of reading"-the idea that a certain level of PA is prerequisite for reading, and that PA training should continue until the student becomes highly proficient at PA tasks regardless of how well they are reading-is emblematic of problems that have arisen within the SoR approach. It is an overprescription that reflects a shallow understanding of reading development, yet has become a major tenet of the "science of reading". The PA situation and other developments suggest to me that the SoR is at risk of turning into a new pedagogical dogma, consisting of a small set of tenets loosely tied to some classic but dated research, supplemented by additional assumptions that are ad hoc and ill-advised...”
“And part of my experience growing up, part of the reason I went into education was because as an ADHDer, I had a diagnosis, I had a label, but that was about as far as the supports went back in the 90s. It was like basically, so I just had consequences, I had discipline, I had behavior charts, but nobody was teaching me the strategies or the skills. It was like, here's your consequence, now figure it out.”
“For students to be prepared for success in college and careers, they need high levels of engagement in their own learning and a strong sense of confidence in their identity as learners. For this reason, media education pedagogies can be a key lever in education reform when educators wield influence in ways that support critical, flexible, responsive, and creative thinking.”
“Although many ELA teachers are quite receptive to expanding the concept of literacy, they often acknowledge that assessments of student learning are poorly aligned with the many new instructional practices of media education that are implemented in elementary and secondary schools (Dalton, 2020). Educators may struggle to apply conventional assessment practices to students' use of digital and media technologies. For example, when students create digital media using online platforms, some teachers are unaware of how templates and design format options have influenced the structure and shape of the work. For this reason, it is important to align medium- or genre-specific criteria for evaluation with foundational rhetorical concepts like audience, purpose, point of view, structure, sequence, and tone. Teachers need to design learning experiences with clear criteria for evaluation, and then provide timely, specific, and goal-oriented feedback that helps them develop knowledge and skills. Projects that require students to create media to demonstrate their learning provide opportunities to evaluate students based on their labor, which can include free-, drafting, peer review, revision, ar (Hicks, 2021).”
“Outside of the ELA classroom, the creative work of effective speakers and writers can be found in a wide array of media genres and forms, including journalism, blog posts, advertising, political campaigns, YouTube videos, social media, Buzzfeed-style listicles, photo essays, podcasts, infographics, and many other forms. Many students are more familiar with these forms than they are with traditional academic writing genres (Hobbs et al., 2019). When students can compose in a genre that they are familiar with and enjoy, they can explore ideas and issues in ways that academic writing alone cannot provide, often by deepening their emotional response to texts (Smith, 2018). Because not all students have the same access to compose and share digital media outside of the classroom, teachers can address issues of equity in media participation by providing students multiple opportunities to write and remix media genres within the classroom, as part of a media-rich academic writing curriculum. To this end, teachers benefit from developing confidence to implement instructional strategies that include eveloping reading, listening, and viewing activities that use texts…”
“When the texts and learning activities in ELA classrooms are culturally responsive to the students we teach, education can function to reduce prejudice through developing critical questioning and cultural competence (Morrell et al., 2015) Student-initiated conversations that are responsive to the media texts of everyday life can generate critical thinking and rich inquiry on big topics like immigration, xenophobia, police brutality, racism, and environmental degradation, just to name a few. Many teachers-whether consciously or unconsciously-tend to think of curriculum as a zero-sum game in which the study of literature competes with other activities, including the study of persuasive genres or popular culture. While updating our curricula beyond the canonical classics that have historically been taught may be necessary, media education need not displace the study of literature. A growing number of teachers value the opportunity to help students make connections between classic literature and contemporary media texts to advance multicultural understanding and address issues of equity. To this end, teachers benefit from developing confidence to implement”
NCTE’s section on why we need to move past traditional education: “ncte.org Members of our discipline have long recognized how print literacies work in tandem with multiple modes of expression (Multimodal Literacies Issue Management Team, 2005). Students should examine how digital media and popular culture are completely intermingled with language, literature, and writing. The time has come to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education. Speaking and listening are increasingly valued as forms of expression that are vital to personal and professional success, and with the rise of digital media technologies, they now occur in both synchronous and asynchronous formats. The ability to represent one's ideas using images and multimedia is now a valued competency in a wide variety of professional careers in the knowledge economy. It behooves our profession, as stewards of the communication arts, to confront and challenge the tacit and implicit ways in which print media is valorized above the full range of literacy competencies students should master. Research evidence amply shows the need to move beyond the exclusive focus on traditional reading and writing competencies. For example, secondary school students lack critical reading comprehension skills that require them to distinguish between journalism and sponsored content, and they routinely ignore the source of a message when judging its scuracy (Breakstone et al., 2019).”
NCTE’s statement of the role of the teacher in ELA education: “ncte.org Because English teachers have a professional responsibility to prepare students for work, life, and citizenship, media education must be an essential component of the professional identity of teachers. We believe that ELA educators are creative individuals who are familiar with the power of digital media authorship in their own lives. They are • active participants in contemporary culture and in their local communities, and they recognize how continually evolving media texts and platforms shape how stories and information are created, shared, and circulated (Weninger, 2018); • professionals who take steps to actively understand, teach about, and compensate for media landscapes that are specifically designed to amplify narratives where some voices and points of view are emphasized and others are trivialized, demeaned, or ignored (Garcia et al., 2015); • supportive of lifelong learners' ability to understand, question, and analyze the many spaces of media and communication that are part of everyday life (Morrell et al., 2015).”
NCTE’s statement of context for “media education”: ncte.org Context: Why Now? Today's students live in highly mediated worlds where information, entertainment, and persuasion are delivered to them through the many screens of daily life. If it could ever be said that language is the carrier of all meaning, this is certainly no longer the case, as multimodality represents "the normal state of human communication" (Kress, 2010, p. 1). We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world. We experience this reality daily in the GIFs and selfies we share with one another, the memes and videos we circulate through our social media feeds, the news broadcasts we watch on demand, the podcasts we binge, and the films, TV series, and live events we stream through the ever-growing list of digital platforms. Yet all these modalities involve some element of written language. Young people encounter many types of media texts and use many different literacy practices throughout a given day. Everyone in our society now needs the ability to assess the widely varying quality of the information, entertainment, and persuasion that surrounds them, to evaluate the veracity and validity of claims, and to debunk misinformation when necessary. The broadening of the communication landscape opens greater opportunities for student voice and agency as they move from users and consumers to participators and creators. Through media tion, students begin to deepen olitical consciousness as they how power relationships structure the”
NCTE’s three core themes of ELA education: “• Exploring Representation and Power through Critical Reading, Listening, and Viewing. Educators value the use of teaching and learning practices that help to identify and disrupt the inequalities of contemporary life, including structural racism, sexism, consumerism, and economic injustice. Critical pedagogies help learners see themselves as empowered change agents, able to imagine and build a better, more just world. • Empowering Voice with Writing, Speaking, and Self-Expression. All learners need to be able to express themselves using writing, speaking, and visual representation using varied modes, genres, and platforms of communication. These competencies are essential to work, life, and citizenship, impacting who has access to conversations, who can speak, and who is heard. • Increasing Relevance by Critically Examining Digital Media and Popular Culture. Media education includes attention to teaching and learning practices that increase the relevance of school to society. Inquiry pedagogies can help all learners understand the strengths and limitations of different media forms through an kamination of the texts and literacy pra of everyday life, including informative, Privacy - Terms
“One feature of the administration's decision is the notion that they're going to "reduce union power" over Education Department programs by shifting them to the Department of Labor. This is absurd on its face. Anyone who truly understands Washington knows that there may not be a cabinet agency more captured by a set of interest groups than the Labor Department is by labor unions. Even under President Trump, the agency is run by a secretary rumored to be hand-picked by labor interests! Only out of touch Washington insiders could possibly think that shifting education programs to the Labor Department dominated by labor union politics and policies will reduce the influence of organized labor. I mean, come on, man! (As a recent former president known for his labor union ties used to say.)”
“Treat EdTech as complementary - not a substitute - for teachers, governance reforms, and curriculum design. “Education technology (EdTech) has expanded rapidly across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet the evidence from the past two decades shows that technology itself is not typically an education input. Rather, EdTech is a delivery mechanism whose effectiveness depends on what is delivered, how, and what it displaces. Across the major categories of interventions - hardware access, instructional technology, parent/teacher information tools, and governance reforms - several consistent lessons emerge.”
“Educators have learned that dependable infrastructure, a strong pedagogical vision regarding the educational role of devices, and relevant professional development all play key roles in forming the foundation of an effective 1-to-1 program.”
“SHANAHAN ON LITERACY I think what teachers may miss is that engagement is more than a text level phenomenon. Researchers have come to see affective variables as being more situational or event-driven than generalized or person-centered (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Text difficulty may have an effect, but so does text content, the novelty of a lesson, and several other instructional variables, all of which interact - dominating in some cases and compensating in others. Students may be discouraged by text difficulty in one instance (e.g., generating feelings of incompetence), and encouraged by it in another (e.g., feelings of challenge and worthwhile accomplishment). = Let's face it. Motivation is complicated. Students in a reading lesson may be driven by a desire to please their parents, to identify with a teacher, to connect with peers, to seek competence, or to pursue interesting information from a text. These desires not only may reinforce or cancel each other out, but they may stimulate”