Free Republic

The Department of Education will not lower grades for late work or attendance this academic year, according to its new policy. “Schools must ensure that their grading policies and practices acknowledge the impact of remote and blended learning models on the ways in which students must complete their assigned work,” reads the document, which was emailed to principals Monday morning. Citing COVID-19 disruptions, the DOE said schools “must adjust” expectations for timely work and are “encouraged to lessen or eliminate penalties for late work beyond these deadlines.” Student attendance will not impact grades. The policy states that “courses that currently...

It’s not surprising that an effort is underway to recall California governor Gavin Newsom, who administers a state with record homelessness, rising crime, and exploding pension debt. He rules imperiously, mandating arbitrary pandemic-related restrictions. In September, Newsom decreed a ban on gas-powered cars starting in 2035 because California is facing “a climate damn emergency.” And he signed a bill mandating the “study and development of proposals for reparations for blacks who live in the Golden State.” Newsom insisted in a tweet that “our past is one of slavery, racism, and injustice.” Is he aware that California was admitted to the...

As Ronald Reagan might have said to embattled Oregon Democrat Gov. Kate Brown, “There you go again.” Now a small Christian school in Oregon is suing Brown and other state officials after claiming the state is discriminating against private and religious schools by keeping them locked down while allowing public schools to reopen. The lawsuit claims that Brown has allowed public schools with less than 75 students to reopen, but has continued her ban on the reopening of private/religious schools that meet the same qualifying number of student enrollment, as reported by the Daily Wire.The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed...

The officials in charge of San Francisco's public schools are hard at work—not coming up with a plan to quickly reopen the schools, but to rename as many as 44 of them. As parents, teachers, and principals deal with the frustrations of distance learning, the San Francisco Unified School District recently asked them to brainstorm replacements for schools that are "inappropriately" named after problematic historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and even Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.). "I don't think there is ever going to be a time when people are ready for this," Mark Sanchez, president...

Students will no longer be graded based on a yearly average, or on how late they turn in assignments. Those are just some of the major grading changes approved this week by California's second-largest school district. The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is overhauling the way it grades students. Board members say the changes are part of a larger effort to combat racism... Academic grades will now focus on mastery of the material, not a yearly average, which board members say penalizes students who get a slow start, or who struggle at points throughout the year. Another big change,...

Based on the recommendations of consultants they paid nearly half a million taxpayer dollars, the Loudon County school board recently approved an Equity Plan steeped in critical race rhetoric. Ever since the unfortunate death of George Floyd, corporate media, virtue-signaling neighborhood leftists, and politicians have been talking about “systemic racism” in America, even though there was and still is no evidence that Floyd’s death was motivated by race.This is emblematic of the growing concern about “critical race theory,” in which everything is viewed through the lens of race because, the theory claims, “racism is present in every aspect of life,...

In-person attendance at some Big Apple schools is so low, instead of students, teachers expect to see tumbleweeds rolling down the hallways, staffers told The Post. Three weeks after Mayor de Blasio trumpeted the reopening of schoolhouse doors to kids from 3-K to high school, the city Department of Education refuses to publicly report any daily attendance data. But insiders working in largely deserted buildings revealed last week just how bad attendance has become. “Ghost town is definitely the right word for it,” a Brooklyn high school teacher said. “It’s very quiet.” The teacher said only a handful of students...

... [T]he pandemic-era policies of many progressive jurisdictions are sabotaging basic civic goods, with anti-Trump zeal as an accelerant and with effects on minority communities that are likely to far outlast the Trump era. This means that for many African-Americans and Hispanics, a key legacy of 2020 may be a well-intentioned liberal betrayal of their interests, a hollowing-out of the institutions that protect and serve them, and the deepening of America’s racial inequalities even if Trumpism goes down to defeat. The most important part of this sabotage, which is the subject of an essential Alec MacGillis article for The New...

Nearly 20 percent of millennials and Gen Z in New York believe Jews caused the Holocaust, according to a new survey released Wednesday. The findings come from the first-ever 50-state survey on the Holocaust knowledge of American millennials and Gen Z, which was commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. For instance, although there were more than 40,000 camps and ghettos during World War II, 58 percent of respondents in New York cannot name a single one. Additionally, 60 percent of respondents in New York do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust....

New York City residents still dependent on public schools received good-ish news this week. The teachers' union—which threatened to strike unless the city met its demands for COVID-19 precautions—finally came to an agreement with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. Under the deal, union leaders get to say they protected their members' interests, while city officials get to claim that schools are safer than ever. And parents get to figure out what to do with their kids during unplanned days of idleness as the beginning of classes is pushed back a week and a half. "Under...

A school district near Buffalo, N.Y., delayed the beginning of its school year on Friday for students learning remotely, releasing a statement blaming the move on dozens of resignations and sick leave requests from teachers in the district. In a statement released Friday, the Williamsville Central School District said that students learning remotely or through hybrid models would see their school years delayed indefinitely. Those returning to in-person hybrid learning models would apparently see their classes start on Tuesday. The statement blamed the decision on 90 school employees who requested sick leave absences due to COVID-19, as well as the...

The American Federation of Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten claimed at the union's annual convention that teachers were so terrified of going back to school that they were "quitting in droves" and "making their wills". The AFT threatened that its members would go on strike if they were expected to go back to actually doing their jobs and teaching in a classroom. In New York City, the United Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with the AFT, marched with cardboard coffins and fake body bags. Some union teachers wore skeleton t-shirts. A Halloween skeleton attached to a garbage bag held...

It’s back-to-school season, but millions of students won’t be going back to the classroom. Teachers are fighting tooth and nail to prevent reopening public schools for in-person learning — in the name of safety. Yet our just-released study suggests that these reopening decisions have more to do with influence from teachers’ unions than safety concerns. In New York City, the Department of Education’s proposal to offer families a hybrid of part-time in-person instruction and remote learning starting Sept. 10 met with fierce opposition. Teachers’ groups poured into the streets to protest the plan, including with props such as fake body...

Conservatives and fair-minded liberals are alarmed that high schools are drawing up plans to teach the “1619 project,” the New York Times ’ revisionist account of race and the American founding, in history classes. The reality is turning out to be worse. The largest state in the union is poised to become one of the first to mandate ethnic studies for all high-school students, and the model curriculum makes the radical “1619 project” look moderate and balanced. Last year California’s Assembly passed its ethnic-studies bill known as AB 331 by a 63-8 vote. Then the state department of education put...

Why does the public education system continue to fail America’s children? Policy experts have pondered this question for decades. Most say the answer is complicated, requiring a nuanced, collaborative approach. But not The New York Times. It found the problem, and it’s simple: white parents. The solution? “Try, whenever possible, to suppress the power of white parents.” That quote comes from the Times’ podcast “Nice White Parents,” which chronicles the history of a single public school in New York. Specifically, the host, Chana Joffe-Walt, decides to look into the racial history of this school. Her first finding: Many parents who...

A year after it was sent back to the drawing board, California’s ethnic-studies model curriculum is back. The last version, released in May 2019, was radical and jargon-laced. Even many progressives found it fringy. On Aug. 13, the state Education Department presented a new, toned-down draft to the curriculum commission. Not only does it suffer from the same conceptual problems as before, but during their meeting, commissioners directed the Education Department to resuscitate unpopular parts cut from the 2019 draft. The curriculum is moving toward adoption in March by the State Board of Education. Legislation is also advancing to make...

Nearly two dozen Bronx principals say they’d love to have outdoor classrooms — if only they didn’t have to worry about their students getting shot or picking up used drug syringes off the ground. The day after Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza crowed about turning city parks and streets near schools into classrooms amid the coronavirus, principals in the borough’s District 7 fired off a blistering letter. “Our District has been in the grips of a wave of gun violence that is dangerously affecting and can further exacerbate the safety conditions for all members in our...

School closures have affected over 55 million K–12 students in the U.S. since March as the nation deals with the coronavirus pandemic. Although numerous private schools and day care centers have adjusted to the pandemic and reopened, many public school districts and teachers unions are fighting to remain closed in the name of safety. In fact, 85 percent of the country's 20 largest public school districts have already announced that they will not be reopening schools for any in-person instruction as the school year begins. Some have noted these reopening decisions often appear to be driven by politics rather than...

New York mayor Bill de Blasio insisted on Thursday that the city was prepared to reopen its public school district, one day after the city’s largest teachers union threatened to strike if its demands regarding the reopening were not met. Educators “know kids are suffering right now. They need support, they need what educators can give them, they need positive adult role models and counselors….They need that desperately,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “It cannot be done the same way remotely even slightly.” The mayor continued, “We may be talking about a whole school year we don’t have...

Prominent Democrat politicians have started making huge concessions on reopening schools. Back in May, Democrats pounced after President Trump supported reopening. Despite the data finding precisely the opposite, it quickly became the Democrat-media complex line that opening schools this fall would be preposterously dangerous to children and teachers.In July, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan to put the city’s 1.1 million school kids back in schools half the week and “online learning” the rest of the week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked a public fight with him, saying, “If anybody sat here today...