Posted by Kohlmoos on Jun 1, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Part VIII): Quarantine and Curfew
April and May were horrific months for America as the COVID death total climbed over 100,000, unemployment soared to unprecedented levels, and the devastating impact on marginalized communities and populations became even greater. But at the beginning of that final week of May there seemed to be some glimmers of hope that we just might be on the other side of the curve. Was recovery on its way?
Then the horrific video from Minneapolis went viral and brought us back down to earth — reminding us that the disease that has infected...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on May 22, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Part VII): Re-Entry or Re-Opening?
Like with the economy, education leaders are pondering how, when and under what circumstances schools should be re-opened in the coming months. Very tough and challenging decisions are to be made soon. And it starts with the very idea of “re-opening”. It might be an inaccurate concept since it implies a simple flipping of the switch. Presto! … we are back to where we were when we closed.
Well, to my way of thinking it will be less like a re-opening and more like a re-entry … into a vast education ecosystem that,...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on May 4, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Pt VI): A rubric to help educators make critical decisions about when and how to reopen schools by Rich Long.
By Richard M. Long, the executive director of the Learning First Alliance.
It’s an understatement to say that we’re living at a time of uncertainty. Public education is a large endeavor: While we have 50.8 million students in traditional public schools, we also have 14,000 school districts, many communities, and families who all have different needs. Yet all want to know, what are we planning and when will the school buildings open?
The anathema to planning is uncertainty. And, in times of uncertainty decisions are still needed,...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on May 3, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Part V): Return, Re-entry, Recovery?
A school closed due to the COVID-19 epidemic sits empty in New OrleansLAN WEI/XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
As Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote, ““It is easier to start a war than to end it.” The same can be said about education’s battle with covid-19 — starting with the abrupt closing of over 90% of the schools around the country in March and leading to the return to school (or some variation thereof) in the coming weeks or months. As monumentally challenging as the closing of school was just a few...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Apr 18, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Pt IV): School budgets and the light at the end of the tunnel.
With stunning speed the COVID crisis has disrupted most every sector of our society in immeasurable ways. For schooling, the changes have been particularly acute and abrupt. As Education Week points out in their report on closings, in just a few weeks “… School closures due to coronavirus have impacted at least 124,000 U.S. public and private schools and affected at least 55.1 million students.” That’s over 90% of the total (I am surprised it’s not 100%). The magnitude of the challenge of re-entry (as some...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Apr 16, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Pt III): Navigating a new political battleground of which education is a part
This disheartening commentary from The Hill observes that the responses to the pandemic and a faltering economy are increasingly becoming defined simplistically by partisan affiliations rather than by science, evidence or circumstance. From where I sit, this is a dangerous development that could lead us down a self-destructive path that will make recovery all the more distant and difficult. And suddenly schooling has been thrust into middle of this political debate over how to protect public health while reinvigorating the economy....
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Apr 13, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Part II): Recovering from learning loss & revenue loss
In this recent WaPo article, Eric Gordon, chief executive for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District said it best, “We have to have a recovery plan for education … I’m really worried that people think schools and colleges just flipped to digital and everything’s fine and we can just return to normal. That’s simply not the case.” Indeed, the recovery process for learning loss will result in a “generation of students forced to play catch-up, perhaps for years to come”. And for the most vulnerable students...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Apr 11, 2020 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on The New Normal (Pt I)
During this time of catastrophic danger and disruption throughout our country and around the world, people of all walks of life are posing existential questions about the future even while hoping almost desperately for things to just return to normal. Perhaps it is human nature to yearn most intensely for order and the old status quo when those uncontrollable feelings of uncertainty and chaos are most pervasive. But with each passing day of this unprecedented crisis it becomes clearer that there will be no return or...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Sep 25, 2019 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on Charles Desmond, an EDGE Strategic Partner!
Charles Desmond, chief executive officer of Inversant
In January, 2016, Dr. Charles Desmond, a senior fellow at the New England Board of Higher Education and a higher education policy advisor to former Governor Deval Patrick, was appointed chief executive officer of Inversant, a Boston-based nonprofit that helps families learn about and save for college.
Since 2011, Dr. Desmond has served as a Senior Fellow at the New England Board of Higher Education. In this capacity, he works with the President and the NEBHE board and team...
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Posted by Kohlmoos on Mar 30, 2019 in The EDGEucator | Comments Off on Celebrating C-SPAN’s 40th Anniversary with a few clips
Some clips from long ago
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