Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has a featured article this morning entitled, “How Educators Secretly Remove Students with Disabilities from School.”  The removals termed “informal” or “off-the-book” largely escape scrutiny because schools are not required to report them in the same manner as formal suspensions and expulsions, making them difficult to track and their impact hard to measure.  The article also includes several case studies of students who were “informally” suspended.  Here is an excerpt.

“In a report last year, the National Disability Rights Network, a national nonprofit established by Congress more than four decades ago, found informal removals occurring hundreds and perhaps thousands of times per year as “off-the-book suspensions.” The report said the removals also included “transfers to nowhere,” when students are involuntarily sent to programs that do not exist.

But interviews with families, educators and experts — as well as a New York Times review of school emails, special education records and other documents — suggest that informal removals are pernicious practices that harm some of the nation’s most vulnerable children. Students are left academically stifled and socially marginalized. Their families often end up demoralized and desperate.

“The reality is that there are children in this country who are still considered of insufficient quality to go to school,” said Diane Smith Howard, a lawyer with the National Disability Rights Network. “This would never be deemed acceptable for students without disabilities.”

Dr. Russell J. Skiba, a professor emeritus at Indiana University and an expert in special education, said informal removals reflected the “precarious balance” that school districts must strike between discipline and education for disabled students. Some children with disabilities might benefit from a different class schedule, he said, but in practice many are removed from school to solve problems.

“Until we have a method of measuring sincerity,” Dr. Skiba said, “I don’t know how we get at what percentage are for the benefit of the student, what percentage can be to the benefit for the safety of the school and what percentage are ways of maintaining our status quo.”

Educators say that informal removals underscore how they struggle to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and related legislation that began requiring schools to educate students with disabilities nearly 50 years ago. Federal funding to help schools cover the extra costs of special education has always fallen short of the targets in the law, leaving many without the resources they say they need.

The Education Department warned schools last summer that informal removals — including shortened school days — could violate federal civil rights laws. The year before, the Justice Department reached a settlement with Lewiston Public Schools in Maine after the department found that the district had violated the civil rights of students with disabilities without “considering their individual needs or exploring supports to keep them in school for the full day.”

Catherine E. Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said schools were often unaware of how such practices could infringe students’ civil rights.

“It is uncommon in my experience for educators to try to hurt kids,” Ms. Lhamon said in an interview. “Still, the continuation of the practice sends a terrible message to students and to school communities about which students deserve an education.”

Informal removals only increased during the coronavirus pandemic, advocates say, as students with disabilities regressed the most during prolonged school closures.

“I’ve never seen this level of incorrect management of many of our patients in the school system, kids slipping through the cracks,” said Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician at the Ypsilanti Health Center, a clinic primarily serving low-income families and people of color in Ypsilanti, Mich.

In October, federal lawmakers called for the department to specifically include informal removals as a type of prohibited discrimination in revisions to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the landmark disability civil rights law. Ms. Lhamon called the removals “an incredibly damaging practice that we very much want to see end.”

This is a sad development that needs more aggressive attention by the U.S. Department of Education.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel overseeing investigations into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a person with direct knowledge of the event.

The subpoena to Pence as part of the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith was served in recent days, according to the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity yesterday to discuss a sensitive issue.  As reported by The Associated Press and other news media.

The extraordinary scenario of a former vice president potentially testifying against his former boss in a criminal investigation comes as Pence considers launching a 2024 Republican presidential bid against Trump. The two have been estranged since a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

The subpoena is an aggressive step from a prosecutor who for years led the Justice Department’s public corruption section and who oversaw indictments against major political figures. The move sets the stage for a likely executive privilege fight, given Pence’s close proximity to Trump for four years as major decisions were being contemplated and planned. It is unclear whether efforts to secure voluntary testimony from Pence stalled before the subpoena was issued.

Spokespeople for Pence and Smith declined to comment on the issuance of the subpoena, which was first reported by ABC News.

Pence was a central figure in Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. Trump falsely insisted that his vice president, who had a ceremonial role in overseeing the certification of the election, could simply reject the results and send them back to the battleground states he contested.

On Jan. 6, Trump supporters driven by the lie that the election was stolen marched to the Capitol building, brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors while Pence was presiding over the certification of Biden’s victory. The vice president was steered to safety with his staff and family as some in the mob chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”

While the mob was in the Capitol, Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

Smith, who was named special counsel in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has been tasked with overseeing investigations into Trump’s attempts to subvert his defeat, his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and his possession of top-secret government documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Pence’s path to winning the Republican nomination in 2024 was narrow to begin with, and this latest development may make it that much harder for him, Republicans keeping tabs on the rapidly developing 2024 field told Yahoo News.

“It is hard, in my view, to say you are the grown-up in the room and in favor of law and order if you refuse DOJ subpoenas,” said one former Trump administration official. “Though, in the end, he still has no hope in 2024.”

Pence should respect the subpoena and cooperate, said Vin Weber, a former House Republican leader and longtime Republican operative.

“He’s got to be the straight-up guy he is, or he loses his brand,” Weber said.

The subpoena definitely complicates Pence’s chances of securing the GOP presidential nomination.  He is damned if respects the subpoena and is damned if he doesn’t.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Teachers College Record just published a book review I wrote entitled:  Navigating Complexities in Leadership: Moving Toward Critical Hope by Kathy L. Guthrie and Kerry L. Priest, Eds.).  My review (see below for link) was positive.  Here is my summary:

“Overall, I thought Navigating Complexities in Leadership… accomplished its stated purpose. It offers perceptive insights into current issues of leadership and its teaching, and is especially strong on matters of diversity, race, and gender. The book is an important addition to the literature.”

Here is the full citation and link.

Picciano, A.G. (2023). Navigating Complexities in Leadership: Moving Toward Critical Hope (Review of the book Navigating Complexities in Leadership: Moving Toward Critical Hope by Kathy L. Guthrie and Kerry L. Priest, Eds.). Teachers College Record. https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/TCZ/Book%20Reviews/2023%20Book%20Reviews/February%202023/Navigating%20Complexities%20in%20Leadership-%20Moving%20Toward%20Critical%20Hope-1675103035.pdf

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

On Monday, Michelle Goldberg had a column entitled, “Biden’s a Great President. He Should Not Run Again.”  She makes the case that Biden has had a very successful tenure as president but that he very possibly would lose if he runs against a younger, fresher Republican.  I agree with her.  We also both agree that Biden could defeat Donald Trump if the former president is the GOP nominee. 

Goldberg’s conclusion:

“The last time I wrote about Biden being too old, he was at a low moment in his presidency, with inflation soaring and his Build Back Better agenda stalled. Had he decided not to run for re-election then, it probably would have looked like an admission of failure. Now his political legacy seems more secure. He’ll cement it if he has the uncommon wisdom to know when the time has come for a valediction, not a relaunch.”

Her entire column is below.

Tony

——————————————————————————–

The New York Times

“Biden’s a Great President. He Should Not Run Again.”

Feb. 6, 2023

By Michelle Goldberg

Opinion Columnist

When President Biden gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he will have a lot to boast about.

He’s presided over record job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. Whereas Donald Trump’s infrastructure weeks were a running joke, Biden signed the largest infusion of federal funds into infrastructure in more than a decade. His Inflation Reduction Act made a historic investment in clean energy; the head of the International Energy Agency called it the most important climate action since the 2015 Paris climate accord. (And incidentally, inflation is finally coming down.) Biden rallied Western nations to support Ukraine against Russia’s imperialist invasion and ended America’s long, fruitless war in Afghanistan, albeit with an ugly and ignominious exit. His administration capped insulin prices for seniors, codified federal recognition of gay marriage and shot down that spy balloon everyone was freaking out about. He’s on track to appoint more federal judges than Trump.

Biden can also take a victory lap for Trump’s declining influence. Lots of pundits rolled their eyes when Biden sought to make the midterms a referendum on the MAGA movement’s threat to American democracy. Voters didn’t. Even more than Trump’s defeat in 2020, the loss of Trumpist candidates like Arizona’s Kari Lake and Georgia’s Herschel Walker in 2022 convinced many Republicans they need to move on from their onetime hero.

In other words, Biden has been a great president. He’s made good on an uncommon number of campaign promises. He should be celebrated on Tuesday. But he should not run again.

It’s been widely reported that Biden plans to use the State of the Union to set up his case for re-election. There’s a rift in the Democratic Party about whether this is wise for an 80-year-old to do. Democratic officials are largely on board, at least publicly, but the majority of Democratic voters are not. “Democrats say he’s done a good job but he’s too old,” said Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican strategist who conducts regular voter focus groups. “He’ll be closer to 90 than 80 by the end of his second term.” Perhaps reflecting this dynamic, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that while 78 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents approved of the job Biden has done as president, 58 percent of them wanted a different candidate next year.

The arguments for sticking with Biden are not trivial. In addition to his successful record, he has the benefit of incumbency. Primaries are expensive, exhausting, bruising affairs. If only Biden were just a few years younger, it would not be worth the Democratic Party enduring one.

But it’s hard to ignore the toll of Biden’s years, no matter how hard elected Democrats try. In some ways, the more sympathetic you are to Biden, the harder it can be to watch him stumble over his words, a tendency that can’t be entirely explained by his stutter. Longwell said Democrats in her focus group talked about holding their breath every time he speaks. And while Biden was able to campaign virtually in 2020, in 2024 we will almost certainly be back to a grueling real-world campaign schedule, which he would have to power through while running the country. It’s a herculean task for a 60-year-old and a near impossible one for an octogenarian.

If Biden faces Trump, who will be 78 next year, that might not matter. It is worrying that in the Washington Post/ABC poll, Trump was slightly ahead in a hypothetical rematch, but Trump’s negatives tend to go up the more he’s in the public eye, and a presidential campaign would give him plenty of chances to remind Americans of his unique malignancy. But with many polls showing Trump’s popularity slipping and with the deep-pocketed Koch network lining up against him, chances are good that Biden’s competitor will be someone much younger, like Ron DeSantis, who will be 46 in 2024. Barring some radical shift in the national mood, the candidates will be vying for leadership of a deeply dissatisfied country desperate for change. For Democrats, the visual contrast alone could be devastating.

Plenty of Democrats worry that if Biden steps aside, the nomination will go to Vice President Kamala Harris, who polls poorly. But Democrats have a deep bench, including politicians who’ve won in important purple states, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Biden said he wanted to be a bridge to the next generation of Democrats. There are quite a few promising people qualified to cross it. A primary will give Democrats the chance to find the one who is suited for this moment.

The last time I wrote about Biden being too old, he was at a low moment in his presidency, with inflation soaring and his Build Back Better agenda stalled. Had he decided not to run for re-election then, it probably would have looked like an admission of failure. Now his political legacy seems more secure. He’ll cement it if he has the uncommon wisdom to know when the time has come for a valediction, not a relaunch.

Dear Commons Community,

Contact North | Contact Nord, an open-access resource for Canadians enrolled/interested in online courses, has an article this morning entitled, AI and the Future of Teaching & Learning.  It is a good summary of several of the critical aspects of AI as applied to instruction.  Its opening sentence mentions “a start-up company [that] recently created a 19-lesson, fully online, three-hour multimedia course in just 10 hours using ChatGPT.”   The video above is a brief interview with Alex Londo who is the CEO of the start-up.  Worth a view.

The entire Contact North | Contact Nord is below.

Tony

————————————————————————————–

Contact North [ Contact Nord

AI and the Future of Teaching & Learning

In Minnesota, a start-up company recently created a 19-lesson, fully online, three-hour multimedia course in just 10 hours using ChatGPT,(link is external) the artificial intelligence tool launched in November 2022.

ChatGPT found images and relevant video materials and developed a quiz to assess learning. Subsequent courses created by this same team are being created in less time — just one hour to create a three-hour learning module. Elsewhere, ChatGPT is used to create multimedia webpages(link is external) that can be quickly inserted into websites, and to create code in python (and other computer languages) that can be incorporated into apps or web spaces.(link is external)

ChatGPT is one of many similar AI services that use natural language to respond to user questions or requirements. Other AI systems can generate art(link is external), video(link is external), text to audio(link is external), music(link is external), simultaneous translation(link is external), solve math problems(link is external), provide career guidance(link is external) or engage in a deeply personal conversation.(link is external)

In higher education, AI systems and applications can be used to:

1. Strengthen and automate student support: AI can provide students with instant answers to their questions and concerns. This includes academic support, such as help with coursework or research projects, and more general support such as information about campus resources and services.
2. Improve course management: AI can help with course management tasks, such as posting announcements and answering frequently asked questions about assignments or exams. It can be used to “nudge” students to complete assignments, log into their learning management system or prepare for an exam.
3. Increase student engagement: AI can facilitate student engagement in online or hybrid courses, for example, by acting as a discussion moderator or by providing prompts for group discussions.
4. Provide research assistance: AI can help students with research tasks, such as finding and accessing relevant articles or data sources, reviewing available papers and books, and suggesting readings or videos for review. This could be exceptionally helpful for project-based or work-based learning.
5. Expand tutoring: AI (especially chatbots) can provide individualized tutoring support, particularly in subjects with limited availability of human tutors. This is already occurring on sites such as tutorme.com(link is external), which offers a combination of chatbots and people to support its registered learners.
6. Retention and completion: Using AI for “real-time” analytics and data to predict student performance and using these data to focus tutorial or student supports on those students most at risk of dropping out or failing.
7. Pathway advising: Course choice is a major challenge for students. AI is increasingly being used to provide 24/7 course choice advice, using current student performance data to suggest which “next course” is best for them, given their program profile and career intentions.
8. Student counselling: A growing number of online counselling systems display not only high levels of empathy with students struggling with stress, anxiety or depression but also high levels of efficacy. An evaluation by the UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) showed that Velibra (link is external)— used without therapist guidance alongside usual care — was more effective than usual care alone in people with social anxiety disorder.(link is external)

Not all Good News

There are several pitfalls associated with AI in higher education, including:

1. Lack of personalized support: AI systems are generally not able to provide personalized support to students based on their individual needs and learning styles. Indeed, the lack of empathy and genuine connection with those the systems are serving is a major criticism of many current AI systems. Although work is under way to add “artificial empathy” to client-facing systems, most systems do not connect well to their users.
2. Dependence on technology: Using AI as a support resource depends on technology and Internet access, which we know in Canada is not available to all students. This can create a digital divide, with some students accessing more support resources than others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this was a very real issue.
3. Ethical considerations: There are ethical considerations to using chatbots in education, such as the potential for students to become overly reliant on automated support or not fully understand the limitations of the chatbot — that it is not the same as “chatting” with an instructor. The chatbot can only use the data and algorithms available and has no access to intuition, insights about the specific student. the class the student is a part of or the struggles many students have with specific forms of learning. A parallel is the number of automotive accidents (some fatal) with the inappropriate use of GPS systems (in the United Kingdom alone, in-car GPS devices caused an estimated 300,000 car accidents).
4. Limited scope: AI systems are only able to provide support within the scope of their programming and “training.” If a student has a question or concern that falls outside this scope, the system may not be able to provide a helpful response. For example, most AI systems are poor at predicting economic futures. Chatbots and other AI systems have to be trained to respond to questions. In one very specific example, ChatGPT was asked to answer all the questions on the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales assurance exam. It scored 42% — less than the pass mark of 55%. The system was weak when more nuanced understanding and approaches were required. There were also some wrong answers and questionable mathematics. (link is external)
5. Lack of transparency – We cannot easily trace the sources of information or data-pathways used to create responses in an AI system. Nor is it often clear what the algorithmic biases are in analytic systems that predict student success or failure. This lack of transparency is deeply problematic and is an issue many AI developers are working on.
6. Abuse of AI – Students can use AI systems like ChatGPT to cheat. In fact, New York City schools, concerned about this possibility, have sought to ban it(link is external) as have others(link is external).  The concern about the abuse of AI is real(link is external) and has led to the development of a new kind of plagiarism detection system that can detect AI-generated materials(link is external).

Responsible and Trustworthy AI

For the above reasons, frameworks for the development of both responsible and trustworthy deployment of AI are emerging. Some are supported by major vendors (e.g. IBM, Google and Microsoft) as well as by the OECD(link is external). These frameworks require AI deployments in colleges and universities to be:

• Inclusive – Significant efforts are made to ensure all students have access and support for their use of AI rather than AI being in the service of the privileged. To make this effective, the transparency of AI and exposure of bias within AI systems is essential. The intention should be to make education more accessible to all rather than less so.
• Empathic and human-centered – Although accuracy and appropriateness of responses are critical, AI systems intended to interact with people should be empathic, warm and genuine. They must be able to respond not just accurately but, in a tone, and manner that reflects the identity of the user. They must also become increasingly sensitive to user needs.
• Transparent and explainable –Transparency means enabling people to understand how an AI system is developed, trained, operated, and deployed so users can make more informed choices about the outputs such systems produce. A user needs to understand how AI came to the conclusion it did: What were its sources of information and how was it trained to use and interpret these sources?
• Robust, secure and safe – To function, AI systems need access to significant datasets, including personal data about students, their backgrounds, performance and interaction with college or university systems. Such AI systems need to be able to withstand cybersecurity threats and be safe for students and staff to use. Colleges and universities are a target for such attacks.
• Accountable – This refers to the expectation that organizations or individuals ensure the proper functioning, throughout their lifecycle, of the AI systems they design, develop, operate or deploy, in accordance with their roles and applicable regulatory frameworks, and that they demonstrate this through their actions and decision-making process (for example, by providing documentation on key decisions or conducting or allowing auditing where justified). AI systems must meet regulatory and legal requirements that all the university or college staff are required to meet — for example, with respect to disabilities and exceptionalities or privacy.

What to Expect in the Next Five Years

The launch of ChatGPT caused a significant stir in higher education, but we have seen nothing yet. As AI becomes more widespread, transparent, responsible and integrated (text + video + art + music + translation all in one place) we can expect more instructors to experiment and explore. Microsoft, which has an exclusive licence to deploy ChatGPT across its systems, intends to invest US$10 billion(link is external) over the next 3-5 years, integrating it into Office products used by the vast majority of educational institutions and its search engine.

New AI systems for assessment are also emerging, enabling automated item generation(link is external), real-time assessment of soft and hard skills during a simulation or game, automated grading(link is external) and personalized and adaptive assessment(link is external). Some of these systems are already integrated into widely available LMS systems (e.g. Examity(link is external) is integrated into Brightspace at Purdue University in the US) and others will follow.

We can also expect the more widespread deployment of more empathic and responsive chatbots as tutors, student advisors and counsellors. In the UK, the technology coordinating body for colleges and universities (JISC)(link is external) is supporting several sophisticated deployments of AI tools and resources: chatbots(link is external), question generators(link is external), research suggestions for readings(link is external) and other tools(link is external). They are evaluating them for their effectiveness and efficiency. The chatbot ADA(link is external) is in widespread use.

As more instructors and students experiment with AI, more best practice examples will emerge of the effective use of AI to support teaching and learning. We can expect a flood of new AI tools and examples of effective practice.

Dear Commons Community,

President Joe Biden gave his 2023 State of the Union Speech last night in front of the US Congress.  He was both feisty and compassionate.  I was happy to see Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy applaud, even stand for some of Biden’s message.  Below are six takeaways courtesy of the Associated Press.  They are a good recap of several of the important points made.  You can view Biden’ State of the Union at the end of this post.  Or if you prefer, the entire text of the State of the Union can be found here.

Tony

—————————————————————————————

The Associated Press

Biden speech takeaways: More conciliation than conflict

By JOSH BOAK and AAMER MADHANI

The State of the Union address tends to have a ritual rhythm. Grand entrance. Applause. Platitudes. Policies. Appeals for Unity, real or imagined.

President Joe Biden checked those boxes, and a few more, during his speech to a joint session on Congress on Tuesday. In part, he seemed to be laying the foundation to run for a second term. “We’ve been sent here to finish the job,” he said.

Biden made calls for unity and tried to emphasize conciliation over conflict, easier to do in this rarefied setting, seemingly impossible to sustain in such divided times.

Takeaways from the president’s State of the Union address:

MORE CONCILIATION THAN CONFLICT

Biden’s speech almost defiantly ignored the bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and his own low standing with the public.

He returned repeatedly to common ground, making the case that both parties can back U.S. factories, new businesses being formed and the funding of 20,000 infrastructure projects. When Biden hit each of these themes, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy politely clapped, evening standing to applaud at one point.

It’s a sign that Democrats and Republicans can at least agree to a shared set of goals, even if they have very different views of how to get there.

In the midterm election campaign, Biden warned of Republican extremists. On Tuesday night, he portrayed them as partners in governance during the first two years of his presidency.

But then came a Biden comment that generated boos and hoots from Republicans: Biden said some in the GOP were bent on cutting Social Security and Medicare.

That sparked a raucous back and forth that seemed more in line with the reality of the actual relationship between the parties.

REGULAR JOE

Biden used the speech to highlight his focus on the common man, calling out billionaires who pay lower tax rates than the middle class and airlines that treat their passengers like “suckers.”

It amounted to a dare to Republican lawmakers who increasingly claim to represent blue-collar workers.

“No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter,” Biden said in one of the bigger applause lines of his speech.

The president brought back an idea from last year to put a minimum tax on billionaires so they don’t pay a lower rate than many middle-class households. Biden had pitched a 20% tax on the income and unrealized financial gains of households worth $100 million or more. The administration estimated it would generate $360 billion over 10 years. That would in theory help fund some priorities and possibly reduce the deficit.

But Biden’s tax plan might be more about scoring political points, as he couldn’t get it past West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin in the Senate last year.

He was straightforward in saying he would stop airlines from charging fees in order to sit families together, saying that children were being treated like luggage. He wants to ban hidden resort fees charged by hotels and penalties charged by cell service providers.

“Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” Biden said.

PASSING OVER CHINA BALLOON

Biden had been on a winning streak countering the United States’ rising military and economic competitor China.

Then Beijing brazenly floated a spy balloon across the United States, an embarrassing episode for Biden that culminated last weekend with him ordering the Pentagon to shoot the craft out of the sky over the Atlantic Ocean.

The incident has dominated headlines, with some Republicans arguing that it demonstrates Biden has been wobbly on Beijing.

Biden briefly addressed the incident directly: “As we made clear last week, if China’s threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”

Lost in the noise is the Biden administration’s increasingly aggressive efforts to counter China. like agreements with the Philippines and Japan to adjust or expand the U.S. military presence in those countries.

The balloon drama overshadowed all of that.

STANDING WITH UKRAINE

Last year’s State of the Union was dramatically shaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started days before the address.

At that moment, the chances of Ukraine staying in the fight with a more formidable Russian military seemed highly unlikely. Nearly a year later, Ukraine is firmly in the fight.

Biden took a moment to pay tribute to Ukraine, addressing one of his guests, Ambassador Oksana Markarova, as representing “not just her nation but the courage of her people.”

He also applauded Congress for giving the Ukrainian what it needed to face Russia’s brutal aggression; the United States has already committed nearly $30 billion in security assistance since the start of the war.

In private, administration officials have made clear to Ukrainian officials that Congress’ patience with the cost of the war will have its limits. But with Tuesday’s address, Biden offered an optimistic outlook about the prospects of long-term American support.

“Ambassador, America is united in our support for your country,” Biden said looking toward Markarova in the gallery. “We will stand with you as long as it takes.”

FEELING THEIR PAIN

Among Biden’s guests were the parents of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old black man whose beating death at the hands Memphis, Tennessee, police has reignited a national debate on policing.

Efforts to reduce police excesses have been sharply restricted by resistance in Congress, and there’s little prospect of federal action.

Still, Biden expressed awe at the grace of Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, who following his death has talked of her son’s “beautiful soul” and hopeful certainty that “something good will come from this.”

Biden, 80, also acknowledged in plain terms that as a white man he’s enjoyed a privilege that Nichols’ parents — and Black parents writ large — do not.

“Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving their car,” he said. “I’ve never had to have the talk with my children — Beau, Hunter and Ashley — that so many Black and Brown families have had with their children.”

FINISH THE JOB

Biden uttered the phrase “finish the job” at least a dozen times during his address. It sounded like the makings of a slogan he might employ for a reelection campaign.

But it is highly unlikely he will be able to finish the job on many of the things he referenced, like an assault weapons ban, universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and forcing companies to stop doing stock buybacks.

At least not during this term.

Dear Commons Community,

New York State senators gathered at City Hall on Friday to protest a plan in Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget to increase the number of charter schools in the city.

The proposed changes, outlined in her budget, would scrap a regional limit on charters issued in the city and revive so-called “zombie” charters — schools that count toward a statewide charter cap but have ceased operations.  As reported by The New York Daily News.

“This is a really flawed proposal,” said Sen. Shelley Mayer, chair of the education committee. “The governor should withdraw it.”

Hochul’s proposal could pave the way for an estimated 100 additional charters citywide, though Hochul would keep a statewide cap at 460 operators. Roughly 275 charter schools currently operate in NYC.

The budget would also invest $34.5 billion in overall education, including a $2.7 billion increase in Foundation Aid, the state’s need-based formula that will be fully funded for the first time ever this year.

“While the governor is giving with one hand fully funding Foundation Aid, she’s yanking the rug out from other kids by diverting money potentially to new charter schools,” said Sen. John Liu, who chairs the NYC education committee. “And that is not right.”

Sen. Robert Jackson, who took legal action as part of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity that gave rise to the state formula, added: “We’ve won that Foundation Aid fight, and we will fight to make sure that all of the children in New York City get a good education.”

The lawmakers were joined by city and union officials, members of the Panel for Educational Policy, and other parent advocates. In total, eight of 63 state senators blasted the proposal on Friday, while other legislators have rebuked it on social media.

City Comptroller Brad Lander said the proposal would be “devastating for the city’s budget,” putting traditional public schools in a bind financially.

“They are going to be faced with this devil’s bargain of like, do I lose my music teacher or my art teacher or have larger class size?” said Lander.

Charter school backers in a pamphlet distributed Friday morning accused the legislators of misinformation and “downright untruths.”

“Instead of creating and perpetuating myths about public charter schools, elected officials should take the time to listen to families in their own communities who are overwhelmingly in favor of charters,” said James Merriman, chief executive officer of the New York City Charter School Center.

“Legislators attempting to block that growth aren’t fighting the so-called ‘charter industry.’ What they are doing is standing in the way of parents simply trying to do what’s right for their kids,” he added.

The Charter School Center said that lifting the cap would allow for schools designed to serve vulnerable children, like students with dyslexia, impacted by the juvenile justice system or in the foster care system. Charters are also held accountable by authorizing entities and government agencies, and must prove their value every few years as part of a renewal process, they said.

Despite blowback from the state’s upper house, the governor continued to stand by her proposals.

“Hochul believes every student deserves a quality education, and NYC parents and students deserve the same access to educational options as those in the rest of the state,” said a spokesperson for the governor. “We are proposing common sense fixes that will give New York families more options and opportunities to succeed.”

It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next several months!

Tony

Janet Yellin

Dear Commons Community,

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday she saw a path for avoiding a U.S. recession, with inflation coming down significantly and the economy remaining strong, given the strength of the U.S. labor market.

“You don’t have a recession when you have 500,000 jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in more than 50 years,” Yellen told ABC’s Good Morning America program.

“What I see is a path in which inflation is declining significantly and the economy is remaining strong.”

Yellen said inflation remained too high, but it had been falling for the past six months and could decline significantly given measures adopted by the Biden administration, including steps to reduce the cost of gasoline and prescription drugs.

U.S. Labor Department data released Friday showed job growth accelerated sharply in January, with nonfarm payrolls up by 517,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropping to a 53-1/2-year low of 3.4%.

The strength in hiring, which occurred despite layoffs in the technology sector, reduced market expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve was close to pausing its monetary policy tightening cycle.

Yellen told ABC that reducing inflation remained Biden’s top priority, but the U.S. economy was proving “strong and resilient.”

Three separate pieces of legislation – the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act and a massive infrastructure law – would all help drive inflation down, along with a price cap imposed on the cost of Russia oil, she said.

Yellen called on Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit, warning that failure to do so would produce “an economic and financial catastrophe.”

“While sometimes we’ve gone up to the wire, it’s something that Congress has always recognized as their responsibility and needs to do again.”

The U.S. government hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling last month, prompting the Treasury Department to warn that it may not be able to stave off default past early June.

Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden met last week for talks on raising the debt limit and have agreed to meet again, but the standoff has unsettled markets.

Yelling makes a lot of sense.  And we hope that unemployment stays low!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A Maryland woman conspired with a Florida neo-Nazi leader to carry out an attack on several electrical substations in the Baltimore area, officials said yesterday.

The arrest of Sarah Beth Clendaniel, of Baltimore County, was the latest in a series across the country as authorities warn electrical infrastructure could be a vulnerable target for domestic terrorists. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she had a lawyer to speak on her behalf.

There was no evidence the plot was carried out or any record of damage to local substations. As reported y the Associated Press.

Clendaniel conspired with Brandon Russell, recently arrested in Florida, to disable the power grid by shooting out substations via “sniper attacks,” saying she wanted to “completely destroy this whole city,” according to an unsealed criminal complaint unsealed. The complaint also included a photo of a woman authorities identified as Clendaniel wearing tactical gear that bore a swastika and holding a rifle.

U.S. Attorney Erek Barron praised investigators for disrupting hate-fueled violence.

“When we are united, hate cannot win,” he said at a news conference announcing the charges.

Authorities declined to specify how the planned attack was meant to fulfill a racist motive but suggested the defendants wanted to bring attention to their cause.

According to the complaint, Clendaniel was planning to target five substations situated in a “ring” around Baltimore, a majority-Black city mostly surrounded by heavily white suburban areas.

“It would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully,” Clendaniel told a confidential informant, according to the complaint. She was living outside the city in surrounding Baltimore County, officials said.

Russell has a long history of ties to racist groups and Nazi beliefs, as well as past plans to attack U.S. infrastructure systems, according to the complaint. It also wasn’t clear Monday whether he had a lawyer.

In recent months, concerns about protecting the country’s power grid have been heightened by attacks, or threatened attacks.

In Washington state, two men were arrested last month on charges that they vandalized substations weeks earlier in attacks that left thousands without power around Christmastime. One suspect told authorities they did it so they could break into a business and steal money.

A gunfire attack in December on substations in central North Carolina caused power outages affecting tens of thousands of customers. Law enforcement officials have said the shooting was targeted, though no arrests have been made. Lawmakers there have proposed legislation to toughen penalties for intentionally damaging utility equipment.

Baltimore Gas and Electric, which controls the local power grid, thanked law enforcement and said Monday that there was no damage to any substations, that service wasn’t disrupted and that there are currently no known threats to facilities.

“The substations are not believed to have been targeted out of any connection to BGE or Exelon, or because of any particular vulnerability,” BGE said in a news release. “We have a long-standing partnership with law enforcement and state and federal regulators of the grid to secure critical infrastructure; this work is even more important now as threats have increased in recent years.”

What a pair!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Across the United States, universities and school districts are scrambling to figure out how  to use and respond to chatbots like ChatGPT that can generate humanlike texts and images. But while some are rushing to ban ChatGPT to try to prevent its use as a cheating aid, some faculty are looking to leverage it to spur more critical classroom thinking. They are encouraging their students to question the hype around these rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools and to consider the technologies’ potential side effects.  As reported by The New York Times.

The aim, these educators say, is to train the next generation of technology creators and consumers in “critical computing.” That is an analytical approach in which understanding how to critique computer algorithms is as important as — or more important than — knowing how to program computers.

The New York City Public Schools are  training a cohort of computer science teachers to help their students identify A.I. biases and potential risks. Lessons include discussions on defective facial recognition algorithms that can be much more accurate in identifying white faces than darker-skinned faces.  In Illinois, Florida, New York and Virginia, some middle school science and humanities teachers are using an A.I. literacy curriculum developed by researchers at the Scheller Teacher Education Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One lesson asks students to consider the ethics of powerful A.I. systems, known as “generative adversarial networks,” that can be used to produce fake media content, like realistic videos in which well-known politicians mouth phrases they never actually said.

With generative A.I. technologies proliferating, educators and researchers say understanding such computer algorithms is a crucial skill that students will need to navigate daily life and participate in civics and society.

“It’s important for students to know about how A.I. works because their data is being scraped, their user activity is being used to train these tools,” said Kate Moore, an education researcher at M.I.T. who helped create the A.I. lessons for schools. “Decisions are being made about young people using A.I., whether they know it or not.”

In one of my graduate classes, I have given my students an assignment of writing  a traditional paper or writing a paper that has been informed (maybe started) by ChatGPT.  All of the 25 students in this class are experienced educators, mostly teachers.  About half of the students have opted for the latter. 

The ChatGPT assignment reads in part as follows:

“You can use the essay produced by ChatGPT as the beginning of your paper.  To complete the assignment, you will likely have to write approximately four-five more pages rather than the seven as indicated in the original Assignment No. 1.  You can use your own discretion as to how many additional pages you need to complete the assignment. 

“I would also like you to add one paragraph to this assignment at the end of your paper answering the following as best you can.

How well did you feel ChatGPT assisted you in completing the assignment?

Do you believe that you could have done as good, better, or not as good paper without using ChatGPT?

Would you consider allowing students in your own classes to use ChatGPT for essay assignments?

What recommendation do you have, if any, for other teachers or educators in using ChatGPT?”

These papers are due at the beginning of March.  

Tony

P.S. Here are two websites suggesting how to  use ChatGPT for essay assignments in K-12 and college-level courses.