A guest post by Dr. Denise Gordon November 22, 2014
I write this short essay to disclose what is happening within my own science classroom, I write to expose the demeaning work environment that I and my fellow colleagues must endure, and I write to give purpose to my years of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge in teaching science for the secondary student. I am not a failure; however, by the Texas STAAR standard assessment test, I am since this past year I had a 32% failure rate from my 8th grade students in April, 2014. The year before, my students had an 82% passing rate.
What happened in one school year? It does not matter that 2/3 of the student population speaks Spanish in their home. It does not matter their reading capability could be on a 4th grade level. It does not matter homework never gets turned in and parent phone calls bring little results. What does matter was that my students were required to develop a yearlong research project by stating a problem, thinking of a solution, designing the experimental set up, collecting the required data, and formulating a conclusion. Some of the projects were good enough to enter into the regional science fair. From a selection of thirty-five projects, twenty-four were sent to the regional science fair. Some of these projects won ribbons and a chance to go to the state science fair competition. Five of my students were invited to participate in the elite Broadcom Master Science Competition. No other 8th grader in my school district achieved this accomplishment. Other yearlong projects involved entering the Future City Competition sponsored by the IEEE. My eighth graders had seven teams to compete and three came back with special awards. Another science competition for secondary students is eCybermission sponsored by the NSTA and the U.S. Army. My only team of girls who competed in this program won first place for the entire southern region of the eCybermission Competition. Did any of my students get a thank you or congratulations from our school principal or the district about their science achievements? Sadly, the answer is a no. All I got was a call into the principal’s office at the end of the school year for the purpose of being pulled from teaching the 8th grade for the next school year due to my high failure rate on the state test. My students and I did receive two thank you letters from two community partnerships. The Potters Water Action Group, represented by Richard Wukich and Steve Carpenter were thankful for our educational brochure that my students helped design for their water filtration project. Krista Dunham, Project Director of Special Olympics in Fort Worth, sent a thank you to my students for donating the soap box derby race money that my students organized and who built three scrap box cars for this worthy affair.
I am now being monitored on a weekly basis within my 6th grade classes and their posted grades. I am required to have a 15% failure rate. All assignments must be pulled from the district’s online teaching schedule; therefore, no soap box races or water brochures this year. I am not allowed to take any of my students off campus for data collecting. Student project development does not flow well in the district school calendar, so I am being questioned by the principal about my scientific teaching philosophy. Action science with real world data is not on the district’s curriculum website. It does not matter that I have a Ph.D. in curriculum development. I must teach to the test since every three weeks all students will be taking a mandated district test. This means all teachers must review for the test, students take the test, and then we go over the test. That is three days out of fifteen teaching days dedicated to a test every three weeks.
Testing and retesting with documented lesson plans from the scheduled curriculum is what the district wants, but is it what the students need really to enjoy science? Our test scores are posted online and evaluated by the administration. Our performance on these tests weighs heavily into our yearly professional evaluation. I have been placed on a “growth plan” due to the fact that I teach what my students should know rather than what the district has posted. I am somewhat a rebel or just set in my ways; however, this growth plan gives the new principal her leverage to remove me from this school. If I do not meet her standards on the growth plan at the end of the year, then I must be relocated to another school. I teach my students math skills, writing skills, and research skills. I document this growth instead of monitoring their district test scores. I have been ordered to submit weekly announcements to the parent newsletter, but my submissions are deleted by the principal. I have been ordered to attend professional development at the level three tier within our district, but there is no level three offered because level three does not exist. I have been documented that 100% of my students do not understand my lessons when I teach because I use “big” words. The 100% came The Educational Delusional Scheme | educationalchemy:
A veteran journalist and former White House correspondent for Politico, Joseph Williams is a freelance writer, blogger, and essayist in Washington, D.C.
Created as a creative and more rigorous alternative, charter schools tend to outpace traditional public schools in most areas, including on standardized assessment tests. Yet charter schools also lead their traditional counterparts in a more disturbing trend: the number of students who are suspended or expelled each year.
In Boston, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice released a report this week showing that the city’s charter schools are far more likely to suspend students for infractions such as dress code violations and insubordination toward teachers. The report found that of the 10 Massachusetts school systems with the highest out-of-school suspension rates, nine were charter schools, and most were in the city.
Ditto Chicago, where an analysis of suspension rates issued in February found charter students were more likely to be dismissed than students in district-run schools. One network alone, the Noble Network of Charter Schools, had a suspension rate more than twice that of the city’s traditional public schools.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a report issued in September about a similar examination of school discipline found that from 2011 to 2013, charters expelled an average of 225 students per year, compared with just eight students in the traditional school system.
The disparity has caught the attention of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who warned charters last year that their higher-than-average expulsion rate was “not acceptable.” In a 2013 speech to the National Charters Conference, Duncan challenged charter schools to find “alternative discipline methods” to out-of-school suspensions that keep students engaged while maintaining accountability and order in the classroom.
But public education advocate Jeff Bryant says the disproportionate suspension rates are a symptom of a much deeper problem. Charter schools, he says, are using harsh, zero-tolerance discipline to weed out problem students and boost standardized test scores.
“I think there’s strong evidence from [studies] and anecdotally” that support that theory, said Bryant, director of Education Opportunity Network, a public-school policy center. “Charter schools discriminate and select their students in many different ways,” he added, including out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, to winnow out underachievers.
That’s because of the bargain that charter schools have made with the taxpayers that fund them. In exchange for taxpayer money and the freedom to innovate, charter schools are held to a higher academic standard, particularly on student achievement and assessment tests. But because they’re still public schools, Bryant said, they have to accept any kid who wants to attend.
“Here’s the problem: We’ve set up this system where we determine whether a school is a failure or not by the students’ test scores,” Bryant explained. “When you isolate one variable like that and make everything else contingent on it, you encourage schools to game the system.”
While bringing order and discipline to classrooms, education experts say get-tough school discipline can do more harm than good, leading at-risk students to disengage from their own education, thus feeding the school-to-prison pipeline. Moreover, Education Department statistics indicate minority students—specifically African American boys and girls—are several times more likely to face harsh punishments, such as out-of-school suspensions.
Though the statistics are troubling, charter school advocates say their expulsion policies have nothing to do with inflating their academic record. Every case is different, they argue, and suspensions of a relative handful of students wouldn’t move the achievement needle very much.
On August 12, 2014, video footage emerged out of Ferguson, Missouri: American citizens were facing off against a small-town police department that looked more like an army unit launching a combat mission overseas. Following several days of unrest in the wake of a controversial police shooting, largely peaceful protesters were attacked by officers in military formation, dressed like commandos and armed with fully automatic machine guns. Rotating turrets, mounted on top of enormous armored combat vehicles, fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades at unarmed citizens.
In the ensuing days and weeks, the public would learn about the now-controversial government program that civil libertarians had been clamoring about for years—the US Department of Defense's "Excess Property Program," colloquially referred to as "1033," after the section of the congressional National Defense Authorization Act that made it a reality.
In response to a glut of military surplus—combined with concern surrounding several high-profile school shootings and an increasingly militarized approach to the war on drugs—the Department of Defense gave or sold weapons of war to small, local police departments across the country. Suddenly, tiny police departments with just a few officers were training with fully automatic machine guns, gas masks, night vision equipment, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, and anti-mine vehicles.
But it didn't stop there. School districts, large and small, decided to get in on the action, militarizing their school security teams against the possibility of an "active shooter" situation. Here are 10 of the most war-ready school districts in the nation.
San Diego is known for pristine beaches, laid-back living, beautiful weather—and a six-wheeled, 18-ton Caiman model Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehiclethat patrols their schools. Valued at nearly $750,000, the San Diego Unified School District snagged the MRAP for a cool $5,000—just the cost of transporting it to its new home.
The acquisition created a stir in the beach community. Residents worried that the monstrous combat machine could give the impression that San Diego was at war with its students. Officials responded by removing the gun turret, painting the vehicle white, embossing it with a red medical cross, and filling it with medical supplies and (obviously) teddy bears. The parent of one student lamented that the beastly machine "makes Humvees shrivel up with feelings of inadequacy." Another parent said they would have rather seen the money spent on more "shade trees" on the playground or maybe "another teacher."
9Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles Unified School District acquired an MRAP of its own from the 1033 program. It is steel plated, 6 meters (20 ft) long, and weighs more than 14 tons. It was designed to battle insurgents on the streets of Iraq—specifically in situations where the lead vehicle in a convoy was blown up, leaving troops in the middle of the convoy trapped and under attack by gunfire from an elevated position. The district said the vehicle "was obtained as a way to rescue students in the event of a large-scale attack that prevented the Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff's Department from responding." But for now, the MRAP just sits idle.
Not to be outdone by its southern neighbor in San Diego, however, Los Angeles took campus safety to an explosive new level. The city school district beefed up its "readiness" with the acquisition of 61 assault rifles and—just in case—three 40mm M79 grenade launchers that were originally designed for fighting in the jungles of Vietnam.
8Pinellas County, Florida
Pinellas County scored 28 M16 assault rifles from the 1033 program to use in their schools. Use for what, you ask? The police chief stated that if "something's happening on a campus, you don't want to have to get up close to shoot." Can't argue with that. M16s are military distance rifles touted by the Marines as "pinpoint accurate" even at 550 meters (1,800 ft). M16s can be adapted for semi-automatic firing, fully automatic firing, or firing in three-round bursts.
The .40-caliber semi-automatic pistols the school police formerly had would have required officers to get far too close, which is why the chief had M16s on his wish list before he even found out about the Pentagon's surplus program. At around $1,000 a pop, they were "cost prohibitive." But thanks to 1033, the school police can now shoot from afar for just $50 per gun.
7Granite, Utah
School police in Granite, Utah had been carrying M16s that they got from the 1033 program since 2005—"the same kind that were used in the Vietnam War," according to a Granite School District spokesman. But there weren't enough to go around, and Granite didn't want to have anyone feeling left out. The school district recently acquired 13 additional AR15s through 1033, so that every school officer could have an assault rifle in his or her patrol car.
But if we're going to be fair and equitable enough to arm every officer, we can't very well leave the teachers out, can we? A law in Utah—which allows teachers to carry concealed weapons in public schools without telling anyone—drew controversy recently, when an elementary school teacher accidentally shot herself in the leg while using the bathroom.
6Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County School District picked up two Humvees from 1033. The gold standard for military transport vehicles, Humvees, or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV), have replaced most functions originally performed by the Jeep. In fact, when the military first began using them in the early 1980s, soldiers initially referred to Humvees as "Jeeps on steroids."
But the district wasn't satisfied with just the Humvees. They also picked up dozens of ponchos, duffel bags, and sleeping bags. Officials didn't comment, so it's uncertain whether they're preparing for a dangerous situation or taking kids on the coolest camping trip ever. This is especially true when you factor in the yard sale–esque 1033 acquisitions from the school district in neighboring Dooly County. The Pentagon gave officials in Dooly wet-weather gear and a whole bunch of cleaning equipment. Not too bad—until you look at the five M14 rifles picked up by the school district in Bibb County, Georgia.
5Florida Universities And Colleges
The 1033 program extends to higher education as well—and in Florida, it extends far and wide.
Florida International University picked up an MRAP and 49 M16 rifles. The University of North Florida got 11 M16s. The University of Central Florida (UCF) received 11 M16s and a grenade launcher, but they converted their grenade launcher to fire tear gas. The UCF actually used its new arsenal in a recent incident in which school officers "had to confront a heavily armed student," according to school officials. The University of South Florida in Tampa got 20 M16 rifles, and the University of Florida got an armored truck.
Florida leads the pack in the number of colleges and universities whose security personnel received 1033 military gear, but the Sunshine State is by no means alone. At least 117 colleges and other institutions of secondary education across the country have gotten in on the action, receiving everything from trousers (Yale) to MRAPs (Ohio State).
4Aledo, Texas
The seven full-time and 11 reserve officers who protect the Aledo School District arebegrudgingly giving back the military rifles they received on loan from the 1033 program. The police chief and security officials there are none too happy about having to return their four AK-type 5.54mm rifles and their single 7.62mm M14. The school district chose not to renew the loan after Ferguson dominated the news.
Aledo officers—like many school officers in Texas—engage in the controversial practice of "student ticketing," issuing Class C misdemeanor citations to students for offenses such as using coarse language or disrupting class. Last year alone, they wrote 20 tickets for using cellphones in a school zone. In one case, a fourth-grader had to stand on a stool to see the judge, while his mother pleaded guilty on his behalf for a school infraction, the fines for which can be as much as $500.
3Edinburg, Texas
Texas is the leader when it comes to school districts participating in the 1033 military surplus bonanza. The Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District equipped an entire "special response team." Officers in the school district's 12-man SWAT unit now carryM4 and AR15 assault rifles, compliments of 1033.
The school district created and armed the specialized attack and infiltration unit in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, which is when many schools began turning to 1033 for heavier weapons. In the wake of Sandy Hook, formerly open campuses are now much less accessible, and at least 33 states have introduced legislation enabling teachers and other school officials to carry weapons. Some schools have invested in "safe rooms" with bulletproof walls, and some have even purchased bulletproof backpacks.
At least 10 school districts in Texas have received armored plating, tactical vests, military vehicles, M14 rifles, automatic pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition from 1033.
2Auburn-Washburn, Kansas
Auburn-Washburn School District in suburban Topeka, Kansas, received some really cool surplus military gear from the 1033 military surplus program. They know what it is, but they're not telling.
Although the district considers it secret "security-related information," officials have agreed to say what their 1033 acquisition isn't, which is a start. Is it a grenade launcher? Getting colder—it isn't a grenade launcher. Is it an MRAP armored vehicle? Getting colder—it isn't an MRAP. Auburn-Washburn agreed only to reveal that their new 1033 gear is "a piece of safety equipment that is part of an emergency operations plan."
Auburn-Washburn School District learned of the 1033 program through a staff member who had a spouse at the Kansas Department of Investigations. From there, new—and apparently top secret—leftover military ordinance was just a phone call or an email away.
1Stockton, California
Back in California, the Stockton Unified School District geared up with a whole bag of goodies from 1033, and officers there are prepared for anything—except, apparently, armed conflict. Among the hardware they received in their $23,588.80 acquisition from the Pentagon are five TV monitors worth just under $10,000, a cardiopulmonary mask package, 10 field packs, an exercise bike, three drug cases, a podium, two communications receivers, and an overhead projector.
Although it is difficult to verify exactly who has received what from the program, the Pentagon insists that a great deal of the surplus hardware they've given away is not related to weaponry at all and is, in fact, much more likely to be mundane. But it is uncertain if that pertains to the vast program in general, which scattered surplus gear across law enforcement agencies and police departments nationwide, or specifically to the 30 or so school districts that have gotten in on the action.
Andrew Lisa is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. Check out more of his work atandrewlisa.wordpress.com.
NEA PRESIDENT ON GRAND JURY’S FAILURE TO BRING INDICTMENT IN BROWN KILLING
***For sake of children, decision can’t be an end to larger conversation on social justice***
WASHINGTON—A grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., today failed to bring an indictment against Officer Darren Wilson who fatally shot Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed African-American man. The incident set off protests and sparked a national debate on civil rights.
“For the sake of our children and the future generations to come we must not let today’s decision be an end but the beginning of a larger conversation on social justice and fighting intolerance and racial disparities in our society,” said Lily Eskelsen GarcÃa, president of the National Education Association.
From its historic work around Brown v. Board of Education, NEA has a long, rich history of standing up for social justice and equal rights for all. NEA’s more recent efforts have focused on the inequality in communities, like Ferguson, where students of color are disproportionately impacted by issues like a lack of funding, opportunity and access to additional support and services to be successful. The union and its members have dedicated themselves to the rights of all students to learn.
In times of tragedy and uncertainty, schools serve as a place of normalcy for students. In response to the specific needs of educators for resources around the Ferguson shooting, NEA has developed materials to assist educators, parents, and the community as we continue our collective fight for social justice for all.
“The events in Ferguson have inspired millions of Americans across the country to urgently seek answers and demand action. We agree, but the conversation cannot stop now,” added Eskelsen GarcÃa. “As educators we believe that now is the time to raise awareness and create dialogue about the problem of racial intolerance that so many face every day across our nation. We also believe that this dialogue must happen in our schools and communities, amongst parents, educators, and with our youth.”
To learn more about what NEA is doing to fight inequality in our public schools, visit www.nea.org/equity.
Follow us on Twitter at @NEAMedia AFT’s Weingarten and Johnson on the Events in Ferguson, Mo.
WASHINGTON—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten and Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson on the St. Louis County (Mo.) grand jury decision in the police shooting death of Michael Brown.
“Tonight, the fact remains that on Aug. 9, an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed. Given that we are a nation of laws, one can only hope that the lack of an indictment isn’t tantamount to any lack of zeal on the part of the prosecutor to do the job he was supposed to do to enable the grand jury to arrive at an impartial and fact-based decision. Having said that, tonight’s decision isn’t the last word in seeking justice for Michael Brown, as the Justice Department is still pursuing its investigation. We echo the calls of the Brown family, clergy and Gov. Nixon for peace, restraint and protection for peaceful protesters. “This case once again reminds us that there is still much work to be done to achieve racial justice in America. It tells us that our moral compass and legal systems do not always align. “In moments like these, we should redouble our efforts to ensure all children grow up in safe communities with high-quality neighborhood schools and a local economy rich with jobs—no matter their ZIP code, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.” ### Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
Report: Charter schools that require volunteering are breaking California law
By Jason Green
Daily News Staff Writer
POSTED: 11/21/2014 05:51:00 AM PST5 COMMENTS|UPDATED: 3 DAYS AGO
Scores of public charter schools throughout California, including the San Carlos Charter Learning Center and Everest Public High School in Redwood City, are violating state law by forcing families to volunteer or pay a fee as a condition of enrollment, according to a report released Thursday.
Public Advocates Inc., which has offices in San Francisco and Sacramento, investigated 555 of the state's 1,130 charter schools and found that one-third explicitly require unpaid "service hours."
"They call these policies 'required volunteer hours' or 'mandatory service hours,' but when work is required, it's not voluntary," Hilary Hammell, an attorney for the nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization, said during an online press conference Thursday. "Requiring mandatory donations of time, money or goods is illegal in California's public schools."
According to the report, the practice violates the "free schools" clause of the California Constitution, as well as the education code. The latter was amended by the Legislature in 2012 to make it clear that public schools cannot compel "donations of service" from families.
Hammell said it is also limiting enrollment to students who come from privileged backgrounds.
"It's both wrong and unlawful to punish a child for something his parents can't or won't do, and it's those children from resource-strapped families who may need nurturing public schools the most," she said.
"In fact, it appears from our study that most charter schools in our survey do enroll fewer low-income students, fewer English learners and far fewer foster youths than similar non-charter schools in their districts. That shows that something is getting in the way of access to these high-need kids."
The investigation by Public Advocates found work quota policies at charter schools throughout the state. Prevalent approaches include requiring parents to sign a contract promising to volunteer for a set number of hours and requiring parents to log or track their hours.
Parents who cannot fulfill the work quota are often allowed to buy the hours for some amount, which ranges from $6 to $25 per hour, or donate goods to the school, according to the report.
At the San Carlos Charter Learning Center, all families are required to serve 80 to 120 hours per school year.
There is an increased emphasis in building a quality teacher workforce but little attention paid to the pay penalty teachers face for working in their profession.
The figure below shows that teachers earn less than other similar non-teacher college-educated workers. Teachers working in the public sector who are represented by a union earn 13.2 percent less than other comparable college graduates. The pay gap is largest for private sector teachers without union representation (-32.1 percent). Separate analyses by gender are also presented given that the overwhelming majority of teachers are women (around 72 percent)—here female teachers were only compared to female non-teacher college-educated workers, and male teachers were only compared to male non-teacher college-educated workers. Compared to female teachers, the teacher pay penalty is worse for male teachers for each of the four teacher groups. In general, teacher pay disadvantages are mitigated if teachers are employed in the public sector—and more so if they have union representation.
ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT
Interactive
Teacher pay penaltyPercent difference between teachers’ pay versus pay of demographically similar college-educated workers in other professions, 1996–2012
Public teachers (unionized)
Private teachers (unionized)
Private teachers (non-unionized)
Public teachers (non-unionized)
All
-13.20%
-26.30%
-32.10%
-17.90%
Females*
-7.20%
-17.80%
-29.50%
-14.20%
Males*
-24.60%
-35.00%
-37.20%
-26.80%
* Male teachers are compared with college-educated males in other professions, and female teachers are compared with college-educated females in other professions.
Source: Adaptation of Figure 7 (regression adjusted estimates) from Allegretto & Tojerow, “Teacher Pay & Staffing Differences: Public & Private Schools,” Monthly Labor Review, September 2014
The opportunity cost of becoming a teacher and remaining in the profession becomes more important as relative teacher pay falls further behind that of other professions. Women were once a somewhat captive labor pool for the teaching profession. But, today they have many more opportunities outside of the teaching profession. Thus, growing pay differentials will make it all the more difficult to recruit and retain the best and the brightest into the profession.
The movement toward the privatization of schools and mixed charter schools, which do not have the union density of public schools, is also problematic given the large pay gaps of non-unionized teachers working in private schools. For more information, see a recent paper by me and Ilan Tojerow, which analyzes teacher pay in great detail and looks at differences by school ownership type based on gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and union density from 1996 through 2012.
