BlackLivesMatter/CampaignZero Activist Brittney Packnett (Almost) Tries to Defend the Indefensible, Teach for America

From the Black Agenda Report: BlackLivesMatter/CampaignZero Activist Brittney Packnett (Almost) Tries to Defend the Indefensible, Teach for America | Seattle Education:

From the Black Agenda Report: BlackLivesMatter/CampaignZero Activist Brittney Packnett (Almost) Tries to Defend the Indefensible, Teach for America

Originally posted on the Black Agenda Report:

TFA/BlackLivesMatter/CampaignZero Activist Brittney Packnett (Almost) Tries to Defend the Indefensible

Brittney Packnett, Executive Director for Teach for America St. Louis

Packnett’s problem however, and Teach For America’s too, is that their mission so clearly indefensible that they can’t really talk about what Teach For America actually does, and why it does those things.

Stung by growing public recognition of Teach For America’s heinous role in destabilizing communities and destroying public education, CampaignZero/BlackLivesMatter activist & TFA’s Brittney Packnett took to Huffington Post last week to defend herself and TFA’s mission. But school privatization is so unpopular she had to resort to misdirection and mumbling about her St. Louis origins and supposed conspiracy theories against her instead.

By Bruce A. Dixon

As the pivotal role of Teach For America in the elite bipartisan drive to privatize public education comes more sharply into public view, it’s natural that TFA operatives and apologists will try to defend their missions and careers. That’s what Brittney Packnett’s sad and disingenuous “Let’s Get Back To Work” piece in Huffington Post last week was about.

Packnett’s problem however, and Teach For America’s too is that their mission so clearly indefensible that they can’t really talk about what Teach For America actually does, and why it does those things.

TFA, whose St. Louis director is Ms. Packnett, cannot just come out and say they spend hundreds of millions a year in corporate and government funds replacing experienced, qualified, mostly black public school teachers with undertrained and mostly white temps to facilitate the policy goal of their corporate funders, which is the privatization of public education.

Organized public school teachers used to be the backbone of civic life in black From the Black Agenda Report: BlackLivesMatter/CampaignZero Activist Brittney Packnett (Almost) Tries to Defend the Indefensible, Teach for America | Seattle Education:

CORE: The Movement to Privatize California's Public Schools

CORE — Transforming Education:

Follow This Link for the Real Story Big Education Ape: CORE Waivers: The Movement to Privatize California's Public Schools http://bit.ly/1p7MeN2

TransformEd serves as the strategic advisor to the CORE Districts on the design and rollout of the social-emotional component of their School Quality Improvement System (SQIS). Together, the CORE Districts and TransformEd have validated a common set of social-emotional measures with nearly half a million students. We are committed to making these measures available as a free, open-source tool for other schools and districts to use.

Overview

Research shows that success in school and in life depends on more than academic ability alone. Rigorous longitudinal research has demonstrated that specific social-emotional competencies have a significant impact on students’ academic performance and persistence in school, as well as their health, wealth, and well-being outcomes throughout life. Based on this compelling research, six CORE Districts have chosen to incorporate measures of students’ social-emotional skills alongside academic and school culture/climate indicators into a more holistic and more formative system of accountability and continuous improvement called the School Quality Improvement System (SQIS). LEAs participating in this effort include Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Santa Ana Unified School Districts, which collectively serve more than one million students.

The School Quality Improvement Index (SQII) 

Fully implemented during the 2015-16 school year, the School Quality Improvement Index (the measure at the heart of the SQIS) assesses school performance as a balanced function of students’ academic outcomes (60%) as well as students’ social-emotional competencies and school climate/culture (40%).

The social-emotional and climate/culture component of the index includes both administrative measures that serve as rough proxies for students' social-emotional skills (e.g. chronic absenteeism and suspensions), as well as explicit measures of four social-emotional prioritized by the CORE Districts: growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness.

A Unique Approach 

The CORE Districts were the first in the country to include measures of students' social-emotional competencies in a school accountability system, setting the precedent for a new, more holistic definition of student and school success. Additionally, the CORE Districts are fundamentally changing the accountability paradigm: rather than penalizing schools that perform poorly on the new accountability measure, they will pair low-performing schools with higher-performing schools that can provide support and mentorship. This is a significant shift away from a compliance-based, high-stakes accountability system to one driven by collective responsibility to support schools in helping all students succeed.CORE — Transforming Education:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/5/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

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YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/4/16

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