Tim Farley: The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations? — Medium

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations? — Medium:

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations?

The Wall Street Journal just published an article titled, “Clinton Abandons the Middle on Education.” The author, Mr. Peterson, is a senior editor at Education Next and he is a professor at Harvard University. Peterson makes the case that Hillary Clinton’s education policy plan is more in alignment with teacher union leaders as opposed to rank and file teachers and to Democrats themselves. He writes that “the party also promises that it will end the ‘test and punish version of accountability,’ and that the platform “includes a full paragraph of ideas” to regulate charter schools. Somehow, Mr. Peterson took the phrase, “recognize and honor all the professionals who work in public schools…” from the Democratic platform and parlayed that into: “suggesting that every teacher does a terrific job.” It’s odd, because I took the time to read the Democratic platform on education and nowhere does it state or imply “every teacher does a terrific job.”

Education Next conducted a survey of 700 teachers and 3,500 “other Americans,” with the results to be published next week. Using the results of this survey, Mr. Peterson seems intent on driving a wedge between “platform-committee Democrats” and “rank-and-file adherents,” citing that 80% of the R & F supported “all students be tested in math and reading each year.” Apparently Republicans had similar results in this survey. As an educational leader, I like surveys to help inform my decision-making to foster a better learning environment for my students. However, I do not like surveys that seem to have a political agenda. Just think if you were one of the survey participants (one of the 3,500 Americans). When asked if students should be tested in math and reading each year, would you answer no? Of course not. What if the survey question read as follows: “Do you think that ALL students (without regard for disability) should take high stakes tests in math and reading each year and any student who does not meet academic benchmarks will be retained for that academic year?” For some Florida third graders, this was a reality. Several students were going to be retained (not promoted to 4th grade) because their parents chose to “opt them out” of the state tests. Thanks to some parents who sued the school district, the school district administration changed their minds and are now allowing the third graders to move on to fourth grade.

The hit job from Mr. Peterson continues by stating that “57% of Democrats nationwide said they supported ‘basing part of the salaries of teachers on how much their students learn.’” One would think that the percentage seems a The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations? — Medium:

Op-Ed: Privatizing public school custodians and facility management - NJ Spotlight

Op-Ed: Privatizing public school custodians and facility management - NJ Spotlight:

OP-ED: PRIVATIZING PUBLIC SCHOOL CUSTODIANS AND FACILITY MANAGEMENT

NJ school districts would be wise to think twice about privatization, which often means substantial hidden costs and reduced performance

 “As hard as you work?” Teachers couldn’t believe that Yule Bush, a dedicated veteran custodian in the Camden Public Schools, was being handed a pink slip. Often the first to enter the building and the last to leave, he is beloved by the students and teachers of Sumner Elementary School, an aging school built during the Coolidge administration in 1926. His expertise, hard work, and knowledge of Sumner was recently acknowledged by a student in a tear-jerking note who “admired the good work I do, keeping the school clean and smelling good,” according to Bush.

Unfortunately, Bush is not alone. He and his hardworking colleagues in Camden and other cities are losing their jobs as more and more districts choose to privatize school custodial staff. School districts in New Jersey as diverse as Clifton, Woodstown, Lacey, and Paterson are privatizing school custodial-staff members at alarming rates. As members of the Healthy Schools Now coalition, we are concerned about the impact of school privatization on school facility quality, as well as the social costs of this troubling trend. The proper investment in custodial staff will ensure adherence to the following sound advice of colonial activist and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

With the average age of New Jersey’s public schools at more than 50 years old and with many schools dating back to the turn of the 20th century, we are concerned that custodian privatization will have negative ramifications for the quality of our school facilities. All too often, custodial privatization is a euphemism for the wholesale replacement of knowledgeable and dedicated veteran staff members like Bush with lesser-paid temporary workers who don’t understand the unique challenges of addressing the significant facility issues of New Jersey’s aging public schools.

According to noted education scholar Walter Farrell, privatization leads to lower quality services, accountability problems, and hidden costs; most importantly, the financial benefits remain unproven. According to the Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice, custodial privatization processes suffer from loopholes in contracts, misleading cost-benefit analyses, indirect costs, and unrealistic introductory rates.

Due to the inexperience of the privatized school custodial staff and its lack of appropriate staffing, President Clarice Berry of the Chicago Principals Association, testified before a Chicago City Council committee that she was “terrified” of what would happen when the snow began. According to the Chicago Tribune, parents claim that the unsanitary bathroom conditions, overflowing garbage cans and soiled napping cots are the result of inadequate custodial care following the Chicago Board of Education’s decision to award multimillion-dollar custodial management contracts to two firms, Aramark and SodexoMAGIC.

Procurement and finance records obtained by the WBEZ 91.5 FM radio station show that Aramark billed the district nearly $22 million over the amount budgeted for the first 11 months of its three-year contract.

The magnitude of the custodian’s significance increases tremendously in buildings Op-Ed: Privatizing public school custodians and facility management - NJ Spotlight:

DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig | deutsch29

DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig | deutsch29:

DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig

On July 29, 2016, Cal State Sacramento professor and NAACP education chair,Julian Heilig, posted that the NAACP drafted a new resolution in which it called for a moratorium on charter schools.

By way of a follow up, on August 08, 2016, I posted the NAACP’s charter school resolution history, which reflects the organization’s growing concerns with problems associated with federally-enabled charter school proliferation. The 2016 resolution is the most detailed regarding the NAACP’s concerns about charters, including charter contribution to increased segregation; focus on punitive discipline practices; violation of parent and student rights, and fiscal mismanagement exacerbated by public funding directed by privately-appointed charter boards.

The above are serious concerns, thus prompting the NAACP to encourage a moratorium on privately-managed charter schools even as it also encouraged both state and local legislation to “ensure that parents have access to charter school advisory boards” and “executive action to strengthen local governance and transparency of charter schools, and, in doing so… protect students and families from exploitative governance practices.”

In its resolution, the NAACP notes that it is not alone regarding its concerns about charter schools and the resulting call for a moratorium on charters (which happen to be a federal funding favorite beginning with No Child Left Behind, NCLB):

…The NAACP shares the concerns of the Journey for Justice Alliance, and alliance of 38 organizations of Black and Brown parents and students in 23 states, which has joined with 175 other national local grassroots community, youth, and civil rights organizations calling for a moratorium on the Federal Charter schools program, which has pumped over $3 billion into new charter schools, many of which have already closed or have failed the students drawn to them by the illusive promise of quality.

On August 03, 2016, the corporate-reform organization, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) president Shavar Jeffries released the following statement dismissing the NAACP et al.’s detailed concerns about charters and the resulting call for moratorium on associated federal dollars:

The public charter school moratorium put forward at this year’s NAACP convention does a disservice to communities of color, particularly the parents and caregivers who seek the best school options available to prepare their children for the demands of the 21^st century. This moratorium would contravene the NAACP’s historic legacy as a champion for expanding opportunity for families of color. In communities of color throughout our country, public charter schools are providing pathways to college and careers 

DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig | deutsch29:

Amid teacher shortage, Fresno Unified recruits educators from Starbucks to Mexico | Fresno Bee

Amid teacher shortage, Fresno Unified recruits educators from Starbucks to Mexico | Fresno Bee:

Amid teacher shortage, Fresno Unified recruits educators from Starbucks to Mexico

More than 300 new teachers will join the Fresno Unified School District this year, some who have been recruited while waiting tables or bagging groceries, others who have been recruited from as far as Mexico.

As of Aug. 8 – one week before Monday’s start of the school year – nearly 50 Fresno Unified classrooms were still without a teacher, in part due to California’s teacher shortage. Fresno Unified is now recruiting far and wide, tapping into programs that allow alternative teaching certifications and admittedly getting creative.

“We’ve recruited from the dog park, from The Cheesecake Factory and Starbucks. Wherever we go, we recruit constantly,” said Cyndy Quintana, human relations administrator for the district. “There is a teacher shortage, but Fresno Unified is alive and well and being creative. Everyday is an interview.”

Crossing borders

In the past year, Quintana has traveled up and down the state and flown to New York, Texas and New Mexico in search of teachers to bring to Fresno Unified – California’s fourth-largest school district. And she has good selling points: You can afford to live here on a teacher’s salary, unlike educators struggling to make ends meet in the Bay Area. Yosemite National Park is within a reasonable drive, she tells them. And a beach isn’t too far away, either.

Quintana has become a walking, talking billboard for the city of Fresno, and is willing to do what it takes to fill classrooms. This summer, she had three teachers from Mexico living in her home to help them get on their feet. She recently traveled to Mexico to recruit and came back with five new teachers – the first time the district has tapped that country for educators in 20 years.

The teachers were hired as part of a California Department of Education program that helps districts find qualified candidates from other countries and fronts the costs to sponsor them, while also assisting incoming teachers with their work visas and other paperwork.

Lucero Escareno, 28, is from Coahuila, Mexico, and taught there for six years. She starts at Sunset Elementary School this week, a bilingual school in Fresno, and sees her own learning experiences during her first trip to the United States as a connection with her future students.

“I think it’s going to be a real challenge. As you can see, I’m struggling right now with my English, so maybe those students are also struggling,” she said. “I’m here to help them andAmid teacher shortage, Fresno Unified recruits educators from Starbucks to Mexico | Fresno Bee:

CURMUDGUCATION: Resolve To Listen

CURMUDGUCATION: Resolve To Listen:

Resolve To Listen

For the next couple of weeks, as the beginning of my school year approaches. I'm going to write to renew my resolve to keep focus in my practice. This is one of that series of posts.

It is easy to stop listening.

Oh, it's easy to act like you're listening, to look like you're listening. People take management classes on how to fake listening (not that it's described in those terms), to pretend to listen ads a way to get "buy-in," to get people to imagine that they had something to do with what ultimately happened.

And it's easy to slip into the habit of just letting others' words wash over you as you wait for the chance to say what you want to say. It's really easy to do that in a classroom if you actually have a plan for what you intend to say today. You can actually become impatient with students who are still talking while you are anxious watching the clock and thinking about the Three Important Aspects of American Critical Realism that you planned to talk about before that bell rings in just seven minutes and forty-seven seconds and dammit, Pat, just stop talking so I can start talking!

And there's more to listening than just the pedagogical and instructional parts. There are the interruptions, the times between class, the moments that seem off the wall. They can seem random, annoying, disruptive, and yet they mostly are encrypted versions of messages that students are either unwilling or unable to deliver more directly. I can slap a student down and silence them CURMUDGUCATION: Resolve To Listen:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: 100 Black Parents Announces Event

Seattle Schools Community Forum: 100 Black Parents Announces Event:

100 Black Parents Announces Event

What's Next for Black Students at GHS? 

A Talk With Ted Howard.

Parents of African American students at Garfield High School will be meeting with Principal Ted Howard to present a proactive platform of goals and expectations for the 2016-17 school year. 

This platform will be a living, guiding document that will be a tool to enhance the Black Student Experience at Garfield.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18TH

6PM

MT. ZION BAPTIST CHURCH

1634 19th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122

SHARE THIS EMAIL TO OTHER GHS PARENTS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS

INVITE OTHER PARENTS ON FACEBOOK HERE:

https://www.facebook.com/events/543164659224000/

This meeting is specific to GARFIELD HS PARENTS, However, if you're a parent of an African American Student at another Seattle Public High School you are welcome to attend as the platform that we are asking for at Garfield will be something that we can replicate at other schools. 

PLEASE SHARE.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: 100 Black Parents Announces Event:

ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL'S 6 YEAR LITIGATION AND VICTORY GIVES INSIGHT INTO RAFE ESQUITH'S CASE AGAINST LAUSD - Perdaily.com

ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL'S 6 YEAR LITIGATION AND VICTORY GIVES INSIGHT INTO RAFE ESQUITH'S CASE AGAINST LAUSD - Perdaily.com:

ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL'S 6 YEAR LITIGATION AND VICTORY GIVES INSIGHT INTO RAFE ESQUITH'S CASE AGAINST LAUSD

California Teacher Credentialing's (CTC) six-year outrageous targeting, harassing, fabricating of "evidence," and firing of their Attorney Kathleen Carroll for having been a whistleblower against CTC nepotism and endemic corruption has all the same elements of targeted LAUSD teacher Rafe Esquith et al case under similar circumstance. The only question is whether the Mark Geragos firm under lead attorney Ben Meiselas has the wherewithal to hang in their for at least the 6 years it will take to vindicate their client against an LAUSD that is willing to spend whatever amount of the taxpayers' money necessary to assure that they will never be held accountable.

Although Esquith recently won the first round against LAUSD in their attempt to get his lawsuit thrown out of court on 7/13/16, the purposefully protracted and obscenely expensive nature of judicial proceedings- with strong sanctions for their non-fulfillment- are clearly designed to assure that justice not only will be delayed, but there is a strong possibility that it ultimately might just ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL'S 6 YEAR LITIGATION AND VICTORY GIVES INSIGHT INTO RAFE ESQUITH'S CASE AGAINST LAUSD - Perdaily.com:

Shavar Jeffries of DFER Cancels Debate with Julian Vasquez Heilig | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shavar Jeffries of DFER Cancels Debate with Julian Vasquez Heilig | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Shavar Jeffries of DFER Cancels Debate with Julian Vasquez Heilig

Julian Vasquez Heilig is a noted scholar of subjects such as democratic governance, social justice, inequity, and Teach for America. He has recently debated leading figures in the corporate reform movement, including Howard Fuller and Steve Perry. (Both debates will be posted here.)

He thought that Shavar Jeffries, the president of Democrats for Education Reform, agreed to debate him. But suddenly, Jeffries tweeted that he would not debate Heilig because Heilig is “not serious.”

Shavar Jeffries said that Heilig’s blog “Cloaking Inequity” could have been written by a sixth-grader.

You can follow their tweets:

@ProfessorJVH for Heilig

and

@shavarjeffries for Jeffries, who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Newark and now leads the hedge fund managers’ group DFER.

 Shavar Jeffries of DFER Cancels Debate with Julian Vasquez Heilig | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Why American Schools Are Even More Unequal Than We Thought - The New York Times

Why American Schools Are Even More Unequal Than We Thought - The New York Times:

Why American Schools Are Even More Unequal Than We Thought

Koren Shadmi

Education is deeply unequal in the United States, with students in poor districts performing at levels several grades below those of children in richer areas.

Yet the problem is actually much worse than these statistics show, because schools, districts and even the federal government have been using a crude yardstick for economic hardship.

A closer look reveals that the standard measure of economic disadvantage — whether a child is eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch in school — masks the magnitude of the learning gap between the richest and poorest children.

Nearly half of students nationwide are eligible for a subsidized meal in school. Children whose families earn less than 185 percent of the poverty threshold are eligible for a reduced-price lunch, while those below 130 percent get a free lunch. For a family of four, the cutoffs are $32,000 for a free lunch and $45,000 for a reduced-price one. By way of comparison, median household income in the United States was about $54,000 in 2014.

Eligibility for subsidized school meals is clearly a blunt indicator of economic status. But that is the measure that policy makers, educators and researchers rely on when they gauge gaps in academic achievement in schools, districts and states.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card, publishes student scores by eligibility for subsidized meals. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act, districts have reported scores separately for disadvantaged children, with eligibility for subsidized meals serving as the standard measure of disadvantage.

With Katherine Michelmore, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, I have analyzed data held by the Michigan Consortium for Educational Research and found that this measure substantially understates the achievement gap.

In Michigan, as in the rest of the country, about half of eighth graders in public schools receive a free or reduced-price lunch. But when we look more closely, we see that just 14 percent have been eligible for subsidized meals Why American Schools Are Even More Unequal Than We Thought - The New York Times:

Noam Chomsky: What the Left Should Do in the Presidential Election: LEV | Diane Ravitch's blog

Noam Chomsky: What the Left Should Do in the Presidential Election: LEV | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Noam Chomsky: What the Left Should Do in the Presidential Election: LEV

Noam Chomsky argues that you should vote strategically. If you are in a state where the outcome is a foregone conclusion, vote for a third-party candidate or don’t vote. However, if you are in a state where the race is close, he says, vote LEV: the Lesser of Two Evils.

He writes:

Among the elements of the weak form of democracy enshrined in the constitution, presidential elections continue to pose a dilemma for the left in that any form of participation or non participation appears to impose a significant cost on our capacity to develop a serious opposition to the corporate agenda served by establishment politicians. The position outlined below is that which many regard as the most effective response to this quadrennial Hobson’s choice, namely the so-called “lesser evil” voting strategy or LEV. Simply put, LEV involves, where you can, i.e. in safe states, voting for the losing third party candidate you prefer, or not voting at all. In competitive “swing” states, where you must, one votes for the “lesser evil” Democrat.

Before fielding objections, it will be useful to make certain background stipulations with respect to the points below. The first is to note that since changes in the relevant facts require changes in tactics, proposals having to do with our relationship to the “electoral extravaganza” should be regarded as provisional. This is most relevant with respect to point 3) which some will challenge by citing the claim that Clinton’s foreign policy could pose a more serious menace than that of Trump.

In any case, while conceding as an outside possibility that Trump’s foreign policy is preferable, most of us not already convinced that that is so will need more evidence than can be aired in a discussion involving this statement. Furthermore, insofar as this is the fact of the matter, following the logic through seems to require a vote for Trump, though it’s a bit hard to know whether those making this suggestion are intending it seriously.

Another point of disagreement is not factual but involves the ethical/moral principle addressed in 1), sometimes referred to as the “politics of moral witness.” Generally associated with the religious left, secular leftists implicitly invoke it when they reject LEV on the grounds that “a lesser of two evils is still evil.” Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder that this is exactly the point of lesser evil voting-i.e. to do less evil, what needs to be challenged is the assumption that voting should be seen a form of individual self-expression rather than as an act to be judged on its likely consequences, specifically those outlined in 4). The basic moral principle at stake is simple: not only must we take responsibility for our actions, but the consequences of our actions for others are a far more Noam Chomsky: What the Left Should Do in the Presidential Election: LEV | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Pence No Friend to Public Schools, Minorities | The Progressive

Pence No Friend to Public Schools, Minorities | The Progressive:

Pence No Friend to Public Schools, Minorities

The electorate in 2016 will be the most diverse in history. A Pew research report released earlier this year found that nearly one-in-three eligible voters on Election Day will be Hispanic, Black, Asian, or another racial or ethnic minority.

It’s no secret that Donald Trump is polling poorly among Latino, Asian American and African American voters. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News national poll found that 82 percent of registered Latino voters viewed the Republican presidential nominee unfavorably. The Wall Street Journal also reported that three quarters of Latinos plan to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the fall.

According to a survey of Asian American voters, only 19 percent of Asian Americans view Trump favorably. This problem is particularly acute with African American voters. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist poll, Donald Trump garnered zero percent support among African Americans in the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Kevin Chavous, a former Obama 2008 advisor, ex-Washington, D.C. council member and current board member of American Federation for Children, has suggested picking Indiana Gov. Mike Pence could help in his standing with black and Latino voters, because of the governor’s support for charter schools.

“Bringing minority-supported issues into [the Trump] campaign could pose a real threat to Hillary,” Chavous stated in a press release. “Selecting Governor Pence as VP will bring a major education reform advocate to Trump's administration. Pence is a major supporter of charter schools and has worked to expand them in Indiana.”

But a press release by the American Federation of Teachers took Pence to task for his support of education policies that sap dollars from public schools that primarily serve African American communities.


“Pence is an enemy of public education,” the statement said.

“His extreme obsession with vouchers and tax cuts for the rich [has] starved public schools in Indiana of funding, and helped to create a privatized system of winners and losers. Budgets signed by Pence shifted money away from racially and socio-Pence No Friend to Public Schools, Minorities | The Progressive:

 

Call To Action: Support NAACP | Real Learning CT

Call To Action: Support NAACP | Real Learning CT:

Call To Action: Support NAACP

As  I sat at the meeting of the education committee of the Connecticut General Assembly in early spring and heard the CEO of the charter school advocacy group, ConnCAN, say that Connecticut needed more seats in charter schools in order to save students from “being trapped in failing schools”, I had questions.

First of all,  if thousands of children are suffering, why is the concern with just helping a handful of them? Only 1.5% of Connecticut’s public school students are in charter schools. What about the other 98.5%?  Do we have a lifeboat mentality in which a few are rescued and the rest go down with what charter school advocates are happy to call a sinking ship? How is that fair?

Secondly, what happened to Sheff vs. O’Neill, the court  case which set clear goals for integrating schools in Connecticut? All of the charter school students accompanying the CEO of ConnCAN to the legislative hearing were children of color. Clearly, the enrollment of Connecticut’s charter schools mirrors the national figures as reported by the UCLA Civil Rights Project, which states: “Charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools 1n virtually every state and every metropolitan area in the nation.” The report points out that 70% of charter school students are in schools in which 90-100% of the students are students of color, which is double the number of students  segregated in that way in traditional public schools.

Thirdly, how do we know which schools are “failing” and which are not?  Nationally, about 50% of charter schools perform the same as their traditional public school counterparts although the charter school student population is more selective and has fewer special education students and fewer students with English as a second language. The other 50% of charter schools are about equally divided between some doing better than traditional public schools and others doing worse than traditional public schools. Clearly, being a charter school does not exempt a school from being a “failing school”. If charter schools offered an education  that is innovative and exciting, then surely the suburban parents would clamor for them to be in their communities.

Fourthly, how can a school build a good curriculum and sound pedagogy when the staff has a high rate of turnover? Charter schools have a 20-45% teacher turnover rate with young, uncertified teachers who have no teaching Call To Action: Support NAACP | Real Learning CT:

How are NYS Testing and the Film Groundhog Day Related? Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

How are NYS Testing and the Film Groundhog Day Related?

By:  Marla Kilfoyle

A week ago in New York State the New York State Education Department (NYSED) released the test scores for 2016.  Just a reminder, the opt-out rate in NYS last year was over 200,000 students.  It does not seem that this movement will be losing steam anytime soon.  NYSED, as well as some well-funded education “reform”  groups, conducted a full-court press this year to break the opt-out movement in NYS. 

It didn’t work!

Just a little history - Remember the Common Core was launched in 2009.  Mercedes Schneider does a good job of breaking down the fact that it was NOT created by teachers but by Gates-funded fellows and testing companies. https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/the-common-core-memorandum-of-understanding-what-a-story/  NY adopted the standards in 2010 and rolled them out with very little training.  In 2011, John King (the current USDOE Secretary) became Commissioner of Education in NYS.  In 2013, the first CC tests were given in NY.  Under  King, a failure narrative was manufactured for NYS in 2013 and over 70%  of the children failed the CC tests. 

NYS Parents educated themselves and learned of this manufactured crisis and the fact that their children were set up to fail.  55,000-65,000 chose to opt out in 2014.  

King and Tisch listening to NYS 

After that, one would think that NYSED would have gotten their act together?  Nope, it was full steam ahead, even as King and Merryl  Tisch (the former Chancellor of the Board of Regents, who set education policy in NYS) toured the state listening to parents, teachers, and children tell their Common Core disaster stories.

The 2014 tests were given in April.  Carol Burris and Bianca Tanis do an excellent job discussing the debacle that followed in 2014  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/08/17/a-painful-analysis-of-new-common-core-tests-and-the-n-y-results/

Burris and Tanis noted

Why would policymakers create tests that are designed to mark as failures two out of every three children?  For the second year in a row, that is the question that New York parents are asking. The 2014 New York State Common Core test scores were recently released, and there was minimal improvement in student performance. Proficiency or “passing” rates went up 0.1 in English Language Arts (ELA) and 4.6 percentage points in math, despite the rollout of the $28 million, taxpayer-funded curriculum modules, and greater familiarity with the tests. Proficiency rates continued to be horrendous for students who are English Language Learners—only 11 percent “passed” math, and 3 percent “passed” the English Language Arts tests. Results were equally dismal for special education students; whose “passing” rates were 9 percent in math and 5 percent in ELA.

From all the “Listening” forums that King and Tisch held during 2013 into 2014, in which theyBadass Teachers Association: 

Turtle Learning: WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? SAVE MONEY? -- GET CANCER (IF YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THAT IS)

Turtle Learning: WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? SAVE MONEY? -- GET CANCER (IF YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THAT IS):

 WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? SAVE MONEY? -- GET CANCER (IF YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THAT IS)

So I am not trying to scare anyone, but I am wanting to keep track of what has been happening to me, and especially this last chemo treatment.  I landed in the ER the week before my last planned chemo treatment on August 4th due to a severe attack of Acid Reflux.  And this time I did nothing extreme to cause it to happen.  The first time in the ER, after my fourth chemo, I thought it was because I ate some very chocolaty coffee infused ice cream.  But after talking with the nurse prior to August 4th I realize that this is just a side effect of the meds I had to take the night before and the morning of the chemo.  Steroids can cause very strange reactions, and acid reflux is one of them.  Others have told me that they didn't have it before chemo, and that it went away after. But because I already had it, the pain was excruciating.  My lovely chemo nurse Sunni said they would give me the steroids by IV this time.  Sure enough, that and eating very little has caused me no pain from acid reflux (GERD is probably the proper term).   At least so far - I am crossing my fingers that this will last as it is only day 9. 

The next time I have to have chemo (unfortunately the death rate for ovarian cancer is 70% and I have uterine as well) this lovely private room won't exist. Kaiser, as I explained in the previous two blogs, has been taken over by an MBA from USC so it Turtle Learning: WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? SAVE MONEY? -- GET CANCER (IF YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THAT IS):

USDOE-Documented Teacher Shortages by State, 1990-2016 | deutsch29

USDOE-Documented Teacher Shortages by State, 1990-2016 | deutsch29:

USDOE-Documented Teacher Shortages by State, 1990-2016

Each year, states are able to file reports with the US Department of Education (USDOE) regarding teacher shortage areas (TSAs) in each state/territory. Teachers in critical-need areas qualify for federal loan forgiveness and/or loan deferment.

The attached file also allows one to view state (and US territory)-identified (and federally verified) teacher shortages by state across 25 school years (1990-91 to 2015-16). Shortages are identified by subject area; some states/territories also identify shortages by school systems.

Teacher Shortage Areas 1990-2016 PDF

Let’s take a moment to focus on Utah since it has been in the news of late for a move supposedly to address its teacher shortage:

Beginning Monday, August 15, 2016, Utah districts will be able to hire college graduates who pass a subject area test and who have no prior teaching experience or training, purportedly to address Utah’s pressing teacher shortage.

The catch is that veteran teachers will have to mentor the novices for three years.

According to Utah’s report of its teacher shortage areas in the USDOE PDF above, the state’s move to nix any requirement of formal pedagogical training and classroom internship prior to employment does not appear solidly justified. On the contrary, the move appears on its face to promote teacher exit by placing an additional administrative burden on Utah’s veteran teaching force.

Here are Utah’s teacher shortage areas for 2015-16 as noted in the USDOE PDF:

• Foreign Language (Chinese and Dual Immersion)
• Mathematics (Level 4)
• Physics
• Special Education – Severe Disabilities
• Speech Language Pathology

Utah included no listing of critical need school systems.

An unanticipated byproduct of Utah’s new, 3-years-mentored teacher move could be USDOE-Documented Teacher Shortages by State, 1990-2016 | deutsch29:

Teach For America exported and going Global! – Cloaking Inequity

Teach For America exported and going Global! – Cloaking Inequity:

Teach For America exported and going Global!

 Did you know that Teach For America is being exported worldwide?

Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents, students, and other key stakeholders. Truth For America is co-hosted by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Dr. T. Jameson Brewer.

They are joined in Episode 12 by Dr. Rolf Straubhaar, a University of Georgia researcher and George Joseph, a journalist who contributes to a variety of publications. Their conversation focuses on Teach For All, the American export of the Teach For America model around the world. The discussion focuses on a recent article that George Joseph published in The Nation about Teach For All where he interviewed participating teachers in India. The podcast also discussed Rolf Straubhaar’s peer reviewed research that discusses the role of Teach For All in Latin America and his conversations with corps members in Brazil.

Truth For America is sponsored by the Network for Public Education Action.

You can check out new episodes hot off the press and much much more by following my YouTube channel. You can also listen and download the Truth For America program from iTunes while you are on the road here.

For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here.

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Copyright permission from REM for use of song “World Leader Pretend” in Truth For America podcast worldwide:http://www.dropbox.com/s/80jynkybgpz5r29…rmission.pdf?dl=0

Teach For America exported and going Global! – Cloaking Inequity: