Teacher Strike Wave: By the Numbers | Labor Notes

Teacher Strike Wave: By the Numbers | Labor Notes
Teacher Strike Wave: By the Numbers

Five percent of all U.S. workers in K-12 public education walked out on strike this spring. It’s by far the biggest spike in teacher strikes in a quarter-century.

The strike wave this spring was by far the biggest spike in teacher strikes in a quarter-century.

The strikers included educators from North Carolina (123,000), Arizona (81,000), Colorado (63,000), Oklahoma (45,000), West Virginia (35,000), Kentucky (26,000), and Jersey City (3,600).

These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks “work stoppages” (strikes and lockouts) involving 1,000 or more workers and lasting one or more shifts. The agency gathers its data from public news sources, such as newspapers and the Internet.

The data for January to June of this year show that 376,800 K-12 public educators participated in big strikes. We didn’t include a higher-education strike by 53,000 AFSCME members at the University of California. Continue reading: Teacher Strike Wave: By the Numbers | Labor Notes

The truth about money in public education politics

Opinion: The truth about money in public education politics

The truth about money in public education politics
Thurmond will fight back against the billionaires and their pro-charter school industry agenda

There is a little watched election that is projected to be the most expensive race in California this fall.  More money will be spent on the race for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction – the person who oversees over 10,000 public and charter schools – than in any congressional race, and perhaps even the race for governor.

Why will so much money be spent on this race?  The reason lies with a small group of billionaires who have no education experience but because of their outsized pocketbooks wield huge influence in education politics across the nation.  Billionaires like the Waltons (of Walmart fortune), Eli Broad, and President Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have made it their priority to fight for the charter school industry, school vouchers, and high-stakes testing.

The billionaires are supporting candidate Marshall Tuck, a former charter schools executive with a mixed record of success and reputation for fighting not fixing – because they know they can count on him to support the charter school industry.

His opponent is Democratic state legislator and public school parent Tony Thurmond.  Tony is a social worker by training who has spent 20 years working inside and outside of schools with some of the most high-need children in California.

Tony’s passion for education stems from his own life experience.

Like many California students, Tony Thurmond comes from humble beginnings.  Tony’s mother emigrated from Panama to San Jose to become a teacher.  His father was a Vietnam veteran who, suffering from PTSD, did not return to the family.  When Tony was 6, his mother lost her battle to cancer.  He and his brother were sent to live with a distant cousin.

Tony grew up on public assistance and college was never a sure thing – but he succeeded because he was able to attend a great public school where his teachers encouraged him to apply.  At Temple University in Philadelphia, Tony became student body president.

After graduation, Tony became a social worker to give back, serving foster youth, children with incarcerated parents, folks with disabilities, immigrants, first-generation college students, and families living in deep poverty.  He went on to lead nonprofits and run school-based mental health programs.  Tony has taught civics, life skills, and career training courses.

Tony Thurmond believes, as I do, that public education can save lives.  For me, it’s a belief that stems from 50 years working in education, first as a teacher and counselor in the Continue reading: Opinion: The truth about money in public education politics

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It didn't start with Trump: how America came to undervalue teachers | Education | The Guardian

It didn't start with Trump: how America came to undervalue teachers | Education | The Guardian

It didn't start with Trump: how America came to undervalue teachers

The 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, spoke of a school system in ‘the grip of a crisis’ – kicking off cycles of shortcomings for American schools

• ‘My classroom has asbestos and bats’” a message from Betsy DeVos

t 4.20pm on 26 April 1983, in the state dining room at the White House, then president Ronald Reagan accepted a report from a panel of the country’s leading educators, offered a couple of lighthearted quips and spoke of a school system in “the grip of a crisis”. It was the Sputnik moment of American education, a visceral warning about a global superpower falling behind its rivals.

The report, A Nation at Risk, sounded the alarm about the quality of American schools and the potential for looming disaster. “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a people,” it said.

The expression of angst, amplified by the media and Reagan in public hearings around the US, is described by Dana Goldstein’s book, The Teacher Wars, as one of the most influential federal documents ever published. It had some positive outcomes, such as securing the future of the education department despite Reagan’s 1980 campaign promise to abolish it. But in creating a narrative of failure, it arguably led to a generational cycle of blaming and underpaying teachers that puts the current shortcomings of the Trump administration into perspective.

Jonathan Kozol, a veteran activist who started his teaching career in 1964 and is the author of several major books about public education, says: “In many states, teachers often have to work two jobs to lead an even marginal middle class existence, working for Uber on weekends or at night and dipping into their own salaries to buy basic school supplies. Now, Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump have certainly made the lot of kids and teachers even worse. But Trump has simply put a sinister and ugly face on contemptible conditions that existed long before he came to office. I’d like to blame him for the evils of the world, but this has been a pattern from long before.”

Recalling the Reagan-era report, Kozol continues: “A Nation at Risk alleged that our schools were flooded with ‘a tide of mediocrity’ and the culprits Continue reading: It didn't start with Trump: how America came to undervalue teachers | Education | The Guardian

How is today's political culture affecting the way women are treated at home and school? #MeTooK12 #MeToo #TimesUp #Kavanaugh #KavanaughVote

Session with Joel Levin - Quora

How is today's political culture affecting the way women are treated at home and school?

#MeTooK12 @ssaisorg stopsexualassaultinschools.org

A place to share knowledge and better understand the world.

How is today's political culture affecting the way women are treated at home and school?

Joel Levin, Co-founder/Program Director, Stop Sexual Assault in Schools

Answered Oct 5, 2018

Mindful that broad generalizations mask regional and local variations in social values, I’d like to focus on how shifting cultural norms and gender role expectations are reflected in the culture of K-12 schools, and their effects on female students.

For generations, women have grown up in a society that prizes female appearance above other human qualities. Films such as Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In document how media and popular culture subtly reinforce gender stereotypes that value feminine beauty and masculine dominance. In the Stop Sexual Assault in Schools video Sexual Ha...

(more)

What can students and families do to help ensure that their schools are safe places to learn?

Joel Levin, PhD Education, University of Washington (1996)

Answered Oct 5, 2018

Remarkably, most families don’t realize that sexual harassment and sexual assault in elementary and secondary schools occurs with alarming frequency. These are not just another family’s problem. They’re a community issue that extends far beyond the primary victim.

Research shows that most teenage students have been affected by peer sexual harassment but rarely seek help. Because schools frequently discount or dismiss reports of sexual harassment or assault, students are discouraged from reporting; many of these victims themselves become perpetrators of sexual harassment. By failing to proper...

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What needs to change on a cultural level to reduce the level of sexual violence against females?

Joel Levin, Co-founder/Program Director, Stop Sexual Assault in Schools

Answered Oct 5, 2018

This question would be better answered by experts in sociology, public health, women’s studies, and social work.

In general, children, young adults, and those guiding their development must understand how sexual objectification leads to sexual violence. To create culture change, we must provide age appropriate education, beginning with preschool aged students. Here’s an example of education Stop Sexual Assault in Schools created to introduce the teens to the origin of sexual violence featuring professor and internationally respected activist Dr. Caroline Heldman. The more we can engage exemp...

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What can K-12 schools do to create a culture of respect?

Joel Levin, PhD Education, University of Washington (1996)

Answered Oct 5, 2018

Culture of Respect, an organization led by Allison Tombros Korman and Sarice Greenstein, has done outstanding work in designing a blueprint for creating a Continue reading: Session with Joel Levin - Quora

Continue reading: Session with Joel Levin - Quora

Sexual Harassment: Not In Our School #MeTooK12 #MeToo #TimesUp

#METOOK12 IS GIVING A MUCH-NEEDED VOICE TO YOUNG VICTIMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT

What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School? | janresseger

What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School? | janresseger

What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School?

Two new reports—from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and from Attendance Works—explore chronic student absenteeism and its consequences for student achievement and graduation.  Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states must begin reporting data about students’ chronic absence in their accountability reports.  Attendance Works even posts an online interactive map from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution where a person can find chronic absence data about one’s own school district.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as students missing not just days but also weeks of school.  Attendance Works defines chronic absenteeism as, “missing 10 percent of school—the equivalent of two days every month or 18 days over a 180-day school year.”  While all school districts record students’ absences from school, until recent years most have not tracked each individual student’s accrued absences over the semester or the school year. Now school districts are required to watch and intervene when individual students’ attendance patterns become worrisome.

What is clear is that, while there are a number of ways researchers measure students’ chronic absence from school, the problem is serious:  When students miss too much school, they learn less, they fall behind, and they are more likely to drop out without graduating.  And students who are poor are more likely to miss school.

Writing for Attendance Works, Hedy Chang, Lauren Bauer, and Vaughan Byrnes explain: “Especially hard hit are children who live in poverty, have chronic health conditions or disabilities, or experience homelessness or frequent moves.  When chronic absence reaches high levels in a school or classroom, it can affect every student’s opportunity to learn, because the resulting churn—with students cycling in and out of the classroom—is disruptive for all Continue reading: What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School? | janresseger

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Why do so many rapes go unreported? The backlash of white male power.

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Why do so many rapes go unreported? The backlash of white male power.

Why do so many rapes go unreported? The backlash of white male power.

Standing on the White House lawn, President Trump was talking about the Kavanaugh confirmation fight when he said, quote, "it's a very scary time for young men in America." 

On my way to my Urban School Policy class at Loyola yesterday, I picked up a copy of the campus newspaper and was shaken by the headline. EIGHT RAPES IN DORMS LAST YEAR.

Sixteen of the 18 students in my class are women. Several live in the dorms. Most were surprised that I was shocked by the story. There were probably more than eight, they told me. Many go unreported. Then there are the daily cases of abuse which aren't counted as rape.

I'm not naive, but still visibly shaken as I move ahead with my teaching. I'm processing all this as the Senate prepares to approve Trump's lifetime appointment of  accused sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh to to the highest court in the land.

The appointment, I assume is a done deal and has been from the beginning. The hearings and this week's FBI investigation have been a sham, an possibly even a worse case of abuse than Continue reading: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Why do so many rapes go unreported? The backlash of white male power.

(Special) Education in Puerto Rico: “Here, All of the Parents are Desperate.” | deutsch29

(Special) Education in Puerto Rico: “Here, All of the Parents are Desperate.” | deutsch29

(Special) Education in Puerto Rico: “Here, All of the Parents are Desperate.”

In an age in which news is “new” for only a moment, it is easy for the unaffected to quickly move past profound issues that deserve attention on behalf of the neediest individuals in our nation– not just in the contiguous US– not just in US states– but also in US territories.

In September-October 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, a US territory that continues to suffer not only the effects of the storm, but also a terrible aftermath in which rescue and rebuilding are proving to be an American embarrassment.

As for education in Puerto Rico, prior to Maria, the island was being subjected to school closure, ostensibly related to the territory’s fiscal problems. Following Maria, school closure in Puerto Rico is a storm in its own right, one that feeds on itself as the population of the island has dropped.

In this post, I offer excerpts from three articles about the state of education in Puerto Rico, particularly the state of special education. I invite readers to follow the links and read the articles in their entirety. We must not forget Puerto Rico.

The first comes from the October 02, 2018, Learning English VOA News and is entitled, “Puerto Rico Students Still Suffer Effects of Hurricane Maria”:

One year has passed since Hurricane Maria struck the United States territory of Puerto Rico.

But even before the storm hit, education officials had begun closing schools on Puerto Rico to save money.

Last year, the territory’s government sought legal protection from creditors because it owed billions of dollars in debts that could not be paid.

In the weeks and months after Hurricane Maria, the number of students on the island dropped as conditions worsened. Thousands of Puerto Rican families fled to the U.S. mainland. Many students ended up attending schools in Florida or other states along the East Coast.

At the time, education officials reported that about half of Puerto Rico’s schools had lower than normal student attendance rates. Only about 60 percent of classroom seats were filled. The government ended up closing nearly 300 schools. Education officials said the move was necessary to meet budget targets.

But the closures created problems for Puerto Rican students and their parents when the new school year started a few weeks ago. With many schools closed, some students had to travel outside their neighborhood to attend school. Their parents often were required to find transportation to and from the school. …

The effects of school closure in Puerto Rico segues into this September 28, 2018, Continue reading: (Special) Education in Puerto Rico: “Here, All of the Parents are Desperate.” | deutsch29