Unacceptable: Nineteen States Still Allow Corporal Punishment | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Unacceptable: Nineteen States Still Allow Corporal Punishment | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Unacceptable: Nineteen States Still Allow Corporal Punishment

The advancement of school discipline reform has been a bright spot among what often feels like a sea of bad news in education. Coalitions like the Dignity in Schools Campaign and national groups like the Advancement Project and NAACP have long highlighted the unjust, inequitable and ineffective school discipline policies that far too many children attend school under. Studies consistently show the school-to-prison pipeline is built on a bedrock of white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative and ableist biases. Fortunately, innovative cross-sector organizing uniting young people, parents and educators have been able to push positive reform policies in states and districts across the country — first by curbing harmful punishments like suspensions and expulsions, and then by introducing positive policies to replace them, like restorative practices and accountability processes that center healing instead of punishment.

However, a new report shows just how uneven these reforms have been implemented, and how desperately far many states and districts need to go.

The Striking Outlier, co-authored by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies, details how nineteen states still have corporal punishment as an acceptable disciplinary practice in their public schools. For those nineteen states,

educators in public schools are allowed to do what employees in many prisons, juvenile detention facilities, daycare and early learning centers can’t do by law — strike another person as punishment.

Nor is this unconscionable practice a dead letter, a mere relic from a older time and no longer practiced. So many students are CONTINUE READING: Unacceptable: Nineteen States Still Allow Corporal Punishment | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Educational Accountability and the Science of Scapegoating the Powerless | radical eyes for equity

Educational Accountability and the Science of Scapegoating the Powerless | radical eyes for equity

Educational Accountability and the Science of Scapegoating the Powerless

Several years ago when I submitted an Op-Ed to the largest newspaper in my home state of South Carolina, the editor rejected the historical timeline I was using for state standards and testing, specifically arguing that accountability had begun in the late 1990s and not in the early 1980s as I noted.

Here’s the interesting part.

I began teaching in South Carolina in the fall of 1984, the first year of major education reform under then-governor Richard Riley. That reform included a significant teacher pay raise, extended days of working for teachers, and the standards-testing regime that would become normal for all public education across the U.S.

In fact, SC’s accountability legislation dates back to the late 1970s (I sent her links to all this).

As a beginning teacher, the only public schooling I ever knew was teaching to standards and high-stakes tests by identifying standards on my lesson plans and implementing benchmark assessments throughout the academic year to document I was teaching what was mandated as a bulwark against low student tests scores. State testing, including punitive exit exams, pervaded everything about being an English teacher.

Yet, an editor, herself a career journalist, was quick to assume my expertise as a classroom practitioner and then college professor of education was mistaken.

This is a snapshot of how mainstream media interact with education as a topic and educators as professionals.

I am reminded of that experience over and over in fact as I read media coverage of education. Take for example this from Education Week, Want Teachers to Motivate Their Students? Teach Them How, which has the CONTINUE READING: Educational Accountability and the Science of Scapegoating the Powerless | radical eyes for equity

Here Comes the Goose Stepper - Teacher Habits

Here Comes the Goose Stepper - Teacher Habits

Here Comes the Goose Stepper

Last week, I came across this phenomenal video on my Twitter:

First, I thought, “That’s rather funny and clever.”

Then I thought, “Man, what a bunch of goose stepping morons.”

Then, I started thinking about teaching because that’s what I do. And what I thought – forgive me – is that we’ve got some goose stepping teachers walking around and they should probably knock it off.

We watch a video like the above and shake our heads. We chuckle a little over how goofy the soldiers look, even without the Bee Gees. Because the goose step is strongly associated with the Nazis, North Korea, and other dictatorial regimes, we see it as backwards, a symbol of blind obedience. George Orwell captured most westerners’ opinion of the goose step when he wrote that it was only used in countries where the population was too scared to laugh at its military.

But here’s the thing about those goose stepping soldiers: Some of them, maybe even most of them, are thinking about how much they’re killing the thing. Pick a soldier out of the above video clip and this is probably pretty close to what’s going through his or her head:

Look at me, crushing this march. Nobody goose steps like I do. Watch me swing my legs. Perfectly straight! Not like Chan-woo over there. Man, I feel good! I’m goosing the hell out of this step!

Which goes to show you that people have an amazing capacity to feel CONTINUE READING: Here Comes the Goose Stepper - Teacher Habits

LAUSD's Plan To Avoid Financial Meltdown For The Next Three Years: LAist

LAUSD's Plan To Avoid Financial Meltdown For The Next Three Years: LAist

LAUSD's Plan To Avoid Financial Meltdown For The Next Three Years

Los Angeles Unified School Board members will meet Tuesday to take public comments on their proposed $9.2 billion budget for the upcoming school year. One week later, board members expect to take a final vote on the spending plan.

Even if the budget is balanced for now, officials warn that LAUSD's long-term financial health is becoming more precarious. This warning has become almost an annual routine in LAUSD, and in recent years, some skeptics have stopped taking them seriously.

But something feels different about this year's budget — if only because of the circumstances in which board members are considering it.

In the past year, Angelenos rallied behind the district's teachers, who went on strike in Januaryto demand higher salaries, smaller class sizes and more support staff for schools. LAUSD officials agreed to pay for all these things, though they warned the gains would only be temporary unless everyone involved could find a way to pay for them.

Just last week, Plan A to fund the agreement long-term — a ballot measure to raise taxes for LAUSD — failed in a special election by a wide margin.

Superintendent Austin Beutner said the budget he's submitting to the LAUSD board Tuesday will avoid a deficit over its three-year course — even if a Plan B for generating that revenue doesn't come together during that period.

LAUSD FORECASTS STAY (JUST) OUT OF THE RED (p. 23)

"Ending balance" refers to the unassigned balances, but doesn't include "assigned balances" — funds received in previous years that it has committed to spend in future years.

View the entire document with DocumentCloud

But Beutner said district officials will need to burn through almost all of the $837 million LAUSD currently has in the bank — or, technically, stockpiled "unassigned" funds — to avoid straying into the red toward the end of the three-year budget period.

"The first two years are pretty solid," Beutner said. "They have been before the strike, during the strike and after the strike. The third year is still quite tenuous."

Beutner, like other LAUSD leaders before him, has issued similar warnings in the past. In fact,  CONTINUE READING: LAUSD's Plan To Avoid Financial Meltdown For The Next Three Years: LAist

Budget deal takes shape, details to come in trailer bills :: K-12 Daily

Budget deal takes shape, details to come in trailer bills :: K-12 Daily :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Budget deal takes shape, details to come in trailer bills

(Calif.) State policymakers appear poised to complete the budget prior to California’s June 15 deadline, but a number of trailer bills will determine policies related to funding for early learning, teacher recruitment and credentialing, and special education.

The Legislature’s Conference Committee on the Budget reached agreement on new investments this last weekend, including a push to increase the number of pre-school slots for income-eligible four-year-olds–one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s key priorities.

Thus far, the governor as well as education leaders have hailed the budget report for adding historic funding for schools, students and teachers throughout the state.

 “This is a strong budget for public schools and an important step on the road toward providing California’s 6.2 million students with the resources needed for a high-quality education,” Emma Turner, president of the California School Boards Association, said in a statement. “Much work remains.”

Some of that spending, however, will hinge on yet-to-be-released trailer bills. While Saturday marks the constitutional budget deadline for lawmakers to approve next year’s spending plan, trailer bills can be voted on later this month, and require only a simple majority to pass.

Under the current iteration of the budget bill, for instance, lawmakers carved out close to $153 million to bring all Local Educational Agencies to the statewide base rate, as well as more than $493 million to provide grants to LEAs serving 3 and 4 year olds with Individualized Education Plans. The committee also noted trailer bill language would need to require ongoing funding to be contingent upon the passage of legislation in the next budget to reform the special education system to improve outcomes for students.

Committee members approved $195 million in one-time spending on the Child Care Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grant, while also adopting placeholder trailer bill language to “expand trainings and support activities to a broad range of providers.”

In an effort to improve teacher recruitment and preparation efforts for older children, lawmakers CONTINUE READING: Budget deal takes shape, details to come in trailer bills :: K-12 Daily :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Sac City Unified Poised To Have New Budget, But Health Benefits And Labor Issues Remain - capradio.org

Sac City Unified Poised To Have New Budget, But Health Benefits And Labor Issues Remain - capradio.org

Sac City Unified Poised To Have New Budget, But Health Benefits And Labor Issues Remain

On Thursday, the Sacramento City Unified School District board is scheduled to approve a new budget for the next school year, but none of the parties involved are celebrating.

The district's budget proposal is $547.5 million for the coming year, but everyone is focused on the budget forecast for two years from now. If the district does not have enough money to pay its bills in future years, it faces state takeover.

SCUSD says the forecast shows it will be in the red in two years.

"We're currently looking at a $26 million structural budget deficit. That's the amount that we need to cut over the next couple of years,” said Alex Barrios, district spokesman.

But the Sacramento City Teachers Association says the district numbers can’t be trusted since the district has made several errors in its calculations.

"They were projecting a negative ending funding balance of over $54 million two years out. Now, six months later in June, they're projecting a positive ending balance two years out of almost $15 million," said David Fisher, head of the union.

Fisher says the district has another $8 million in a health care benefits fund, but the district and the Sacramento County Office of Education say touching that money is a bad idea. The county has fiscal oversight over SCUSD and says it already has $760 million in unfunded health care benefits.

The district is required by law to approve a budget and submit it to the Sacramento County CONTINUE READING: Sac City Unified Poised To Have New Budget, But Health Benefits And Labor Issues Remain - capradio.org

Teacher Tom: Making A Natural Teacher

Teacher Tom: Making A Natural Teacher

Making A Natural Teacher

People have called me a "natural teacher." I like the sound of it. I even sense the truth of the statement, at least insofar as I can't imagine doing anything else with my days. I hold a degree in journalism, not education. In fact, I've only taken a handful of ed classes. Instead, I've spent thousands of hours working with children of all ages, stretching back to my days as a baseball coach during my teen and early adult years. And yes, it feels natural. It always has.

I had reason recently to reflect on my first day as "head coach" of a team of first and second graders. I was 16-years-old. I'd already, the summer before, served as an assistant coach to a team of preschoolers (which hadn't been baseball so much as a big daily play date with a baseball theme), but this was the first time I was on my own with a team. I was nervous, of course, but only before I'd opened my mouth for the first time. I sent them to run some laps, then we re-convened for some warm up exercises before launching into baseball skills. It was my first 9-5 job, one during which I coached teams of kids from 5-14, boys and girls, and it was glorious. I did it for 4 summers all told: outdoors, all day, playing baseball with kids. It was my first job and, I'm afraid, it ruined me for every "real" job I tried until I landed on my current one.

In a way it saddens me to realize that I wasted the next couple decades figuring out that this is where I belong, playing with children, thinking with children, learning with children. It's not everyone who falls into their perfect niche right from the start, but I was too young and inexperienced, and growing up in a time when early childhood (heck, teaching in general) wasn't considered a "proper" option for a young man. I just couldn't see it. I thought that the sense of joy came from playing baseball all day long, not the kids.

I do, of course, look back over the path I've taken and, to steal a line from the Grateful Dead, "I see now how CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Making A Natural Teacher

Justice Department sides with Maine families suing for right to use public funds for religious school - The Washington Post

Justice Department sides with Maine families suing for right to use public funds for religious school - The Washington Post

Justice Department sides with Maine families suing for right to use public funds for religious school

The Justice Department is throwing its support to three families suing Maine’s education commissioner, alleging he discriminated against them by not allowing public funds to be used for their children’s tuition at religious schools.

It was the Trump administration’s latest move in an effort to overturn state laws that prevent public money from being used for religious schooling, a stated goal of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Most states have similar laws, which are increasingly coming under legal attack in part because of President Trump’s 2017 executive order promoting “Free Speech and Religious Liberty.”

The case in Maine is Carson v. Makin, which was filed last year and takes aim at a 1981 state law restricting the use of public funds. That law was challenged more than a decade ago and was ruled constitutional by a federal court. But the Supreme Court has made recent moves suggesting it might strike down constitutional restraints on the use of public money for religious schools when such a case comes before it.

In Maine, some districts do not have a public high school for residents to attend. The state’s Town Tuitioning Program allows public money to be spent so those children can attend neighboring public or private secular schools.

The three families sued Maine Education Commissioner Robert Hasson, saying they had been discriminated against because of their exclusion from the program and that their constitutional rights invoked in the First and 14th Amendments — including rights to free speech and due process — had been violated.

The Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in the case this week, supporting the families. The department has previously submitted amicus briefs in lawsuits aiming to overturn these laws, known as Blaine Amendments.

Last month, it filed a statement of interest in support of parents and religious high school students who sued the state of Vermont. They claimed that the state had violated their constitutional right to free exercise of  CONTINUE READING: Justice Department sides with Maine families suing for right to use public funds for religious school - The Washington Post

Ohio Senate Releases Detailed State School District Takeover Plan | janresseger

Ohio Senate Releases Detailed State School District Takeover Plan | janresseger

Ohio Senate Releases Detailed State School District Takeover Plan

You will remember that on May 1, 2019, the Ohio House passed HB 154 to repeal Ohio state school takeovers, which have been catastrophic failures in Lorain and Youngstown under HB 70—the law that set up the state seizure of so-called failing school districts. HB70 was fast tracked through the Legislature in 2015 without hearings. Youngstown and Lorain have been operating under state appointed CEOs for four years now; East Cleveland has been undergoing state takeover this year.

Not only did the Ohio House pass HB 154 six weeks ago to undo HB 70, but its members did so in spectacular fashion, by a margin of 83/12.  The House was so intent on ridding the state of top-down state takeovers that its members also included the repeal of HB 70 in the House version of the state budget—HB 166.

Yesterday afternoon, the Ohio Senate released an amended, substitute HB166—the Senate’s proposal for the state budget.  In the Senate version, there is a detailed 54 page School Transformation Proposal to replace the House’s simple action to undo HB 70.  (The Senate’s School Transformation Proposal begins on p. 14 in the linked section of the Senate Budget.)

The three districts Ohio has already seized with HB 70—and 10 others slated to be taken over in the next two years—are all school districts that serve Ohio’s very poorest children. Last evening, as I plodded through the statutory language in the Senate Budget Proposal, I found myself wondering if the people envisioning this laborious, top-down, state takeover plan—a plan that pretends not to be a state takeover—have spent time trying to transform a complex institution like a school in the kind of community where many children arrive in Kindergarten far behind their peers in more affluent communities.  And I wondered why the Senate’s plan relies on so many of the failed “turnaround” strategies of No Child Left Behind—the federal law that imposed imposed a rigid plan for raising test scores and that left an CONTINUE READING: Ohio Senate Releases Detailed State School District Takeover Plan | janresseger

With A Brooklyn Accent: Mike Hutchinson's 2015 Article on the Billionaire Takeover of Oakland Schools

With A Brooklyn Accent: Mike Hutchinson's 2015 Article on the Billionaire Takeover of Oakland Schools

Mike Hutchinson's 2015 Article on the Billionaire Takeover of Oakland Schools

The Re-takeover

How 4 billionaires have taken control of education policy in Oakland

- Mike Hutchinson -

    Public education is under attack both nationally and here in Oakland.  There has been a well orchestrated and highly financed takeover of our schools in order to privatize them through policies proponents refer to as education reform.  The most known aspect of education reform is charter schools, but these reforms also include Common Core, high stakes testing, outsourcing, virtual schools, school closures, over reliance on technology, teacher evaluations tied to students test scores, and takeovers of parts or even entire school districts. Oakland now has over 40 charter schools and the highest rate of charter schools in the state of California.  Most of the charter schools are run by private companies based outside of Oakland and were started by application, not by parents, educators, or the community.  Charter schools are not required to take all students, are non-union, have not out performed public schools, receive public facilities for little or no cost, receive tax payer support, do not pay on Oakland’s debt to the state, are not subject to public oversight, are exempt from parts of the ed code, and in Oakland, have almost entirely been started in low income communities of color.  Oakland has had charter schools that have lost accreditation, abused students, and stolen money.  Even if Oakland’s School Board rejects a charter school application, the county or the state can overturn Oakland’s decision and grant the charter.  These education reformers have largely been successful in rewriting policy due to an unlikely alliance between conservative Republicans (ALEC, Koch brothers, Jeb Bush) who oppose public education and teachers’ CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: Mike Hutchinson's 2015 Article on the Billionaire Takeover of Oakland Schools

CURMUDGUCATION: FCC To Throttle School Internet

CURMUDGUCATION: FCC To Throttle School Internet

FCC To Throttle School Internet

It looks like a bunch of kerfluffling about more of those oddly-named, obscure gummint programs, but the news from the FCC is ominous for schools.

According to edscoop, the FCC has filed a notice of proposed rulemaking intending to cap the FCC's Universal Service Fund. That fund subsidizes broadband infrastructure and access for schools, libraries, and rural communities. It includes the E-Rate program, which helps get wireless internet into schools.

Yeah, that looks speedy.

E-Rate is not without its controversial features. Not everyone likes the funding mechanism, and in the tradition of the finest government programs, it somehow stands accused of coming wrapped in too much red tape AND lacking sufficient oversight and accountability. People smell free federal money, and so we have examples of schools that grab E-Rate money and use it improperly, as well as internet service providers who overcharge the schools they're serving. And that's before we get to the problems that arise with attempting to implement the filtering requirements.

So E-Rate would undoubtedly benefit from an overhaul. But that's not what the FCC is proposing. What they are proposing is a ceiling on USF growth. It wouldn't hit tomorrow-- the suggested cap is $11.42 billion and the 2018 spending for the fund was $8.2 billion. So this is not an immediate assault so much as a ticking delayed choke.

There's another problematic feature of the proposal. There has already been some capping of the CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FCC To Throttle School Internet

NYC Public School Parents: NYC Parents, kids, advocates, union members and elected officials rally for smaller classes

NYC Public School Parents: NYC Parents, kids, advocates, union members and elected officials rally for smaller classes

NYC Parents, kids, advocates, union members and elected officials rally for smaller classes

For Immediate release: June 11, 2019Contact: Leonie Haimson, leoniehaimson@gmail.com; 917-435-9329

On Tuesday June 11 at noon, more than one hundred parents, students, advocates, elected officials and union members gathered on the steps of City Hall to urge the NYC Department of Education and the Mayor to allocate specific funding in next year's budget towards reducing class size.

The rally was co-sponsored by Class Size Matters, NYC Kids PAC, the UFT, Local 372, the Education Council Consortium, and others.  Among the elected officials who spoke eloquently about the need for the Mayor and Chancellor to reduce class size were Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council Education Chair Mark Treyger, Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, and Council Members Adrienne Adams, Inez Barron, Barry Grodenchik, and Brad Lander.  

Even though the state’s highest court concluded in 2003 that NYC public school classes were too large to provide students with their constitutional right to a sound basic education, class sizes have actually increased since then, especially in the early grades, where the research is strongest that smaller classes leads to higher achievement and better student outcomes all the way through college and beyond.

Among the other speakers on behalf of the need to fund for smaller classes were Kenneth Cohe,n Regional Director of the NAACP, Maria Bautista of AQE, Benny Lin of the Parent-Child Relationship Association, Eduardo Hernandez of NYC Kids PAC, Shino Tanikawa, co-chair of the Education Council Consortium, Anthony Harmon of the UFT, Donald Nesbit of Local 372 of DC 37,  and Lina Rosario, a 6th grade student in Sunset Park, Kathy Park of Citizen Squirrel and many others.

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, said: “The mayor and the chancellor talk a lot about bringing equity and excellence to NYC schools and some the moves they are making may bring us closer to that goal. But there’s a huge gaping hole in their agenda and that is class size.  Without lowering class sizes there can be neither true equity or excellence in our schools. This fall, more than 330,000 NYC students were crammed into classes of 30 or more.   NYC class sizes are 10-30% larger on average than in the rest of the state.  Classes this large are neither equitable nor excellent, especially as studies show that students of color gain twice the benefit when class sizes are reduced.”

 “Funding for class-size reduction has to become a priority for New York City. Parents and teachers know it has a huge impact on student learning, especially for our most vulnerable populations,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

"Class size reduction is one support that the New York City Department of Education has never fully implemented for students in NYC public schools," said NYC Council Finance Chair Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights, Elmhurst).  "It only makes sense that when there are fewer students in a class, a teacher can individualize their instruction and give students extra support.  More than anything else, this is what our students need.  If we truly want to see our students succeed, we must reduce our class sizes."

“It’s common sense that smaller class sizes help set New York City students up for success,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “Funding must be allocated for this important cause—the time to stand up for our students is now.” CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: NYC Parents, kids, advocates, union members and elected officials rally for smaller classes

Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools on the State and City’s Floundering Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools on the State and City’s Floundering Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools on the State and City’s Floundering Charters

Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools June 5, 2019For immediate release: Statement of APPS Re CREDO study

The CREDO study released today presents more evidence that the charter experiment foisted upon the state’s children has been a resounding failure, especially considering the enormous amount of taxpayer dollars that have been spent on charter schools.  

For many reasons, comparing charters to district schools is not an apples-to-apples exercise. Charter schools receive outside funding from private donors, including significant amounts every year from the Philadelphia School Partnership.  PSP identifies as a non-profit funder of schools, but they have been strong financial and political advocates for privatization and charter expansion. The bulk of their corporate funding goes to non-district schools. 

Charter schools have been cited over the years for unfair practices such as presenting barriers to enrollment, failure to inform students and parents of their due process rights when facing disciplinary action, and expelling students for trivial offenses including being out of uniform and lateness.  Thus, many charters are able to exclude students with special needs, both behavioral and academic.  

Studies done by both Philadelphia City Controller’s Office and the State Attorney General’s Office have documented fraud and questionable spending in some of the city’s largest charter organizations.   Organizations including PCCY and the Education 

Law Center have conducted in-depth studies that show charters do not outperform district schools in most categories. ELC’s recent report shows: 1) the population of economically disadvantaged students is much lower in Philadelphia’s charter schools—70% in the District, 56% in charters; 2) the percentage of English learners is nearly three times higher—11% in District, 4% in charters; 3) few of the special education students in the traditional charters are from the low-incidence disability categories, such as autism and intellectual disability, that are most expensive to serve.

The diversion of public funds to privately managed charters has made it more difficult for public schools to fund essential programs, but public schools still manage to outperform charters in most categories.  Lack of CONTINUE READING: Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools on the State and City’s Floundering Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog