NANCY BAILEY: Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians

Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians

Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians

My last post listed reasons why many children don’t learn to read. Poverty was behind many of the items.

Poor students attend poor schools where they miss out on the arts, a whole curriculum, even qualified, well prepared teachers. Students might end up in “no excuses” charter schools with only digital learning.

But, next to hunger and healthcare, one of the worst losses for children in poor schools is the loss of a school library with a real librarian.

Stephen Krashen, a well-known reading researcher and advocate for children, provided a study he and his co-authors did as proof why school libraries help children be better readers. He is adamant that children need access to books, and he believes good school libraries are “the cure.” We often hear that getting books into the hands of very young children is important. It’s also critical to ensure that children who are in fourth grade and beyond have access to books!

Many poor schools have closed their school libraries, citing a lack of funding. Oakland, California lost thirty percent of their school libraries. Cities from Los Angeles to New York report library closures.

Chicago has lost school libraries. Some there blame the teachers union who pushed not to replace the librarian at one elementary school with volunteers. But good CONTINUE READING: Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarian

Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers
Teachers would also need background check in form "Certificate of Clearance" by next July 

As a result of an agreement reached last week between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, California charter school teachers will have to get the same background checks and the same credentials, certificates or permits as teachers in regular public schools. 

The agreement, which addresses a major point of contention in the push to reform California’s nearly three decades old charter school law, would eliminate at least one of the many disparities in how charter schools and regular public schools operate, with ramifications for the over 600,000 students attending charter schools in California. These students comprise just over 10 percent of California’s public school enrollment of 6.2 million students.

But if Assembly Bill 1505 is approved by the full Legislature, the changes will happen in phases.  By July 1, 2020, all teachers in charter schools, whether credentialed or not, would have to obtain a “Certificate of Clearance” from the state before they would be allowed to teach.

Currently, all California public school teachers, whether in charter schools or regular public schools, are required to undergo a background check. But only those with a teaching credential or permit issued by the California Commission on Teacher CONTINUE READING: Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

The Walton Plot to Privatize the Public Schools of Arkansas | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Walton Plot to Privatize the Public Schools of Arkansas | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Walton Plot to Privatize the Public Schools of Arkansas

The headquarters of the Walton/Walmart billionaires is in Bentonville, Arkansas, so it is not surprising that the Walton Family Foundation and the members of the family (net worth: $100 billion) have decided to privatize the public schools of Arkansas.

Arkansas is a poor state. It doesn’t have an abundance of private schools that are as good as its underfunded public schools but the Waltons want every child to have a voucher or a charter school to attend.

Legislators are easy to buy in a poor state. The Waltons own quite a few.

The Alabama Education Association did the research and described the empire that the Waltons have constructed in service to their goal of owning and privatizing the public schools of Arkansas. In the Walton plan, there will be no “public schools,” only privately managed charter schools and vouchers for religious schools.

The AEA report lays out the Walton Empire of Privatization in detail, with their bought and paid for think tanks and academics.

Although this report includes a lot of names, it is just one slice of the nationwide effort to plunder our public schools. These organizations have a vast infrastructure and deep pockets that can seem daunting, but our CONTINUE READING: The Walton Plot to Privatize the Public Schools of Arkansas | Diane Ravitch's blog

#CleartheList How a viral campaign is helping U.S. teachers buy supplies and raise political pressure | CBC News

How a viral campaign is helping U.S. teachers buy supplies and raise political pressure | CBC News

How a viral campaign is helping U.S. teachers buy supplies and raise political pressure
Union hopes #CleartheList puts education funding on the 2020 election agenda

Jodi Haque, a Brooklyn public high school teacher, opened her door recently and found a delivery of more than 50 books, everything she would need for her special education classes for the coming school year — all donated by Canadians.

A few days earlier, Haque received an email saying a Canadian couple she'd never met had bought close to $500 US worth of reading material for her classroom. They found a wish list Haque posted on social media using the hashtag #CleartheList, a campaign to help teachers find donations of much-needed school supplies.

"I was honestly so, so blessed," said Haque, who helps students aged 14 to 16 with a wide range of learning disabilities. The moment, however, was bittersweet as she reflected on the need to rely on the generosity of strangers to provide for her students. 

"It's sad that strangers are helping out more than the people that are elected to help us," Haque said.

A sixth-year teacher, she estimates she spends $500 to $700 a year of her own money purchasing everything from bookshelves, pencils and paper to cleaning items like hand sanitizer, tissues and paper towels. Her school provides $250 for supplies, though that number can vary.

"It frustrates me to no end knowing that my kids who need the most are constantly lacking the basic materials in order to be successful," Haque said.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks during a 2018 news conference in New York. Weingarten says a wave of teacher strikes and walkouts in 2018 helped change the conversation CONTINUE READING: How a viral campaign is helping U.S. teachers buy supplies and raise political pressure | CBC News

CURMUDGUCATION: Please, No Learning Engineers

CURMUDGUCATION: Please, No Learning Engineers

Please, No Learning Engineers

If Ben Johnson is as good as his word, right now, out in Utah, a bunch of teachers are having to put up with being called "learning engineers."

Johnson is the executive director at Treeside Charter School (K-6) in Provo, Utah. This is actually Year 2 in that job; previously, he's been a world languages department chair in Tyler, the president of his own consulting group, a principal, a learning coach, and , from 1990-1997, a Spanish teacher. He got his teacher education at Brigham Young and a Doctor of Education from the University of Phoenix. When he took this job, he walked right into the middle of a scandal involving naughty legislator Lincoln Filmore, who was putting his legislator hat on along with his head-of-a-charter-management-company hat and ending up with a pocketful of taxpayer loot. The feds were involved and Johnson did some housecleaning.

Treeside Charter (motto: Nurturing the leaders, lifelong learners, innovators, and artisans of tomorrow) was "inspired" by Waldorf schools, and their "head, heart and hands" approach appeals to me (perhaps because I was in 4-H growing up). You can see a very earnest ad  for them here. On the other hand, Johnson says he's known as "the Big Hearted Genius," which, like "whacky  " or "wise" or "beloved" seems like one of those things you should never, ever call yourself.

Johnson regularly posts for Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation site, and back in June he caused a minor stir by deciding that he wanted to rethink the teacher's role. It does not get CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Please, No Learning Engineers

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards: A champion for public education - Education Votes

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards: A champion for public education - Education Votes

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards: A champion for public education

By Amanda Litvinov and Amanda Menas

Since his election in 2016, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has championed a pro-public education agenda with policies that support students, educators, and local communities.

Edwards made education funding, including pay increases for teachers and school support staff, a top priority. He has pledged to protect public employee pensions such as the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana. He’s a vocal critic of unaccountable charter schools, voucher programs, and school letter grades.

Here are three (of many) times that Gov. Edwards went to bat for public education:

Boosting Teacher Salaries and Supporting Professional Pay

The Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) supported Gov. Edwards’ multi-year plan to increase teacher salaries to the Southern regional average. This year, they successfully advocated for and received the first round of increases.

The governor said that increasing teacher pay was his number one priority for the 2019 legislative session, acknowledging that many teachers struggle to provide for their own children even as they play a critical role in preparing all of our children for the future.

At the start of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, teacher salaries increased by $1,000 and support professionals received a salary boost of $500. And this is only the beginning.

The governor said the school employee pay raises were his number one priority for the 2019 legislative session. By prioritizing these raises, he showed educators from all walks of the profession that their work is valued. 

“The fact that this was just a first step in a multi-year plan proves Gov. Edwards’ commitment to championing our public schools and students, because, after all, recruiting CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards: A champion for public education - Education Votes

Schools Matter: KIPP vs. Feinberg: Battle of the Moral Sewer Dwellers

Schools Matter: KIPP vs. Feinberg: Battle of the Moral Sewer Dwellers

KIPP vs. Feinberg: Battle of the Moral Sewer Dwellers

For almost 25 years, Mike Feinberg broke enough rules to bull his up to the top of a morally-compromised heap of paternalistic charter hell school operators. 

In the early days of KIPP, Feinberg is remembered as the hothead without boundaries who threw a TV through a plate glass window at KIPP Houston--the same reckless wild man who would load KIPP students into an unventilated U-Haul trailer for a "field lesson" across town. 

"Whatever it takes" was "Cage-Buster" Feinberg's mantra, and he and David Levin believed that, as KIPP's top leaders, they should model the aggressive, hyper-macho, and abusive "let the stallions run" style of leadership for their growing and clueless regiment of "school leaders."  No holds barred, take no prisoners, let the rules be damned.

Who knows if their schooling "philosophy" of reckless abandon contributed to Feinberg's eventual bust for sexual harassment of two KIPP employees, sexual abuse of a middle school student, and another charge vaguely referred to as “repeatedly violat[ing] KIPP’s technology usage policies.”  

Sexting? Porno? Who knows what the "cage-buster" was up to?

When it became obvious to KIPP in 2017 that Feinberg's behavior could be the source of a major scandal that could damage the brand and, thus, jeopardize the flow of hundreds of millions of federal and private dollars to KIPP, KIPP launched its own very hush-hush investigation into allegations that Feinberg had sexually assaulted a middle student some years before.  That was in April 2017. See documents here.

On September 7, 2017, KIPP noticed Feinberg that he was off the hook, while entirely downplayed the CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: KIPP vs. Feinberg: Battle of the Moral Sewer Dwellers

How big a mess is Pennsylvania’s charter school sector? This big. - The Washington Post

How big a mess is Pennsylvania’s charter school sector? This big. - The Washington Post

How big a mess is Pennsylvania’s charter school sector? This big.
The governor is vowing to restructure it.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has been making charter-school supporters in his state mighty unhappy.

The charter sector in Pennsylvania has long been beset by fraud and a lack of transparency and accountability. In fact, in 2016, the state’s auditor general called the state charter law the “worst” in the nation.

Now Wolf has raised the ire of supporters of charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately operated — referring to the “growing cost of privatization of our public schools” while discussing cyber charters.

Meanwhile, a recent news release issued by the governor’s office said he wanted to stop the drain of public resources from traditional public school districts that instead are going to these schools: “Pennsylvania must help school districts struggling with the problem of increasing amounts of school funding siphoned by private cyber and charter schools.” Calling these schools “private” angered charter supporters, who say they are public because they are publicly funded (though not accountable to the public in the same way school districts are).

Now Wolf is moving ahead to try to change the charter sector in his state in the absence of movement from the Republican-led legislature. In August, he said he would, among other things, use executive power to make sure charters are held to the same “ethical and transparency standards of public schools,” and allow school districts to cap the number of charters.

This post looks at the state of the charter sector in Pennsylvania, the reality that Wolf is trying to change. It was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who serves as executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy group for public schools.

Burris was named the 2010 Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year in 2013. Burris has been chronicling problems with CONTINUE READING: How big a mess is Pennsylvania’s charter school sector? This big. - The Washington Post

Shawgi Tell: Join Growing Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Join Growing Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Join Growing Resistance to Charter Schools

It has taken some time, but finally, even though they have been pillaged for decades by privately-operated unaccountable charter schools, more public school districts across the country are fighting back with greater vigor against nonprofit and for-profit charter schools. Gone are the days of silent toleration and looking the other way while charter schools wreak havoc on public education.

It is affirming and refreshing to see more public school districts filing lawsuits, passing resolutions, producing exposés, and taking other actions against privately-operated charter schools to stop the “legal” theft of public funds and property by these non-transparent contract schools that typically under-enroll certain student populations and have high teacher turnover rates.

While segregated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools have rapidly enriched many owners of capital and their cheerleaders, they have not solved any major problems. The increase in privately-operated charter schools nationwide has deepened the crisis in education and society. It has made things qualitatively worse.

Nearly 30 years after they came into being, there is no compelling evidence that charter schools do better than under-funded, over-tested, and relentlessly scapegoated-and-shamed public schools confronted with immense tasks and CONTINUE READING: Join Growing Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

What Happens When Communities Create Their Own New, Whiter School Districts | HuffPost

What Happens When Communities Create Their Own New, Whiter School Districts | HuffPost

What Happens When Communities Create Their Own New, Whiter School Districts
Around the country, a phenomenon called “school district secession” is exacerbating segregation.

When Penn State University professor Erica Frankenberg graduated from high school in Alabama, there was only one school district in Mobile County.

Now, over 20 years later, it is one of four districts. In the past decade, three communities have splintered off to create their own districts, and, in doing so, they have exacerbated segregation in the area.

The process is called school district secession. Around the country, it’s changing the nature of school segregation. 

A new study, conducted by Frankenberg, Virginia Commonwealth University professor Genevieve Siege-Hawley and researcher Kendra Taylor, looks at school secessions in the South with an eye on how new school district boundaries affect patterns of school and residential segregation. The study, which looks specifically at seven counties in the South where 18 new districts have formed since 2000, found that the practice increasingly sorts students into separate districts by race.

Thirty states allow for school district secessions, according to the nonprofit EdBuild. But only six are required to look at the socioeconomic and racial effects of these decisions. From 2000 to 2017, 47 communities across the country have successfully broken off from a larger district to form their own. 

Communities often secede from large, integrated districts to create white enclaves in the name of neutral-sounding causes like “local control,” said Frankenberg. New districts tend to be whiter and more affluent than the ones they leave behind. 

In the study’s seven districts, school district boundaries accounted for an average of about 60% of the school segregation of black and white students in 2000. But by 2015, this number had increased to about 70%. The remaining 30% can be attributed to school segregation within a district. 

The relationship between residential segregation and school secession, however, was less clear, at least in the short term. Researchers did find evidence, though, that it could have a longer-term effect. 

“Where you have enclaves, that can drive residential decision-making,” said Frankenberg. Also, “school district boundaries act as a sort of political and social boundary … it can CONTINUE READING: What Happens When Communities Create Their Own New, Whiter School Districts | HuffPost

Immigrant Students are Under Threat. Here are Tools to Stand Up and Fight Back. | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Immigrant Students are Under Threat. Here are Tools to Stand Up and Fight Back. | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Immigrant Students are Under Threat. Here are Tools to Stand Up and Fight Back.

As students head back to school this fall, the Schott Foundation stands in solidarity with students, their families and immigrant communities.

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented children have a constitutional right to receive a free public K-12 education, stating that it provides the means to becoming a “self-reliant and self-sufficient participant in society,” and instills the “fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system.”

However, escalating threats and increased enforcement measures by the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security threaten that right for thousands of undocumented youth and the 4.1 million U.S.-born children who live in mixed-status households with at least one parent or family member who is undocumented.

Especially following recent ICE raids across the country, students, families and entire communities are fearful. Parents have been taken away from their children, leaving students devastated and without family members.

Supporting immigrant students and their families is a responsibility we all bear — but it can seem a daunting task. Below are resources and tools from our partners and other organizations that should prove helpful in understanding, educating and organizing:

An FAQ by the American Civil Liberties Union provides guidance to help educators protect children. They note that arrests within schools are not likely, but there have been ones very near schools. “ICE and CBP maintain a policy which provides that they will not engage in immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools absent prior approval by a supervisor or exigent circumstances. This policy has recently been reaffirmed by the Department of Homeland Security. This means that ICE and CBP generally will not arrest, interview, search, or surveil a person for immigration enforcement purposes while at a school, a known school bus stop, or an educational activity.”
See the full report here.

The National Education Association urges educators, parents and community organizations to seek passage of Safe Zones resolutions by their school boards to clarify ICE accountability measures in and around school grounds. The NEA’s FAQ helps provide guidelines for teachers to safely and effective advocate for immigrant students’ rights.
Read it here [Word format].

The National immigration Law Center’s report Immigrant and Refugee Children — A Guide for Educators and School Support Staff provides information and materials teachers can use to assist students and their families.
Download the report here.

The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, a community-based organization in a Chicago neighborhood that is 93% Latinx, released a detailed deportation safety plan and an extensive know-your-rights toolkit to aid families.
Learn more and download them here.

Teaching Tolerance urges teachers and counselors to use their voice—and mobilize other students—to help address immigrant students’ anxieties and fears.
Learn more here.

Groups like Californians for Justice are organizing to encourage allies to recognize their power and influence to push back against the tide of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, to take stronger roles as accomplices. Their slogan: “Dare to lean on love, power and strength in spite of fear.”
Learn how to start important conversations here.

National Center for Responsive Philanthropy highlights that many more foundations have started to support and resource the broad pro-immigrant movement, but notes that much work needs to be done to direct funds to regions where threats to immigrants are highest. If you are a funder, your next steps are clear: move resources to those most impacted and those who are organizing on the front lines.
Read more here.

Are there additional resources we should highlight? Tweet them to us at @SchottFound and we'll add to this list!

Immigrant Students are Under Threat. Here are Tools to Stand Up and Fight Back. | Schott Foundation for Public Education

John Thompson: Candor will help OKCPS after John Marshall Middle School fights

Candor will help OKCPS after John Marshall Middle School fights

Candor will help OKCPS after John Marshall Middle School fights

As the Oklahoma City Public School District deals with the high-profile student fights at John Marshall Middle School, the district should welcome an opportunity to be more candid with the public. Meanwhile, the district’s families should thank social media for bringing public attention to the situation.

While teaching at the old John Marshall High School and Centennial High School during the 1990s and early 2000s, I saw dozens of brawls spin out of control and become “riots.” Before social media, however, the district could easily hide the situations from the public. Because the district was so focused on keeping bad news out of the press, the violence often continued for weeks or even months at a time.

Worse, OKCPS would explicitly or implicitly blame teachers. Although few administrators really believed the normative mantra, they would pretend that better instruction and better leadership would be enough to improve high-challenge schools. It was not a helpful position to take.

On Aug. 28, Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman) basically acknowledged the illogical CONTINUE READING: Candor will help OKCPS after John Marshall Middle School fights

Why Is Incremental Change in Schooling Typical? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Why Is Incremental Change in Schooling Typical? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Why Is Incremental Change in Schooling Typical?

The short answer is that conservatism is built into the purpose of schools and both teachers and students share that innate conservatism–at first.

Tax-supported public schools have two purposes. The first is to change students, imbue them with knowledge, skills, and values that they would use to gain personal success and make America a better place to live in. The duty of public schooling as an agent of individual and societal reform took off in the early 20th century as Progressivism and has been in the educational bloodstream ever since.

The second obligation was for the tax-supported school to actively conserve personal, community and national values ranging from inculcating traditional knowledge, obeying authority including that of teachers, show respect for religious beliefs, practicing honesty, and displaying patriotism.

Often conserving such values can be seen in rules posted in nearly every classroom across the nation at the beginning of the school year. For example:

Teachers are agents of that conservatism insofar as they have been students for 16-20-plus years and know first-hand what happens in classrooms and schools. When faced with reforms that expect major changes in classroom practices, they adapt such policies to fit the students they face daily, their content and skills expertise, and what they believe they should teach and students should learn. They do this, of course, piece=by-piece. Incrementally. You want 180 degree changes in what happens in classrooms, it won’t happen. You want 10 degrees or 20 degrees of change, with teacher understanding, capacity, and willingness, CONTINUE READING: Why Is Incremental Change in Schooling Typical? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

CURMUDGUCATION: What I Know About The Reading Wars

CURMUDGUCATION: What I Know About The Reading Wars

What I Know About The Reading Wars

Lord save us from the unending arguments about reading instruction. I started a Twitter thread just after Christmas and that thing was still flopping around six months later. Emily Hanford has somehow milked one not-very-new observation ("Use phonics") into a series of widely shared articles, which in turn has stirred up all the articles that people wrote the last time phonics was being  praised as the One True Science for Reading Instruction. And on and on.

I live with an elementary school teacher with an advanced degree in reading. I taught English for thirty-nine years. I have some thoughts about all this noise which, as always, you can have for free, and which are, I think, worth considering if you're going to get into this ongoing kerfluffle.

One More Explosion of Experts

As with many issues in education, reading is blessed with the expert insights of expert experts who have never actually had to teach a tiny human to read. This group of People Who Have Really Strong Opinions Even Though They May Not Know What The Heck They're Talking About includes, I must sadly note, high school teachers, who move into the house long after the foundations have been laid. Here's the rule-- all reading experts must be able to answer the question, "What happened when you applied your ideas about reading instruction to several different classrooms full of students?"

Reading Is Not Natural

Humans will do language naturally, by which I mean without any instruction. They will learn to interpret what they hear, and they will start to speak it on their own. This does not happen with CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What I Know About The Reading Wars

Who should be writing about education and isn’t? - The Washington Post

Who should be writing about education and isn’t? - The Washington Post

Who should be writing about education and isn’t?

Mike Rose is a highly respected education scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles who has researched and written about literacy, cognition, language and the struggles of America’s working class. He has taught over several decades — from kindergarten and elementary writing to adult literacy — and has made some important contributions to the education field.

He has written nearly a dozen books, including “The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker,” which demonstrated the heavy cognitive demands of blue-collar and service work and what it takes to do such work well, despite the tendency of many to underestimate and undervalue the intelligence involved in such work. The best-selling “Lives on the Boundary” tells the story of the struggles and achievements of unprepared students and how their lack of literacy skills is a result of poor education — not a shortage of intelligence.

Other books he has written include “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education,” “Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America” and “Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us.”

In the following post, Rose looks at how elite media outlets address education — and who winds up writing the stories. Because Rose writes specifically about the New Yorker magazine, I have included a comment from its editor, David Remnick, at the end.

This appeared on Rose’s blog (and which he gave me permission to publish):

By Mike Rose

There’s a rock in my shoe, a small thing, a really small thing that I started noticing years ago and can’t shake loose, an irritant that has grown in significance.

Over the last 20 years, the New Yorker magazine has published 60 articles under the banner “Annals of Medicine,” and 38 of them — 63 percent — are written by medical doctors. During that same period, the magazine has published 17 articles under the banner “Annals of Education,” and not a single one of them is written by a professional educator, nary a classroom teacher or educational researcher among the authors. To pick two examples of omission, life-long teachers and writers Deborah Meier and Vivian Paley, both recipients CONTINUE READING: Who should be writing about education and isn’t? - The Washington Post