Sac County Dems passed a resolution last night admonishing School Board President Jessie Ryan-Students: SCTA's Got Your Back

 Students: SCTA's Got Your Back - Posts

Sac County Dems passed a resolution last night admonishing School Board President Jessie Ryan.

RESOLUTION 2019-23 Admonishing School Board President Jessie Ryan for Misleading the Public regarding the Fiscal Status of the Sacramento City Unified School District and Leading an Anti-Union Campaign against the Sacramento City Teachers Association

http://www.sacdems.org/…/…/DPSC_CC_Resolution_2019.23-1.pdf…

READ Students: SCTA's Got Your Back STATEMENT ON FACEBOOK

Racial Disparity in Student Discipline Isn’t All About Race | gadflyonthewallblog

Racial Disparity in Student Discipline Isn’t All About Race | gadflyonthewallblog

Racial Disparity in Student Discipline Isn’t All About Race

Black students are suspended from school at substantially higher rates than white ones.

That’s indisputable.

When teachers send kids to the office, when principals issue detentions and suspensions, the faces of those students are disproportionately black or brown.

So what does that mean?

Are minority children more badly behaved than white ones?

Or is it an indication that our public schools are overrun with racist teachers and principals?

Those appear to be the only choices in Trump’s America.

There’s either something desperately wrong with children of color or the majority of white staff at public schools can’t handle them.

But the reality is far more complex, and no matter who you are, it will probably make you uncomfortable.

The problem is that there are variables the binary choice above doesn’t even begin to explain, and chief among them is child poverty.

In short, there are an awful lot of poor kids in America. And children living in poverty act out more than those living in CONTINUE READING: Racial Disparity in Student Discipline Isn’t All About Race | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: California Is Burning: One More Argument Against Privatizing Education

CURMUDGUCATION: California Is Burning: One More Argument Against Privatizing Education

California Is Burning: One More Argument Against Privatizing Education

California is burning, even as California is dark, its people trying to survive a manmade nightmare.

PG&E, never America's most favorite utility behemoth, has made a hash of things. To save a buck here and there, the power company cut back on some necessary maintenance, but that-- plus a dry season-- has led to almost a dozen catastrophic fires, which have been followed by some hefty lawsuits, which has now been followed by the company shutting off the power for millions of residents (including folks dependent on medical equipment).

2017: This image always gets me because I was once right there
on that exact piece of road.

This is, to repeat, not some kind of unforeseeable disaster, but a systematic program by corporate chiefs to do less maintenance so that they could make more money.

And it's not like this is an isolated incident.

Let me pause for a moment to say that I don't hate capitalism. There are some things that it's very good at, and I'm not ready to throw it out. But if left unattended in the hand so of scruple-impaired men, it can start to do some Very Bad Things.

Take the Boeing 737 Max. The plane crashed multiple times dues to features that were par of a  concentrated effort to cut corners. It was a management problem, not an engineering problem. But it is now looking like it will be a hard one to come back from (not unlike the difficulty in coming back for the people the planes killed).

But if nobody's careful, the engineers will ultimately lose. 

Steve Jobs is just one of the people to have laid out how this happens. The basic sequence looks like this. Acme Widget Company starts with a new idea for how to make a better widget. It enters the market, and through excellence in design, it captures a hefty market share. The widget engineers CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: California Is Burning: One More Argument Against Privatizing Education

“Education Deans for Justice and Equity” Speak Out Against Market-Based Disruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

“Education Deans for Justice and Equity” Speak Out Against Market-Based Disruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

“Education Deans for Justice and Equity” Speak Out Against Market-Based Disruption

At last! The leaders of 350 teacher education programs have issued a bold statement in collaboration with the National Education Policy Center denouncing attacks on teacher education and market-based “remedies.”

The group calls itself Education Deans for Justice and Equity.

Their efforts contrast with those of a group called “Deans for Impact,” funded in 2015 by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which supports charter schools (such as KIPP, Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools), Teach for America, Educators for Excellence, New Leaders, TNTP, Conservative Leaders for Education, Teach Plus, Stand for Children, and a long list of other Corporate Reform ventures. Deans for Impact has 24 members. The founder and executive director of Deans for Impact is Benjamin Riley, former director of policy and advocacy at the NewSchools Venture Fund, which is heavily endowed by billionaire foundations to launch charter schools and promote education technology.

The statement of Education Deans for Justice and Equity criticizes such disruption agents as Teach for America (which places inexperienced, unprepared college CONTINUE READING: “Education Deans for Justice and Equity” Speak Out Against Market-Based Disruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Public School Parents: Warning to parents whose children are taking College Board or ACT exams and do NOT want their data sold

NYC Public School Parents: Warning to parents whose children are taking College Board or ACT exams and do NOT want their data sold

Warning to parents whose children are taking College Board or ACT exams and do NOT want their data sold
This one-pager fact sheet and backgrounder is cross-posted on the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy website.  Feel free to post the one-pager or distribute it in your school.

Both ACT and College Board sell personal student data to colleges and universities, as well as to other non-profit and for-profit organizations to help them recruit students and/or market their products and services.

The College Board makes an approximate $100 million per year from its “Student Search” program, for which it charges organizations 47 cents per student name. [1] Last year, ACT was sued via a class action lawsuit, because they allegedly included student disability information in the data they sold to customers.[2]

If your child is taking a College Board exam, and you don’t want any of their personal data sold, which may include their race, ethnicity, self-reported grades, religion and/or test scores within a certain range, as well as other confidential information, urge them NOT to fill out any of the optional questions that are included online or in the Student Questionnaire given before the administration of the exam. They should also be sure not to check the box that indicates they want to participate in the College Board “Student Search” program.

If your child is taking the ACT, you and your child should also refrain from filling out any of the extraneous information asked for in the ACT Student Profile Section, unless you want that data also sold and/or used for marketing purposes.

In May 2018, the US Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center warned schools and districts that have agreements with these companies to administer their exams during the school day that their practice of allowing these companies to gather confidential information directly from students and sell it without parental consent may be illegal under several federal laws.[3]

In addition, New York as well as Illinois and 21 other states prohibit school vendors from selling student data under any circumstances. [4] Illinois legislators have now asked the State Attorney General to investigate the College Board’s practices for that reason. [5] NY Times has reported that this data often ends up in the hands of unscrupulous for-profit companies that use the information to market dubious products and services to families; in some cases, the information may end up in the hands of data brokers. [6]

Some districts now refrain from giving these voluntary surveys to their students or tell them not to answer any of its questions, because this takes considerable time and can add stress to an already pressure-filled situation.

Districts also should be aware that these companies disclose personal data that may be illegal.

Here are some questions parents should ask their children’s school or district ahead of time:

1. Is any survey or voluntary list of questions going to be asked of their children before the administration of these exams?

2. If so, can they give you a copy of these questions? Prior parental notification of any such survey is required under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), passed by Congress in 1978.[7]

3. If any highly sensitive questions are included, such as those involving religious preferences or affiliations, will the school notify parents of their right to opt their children out of the survey ahead of time, as is required under PPRA?

4. Does the district have a contract with the testing company that prohibits them from selling any of this personal student data, as is required by NY state law as well as student privacy laws in 21 other states?

5. If not, why not? And can they share a copy of this contract?

Sources

[1] https://collegeboardsearch.collegeboard.org/pastudentsrch/support/licensing/pricing-payment-policies

[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180807005834/en/Students-Disabilities-File-Class-Action-ACT-Test

[3] https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/sites/default/files/resource_document/file/TA%20College%20Admissions%20Examinations.pdf

[4] https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/state-privacy-laws-re-selling-student-data-_act-sat-exceptions/

[5] https://news.wttw.com/2019/10/10/lawmakers-urge-ag-raoul-investigate-college-board-selling-student-data

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/29/business/for-sale-survey-data-on-millions-of-high-school-students.html

[7] https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ppra/parents.html


For more information, please email us at info@studentprivacymatters.org

Big Education Ape: Privacy warning to parents whose kids will be taking the ACT or College Board (PSAT, SAT, AP) exams | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/privacy-warning-to-parents-whose-kids.html

NYC Public School Parents: Warning to parents whose children are taking College Board or ACT exams and do NOT want their data sold

U.S. Census Bureau Releases K–12 Lessons on Data -- THE Journal

U.S. Census Bureau Releases K–12 Lessons on Data -- THE Journal
U.S. Census Bureau Releases K–12 Lessons on Data

The United States Census Bureau has released free resources for K-12 classrooms. The focus is on encouraging students to make sure their families participate in the upcoming Census, which influences the federal funding given to states and communities for classroom technology, teacher training, special education, after-school programs and school lunch assistance, among other programs. Materials include teacher and student content.

"Statistics in Schools," the K-12 curriculum, features 20 lessons, including these:

• "Let's Get the Count Right," a 40-minute activity for K-12 that helps student learn how to count up to 100, make number comparisons and understand the concept of populations;
• "Population Change over Time," a 35-minute unit for grades 3-4 that helps students identify trends in data and make predictions based on data;
• "Diversity: Languages Spoken in the United States," a 45-minute lesson for grades 5-6 to help students learn how to calculate percentages based on data and understand the concept of "diversity";
• "Apportionment," a 35-minute study for grades 7-8 on the use of data and how to analyze and interpret it; and
• "Make Data Speak," a 40-minute unit for grades 9-12 on how to research and interpret data and display it in a "visually creative way."

Nearly every lesson concludes with objectives that help students connect the Census count to distribution of resources within communities and understand why it's important to be counted in 2020.

U.S. Census Bureau Releases K–12 Lessons on Data -- THE Journal

CURMUDGUCATION: The Secular Schools + Freedom: You Keep Using That Word...

CURMUDGUCATION: The Secular Schools

The Secular Schools

This is going to be kind of rambly and personal and religious; you've been warned. I've been trying to sort through my thoughts about the use of tax dollars to support private religious schools. I started here, then picked the thread up here. I have problems with the idea of vouchers as a tool for religious freedom, and it has taken me some discussion and thought to zero in on part  of my issue.

It's not just separation of church and state. I believe in it, and not just for the state's sake, but for religion's as well. I've oft-quoted (but have trouble finding the original author for) "When you mix religion and politics, you get politics," and we seem to be living through a fairly stark demonstration of that.

But the mixing continues apace. I have some religious conservative friends who have long thought, as does, apparently, Betsy DeVos, that there are certain functions that rightfully belong to the church that have been usurped by the state, and it's high time they were taken back. Schools are on that list. I think that's a huge mistake, both for state and church.

I am trying to side step a larger discussion of religion here. My own relationship with the church is... complicated. I have been a C&E guy, and I've been in leadership positions. My faith in God remains far stronger than my faith in all the tiny little humans who purport to speak for God. And as a teacher of American literature, I talked to students about religion every year while staying carefully neutral (my standard preamble was "I am going to talk about what these people believed. I am not here to tell you whether they were right or wrong-- just what they thought"). I'm rambling a bit now, but my point is that I've spent a lot of time thinking about how personal faith intersects with life and work in a country that was not, sorry, ever set up to be anything like a Christian nation.

I got to discussing this with Neal McCluskey, the CATO education guy with whom I disagree about CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Secular Schools

Freedom: You Keep Using That Word...

Freedom is a great thing. I'm a huge fan. But because it has so many positive associations, some folks just can't resist the urge to twist it.

Take the frequent efforts to "free" teachers from their unions. Oppressive unions rob teachers of the freedom to work extra long hours, the freedom to be paid whatever their bosses feel like paying them, the freedom to be fired for any reason at any time. Folks like Jeanne Allen at the Center for Education Reform talk about "the freedom from constraining work rules and contracts" and the idea that teachers should be "entrepreneurs," another word that has been hijacked because "struggling worker in the gig economy who has no safety net, health insurance, or prospects for future security" is too wordy.

Betsy DeVos is also trying to get some mileage out of "freedom" as she tries to sell her school voucher program as "freedom scholarships."

DeVos's choices as Secretary of Education is best understood through this lens: businesses and churches (well, the right ones, anyway) should be free of all government oversight, free to do as they wish. Any rule that requires them to something they don't want to do, or that keeps them from doing something they want to do, should be removed (this puts her in tune with her boss, except that instead of "removed" he leans toward "ignored").

So education "freedom" means that any company that wants to take a shot at scoring some of those sweet, sweet public tax dollars should be able to. And any religious organization (well, not "any," exactly) should be able do the same-- and without having to CONTINUE READING: Freedom: You Keep Using That Word...

NANCY BAILEY: Discount Teachers: Students, Teachers, and America Deserve Better!

Discount Teachers: Students, Teachers, and America Deserve Better!

Discount Teachers: Students, Teachers, and America Deserve Better!

Like most people, I like a sale, but there are some things that don’t pan out at bargain prices, like America’s public school teachers.

Most teachers are paid by a career ladder. This means they receive a salary step increase with every year of experience. Some don’t like this protocol, but it is simple and direct. Teachers don’t have to compete for bonuses. But it leaves veteran teachers vulnerable.

For years, corporate reformers and policymakers have tried to cheapen and destroy the teaching profession. They don’t want to pay teachers what they’re worth. It seems vindictive since most teachers don’t make huge salaries compared to some professions with equal education.

These same reformers have attempted to replace teachers with cheaper alternatives at discount prices, relying on individual and corporate funding through donations, or they’ve used tax dollars to fund alternative teaching programs.

Many believe the goal is to replace teachers with online instruction. This is easy to believe. We see little effort to save the teaching profession.

Here’s how we’ve become a nation of discount teachers.

Diminished License Requirements

Since 1989, corporate reformers have invested in Teach for America, where college graduates are permitted to enter the classroom as real teachers with only five weeks of training.

This defies logic. Any teacher that enters a classroom should be able to prove they are CONTINUE READING: Discount Teachers: Students, Teachers, and America Deserve Better!

Bruce Lesley: The Trump Cabinet’s War on Children: Sessions Goes Above and Beyond (Part III)

The Trump Cabinet’s War on Children: Sessions Goes Above and Beyond (Part III)

The Trump Cabinet’s War on Children: Sessions Goes Above and Beyond (Part III)

In Part I and Part II of this series on the “War on Children,” I highlighted many of the ways that Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney have, through their policies and action in the Cabinet, imposed harm on children.

Yet, as bad as those two (and others in the Trump Cabinet, such as former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who recently resigned) have been to children, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been the worst Cabinet member of all for children in the Trump Administration.

To begin, while the entire nation was grieving and coping with the school shooting and death of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day, the Attorney General did everything possible to avoid the issue of gun safety and, instead, pointed the blame at children themselves:

When parents once again go to sleep fearful that their kids will not be safe, even when they go to school — parents have told me in gang-infested neighborhoods that children can no longer stand at CONTINUE READING: The Trump Cabinet’s War on Children: Sessions Goes Above and Beyond (Part III)

Even Though ESSA Dropped the Requirement, 34 States Still Evaluate Schoolteachers by Students’ Test Scores | janresseger

Even Though ESSA Dropped the Requirement, 34 States Still Evaluate Schoolteachers by Students’ Test Scores | janresseger

Even Though ESSA Dropped the Requirement, 34 States Still Evaluate Schoolteachers by Students’ Test Scores

Chalkbeat‘s Matt Barnum reports this week that 9 of the 43 school districts which adopted the use of students’ standardized test scores to evaluate teachers have stopped using students’ scores for teacher evaluation. This is an important development because all sorts of research has shown that students’ scores are unreliable as a measure of the quality of a teacher.  But too many states are still evaluating their teachers with unreliable algorithms based on students’ test scores.

Barnum reminds us about the history of using students’ standardized test scores to evaluate teachers: “The push to remake teacher evaluations was jump-started by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition, which offered a chance at federal dollars to states that enacted favored policies—including linking teacher evaluation to student test scores… Philanthropies—most notably the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—provided support for a constellation of groups pushing these ideas.”

Evaluating teachers by their students’ standardized test scores also became a condition for states to qualify for a No Child Left Behind Waiver. After it became apparent that No Child Left Behind was going to declare a majority of schools “failures” because they were not going to be able to meet the law’s rigid schedule, in 2011, the federal government offered to relax some of the law’s most punitive consequences by offering states waivers from No Child Left Behind. But to qualify for a waiver, states had to promise to enact some of Arne Duncan’s pet policies. Using students’ standardized test scores for evaluating schoolteachers was one of the requirements for states to qualify for No Child Left Behind Waivers.  Education Week explained: “In exchange, states had to agree to set standards aimed at preparing students for higher education and the workforce. Waiver states could either choose the Common Core State Standards, or get their higher education institutions to certify that their standards are rigorous enough. They also must put in place assessments aligned to those standards. And they have to institute teacher-evaluation systems that take into account student CONTINUE READING: Even Though ESSA Dropped the Requirement, 34 States Still Evaluate Schoolteachers by Students’ Test Scores | janresseger

Special Education and DC Public Schools – Education Town Hall Forum

Special Education and DC Public Schools – Education Town Hall Forum

SPECIAL EDUCATION AND DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS

DC has a long history of troubled and inequitable special education services. Our October 10 show, on the state of special education in DC’s publicly funded schools, featured two local experts:

–Chioma Oruh, DCPS parent and parent advocate with Advocates for Justice and Education, a DC nonprofit helping families with special needs children receive appropriate education services.

–Latisha Chisholm, social worker and manager of the Connected Schools initiative at DCPS’s Anacostia high school.

show starts at 4:45 mark on this recording —

In DC, 16% of public education students have disabilities, slightly higher than US average, which is 13%. Yet, test scores for DC’s students with disabilities are very low (7.9% proficient in English CONTINUE READING: Special Education and DC Public Schools – Education Town Hall Forum

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Surveillance State Update

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Surveillance State Update

FL: Surveillance State Update

It's been over a year since Florida passed and signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. That act included a massive data grab that was intended to serve as a feeder for some secret algorithmic future crime unit, through, of course, the Florida School Safety Portal-- because the state wants to capture and record your every move only in your best interests.

Researchers from the Aspen Institute took a look at the situation, and were not impressed.

For one thing, there isn't a lick of evidence that such a thing works. Which-- I mean, how could there be? "We've arrested twelve people for future crime and they never committed a crime, so it must be working"??! The researchers were unimpressed across the board.

"No evidence-based research has demonstrated that a data-driven surveillance system such as the FSSP will be effective in preventing school violence. In addition, no information is publicly available about how the database was designed, developed, or tested,” according to preliminary findings by researchers.

The breadth of "data" mandated for collection is mind-boggling. In addition to every single record that the school keeps and everything from social and legal programs run by the state, the program is also creeping students' social media accounts and "thousands of hours of video footage." All on the CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Surveillance State Update

Professor Quits Teaching Because of Students’ Use of Technology in Class | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Professor Quits Teaching Because of Students’ Use of Technology in Class | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Professor Quits Teaching Because of Students’ Use of Technology in Class

The combination of computer use, Internet, and smart phone, I would argue, has changed the cognitive skills required of individuals…. The student can rapidly check on his or her smartphone whether the professor is right, or indeed whether there isn’t some other authority offering an entirely different approach. With the erosion of that relationship [between professor and students] goes the environment that nurtured it: the segregated space of the classroom where, for an hour or so, all attention was focused on a single person who brought all of his or her experience to the service of the group.

Tim Parks, 2019

In the above epigraph taken from “Dying Art of Instruction in the Digital Classroom,” Novelist, literary scholar, and translator Tim Parks gives the reasons why he is leaving his professorship at the University Institute for Modern Languages in Milan, Italy.  Parks describes his experience with students using devices in his class teaching translation:

In the late 1990s, I had my first experience of students bringing laptops into the classroom. At that time, there was no question of their having wifi connections. Since these were translation lessons, students argued that their computers were useful for the fifteen or twenty minutes when I invited them to translate a short paragraph. They translated better on their computers, they said; they could make corrections more easily.

Nevertheless, I noticed at once the tendency to hide behind the screen. Who could know whether a student was really taking notes or doing something else? The tippety-tapping of keyboards while one was speaking was distracting. I insisted laptops be kept closed except for the brief period of our translation exercise.

When the University renovated classrooms with laptops at each desk, Parks CONTINUE READING: Professor Quits Teaching Because of Students’ Use of Technology in Class | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The DC Voucher Story Finds Its Way to the Silver Screen, Sort Of. | deutsch29

The DC Voucher Story Finds Its Way to the Silver Screen, Sort Of. | deutsch29

The DC Voucher Story Finds Its Way to the Silver Screen, Sort Of.

There’s a movie about the DC school voucher program scheduled for release on October 18, 2019: Miss Virginia, produced by the nonprofit, Moving Picture Institute.

See a 2-minute trailer below:

The the individual who is the focus of the film, Virginia Walden Ford, was among the first students chosen to desegregate Little Rock, Arkansas, schools in the 1960s. Ford was a high school student at the time. She later advocated for the DC school voucher program, the only federally-funded school voucher program, created in 2004. From Ford’s website:

While she was raising her three children in Washington, D.C., Virginia was shocked that so many children were forced to attend failing, crumbling schools simply because they lived in the “wrong” ZIP codes. In fact, she worried that her own son, William, was falling through the cracks of a system that wasn’t focused on the best interests of children.

In 1998, she took action, forming a grassroots organization, D.C. Parents for School Choice. Along with a group of dedicated parents, Virginia went door-to-door, neighborhood-to-neighborhood, recruiting and training thousands of other parents to stand up for their children’s futures.

In 2003, with the support of national education organizations and CONTINUE READING: The DC Voucher Story Finds Its Way to the Silver Screen, Sort Of. | deutsch29

Illinois’ Tier II is in violation of the law and Pritzker’s pension panel almost says so. – Fred Klonsky

Illinois’ Tier II is in violation of the law and Pritzker’s pension panel almost says so. – Fred Klonsky

ILLINOIS’ TIER II IS IN VIOLATION OF THE LAW AND PRITZKER’S PENSION PANEL ALMOST SAYS SO.

It was a decade ago that I stood on the floor of the Illinois Education Association’s Representative Assembly as a delegate and pleaded with them not to open the door to discussions with the General Assembly on pension reform.

Madigan would read it as our concession, I warned.

And that’s just what he did.

We lost the vote at the RA and a week later Tier II was born.

Beware of following union leaders blindly.

Greg Hinz reporting on Governor Pritzker’s pension panel report:

The shocker in the report is something that’s been quietly discussed for awhile in Springfield but has not until now become prominent. That’s the finding that the 2011 reforms may violate federal law.

Under federal standards, local pension systems that substitute for Social Security must pay at least the same level of benefits to get “safe harbor” status, a legal determination that the system follows the law. But, said the report, the creation of CONTINUE READING: Illinois’ Tier II is in violation of the law and Pritzker’s pension panel almost says so. – Fred Klonsky