Low teacher morale 'has reached a tipping point:' Study

Low teacher morale 'has reached a tipping point:' Study

Teacher morale has 'reached a tipping point,' new survey shows

With work stoppages cropping up in all corners of the U.S., it’s clear that many American teachers are in a bad way. The sunny optimism that likely propelled them into the field is rapidly fading as the result of low salaries, insufficient funding, and the often complicated social-emotional needs of their students. This is according to the Educator Confidence Index from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMHC).

The report shows that teacher optimism has fallen dramatically, from 50% in 2018 to 34% in 2019. 

The index is a part of the educational publisher’s fifth annual Educator Confidence Report, which is done in conjunction with YouGov. The report and survey of more than 1,300 K-12 teachers and administrators reveals that teacher optimism and confidence has decreased significantly since 2015. 

The current overall teacher Confidence Index stands at 43 on a scale of 0–100. Scores do, however, vary by location, with teachers in the Midwest having the highest confidence scores (56), while teachers in the South have the lowest confidence scores (37).

“The significant decrease in optimism this year shows that the mounting pressures put on teachers have reached a tipping point,” said Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

Lynch told Yahoo Finance that many U.S. teachers feel undervalued, leading to teacher strikes like the one that recently ended in Chicago. He believes the U.S. should better compensate teachers.

“Our belief is that teachers are not compensated sufficiently, and you see that in certain cases, when a strike happens. But I think it’s indicative of the value we attach to the teaching profession as a society. Other countries pay teachers much better than we do,” Lynch said.

A 2018 study done by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) found that in 38 states, the average 2018 teacher salary is lower than it was in 2009, in real terms. "I don't feel as though teaching as a profession has a lot of respect from the outside community. It is also more stressful as teaching your content is not the only concern," an Ohio middle school-teacher who participated Education Confidence Report survey said.

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt study found that many teachers feel the same way — that students increasingly need CONTINUE READING: Low teacher morale 'has reached a tipping point:' Study

HFT Criticizes TEA Takeover of HISD | Houston Press #redfored #questionsformorath #hisdproud #tbats

HFT Criticizes TEA Takeover of HISD | Houston Press

Accountability for some? HFT Members are asking what about failing charter schools?

Suggesting that politics, not concern for students, is behind the Texas Education Agency decision to take over the Houston ISD school board, Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo Monday charged the state agency with a continued attempt to privatize education in the state — supporting charters not public schools.

"We have doubts whether this is really about student achievement or is this about easy pickings," Capo said at a news conference he called at union headquarters. While saying he did not want parents to panic, he complained that TEA has not said what it is going to do yet, what its goals are. "What we see is privatization instead of education being the driver of this decision."

Last week, citing numerous bad actions and dysfunction by elected HISD school board members as well as the continued failure to meet state standards at historic Wheatley High School, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced he was following his TEA investigators' advice and replacing the elected board with an appointed one of his own choosing.

RELATED STORIES

• Not to Pile it On But the Texas Legislative Budget Board Assessed HISD and It's Not Good News

• TEA Commissioner Drops the Hammer, HISD Board Will Be Replaced With State Appointees

• HISD Loses its Ratings Appeal on Wheatley, But T.H. Rogers Moves Up to an "A"

Sitting in on Monday's HFT press conference by Skype was Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, of which HFT is an affiliate. She said the idea that TEA had to step in because of actions by the HISD trustees is nonsense since in last week's school board elections two incumbents were voted out and four seats in all will be filled with new people. The community was able to take care of matters itself, she said. It did not need its elected board replaced with an appointed board from the state.

"This is a power grab," the longtime national teachers union leader said. "It has nothing to do with student achievement. And it is actually going to hurt the community in Houston."

How can it be that just four years ago, the TEA turned over the entire North Forest ISD to HISD to turn around and now says that HISD isn't competent to manage itself, Capo asked. Overall, the district has an accountability rating of 88 percent, which is above average, he said. "How are they going to invest in this one school to help our students thrive?"

"This is not a failing district. We're talking about one school," he said referring to Wheatley High School. The idea that an entire district with thousands of children and almost 300 schools could be taken over by TEA because of problems at just one school is ridiculous, he said.

He referred frequently to a chart showing 38 charter schools in Texas showing overall scores below that of Wheatley's 59 and asked why they weren't closed. What he left out of the discussion, however, was the fact that Wheatley was listed as Improvement Required (the former measure) or rated "F" (in the new A-F system) for seven straight years.

Still he insisted that TEA gives charters an unfair advantage and does not require it to meet the same standards it demands of the state's public schools.

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"We are not treated the same. Every advantage is given to the charter industry," Capo said. "Every opportunity  to knock public schools is put in place particularly by the administration we have in Austin."

The AFT has filed a Freedom of Information act request with the TEA for copies of all communication between TEA Commissioner Mike Morath and Deputy Commissioner A.J. Crabill and several charter operators and pro-charter organizations. The request also singles out TEA communications with HISD trustee Jolanda Jones. When asked why, Capo said it was because she stated publicly that she would welcome a TEA takeover of HISD.

Both Capo and Weingarten repeatedly warned that a school district takeover is "not a silver bullet" and that communities in Detroit, Philadelphia and New Orleans had all come to regret and then rescind that action. 

Addressing the latest Legislative Budget Board reported released at the end of last week which alleged massive financial mismanagement in the district by its administration and also cited dysfunction in the school board as one of the causes of HISD's problems, Capo said: "If the issue is the administration that we're seeing in the Legislative Budget Board report, well TEA under the conservator has had the opportunity for the last several years to deal with the administration and have done nothing. So why would we not have doubts? They had the power to make changes at Wheatley High School." Instead of any interim steps, he said, TEA opted to take the more extreme step of a takeover.

READ MORE: HFT Criticizes TEA Takeover of HISD | Houston Press

Tonight! A Bipartisan Requiem (or Celebration) for the Failure of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog

Tonight! A Bipartisan Requiem (or Celebration) for the Failure of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog

Tonight! A Bipartisan Requiem (or Celebration) for the Failure of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top

Political Morning Education reports a big event in D.C. tonight where partisans of the test-and-punish education policies of the past twenty years will gather to rededicate themselves to their failed programs. Will these advocates for accountability accept any accountability for the misguided practices they have foisted on American education? Will they hold themselves accountable for the billions of dollars spent on testing and privatization that should have been spent on reducing class sizes and raising teachers salaries and opening health clinics in schools? Wouldn’t it be something if they invited someone like Jonathan Kozol or Anthony Cody to explain why NCLB and RTTT failed and how to have a better approach to teaching and learning other than carrots and sticks?

BUSHES SPOTLIGHT READING, LITERACY AMID GRIM ASSESSMENTS: Events starting tonight at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will bring together members of the Bush family, best-selling authors and entertainers, philanthropists, and education and business leaders to celebrate reading and mark the foundation’s 30th anniversary.

— “I believe that literacy is an essential foundation for democracy,” former first lady Laura Bush said in a statement provided to POLITICO. Bush, one of tonight’s honorary co-chairs, will deliver remarks during a program CONTINUE READING: Tonight! A Bipartisan Requiem (or Celebration) for the Failure of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: More than 765 Charter Schools Closed in Three Years | Dissident Voice

More than 765 Charter Schools Closed in Three Years | Dissident Voice

More than 765 Charter Schools Closed in Three Years

Currently, about 3.2 million students are enrolled in roughly 7,000 privately-operated charter schools across the country. This represents less than 7% of all students and 7% of all schools in the country.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 765 charter schools closed between 2014-15 and 2016-2017,¹ leaving thousands of families stressed, abandoned, dislocated, and angry. This figure represents more than one out of ten charter schools in the country by today’s numbers. The real closure figure is likely higher. To be sure, more than 3,000 charter schools have closed in under three decades.

The top three reasons privately-operated charter schools close are financial malfeasance, poor academic performance, and low enrollment.

With regard to academic performance, for example, the Washington Post (November 1, 2019) reminds us that:

When you take all charters and all public schools into consideration, students at charters do worse than those at public schools. According to the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, public school students in fourth, eighth and 12th grades outperform charter school students in math, reading and science.

It is also worth recalling that the vast majority of high-performing nations do not have charter schools.

Today, nearly 60% of charter schools are in urban settings where schools tend to be under-funded, over-tested, constantly-shamed, and attended mostly by poor and low-income minority students. Charter school advocates prefer to CONTINUE READING: More than 765 Charter Schools Closed in Three Years | Dissident Voice

Organizations with the Audacity to Blame Teachers for Poor NAEP Reading Scores!

Organizations with the Audacity to Blame Teachers for Poor NAEP Reading Scores!

Organizations with the Audacity to Blame Teachers for Poor NAEP Reading Scores!

The latest “criticize teachers for not teaching the ‘science’ of reading” can be found in “Schools Should Follow the ‘Science of Reading,’ say National Education Groups” in the Gates funded Education Week. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds most of the organizations in this report that criticize public schools and teachers for low NAEP scores. Yet they are behind the Common Core State Standards, which appear to be an abysmal failure.

Most individuals and groups never teach children themselves, but they create policies that affect how and what teachers are forced to teach. They have always been about privatizing public education.

Reading instruction is the conduit for corporate school reformers to reach their privatization goals. Reading has always been one of the most important functions of a public school.

Here are the organizations blaming schools.

Achieve 

This group put Common Core State Standards in place in 2010, ten years ago.

How can they blame teachers and public schools for reading failure? Most teachers have worked fearfully towards these standards. CONTINUE READING: Organizations with the Audacity to Blame Teachers for Poor NAEP Reading Scores!

Campbell Brown’s “The 74” Does Not Like Elizabeth Warren | Diane Ravitch's blog

Campbell Brown’s “The 74” Does Not Like Elizabeth Warren | Diane Ravitch's blog

Campbell Brown’s “The 74” Does Not Like Elizabeth Warren

Campbell Brown was a CNN anchor. Then she became the new face of the Education Disruption movement after the disappearance of Michelle Rhee. Brown advocated for charters and vouchers and she opposed teachers’ unions and teacher tenure. She claimed in various articles in the New York City press that the schools were overrun by teachers who were sexual predators, protected by the union. She created a news site called “The 74” to express her views; it was funded by the usual cast of billionaires (Walton, Bloomberg, Gates, Broad, etc.). She is anti-public school, anti-union, anti-tenure and pro-privatization. When Betsy DeVos was chosen as Secretary of Education, Campbell Brown acknowledged that she was a personal friend and that Betsy funded “The 74,” while Brown served on the board of Betsy’s pro-voucher American Federation for Children.

Those with a longish memory might recall that Brown started the “Partnership for Educational Justice” to file court cases in several states in an effort to destroy teacher tenure–a copycat of the Vergara lawsuit in CONTINUE READING: Campbell Brown’s “The 74” Does Not Like Elizabeth Warren | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: FTC Cracks Down On Edu-Influencers

CURMUDGUCATION: FTC Cracks Down On Edu-Influencers

FTC Cracks Down On Edu-Influencers

One of the small tricks that education marketers have developed is to enlist teachers as brand ambassadors. Teachers are, after all, the voices most often trusted by other teachers, so it's got to be a real boost if you can get Mrs. Teachwell to tout your product on Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest. And the beauty of it is that Mrs. Teachwell may come cheap-- some free product, box of pens, maybe even some actual money.

It's a fuzzy ethical line; do teachers who accept some sort of marketing deal compromise their professional judgment? On the other hand, if you find an edu-product you really like, isn't the fact that you can get a few goodies for plugging just sort of gravy? People are not exactly lined up to give teachers things. Still, it's a pain to be talking to someone who you think is just offering a professional insight and then it turns out they're a paid-ish endorser.

Now the FTC has decide to add its voice to the conversation. EdWeek talked to FTC attorney Michael Ostheimer to get some clarity on the new rule, and it doesn't seem very hard tp grasp.

The connection between an endorser and a brand—whether it’s swag or a trip or getting paid money—that should be disclosed to the endorser’s audience,” said Ostheimer.

Just noting the connection in your profile is not enough. Every time you post about how awesome the Gradeinator 3000 is, you must also post that you are a Gradeinator 3000 Ambassador.  The guidelines indicate that you must reveal any "financial, employment, personal, or family relationship." Financial is of course not limited to being handed cash. Some of the guidelines are sensible (the notification has to be plain and clear and in the same language as the rest of the communication) and some of them will be  challenging. Liking a tweet or post by Gradeinator 3000 counts as an endorsement, so somehow your "like" will have to include your relationship. If you're doing a live stream that involves the Gradeinator 3000, you need to include your relationship CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FTC Cracks Down On Edu-Influencers

With A Brooklyn Accent: A New Goal in My Pedagogy-Stress Reduction

With A Brooklyn Accent: A New Goal in My Pedagogy-Stress Reduction

A New Goal in My Pedagogy-Stress Reduction

Throughout my many years teaching at Fordham, I was probably not best known for my kindness. Yes, I gave my students lots of personal attention and and made sure they had an opportunity to express themselves, but I also pushed them HARD, asking them to write long research papers that had to be handed in ON TIME. No one took my courses without doing a lot of reading and writing. My students not only learned things they didn't know before, they came out of the experience stronger, able to stand on their own knowing they had survived a harsh test

However, in the last few years, I have changed my pedagogy to reduce stress on my students.. I still demand a lot of reading and writing in my courses, but I have reduced the work load slightly, only give take home exams and untimed tests, and are more sympathetic when students ask for extensions. I also FEED my students whenever possible, making food as well as music part of the experience of taking a course with me

Why am I doing this? Because my students today are under severe stress and I don't want to add to it if I can help it

Look what they are up against

1. Many are graduating with huge student debt

2. They have a madman as President of the United States

3. There is a resurgence of racism, xenophobia and homophobia CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: A New Goal in My Pedagogy-Stress Reduction

What Does the Slippage in NAEP Reading Scores Mean about our Schools? our Children? our Society? | janresseger

What Does the Slippage in NAEP Reading Scores Mean about our Schools? our Children? our Society? | janresseger

What Does the Slippage in NAEP Reading Scores Mean about our Schools? our Children? our Society?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is considered the most reliable indicator of trends in American public education. The test is administered to samples of students and is used to track long-range trends.  Nobody reports on the NAEP scores of specific students. Nobody judges schools by comparative scores on NAEP. Nobody evaluates teachers based on their students’ NAEP scores. NAEP has never been part of the accountability scheme imposed by No Child Left Behind.

Diane Ravitch explains what the NAEP is:  “We have only one authoritative measure of academic performance over time, and that is the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as NAEP (pronounced ‘nape’).  NAEP is part of the U.S. Department of Education.  It has an independent governing board, called the National Assessment Governing Board.  By statute, the governing board is bipartisan and consists of teachers, administrators, state legislators, governors, business people, and members of the general public.”  (Reign of Error, p. 44)

Daniel Koretz, the Harvard expert on the construction and use of standardized tests and the way testing is distorted when the scores are used for high stakes school accountability (to compare and judge schools and teachers), explains why the NAEP scores are respected as an accurate measure of the overall trends in U.S. public schools: “NAEP… is  considered a very high-quality test. NAEP scores are not susceptible to inflation because teachers aren’t held accountable for scores and therefore have no incentive to engage in NAEP-focused test prep.  And NAEP scores are there for the taking.  In math and reading, NAEP is administered every two years, and the scores are available to anyone on the web.” (The Testing Charade, p. 57)

The most recent NAEP scores were released in late October, for the first time since 2017. For the NY Times, Erica Green and Dana Goldstein describe the results: “America’s fourth and eighth graders are losing ground in their ability to read literature and academic texts…. The average eighth-grade reading score declined in more than half of the states compared with CONTINUE READING: What Does the Slippage in NAEP Reading Scores Mean about our Schools? our Children? our Society? | janresseger

Education in DC’s Ward 8 – Education Town Hall Forum

Education in DC’s Ward 8 – Education Town Hall Forum

Education in DC’s Ward 8

Our show, Nov. 14, will focus on issues around public education in Ward 8, DC’s eastern- and southernmost ward with the city’s largest number of kids–and some of its poorest residents. We will be talking about the variety of issues that the ward faces with respect to public education, including safe passage; budget cuts to neighborhood schools; health; and charter school plans.

Tune in Thursday, November 14, at 11 a.m. via TuneIn or by visiting We Act Radio and clicking on arrow at upper left (NOTE: Not all “listen” buttons are working at present).

Joining us will be Ward 8 council member Trayon White Sr., Sharona Robinson, Ballou PTSA President and Anacostia High School social worker Nathan Luecking.

A native Washingtonian, Trayon White Sr. graduated from Ballou high school and the University of Maryland. He has served as the Ward 8 member of the DC state board of education and in a variety of city organizations dedicated to helping the city’s kids.

Nathan Luecking is a licensed clinician working with youth in Washington, DC and has served on the mayor’s task force on school mental health.

Sharona Robinson is a long-time resident of Ward 8. A graduate of Ballou High School, Robinson is a DCPS parent as well as one of the community action team leaders at DCPS, working among school communities in Ward 8.

The Education Town Hall with Thomas Byrd
broadcasts from Historic Anacostia
in Washington, DC, on We Act Radio,
Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. Eastern
New programming 2nd and 4th Thursdays, alternating with classic shows.
Listen live via TuneIn.
Shows are archived for convenient listening shortly after broadcast.

After years of weekly broadcasts, the program now focuses one show each month on local issues and one on “the BUS,” organized by BadAss Teachers, United Opt Out, and SOS March.

Education in DC’s Ward 8 – Education Town Hall Forum

NYC Educator: Why Are Teachers Targeted and What Can We Do About It?

NYC Educator: Why Are Teachers Targeted and What Can We Do About It?

Why Are Teachers Targeted and What Can We Do About It?

After reading yet another week of press coverage that shows little or no awareness of who we are or what we do, I have to take a moment and look at why we are where we are in the press. There are a number of reasons, and none of them are good. Fifteen years ago, crappy press coverage and too many conversations with people who didn't know what they were talking about caused me to begin this blog.

A big reason, as I said a few days ago, is that we still have union, something lacking in much of these United States. Ronald Reagan painted a big old target on union when he moved to kill PATCO, the only union that supported his election. Yes, he told the country, we will put you all out of work if you move to halt the transportation of the elite. What's more important, working people or rich people taking their vacations? Reagan let the whole country know where he stood on that.

This started a downward spiral for union in America. This is a big reason for the erosion of middle class. When I was a kid, the norm was one-income families. You could buy a home and support a large family if you worked in a factory. If you work in a factory nowadays, you probably can't afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country.

Teachers stuck with union, hopefully because we're well-educated. A few weeks ago, we faced a whole lot of pushback on a state law that gave us time to vote. Because we're union, many of us were able to take advantage of it. I brought my car into Toyota that morning to rotate the tires. They had no idea. They have no union. It was only the union that let me know about this, and it was me who mostly told the members in my building about it. The law, in fact, says it should be posted somewhere. What are you gonna do when you're an at-will employee? The best answer, in fact, would be to organize a union. (Easier said than done in many environments these days. It's on us to change that.)

Another factor is that we're a union dominated by women. Maybe you think sexism is a thing of the past, but I don't. Teachers and nurses are chronically underpaid, though our CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Why Are Teachers Targeted and What Can We Do About It?

Shanker Blog: Social Identity Development in the Age of Accountability | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: Social Identity Development in the Age of Accountability | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: Social Identity Development in the Age of Accountability

According to a recent NPR article, the “majority of parents” do not talk to their children about social identity, which refers to group membership based on characteristics such as religion, gender, national origin, race, family makeup, and socio-economic status. The article presents results from a report, co-published by The Sesame Workshop and NORC at the University of Chicago, called the Identity Matters Study. The study includes survey responses from 6,000 parents about their children’s sense of identity at home and in the classroom, as well as results from a second survey of 1,046 educators’ perspectives on identity development in school. 

Many readers were quick to respond that NPR’s headline was misleading, pointing out that the wording should have been, “White parents rarely, if ever, discuss ethnicity, gender, class or other identity categories with their kids…” This objection has merit. The report does show parent responses by race for just five survey questions, but the data confirm that White parents are far less likely than Black parents to talk about identity with students, with 6 percent of White parents and 22 percent of Black parents answering that they often talk about race. Nevertheless, the study concludes that, overall, 60 percent of parents rarely or never talk about race, ethnicity, or social class with their children. In the second survey, which queried educators, the study found that one third of teachers had a student affected by a negative comment targeting their social identity, but that most teachers feel unprepared or uncomfortable when it comes to navigating conversations on the matter. 

It is clear that we need more comprehensive survey data, including more questions broken down by race and other demographic indicators, in order to have a better understanding of how children are developing a sense of social identity at home. In the meantime, what we can gather from this article is that many students, particularly White students, do not develop an awareness of their own complex social identity until they get to school, and that this awareness often comes via negative comments.

How can schools do better?

If college and career readiness is a priority in our education system, then we need to cultivate identity development in all students, as it is crucial for their success both in school and in the workplace. The CONTINUE READING: Shanker Blog: Social Identity Development in the Age of Accountability | National Education Policy Center

On Getting an Award | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

On Getting an Award | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

On Getting an Award

On October 25, 2019, I received an award from the Alumni of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education for Lifetime Achievement. Three other graduates of GSE received awards for Excellence in Education. Here is what I said upon receiving the award.

I thank my family and friends who have come out tonight.

Two people who I wish were here tonight are not. They helped me become the person I am today: Barbara Cuban and David Tyack. I miss them a great deal.

In these brief remarks I want to talk about my career as a teacher/scholar, what the award means to me, and the importance of knowing about the past particularly when it comes to school reform.

1. My career path since I began teaching in 1955 has been unplanned and uncommon.

I had been a high school history teacher in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. for 14 years. While I have never been a school principal, I did work as an administrator in the D.C. district office. In that position I came in frequent contact with the superintendent. I learned a lot about leadership and bureaucratic decision-making and slowly came to realize that I could do the work of a superintendent, a job that I had once thought was well beyond my grasp as a teacher. But I needed an advanced degree.

So at the age of 37 my family and I came to Stanford. I came for only one reason: I wanted to be a superintendent and needed a doctorate. David Tyack made it possible for Barbara, my daughters, and me to come here. Living in Escondido CONTINUE READING: On Getting an Award | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Importance of Leaving Footprints- Lessons From the Slave Narratives and "Footnote Four"

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Importance of Leaving Footprints- Lessons From the Slave Narratives and "Footnote Four"

The Importance of Leaving Footprints- Lessons From the Slave Narratives and "Footnote Four"

During the last few years, it has been a matter of extreme frustration to me that I have been able to do little to prevent our country from "going off the rails." I saw what was coming four years ago, warned people about it, and had virtually no influence on anybody that didn't already share my views

In the last few weeks, I have started to make peace with my ineffectiveness as a political actor when it comes to current events. My influence, such as it is, will be manifested over a long period of time, for the most part through the activity of the students I have taught, but also through my writings, my postings on social media, and the data base on Bronx and New York History I have created with my colleagues through the Bronx African American History Project

To explain why I think this way, I want to share two things that took place in the Great Depression that would have their greatest influence over thirty years after they were done

The first was an initiative of the Federal Writers Project, created by the Works Progress Administration, to conduct oral history interviews with more than 2,000 formerly enslaved people who were still alive during the great Depression. These interviews, conducted by scores of young scholars, were placed in the Library of Congress and were neglected for more than twenty years because historians of slavery, overwhelmingly white, only trusted written documents and were only willing to use as source for their accounts of slavery journals and letters of slave owners, newspaper articles, and a small number of published memoirs of former slaves. However, in the late 60's and early 70's with the rise of the Black Studies movement, these interviews were not only "discovered" they were transformed into the major source for CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: The Importance of Leaving Footprints- Lessons From the Slave Narratives and "Footnote Four"