The problem with K.J.’s comeback • SN&R Extra

The problem with K.J.’s comeback • SN&R Extra

The problem with K.J.’s comeback
Sacramento didn’t author Kevin Johnson’s political downfall. Will the city support the accused molester’s makeover as a celebrity restaurant owner?

Dear Sacramento,

Did you forgive or forget? Or did you never believe the girls at all?

It’s a late Friday morning inside Fixins Soul Kitchen, and Oak Park’s buzziest new restaurant is steady with early lunch traffic. Scan the crowd: Natty 20-somethings quaff pre-noon beers at the bar because they can; a tentative book club pokes in and settles on the patio; posses of friends and coworkers scarf down waffle stacks, brittle bacon, scrambled egg piles and deep-brined chicken slabs.

The 11 a.m. indicators are that Fixins is a hit—and a solid addition to the neighborhood’s fitful renaissance or sharp-elbowed gentrification, depending on whom you ask.

As for the man who owns this spot, this building, this block—his famous face hasn’t been this visible in a long while:

Kevin Johnson.

You remember K.J., Sacramento. He slunk out of office and out of the spotlight three years ago, amid resurgent allegations that he molested girls. You already knew these stories when you elected the former NBA great to be your mayor—twice. Johnson’s questionable behavior around young women became such an open secret that City Hall publicly reminded its elected officials to stop giving unsolicited hugs in 2013.

And yet Sacramento remained K.J.’s city, seemingly turning a blind eye to Johnson’s underage accusers so that it could bask in the shadow of its celebrity mayor. Until the national media told the rest of the country what you already knew, and a national audience recoiled.

But now he’s back.

For the first time since he dribbled out the clock on his political career, the retired professional athlete, one-time education reformer and ex-politician is fashioning his fourth reinvention—as the head of a budding restaurant empire. Johnson already has ownership stakes in three dining locations and says he plans to expand that portfolio beyond his native Oak Park.

Yet his latest chapter coincides with growing alarm about pervasive sexual harassment within the restaurant industry, where CONTINUE READING: The problem with K.J.’s comeback • SN&R Extra

NC teacher: Education is political - EducationNC

NC teacher: Education is political - EducationNC

Education is political

On a recent Sunday morning, I woke up to see tremendous chatter on social media concerning the budget impasse in the North Carolina General Assembly. The discussion included the lack of educator raises, the failure to expand Medicaid, unacceptable working conditions, and a shortage of support staff. This discussion quickly evolved into the formation of a new social media group discussing the possibility of a large scale collective action or strike of North Carolina educators.

This kind of discussion is not new to me. I’ve been a sixth grade social studies and language arts teacher for 18 years, working my whole career in a diverse community confronted with significant economic struggle. I love my community, and they have always inspired me to advocate for my students and their families. Recently, I decided to take an Inquiry to Action class through the Western Region Education Service Alliance (WRESA) to earn continuing licensure credits and build my activist skills. Here, a small group of educators studied educator activism in both theory and practice.  Each week we discussed a different education-related activist tool, theory, and issue. The culminating project was to take our “inquiry” and put it into “action” in some way.

The group decided to focus on “making the invisible visible.” In other words, we seek to deepen critical consciousness — the notion that we go through life oblivious to the world around us on the largest scale. A famous example of this precept is the analogy of the fish in water. If you asked a fish what water is, the fish wouldn’t understand the question because it has a fish brain.

Joking aside, it is because the fish is completely immersed in the water and always has been. The fish just doesn’t notice because it is so “normal” and so ubiquitous. In human life, this would be like the systematic racism that we all live within. Or, it may be ideas that are simply taken as “common sense.” For educators, we may struggle to apprehend fundamental truths about our own environments. I believe that public educators swim in a sea of politics which is all too often invisible — so that is the concept I choose to render more visible. 

Most North Carolina local school boards have policies which hold that employees may not engage in political activities during the school day. However, because public schools are supported by public monies which are controlled by politicians, the very act of teaching, while not partisan, is an inherently political activity. In fact, North Carolina’s evaluation instrument for educators insists upon educators taking part in political activities. Standard 1 (Teachers Demonstrate Leadership) states, “Teachers advocate for schools and students. Teachers advocate for positive change in policies and practices affecting student learning.” What is advocating for policies if not political?  

To test just how visible this idea of “education as political” might be, I created a few info graphics and shared them with my virtual colleagues on social media. I also shared a  CONTINUE READING: NC teacher: Education is political - EducationNC

Oakland School Board meeting turns chaotic after protesters take over, forcing board to leave | abc7news.com

Oakland School Board meeting turns chaotic after protesters take over, forcing board to leave | abc7news.com

Oakland School Board meeting turns chaotic after protesters take over, forcing board to leave

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Wednesday's Oakland School Board meeting turned into chaos after protesters upset about school closures disrupted things and then took over the meeting forcing the board to leave.

"Out with the school board, in with democracy," said one speaker.

It took only minutes for protesters to derail the Oakland Unified School Board Meeting.

Many parents and teachers are upset about the closure and consolidation of several schools due to declining enrollment.

Board president Jody London tried to keep order telling speakers they were out of order from the agenda.

Then this happened- the entire room, turned its back on the school board, chanting: "no school closures, Oakland is not for sale."

At the Oct. 23 meeting protesters clashed with police inside the meeting room after protesters jumped over a barricade separating them from the school board, arrests were made.

"No apology, no one accepted responsibility," said one speaker.

Parent Saru Jayaraman says she was injured that night, she wants the district to stop spending money on its police force.

"That money could be spent to save schools and keep them open," said Jayaraman.

Minutes later she confronted District Spokesman John Sasaki, demanding an apology.

"Shame on you, shame on you, you have no heart," said Jayaraman.

Board members were forced to leave the auditorium and continue their meeting in an upstairs room, no public allowed- only by a video camera,

Kids then took their places at the meeting.

"We were hoping to have a meeting in the great room, face to face, but that didn't happen," said OUSD spokesman John Sasaki.

Report a correction or typo

Oakland School Board meeting turns chaotic after protesters take over, forcing board to leave | abc7news.com

The Implications of Sacramento City Unified's Ongoing Budgetary Challenges for Local and State Policy | Policy Analysis for California Education

The Implications of Sacramento City Unified's Ongoing Budgetary Challenges for Local and State Policy | Policy Analysis for California Education

The Implications of Sacramento City Unified's Ongoing Budgetary Challenges for Local and State Policy

Authors: 

Carrie Hahnel, Hannah Melnicoe

Year of publication: 

November 2019

Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), California’s thirteenth largest school district, faces a looming deficit and must make significant budget adjustments to avoid state intervention. This case study explores how the district reached this point, how its finances compare with other districts in Sacramento County, and what the implications are for students, particularly those with the greatest needs. It finds that:

• Many of SCUSD’s troubles can be linked to broader issues affecting districts across the state, including declining enrollment, increasing special education costs, and increasing pension payments.
• The district’s instability, past budgeting practices, and tense labor-management relations have created a rocky foundation upon which the district must address its current budget situation.
• As compared with neighboring districts, SCUSD spends far more on health care and a smaller share of its budget on salaries for pupil support personnel, teachers, classified instructional staff, and office staff. Many stakeholders agree that the greatest fiscal challenge in SCUSD is the high cost of health care.

These challenges are making it harder to retain talented staff and teachers, limiting opportunities for the highest-need students, widening inequities, and reducing public commitment to public education. Our study of SCUSD offers considerations for policymakers and lessons that may apply to other districts facing a similarly troubling combination of statewide cost pressures, tense labor-management relations, and high health care costs. These lessons learned include:

1. Unaffordable teacher benefits, however well intentioned, will impact district budgets if not addressed.
2. Tense labor-management relations jeopardize financial stability and public confidence.
3. Additional county or state authority to take corrective action may be needed to address the root causes of fiscal distress.
4. Districts face real and unavoidable cost increases, and although money alone cannot address all the root causes of financial distress, more funding is an important part of the solution.

SCUSD’s fiscal crisis cannot be solved overnight. Even with major fixes now, the district will be paying off liabilities for decades to come. What leaders in SCUSD can do now is stabilize the situation, steer a course toward future sustainability and success, and restore public confidence.

This report is part of a two-case series looking at the implications of district budgetary challenges in Marin County and Sacramento City Unified School District.

 Download infographic

 Download report

The Implications of Sacramento City Unified's Ongoing Budgetary Challenges for Local and State Policy | Policy Analysis for California Education

CURMUDGUCATION: Pearson In Your Pants

CURMUDGUCATION: Pearson In Your Pants

Pearson In Your Pants

Pearson, the edu-product giant that hopes to eat the world, just announced a new product.

It's part of the overall Pearson vision-- and nobody does large-scale vision like Pearson. They see everything happening in a "digital ocean." They have ideas about an "assessment renaissance" so huge that it took me five posts to write about it (here's the shorter version). And just this summer, they announced their intention to go "digital first." That is, not exactly phasing out textbooks entirely, but focusing on the digital; instead of offering digitized versions of print textbooks, they'll now work the other way around. Fun fact: "62% of Pearson revenue now comes from digital or digitally enabled products and services that make lifelong education possible."

It's very much in tune with their website slogan, "Learning Without Limits." That seems like a big reach, but again, Pearson has a big vision. What other textbook publishing company would offer two categories on its K-12 page: Products & Services, and Thought Leadership.
So this week's announcement is in tune with all of that.

Meet Aida Calculus. It's an app you can put on your phone, only that makes it sound too pedestrian, like one more version of Candy Crush. Hey, Pearson! Can we have some overly florid martket-speak here?

Aida is a first in the education industry and an important milestone in the use of artificial CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Pearson In Your Pants

Students forced to advocate for themselves on impact of climate change

Students forced to advocate for themselves on impact of climate change

Students take their future into their own hands on climate change activism
Why aren’t schools helping them?

When high school senior Destiny Watford learned that state officials had approved a building permit for a giant incinerator that would burn 4,000 tons of trash every day and emit more than a thousand pounds of lead and mercury every year, less than a mile away from her school in Baltimore, she took action. The plan reeked of environmental racism , which occurs when communities of color are burdened with a lop-sided amount of environmental threats, including toxic waste sites, polluting industries, and other sources of pollution.

Watford mobilized her impoverished neighborhood of Curtis Bay, canvassing the area for four years. Her efforts led the state to revoke the permit in 2016. That was a real civics lesson she will never forget.

“The decisions that affect the land that we live on are made behind closed doors,” Watford told Essence magazine. She added that communities are left in the dark “until a development’s built — or until they are dying of lung cancer.”

Students should be fully informed of climate issues, particular those that directly impact them. What good is a curriculum if it’s not relevant? As adults drop the ball, as politicians erode environmental protections, and signs of climate change are too evident to deny, students are forced to speak out against practices that directly impact their environment and contribute to the mounting climate CONTINUE READING: Students forced to advocate for themselves on impact of climate change

Too few parents talking to kids about race and identity, report finds

Too few parents talking to kids about race and identity, report finds

Too few parents talk to their kids about race and identity, report finds
Ten percent of parents discuss race often with their children

Too few parents and teachers are talking about race, gender and other identity traits with children often enough, which means they are missing out on critical opportunities to teach children to become tolerant of differences from an early age. That’s one of the main findings of a new report by Sesame Workshop, which surveyed 6,070 parents of children ages 3 to 12 and 1,046 teachers from preschool to fifth grade. Experts say this trend can have serious implications, because when adults don’t talk to kids about these topics, kids learn that identity is a taboo topic. They may also start to believe the stereotypes and biases they’re presented with in everyday life.

“Young kids do notice skin tone, they do notice race groups,” said Christia Spears Brown, a professor and associate chair of development and social psychology at the University of Kentucky, who has researched and written about identity development. “We also live in a segregated society…We know kids notice that and if parents don’t help them have an explanation that navigates the bias, kids will just absorb it as its just real meaningful difference.”

The authors of the Sesame Workshop “Identity Matters” report surveyed 6,070 parents of children. Here are some of their main findings:

• Only 10 percent of parents discuss race often with their children.
• A parent’s race impacts how often these conversations are happening. Twenty-two percent of black parents discuss race often with their children, compared to 6 percent of white parents.
• Nearly 35 percent of all parents surveyed said they never talk to their children about social class.
• Fifty-seven percent of all parents said they rarely or never talk about gender with their kids. These conversations are less likely to happen with younger children. Less than a third of parents of 3- to 5-year-old kids discuss race and ethnicity sometimes or often.

If parents aren’t having conversations about identity with their CONTINUE READING: Too few parents talking to kids about race and identity, report finds

Walton Foundation and UNCF Collaborate to Lure Young African Americans into Disruption Movement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Walton Foundation and UNCF Collaborate to Lure Young African Americans into Disruption Movement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Walton Foundation and UNCF Collaborate to Lure Young African Americans into Disruption Movement

A friend share this link about a program in which the United Negro College Fund is funded by the far-right Walton Family Foundation to give summer internships to young African Americans to work in organizations that undermine public education, unions, and the teaching profession. The purpose of the program is to build a “robust pipeline of African Americans engaged in education reform in America.”

All of the summer interns will serve with trusted arms of the ultra-conservative movement.

Summer Internship – One of the principal elements of the paid summer internship program that exposes fellows to professional careers at leading K-12 education organizations and schools focused on education reform. Specifically, fellows are deployed as interns to organizations and schools located in such cities as Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis and Nashville. Examples of internship host organizations include Teach for America, New Schools Venture Fund, Paul Public Charter School, BUILD, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Thomas B. Fordham Research Institute and CONTINUE READING: Walton Foundation and UNCF Collaborate to Lure Young African Americans into Disruption Movement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Statewide Red for Ed Day of Action to see national backing at rally next week | News | mdjonline.com

Statewide Red for Ed Day of Action to see national backing at rally next week | News | mdjonline.com

Statewide Red for Ed Day of Action to see national backing at rally next week

The national president of the American Federation of Teachers will join teachers, school administrators and legislators next week as public education advocates plan a statewide rally for public education.

The day, dubbed the Red for Ed Day of Action, will kick off with a morning rally Tuesday at the Indiana Statehouse where legislators are preparing for the start of the next legislative session.

AFT National President Randi Weingarten will join AFT Indiana President GlenEva Dunham, of Gary, and several state Democrats in outlining the union's legislative priorities for the coming session, including discussion of teacher pay, educators' professional growth point requirements and a fix to the Indiana's new ILEARN exam, which saw low performance statewide in the test's first administration this spring.

"This is member-driven, grassroots, by younger members who haven't had a raise since 2012, but, it's not just about the money, it's working conditions," said Dunham, who called changes in standardized testing "the straw that broke the camel's back."

House and Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle have called for "hold harmless" legislation, mitigating the effects of low ILEARN scores on teacher performance evaluations and school accountability, to be brought early in the session.

The Indiana State Board of Education has resolved that it will not assign school accountability grades for the 2018-19 school year until such measures have been passed. 

Dozens of Indiana school districts have announced plans to close Nov. 19, allowing teachers and staff to participate in rallies across the state.

AFT INDIANA@AFTIndiana

50 school corporations have CLOSED in Indiana for November 19th #RED4ED #FUNDOURFUTURE events as of 9AM today

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6:08 AM - Nov 8, 2019

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In Northwest Indiana, the School City of East Chicago, the School City of Hammond and Lake Ridge Schools will participate in eLearning Days. Michigan City Area Schools, M.S.D. CONTINUE READING: Statewide Red for Ed Day of Action to see national backing at rally next week | News | mdjonline.com

Is your community participating in the planned Red for Ed Action Day? Let Times education reporter Carley Lanich know at carley.lanich@nwi.com.

Read the Portage Township Schools resolution here:

 Download PDF

Celebrating Region teachers

Let's celebrate Region teachers like Jerry Ross Elementary School's Keaton Burk

Should a Cooperating Teacher Make Things More ‘Real’ for His Student Teacher? | Teacher in a strange land

Should a Cooperating Teacher Make Things More ‘Real’ for His Student Teacher? | Teacher in a strange land

Should a Cooperating Teacher Make Things More ‘Real’ for His Student Teacher?

Thought experiment: You’re a successful veteran male HS teacher, firing on all instructional cylinders. You take your first student teacher. Your classes this year are right where you want them—the students have begun to trust each other and their own ideas and skills. They’re functioning well. And now—you’re going to turn the teaching over to your young, female student teacher.

You think she’s not likely to have such cooperative classes in her first job. In fact, it took you some time to establish good classroom routines, but hey—that was a long time ago. If she teaches your classes, she might think all kids were that amenable and eager to learn. You ask colleagues for some ideas on how to make her student teaching experience more ‘realistic’—planted behavior problems, stump-the-teacher questions, other ideas to put her on the spot? You’re just trying to give her a taste of the challenges she’s likely to meet. Right?

Stop thinking. Experiment over. Your thoughts?

On the education-group Facebook page where I read a post like this—only not a thought experiment– it was heartening to notice that there were perhaps 50 comments and 45 of them were some variation of ‘what a terrible idea’ or ‘please don’t do this.’

Any student teacher is vulnerable, and tentative. She’ll naturally run into plenty of challenges, no matter how well-behaved the group. While your tips and advice are part CONTINUE READING: Should a Cooperating Teacher Make Things More ‘Real’ for His Student Teacher? | Teacher in a strange land

Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice – Have You Heard

Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice – Have You Heard

Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice

In the latest episode of Have You Heard, we tackle a fraught and timely question.Why do progressive parents so often act to preserve their own privilege, and that of their children, even as they say they’re committed to challenging inequality? We talk to Margaret Hagerman, author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America. Full transcript of the episode is available here. And if you’re a fan of Have You Heard, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice – Have You Heard

NYC Educator: Today's Grievances

NYC Educator: Today's Grievances

Today's Grievances

I have a girl in my class who imitates me. Sometimes she stands behind my back and mimics my movements. Other times, she anticipates exactly what I'm going to say, stands up, and says it before I can. I have to say, I find this very disappointing.

The key issue, in my view, is having teenagers in my class who are smarter than I am. I mean, who the hell do they think they are doing that? Not only are they thinking faster than I am, but they have no reservations whatsoever about demonstrating it to the rest of the class. How disrespectful is that?

Now some of these kids are from a country in which students tend not to talk in class, ever. The teacher just stands up there like some mythical deity and spouts wisdom. They sit there and write down every golden piece of verbiage that falls from his mouth, like manna from heaven. Then they come here, get into my class, and talk faster and more cleverly than I do. What's up with that?

And don't get me started on the students who are taller than I am. I point out that I don't like it, and they nod their heads in agreement. But the next day they walk in just as tall as they were the last time I saw them. Sometimes they're even taller.

Clearly there is a breakdown in communications somewhere in our processes. We spend years carefully giving them tests that value self-expression not at all. We give them English classes in which we gloss over the great body of American literature it's taken us hundreds of years to build. Maybe we do The Road Not Taken. More likely we don't. Perish forbid we should go back to actual English literature, beyond perhaps a Classic Comics version of Romeo and Juliet.

No, we burden them with tedious essays. We make sure they read up on the history of cement, and they get to decide whether or not we should include rocks or shiny stuff among the gravel. These are the issues. We make sure to avoid discussing anything of relevance. Should teachers carry guns in schools? Should all Americans have health insurance? It doesn't matter, because you'll never see a controversial or contemporary topic that actually affects the lives of our students on the English Regents exam. In fact even if you did, there would be two prefabricated arguments and no room for students to create their own.

We do everything we can imagine to suppress their sense of curiosity and wonder and still they show up with eager minds and ready senses of humor. What more can we do to CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Today's Grievances

How School Choice Works: The School Has the Choice to Close Mid-Year and Transfer Its Students | deutsch29

How School Choice Works: The School Has the Choice to Close Mid-Year and Transfer Its Students | deutsch29

How School Choice Works: The School Has the Choice to Close Mid-Year and Transfer Its Students

How school choice works:

• Florida parents and students think they have chosen a charter school.
• School decides to close mid-year. 
• Parents and students are informed less than three weeks prior to closure that they will be transferred to another charter school.
• Original, “chosen” school has apparently made arrangements to merge with a charter chain in the name of choosing a “different direction”– the details of which have yet to be disclosed.

• 
  

More key details from WLRN, dated November 08, 2019:

Several students leaving LBA (Latin Builders Association) Academy on Thursday afternoon said they had been informed this week the school was shutting down and they were being transferred to the nearby charter school Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens. …

A spokeswoman for Mater Academy confirmed there’s a “partnership” in the works between the South Florida charter school network and the LBA. …

Mater Academy is one of four prominent charter school networks affiliated with the South Miami for-profit educational service provider Academica. The Mater, Somerset, Pinecrest and Doral academy networks pay millions in taxpayer dollars annually to Academica for administrative services. Academica has close financial ties to several current and former state lawmakers who have crafted lucrative laws and budgets benefiting charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run.

School choice empowers parents and students– right up to the inconvenient, unexpected moment it doesn’t.

How School Choice Works: The School Has the Choice to Close Mid-Year and Transfer Its Students | deutsch29

Interested in scheduling Mercedes Schneider for a speaking engagement? Click here.

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.