Will LAUSD Evict Special Ed Program for New Academy? | Capital & Main

Will LAUSD Evict Special Ed Program for New Academy? | Capital & Main

Will LAUSD Evict Special Ed Program for New Academy?
Los Angeles-Hollywood-area parents say they were not consulted about a new middle school whose student body would be drawn from whiter and wealthier schools.

Charter-law reform may have come to California, but the free-market logic of schools-of-choice programs continues to divide. So say Los Angeles public schools advocates in the wake of a November 15 announcement by L.A. Unified that it may evict the Career and Transition Center (CTC) West program and its special needs community from its Fairfax High School campus home to make way for the West Hollywood-Fairfax Academy, a proposed new public middle school catering to neighboring WeHo families. (Although West Hollywood is incorporated as its own city, its public school students belong to the L.A. Unified School District.)

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“Learning Curves” is a weekly roundup of news items, profiles and dish about the intersection of education and inequality. Send tips, feedback and announcements of upcoming events to braden@capitalandmain.com, @BillRaden.

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For CTC West’s supporters, who rallied last week with protests and an online petition, the hostile takeover attempt is so much déjà vu. A similar gambit in May by the WFHA design team that targeted the campus of West Hollywood’s K-8 Laurel Span School was only beaten back by Laurel families and teachers two weeks ago. In both instances, defenders complain, WHFA’s prime mover, LAUSD District 4 board member Nick Melvoin, neglected to reach out to, or invite input from, the area schools that will be most impacted by a new middle school, whose student body would be drawn from whiter and wealthier West Hollywood schools. “District 4 is very famous for asking for forgiveness, not for permission,” Laurel activist parent Steve Veninga quipped to Learning Curves. “They don’t really come to the community until it’s too late.”

Melvoin admitted by email that the WHFA birthing process was far from perfect or inclusive. Which is why he had recommended to the school board that it postpone a final vote on WFHA from December 3 to sometime next year — a pause, he said, “to reflect on and address the voices of additional stakeholders, who only recently learned of the proposed new [middle school] pathway into Fairfax High.”

But the BD-4 member stood by his conviction that the WHFA enjoyed strong support from WeHo elementary parents, and that a new middle school remained the best bet to accommodate some of what he estimates to be the 85 to 95 percent of WeHo middle schoolers whose parents pass up LAUSD for private or charter middle schools.

Although a Supreme Court decision on the legality of Donald Trump’s decision to kill the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program isn’t due until June, November 12’s CONTINUE READING: Will LAUSD Evict Special Ed Program for New Academy? | Capital & Main

CURMUDGUCATION: CO: READ Didn't Work. Quick, Call A Consultant!

CURMUDGUCATION: CO: READ Didn't Work. Quick, Call A Consultant!

CO: READ Didn't Work. Quick, Call A Consultant!

In 2012, Colorado joined the list of states whose legislators don't understand the difference between correlation and causation. Colorado passed the READ Act, "born out of convincing research by a variety of sources...that shows students who cannot read by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school."

That's an interesting, possibly valuable correlation. But to argue, as many states now have, that forcing students to stay in third grade until they can pass a standardized reading test will somehow cause them not to drop out of school (or fail at school or fail at life, as other research has sugested)n is just dumb.

What do I mean about confusing correlation and causation in developing policy? Consider these examples:

Research shows that students who don't reach a certain height by third grade will be short as adults. Therefor, we should keep them in third grade until they reach tat certain height.

Research shows that if students use corrective lenses in third grade, they usually use them as adults. Therefor, no third graders will be allowed to use corrective lenses.

Research shows that students who have beaten up, ill-fitting shoes in third grade often are poor in high school. Therefore, we will buy all third graders a nice pair of shoes, insuring that none of them will be poor when they are in high school.

READ incorporated many of the usual dumb ideas. Like jamming reading, and the formal assessment of reading, down onto kindergartners. We know that academically oriented kindergartern is a bad idea. We absolutely know it. Here's just one paragraph from just one of the many articles that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: CO: READ Didn't Work. Quick, Call A Consultant!

No One Should Be A Commodity To Profit Goldman Sachs: Testimony Opposing Pay For Success Finance For Housing – Wrench in the Gears

No One Should Be A Commodity To Profit Goldman Sachs: Testimony Opposing Pay For Success Finance For Housing – Wrench in the Gears

No One Should Be A Commodity To Profit Goldman Sachs: Testimony Opposing Pay For Success Finance For Housing

Philadelphia City Council created a “Special Committee on Poverty Reduction and Prevention” on March 28, 2019 (resolution here), and with it the machine of human capital impact investing in our city of deep, deep poverty roared to life.

The purported goal of the committee is to create an action plan to lift 100,000 Philadelphians out of poverty by 2024, though how that will happen given stagnant wages and rising cost of living is unclear. See dismal workforce projections and plans to harness our education system to deliver a ten-dollar-per hour workforce here.

City Council commissioned a white paper, Narrowing the Gap, from HR&A Advisors, a New York real estate and economic development consulting firm, to inform the work. Resolve Philly/Broke In Philly (Solutions Journalism) boosters NBC Philadelphia (Comcast), Billy Penn, Al Dia, and PlanPhilly /WHYY provided, as supportive impact media partners will, expansive coverage of the development.

Three subcommittees have been set up: social safety net, education and workforce, and housing. A kick-off gathering of the full committee was held in October and hearings for each subcommittee are scheduled for November.

Transcript of the October 10, 2019 full committee hearing here.

Transcript of the November 18, 2019 “Safety Net Subcommittee” hearing here.

Below is video of testimony I gave at the November 25, 2019 Housing CONTINUE READING: No One Should Be A Commodity To Profit Goldman Sachs: Testimony Opposing Pay For Success Finance For Housing – Wrench in the Gears

Kindergarten Teachers Speak Out for Children’s Happiness | Psychology Today

Kindergarten Teachers Speak Out for Children’s Happiness | Psychology Today

Kindergarten Teachers Speak Out for Children’s Happiness
How can teachers bring common sense and compassion to education policy?

The research is clear. Academic training in kindergarten has no long-term benefit. In fact, it may cause long-term harm. It does not reduce the education gap between the rich and the poor, which is the usual reason offered for such training. It slightly increases academic test-scores in first grade, but by third grade the benefit is lost and, according to some of the best studies, by fourth grade those subjected to academic kindergartens are doing worse—academically as well as socially and emotionally—than those who were in play-based kindergartens (for some of the evidence, see here).

The views of kindergarten teachers are also clear (see here). I have spoken at many early education conferences over the past several years, and at each one I heard from teachers about unhappy little children who are being deprived of play and forced to do increasing amounts of “seat work.” I also hear regularly from kindergarten teachers who are resigning or taking early retirement because they see that the policies they are forced to enforce are harming children. We are losing our best teachers because they are the ones who are most likely to see what is happening and least likely to tolerate it.

So why do we continue on this trend of depriving little children of play and joyful group activities, from which they learn so much, and subjecting them ever more to meaningless, shallow “academic work,” from which they learn so little? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that the politicians who make CONTINUE READING: Kindergarten Teachers Speak Out for Children’s Happiness | Psychology Today

Evgeny Morozov on the “Moral Bankruptcy of Techno-Elites” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Evgeny Morozov on the “Moral Bankruptcy of Techno-Elites” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Evgeny Morozov on the “Moral Bankruptcy of Techno-Elites”

Evgeny Morozov writes about the political and social implications of technology.

In this fascinating article, Morozov reveals and condemns the moral and intellectual vacuity of the leaders of the tech sector.

For all the growing skepticism about Silicon Valley, many still believe that the digital revolution has a serious intellectual dimension, hashed out at conferences like Ted, online salons like Edge.org, publications like Wired, and institutions like the MIT Media Lab. The ideas of the digerati might be wrong, they might be overly utopian, but, at least, they are sincere.

The Epstein scandal – including the latest revelation that Epstein might have channeled up to $8m (some of it, apparently, on behalf of Bill Gates) to the MIT Media Lab, while its executives were fully aware of his problematic background – has cast the digerati in a very different light. It has already led to the resignation of the lab’s director, Joi Ito.

Private jets, parties and eugenics: Jeffrey Epstein’s bizarre world of scientists

This, however, is not only a story of individuals gone CONTINUE READING: Evgeny Morozov on the “Moral Bankruptcy of Techno-Elites” | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Avoid overreaction to Oklahoma school report cards

Avoid overreaction to Oklahoma school report cards

Avoid overreaction to Oklahoma school report cards

The 2019 Oklahoma school report cards are in, and they bring bad news. Over time, I will be digging deeply into the numbers and seeking nuance. For now, however, a most important issue with the school grades must be kept in mind: The outcomes aren’t nearly as bad as they seem.

The statistics released Monday show the state’s grade for “academic achievement” dropped from a “C” (earning 18.1 out of 35 points) to a “D” (earning 17.6 of 45 points). The score for the number of students prepared for the next grade fell from 52 percent to 39 percent. The points earned for English scores dropped from 6.7 (out of a possible 15 points) to 5.4. math points dropped from 6.3 to 5.2 points. The good news is that “academic growth” scores increased by 9 points.

Oklahoma school report cards
Search results here

The Oklahoma City Public Schools earned a 0.9 out of 35 points for academic achievement, down from 1.3 in 2018. Academic growth points remained stable. OKCPS’ math proficiency rates also remained stable overall, but economically disadvantaged students’ proficiency rates dropped 20 percent.

We should all take a deep breath, however, and not assume that those metrics are meaningful. To understand why, let’s focus predominantly on the math standards.

New standards provide ‘top 10’ metric, but please be realistic

As State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister explained recently, she took office in 2015 and was tasked with replacing Common Core standards and tests with new, rigorous standards and assessments. To her credit, Hofmeister has not supported high stakes testing. But politically speaking, it is easy to see why she implemented tests CONTINUE READING: Avoid overreaction to Oklahoma school report cards

Ed Notes Online: NY Times Pulls Race Card in Report on Charters While The Guardian Exposes Sham Astroturf Protests

Ed Notes Online: NY Times Pulls Race Card in Report on Charters While The Guardian Exposes Sham Astroturf Protests

NY Times Pulls Race Card in Report on Charters While The Guardian Exposes Sham Astroturf Protests

Recently a crowd of protesters disrupted a speech by Elizabeth Warren. The activists might have seemed grassroots, but they weren’t... The Guardian, Billionaire-funded protest is rearing its head in America
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/27/billionare-funded-protests-america

But the NY Times (intentionally) fell for it as evidenced by this biased front page article in the Nov. 27, 2019 edition of the Times: Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools. 
The NYT doesn't raise the issue: Why is there a charter school industrial complex designed to make a lot of money for a lot of people using kids as a device.

Contrast the reports from the Times and the Guardian:

NYT:

Outside the Atlanta studio where the candidates were assembling for Wednesday’s debate, more than 300 people chanted “Our children, our choice” to the drumbeats of a marching band from a KIPP school. The next day, black and Latino charter school parents shouted the same refrain at Ms. Warren as she tried to start a speech about race in Atlanta. .... Since 2016, public polling has shown a widening divide on charter schools between white Democrats and their black and Latino peers. White Democrats’ approval of charter schools dropped to 27 percent from 43 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to a poll conducted by Education Next, a journal based at Harvard that is generally supportive of charters. Black and Latino approval for the schools remained basically steady at about 47 percent for each group.

Hmmmm - does this mean the majority of parents of color do not approve and why is that downplayed - note how misleading the NYT headline is: Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools

I don't expect anything less from NYT reporter Eliza Shapiro who shows bias in her reporting since she was at Politico - When she CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: NY Times Pulls Race Card in Report on Charters While The Guardian Exposes Sham Astroturf Protests

Robert Kuttner (and I) Challenge the New York Times Slant on Charter Schools | janresseger

Robert Kuttner (and I) Challenge the New York Times Slant on Charter Schools | janresseger

Robert Kuttner (and I) Challenge the New York Times Slant on Charter Schools

Extra: read this rebuttal by Diane Ravitch of the misleading recent NY Times piece on charter schools.

Diane Ravitch's blog

Many people have written to me to complain about an article that appeared Wednesday on the front page of the New York Times, saying it was pro-charter propaganda. The article claims that black and brown parents are offended that the Democratic candidates (with the exception of Cory Booker, now polling at 1%) have turned their backs on charter schools.

This is not true. Black parents in Little Rock, Arkansas, are fighting at this very moment to stop the Walton-controlled state government from controlling their district and re-segregating it with charter schools. Jitu Brown and his allies fought to keep Rahm Emanuel from closing Walter Dyett High School, the last open enrollment public high school on the South Side of Chicago; they launched a 34-day hunger strike, and Rahm backed down. Jitu Brown’s Journey for Justice Alliance has organized black parents in 25 cities to fight to improve their neighborhood… CONTINUE READING: View original post 953 more words Robert Kuttner (and I) Challenge the New York Times Slant on Charter Schools | janresseger

John Thompson on Natalie Wexler’s Book | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson on Natalie Wexler’s Book | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson on Natalie Wexler’s Book

John Thompson is a historian and a retired teacher in Oklahoma.

He writes:

I have very strong, positive and negative feelings about Natalie Wexler’s The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System and How to Fix It. For better and/or the worse, the Oklahoma State Department of Education has committed to what Wexler calls science-based reading instruction and what many experts see as another push for phonics, paired with an assault on so-called “Progressivism.”

My big worry is the way that some of her hypotheses are being appropriated by privatizers in their latest attacks on public schools.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0735213550/theatla05-20/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/the-radical-case-for-teaching-kids-stuff/592765/

And since former Chief for Change Janet Baressi, who pushed for the retention of 3rd graders based on their reading scores, is running for Congress, Oklahoma educators need to participate in an evidence-based evaluation of Wexler’s book and respond to many of her sources, out-of-state think tanks seeking to restore the test and punish policies we’ve repealed or made less destructive.

Surely we can agree that that corporate school reform CONTINUE READING: John Thompson on Natalie Wexler’s Book | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teachers Are Not Responsible for Student Growth or Achievement | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers Are Not Responsible for Student Growth or Achievement | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers Are Not Responsible for Student Growth or Achievement

Earlier this week, I was rushed to another urgent early morning staff meeting at my school.

I had my laptop with me and was frantically trying to get everything ready that I’d need for the day.

Text dependent analysis question? Check.

Discussion guide to introduce the concept of science fiction? Check.

Questions on literacy, analogy, vocabulary and sentence structure suitable for 7th grade? Check.

The same suitable for 8th grade? Check.

And as I was anxiously trying to get all this together in time for me to rush to my morning duty when the meeting was over, I quickly took a sip of my tea and tried to listen to what my administrator was saying from the front of the room.

He handed out two white sheets of paper with a compilation of standardized test CONTINUE READING: Teachers Are Not Responsible for Student Growth or Achievement | gadflyonthewallblog

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Passage of $15 minimum wage is a big victory for Chicago workers

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Passage of $15 minimum wage is a big victory for Chicago workers

Passage of $15 minimum wage is a big victory for Chicago workers

“This vote is easy for me,” Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, 10th, said, because it closed the gap without layoffs, increased the minimum wage and opened libraries closed on Sunday.

Chicago's city council has approved by a 39-11 vote, a budget that will raise the minimum wage for city workers to $15/hr and it won't take six years to fully implement as it does under the new state minimum wage law. The city's minimum wage will rise to $15 by 2021 and apply to youth, people with disabilities and other groups that historically have been paid less.

The vote represented a big win for Mayor Lori Lightfoot who, after only six months in office, has been able to end so-called, "aldermanic prerogative" and slowly begin to close the city's huge budget gap without a large property tax hike.

And guess what? Businesses aren't fleeing the city and the Willis and Trump Towers (unfortunately) haven't crumbled into the river as predicted by the corporate lobbyists' fear campaign.

Restaurant servers and other tipped workers aren't fully covered under the new law and that's not good.

As the Chicago Reporter's Nicole Hallet points out:

There are many good policy reasons to abolish the tip credit, including ensuring that workers have pay stability and combating the problem of sexual harassment in the service industry. Women working in restaurants with lower minimum CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Passage of $15 minimum wage is a big victory for Chicago workers

CURMUDGUCATION: Be Grateful

CURMUDGUCATION: Be Grateful

Be Grateful

It's ironic, with a very American sort of irony, that we have a national holiday about thankfulness and gratitude, because we are kind of lousy at that whole thankfulness and gratitude thing.

We're more attracted to the self-made story, the I-pulled-myself-up-by-my-own-bootstraps story, the story that in this country, anyone can get ahead with grit, virtue and hard work (and if you haven't gotten ahead, it must be because you did not display any of these things). We're a little less "there but for the grace of God go I" and a little more "I've got mine, Jack." We don't mind the idea of paying it forward, as long as we get to pick someone deserving to pay it forward to.

The board of directors watch their
first Macy's parade. Balloons!

Our lives exist at some intersection of choice and fortune. We start with the cards that life or fortune or God or random accidents deal to us, and then we make choices from where we are and then the deck is shuffled again. It's an abrogation of responsibility to claim that we are just a leaf on the ocean, and it's a denial of reality to claim that no force is stronger in our lives than the force of our own wills. (And even the force of our will is the result of forces we don't control, but nobody else controls how we respond to that and on and on and on.)

Gratitude is, at root, a recognition that not all human beings start out on the same level playing field with the same resources and choices available to them. Gratitude is about looking at your own life and understanding that you didn't make all that (whether "that" is good or bad). Be proud that you did a good thing. Be grateful that you had the ability and opportunity.

The attitude matters because it colors the rest of our lives. The self-made person gets angry at CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Be Grateful