Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Leading While Woman: Challenges, Mazes, Labyrinths, and Glass Ceilings | Cloaking Inequity

Leading While Woman: Challenges, Mazes, Labyrinths, and Glass Ceilings | Cloaking Inequity

LEADING WHILE WOMAN: CHALLENGES, MAZES, LABYRINTHS, AND GLASS CEILINGS


Today I’d like to relay a call for proposals for a special issue of The SoJo Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education entitled Leading While Woman: Challenges, Mazes, Labyrinths, and Glass Ceilings edited by Azadeh F. Osanloo, New Mexico State University,
Azadeh writes,

The SoJo Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice is interested in research studies which include conceptual, theoretical, philosophical and policy analysis essays challenging the existing state of affairs in society, schools and (in)formal education.

From a historical perspective, in terms of foundations and social justice in education; leading as a woman is complex. Several factors contribute to the inequity women face in educational leadership such as societal and social variables, including but not limited to: systemic oppression, gender bias, family structure, personal and professional development; and academic culture. All potentially affect the process of progressive leadership (change) in educational settings. Albeit a social construct, gender often adds to the complexity of women in leadership as a result of several social assumptions regarding leadership styles of women (i.e. femininity, aesthetic, emotion, and behavior). In terms of “leading while woman,” few of the same characteristics are typically representative of men, often creating a barrier of social constructs between men and women in educational leadership roles (Waylen, Celis, Kantola & Weldon, 2013). For women, the search for regularity and equity in higher educational leadership is real. This call specifically considers women in educational leadership, lending from perspectives of both scholars and practitioners committed to social change and promotion of equity inside and outside of the PK-20 educational pipeline.
 
From a social justice perspective, gender diversity is critical. For women to obtain equitable access to opportunities in educational systems like – social mobility, economic parity, and fair ascension to leadership positions – transparent discourse regarding social justice practices and clear requirements regarding institution policy are imperative. Leading while being a woman is challenging; not from a perspective of deficit, but in recognition of the responsibility and barriers women face historically, socially, and institutionally.
 
The proverbial “glass ceiling” has been disrupted, since women are both capable and able to obtain the same executive-level leadership roles as men. However, the idea implies women and men have equitable access to entry and mid-level positions, which is inaccurate (Eagly & Carli, 2009). Historically, women have a more difficult time obtaining traditionally non-female dominated positions regardless of the level. It remains a challenge for women to achieve goals past one particular obstacle, and the “glass ceiling” metaphor implies women are unable to conceptualize a complex, evolving professional life (Eagly & Carli, 2009).
 
A more thorough, forward-thinking explanation regarding the maze of challenges and complicated trajectory most women in leadership roles face, is the Labyrinth Metaphor. The suggestion details the broader picture of the complexity of work-life balance, and addresses barriers such as sex discrimination while also addressing societal expectations such as a women’s domestic and home-life responsibilities (Martin, 2007). The Labyrinth Metaphor is based on leadership from perspectives of educational psychology, economic factors, communication practices, management styles and sociology methods (Martin, 2007). The motivation for the metaphor was to increase gender equality in the workplace, which authors suggest change on a number of levels including “the culture, the organization, the family and the individual” (Martin, 2007, p. 90).
 
Based on the suggestion of the labyrinth metaphor and refuting the “glass ceiling” phenomena, educational researchers are emboldened to acknowledge other aspects of inequity. Educational environments, which theoretically provide safe spaces for learning and personal growth, can exacerbate negative contexts in relationships thus hindering positivity in many learning environments (Yoon, Barton & Taiariol, 2004). For example, the societal representations of bullying and the “mean girl” culture are historical illustrations of women protecting their status and cultivating their power in cruel ways (Ryalls, 2011). The term is used to describe women using indirect, passive-aggressive behavior destroying other relationships, including efforts causing their victims to feel attacked and marginalized (Ryalls, 2011). The aggression displayed in the context of “mean girl behavior” is often associated with adolescence, however the behavior, in terms of a historical standpoint and expectations of society, tends to carry on through the lives of adult women as well (Driscoll, 2008), often creating a pattern of behavior with negative consequences for other women.
 
For higher education specifically, representation of the academic bullying culture, and/or the academic “mean girl” is evident when identifying factors such as “faculty incivility” which describes perceived harassment, passive-aggressive behavior and bullying from a colleague without clear intent or reason (Twale & De Luca, 2008). The term is used to identify several variables which contribute to academic bullying behavior (Twale & De Luca, 2008).
 
Talking points include the following:

  • • Faculty Incivility
  • • Societal expectations
  • • Gender bias
  • • Institutional sexism
  • • Marginalization
  • • Work-life balance
  • • Maze of Challenges
  • • The “mean girl” phenomenon

Timeline

An early expression of interest and a 500-word abstract is required by March 1, 2020. Manuscripts (20-30 pages double-spaced) are due June 20, 2020. An expectation for the publication is November 1, 2020 Please address correspondence and submissions to azadeh@nmsu.edu and include “SoJo Special Issue” in the subject line.
 
Dates at a Glance

  • March 1, 2020 – 500-word abstract due to azadeh@nmsu (include “SoJo Special Issue” in the subject line)
  • March 15, 2020 – Authors receive notification that their abstract was accepted and are invited to submit a full manuscript.
  • June 20, 2020 – Manuscripts due
  • July Review Process
  • September 1, 2020– Revised drafts due to Special Issue Editor
  • November 1, 2020 – Publication Date (Tentative)

Style Guidelines

All manuscripts must adhere to APA sixth addition format, include an abstract with 100-150 words, 3-4 keywords, and range between 20-30 pages in length (including tables, charts, figures and references). Two copies of the manuscript should be attached: 1) a master copy including a title page and 2) a blind copy with the title page and all other author-identifying information removed (including citations and references pertaining to any of the contributing authors’ works).
 
Submission Guidelines
 
1. Papers should not exceed 20-30-page limit without consulting editors.
 
2. APA citation, 12 point, Times New Roman
 
3. Papers should be saved as “author last name-title of paper” and saved as a doc or docx, (For example, Jackson-Women leaders in higher education.docx)
 
4. Papers should be submitted to the following email with the name of the file (as above) in the subject heading.
 
5. Completed papers should be emailed by June 20, 2020 to azadeh@nmsu.edu
 
6. All questions should be submitted to azadeh@nmsu.edu
 
Journal Contact
 
Azadeh F. Osanloo
 
Co-Editor-In-Chief
 
The SoJo Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education
 
New Mexico State University
 
1220 Stewart St., Las Cruces, NM 88003
 
Phone: 575-646-5976
 
Email: azadeh@nmsu.edu
Also, we will be hosting a symposium at the University of Kentucky College of Education in February 11 entitled: Continuing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Conversation: Gender and Equity. Stay tuned to Cloaking Inequity for details.
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Book Tour Diary: Early Days | Diane Ravitch's blog

Book Tour Diary: Early Days | Diane Ravitch's blog

Book Tour Diary: Early Days

My new book SLAYING GOLIATH was launched in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on January 21. It was a delightful event, with Carol Burris and I discussing the book, talking about the national picture, and explaining the role of the Network for Public Education in pushing back against the Billionaire Combine. It was a lively and engaged crowd, including Lisa Rudley of New York State Allies for Public Education, one of the heroes of my book.
On Friday, Mary and I flew to Fort Lauderdale, where one of my nephews was getting married. It was a good time to catch up with family whom I don’t see often and to eat vast quantities of food (blowing away one of my New Year’s resolutions).
After the wedding festivities concluded, we moved to the apartment of New York friends who spend every winter in Fort Lauderdale.
Monday night was an event at one of America’s best independent bookstores: Books and Books in Coral Gables. And what a bookstore it is! I’m glad I got there early, with time to browse the shelves of this beautiful store, which has a vast supply of unusual books of CONTINUE READING: Book Tour Diary: Early Days | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape: My Book Tour Dates for SLAYING GOLIATH | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-book-tour-dates-for-slaying-goliath.html

Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization


The Resistance grows!
Press Advisory: Thirty Regional School Superintendents To Come Together to Defend Public Education, Joining Public District Leaders from Across the State to Urge Reform of Pennsylvania’s Charter School Law
When: Monday, January 27, 2020 10 a.m.
Where: Whitehall Elementary, 399 North Whitehall Road Norristown, PA 19403
Leaders Form Coalition and Support a Moratorium on New Charter Enrollment Until Laws Can be Reformed

Leaders from public school districts in the five-county Greater Philadelphia region are joining with others from across the state in calling for meaningful, substantive reform of Pennsylvania’s charter school laws. They also support a moratorium on new charter school applications and a freeze on additional seats for students at existing charters until reform is enacted. Public school superintendents and other top school administrators recently formed LEARN, Leaders for Educational Accountability and Reform Network, as a way to coalesce around urgent issues impacting public schools, such as charter reform. They are calling for reform to the way charters are funded, as well as an improvement in accountability and oversight. Citing an extremely CONTINUE READING: Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog

BHM #16: John Muir Shares its Black History Pride! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

BHM #16: John Muir Shares its Black History Pride! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

BHM #16: John Muir Shares its Black History Pride!


In honor of Black History Month, I’m reposting a previous series. Several years ago, (2015 to be exact!) I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American History. In 2016, I finally reached my goal!
While I have been so excited that Muir and other schools have a long tradition of celebrating Black history during Black History Month and throughout the year, there are still many schools in SF that haven’t celebrated this holiday (!) I am excited to announce that this year, in 2020, after five years of advocacy by me and other African American Parent Advisory Council leaders, SFUSD will finally celebrate Black History Month at every school in the district!
Check out my original post below which appeared on February 21, 2016. To see more posts in this series, click here.

Ihave been shocked to learn through my participation in the African American Parent Advisory Council (AAPAC) that NOT ALL SFUSD SCHOOLS are holding celebration activities (!?!) The SFUSD AAPAC is sending out a survey to principals to see which schools have activities planned. You can support their efforts by asking your child what activities are going on at your school. Remember, Black History is American History, and all our kids lose out when we don’t learn about the contributions and perspectives of Black Americans.
If your school doesn’t have multiple activities planned (and it’s a whole MONTH for Pete’s sake… so there should be multiple activities planned!) John Muir’s event is one great example.
On Thursday, February 11, 2016, I had the HONOR of participating in the National African American Read-In at John Muir Elementary. I know I brag a lot CONTINUE READING: BHM #16: John Muir Shares its Black History Pride! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development – radical eyes for equity

Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development – radical eyes for equity

Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development


Literacy scholar Tim Shanahan answers the question Why Is It So Hard to Improve Reading Achievement? with the following: “Classroom implementation is the last mile in reading reform.” He eventually adds, “The last mile rhetoric shouldn’t be a hair-on-fire message, but one that acknowledges both the current successes and the need to do better.”
Shanahan’s consideration of the persistent public and political concern over low reading achievement appears to offer a balanced admission that many approaches to reading instruction can be successful, but framing reading as a last-mile problem is finding yourself in a hole and deciding you just need to dig a little deeper.
Shanahan seems to accept a number of different “levers” as valid approaches to improving student reading, including a somewhat veiled endorsement of Common Core standards; in fact, he concedes: “Let’s face it. Our problem in reading isn’t that nothing works. It’s that everything does.”
In 2020, what Shanahan’s last-mile argument reveals, however, is that there is a mistake in teaching reading that can be addressed, but as a society, we refuse to acknowledge that reading is a first-mile problem.
That first mile is much larger than formal schooling, and what we refuse to CONTINUE READING: Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development – radical eyes for equity

Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29 – Black Lives Matter At School #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool #weekofaction #studentactivism

Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29 – Black Lives Matter At School

Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29


To kick off the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action we are hosting a twitter chat all day on Wednesday, January 29th. Beginning at 9 am/EST we will post questions related to the Week of Action. We hope to hear how you are participating this year including lesson ideas, events, challenges, and successes!


Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29 – Black Lives Matter At School

@BLMAtSchool

Mitchell Robinson: Donald Trump's Impeachment Book Club! | Eclectablog

Donald Trump's Impeachment Book Club! | Eclectablog

Donald Trump’s Impeachment Book Club!


Amidst the overnight announcement of John Bolton’s upcoming tell-all memoir, based on his front-row seat for this administration’s extortion of Ukraine in order to cheat in the 2020 elections, other members of Trump’s inner circle are now drooling over the prospects of 7-figure book deals of their own.
Although none of these books have been announced as of this date, we have obtained a sneak peak at a few of the titles now currently being furiously typed out by Trump’s closest advisers, and thought our loyal readers might be interested in what these insiders have to say…

Betsy DeVos

First, from the Secretary of Education who never attended a public school…never sent her own children to a public school…and has studiously avoided setting foot in a public school since assuming her current office, comes the blockbuster epic on how to destroy a nation’s public school system from the inside: Betsy DeVos’ “Pedagogy of the Oppressors”.
Come along with Sec. DeVos as she explains how her state’s largest school district, which she has devoted the last several decades of her personal energies and political clout to dismantling, should be put down like a rabid dog, throwing thousands of Michigan’s most vulnerable children into the claws of a predatory charter school system that closes schools like bad dry cleaners, and drained the state’s tax coffers of millions of dollars for charter schools that never opened.
Join Betsy as her friends and business partners rake in millions on bogus charter school real estate investments, and as she prevents students from recouping their defaulted student loan payments from for-profit colleges that have gone out of business. Watch in horror as Betsy CONTINUE READING: Donald Trump's Impeachment Book Club! | Eclectablog

Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019




There were many to choose from.
Numero uno, of course, was the giant charter scam in California:
1. A3 Education: Eleven are indicted over their involvement in a charter scheme that defrauded California taxpayers of more than $50 million.
In May, the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego indicted 11 people on charges that they helped defraud California taxpayers out of $50 million via an elaborate scheme to create phony attendance records to increase revenue to an online charter chain known as A3. You can find a summary of the story with its elaborate kickbacks and fraud schemes here.
The alleged theft took place over the course of several years. In 2016, Jason Schrock and Sean McManus reportedly purchased Mosaica Online learning, which got its start with a $100,000 grant from the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). They eventually renamed the online schools Valiant. Schrock and McManus managed the schools through the nonprofit Academic, Arts and Action (A3) Charter Academy. Eli Johnson would reportedly approach small, cash-strapped school districts to enlist them as authorizers, for which they would receive an authorizer fee.
In addition to Valiant Academy charter schools, A3 CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property

Shawgi Tell is a professor of education at Nazareth University in New York. He has taken note of states where charter schools are given ownership of public property, where they buy property and supplies with public money but keep title to their purchases if their charter should close. He has seen states that require districts to hand over empty buildings to charter owners for $1, which then becomes their private property. He thinks these transfers of public assets to private ownership are wrong.
He bases his argument on the belief that public property belongs to taxpayers, but charter schools are privately owned.
He writes:
Public facilities and infrastructure are produced by the working class and people and belong to the public. They exist in order to serve the common good and to contribute to the extended reproduction of society.
This collectively-produced wealth must not be handed over to competing owners of capital who are only concerned with maximizing profit as fast as possible, regardless of the damage caused to society and the environment. Socially-produced wealth must be off limits to narrow private interests. The aims and purposes of the CONTINUE READING: Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property | Diane Ravitch's blog

January 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

January 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

January 2020 Newsletter


2019 saw a marked increase in the number of reports involving scandalous behavior on the part of charter schools.
Here is an important Answer Sheet blog I wrote that highlights the top 5 charter scandals of 2019.
As awareness of outrageous behavior increases, so do calls for charter law reform. Do your part by sharing the facts.
*******
Diane’s latest book Slaying Goliath was officially released last week. Read this terrific Q and A with Diane that appeared in the Washington Post here.
And be on the lookout to see if Diane is coming to a city near you. Go here to find her book talk schedule for this month and next.
The Network for Public Education’s Position Statement Regarding Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The litigants seek to force the state of Montana to allow taxpayer dollars to go to private religious schools. Betsy DeVos has indicated her support for “faith-based education,” but this diversion of public funds goes against the long-standing separation of church and state, and threatens to further weaken public schools. 
The Network for Public Education categorically opposes the use of tax dollars for private and parochial schools. If parents wish to educate children in such schools, they should do so with private funds. Public funds should be spent for the common good. 
We encourage you to read about this important study that shows how Indiana’s voucher program has led to a new generation of segregation academies.
Only Six More Weeks Until Our National Conference
January 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education