VETERAN SACRAMENTO CITY USD TEACHER CALLS FOUL ON THE LATEST ATTACK ON PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SACRAMENTO AND CALIFORNIA

VETERAN SACRAMENTO CITY USD TEACHER CALLS FOUL ON THE LATEST ATTACK ON PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SACRAMENTO AND CALIFORNIA

BELOW YOU WILL FIND COMMENTS FROM A LONG TERM SACRAMENTO TEACHER. SHE IS ASKING WHAT IS GOING ON IN SCUSD. THE BOARD AND SUPERINTENDENT AGUILAR HAVE BEEN HOSTILE AND NEGATIVE IN IT'S DEALING WITH SCTA FOR MANY YEARS NOW. IT MIRRORS THE WAR ON PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS UNIONS THAT IS CURRENTLY BEING UNLEASHED ON OAKLAND UNIFIED, L A UNIFIED AND OTHER LARGE URBAN DISTRICT. IT IS PART OF THE BILLIONAIRES ONSLAUGHT OF THAT HAS RESULTED IN UNDERFUNDING CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 30-40 % FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS. MANY ON THE CURRENT SCUSD BOARD  HAVE RECIEVED SUPPORT FROM THE CALIFRONIA CHARTER SCHOOL ASSOCIATION AND OTHER BILLIONAIRE GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS .  CCSA WANTS TO CONVERT PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO PRIVATE HANDS (ALSO SUPPORTED BY CALIFRONIA BILLIONAIRES).

DOWN LOAD A COPY OF THE THIS: PART 1  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_GA_otOEpyR9f91exqqOs-yRZClNgq0H/view?usp=sharing

DOWN LOAD A COPY OF  THIS: PART 2   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IwnrJTAVtxXqIpzdOszZepGVQ2rpWo5M/view?usp=sharing

HISTORIC MEMES FROM PAST SCUSD ATTACKS

Republicans hope to distract from their party's extremists by 'Q'ing teachers - Alternet org

Republicans hope to distract from their party's extremists by scapegoating teachers - Alternet.org

Republicans hope to distract from their party's extremists by 'Q'ing teachers

Republicans think they have their new plan to divide and conquer and distract the nation from extremists within their own party and the attack on the U.S. Capitol. They're going to attack teachers for not wanting to go into unsafe working conditions in a pandemic.

Well, they say they're attacking teachers unions, but make no mistake: Republicans are attacking teachers. Because the thing is, unions are made up of workers, and teachers are the workers in teachers unions (most of them, anyway), and in the cities where there have been contentious debates over in-person schooling, it is absolutely the teachers, not some abstract bureaucracy, fighting to stay out of poorly ventilated, crowded classrooms.

"Science is not the obstacle. Federal money is not the obstacle. The obstacle is a lack of willpower," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. "Not among students. Not among parents. Just among the rich, powerful unions that donate huge sums to Democrats and get a stranglehold over education in many communities."

What, we're to believe that the "rich, powerful unions" just decided to pick this specific fight for no good reason? Like, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, got together and decided that the best way to build power was to use a ton of political capital blocking in-person education? Oh, please. This is definitely a case where the teachers have pressured their leaders, and the reason for that is that teachers are scared.

What's more, teachers are scared because people keep telling them that going into the classroom is safe if a long list of precautions are observed, and they know that in many of their school systems, there is no chance of that. They have stories of being in crowded classrooms where the windows don't open to circulate fresh air in, and they're not allowed to prop doors open because that could put them in danger in case of a school shooting. They have stories of schools where the way students are kept from being within six feet of each other for 15 minutes is that every 12-14 minutes they're told to get up and walk around. They have photos showing creative interpretations of how far six feet really is. CONTINUE READING: Republicans hope to distract from their party's extremists by scapegoating teachers - Alternet.org

JEFF BRYANT: Truthout: DeVos Is on Her Way Out, But Public Education Is Still Very Much Under Attack | National Education Policy Center

Truthout: DeVos Is on Her Way Out, But Public Education Is Still Very Much Under Attack | National Education Policy Center

Truthout: DeVos Is on Her Way Out, But Public Education Is Still Very Much Under Attack

When a Biden victory in the 2020 presidential election became certain, supporters of public education gleefully took to social media to say good riddance to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos came into office with an agenda to further the privatization of public education by expanding charter schools and by encouraging families to opt out of public schools by any means possible. During her tenure, she effectively used her bully pulpit to cheer on efforts by Republican state lawmakers to expand various forms of voucher programs that give parents public money to homeschool their children or send them to private schools. She awarded many of the nation’s largest charter school chains with millions in federal funding, and she used the pandemic as an opportunity to redirect emergency funds for public schools to private schools and internet-based instruction — all the while refusing to even visit struggling public schools.

Biden is expected to oppose voucher programs and limit the growth of the charter school industry. But despite the promising prospect of a transition from DeVos to a Biden administration, progressive public school advocates can’t afford to overlook a threat to democratically governed schools that preceded DeVos and will continue when she is long gone.

In midsized metropolitan areas like Indianapolis and Stockton, California, parents, teachers, and public school advocates warn of huge sums of money coming from outside their communities to influence local politics and bankroll school board candidates who support school privatization. In phone conversations, emails, and texts, they point to a national agenda, backed CONTINUE READING: Truthout: DeVos Is on Her Way Out, But Public Education Is Still Very Much Under Attack | National Education Policy Center

NANCY BAILEY: The Attack on Dr. Jill Biden is Cloaked Hatred of Teachers and Public Education

The Attack on Dr. Jill Biden is Cloaked Hatred of Teachers and Public Education

The Attack on Dr. Jill Biden is Cloaked Hatred of Teachers and Public Education

Much has been written about the offensiveness of the Wall Street Journal’s Epstein opinion piece on Dr. Jill Biden. It lacks respect for Dr. Biden, a veteran teacher, deeply committed to her profession and community college students, but it’s also meant to ridicule teaching and public education.

First, it’s never wise to criticize intellectual pursuit, to deride a person for bettering themselves, for improving their knowledge and understanding of the world. This is especially true of teachers who prepare students for their futures.

Belittling University Education Schools

Dr. Biden’s criticism indirectly attacks the University of Delaware and their education school, a public university. Tucker Carlson said, Dr. Jill has an education degree from some school in Delaware, and you’re supposed to find that highly impressive. 

Colleges of Education could always improve, but for years nonprofits like Relay Graduate School of Education, and more, have been jockeying to replace them.

By disparaging teachers’ main producers, our public universities, and these schools are in danger of closing; they promote a privatization agenda cast by corporate CONTINUE READING: The Attack on Dr. Jill Biden is Cloaked Hatred of Teachers and Public Education

Ugly Attacks on Teachers and Teachers Unions | janresseger

Ugly Attacks on Teachers and Teachers Unions | janresseger

Ugly Attacks on Teachers and Teachers Unions

As a candidate for President, Joseph Biden promised to appoint a teacher or someone experienced in public school education as U.S. Secretary of Education. Now as Biden is appointing the members of his Cabinet, we are reading opinion pieces filled with all the old conventional biases against schoolteachers in general and against the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Many Republicans are suspicious of teachers unions, but a lot of the current attacks on teachers are coming from Democrats—from the supporters of the “corporate school reformer” education policies of President Barack Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan. These are Democrats who adhere to the neoliberal policies that endorsed school privatization in the form of charter schools whose operation is entirely private. Some of these Democrats are people who promote business school school accountability based on incentives and punishments said to increase teachers’ productivity. The current protesters are worried about the possibility that President Elect Biden will appoint Lily Eskelsen Garcia, NEA’s recent president, or Randi Weingarten, AFT’s current president, as the next U.S. Secretary of Education.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal printed an extraordinary classist, sexist, elitist, and insultingly anti-teacher screed by Joseph Epstein, the former editor of The American Scholar.  Here is how Epstein begins his personal attack on Jill Biden: “Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo…  Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the CONTINUE READING: Ugly Attacks on Teachers and Teachers Unions | janresseger

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now

Audrey Amrein Beardsley writes here about Houston’s experience with value-added evaluation of its teachers.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.

Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.

Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.

The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.

In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.

Thus by now, after a decade of VAMMING teachers, Houston should have identified and removed all the “bad” teachers and employ only “effective” or “highly effective” CONTINUE READING: Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will November Election Bring an End to Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Education? | janresseger

Will November Election Bring an End to Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Education? | janresseger

Will November Election Bring an End to Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Education?

In the midst of the most politically chaotic month I can remember, it seems important to imagine something worth hoping for.  Consider this:  If Donald Trump is defeated in the November election, after January, Betsy DeVos will no longer be the U.S. Secretary of Education.

DeVos does not believe in public education: She once declared: “Government really sucks.” And she has consistently attacked the idea of “a system” of public schools: “This isn’t about school ‘systems.'” she declared. “This is about individual students, parents, and families. Schools are at the service of students. Not the other way around.”  Betsy likes school choice via school privatization at public expense.

DeVos’s U.S. Department of Education is, of course, responsible under law for something very different: Its purpose is to administer many programs supporting public schools and protecting the rights of the 50 million students enrolled in public schools across the United States. Her department administers Title I compensatory funding for the schools serving concentrations of poor children, funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and a host of other functions supporting, for example, programming for English language learners and American Indian children in public schools. While, through the Office for Civil Rights, her department is responsible for protecting students from racial, gender, and sexual orientation bias in their public schools, her record for investigating punitive discipline violations and protecting the rights of transgender students, for example, has been lacking.

Betsy DeVos, a lifelong supporter of private and religious schools and the expansion of tax- CONTINUE READING: Will November Election Bring an End to Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Education? | janresseger

MARK WEBER: New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective

 New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective

 New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates

To read a PDF version of the full report, click here.

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Executive Summary

Maintaining a high-quality teaching workforce is critically important for the future of public education in New Jersey. Federal data, however, show cause for concern: New Jersey is producing far fewer teacher candidates than a decade ago. In fact, the number of candidates completing teacher preparation programs has dropped 49 percent between 2009 and 2018. These declines, which are part of national and regional trends, cut across both gender and race. The dwindling number of teacher candidates creates instability in the teaching profession and jeopardizes the ability of students to learn.[1]

While reasons for the decline in teacher candidates are complex, we know that New Jersey’s teachers are paid considerably less than other college-educated workers, even when controlling for age and time worked.[2] Of particular concern is that the evidence suggests fewer college graduates see teaching as a viable career option with adequate compensation. New Jersey must aggressively address these problems if it wishes to retain its status as having one of the best education systems in the nation.

To stem the decline in teacher candidates, New Jersey should work to make the teaching profession more attractive by raising teacher pay, shoring up benefits, and increasing the respect and appreciation shown to New Jersey’s educators.

This report explores enrollment and completion data in teacher preparation programs, gives context around state policy changes affecting education professionals, reviews the level of teacher demand in the state, and examines the change in demographics within the profession over the past ten years.

Background

This past September, NJPP published an analysis of the New Jersey teaching corps entitled, New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce, 2019.[3] Among its findings:

• While factors outside of school are the strongest influences on student achievement, teacher quality is the most significant in-school influence.
• The research on teacher quality suggests that qualified people become teachers based, in part, on how well teaching pays compared to other jobs.
• Despite the importance of teachers, there is a significant gap in wages between New Jersey teachers and other college-educated workers in the state, even when accounting for differences in time worked.
• Pensions and health benefits do not fully close the pay gap between teachers and college-educated workers in other professions.
• New Jersey’s teaching workforce is mostly white and female; there is little evidence of a trend toward a more diverse teaching workforce.
• New Jersey’s teacher workforce is aging, suggesting a new wave of retirements in the next several years.

These findings are similar to other analyses, which show a significant pay gap for teachers compared to other college-educated workers.[4] Critics suggest, however, that these studies are flawed in that they don’t fully account for differences in benefits and other non-pecuniary compensation, unmeasured differences in talent between workers, and other factors. Teachers, they argue, are actually well-compensated, even in today’s tightening labor market.

To test these criticisms, this report examines whether more or fewer workers are becoming teachers. If teacher pay and benefits have kept pace with compensation in other sectors, we would expect to see workers respond in kind, and continue to enter the profession at previous rates. Because compensation levels influence workers’ decisions to go into teaching those workers would judge the benefits that teachers receive as adequate to close the teacher pay gap and continue to enroll in programs to prepare to become educators.[5]

The data, however, tell a different story. Fewer workers in New Jersey are electing to enter teacher preparation programs, a clear indication that teaching is not as attractive a career option as it once was.

Findings

Teacher Preparation Programs: Enrollment & Completion CONTINUE READING:  New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective