With Market Rates Unaffordable, Oakland Turns To Building Teacher-Only Affordable Housing | ThinkProgress

With Market Rates Unaffordable, Oakland Turns To Building Teacher-Only Affordable Housing | ThinkProgress:

With Market Rates Unaffordable, Oakland Turns To Building Teacher-Only Affordable Housing

When the Oakland school year began Monday, the city’s public school system was still scores of teachers short of the number it needs. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has thrown job fairs and deployed administrative employees with teaching credentials to the classroom to cover the shortfall.

But now, thanks to a twist in a city land deal that’s been years in the making, the district may have a new lure to offer potential hires: teachers-only affordable housing.

OUSD is weighing a bid to build below-market rental housing units for city teachers on a plot of land near Lake Merritt. Earlier this summer, the acre appeared to be headed destined to turn into high-end housing. But critics scuttled the deal before it could receive final city council approval, and Oakland announced it would accept new proposals for developing the land.

Converting the plot to teacher-specific housing at an affordable price could solve multiple problems at once for the district. Rents are rising faster in Oakland than almost anywhere else in the country — including neighboring San Francisco, though separating the two cities’ readings downplays the connection between San Francisco’s infamously tight real estate market and Oakland’s role as first-choice spillover city for many people who work across the bay. The 12.1 percent increase in rental costs from 2014 to 2015 is second only to Denver’s 14.2 percent hike, according to Trulia.

As rents boomed, teacher salaries didn’t keep pace. The contract approved by teachers earlier this summer includes gradual 14 percent raises, but Oakland Educational Association (OEA) members are hardly thriving. First, that 14 percent hike over three years will mostly be playing catchup to the 12 percent rent increase that’s already happened.

Second, the raise is applied to an obscenely low floor. Out of 125 major city school districts analyzed in a 2014 National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) report, Oakland ranked 121st on With Market Rates Unaffordable, Oakland Turns To Building Teacher-Only Affordable Housing | ThinkProgress:

Woodridge superintendent urges more accountability for charter schools - Stow Sentry | Stow & Munroe Falls, OH

Woodridge superintendent urges more accountability for charter schools - Stow Sentry | Stow & Munroe Falls, OH:

WOODRIDGE SUPERINTENDENT URGES MORE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS

Columbus -- A liberal think tank, a state teacher's union and a Summit County school district reiterated calls Aug. 27 for lawmakers to move legislation to clamp down on poor-performing charter schools.

Innovation Ohio, the Ohio Education Association and officials from Woodridge Schools also said recent budget legislation provides increased state support for charters, subsidizing failing locations while taking needed funds from public schools.

"We receive $680 roughly per student in state funding," said Woodridge Superintendent Walter Davis. "However, when students leave our school district to go to a charter school, they take an average of $6,853 with them. ... For every child that leaves our school district to go to a charter school in the state of Ohio, there are 10 resident Woodridge students who receive no state funding. This is egregious, it is unfair, and we call on the general assembly to enact reforms that will level the playing field and make charter schools as accountable as we are and have been to the taxpayers of our school district."

Lawmakers have been considering charter school reform. Before breaking for the summer, the Ohio Senate OK'd HB 2, which would institute new requirements for charter school sponsors, governing boards and operators.

Among other provisions, the bill would block poorly performing charters from switching sponsors and poorly performing sponsors from sponsoring other charter locations.

The legislation would require increased disclosure of charter contracts, facility costs, attendance policies and other details of their operation.

The state education department would have to annually rate charter sponsors on academic performance and other compliance issues and publish lists of charters that have closed since 2011 and other details of the schools.

The final bill is a combination of the original House-passed legislation, provisions outlined in separate Senate legislation and language that was included in Gov. John Kasich's executive budget proposal.

One of the primary co-sponsors of HB 2, Rep. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) was supportive of the Senate changes. But the Ohio House recessed for the summer without considering the Senate changes.

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) said earlier this summer that Roegner and the other primary co-sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Mike Dovilla (R-Berea), were not in agreement on the Senate version.

"... It's disappointing that we began a new school year without necessary action having been taken to pass HB 2, legislation that would help ensure all of Ohio's students are attending schools including charters that are being held to high standards of transparency and accountability," said Scott DiMauro, vice president of the Ohio Education Association. "After months of hearings in both houses of the general assembly, a unanimous vote in the Senate and a clear majority of House members prepared to approve the Senate-passed bill on a bipartisan basis, it's a shame that leadership failed to bring the bill to the floor for a final vote back in June."

Earlier this summer, David Hansen, husband of Gov. John Kasich's former chief of staff and current campaign manager, resigned as school choice director at the Ohio Department of Education following revelations that he purposely excluded data on failing online schools in an Woodridge superintendent urges more accountability for charter schools - Stow Sentry | Stow & Munroe Falls, OH:

Public School Advocates Rally For Local Control, Against Influence of Charter Schools | KUAR

Public School Advocates Rally For Local Control, Against Influence of Charter Schools | KUAR:

Public School Advocates Rally For Local Control, Against Influence of Charter Schools

Protesters in front of the Little Rock School District headquarters.

CREDIT SARAH WHITES-KODITSCHEK / KUAR

Local advocates for public schools held a protest in front of the Little Rock School District’s headquarters Thursday to a call for a return to local control and an end to charter schools in the state.

Anika Whitfield with the Coalition to Reclaim Our Schools in the Little Rock School District said she believes the state takeover of the district and the increasing presence of charter schools in the state will negatively impact minority students.

"What a lot of places are doing are now lowering their standards from student testing to justify maintaining these schools and charter school systems. It shows the element of racism as well as social and classism that continues to impede our country," she said. 

The rally was held following the publication of a national report by The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, a group that includes the country’s two biggest teachers’ unions.

The group opposes what it calls “market intervention” and state takeovers of local districts. Little Rock School District officials did not respond immediately for comment. Public School Advocates Rally For Local Control, Against Influence of Charter Schools | KUAR:

Calls for charter school reform | NBC4i.com

Calls for charter school reform | NBC4i.com:

Calls for charter school reform

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — For one failing charter school here in Columbus, there won’t be a 2015-2016 school year.

The sign on door informed parents and employees that operations at the FCI Academy on Mock Road have been suddenly suspended by the school’s sponsor…just as the school year was about to start.

Charter school critics used the opportunity to renew their call for charter school reforms at the statehouse.

Checking online records, the FCI Academy scored Ds and Fs on state standards, and by nearly every measure scored lower than Columbus City Schools. Even so, Columbus transferred close to $2.5 million to FCI…about $6,800 per Columbus student attending the academy.

That’s about $2800 more per student than Columbus receives from the state.

This is happening all across Ohio.Calls for charter school reform | NBC4i.com:

The complicated politics of national standards: Even more sources of opposition (Part 2 of 3) | Brookings Institution

The complicated politics of national standards: Even more sources of opposition (Part 2 of 3) | Brookings Institution:

The complicated politics of national standards: Even more sources of opposition (Part 2 of 3)

In a previous post, I detailed several different sources of discontentment that various coalitions have cited as reason to oppose the Common Core State Standards. In this post, I will identify and discuss even more sources of opposition to the standards.

Curriculum and culture wars

The crafting of new national standards also has reignited long-standing ideological debates about multiculturalism — how American literature and history should be taught, and whether the science curriculum should include reservations about evolution and global warning. Opponents of the Core cast it as a national curriculum that is ill-suited for a country with such religious, political, ethnic, and cultural diversity. Some conservatives are concerned that progressive educators are using the public schools to indoctrinate children with liberal social and economic values on such hot-button issues as homosexuality, abortion, sex education, and socialism.

In reality, the standards outline the essential skills and information that students should know in math and language arts but do not mandate a particular curriculum for delivering instruction. Core advocates have endeavored in vain to communicate that standards are not curriculum, but the general public has neither understood nor embraced the concept. In addition, Core opponents say the standards mandate particular textbooks or pieces of literature. They do not. But the authors of the standards have recommended a list of materials that have been judged to satisfy the Core. Nonetheless, this is another area where public misperception is driving down support for the Core, as only half of Americans who have heard of it understand that states and local school districts retain the ability to choose their own educational materials.

Anti-testing backlash

Other opposition to the Core—particularly among parents—is related to a broader backlash against the amount of testing and teaching to the test that students are perceived to be facing in the wake of NCLB. While the Core standards are separate from the new assessments—states can and have adopted one but not the other—they have become conflated in the public mind; concerns about testing have spilled over into the push for common academic expectations. While proponents argue that the Common Core standards and assessments are designed to be an improvement on NCLB that addresses many of its failings, many have come to see the Common Core as simply NCLB 2.0.

Meeting the higher bar

The debate over the Common Core has also become entangled with long-standing concerns that governments are not doing enough to address poverty, safety, health, and other out-of-school factors affecting student achievement as well as concerns that teachers are not being given sufficient training and resources to effectively instruct disadvantaged students. These views have been prominently articulated by Diane Ravitch, Linda Darling-Hammond, and The complicated politics of national standards: Even more sources of opposition (Part 2 of 3) | Brookings Institution:

The Time Has Come… | Deborah Meier on Education

The Time Has Come… | Deborah Meier on Education:

The Time Has Come… 

The Time Has Come…

…to get back to writing about what’s happening. I am preparing for my granddaughter’s wedding a week from Sunday (at my place in Hillsdale). I am working on a project (book) with Emily Gasoi that hopefully takes a useful look at the past half-century of school “reform” as it relates to democracy. And just got a copy of a book edited by Matthew Knoester, Kathy Clunis D’Andrea and myself called Teaching in Themes, An Approach to Schoolwide Learning, Creating Community and Differentiating Instruction. TC Press, just arriving in the store(s).

Then yesterday an old friend dropped by—Fred Bay—and obsessed with me about the state of the planet Earth. He is right—it is not an issue that can wait until we better educate another generation. It is this generation of adults or else.

So why am I ignoring it? It doesn’t even matter what/who “caused it.” The only thing that matters is who is going to turn it around if not us. Why do I avoid it?

Because I find it much more comforting to stick with what I know best, and which The Time Has Come… | Deborah Meier on Education:

The Movement Against Standardized Testing Has Turned Into a Nationwide Revolt

The Movement Against Standardized Testing Has Turned Into a Nationwide Revolt:

The Movement Against Standardized Testing Has Turned Into a Nationwide Revolt

The majority of Americans now oppose standardized testing as coalition of teachers, parents, and students, gains momentum.

Katherine Brezler, a educator from New York with 10 years of experience, is now one of the nation’s leading voices against standardized testing. The uprising has been dubbed the “opt-out” movement, in which students either refuse to take the test, or parents send letters to the school district informing them that they’re making the decision on behalf of their child to not participate in high-stakes, standardized testing. Brezler believes determining school funding based on test scores further disenfranchises schools in high-poverty neighborhoods.

“Your ZIP code shouldn’t determine your access to quality public education, but it does,” Brezler said.

“Poverty is the number one reason for low test scores,” Brezler continued. “The actual causality for students not achieving statistically well is poverty.”

According to the 47th annual Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll released this week, 64% of Americans (and 67% of public school parents) believe that there is too much emphasis on standardized testing in schools. What’s more, 55% (and 63% of public school parents) now believe that test scores shouldn’t be used to evaluate teachers, perhaps in recognition of how that can distort how teachers’ priorities in the classroom.

Brezler said the entire method of funding public schools through standardized testing is flawed as it doesn’t account for poverty. Most school funding currently comes from municipal property taxes — in which wealthier, suburban neighborhoods naturally have better-funded schools — and through standardized testing.

Even in middle-class communities, parents have felt the sting of paying for previously included expenses like bus service and cleaning supplies out of pocket, and having to fundraise for extra reading teachers and other important personnel. That’s why, despite a long-standing attempt to convince the public that “money doesn’t matter” in education, when asked about the number one problem facing their local schools, Americans of all races and political identifications overwhelmingly answered “a lack of financial support” in the survey for the tenth year in a row.

“I’ve seen an hour of testing at the end of the year turn into 540 minutes of testing for a 9 year old person. I’ve seen students for special needs have seizures or other accidents while testing,” Brezler told U.S. Uncut. “This is something I never experienced as a young person, or early on in teaching. It’s something that’s quite new to me.”

The “opt-out” movement has now attracted roughly 200,000 students across New York who have refused to participate in standardized testing. In Pennsylvania, the opt-out rate tripled in 2015. The opt-out movement is also picking up traction in Arizona. 1,000 students in New Mexico walked out of classrooms in protest of standardized testing in March.

The federal government has used as a means of allotting public school funding since George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law. Standardized testing was also coupled with public school teacher evaluations after President Obama green-lighted the Race to the Top program. Brezler said these two programs, along with the implementation of Value-Added Measures (VAMs), force teachers to choose between educating children based on their strengths and weaknesses, and teaching in preparation for a year-end test.

“It was like an ever-moving bar,” Brezler said. “They changed the rules in the middle of the game.”

After the New York assembly passed a budget in which education funding was based on a coupling of student test scores with teacher evaluations, Brezler fought back by launching a crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising awareness across the state, raising $19,000 in just ten days. Brezler organized a robocall with education advocate and New York gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout, targeting parents with children in public schools, to educate parents about the opt-out movement:

“This is Zephyr Teachout. I’m calling to tell you that high stakes testing is hurting our kids and you have a constitutional right to refuse them without any negative consequences to your child or financial loss to the school.” 

After the robocall campaign, the percentage of students who refused to take the test went from 5 percent in the previous year, to 20 percent in 2015. Teachout said she wanted to let parents know if they wanted their students to be tested, it was The Movement Against Standardized Testing Has Turned Into a Nationwide Revolt:

CURMUDGUCATION: So, Charters Can Cheat, Apparently

CURMUDGUCATION: So, Charters Can Cheat, Apparently:

So, Charters Can Cheat, Apparently

The New York charter school that had the highest jump in ELA test scores is also the charter schoolthat decided to score their own tests.

English scores at the Teaching Firms of America Charter School jumped from 20% proficiency to 40% proficiency. And according to NY Chalkbeat, the principal doesn't find anything odd about it.

Founding principal Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II said he was confident that the English gains are an accurate reflection of how far his students have come.

“The growth is the result of authentic instruction,” he said. “That’s what happens when you don’t do test prep.”

In NY, charter schools aren't part of the test-grading consortium that scores exams for public schools, but they have a similar system set up which most reportedly use, so that nothing looks, you know, suspicious. Like a doubling in test scores after you score them yourself.

Id-Din said he decided to allow his staff to score students’ answer sheets because he wanted teachers to better understand the state’s test-development and grading process and because it saved money for the school.

Does it really matter who runs score sheets through a scantron machine? Well, no (and we should note that the school saw no such leap in its math scores). But the ELA test of course includes writing CURMUDGUCATION: So, Charters Can Cheat, Apparently:

The Teacher Career Ladders

Teaching-- a field where you can start at the middle and work your way up to the middle.

Many commenters on many sides of various tracks periodically note that one of the problems with the teaching profession is that there is no career path. You start out teaching a bunch of kids in your classroom, and thirty-some years later, there you are, still teaching a bunch of kids in your classroom. You are probably better at it for any number of reasons, but you're doing the same job, with the same responsibilities for the same classroom teacher pay.

Lots of folks (again, from all sides of all tracks) note that this is certainly not one of the more attractive features of a teaching career, and that we could probably hang onto teachers more easily (those of us who actually want to, anyway) if we could offer some sort of career advancement. Unfortunately, here are the teacher ladders that have presented themselves to date.

The Escape Ladder

The problem with a career ladder is that it adds non-teaching tasks to a teacher's day. There are some traditional career ladders open to teachers that involve moving up to administrative or supervisory jobs. If I had to guess, I would bet the two most common reasons that teachers do not climb that ladders are 1) being an administrator looks like a miserable job and 2) they don't want to leave teh classroom.

Administrative jobs have been so hamstrung and depowered that they have lost the luster that usually makes advancement appealing. The usual desire to climb a career ladder goes something like this: "At my level I can see problems to solve that would make The Work go better, and if I climb up a rung or two, I'll be able to effect those changes and make the place work better." But in schools it looks like you have to climb a ladder to the clouds before you can actually get your hands on the power needed to straighten out much of our mess.

Even lesser jobs, like taking on dean of students or athletic director, mean less classroom time. Career ladders lead not to another, higher step in a teaching career, but to another career entirely, a career where you no longer get to do the work you went into the biz to do in

The Teacher Career Ladders

Louisiana Educator: Letter From BESE Member BEEBE

Louisiana Educator: Letter From BESE Member BEEBE:

Letter From BESE Member BEEBE

Click Here to Follow Flip BESE on Facebook 

LEE P.BARRIOS FOR BESE 1 Web Site

JASON FRANCE FOR BESE 6 Web Site

MIKE KREAMER FOR BESE 7 Web Site

Note to readers: The following is a letter from Dr Lottie Beebe, BESE member representing Dist. 3. Dr Beebe has been the voice of reason on BESE. She points out that John White as the official custodian of public information for the Department of Education routinely withholds vital information from researchers and citizens. I have won two lawsuits commanding White to produce public information I requested. We as taxpayers had to pay the court costs and penalties imposed on White for violation of the Louisiana Public Records Law. Right now I have a third lawsuit awaiting a hearing and two other outstanding requests that have not been complied with.                                                                                                                                          Mike Deshotels

 Dear Editor:

A recent editorial in a locally distributed newspaper  (“October ballot holds key races this fall for School Board seats,” August 22, 2015) notes that important decisions will be made in the October 24th election regarding the state’s school board, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).  I agree with the editorial’s assessment of the importance of the BESE elections, but not its assertions regarding the educational progress of the past four years.

The editorial asserts that “test scores are up while dropout rates are down” but does not provide the source for this information.  This assertion of academic progress is similar to assertions made by the leadership of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI)—a  group whose leaders have pledged to spend a large amount of money supporting BESE candidates who will make similar claims in the fall election.  But what is the source of these claims?

The claims originate from data provided by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE), which is led by Superintendent of Education John White, who is appointed by BESE.  While the LDOE should be a trustworthy, unbiased source of education data, the politics of the past four years have created a perception that the LDOE is misrepresenting information.  A record amount
of money was spent four years ago by LABI and other special interest groups to ensure that a BESE majority would be in place to hire White, the choice of Governor Bobby Jindal for the position.

Since White became Superintendent, the LDOE changed its website; it was once a functional government site that provided verifiable data to the public, but the data was removed and the site now primarily espouses a trite slogan – “LDOE.gov” became “LouisianaBelieves.com.”

Ironically, Louisiana cannot believe the claims that the 2012 reforms work, because they cannot be easily verified by independent sources. Numerous, lawful requests for public information from citizens have been ignored by the LDOE; some citizens had to take the LDOE to court to get data released.  Credible researchers found that the LDOE had changed the curve on its standardized tests to make it appear that students were doing better on the tests and the LDOE has changed its metrics for calculating graduation rates and the number of students that go to college in order to improve these scores. When Louisiana’s citizens hear claims of academic progress over the past four years, they should be mindful of the questionable source of this information.

Local school districts would welcome true support and collaboration with business and industry to help address the ill effects of poverty on the students we serve, rather than business and industry trying to promote choice policies that redirect scarce resources to unproven education options.

I reiterate my support for responsible education reform initiatives that are research-based and accompanied by transparent data.      

Sincerely,

Lottie P. Beebe, Ed. D., BESE Member District 3

Breaux Bridge, LA 70517Louisiana Educator: Letter From BESE Member BEEBE:

Defense Department schools begin implementing Common Core standards — but giving them different name - The Washington Post

Defense Department schools begin implementing Common Core standards — but giving them different name - The Washington Post:

Defense Department schools begin implementing Common Core standards — but giving them different name

The public school system run for the Department of Defense to educate children of active duty military and civilian department families in the United States and around the world has started to implement new standards that look remarkably like the Common Core. But it’s calling them by a different name.

Thomas M. Brady, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity — the umbrella agency responsible for department schools in the United States and abroad — told the Military Times  that the process has just begun, and that it will take several years to implement what is being called “College and Career Ready” standards in schools around the world.  The Department of Defense Education Activity operates  172 schools in 11 countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico, according to the DoDEA’s Web site. The schools educate about 74,437 students, the Web site says.

The standards, according to the Web site, are “based in large part on the Common Core State Standards,” but the name was changed because the brand has become so controversial in the United States over the past several years, with some Republican governors pulling their states out of the core initiative or renaming the standards. U.S. News & World Report, in an article this year, quoted Paul Peterson, a professor of government and education policy at Harvard University, as saying the name change makes sense.

“The words have become tainted by the debate,” Peterson said. “I expect to see more of this kind of rebranding happening – many states are already thinking along these lines.”

The implementation schedule for the DoDEA schools calls for math standards for pre-K through grade 5 to be put into place this year, math and literacy standards for grades 6-12 next year, and literacy standards for pre-K through grade 5 in 2017-18, the Military Times reported. Brady said that agency officials are spreading out the implementation of the standards to make sure that teachers are adequately trained and instructional materials are available.

The agency has not selected a standardized test to assess students on their knowledge of the standards, but Brady was quoted as saying that there would be no high stakes connected to any exam that is selected.  “We’re not going to create  an environment here in DoDEA that has high-stakes assessments,” he was quoted as saying.

The Common Core has become highly controversial, with opponents coming from all points on the political spectrum. Some have complained that the initiative was pushed on states by the federal government, while others have criticized some of the standards as developmentally inappropriate. There has also been a lot of turmoil around Common Core assessments, including those Defense Department schools begin implementing Common Core standards — but giving them different name - The Washington Post:

BACK TO SCHOOL: A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

ACLU sues to stop Nevada’s new school voucher program - The Washington Post

ACLU sues to stop Nevada’s new school voucher program - The Washington Post:

ACLU sues to stop Nevada’s new school voucher program

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the constitutionality ofNevada’s new school voucher program, arguing in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the program violates the state’s prohibition against using public money for religious purposes.

“Parents who want their kids to go to private school are absolutely free to do so,” said Amy Rose, legal director for ACLU of Nevada. “Just not at taxpayer expense.”

The new Nevada program, created this year by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, creates “educational savings accounts” that would allow any parent, regardless of income, to pull a child from the state’s public schools and take tax dollars with them to pay for private or parochial school.

[In Nevada, school choice on steroids and a breakthrough for conservatives]

Parents could also use the money — an average of $5,100 to $5,700, depending on family income — for transportation, technology or home schooling. Supporters describe it as an escape hatch from poor schools, while opponents say it drains public schools of needed funds.

“What we should be concerned about is fixing the public school system if it is damaged,” Rose said at a news conference Thursday. “I don’t think we should be taking money away from public schools and giving it to private schools.”

[Read the ACLU’s complaint]

The Nevada treasurer’s office is writing regulations to implement the new program. A spokeswoman referred a request for comment on the lawsuit to the state attorney general, whose spokeswoman said she could not comment on pending litigation.

But Tim Keller, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice — a Virginia-based organization that helped state lawmakers draft the bill that created the Nevada program — vowed to defend the initiative from the ACLU’s “baseless and cynical lawsuit.”

Nevada’s state constitution prevents “public funds of any kind or character whatever” from being spent for sectarian purposes. The ACLU argues that ACLU sues to stop Nevada’s new school voucher program - The Washington Post:

Videos from PAA Week | Parents Across America #FightForDyett

Videos from PAA Week | Parents Across America:

Videos from PAA Week 

PAA Week Day 6: Test Stress and our Children (7-24-15)

• PAA’s Laura Bowman and Julie Woestehoff talk about PAA’s extensive research into the negative effects of the misuse and overuse of standardized tests on our children, and how PAA thinks we should do instead. .

PAA Week Day 5: Local Heroes, Walking the Walk (7-23-15)

• Campaign and public service stories from PAA founding members Natalie Beyer, Sue Peters, and Helen Gym.

PAA Week Day 4: Lobbying Congress (7-22-15)

• PAA’s Pamela Grundy and Julie Woestehoff walk you through the halls of Congress and how to be an effective advocate for public schools and our children.

PAA Week Day 3: The Impact of Race, Poverty and Cultural Bias on Educational Opportunity: Next steps (7-21-15)

• PAA’s Nate Harris, Khem Irby, Deb Mayer, and Julie Woestehoff expand on our program focus with ideas for addressing the opportunity and resource gap.

PAA Week Day 2: Messaging with FairTest’s Bob Schaeffer  (7-20-15)

• Join in this informative discussion with Bob Schaeffer, FairTest’s Communications Director, who shares his tips and wisdom for better ways to get our message across.

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/videos-paa-week/#sthash.HZlVEsJo.dpuf



PAA supports Dyett hunger strikers

Parents Across America stands in solidarity with Chicago’s Dyett High School hunger strikers, parents fighting for high quality community schools for their children. Today is the 11th day of this courageous protest against the district’s plan to close their high school.

For years, Dyett parents and community have been calling on the district and the city to pay better attention to their high school and its students, but instead Dyett suffered increasing disinvestment and marginalization, with faculty and programs cut to the bone. Students had to take classes like art and gym online, despite the fact that the school recently won a gorgeous new gymnasium in a contest sponsored by ESPN.

Dyett parents and community members haven’t simply protested. They have spent months developing a strong, community-supported proposal to transition the school into a open-enrollment global leadership and green technology neighborhood high school. Meanwhile the district has been soliciting proposals from private companies to take over the school.

PAA supports the vision and the choice of the Dyett hunger strikers for a school governed by the community, with a strong parent voice. PAA believes that quality schools are community-centered, provide services and activities that benefit students and their families, and grow in response to the expertise, experiences and relationships of members of the school community.

It’s time for school and political leaders to listen to parents.

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/paa-supports-dyett-hunger-strikers/#sthash.64x18QIH.dpuf