Who Betrayed The Legacy Of Brown V. Board?:

Who Betrayed The Legacy Of Brown V. Board?

So this one’s personal for me.

The day they bused the poor kids to my school was the first time I’d ever come face to face with children my age who were so poor they weren’t properly clothed. It was the first time – in a society where I saw separate water fountains for blacks and whites, and the black maid who helped my mom around the house explained to us she wasn’t allowed to use the dressing rooms at the local department store – that I was taught to – yes,taught to – sit across the aisle from a kid whose skin color was different from mine and treat him as my peer.

It was the first time the real public was allowed to show up at my “public” school. And although I was only seven years old, I’ve never forgotten it.

Perhaps that’s why – as I join the rest of the nation in commemorating the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that led to desegregating America’s public schools – I found this news item especially ironic:

The headline was not so surprising: “New Chicago High School To Be Named For Obama.” The president, after all, is a monumentally historic figure for breaking the nation’s color barrier in its highest elected office. And he is an adopted son of Chicago.

But then you get into the fine print, and you learn the Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett are building the Barack Obama College Preparatory High School on the North Side, and it’s going to be “a selective-enrollment high school,” with $60 million in tax funds financing it.

Then recall, if you will, Emanuel and Byrd-Bennett are the officials who oversaw last year’s mass closure of 50 schools – the worst such event in American history – in the neighborhoods of black and brown Chicago school children. Then go a little deeper.

As Chicago school teacher Fred Klonsky explained on his personal blog, the sparking new Barack Obama high will be constructed “on the land where public housing once stood. The public housing was torn down to make way for high-end town houses and towering condo buildings.”

Further, “Obama High would be just a few blocks from an existing selective admission high school … Contrast that with parts of the west side which now have neighborhood school deserts, entire neighborhoods where no neighborhood public school exists.”

And the announcement of the new Obama academy virtually coincided with a decision by Emanuel’s “hand-picked school board” to “fire every administrator, teacher, paraprofessional and lunch lady from three neighborhood schools … on the south and west side,”  – i.e., where poor children of color live.

So 60 years after Brown v. Board, here’s what passes for advancements in civil rights: grand gestures of “progress” – honoring a mixed race president – that amount to empty symbolism, while more direct harm is done to minority school children every day.

It’s indeed a “tale of two cities,” to use Klonsky’s words. And it’s a tale of two nations.

The Shame Of The Nation

The dynamics of racial inequality in public education practiced in Chicago is at work in schools in the Deep South too. In an outstanding report“Segregation Now,” ProPublica journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones took us to a high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that “was one of the South’s 

5/7/2014 – Charter Schools Fail

May 7, 2014 Subscribe THIS WEEK: US Teachers Lack Diversity … Scary Common Core Cut Scores… Common Core vs. Real Issues … Funding For Higher Ed Not Recovering … Young Workers Face Tough Climb TOP STORY Charter Schools Fail: New Reports Call Their ‘Magic’ Into Question By Jeff Bryant “In today’s climate of trumped up political truisms … the supposed necessity of charter schools is just the lates

10 by Jeff Bryant / 4d hide  //  save

Charter Schools Fail: New Reports Call Their ‘Magic’ Into Question

When members of the U.S. House of Representatives consider, beginning today, a bill to incentivize the expansion of charter schools, you can expect there to be a lot of heat but not very much light in their discussion of the need for more of these institutions. The bipartisan bill, HR 10, is “likely to pass,” according to the experienced observers at Education Week. And “amid lots of cross-aisle f

200+ by Jeff Bryant / 4d 

 

5-10-14 National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: Building High Quality Early Childhood Education Support Systems for Children and FamiliesPublication Date:  Mon, 2014-05-05 Organization:  Opportunity to Learn Campaign and Broader Bolder Approach to Education Type:  Policy Category:  Early Care and Education ECE-guide-final.pdf This guide gives state policymaker

by mike simpson / 14min 

5-11-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week: Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy

Jersey Jazzman: Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy:

Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy

If you believe that America is a democracy, you must also believe, a priori, that Newark, NJ, is not part of America.For the last couple of weeks, it has become painfully, disturbingly clear that Newark -- like many other communities populated by working-poor and working-class people of color -- operates under a set of circumstances that simply wouldn't be tolerated in a free, democratic society:-

by Duke / 21min  

 

5-10-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekWhat's Happening With B4K?So, at the first glance, it looks like B4K is up to their old tricks again: putting money from billionaires David Tepper and Alan Fournier into local politics under the guise of education reform. They've done it before in Jersey City and Perth Amboy; now it's Trenton.But hang on -- something seems different...TRENTON — A nonpr

by mike simpson / 29min 

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer - NY Daily News

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer - NY Daily News:

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer

Brooklyn Dreams pays $2.3 million to for-profit firm National Heritage Academies to lease space from the Catholic Church — at a price much higher than what the city would normally pay. Dozens of for-profit vendors such as NHA are collecting millions from charter schools, but can't always account for how it's spent. Parents say for all the funding, charter school students are still being shortchanged.

On a quiet Ditmas Park side street, taxpayers shell out $2.3 million a year to lease space from the Catholic Church for a charter school called Brooklyn Dreams.

What’s shrouded in a cloak of secrecy is whether the arrangement is a good deal for the taxpayer.

That’s because a for-profit firm called National Heritage Academies acts as a middleman, renting space from the church at rates it calls “private.” Then NHA sublets the space to Brooklyn Dreams.

The firm charges the school $46.99 per square foot — much more than the $14.25 to $25.50 per square foot the city typically pays to lease school space from the church.

In effect, the for-profit company is charging the taxpayers at a far higher rate— in some cases more than double — than what the city would normally pay to rent space for public schools.

The operation of charter schools should not be immune to a healthy dose of sunshine.

If Brooklyn Dreams paid the church directly at the city’s top rate, the city would still save another $1 million a year — money that could go to aid students. Neither NHA nor the church would say how much NHA was paying the diocese.

“We are not releasing terms of these private contracts,” said Matt Maguire, an NHA spokesman, also declining to discuss a nearly identical sublet deal they have with another charter school, Brooklyn Scholars. NHA charges that school $37.15 per square foot.

Maguire justified the “private” deal by saying the buildings were “empty and fallow” and NHA “invested millions of dollars to make them a suitable environment for teaching and learning.”

What troubles fiscal watchdogs is that while NHA dubs this arrangement “private,” every penny involved is taxpayer money.

JOE MARINO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSBrooklyn Dreams is paying National Heritage Academies $46.99 per square foot — much more than the $14.25 to $25.50 per square foot the city typically pays to the church.

In fact, the public foots the bill for 70 charter schools leasing space at non-DOE entities across the city, and the rent varies widely. Last week the City Council’s education committee held a hearing raising questions about how charter schools spend tax dollars. Daniel Dromm, the committee chairman, made clear he wants more transparency.

“The operation of charter schools should not be immune to a healthy dose of

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/charter-schools-pay-millions-tax-dollars-middlemen-article-1.1787582#ixzz31QWSnyRh

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy:

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools

Comments (1)

| hannah nguyen, ipad, john deasy, l.a. schools, LAUSD, Los Angeles, los ángeles public schools, march, Pearson, protest, rally, schools l.a. students deserve, students, trojan 18

Nearly 100 students, teachers and parents marched toward a busy intersection of Koreatown yesterday to advocate for better school funding and more community control of L.A. public schools.

The coalition of activists briefly disrupted traffic at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, but the peaceful demonstration earned the car-horn admiration of rush hour commuters and the cooperation of local law enforcement.

The rally, organized by Schools L.A. Students Deserve, was a hotbed of Los Angeles public school discontent, with protestors decrying everything from over-testing to misallocation of district funds. The controversial iPad purchasing program was popular fodder for protestors, with one high school senior, Michelangelo Diaz, calling the severely restricted and pre-loaded tablets, "a waste of money." 

SEE ALSO: LAUSD's iPad Problem Is Not Going Away

Wearing red shirts, carrying handcrafted signs and chanting slogans, the group blasted Superintendent John Deasy for being tone deaf and accused the administrator of catering to corporate interests. Not an audacious claim considering the large amount of districts funds sunk into educational iPad software provided by multinational corporate juggernaut, andCommon Core beneficiary, Pearson. The company also coincidentally supplies the school system's eTextbooks and testing material. All for a nominal fee, of course.

Oh, and you want to see Pearson's digital curriculum, you nosy public school teachers? Good luck with that.

It's also worth noting that one of the participants was USC's own Hannah Nguyen, one of the Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy:

5-11-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

UFT Contract: MORE Sponsors Discussion (Unlike Unity) - Long Island City - Thurs May 15, 4:30PM

Open and honest debate. While Unity hides behind official visits to schools, MORE will hold open discussions. Come whether you are for or against the contract and talk about it. Download and print copies for your school if you are teaching in the area - or even if you're not.UFT Contract Information Session Come hear a detailed breakdown of the proposed contract by John Giambalvo followed by disc

by ed notes online / 24min 

Newark Teacher to Southern Poverty Law Center

Totalitarianism is never content to rule by external means, namely, through the state and a machinery of violence; thanks to its peculiar ideology and the role assigned to it in this apparatus of coercion, totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within. .... Hannah Arendt 1951Dear Southern Poverty Law Center,I am neither a right wing Christian, nor a

by ed notes online / 26min 

UFT Contract: NYC Educator Puts Out Challenge to Unity on Contract

If it's such a great deal, why wouldn't they jump at the opportunity? If we bloggers and opponents are spouting myths, as UFT President Mike Mulgrew repeatedly told the DA last Wednesday, why doesn't he grab this, a golden opportunity to demonstrate it? ... Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator blog. I'm ready to tape this one but as I said in previous posts, I'm predicting the Unity people will never

by ed notes online / 7min

UFT Contract: Secretaries Ask MORE for Help After Mulgrew Ignores Pleas

Mulgrew being handed requestsDear Mr. Scott,The secretaries of the UFT have been working under a 1979 contract. Some of the secretaries put together an outline of requests to up date our duties, title and protections against out of license employees being put in our positions. They have not opened up the test or upgraded it for yes ads. We handed these outlined requests to Mr. Mulgrew personally.

by ed notes online / 38min hide  //  save

Southern Poverty Law Center Sells Out on Common Core - Brands Opponents as Extremists, While Salon Declares They’re lying about Louis C.K.: He’s right about Common Core — and not a Tea Partyer

Give the SPLC a call and ask them to talk to Louis C.K.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMay 7, 2014Contact: Rebecca Sturtevant (334) 956-8372Rebecca.sturtevant@splcenter.orgSouthern Poverty Law Center Report: Extremist Propaganda is Distorting the Debate Over the Common Core State Standards MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The fierce grassroots campaign threatening to derail the Common Core State Standards is being fueled

by ed notes online / 1h 

5-10-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Ed Notes OnlineMORE Contract Meeting TodayOrganize the No Vote Against this Contractby morecaucusnyc Saturday, May 1012:00 - 3:00pmYa-Ya Network224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl.Come to a meeting with UFT Chapter Leaders and Contract Committee members to hear a breakdown of the proposal, ask questions, and organize against the proposed contract in our schools. Join us in fighting for The C

by mike simpson / 1h 

5-11-14 the becoming radical A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

On Foma and Mendacity: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may seem at first blush to share only the use of “cat” in their titles, but both works are masterful examinations of something central to the human condition: the lie. But Vonnegut’s foma at the heart of Bokononism and Big Daddy’s railing against mendacity  present contrasting dramatizations of “lying and liars,” as Brick

7 by plthomasedd / 1h 

5-10-14 the becoming radical EMPATHYEDUCATES! | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

THE BECOMING RADICALRadical ScholarshipEMPATHYEDUCATES!the becoming radical  A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by Obama Administration Sends Mixed Messages on Teachers and TestingPresident Obama and 2014 National Teacher of the Year finalists applaud Sean McComb, second from right, a high school English teacher from Maryland, as the 2014 National Teacher of the Year during an event at the White H

by mike simpson / 1h 

Saturday’s Book Presentation |:

Saturday’s Book Presentation

 This past Saturday, those involved with Arizona State University’s edXchange initiative invited me to speak on VAMs and my new book, Rethinking Value-Added Models: Critical Perspectives on Tests and Assessment-Based Accountability.

I would venture to say that most professional fields wouldn’t attract many Saturday lecture attendees. But, as most of you know, educators are certainly not the norm! We had a house full of educators from every corner of the field—classroom teachers, school administrators, school board members, college professors, parents, and everyone else you can imagine. Needless to say, it was an honor to share my work and engage in dialogue with so many concerned citizens. I left hopeful that more were informed, and in many ways armed, to help others make more informed decisions, at least in Arizona’s schools.

Thank you to those who were able to attend, and thank you all for continuing to do your part in improving the lives of our teachers and students, hopefully throughout the country.

See a few photos from the event below.

 

Rethinking Value-Added Models: Critical Perspectives on Tests and Assessment-Based Accountability.

Everything is Untested Until You Test It | Paul Bruno

Everything is Untested Until You Test It | Paul Bruno:

Everything is Untested Until You Test It

By PAUL BRUNO | Published: MAY 11, 2014

Teacher tenure is a hot topic in California these days thanks to the Vergara trial, so it was newsworthy when the San Jose chapter of the California Teachers Association asked the State Board of Education for a waiver from state law extending the probationary period for some teachers using a system of peer review. They didn’t get it:

The State Board of Education on Thursday denied the San Jose Unified School District and its teachers union their request for the authority to require some probationary teachers in the district to work an additional third year before becoming eligible for tenure.

Granting a one-year waiver from state law, Jennifer Thomas, president of the San Jose Teachers Association, had argued, would send a message that “a union can be an incubator of innovation in pursuit of educational excellence.” Board member Carl Cohn, a retired superintendent of Long Beach Unified, agreed, urging the board to encourage the cooperation between a teachers union and a district reflected in the request. “Sometimes it is easier to teach kids to read than to get this kind of trust,” Cohn said.

But with its 7-2 vote, the majority sided with the California Teachers Association and the state Department of Education’s position that the district and the union should ask the Legislature to change the tenure law or grant it an exception. Waivers, said board member Sue Burr, should be narrow and limited to circumstances involving individual teachers, such as a teacher who went on maternity leave while on probation. “For better or worse, we’re being asked to waive a fundamental personnel protection,” she said.

One of the big disappointments here is that San Jose Unified and its teachers Everything is Untested Until You Test It | Paul Bruno:

The Philanthropy Paradox | Network Schools - Wayne Gersen

The Philanthropy Paradox | Network Schools - Wayne Gersen:

The Philanthropy Paradox

May 11, 2014wgersenLeave a commentGo to comments

A lengthy BloombergBusinessweek post, “The $13 billion Mystery Angels“, describes the efforts of three philanthropists to use elaborate means of shielding their identities from the public and a lengthy description of how the philanthropists made their fortune through the use of complicated arbitrage schemes. While the descriptions of the methods used to raise money and hide their identities was interesting, the most astonishing fact about philanthropy was buried in the middle of the article:

Because Congress offers tax deductions for philanthropy, this growing breed of donor is deciding the fate of billions of dollars that would otherwise flow to the government. Individual charitable deductions will cost the Department of the Treasury $43.6 billion in foregone revenue this year, a congressional panel estimates. Partly because of the tax subsidy for philanthropy, the IRS has long required private foundations to publicly state who controls and funds them. This is fine with most big donors, who don’t want to hide their gifts. They want recognition or a legacy, or they want to help publicize their cause… By masking their philanthropy, they aren’t just shunning accolades and speeches at charity galas. They’re also avoiding public scrutiny of how they made their fortunes, and how they’ve chosen to give them away, including some donations with political consequences.

This means that in one year philanthropists received tax credits worth 10 times the TOTAL amount allocated for Race To The Top! Now some of the philanthropists donated funds for worthy causes. It’s difficult to argue against Bill Gates’ decision to fight polio, and this article describes several donations that are equally beneficial. It also described some political donations they made: some to causes that I would wholeheartedly support.. but some that are a cause for concern. But these tax credits give the Gates, the Kochs, and these anonymous donors tremendous power. IF Bill Gates spends millions promoting the Common Core and computerized tests based on the Common Core, he is directing the course of public education far more than the Federal Government. And Gates’ advocacy of computerized testing does not seem purely charitable even if his intentions are pure. And if one of the donors is giving huge sums to fight Huntington’s disease, a relatively rare malady, while the government proposes cutbacks to the CDC, is that the best use of money?

Because we have adopted the belief that “Government is the Problem” we have directed more and more money away from government agencies who need funds to fight disease, who need resources to feed, clothe, house and educate poor children, and who need resources to maintain and expand our infrastructure. The result of this is the placement of more and more The Philanthropy Paradox | Network Schools - Wayne Gersen: