NEA - Educators to spring into Wave of Action on eve of 50th anniversary of ESEA

NEA - Educators to spring into Wave of Action on eve of 50th anniversary of ESEA:

Educators to spring into Wave of Action on eve of 50th anniversary of ESEA

Nationwide actions to reaffirm LBJ’s ‘fierce commitment to the ideal of education for everyone’

 WASHINGTON - April 06, 2015 -

Families, students, educators, and communities across the nation will spring into an April Wave of Action to inject their voices into the reauthorization process of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), now more commonly known as No Child Left Behind, with a series of public events, teach-ins, rallies and digital engagements. This campaign coincides with Congress’ Easter recess. Leading the Wave of Action is a new six-figure television and digital ad buy that will run in select media markets home to 13 U.S. senators who will play a key role in deciding the future of the law. A cable ad buy also will air in the Washington, D.C. media market starting the week of April 13, which coincides with the Senate education committee’s expected mark up of their version of ESEA.

“Fifty years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the most sweeping education legislation of its time, the future of public education stands at a critical crossroads,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “Today, more than 50 percent of the nation’s public school students now qualify to receive free and reduced-priced meals. Fifteen million children in the United States — 20 percent of all children — live with families whose incomes are below the federal poverty level.”

On April 11, 1965, President Johnson cemented ESEA as a critical cornerstone of his War on Poverty programs, establishing the federal footprint in K-12 public education, and putting in place programs to level the playing field for the most vulnerable students: children living in poverty, students with disabilities and English-language learners.

“Under No Child Left Behind, the focus has shifted away from helping those most in need and moved towards testing, labeling and punishing schools, with no significant closure of achievement or opportunity gaps. Today, we call on all Americans to join us and take action, to speak up, to raise their hands, to reaffirm President Johnson’s ‘fierce commitment to the ideal of education for everyone,’” said Eskelsen García.

The 50th anniversary of ESEA comes as Congress is in earnest considering ways to rewrite the law. In fact, the U.S. Senate education committee is scheduled to begin marking up its version of ESEA on April 14, just a few days after the law’s anniversary. Educators, students, and families are demanding that Congress get ESEA right this time by ushering in a new and improved vision for our nation’s public schools—a vision that promotes opportunity, equity and excellence for all students regardless of the zip code in which they live.

“We will continue to fight until we have a new federal education bill signed into law that focuses on students and includes the voices of educators,” emphasized Eskelsen García. “The only way to achieve that is to make sure that our members and the public are fully engaged. The stakes are high for our students and their future. That’s why we are springing into action again to make sure lawmakers hear directly from educators about what hasn’t worked and what needs to happen in order to get the law right this time.”

In February, NEA launched a successful nationwide campaign, “Get ESEA Right,” to get the public and educators engaged in the ESEA reauthorization process. The campaign included a six-figure ad, titled “Fix ESEA.” NEA has sent more than 1.5 million emails to its members about ESEA. NEA cyber advocates have sent nearly 130,000 emails to Congress about ESEA reauthorization. More than 500,000 NEA members received a piece of direct mail from NEA to raise awareness about ESEA and urge them to take action. And during just one week in February, NEA members visited 245 House of Representatives and 79 Senate offices.

During the April Wave of Action nationwide campaign, educators will reach out to parents, community partners, and the general public to raise their voices. They will leaflet parents at schools or in public places, attend community forums, host teach-ins, and write letters to the editor or opinion pieces in their local papers, among other proactive actions.

In Oklahoma, educators are holding “common sense testing” tours. Educators in St. Louis, Mo., are conducting teach-ins. Maine educators are putting forward “time to teach” resolutions before school boards. These actions are just the beginning of many more to come.

The TV ads are running in select media markets in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia., Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington state.

To view the generic television ad, please click here or visit http://bit.ly/1yKlUX6.

Ad title: Educators Tell Congress: Fix the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Ad script:

Graphic: Educators speak out for students: It’s time to fix the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

TIKEILA: 3rd grade teacher

You shouldn’t be able to define a person by their zip code

MARIA: Education paraprofessional

Testing cannot close the gap between wealthy schools and poor schools.

JEREMY: H.S. physics teacher

And when we focus on standardized tests, and not on what the kid can actually do, we’re doing a disservice to the kid.

PAMELA: 2nd grade teacher

We need to lower the class sizes so that each student can get that one on one attention that they need.

JEREMY:

They need access to art and to music, they need to be in P.E. classes.

MAGGIE:

What are we not teaching when we’re teaching to the test?

NARRATOR:

Tell Congress: Stand up for students. Fix ESEA. 866-331-7233

Follow us @NEAMedia #getESEAright

The National Education Association (www.nea.org) is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.

CONTACT: Miguel A. Gonzalez  202-822-7823, mgonzalez@nea.org

Jersey Jazzman: Camden State Superintendent Confirms: There's ALWAYS Money for Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman: Camden State Superintendent Confirms: There's ALWAYS Money for Charter Schools:

Camden State Superintendent Confirms: There's ALWAYS Money for Charter Schools - 

Earlier this week, Stephen Danley posted a remarkable piece of video. Camden's State Superintendent, Paymon Rouhanifard, met with parents to discuss the fate of McGraw Elementary School, one of five schools scheduled to be either closed or turned over to charter school operators under Rouhanifard's plan.



For nearly 40 minutes, Rouhanifard is intensely cross-examined by parents who are against the conversion of McGraw into a charter school run by the Philadelphia-based charter chain, Mastery. Understand that these parents had absolutely no say whatsoever in the takeover of their neighborhood school: Rouhanifard is free to do whatever he wants in Camden, including abdicating his responsibility to the district's schools.



Rouhanifard, like the superintendents in Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson, serves entirely at the pleasure of Governor Chris Christie. He has no need to answer to the parents, students, and taxpayers of Camden, as they have no ability to remove him through the political process if he ignores their wishes. In New Jersey, local accountability through democratic action is reserved for the suburbs; people of color in the large cities do not enjoy the same privileges:

As you can imagine, the parents in this video are clearly fed up with this state of affairs. What follows is a passionate yet ultimately unsurprising confrontation between people who - See more at: Jersey Jazzman: Camden State Superintendent Confirms: There's ALWAYS Money for Charter Schools:

‘Opting Haven out of the state-mandated tests is our family’s act of civil disobedience’ - The Washington Post

‘Opting Haven out of the state-mandated tests is our family’s act of civil disobedience’ - The Washington Post:

‘Opting Haven out of the state-mandated tests is our family’s act of civil disobedience’

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Click Here to go to the Website FairTest

 New York has been at the center of a national “opt-out” movement in which thousands of parents have refused to allow their children to take new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core standards or to similar standards in states that had originally adopted the Core but dropped them and designed their own. New York officials had signed on several years ago to a multi-state consortium known as PARCC, which developed new tests aligned to the Common Core, which public schools in the state have been implementing. But New York decided not to administer PARCC for various reasons and contracted with Pearson to design its own set of tests, which students have taken for a few years and will take again this month.  The state now wants to design yet another new test and is seeking proposals from test companies.

Last year some 60,000 students declined to take the tests in New York, and this year many more are expected. In this post, one mother explains in a letter to her daughter’s teacher why she is opting her child out of New York tests being given this month. The author is Britt Hamre, a lecturer in the Elementary Inclusive Program and co-odirector of the Inclusive Classrooms Project at Teachers College, Columbia University. She wrote the following letter to her daughter’s teacher about why she will not her child to take the state of New York’s Common Core tests this month. Here it is, with her permission.

Here’s the letter from Britt Hamre to her daughter’s teacher:

Dear Grace,

It is with the highest level of respect for you that I’m writing to inform you that Haven will not participate in the state mandated standardized tests this April. Using student test scores to rate and rank students and teachers is an ethically unsound practice and is degrading to the profession of teaching.

This year I have been in awe of your incredible skills as Haven’s teacher, and I know that no standardized test can come even close to capturing what she has learned in your classroom. Furthermore, your bravery and resolve in the face of the top down pressures from the State of New York may weigh on you, but you do not let that determine your curricular decisions. Instead you teach with your heart and soul, and your excitement has ignited Haven’s passion for social studies, reading, writing, and mathematics. No standardized test can measure the spirited dinner conversations Haven has initiated this year about immigration, thanks to your elaborately designed integrated social studies curriculum. I listen carefully as Haven describes class field trips in New York City, her excitement about historical fiction, and her deep analysis of primary sources and questions regarding privilege, prejudice and access. I cannot count the number of times Haven has greeted me at the door with, “Mom, did you know…?!” No test could possibly be designed to measure the multitude of ways in which she extends the investigations you start in class, or document the initiation she has taken to write her own books at home about the immigrants living in her mind. Her learning is demonstrated in her written work, performance of role-plays, various conversations, not to mention your regular curriculum newsletters, extensive and detailed narrative reports, and personal emails. Watching Haven learn this year has deepened my own commitment to preparing teachers to design integrated curriculum that examines enduring questions and takes up multiple perspectives. Haven’s learning is travelling far beyond the walls of your single classroom. I do not need a test score to 

‘Opting Haven out of the state-mandated tests is our family’s act of civil disobedience’ - The Washington Post:

A case for cutting foreign languages from US schools - Quartz

A case for cutting foreign languages from US schools - Quartz:

A case for cutting foreign languages from US schools

 Eva Moskowitz is the CEO and founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, responsible for about 9,000 students in 32 charter schools around New York City. Moskowitz sat down for an interview with the American Enterprise Institute this week, and talked about how to fit everything she deems important for students—coding, recess, science five days a week—into the school day. One recent solution, Moskowitz said, was to cut foreign languages.

From the interview:

So something’s got to go. We picked—and you know this may be shocking to this audience—we picked foreign languages. People say “Don’t you believe in foreign languages?” I love multilingualism. I speak French, but something had to go. … We can’t do everything. And by the way, Americans don’t tend to do foreign languages very well. I think if I were doing schools in Europe I might feel differently. But my son took three years of French and he could barely say, “How are you?” … I really believe whatever we do we should do it exceptionally well and I wasn’t sure that I could find foreign language instructors that were really really good and could do it at a very very high level.

Indeed, foreign language instruction has been on the decline around the US, at least in elementary and middle schools—which is Success Academy’s sweet spot. (High schools remained steady at 91%, and Success only has one high school so far.) Here’s the change in the percentage of US schools offering foreign language instruction in 2008 versus 1997, according to a study funded by the US Department of Education

In Moskowitz’s defense, English continues to assert its dominance as the language of the global economy, though some would argue that just relying on everyone else to speak English could be detrimental to American business growth—while potentially sacrificing the benefits of bilingualism and of foreign language study (pdf).A case for cutting foreign languages from US schools - Quartz:

At Success Academy Charter Schools, Polarizing Methods and Superior Results - NYTimes.com

At Success Academy Charter Schools, Polarizing Methods and Superior Results - NYTimes.com:

At Success Academy Charter Schools, Polarizing Methods and Superior Results

At most schools, if a child is flailing academically, it is treated as a private matter.

But at Success Academy Harlem 4, one boy’s struggles were there for all to see: On two colored charts in the hallway, where the students’ performance on weekly spelling and math quizzes was tracked, his name was at the bottom, in a red zone denoting that he was below grade level.

The boy, a fourth grader, had been in the red zone for months. His teacher, Kristin Jones, 23, had held meetings with his mother, where the teacher spread out all the weekly class newsletters from the year, in which the charts were reproduced. If he studied, he could pass the spelling quizzes, Ms. Jones said — he just was not trying. But the boy got increasingly frustrated, and some weeks Ms. Jones had to stop herself from looking over his shoulder during the quizzes so she would not get upset by his continued mistakes.

Then, one Friday in December, she peeked at his paper, and a smile spread over her face. After he handed in his quiz, she announced to the class that he had gotten a 90. “I might start crying right now,” she said, only half-joking. “I’ve got to call your mom.”

In its devotion to accountability, Success Academy, New York City’s polarizing charter school network, may have no peer.

Though it serves primarily poor, mostly black and Hispanic students, Success is a testing dynamo, outscoring schools in many wealthy suburbs, let alone their urban counterparts. In New York City last year, 29 percent of public school students passed the state reading tests, and 35 percent passed the math tests. At Success schools, the corresponding percentages were 64 and 94 percent.

Those kinds of numbers have helped Success, led by Eva S. Moskowitz, expand to become the city’s largest charter network. By next year Ms. Moskowitz, known for her attention-grabbing rallies and skirmishes with the teachers’ union and Mayor Bill de Blasio, will have 43 schools; a proposal by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo could get her closer to her goal of 100. That would give Success more schools than Buffalo, the state’s second-largest district.

In a rare look inside the network, including visits to several schools and interviews with dozens of current and former employees, The New York Times chronicled a system driven by the relentless pursuit of better results, one that can be exhilarating for teachers and students who keep up with its demands and agonizing for those who do not.

Rules are explicit and expectations precise. Students must sit with hands clasped and eyes following the speaker; reading passages must be neatly annotated with a main idea.

Incentives are offered, such as candy for good behavior, and Nerf guns and basketballs for high scores on practice tests. For those deemed not trying hard enough, there is “effort academy,” which is part detention, part study hall.

For teachers, who are not unionized and usually just out of college, 11-hour days are the norm, and each one is under constant monitoring, by principals who make frequent visits, and by databases that record quiz scores. Teachers who do well can expect quick promotions, with some becoming principals while still in their 20s. Teachers who struggle can expect coaching or, if that does not help, possible demotion.

Rachel Tuchman, 25, said that during her three years as a teacher at Success, she had friends who worked in the fields of finance and consulting, and she went to work earlier and stayed later than they did.

“You’re being treated like you’re on the trading floor at Goldman while you’re teaching in Harlem,” said Ms. Tuchman, who is now in her first year at Yale Law School.

She also said that she thought the workload was necessary to achieve the results that Success has, adding: “It takes a very specific type of person who can handle the pressure.”

One consequence of the competitive environment is a high rate of teacher turnover. Some teachers who left said that the job was too stressful. Others said they left because they disagreed with the network’s approach, particularly when they believed it was taken to extremes. In an internal email that some former teachers said typified the attitude at some schools, one school leader said that students who were lagging should be made to feel “misery.” Suspension rates at Success schools, compared with public schools, are higher.

Former staff members described students in third grade and above wetting themselves during practice tests, either because teachers did not allow them to go to the restroom, which Ms. Moskowitz disputed, or because the students themselves felt so much pressure that they did not want to lose time on the test.

Jasmine Araujo, 25, who joined Success through the Teach for America program, quit after half a year as a special-education teacher at Success Academy Harlem 3. She now teaches at a charter school in New Orleans. “I At Success Academy Charter Schools, Polarizing Methods and Superior Results - NYTimes.com:

School Superintendents' Association Pushes Congress on NCLB Rewrite - Politics K-12 - Education Week

School Superintendents' Association Pushes Congress on NCLB Rewrite - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

School Superintendents' Association Pushes Congress on NCLB Rewrite

By Lauren Camera on April 6, 2015 10:17 AM

In an unprecedented move by the nation's public school superintendents' groups at both the state and national level, AASA, the School Superintendents Association, and 49 state affiliates sent a letter to members of Congress Monday urging them to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act, the latest iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

"We cannot continue to ask our nation's schools and the students they serve to live under the approach offered by the administration's waivers," wrote  Daniel Domenech, executive director, in the letter dated April 6. "Congress alone can and should address the shortcomings of the current law and the waivers."

Education advocates send letters to lawmakers all the time, so why is this one notable?

Well, for starters, it's the first time AASA has wrangled this many of its state affiliates—which represent an incredibly diverse group of school system leaders—to sign on to one policy letter.

The AASA has affiliates in every state but Hawaii, and has two in North Carolina. And with the exception of California, all of its state affiliates signed on to the letter.

The push from the superintendents' organization comes at a precarious time for lawmakers trying to rewrite the federal K-12 law. A Republican-backed bill in the House is still stalled after being yanked from the floor amid dwindling GOP support for the measure. And after months of negotiating, education leaders in the Senate are set to unveil a bipartisan bill this week (Politics K-12 got the scoop on that late last week) and begin marking up the bill next week, a delicate process that's sure to test the politicking skills of both parties.

With so much uncertainty still surrounding the legislative process and an increasingly clogged congressional calendar leading into the appropriations season, the AASA letter is a strong reminder to lawmakers that this is a priority for almost every school system in the country.

"AASA as well as our affiliates nationwide are urging Congress to move forward with the very critical work of reauthorizing ESEA," Domenech wrote. "We need legislation that supports state and local innovations that strike the appropriate balance between federal government authority, School Superintendents' Association Pushes Congress on NCLB Rewrite - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Low bidder says California will overpay testing contractor | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee

Low bidder says California will overpay testing contractor | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee:

Low bidder says California will overpay testing contractor

California education officials relied on three paper slips and a box to help determine who would win a nearly quarter-billion-dollar contract to overhaul the state’s system of testing students.

At a state Board of Education meeting last month, board President Michael Kirst drew each of the three firms’ names to decide the order in which they would present their case.

“It will be a random choice,” Kirst said, illustrating the lengths taken to help ensure a thorough and evenhanded bidding process.

The apparent loser, however, says it was anything but fair. Pearson School questions whether it was put through an elaborate charade designed to pick the state’s current testing vendor, Educational Testing Service. Pearson representatives want the job rebid and are threatening a lawsuit.

In the world of lucrative government contracts, the effort to design and build a system for more than 3 million students a year could have far-reaching implications. The new assessments are considered a cornerstone of the state’s education system, helping improve classroom instruction and marking progress in English and mathematics for kindergarten through 12th grade. Given the innovative approaches being considered, experts said the winning bidder would be in position to parlay the agreement to provide tests to other states.

At the urging of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Kirst and his colleagues unanimously agreed to pursue a pact with ETS, which is proposing a three-year deal worth $240 million, $34 million more than the plan submitted by Pearson. ETS has provided testing in California for more than a dozen years.

“ETS’ flexibility and corporate agility will allow negotiations and scope(s) of work to benefit not only the (department), but also our students, educators, and the people of California,” Torlakson said.

In the days that followed, Pearson attorney Donald G. Featherstun wrote that the company had serious concerns about the propriety of the department’s evaluation. He pointed to the decision to shred original notes used to score the bids and demanded officials “cease destroying any additional documents,” according to a letter obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

The company also complained that ETS was required to essentially adopt a portion of Pearson’s plan calling for the recruitment, training and paying of teachers to help score parts of the standardized tests.

Doug Kubach, the president and chief executive of Pearson School, the assessment division of London-based Pearson, urged in a letter of his own that the job be rebid “to remove any taint to the procurement process.”

“We have a lot of questions about the process because it does not seem to have been transparent and necessarily is a process that leads to the best result for the teachers and taxpayers in California,” he said in an interview.

Keric Ashley, deputy state superintendent, said in a written statement that although costs are crucial, the most important consideration is the technical ability of a company to test millions of students every year,Low bidder says California will overpay testing contractor | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee:

Could Rahm Emanuel Lose Chicago Race to 'Hanukkah Harry' Challenger? #‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Could Rahm Emanuel Lose Chicago Race to 'Hanukkah Harry' Challenger? – Forward.com:

Could Rahm Emanuel Lose Chicago Race to 'Hanukkah Harry' Challenger?

Election Pits Liberals Against Jewish Establishment

 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in a race to retain his job against Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a career politician with strong ties to Chicago’s progressive community. And, the upcoming Chicago mayoral election being held on Tuesday, April 7, has been characterized by some as Jews for Jesus versus Jews for “Mayor 1 Percent.”

After ailing Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis chose not to run, Garcia was drafted for the “anybody but Rahm” ticket and emerged as Emanuel’s challenger when the mayor couldn’t capture 50 percent of the vote against four other candidates February 24, forcing the April election. And this despite spending almost $7 million in television ads, half of what he raised for the first vote, and now at more than $30 million since 2011 for his total re-election effort. Garcia has raised about $4.6 million, mostly from teachers unions and the Service Employees International Union.

At their final debate, held on Tuesday, March 31, Emanuel pulled out the Jewish card by characterizing Garcia as “Hanukkah Harry” for offering a list of expensive proposals without explaining how he would find the necessary revenue. “Such a deal!” Emanuel blurted our. And the Chicago Reader has bolstered Emanuel’s Jewish street cred when it turned up a five-second appearance by the 18-year-old Emanuel protesting during a 1978 city-approved neo-Nazi rally captured in the short documentary “Marquette Park II,” by Tom Palazzolo and Mark Rance, about one of the city’s historically white ethnic neighborhoods.

For the city’s Jewish population the choice is not about being a Jewish voter but about whether Emanuel represents Jewish-style politics — despite his years as a congressman, and chief of staff to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, respectively, with a two-and-a-half-year stint in between as an investment banker.

Even some Jews who support Emanuel say they simply don’t like him. One Jewish donor who has been a leading and decades-long contributor to local and national Democrats, including being among the first in the 1983 campaign to elect Harold Washington as Chicago’s first African-American mayor, told me that she doesn’t feel Emanuel “represents us very well.” Still, she adds, “Rahm can get the smartest people on Earth to help this city solve its problems. Don’t we want that?”

For other Jews that sounds patronizing. Marguerite Horberg has been politically and culturally active in Chicago for decades and is organizing throughout the city for Garcia. She sees Garcia’s candidacy squarely within her longtime Jewish political posture for “equal rights, women’s rights, and social justice. For progressives, ’Chuy’ is that candidate.”

This is the first contested mayoral election in Chicago in over two decades, since Mayor Richard M. Daley opted out after he generally defalcated the third largest city in America over 22 years partially through what has been characterized as reckless borrowing and privatization. Daley still enjoys a positive reputation — even after plunging Chicago’s debt rating, now at Baa2, only two places above “junk” status (the fifth drop during Emanuel’s term). Emanuel was a major fundraiser for Daley, though now they’re in a weird pas de deux as Emanuel often criticizes “the way things were done” before he became mayor without mentioning Daley by name. Daley has endorsed Emanuel.

One member of the Daley family, who has asked not to be named, remembers Emanuel’s well-honed profane hamishness: Not long after winning his first term and, seeing the horror of the city’s finances, telling this person at a sports event, “Please tell [Rich Daley]: ‘Thanks for leaving me a sh-t sandwich of an administration.’”

For his part, Garcia is solidly within the progressive/liberal community of people — many of them Jewish — who helped energize and fund the 1983 campaign of Harold Washington to defeat former state legislator Bernard Epton (also Jewish). As an alderman, Garcia worked with Washington and helped deliver votes for Washington’s policies.

The split between the city’s roughly 90,000 Jews can be viewed as a “progressive versus establishment Jewish family feud.” Among Emanuel’s supporters are several of the city’s most prominent Jewish families, including the Pritzkers and Crowns as well as others, incluing Emanuel compadre Michael Saks of Grosvenor Capital Management.

Perhaps it might be more accurate to say it’s a J Street versus AIPAC situation. Garcia is supported by Progressives for Chuy — a collaboration by MoveOn, Daily Kos, Democracy for America, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Working Families, among others.

Emanuel’s campaign has also drawn money from Hollywood, courtesy of his younger brother, Ari, the co-C.E.O. of a dominant talent agency who is thusly described in Vanity Fair magazine: “Generally seen as the inspiration for Ari Gold, the crass, overbearing talent

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/217853/could-rahm-emanuel-lose-chicago-race-to-hanukkah-h/#ixzz3WXbHmSWW

Toward Fiscal Sustainability: A New Approach in Prudent Fiscal Management of Chicago

Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

John McDonogh Flunkie “Manager” Steve Barr Is Doing Just Fine in Los Angeles | deutsch29

John McDonogh Flunkie “Manager” Steve Barr Is Doing Just Fine in Los Angeles | deutsch29:

John McDonogh Flunkie “Manager” Steve Barr Is Doing Just Fine in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles (LA) Times has a column entitled, “Chat and Selfie.” On April 4, 2015, the column featured “education rabble rouser Steve Barr.”

The column featured Barr taking a “selfie” “in front of his Silver Lake (Los Angeles) home.” In California, of course, because that is where he lives.

Steve Barr’s Los Angeles “Selfie”

Barr is in Los Angeles– not New Orleans, where he decided in 2012 to long-distance “manage” the over-100-year-old John McDonogh High School– and decided in 2014 to long-distance ditch the project after two years of doing nothing.

McDonogh was supposed to be renovated. Nothing happened. (Photos below from Crazy Crawfish’s October 2013 posting on McDonogh.)

Rat feces/termites?/rotting wood

Asbestos

Asbestos, rat feces, rotting wood, and in October 2011, we have then-Recovery School District (RSD) superintendent John White basically telling McDonogh parents, students, and staff that renovation was contingent upon test scores rising. In the 12-minute Youtube video below, White also talks about finding the “right” operator for McDonogh.

That’s right, McDonogh parents: You put up with that asbestos and rat feces, those leaky windows and rotten floors, until your kids Make the Grade.

White throws the word “commitment” around often in his psychologically-twisted, “no renovation without higher test scores first” approach, but when it came to Barr’s commitment to McDonogh, failure was not only an option– it was a convenient escape without any inkling of consequence.

No inkling.

No loss to Barr. Not his community. Not his kids attending that school. (They attend school in Silver Lake, and I’m thinking their floors are rat-feces free.) Just a long-distance business deal that did not pan out.

And what with New Orleans being 1,892 miles from Los Angeles, few in the City of Angels likely understand the implications of Barr’s failure to follow through on his John McDonogh Flunkie “Manager” Steve Barr Is Doing Just Fine in Los Angeles | deutsch29:

Did Atlanta Educators Get Equal Justice Before the Law? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Did Atlanta Educators Get Equal Justice Before the Law? | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Did Atlanta Educators Get Equal Justice Before the Law?

Michael Klonsky posted on his blog these photographs of some of the Atlanta educators who were investigated for cheating; 11 were convicted and sent directly to jail to await sentencing (excepting a pregnant woman.) Superintendent Beverly Hall died weeks before the verdict was handed down. He said they were “taking the fall” for “Duncan’s Testing Madness.”

In an earlier post, I said that the lesson of Atlanta is “never never never cheat.” Don’t do it, don’t tolerate it.

But as I saw educators led away in shackles, as I saw speculation that they were facing 20 years in prison, I began to think again. Yes, cheating is wrong and should never be tolerated, but this punishment does not fit the crime. It is way too disproportionate to the charges. Some criminals get lesser jail sentences for murder and armed robbery. Since when did cheating in school become racketeering?

My thinking was nudged along by three important articles about this affair.

One was by Richard Rothstein. In this brilliant article, Rothstein argued that the 11 convicted educators were “taking the fall” for a thoroughly corrupt testing regime that set impossible goals and punished those who can’t meet them:

Rothstein writes:

Eleven Atlanta educators, convicted and imprisoned, have taken the fall for systematic cheating on standardized tests in American education. Such cheating is widespread, as is similar corruption in any institution—whether health care, criminal justice, the Veterans Administration, or others—where top policymakers try to manage their institutions with simple quantitative measures that distort the institution’s goals. This corruption is especially inevitable when out-of-touch policymakers set impossible-to-achieve goals and expect that success will nonetheless follow if only underlings are held accountable for measurable results.

There was little doubt, even before the jury’s decision, that Atlanta teachers and administrators had changed answers on student test 

Atlanta Teacher RICO Conviction is Blood Sacrifice to the Testocracy | EduBloggers

Atlanta Teacher RICO Conviction is Blood Sacrifice to the Testocracy | EduBloggers:

Atlanta Teacher RICO Conviction is Blood Sacrifice to the Testocracy

Make no mistake.

The conviction of 11 former Atlanta public school teachers for cheating on students standardized tests has little to do with what these people actually did or didn’t do.

It is meant as a message for the entire education profession: if you cheat on standardized tests, you will be given the harshest possible punishment!

Don’t get me wrong. These people deserve punishment. They easily deserve to be stripped of their teaching certifications  and to return the bonuses they received for engaging in this activity.

However, they are each looking at a potential 20 year jail sentence for essentially making copies, erasing pencil marks on paper and filling in different bubbles.

This is absurd.

It’s only possible because they were charged with and found guilty of racketeering. You know, the same charge we use against organized crime!

The justification given was that bonuses and raises were awarded to the former educators based on test scores. Prosecutors characterized this behavior as participation in a massive criminal conspiracy and charged the former teachers with violating the state’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

I’m not surprised that the state of Georgia tried to use this statute against these people. I am shocked, however, that it held up in court.

These defendants have been charged and found guilty of the same crime as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and theGambino Crime Family.

Changing standardized test answers to make it appear students are doing better than they really are is certainly a crime, but is it really on the same level as the mafia!? Is it the same as extortion, money laundering, loan sharking, obstruction of justice and bribery?

Because those are the crimes usually prosecuted with a RICO charge!

One thing is certain: it’s worse than murder.

According to Georgia law, actually killing somebody will get you a less severe sentence than cheating on standardized tests!

The mandatory sentence for second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in the state is only 10 years in prison. Involuntary manslaughter and assisted suicide will get you 5 years.

Heck! Even a first degree murder charge leaves you eligible for parole in 30 years! That’s only 10 years more than cheating on a bubble test!

Again, this has nothing to do with what these defendants did. It’s a message to the rest of us.

These people – all of whom are people of color – are being offered as a blood sacrifice on the altar of the testing gods.

Those of a reflective nature have already suggested that what this scandal really shows isn’t the danger of cheating so much as the problems of high stakes testing.

When you hold educators and schools responsible for student test scores, you create an environment rife for cheating. When you threaten to close schools and/or fire educators and/or withhold pay based on factors out of an individual’s Atlanta Teacher RICO Conviction is Blood Sacrifice to the Testocracy | EduBloggers:

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Tragedies that Have Befallen Public Education in the Last 20 Years

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Tragedies that Have Befallen Public Education in the Last 20 Years:

The Tragedies that Have Befallen Public Education in the Last 20 Years

1. The closing of thousands of public schools in US urban areas, destabilizing communities and make them rife for gentrification and real estate speculation

2. The ethnic and racial cleansing of US teaching force through school closings and cost cutting "reforms," leading to sharp declines in percentages of teachers of color, particularly African American teachers.

3. The Bi-Partisan acceptance of universal testing from K-12 as vehicle to make US schools globally competitive, promote equity, and make students "College and Career Ready."

4. The development and implementation of statistical models of teacher evaluation- i.e. VAM and APPR- which are little more than junk science and totally undermine the only valid purpose of testing, which is to help individual students improve their skills

5. The highly secretive, and elite financed development of a set of National Standards- the Common Core- which are imposed on the nation's schools without experimentation, without debate, and in an atmosphere of coercion and intimidation, destroying local control of public schools in theory and practice

6. The Bi-Partisan promotion of Charter Schools as a substitute With A Brooklyn Accent: The Tragedies that Have Befallen Public Education in the Last 20 Years: