Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/18/15

Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!: Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in MilwaukeeAttack on public educationMay 18, 2015 by Jamaal SmithJamaal E. Smith, a community activist and chair of th

by mike simpson / 3min 

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video Jesse Hagopian I AM AN EDUCATOR

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video interview with Jesse Hagopian on the rolling strike wave in Washington State | I AM AN EDUCATOR: Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video interview with Jesse Hagopian on the rolling strike wave in Washington StateEducators are walking out of the public schools in Seattle on Tuesday, May 18

by mike simpson / 7min 

Lily Eskelsen García - Improving education is a cooperative process

Improving education is a cooperative process: Caveat EmptorI’ve talked a lot about testing, because the testing monster eats through everything in education these days: third graders don’t get to be fourth graders; seniors don’t get to graduate; teachers are labeled ineffective; schools are labeled failing to make adequate progress… all based on hitting a number on a standardized test.But just as

1 by mike simpson / 16min 

Zimmer 'damns' Rodriguez and his supporters for attacks on Kayser - LA School Report

Zimmer 'damns' Rodriguez and his supporters for attacks on Kayser - LA School Report: Zimmer 'damns' Rodriguez and his supporters for attacks on Kayser LA Unified board member Steve ZimmerIf Ref Rodriguezwins election tomorrow, he’s got no friend in Steve Zimmer.Rodriguez is the challenger in the race for LA Unified school board District 5 against Bennett Kayser, easily themost heated of the three

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

61 Years After Brown v. Board Of Education, Many Schools Remain Separate And Unequal

61 Years After Brown v. Board Of Education, Many Schools Remain Separate And Unequal: 61 Years After Brown v. Board Of Education, Many Schools Remain Separate And Unequal Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregated schooling of black students unconstitutional, many American schools with high minority populations continue to receive fewer resources

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Anti-union groups target California teachers » peoplesworld

Anti-union groups target California teachers » peoplesworld: Anti-union groups target California teachersSAN FRANCISCO - Pro-corporate education anti-union groups have taken aim at California teachers unions with two separate lawsuits - one of which would strip away the right for unions to collect "fair pay" or "agency fees" from non-members; and another which  argues the right

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

This Week In Education: Thompson: Robert Putnam and Ending the Education Civil War

This Week In Education: Thompson: Robert Putnam and Ending the Education Civil War: Thompson: Robert Putnam and Ending the Education Civil WarThe conservative Fordham Institute's A Conversation with Robert Putnam foreshadows the way that our education civil war could end. Fresh from his conversation with President Barack Obama, Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, and E.J. Dionne, R

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

Video: How PACs are impacting school board elections in LA | 89.3 KPCC

Video: How PACs are impacting school board elections in LA | 89.3 KPCC: Video: How PACs are impacting school board elections in LA  Political action committees are spending 15 times the cash they did six years ago ahead of the Los Angeles Unified school board election on Tuesday.Just this spring, more than $4.5 million flowed to PACs for glossy mail fliers, robocalls and ads on Spanish language ra

6 by mike simpson / 4h 

WE DIDN’T NEED A SURVEY TO TELL US THIS!! OH YES WE DID!! Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association: WE DIDN’T NEED A SURVEY TO TELL US THIS!! OH YES WE DID!!So many have responded to the surveys findings that they are not surprised!  Well of course not we are teachers!! We are living this everyday! It is obvious to anyone who has lobbied politicians that many are out of touch with the reality of what is happening in public education today. When is the last time a sch

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

4LAKids - URBAN SPATIAL SEGREGATION IN SAN FRANCISCO: Living together. Learning apart.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: URBAN SPATIAL SEGREGATION IN SAN FRANCISCO: Living together. Learning apart.: URBAN SPATIAL SEGREGATION IN SAN FRANCISCO: Living together. Learning apartLESSONS IN DESEGREGATION:  Other cities have much to teach San Francisco on how to diversifySTORY BY JILL TUCKER, HEATHER KNIGHT AND GRETA KAUL | SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE | HTTP://BIT.LY/1HQ72WD“Spatial

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Fed Issues New Standards for School Nutrition Personnel CA Dept of Education

Education Roundup for 5-15-15 - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education): Fed Issues New Standards for School Nutrition PersonnelStarting July 1, 2015, school nutrition programs participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs will have to meet higher professional standards to ensure their employees have the knowledge and skills to administer federal school nutrition programs. Thes

by mike simpson / 8h 

America Closed the Opportunity Gap Once and 'We Can Do It Again', Says 'Our Kids' Author - NEA Today

America Closed the Opportunity Gap Once and 'We Can Do It Again', Says 'Our Kids' Author - NEA Today: America Closed the Opportunity Gap Once and ‘We Can Do It Again’, Says ‘Our Kids’ AuthorBY TIM WALKERWhen Harvard Professor Robert Putnam began working on his new book, “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis,” five years ago, his goal was to make income inequality and the opportunity gap the domi

by mike simpson / 9h 

Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain Future — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain Future — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA: Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain FutureMarking the 60th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v Board of Education, the UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles assessed the nation's progress in addressing school segregation, and f

by mike simpson / 10h 

Connecticut Makes Rare Progress On School Segregation As America Moves Backwards

Connecticut Makes Rare Progress On School Segregation As America Moves Backwards: Connecticut Makes Rare Progress On School Segregation As America Moves BackwardsWhen Connecticut high school senior Akbar Maliki looks back on his high school experience, he can think of only one negative: his school has made him so open to and accepting of diversity, he says, that he worries about his ability to mak

by mike simpson / 10h 

Spending in race for three LAUSD board seats reaches nearly $4.6 million - LA Times

Spending in race for three LAUSD board seats reaches nearly $4.6 million - LA Times: Spending in race for three LAUSD board seats reaches nearly $4.6 millionTotal spending in the battle for three spots on the Los Angeles Board of Education has increased sharply since the March primary, reaching nearly $4.6 million, as interest groups vie to influence the nation's second-largest school system.The t

by mike simpson / 10h 

To fight for education, vote for Helen Gym

To fight for education, vote for Helen Gym: To fight for education, vote for Helen GymTOMORROW we will head to the polls to vote in an election in which, for the first time in recent memory, education is seen as the most important issue in the city. Because of the growing importance of public education, over the course of the election season almost every candidate has laid out a vision for the fut

by mike simpson / 10h 

Weingarten stumps for Helen Gym

Weingarten stumps for Helen Gym: Weingarten stumps for Helen GymHelen Gym's City Council campaign got early momentum from an endorsement from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. On Friday, it was bolstered by the effusive support of Randi Weingarten, the president of the national teachers' union."If we had more people like Helen in public office, we'd be solving more problems across the

by mike simpson / 10h 

California State Pta Supports Local Initiative Seeking To Include Lgbtq Perspective In Health Education:

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA SUPPORTS LOCAL INITIATIVE SEEKING TO INCLUDE LGBTQ PERSPECTIVE IN HEALTH EDUCATION: Burbank PTA resolution on sex-ed inclusion wins approval at state PTA convention.: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA SUPPORTS LOCAL INITIATIVE SEEKING TO INCLUDE LGBTQ PERSPECTIVE IN HEALTH EDUCATION Burbank PTA resolution on sex-ed inclusion wins approval at sta

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

NYC Educator: The Professor Tells Us How Things Are

NYC Educator: The Professor Tells Us How Things Are: The Professor Tells Us How Things AreI was a little upset by this piece, written by a college professor. I know he's a professor because he announces it. He's not a teacher, he says, and I agree. However, I'm a little surprised he so absolutely accepts every one-dimensional stereotype spouted by Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and everyone else spewing

by mike simpson / 10h 

Is There a Doctor in the Education House? - Lily Eskelsen García

Is There a Doctor in the Education House? - Rick Hess Straight Up - Education Week: Is There a Doctor in the Education House? Note: Rick is taking a hiatus while he's off talking about his new book, The Cage-Busting Teacher. Meanwhile, this week's guest posts will be written by Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA), president of the National Education Association.I want to thank my friend, Rick Hess, f

by mike simpson / 10h 

The big business of charter schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

The big business of charter schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: The big business of charter schoolsBy Valerie StraussIf you are wondering why you should add charter schools to your investment portfolios, here’s David Brain, head of a major investment concern called Entertainment Properties Trust, to tell you.This isn’t a joke.You may think charter schools are just one option for pare

by mike simpson / 11h 

Our Turn - Change The LAUSD

Our Turn - Change The LAUSD: Our Turnscott4lausd.comLike athletes, politicians are expected to declare victory in advance of their contest. The standard stump speech is expected to include the words “when I win this election, I will…” because the first job of the candidate is to get voters to contemplate them sitting in office. Using the words “if I win election” does not inspire that same confide

by mike simpson / 11h 

A Personal Word on the BAT-AFT Teacher Stress Survey | deutsch29

A Personal Word on the BAT-AFT Teacher Stress Survey | deutsch29: A Personal Word on the BAT-AFT Teacher Stress SurveyOn May 12, 2015, the Badass Association of Teachers (BATs) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) produced the first of what will likely be many reports on information collected as part of an online survey on teacher stress.The report linked above is posted on the AFT websit

by mike simpson / 17h 

YESTERDAY

Cuomo Promotes Tax Credits for Families of Students at Private Schools - NYTimes.com

Cuomo Promotes Tax Credits for Families of Students at Private Schools - NYTimes.com: Cuomo Promotes Tax Credits for Families of Students at Private SchoolsIn a campaign-style tour meant to put pressure on lawmakers, Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo visited churches and a yeshiva on Sunday to promote a bill to give tax credits to families of students at private schools, including religious ones.Mr. Cuomo’s vis

10 by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/17/15

Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMStare Them In The Eyes | The Jose VilsonStare Them In The Eyes | The Jose Vilson: Stare Them In The EyesBefore I continue, I’ve been nominated for the National Education Association’s Social Justice Award. If you’re an NEA / UFT member, please consider voting for me. Thank you! Voting ends on May 18th, 2015.When John Norton, editor and writing guru, was having l

1 by mike simpson / 1d 

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee

Attack on public education
May 18, 2015 by Jamaal Smith

Jamaal E. Smith, a community activist and chair of the education committee at the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP, questions the motives of Gov. Scott Walker and others seeking to undermine Milwaukee Public Schools.

“Education is not a way to escape poverty – It is a way of fighting it!” said Julius Nyerere, former president of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Given the current economic position of the City of Milwaukee (being the second poorest city in the United States), you would think Nyerere’s statement would carry a hefty amount of weight in the city’s revitalization. However, surveying the educational landscape statewide, this just doesn’t seem to be the case. There is an intentional attack on public education taking place in the state legislature that is completely sickening.

It’s bad enough that Gov. Scott Walker, in his state budget, decided it would be a great idea to cut $127 million in funding for K-12 public schools along with $300 million for the University of Wisconsin system. Now we see two Republican legislators — Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Dale Kooyenga — presenting a new piece of legislation entitled the “Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program,” which would, in essence, place the MPS schools labeled as “failing” in the hands of public charter or private voucher schools with “better records of success.”

Additionally, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele will name a “commissioner” who will have parallel authority to the democratically elected MPS School Board but would be free from rules, save for laws regarding health, non-discrimination and special education services, according to the proposal. Tell me again what experience Chris Abele has in education? I must have missed that part during his campaign. What about Darling?? Kooyenga?? But they do know business very well, and that is where the problem lies.

The more legislation of this type that is created and presented, the more I can see why the state of Wisconsin was voted “the worst state to raise African-American children.” This type of action simply glorifies privatization and capitalism. Keeping a specific group uneducated in order to establish a system that amasses wealth for others at that group’s expense sounds eerily familiar to me. Privatizing education spells doom for democracy and further pushes the initiatives of plutocracy, thus contributing to the problem of the “haves vs. have nots”.

Coincidentally, Walker stated that education is his top legislative priority. I would assume so, since education in Wisconsin has been turned into a “get rich quick” scheme. The Republican agenda has drained MPS of its funding and resources for years, but then Republican politicians expect the parents and supporters of MPS to believe they have MPS’s best interest at heart? If that were the case, Republican legislators would consider the poor socioeconomic conditions over 80 percent of the students live in and begin creating programs that fit the needs of both the students and the parents. But that would represent a level of socialistic proclivity that we all know they would never be able to support.

This same type of proposal has been a proven failure across the nation, most notably in New Orleans, where the “Recovery District” created to help restore failing public schools resulted in permanent school closures and students being forced to attend the overcrowded schools that remain. Why would that be the path to follow here in Wisconsin??
In addition, there is an expectation that teachers — who have been attacked and vilified under this same agenda, yet are only required to have a bachelor’s degree and work experience to receive a teacher’s license — will properly educate nearly 40 students per class with limited resources and little to no support. And let us not forget the perils and misconceptions of culturally biased standardized testing that takes away more time for teachers to educate our children.

You would have to be a master of the art of naiveté to not understand the difficulties these proposals present to educators, students and parents.

Bob Petersen, president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, in learning about the new proposal from Darling and Kooyenga, stated that “for two white suburban legislators to propose that the white county executive appoint a ‘commissioner’ who will have parallel authority to the school board is a racist attack on the democratic rights of the citizens of Milwaukee, the majority of whom are black and brown,” and he was spot on! Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn how to read, you will forever be free,” yet this deplorable attack on public education seems to be consistent with oppression and subjugation.

To add insult to injury, Walker’s budget eliminates public oversight and makes Wisconsin the only state without student protections at for-profit colleges. Ironically, what demographic is most represented in these predatory colleges? Low-income African-American students. This is nothing but an expedited infusion of black and brown youth into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Test scores used as a “key indicator” of whether more prison cells should be created, overcrowding of classrooms, an influx of inexperienced teachers in high-risk schools, cuts of programs such as home economics, art and music that contribute to the creativity of our children — I find none of this to be merely circumstantial. The reports of the failing schools and subsequent legislation have been used as the red herring to mask the chicaneries within the true purpose: Our children are the cash crop of the plutocratic corporation we call the state of Wisconsin!

You can view this statement at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service at:
http://milwaukeenns.org/2015/05/18/attack-on-public-education/

Chair of the Education Committee of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP Statement on the Attack Public Education in Milwaukee | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video Jesse Hagopian I AM AN EDUCATOR

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video interview with Jesse Hagopian on the rolling strike wave in Washington State | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video interview with Jesse Hagopian on the rolling strike wave in Washington State

Educators are walking out of the public schools in Seattle on Tuesday, May 18th, joining a one day rolling strike wave of educators unions around the state, with a powerful message for the State Legislature: Fully fund education. These educators will be joined by many parents and students who are asking that the Washington State Legislature do what is not only right, but what is lawful.  The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled the that State Legislature is in violation of state law and has mandated that they add billions of extra dollars to fund education.

Moreover, Washington State voters have approved I-1351 which would reduce class size around the state, yet the legislature is preparing to ignore that law.  To make matters worse, theWashington State Legislature is getting ready to take an 11% raise, even while educators have had their voter approved cost of living adjustment revoked for the past six years, and now only offer educators a 1.8% increase.

The Real News Network covers the rolling strike wave across Washington State in this special segment:

DHARNA NOOR, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Dharna Noor joining you from Baltimore.Thousands of public school teachers went on strikes across nine Washington State school districts on Wednesday. These single-day strikes are part of a protest against the new state budget proposal. The teachers, who are members of a union called the Washington Education Association, are demanding smaller class sizes, better compensation, and less testing. Teachers of other districts are set to strike this Friday.Joining us from Seattle to discuss these strikes is Jesse Hagopian. Jesse teaches history and is also the black student union advisor at Garfield High School, where teachers just voted to join the strike. Jesse is an associate editor of the acclaimed magazine Rethinking Schools. He’s also a founding member of Social Equality Educators. He blogs at I’mAnEducator.com and is the editor of More than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.

[See the rest of the transcript here]

Seattle Educators Set To Strike For The School Our Children Deserve: Video interview with Jesse Hagopian on the rolling strike wave in Washington State | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

Lily Eskelsen García - Improving education is a cooperative process

Improving education is a cooperative process:

Caveat Emptor

I’ve talked a lot about testing, because the testing monster eats through everything in education these days: third graders don’t get to be fourth graders; seniors don’t get to graduate; teachers are labeled ineffective; schools are labeled failing to make adequate progress… all based on hitting a number on a standardized test.

But just as pernicious is another pillar of the corporate school model: privatization, the commercial concept of market “choice”. You know how this one goes. Our schools should be in the “business” of competing for their market share of “customers”. Economic theory (in theory) says competition forces services and products to improve at a more efficient price to attract more customers. So, say the corporate school reformers, “why shouldn’t it work in education?” Good schools will attract more kids and money will follow the kids. Bad schools will lose customers, lose money, and eventually go out of business. Standardized tests come into the picture here because just as companies are measured by market share, profitability and stock value, “in theory”, schools should be graded based on standardized test scores and their ability to compete for customers—I mean students.

Those enthralled by the myth that competition in and of itself will magically improve education quality, while simultaneously reducing cost should be aware of another principle that is more accurate: caveat emptor.

Let the buyer beware.

Vouchers, franchise charters, and even public school choice have been around decades now. Competition has not produced the vast improvements that the mystical invisible hand of the market place promised. In his review of a voucher study purporting to show that competition leads to better public school outcomes, Professor Christopher Lubienski found that existing research provides “little reliable information about the competitive impact of vouchers.” Well, competition zealots may defend themselves saying there isn’t true competition here because we don’t have universal choice and public schools are protected from the fiscal impact of the limited choice we do have.

But Chile has universal vouchers, and a study of that system found “no evidence that choice improved average educational outcomes as measured by test scores, repetition rates, and years of schooling.”

As part of its analysis of the 2012 PISA results, the OECD looked at the impact of competition, and found that “within school systems, there is no performance difference between schools that compete with other schools for students and those that do not, after taking into account students’ socio-economic status.”

It’s bad enough that we upend a system for something that doesn’t deliver anything better, but the evidence now shows it actually makes things worse. The unintended consequences of turning public schools into businesses that fight for the “best” customers can harm students. In Chile, competition has produced a stratified and segregated educational system. In their study of education reform in New Zealand (-When Schools Compete), Professors Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske found that competition concentrated the best teachers in the schools that attracted the most advantaged students, and schools became increasingly segregated by class and ethnicity. The PISA study I previously mentioned affirmed that when affluent families opt out of the neighborhood school, competition increases socio-economic segregation. That’s not good for kids, and it’s even worse for social stability.

Closer to home, a recent study of competition in New Orleans found that when schools compete for students, those schools might work to improve instructional strategies, but they are just as likely to seek niche markets that attract high-achieving students (and simultaneously discourage enrollment of low-achieving students), or even to actively exclude students who might cost more to educate than their enrollment would generate, or who might reduce Improving education is a cooperative process: