Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity:

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America

Not long ago Fox News contributor and columnist Michelle Malkin issued a stinging critique of Teach For America in the New York Post entitled The militant takeover of the ‘Teach for America’ corps. I was surprised that the right was turning on Teach For America. They have been huge supporters of their temporary teacher model over the years. I tweeted the following.

This single tweet caused a 1,000 tweet Twitter storm directed at me by Teach For America supporters. I couldn’t even keep up with all of the tweets flying around so I had to bring Chad Sommer, Annie Tan and other TFA alum dissidents into the Twitter conversation as backup. The predominance of tweets tried to frame my tweet as agreeing with Malkin’s entire thesis (See for example Choosing A Battle in the Fight for Educational Justice). I explained to the Teach For America supporters on Twitter (deluging me with tweets) that I only agreed with the portion about the need to stop public funding. They weren’t satisfied with that point.I don’t think there is any mystery why I have levied critiques against TFA and proffered that they reform for their “reform.” I have blogged extensive counter narrative here at Cloaking Inequity. For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here. So I found the attacks on Twitter disingenuous. But, to make my perspective more clear relative to Malkin’s argument, I have taken some creative liberty and rewritten Ms. Malkin’s column. I use the parts of her argument that I agree with verbatim, and then made modifications where my perspective diverges from her’s.

It’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Teach for America — whose leaders are at the forefront of anti-teacher, privatizing forces in New Orleans, Chicago and elsewhere — and right-leaning foundations such at the Walton Family Foundation (TFA’s largest donor) and the Broad Foundation (another large donor). Guess what, taxpayers? You’re paying for it! Wendy Kopp founded Teach for 

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity:

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education:

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced?

Since there has been some changes with the membership of both PARCC and Smarter Balanced I thought it would be a good idea to bring you an updated list.

PARCC is in trouble.  The big news this week is that Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the budget the Ohio Legislature sent him that prohibited PARCC.  Maryland’s Governor (they are the current fiscal agent) Larry Hogan has doubts about the assessment and is looking for a way to ditch Common Core and PARCC.

Massachusetts is still in process of deciding between PARCC and MCAS so they could still end up leaving.  Arkansas is out the door unless the state’s board of education decides to sue Governor Asa Hutchinson.  Louisiana’s future with the assessment consortia is in doubt as well.  It stayed in this school year when a state judge overruled Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s executive order.  A review of Common Core and PARCC will be underway soon.  Mississippi is pulling out of PARCC after this year as well.

So basically we have a consortia that once had 25 members is now down to 8 states plus DC with three of those states’ future being uncertain: Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

Smarter Balanced is in better shape, but has lost a few members.  They are slow at updating their Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education:

How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic

How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic:

Too Many Kids

School districts are packing more and more students into classrooms—and that’s pushing teachers out.

Erica Oliver has worked for the Atlantic City School District for a decade, teaching first grade and a few reading programs. Early in her career, Oliver typically taught no more than four students at a time. The small classes meant that students who struggled could be easily targeted, lessons could be tailored to individual needs, and progress could be expedited, she said. Over the years, however, Oliver has seen her class sizes grow: first to 16 students, and then to 24 or 25 kids per class. She found it harder to manage her classroom, properly supervise reading groups, and encourage her students to complete projects efficiently. All of this slowed down the group’s collective achievement.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going to get any easier for Atlantic City’s teachers and students. The city has struggled to offset an increase in tax rates because of a decline in property-tax revenues and is forced to make budget cuts as a result. While the school board initially rejected a proposal to cut more than 220 jobs, the the state monitor ultimately overrode the vote in an effort to rein in spending: In late May, 147 Atlantic City educators were notified that their contracts were not going to be renewed.

Although Oliver, who’s African American, hasn’t been let go, the alternative isn’t much rosier. The massive layoffs mean that classrooms will likely become even more crowded, and Oliver and others fear that could take a toll on student learning, in part because children will receive less individualized attention and have to work fewer school supplies. Also on the chopping block are extracurricular activities, including summer programs designed to keep students on track to graduation.

Reduced class sizes can help close the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers.

The cuts could prove especially detrimental for the district considering the population it serves. Nearly half of children ages 5 to 17 in the school district live with families living in poverty, according to census data. A majority of students are black or Latino, while just 2 percent identify as white. Atlantic City is also home to one of the worst graduation rates in New Jersey, with only about two-thirds of high-schoolers getting their diplomas.

The situation parallels budget crises facing other school districts across the country. Philadelphia, for example, has eliminated thousands of staff positions in the past two or so years, and officials have warned that some campuses will have to pack as many as 40 students into a classroom. Arizona’s Sunnyside Unified How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic:

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students:

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students

According to information given to me by Deborah Abramson Brooks, the U.S. Dept. of Education is insisting that the New York Board of Education continue to force all students with disabilities, except for those with the severest disabilities, to take the tests matching their chronological age, not their developmental age, ignoring their cognitive disabilities. HERE is the notification from June 29.

In addition, they are still insisting students struggling to learn English must take the regular tests after one year instead of two.

They will not consider the waiver requested by the Regents.

Both requests were aimed at reducing stress on students and yielding more useful results. State officials say that federal rules that require testing students at their chronological age, with narrow exceptions for students with very severe disabilities, set up some disabled students for failure and turn the tests into stressful guessing games. School officials in districts with many immigrant students say one year often is not enough for new arrivals to be ready to take language arts exams written in English.

Certain civil rights groups, as we know, have been behind this draconian testing too, along with, U.S. Assistant Education Secretary Deborah Delisle who is leaving to be the new CEO of the ASCD. The requirements, she says, are “necessary to ensure U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students:

This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons

This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons:

Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons

I grew up in the post-World War II era known as "Pax Americana." We all knew that our ambitious New Deal/Fair Deal era policies, ranging from G.I. Bill to the rebuilding of Europe with the help of the Marshall Plan, were not perfect. But, we knew in our bones that tomorrow would be better than today. Government and social science would both play a role in the campaigns to expand the promise of America to all.

The Marshall Project's Eli Hager, in What Prisons Can Learn from Schools, pulls two incredibly complicated social problems together in a concise and masterful synthesis. Hager's insights are deserving of a detailed analysis. This post will merely take a first step towards an explanation of why Democrats and liberals, especially, must heed his wisdom.

School and prison reform are both deeply rooted in the Reaganism and the lowered horizons of the 1980s. The defeat of the "guns and butter" approach to the Vietnam War demonstrated the limits of our power. The Energy Crisis of 1973, along with a decade and a half of falling or stagnant wages, was somehow blamed on liberalism. The U.S. entered the emerging global marketplace without the confidence that had marked our previous decades, meaning that we were more preoccupied with surviving competition than building community. 

Americans lowered our horizons. As Hager explains, we were loath to tackle the legacies to the "overwhelming unfairnesses of history."  So, we broke off schools and prisons into separate "silos," and sought less expensive solutions for their challenges. We rejected the social science approach to tackling complex and interconnected social problems that were rooted in poverty. Our quest for cheaper and easier solutions would soon coincide with the rise of Big Data as a substitute for peer reviewed research in service to a Great Society.

I was researching the legal history of Oklahoma County when forces unleashed by the Reagan administration transformed my world. Its repudiation of the supposedly liberal regulation of finance brought down the savings and loan industry and the banking system in the Southwest. Virtually overnight, "Supply Side Economics" destroyed most of our high-quality blue collar jobs, and the "War on Drugs" further devastated families.

Oklahoma's criminal justice system of the 1980s still had one foot squarely planted in the old Jim Crow. Although records often were kept the old-fashioned way, data-driven policies were common, as should be clear to anyone who was ticketed by law enforcement officers needing to meet their "quota." In the Oklahoma County Courthouse, we had barely outgrown a numbers-driven ritual that should This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons:

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins:

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education

Over the next year we can expect to hear a lot from Republican presidential candidates about school choice- the word of choice to marshal political support to expand the number charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Democrats, except maybe the governor of New York, have traditionally opposed public funding for vouchers. However, many have supported the idea of choice by sending scarce tax dollars to charter schools. We have yet to hear clear statements from the Democratic candidates about where they stand.

As policy framing rhetoric, the word choice is meant evoke the imagery of democracy and equity. Words are powerful, especially in framing and influencing political debates. Words can conjure positive or negative emotional responses. However, sometimes words clarify and sometimes they obscure underlying values. So it is with choice.

In our culture the "the right to choose" suggests an almost inalienable individual right, making for powerfully resonant political rhetoric. However, behind the easy-to-swallow positive connotation of choice, there is underlying message in its use in the context of education. If stated explicitly, the message might cause a little indigestion: Be out for yourself and don't worry so much about your neighbors or community.

I do not say this to castigate parents who choose to send their children to charter schools or the teachers who work in them. However, what is moral or sensible for an individual does not make for sound or just education policy for a society. The moral burden falls not on parents, but on those who knowingly advance the wellbeing of the at the expense of the many.

Many centuries ago Rabbi Hillel sagely wrote,

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14.

It is time to reframe the policy dialog from choosing just for me to choosing to ensure better schools for us.

There is reason for hope. While choice is a deeply held American value, so is community responsibility. In fact, reference to individualism and community responsibility in politics has ebbed and flowed in recent American history. The New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society of the 1960's- catalyzed by the labor and civil rights movements- represented high points for collective solutions, such as Social Security or Medicare, to complex problems. Alternatively, the election of Ronald Reagan initiated a sustained period of individualism. In periods of relative or growing equity and shared prosperity individualism may foster personal interests and Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins:

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher:

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools'

The causes of violence, whether at the hands of police or private individuals, are obviously complex, even more so for interracial violence. It is healthy for institutions to consider their part in perpetuating or stemming the violence. But it is a mistake to believe that any single institution is solely responsible or can solve the problem on its own.

James E. Ryan

That said, it seems clear that, as a nation, we have not done nearly enough to teach our children how to look across lines of race and class and see similarities rather than differences—to see themselves and their friends reflected in the faces of others rather than unknown and perhaps unknowable strangers. It seems equally clear that we will continue to fail in this task if our schools remain as racially separated as they are today. As Justice Thurgood Marshall astutely observed in 1974, "Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever begin to live together."

Schools of education can play a not-so-minor role by doing more to promote integrated schools and prepare students to teach and lead in those schools. Through our research, we can identify obstacles to integration and the most effective ways to remove or avoid those obstacles. Through our teaching, we can intentionally prepare our students to teach and lead in integrated schools, recognizing that it takes work to ensure that diversity is a source of strength rather than division. 

Two concrete examples help illustrate what education schools can do. Last year, we began a communitywide, year-long discussion around the theme of "fulfilling the promise of diversity," which included lectures, a common reading, panel discussions, and workshops designed to help our students begin the work to build more diverse schools and ensure those schools are more successful because of their diversity. We will extend that conversation this year. We will also launch the Integrated Schools Project, which will combine teaching, field research, and partnerships with a network of diverse schools to create relevant metrics, identify best practices, and share those findings with the network and beyond. 

As a country, we have grown complacent about racially isolated schools, just like we were 'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher:

Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September | The Columbus Dispatch

Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September | The Columbus Dispatch:

Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September

A bill that would implement widespread Ohio charter-school reforms to a system that has been sharply criticized and ridiculed both inside and outside the state passed the Senate last week with unanimous support.

The House had enough votes to concur with the Senate’s changes to House Bill 2, including a prime bill sponsor, Rep. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. That would have sent it to Gov. John Kasich, who also has been pushing for charter-law changes.

Despite all that, the bill stalled, leaving supporters scratching their heads about why legislation that appeared to be a priority to finish before the summer break will instead collect dust until the fall.

“There were 75 major changes, and we need to take time to look through those,” said Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, noting that the two prime sponsors of the bill had split opinions on supporting the Senate changes.

Asked about his specific concerns, Rosenberger said his focus has been on the budget and an anti-monopoly resolution. “I really haven’t focused a lot on (House Bill) 2. Clearly we need some more work.”

While Roegner supported the Senate changes to the bill, her joint sponsor, Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, said he wanted it to go to a conference committee where House and Senate leaders could work out a final bill. But in a closed-door meeting on Friday, it became apparent that a majority of the House would instead vote to pass the bill — something even Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said he did not want.

So House leaders pulled the bill. The House and Senate are not expected to return to session until September.

“The irony now is this process will take longer than if we had just sent the bill to conference, worked out some of the differences, and got it done before we left for the summer,” Dovilla said. “ The very people who are complaining it didn’t get done should have done it our way.”

Dovilla said he wants changes to parts of the bill dealing with contractual language and truancy.

Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who has been the Senate’s point person on crafting charter-school reforms, said that she recently got a verbal list of changes that some House Republicans wanted.

“They really are pretty minor — a word change here and there. There wasn’t anything that caused me any heartburn,” she said. “I really don’t know why they didn’t choose to move ahead.”

Lehner said that one issue was not on the list — a behind-the-scenes push by the statewide online school Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) to change the accountability system for charter schools from the current value-added model to a California-based system.

William Lager, the founder of ECOT, was the second-largest Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September | The Columbus Dispatch:

Mayor Kevin Johnson deleted text messages about arena deal | The Sacramento Bee

Mayor Kevin Johnson deleted text messages about arena deal | The Sacramento Bee:

Mayor Kevin Johnson deleted text messages about arena deal

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson deleted text messages, including some related to the city’s arena deal, after city officials received a legal letter advising them that they were required to preserve all electronic communications related to the deal.

Johnson, testifying in court on day six of a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the city’s agreement to subsidize an arena, told the court he sent texts infrequently at the time and that very few of those he deleted involved arena discussions.

The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?

“I did it without thinking,” Johnson said on the witness stand in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. “There was no ill intent.”

He described what he erased as “chit chat, but nothing relevant” to the court case challenging the deal the mayor and the city struck in 2014 to partner on building a new arena.

Judge Tim Frawley asked the mayor a series of pointed questions, however, and indicated he would consider Johnson’s actions when ruling on whether the city engaged in secret elements of the arena deal.

The plaintiffs, three city residents, allege the city put several goodies into the half-billion-dollar arena deal in order to secretly compensate an investor group for overpaying for the team in 2013 to keep it from moving to Seattle.

Frawley noted that the plaintiffs have asked him to impose sanctions on the city for failing to adhere to their attorneys’ legal request in June 2013 for preservation of communications relevant to the arena deal, including emails and texts.

The judge said the law allows him, when deciding the case, “to draw a negative inference from the destruction of that evidence.”

“I’m trying to get a handle on what would be an appropriate sanction, if any,” Frawley said Tuesday as he questioned the mayor.

Johnson did not estimate how many texts he erased but said that he may have texted 10 to 15 times a day and that it was his normal habit to erase texts. Johnson said he did not recall how many texts he erased from players in the arena deal but conceded at least a few were arena-related.

Frawley told the attorneys for the city and the plaintiffs that he will give the text issue the weight he feels it deserves, at trial’s end, in issuing his ruling on the case.

The trial is expected to last at least to the end of the week.

The plaintiffs sued in 2013 after the city and Kings agreed to a nonbinding term sheet. They are seeking to invalidate the deal that the team and the city reached last year. If that were to happen, it is unclear what effect it would have on arena construction, which is well underway and scheduled for completion in October 2016.

Johnson spent more than three hours on the stand Tuesday. During his testimony, he said the prospective Kings owners initially asked the city two years ago if it could chip in more to the deal, but he said no.

“I shot it down,” Johnson. “It was ridiculous from the onset. They were just negotiating. We said absolutely not and moved on.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has said he believes the city did put sweeteners in the deal, showed Johnson and the court numerous memos and emails, obtained from theMayor Kevin Johnson deleted text messages about arena deal | The Sacramento Bee:

Celebrating Same-Sex Ruling, As Battle Continues | The Jewish Week

Celebrating Same-Sex Ruling, As Battle Continues | The Jewish Week:

Celebrating Same-Sex Ruling, As Battle Continues

 Like many Americans, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum spent part of her morning last Friday glued to her computer watching the live blog from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The blog, of course, carried the court’s momentous decision granting a constitutional right to same-sex marriage — news that wasn’t unexpected for the rabbi, but that still had her “in shock” five hours later.

“It shows the radical social transformation is possible and that you can’t give up. We’re out of Egypt, so to speak, although we’re not at the Promised Land. We still have work to do, but we’re instructed to celebrate,” said Rabbi Kleinbaum, senior cleric at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, known informally as New York’s gay and lesbian synagogue.

It was a theme that Rabbi Kleinbaum repeated in the comments of other rabbis, activists and communal leaders, all of whom expressed joy over the court’s decision while acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead.

For members of Rabbi Kleinbaum’s congregation, the chance to share their jubilation with others began at Friday night services, which coincided with the start of Gay Pride Weekend. They heard an emotional words from the bima, linked arms while singing “We Shall Overcome,” and listened to the evening’s speaker, Diane Ravitch, the prominent educator who, for the first time publicly, announced she was gay.

Ravitch told The Jewish Week that she decided to “come out” publicly as soon as she was invited to speak at CBST. 

The jubilation continued Sunday during New York’s annual Gay Pride Parade, which included contingents from CBST, the American Jewish World Service, Jewish Queer Youth and Mosaic of Westchester. 

Each group sported distinct banners, signs, and t-shirts and garnered shouts of “Shalom!” A hora circle formed midway through the route around Congregation Beit Simchat Torah’s float (which featured a chuppah  made of a rainbow flag and a spangled Star of David.)

Part civil rights demonstration, part celebration of LGBTQ identities, exuberant onlookers waved and cheered as decorative floats, families, and rainbow flags paraded down Fifth Avenue.

Shonna Levin wore a black suit, white shirt, and wide-brimmed black hat, an outfit Celebrating Same-Sex Ruling, As Battle Continues | The Jewish Week:

Today Is My Birthday | Diane Ravitch's blog

Today Is My Birthday | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Today Is My Birthday 

I was born July 1, 1938, at 12:01 am at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. I was my parents’ third child. We lived in a tiny house on Dunlop Street. Five more children followed over the next 10 years. We would eventually be five boys and three girls.

I went to public schools from K-12. Then, encouraged by my rabbi and his wife, I applied to Wellesley and was accepted. Going east to college changed my life.

Birthdays make you think back on your life as you get older. When you are young, birthdays make you either want to party or think about the future.

I’ll save the look back for my memoirs, if I ever find the time.

I’m still looking forward. The struggle to save public education against privatization and to protect kids from test-mania will grow stronger. The opt out movement will spread across the nation. Researchers will continue to demonstrate the failed policies of high-stakes testing and privatization.

You can help. If you want to make a gift for my birthday, join the Network for Public Education. Give as generously as you can. The Network helps grassroots activists across the nation and connects them to allies.

Here is the contact information: The Network for Public Education. Open the link to learn how to contribute online and/or become a member. This organization is fighting for public schools, for students, parents, teachers, and all other citizens who care about the future of our democracy.

If you want to send a check, here is the address:

Network for Public Education
P.O. Box 44200
Tucson, AZ
85733

LAUSD Engaging Parents - Change The LAUSD

Engaging Parents - Change The LAUSD:

Engaging Parents

“You should not speak to any child, especially students not your own.”

-Derek Horowitz, LAUSD Principal

Now that Tamar Galatzan is a former member of the LAUSD School Board, there is not one Board Member who has children enrolled in the district. Granted, this change is only symbolic as Galatzan had a reputation for ignoring the concerns of other parents (there is a reason that three parents ran against her in the March primary) and focusing on the needs of the charter school advocates whofinanced her campaigns.  However, symbols are important and the new Board needs to take steps to show that it takes its goals of “parent and community engagement” seriously.

Whoever is elected Board President can begin this process by instituting rules that hold the Board Members to the same standards as the students in their classrooms. The members of the community deserve to be heard when they address the Board and should not have to compete with smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. If students can be expected to limit their bathroom breaks, then Board members should also. The district’s goal of 100% attendanceshould also apply to our elected representatives.

Next, the Board needs to revisit some of the controversial issues of the last term and either reverse course or get parental buyin. Moving the start of the school year to August remains an unpopular decision for many. The Breakfast in the Classroom  program was implemented in a way that alienated many parents. Teachers should not be punished for letting parents know that they can legally opt their students out of standardized testing. Even better, the district should move to an opt-in system for these tests.

Parents who push for reform at the school level should be protected by the district, not treated as “disgruntled” and told that they should transfer their children to another school. Under the last Board, the district expanded their program of intimidating teachers through the use of Teacher Jail to intimidating parents by increasing the issuance of disruptive parent letters, which ban these parents from participating in their children’s school.  These letters should  not be issued purely at the discretion of a principal and a formal district policy should be instituted at the district level for parents to appeal their issuance.

Dramatic change is also needed  in the way parents of those with special needs Engaging Parents - Change The LAUSD: