'School Choice' Mantra Masks the Harm of Siphoning Funds from Public Education - NEA Today

'School Choice' Mantra Masks the Harm of Siphoning Funds from Public Education - NEA Today:

‘School Choice’ Mantra Masks the Harm of Siphoning Funds from Public Education

 Ask an education “reform” proponent about any issue facing public education and the answer is always the same: “school choice.” Whether they’re championing charter schools, vouchers or Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), advocates prefer to frame the debate around the right of parents to send their child to a better-performing school. This is merely a smokescreen to divert attention away from what school choice is really about: the transfer of public money to the private sector without accountability or transparency.

Many school choice campaigns are bankrolled by a faction of incredibly wealthy conservative donors and political groups, including the Koch Brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (better known as ALEC). Their agenda is clear: dismantle public education.

But it’s a safe bet you won’t hear their names during National School Choice Week (Jan 25-30). What you will hear is a lot of people parroting messages about “freedom,” “innovation,” “options,” even “civil rights” – buzzwords that underpin the campaigns to expand charter schools, vouchers and ESAs across the country. But the jargon masks the devastating impact these policies have had on public education, particularly on those students who are supposed to benefit the most.

Unaccountable Charter Schools: The Truth Hurts

Many people support the idea behind charter schools, but how many are aware of the mounting troubles the charter industry has experienced lately? Probably not enough. Its proponents work very, very hard to maintain a facade of success and transparency in the face of evidence that many of these schools operate without any oversight, while wasting taxpayer money and fostering inequity and racial segregation.

Take the North Carolina State Board of Education, which just this month rejected the Department of Public Instruction’s annual report on charter schools as “too negative.” Dominated by school privatization stalwarts, the board is determined to prevent any meaningful oversight of the state’s charters and demanded revisions to the report before it could be submitted to the legislature.

Scrutiny over mismanagement in the charter sector is intensifying, The Center for Popular Democracy estimated that charter school waste and fraud squandered $1.5 billion in taxpayer money in 2015.

North Carolina educator Stuart Egan took the board to task in an open letter to Lt. Governor and board member Dan Forrest: “Overall, charter schools seem to lack diversity and operate under a different set of rules according to the report you are trying to squelch. The fact is that many of the charter schools you have enabled are perpetuating segregation 'School Choice' Mantra Masks the Harm of Siphoning Funds from Public Education - NEA Today:

VIDEO SERIES: Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed Explained In Detail

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: VIDEO SERIES: Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed Explained In Detail:

VIDEO SERIES: Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed Explained In Deta

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed Broken Down Point By Point

Prof. Jason J. Campbell gives us 10 videos that help us understand the central ideas of Paulo Freire's seminal work on how the oppressed learn about the world about them and their power to transform it on their terms and not on the terms of the oppressor.

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 Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: VIDEO SERIES: Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed Explained In Detail:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Good New in Seattle Public Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Good New in Seattle Public Schools:

Good New in Seattle Public Schools



Lori Dunn, Seattle Public Schools’ Physical Education and Health Literacy Program Manager, has been honored with SHAPE America’s top award for Physical Education administrators. 

The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE), the nation’s largest membership organization of Health and Physical Education professionals, announced thatDunn is the Channing Mann Outstanding Physical Education Administrator of the Year. 
Among her many accomplishments: 

• Forming and leading a district team of Physical Education specialists to write a comprehensive PreK-12 Physical Education Curriculum Guide. 
• Partnering with a number of organizations to bring innovative fitness programs into our schools. Some examples include Cascade Bike Club, First Tee Golf, U.S. Tennis Association, Washington Soccer, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Medic One, Cascade Volleyball, and, significantly, the George Pocock Rowing Foundation. Pocock worked with Dunn on an Erg Ed Rowing Program that is being replicated across the country.
• Securing a number of grants and funding to support district programs, such as 
  • a partnership with the City of Seattle and the Cascade Bike Club for every students in grades 3-5 to receive biking and pedestrian safety instruction starting in fall Seattle Schools Community Forum: Good New in Seattle Public Schools:

Court won’t give DPS sickout restraining order

Court won’t give DPS sickout restraining order:

Court won’t give DPS sickout restraining order

Detroit — The Michigan Court of Claims refused Thursday to issue a temporary restraining order sought by Detroit Public Schools to halt recurring teacher sickouts that have closed dozens of schools.

The court also scheduled a hearing for 11 a.m. Monday in the lawsuit filed by DPS against 23 teachers, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, interim DFT president Ivy Bailey, and organized sickout supporters such as DPS Teachers Fight Back and By Any Means Necessary.

At the hearing in Detroit, the court will hear the district’s request for a preliminary injunction barring further sickouts.

In denying the request for a restraining order, Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens wrote that DPS failed to meet court rules governing requests that are made without notifying the other parties.

According to the district’s complaint, more than 31,000 of the district’s 46,000 students have missed a day of school or more as the result of sickouts.

It asks for a court order requiring teachers to follow Michigan law, which prohibits strikes by public employees, as well as damages of more than $25,000.

All DPS schools were open Thursday, a day after a sickout forced the district to close 88 of its 97 schools.

“We look forward to the opportunity to inform the court of the serious effects that these continued sickouts have on the District,” district spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said in a statement Thursday.

Steve Conn, the ousted DFT president, has advocated teachers stage sickouts and is among those named in the suit. He laughed when read the ruling.

“This is great. It has got to be unprecedented,” he said. “It is a fair-minded action by the judge.”

At a meeting Thursday night, Conn and lawyer Shanta Driver mobilized about 30 supporters ahead of Monday’s hearing.

“I think the most important thing about the ruling today is that it gives us Monday as the next focal point for action: for teacher action, for student action, for community action to come out in support of teachers and this fight,” Driver said.

DPS teacher LaKina Moseley, who was at the meeting, said despite earning a Ph.D. she took a 10 percent pay cut and works outside jobs to make ends meet. She said frustration led her to participate in this week’s sickout.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton retweeted pictures from inside Detroit schools Thursday, saying, “No one would tolerate these conditions in a wealthy suburb.”Court won’t give DPS sickout restraining order:

Flint's Lead-Tainted Water Crisis - The Atlantic

Flint's Lead-Tainted Water Crisis - The Atlantic:

Who Poisoned Flint?
Michigan’s state government took control of Flint with an emergency manager—then shrugged at its water crisis, saying it was a problem for the city to fix.

Why did it take so long for state and federal government to do something about lead in the water in Flint, Michigan? Or, put another way, who is to blame, and who should have fixed it?
There’s a telling moment within the 274 pages of emails released by Governor Rick Snyder’s office about Flint. Dennis Muchmore, then chief of staff to the governor, puzzles over who should be on the hook. He gripes about Representative Dan Kildee, and mentions former state Treasurer Andy Dillon:

Muchmore went on, “The real responsibility resists with the County, city and [Flint’s water authority], but since the issue here is the health of citizens and their children, we’re taking a pro-active approach.”
The question of who really is responsible has become suddenly widespread. On Thursday, news broke that the U.S. House will call Snyder to testify. The EPA official responsible for Michigan also resigned on Thursday. Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have both called for Snyder to resign. The Wall Street Journal points a finger at every level of government. Disentangling the blame proves to be a difficult task.

Muchmore’s statement may seem a bit callous, but his mention of Dillon is somewhat tangential: After all, Dillon’s role was simply to sign off on the change to taking water from the Flint River, because of the size of the transaction. But Muchmore omitted the reason why Dillon was involved—a fact that also complicates his assignment of blame to the city. The switch to water from the Flint River occurred under the oversight of an emergency manager appointed by Snyder. Under a state law that Snyder signed, the governor can appoint a manager to take over cities in financial emergency.
Prior to the switch, Flint had been preparing to move away from water provided by Detroit’s water service and toward a pipeline that would bring water directly from Lake Huron. (The city council did have a chance to weigh in on that change, and supported it 7-1.) But when Flint made the decision, the Detroit Water Services District announced it would terminate service to Flint a year later. That was legal under the contract, but it put Flint in a bad spot, since the new pipeline wasn’t going to be complete in a year. DWSD shrugged, saying Flint should have expected it. That’s how the emergency manager, Darnell Earley, ended up overseeing the switch to water from the Flint River. Flint residents and leaders blame Earley for the decision; Earley insists it was their idea. (Flint reconnectedFlint's Lead-Tainted Water Crisis - The Atlantic:

EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Opt Outs? Part 4 | Diane Ravitch's blog

EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Opt Outs? Part 4 | Diane Ravitch's blog:

EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Opt Outs? Part 4

EXCLUSIVE: Lamar Alexander’s Staff Explains ESSA: PART 1 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1QlmO8K

EXCLUSIVE: Senator Alexander’s Staff: ESSA and Teacher Evaluation, Part 2 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1RzT9Kj

EXCLUSIVE: What Does ESSA Say About Bottom 5% of Schools: Part 3 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1SzGMOp

This is the fourth in a series of exchanges about the Every Student Succeeds Act. I asked the questions, and David P. Cleary, Senator Lamar Alexander’s chief of staff, responded.

What does the law say about parent opt outs from testing? Are states allowed to withhold funding from schools where the participation rate is less than 95%?

Short Answer:

Under ESSA, in section 1111(b)(2)(K) of the new law, states are allowed, if they choose, to allow parents to opt students out of the federally required 17 tests.

In section 1111(c)(4)(E) of the new law, states are required to ensure that 95 percent of all students participate in the federally required 17 tests.

But, in that same section, the federal requirement is that, as part of the state accountability system, states determine how to take into account—or “factor”—the participation rate of students in determining how to judge the schools within the state. The Secretary, in section 1111(e)(1)(B)(iii)(XI) of the new law, is prohibited from telling a state how that requirement must be factored into the state accountability system. This EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Opt Outs? Part 4 | Diane Ravitch's blog:

What Do You Mean, Excessive Paperwork? | The Jose Vilson

What Do You Mean, Excessive Paperwork? | The Jose Vilson:

What Do You Mean, Excessive Paperwork?

Please do tell me I should be doing more.

The job of teaching itself is a pleasure, an honor, and it is work. The acts of building relationships with students that make sending them to the dean’s office unnecessary isn’t a simple matter of standing there and expecting them to respect thy will. That interchange of values, ideals, and cultures between the so-called teacher and the so-called student is a higher order of work. Having 30 or so unsettled spirits at a time in a teacher’s charge is that unnamed and ever-present element we must teach. That passion for the job remains in the most ardent of us. Those of us who’ve stayed in the profession long enough to see children turn to young adults, and perhaps into teachers in their own right know how this toil, tithing from our souls almost yearly.

And we love it.

Then the rest of the teaching profession comes in and it’s anywhere from marvel to mayhem, the disparate experiences a function of teaching students who barely know who they are as people. Our What Do You Mean, Excessive Paperwork? | The Jose Vilson:

Democracy in Michigan Has Been Poisoned Along with Flint’s Drinking Water | janresseger

Democracy in Michigan Has Been Poisoned Along with Flint’s Drinking Water | janresseger:

Democracy in Michigan Has Been Poisoned Along with Flint’s Drinking Water

The problem in Flint, Michigan that now has a lead-poisoned water system; and in Highland Park, Michigan where the for-profit Leona Group, a charter management organization, was brought in by a state-appointed emergency manager to run the public schools but went broke instead; and in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, where the for-profit Mosaica Education, a charter management organization, was brought in by a state-appointed emergency manager to run the public schools but went broke instead, is that Michigan’s poorest cities and school districts can, under a 2012 law, be taken over by the state and operated by an emergency fiscal manager appointed by the governor. And the current governor does not have a background in public service, reports Amber Phillips of  the Washington Post: “Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), (was) a tech venture capitalist who was elected in 2010 on a platform to fix the state’s ‘disaster’ economy….”

Claire Groden, writing for Fortune, explains Michigan’s abrogation of democracy under the current governor: “(A)t the time that Flint flipped the switch in April 2014 to send the river’s highly corrosive water through lead pipes, the predominantly African-American city didn’t have a working local government… Five years ago Snyder signed legislation that expanded the reasons why the state could choose to appoint a municipal emergency manager, then granted those appointees almost complete power over their assigned municipalities. Under Public Act 4, as it was called, state-appointed emergency managers could break collective bargaining agreements, fire elected officials and determine their salaries, and privatize or sell public assets… Emergency management is a way to short-circuit democracy when a city faces financial insolvency, with the idea that a leader free from accountability to voters can make unpopular but necessary decisions.  But Michigan voters rejected that law in a state-wide referendum… A month later, the state legislature passed a replacement law that made minor adjustments and one major one: an appropriation banning a referendum on the new law.  That was 2012.  By 2013, six Michigan cities—and almost half of the state’s African-American population—were under emergency management.  In many of these cities, public services were pared down to the minimum.  Pontiac’s emergency manager whittled the city’s employees to around 10% of their previous number.” (Here is what happened in Pontiac.)

State emergency managers can override not only elected city councils but also be imposed on Democracy in Michigan Has Been Poisoned Along with Flint’s Drinking Water | janresseger:

Here's How the Education World Thinks the Feds Should Regulate Under ESSA - Politics K-12

Here's How the Education World Thinks the Feds Should Regulate Under ESSA - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Here's How the Education World Thinks the Feds Should Regulate Under ESSA

How should the U.S. Department of Education regulate under the Every Student Succeeds Act? People got a chance to share their thoughts with the department face-to-face during two hearings this month. But the public also got a chance to submit public comments on the Internet. The comment period for those submissions just closed Thursday. And as of about 6 p.m. that day, there were more than 200 comments filed.

So what were some of the highlights? You probably won't be surprised to learn that accountability took up a lot of the oxygen in the comments. And testing issues like how to handle opt-outs were also expounded upon. Plus, school turnaround issues and funding got some attention. 

We've tried to organize the highlighted comments into several categories where there was a lot of input. Confession: We haven't been through all 200-plus comments. But don't worry, this isn't the last time we'll take a look at what folks want to see in ESSA regs.

Comments on the Federal Role

• National Governors Association: The department should use a light touch in regulating on ESSA, and not go further than Congress intended. "Guidance should be the primary tool the federal government uses to inform state efforts to implement ESSA."  Governors should be consulted on any big moves since they are, after all, in charge of their state K-12 systems. Plus, the department should allow for flexible timelines, including early implementation of the new law.

Comments on Accountability 

• National Conference of State Legislatures: "State legislators feel that the approach laid out in ESSA, with broad guidelines to ensure a focus on all groups of students, is appropriate. However, there is a danger that the department will write regulations that impose a 'one size fits all' approach. Instead, states should be able to determine the relative weights of the indicators in the system. The important element is that the indicators have multiple measures of performance, unlike the single metric of adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind."

• National School Boards Association: "With regard to state accountability systems, the department should seek input from states and local school districts and provide explicit non-binding guidance and best practices that can help states and school districts identify, set, and use a variety of student success indicators."

• South Dakota Department of Education: "The South Dakota Department of Education respectfully urges the U.S. Department of Education ... to allow for states to publish the first accountability report cards under the new law following the 2017-18 school year. Currently, as the timeline stands, it would be nearly impossible for states to publish the new report cards under the Every Student Succeeds Act with data from the 2016-17 school year in time for the 2017-18 school year."

• League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC): "ESSA requires certain action from schools that have subgroups that are 'consistently underperforming.' Regulation, guidance, and technical assistance to states on this provision should explain that the definition of 'consistently underperforming' needs to factor in both longevity of underperformance (time) as well as the severity of underperformance (academic gap)—but the severity of underperformance at a given school should raise the priority level despite any time interval."

• Washington Teachers' Union: "The department should encourage truly robust accountability systems with factors beyond test scores considered an equal par as test scores, not as afterthoughts."

• National PTA: "National PTA recommends that ED issue regulations to provide guidance in the following areas: (1) the method by which states identify consistently underperforming subgroups within a school, measure progress toward goals, and establish a timeline for action when subgroups of students are not making progress; (2) the method by which school resource inequalities are identified for additional targeted supports in its improvement plan; and (3) the 95 percent participation rate in the annual measurement of achievement of students and how opt-out options will be calculated in the accountability system."

• Texas Appleseed: "It is important that states choose 'school climate and safety' as an indicator of school quality and student success ... A positive and supportive school climate encourages students to attend school, engage with teachers and peers, and thrive academically."  

• Chiefs for Change: "A focus on the lowest-performing students, from all backgrounds, is the single best way to make sure that no students are excluded from state and local accountability requirements ... Federal rulemaking must not inhibit the ability of states to continue to focus on the lowest-performing students."

Comments on Testing 

• National PTA: "Specifically, ED needs to provide greater clarity by defining the following terms: 'consistent underperformance,' 'substantial weight' and 'much greater' as they relate to the indicators for annual meaningful differentiation of public schools."

• National Title I Association: "ED has indicated that it will continue to peer-review state assessments. Under ESSA, ED should simply ensure that assessments meet the requirement of the law and highlight any major concerns from stakeholders, but should maintain the law's intended flexibility."

• Association of Test Publishers: "As difficult as it is to balance competing interests related to this issue, the department must continue to prevent states from circumventing this participation requirement, whether through purposeful efforts or because of parental decisions to 'opt out' children from the statewide assessment."
• Washington Teachers' Union: Encourages the department "to work swiftly to allow states and districts to have better and fewer assessments so that more time can be spent teaching and learning. This means that the department should quickly establish a pilot program for innovative assessments so states willing to try project-based assessments can do so, and other places, like [the District of Columbia] can learn from them."
• Chiefs for Change: "We believe that any rulemaking related to the 95 percent assessment requirement must make it clear that there is no 'wiggle room' when it comes to implementing this foundational provision."
•  Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute: "High-quality assessments are critical in helping educators and students master deeper learning. No single assessment can evaluate all of the kinds of learning we value for students, nor can a single instrument meet all of the goals held by parents, practitioners, and policymakers."

Comments on Funding 

• National Title I Association: "Additional guidance is needed on supplement, not Here's How the Education World Thinks the Feds Should Regulate Under ESSA - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

PLAY BALL Says Attack Dogs for Jeb Bush - Folio Weekly

PLAY BALL? - Folio Weekly:

PLAY BALL?
Targeted public records requests could signal political hardball for three Duval school board members

Folio Weekly has learned that three of Duval County’s seven sitting board members have been targeted for public records requests by Robert H. Fernandez, a litigation attorney who once served as Deputy General Counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Fernandez, a partner in the Coral Gables-based Zumpano Castro Law Firm, has issued two separate public records requests to Duval County School Board members Becki Couch, Dr. Connie Hall, and Paula Wright.

Who is Robert H. Fernandez?As Deputy General Counsel in the then-Governor’s office, Fernandez served as a top lieutenant in Bush-brand education reform, particularly on school privatization efforts. Fernandez and one other attorney represented Jeb Bush in Florida’s landmark school voucher case,Bush v. Holmes. The Holmes case ended Bush’s plan for tax dollars to be used for private school vouchers. (Now, pre-treasury, “tax-credit” dollars are used for private school vouchers through the 501c3 organization, Step Up For Students.)

According to his firm’s website, Fernandez “… is considered one of the leading lawyers in South Florida on representation of elected officials and candidates on election and ethics law issues.”

Fernandez also once served as a reference for the cousin of charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza.

Hugo Arza listed Fernandez and one other Bush-affiliated attorney when he applied to serve on the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission in 2007. The commission, which was designed to take charter school decisions out of the hands of local school districts, became defunct in 2008, when the First District Court of Appeals found it unconstitutional. Folio Weekly left a message for Fernandez on his office voicemail, but the call was not returned in time for our publication deadline.

Who is Ralph Arza?

Ralph Arza, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, turned himself into the police for witness tampering charges in 2006. He admitted to leaving an obscenity-laced voicemail message for fellow lawmaker Gus Barreiro, and to using a racial slur in that recording. Barreiro had previously filed a complaint against Arza for calling a sitting schools superintendent a racial slur. Arza pled guilty in the criminal matter, served probation and community service, enrolled in anger management classes, and PLAY BALL? - Folio Weekly:

Virtual charter schools in Broward, Palm Beach could close following audits - Sun Sentinel

Virtual charter schools in Broward, Palm Beach could close following audits - Sun Sentinel:
Virtual charter schools in Broward, Palm Beach could close following audits

air of virtual charter schools in Palm Beach and Broward counties may soon shut down, following complaints of poor student performance, allegations of ethical breaches and hostility between the schools' governing board and management company

An audit committee for Broward County schools recommended Thursday that the district terminate its contract with Florida Virtual Academy at Broward, which has been operating for three years.

The school's governing board, the South Florida Virtual Charter School Board, also oversees Florida Virtual Academy at Palm Beach, which has been under review since October by the Palm Beach County School District's Inspector General. Together they serve about 350 students.

The charter schools are not affiliated with Florida Virtual School, the longtime state-run online education program.

"Our intent is to move forward with the recommendations and come to some kind of closure process, either voluntary or otherwise," Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said.

And indeed, the schools in both counties may close voluntarily, said Philip Morgaman, president and CEO of the South Florida Charter School Board.

"Voluntary dissolution is a viable alternative, and it's certainly one of the alternatives our board will consider, and it may very well be the most likely," he said.

Morgaman said he wants to receive the Palm Beach County audit before holding a special board meeting. He said that would likely happen at the end of the school year, so students wouldn't be displaced mid-term.

The Broward audit found numerous academic deficiencies at the school. It said the school failed to provide evidence that students were receiving the required instructional time for reading, failed to provide a "clear and comprehensive grading system," and failed to show it was following state law in regard to serving students with disabilities and limited English skills. The state is also penalizing the school by $200,000 because too many students failed their end-of-course exams.

Both schools received grades of D in 2013-14. The state hasn't released grades for the Virtual charter schools in Broward, Palm Beach could close following audits - Sun Sentinel:

Senate, House Democrats explain why they oppose Detroit schools reform legislation | MLive.com

Senate, House Democrats explain why they oppose Detroit schools reform legislation | MLive.com:

Senate, House Democrats explain why they oppose Detroit schools reform legislation

Members of the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses say they don't support legislation introduced Thursday that would restructure the debt-plagued Detroit Public School system.

In a joint statement, lawmakers said for Detroit Public Schools to succeed, the district needs to be led by a "locally elected school board that maintains the same authority as every other school district in the state."

They also said lawmakers should look beyond the school aid fund when looking at how to pay for the plan, whose price tag has been estimated at $715 million over 10-years. Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, suggested examining "tobacco settlement money, a loan or a conglomeration of various funding sources."

"Every child in Detroit deserves access to the same quality of education that we demand for children across our state," the statement said. "To achieve this, we believe certain principles must be followed. Among them are a locally elected school board that maintains the same authority as every other school district in the state; not a board saddled with long-term contracts that it did not negotiate, or stuck with a superintendent who isn't producing results for students and taxpayers."

Related: How Snyder plans to sell his $715 million plan for Detroit schools to Michigan lawmakers
Legislation introduced Thursday by Sen. Geoff Hansen, R-Hart, laid the groundwork for restructuring the roughly 47,000 student district, which has been hit hard over the last decade by declining enrollment and low student achievement.

The legislation would effectively break the district into two parts: A new district, known as the Detroit Community School District, where teaching and learning Senate, House Democrats explain why they oppose Detroit schools reform legislation | MLive.com:

Reformy Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights ESSA Comments

ESSA Comments:

Reformy Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights ESSA Comments

View the PDF of these comments here.

Re: Docket ID ED-2015-OESE-0130

Dear Ms. Spitz,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the 36 undersigned organizations, we would like to comment on the request for information regarding implementing programs under Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2015. We appreciate this opportunity to respond and look forward to future opportunities to engage with the Department of Education as it seeks to implement ESSA.

The civil rights community has long recognized equal educational opportunity as central to our struggle to achieve equality for all Americans. Without a robust and thoughtful implementation of ESSA over the next decade, we will have missed a crucial opportunity and the students we represent will continue to be denied the full protections they need and are entitled to under federal law. Originally passed on the heels of significant civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we believe that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is a civil rights law and implementation of ESSA should preserve that legacy. For today’s students—whether African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American students, students with disabilities, those who speak English as a second language, or those from low-income families—the challenges are different than they were in the 1960’s, but the stakes are at least as high.

The civil rights community worked very hard to preserve the Department’s authority to issue regulations and guidance, and to provide technical assistance for the implementation of ESSA. Despite spurious claims to the contrary, federal funds are still conditioned on thorough compliance with the law. The Department still has the weighty responsibility of developing regulations that are comprehensive enough and sufficiently detailed to ensure that state and local implementation is consistent with the intent of this law and the longstanding federal role in protecting the civil rights of all Americans.

Parent and Community Engagement

The consequences of failing to meaningfully include and respond to the students, parents and communities this law seeks to assist will be dire. The knowledge, perspectives and voices of community stakeholders must drive decisions about funding, accountability, supports, interventions, data reporting and assessment at the federal, state and local level. Regulation, guidance, and technical assistance must ensure that low-income communities, communities of color, the disability community, immigrant communities, and tribes are included in decision-making.While the law contains several consultation and engagement provisions, the Department should take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement as it considers every matter of policy.

In direct response to the request for information regarding regulations to implement programs under Title I of ESSA, as discussed in more detail below, we encourage the Department to propose regulations regarding accountability, assessment, supplement not supplant, educator equity, data reporting, and inter-district resource equity.

State Accountability Systems

We believe the Department should propose regulations that ensure that state accountability systems are driven by the performance of groups of students and that support and intervention systems are developed with stakeholders and are implemented to raise achievement for consistently low-performing groups of students.It will be crucial to reinforce that the use of so-called “supergroups,” or the aggregation of students by race, ethnicity, disability or income status, obscures important differences in history and identity and is not consistent with the law as written. Also, in order for disaggregated data to be meaningful, “n-sizes” must be kept low so as not to hide student performance, as had been a practice in the past. It will be important to ensure that regulations reinforce the statutory requirements of identification and intervention in schools in each of the three categories identified in the law—the bottom 5 percent, schools with grad rates below 67 percent and schools with consistentlylow performing groups of students is meaningful.

Assessments

Regulations to implement the assessment provisions of the law should ensure that the 95 percent participation requirement is enforced so that the performance of all students is taken into account. It must be affirmed that the 1 percent cap on the alternate assessment applies to student participation in the assessment by subject; and strict federal criteria must apply to any state seeking a waiver of the cap. Ensuring the valid and reliable assessment of English language proficiency and the inclusion of English learners in content assessments, with appropriate accommodations, is crucial to ensuring that these students have the supports they need for English language acquisition and content proficiency. In the instances where local assessments are permitted in the law, as a pilot of eventual statewide assessments and in some districts for the high school assessment, it will be imperative to ensure that assessments meet the highest standards of validity, reliability and comparability and that students with disabilities and English learners are fully included in the assessments with appropriate accommodations. These assessments should not be an excuse to provide vulnerable students with lower quality assessments or obscure disparities in student outcomes.

Supplement, Not Supplant

The supplement not supplant provision of the law has been a critical tool to protect against the egregious misuse of Title I funds to reinforce inequities in state and local services (documented especially in the 1969 report, Title I of ESEA: Is it helping poor children?). Any additional flexibility provided in this requirement must continue to ensure that federal dollars are supplemental. If supplement not supplant is to allow greater flexibility in demonstrating compliance, it must presume and ensure an equal base of actual per-pupil funding before any federal funds can be considered supplemental. In this provision and throughout regulations, the Department should reinforce the non-discrimination responsibility of schools, districts and states under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Department should also seek additional opportunities to advance greater resource equity within and between school districts through meaningful enforcement of the teacher equity provisions, and thorough oversight of reporting of per-pupil expenditures, school discipline and climate, course access, and other resource issues.

Data Reporting

All publicly reported data should be available and understandable to students, parents and communities to help inform their participation in decision-making. Regulations to implement the data reporting requirements should promote universal access to cross-tabulated data and expand on the availability of data disaggregated by Asian American and Pacific Islander categories. Technical assistance should also encourage districts and states to collect and report data in this further disaggregated manner.

The test of regulations, guidance, technical assistance and other implementation activities must be whether or not they advance educational equity and serve the interests of all students. Low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, and Native students deserve no less than robust and thorough regulation by this Department to close opportunity and achievement gaps.

We appreciate this chance to comment and look forward to many more opportunities to inform the implementation of this law at the federal, state and local level. The civil rights community is deeply invested in ensuring that this law is implemented in an inclusive way and that it drives towards equity. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Liz King, Leadership Conference Senior Policy Analyst and Director of Education Policy at king@civilrights.org or 202-466-0087 or Nancy Zirkin, Leadership Conference Executive Vice President at zirkin@civilrights.org or 202-466-3311. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Alliance for Excellent Education

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)

Association of University Centers on Disabilities

Children's Defense Fund

Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund

Easter Seals

Education Law Center - PA

The Education Trust

Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

League of United Latin American Citizens

MALDEF

NAACP

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities

National Center for Learning Disabilities

The National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools

National Council of La Raza

National Disability Rights Network

National Down Syndrome Congress

National Indian Education Association

National Urban League

National Women's Law Center

New Leaders

Partners for Each and Every Child

PolicyLink

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Stand for Children

TASH

Teach For America

Teach Plus

TNTP

UNCF

United Way Worldwide

Ousted Detroit teachers' union president and fed up teachers call for a city-wide strike on Monday - WXYZ.com

Ousted Detroit teachers' union president and fed up teachers call for a city-wide strike on Monday - WXYZ.com:

Ousted Detroit teachers' union president and fed up teachers call for a city-wide strike on Monday

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Ousted union president Steve Conn and a group of teachers are now calling Monday the next day for action. They are calling for a city-wide strike on that day, urging teachers, parents, and students to attend a court hearing.

The Michigan Court of Claims is holding a hearing on Detroit Public Schools' request for a temporary restraining order against organized sick-outs.

Shanta Driver, the lawyer for Conn, called that request, " absurd and obscene."

She's also calling for everyone to show up for the court hearing Monday morning, saying, "If it means walking out of schools, if it means marching down the street, if it means taking the bus, get there."

This group says the rolling sick-outs are building to a longer lasting strike.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers released a statement saying it's pleased with court's early decision Thursday to deny the temporary restraining order.

Detroit Public Schools released their own statement as well, saying it looks forward to informing the court about the serious effects of these sick-outs.Ousted Detroit teachers' union president and fed up teachers call for a city-wide strike on Monday - WXYZ.com:

John Thompson: Why Education Isn't a 2016 Campaign Issue

Why Education Isn't a 2016 Campaign Issue:

Why Education Isn't a 2016 Campaign Issue

The conservative education reformer, Rick Hess, tells the uncomfortable truth that teachers and school patrons must recognize. Politicians often embrace education, but they typically do so in "symbolically potent ways," as opposed to making it a real-world priority. When noting that education is not as important of an issue in this election year, Hess explains:

Education has generally been how conservatives show themselves to be compassionate and how liberals show they're practical and responsible. This election, candidates face intense pressure on the left and the right to demonstrate that they're ideologically reliable--and education is less helpful on that count.

Hess recalls that the last three presidents "made their thinking on education an integral part of their persona." He reminds us that:

For George W. Bush, it was a way to demonstrate a real commitment to equal opportunity. For Clinton and Obama, it was a way to talk about new public spending in terms of investment and personal responsibility, and to distinguish it from old-style tax-and-spend liberalism.

This year's election is so polarized, however, that candidates don't need to wrap themselves in school issues in order to seem kinder and gentler, or tougher and meaner than they really are.

Liberal education reform is rooted in a "Sister Souljah tactic" where "New Democrats" can show they aren't wimps by beating up their longtime allies, teachers and unions. In the big picture, it has never been so much about helping poor children of color as it has been about repeatedly using the word,"Accountability!," "Accountability!," "Accountability!" Only the most idealistic Why Education Isn't a 2016 Campaign Issue: