Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism | gadflyonthewallblog

Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism | gadflyonthewallblog:

Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism

If labor unions were an animal, they’d be an old hound dog napping on the porch.

They’re slow to get up and chase away burglars but they do like to howl at night.

Most of the time you don’t even know they’re around until the dinner bell rings. Then that ancient mutt is first to bolt into the kitchen to find a place at the table.

It’s kind of sad really. That faithful old dog used to be really something in his youth.

He was fierce! He’d bark at trespassers even tearing them apart if they threatened his patch of land.

Old Uncle Sam used to yell at him and even threaten the pooch with a rolled up newspaper, but that dog didn’t care. He had a sense of right and wrong, and he didn’t mind getting into deep trouble fighting for what he thought was fair.

Today, however, the only thing that really riles him is if you threaten to take away his ratty old bone.

Let’s face it. Unions have become kind of tame. They’re housebroken and not much of a threat to those people waiting in the shadows to rob us blind.

Some people say we’d be better off without them. But I don’t agree. Even a decrepit Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism | gadflyonthewallblog:

A Poisonous Approach to Governing | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

A Poisonous Approach to Governing | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

A Poisonous Approach to Governing

Band-Aid solutions such as the ones seen in Flint or the push to privatize advocated by ALEC and its corporate cronies stem from a larger crisis—inadequate federal funding

Flint resident Otis Powell, 56, sheds a tear as he stands in below-zero-degree temperatures with heavy wind during a protest of the city's water quality on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015 while marching up and down Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. "This water situation, I can't stand," Powell said. "It's saddening that we don't have clean water." (Photo: Jake May | MLive.com)

The Flint water crisis is a disaster on all levels, and many factors are to blame—austerity measures imposed by emergency management, the Snyder administration’s gross mismanagement, EPA’s failure to step in. It is also a consequence of a poisonous trend—running states like corporations. Flint reminds us yet again that corporations and their political front groups have hijacked our democracy—with real and lasting impacts on our water and public health.

In Michigan, the governor has the power to appoint emergency managers who assume complete control over municipalities, stripping elected officials of their ability to govern. Emergency managers may as well be called “emergency dictators.” They can make decisions about every aspect of a city’s governance, including firing elected officials or determining the fate of a water system. Much like a corporate CEO, their eye is usually on the bottom line.

But states are not corporations. While conservatives often claim that experience as a corporate executive qualifies them for high office, the analogy fails when put into action. Government works best when decisions are made in the public interest; cutting costs almost always means cutting corners, which is exactly what happened in Flint. Health experts recommend that every child in Flint under the age of six— over 8,000 children—be considered exposed to lead poisoning. We don’t yet know the full extent of this public health crisis, but many lives have been forever marred because a government bureaucrat opted to cut corners.

"We don’t yet know the full extent of this public health crisis, but many lives have been forever marred because a government bureaucrat opted to cut corners."

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a water system has been sacrificed in the name of cost-cutting measures, nor is it likely to be the last. That’s due in part to a heightened new trend of conservative influence over many of our nation’s policies, particularly on the state level.

Rightwing free market think tanks like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, funded by billionaire Charles Koch, have been major forces in undermining democratic control on the state level, particularly in their support of emergency management. The Mackinac Center aggressively pushed for expanded emergency management powers in Michigan, and its former director of municipal finance, Louis Schimmel, served as emergency manager in Pontiac, Michigan.

The Mackinac Center is also a member of the rightwing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a policy organization that seeks to rewrite state laws to give more power to corporations. ALEC has been a major force behind this trend to undermine democratic control of water, thereby threatening its integrity as a public good.

The group has written model legislation intended to starve states of funding for water A Poisonous Approach to Governing | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View | LucidWitness.com

An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View | LucidWitness.com:

An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View 

Governor Tom Wolf is battling for fair funding for Public Education. It’s an epic battle in Pennsylvania and part of the war on Public Education across America.  It involves us all.

In spite of the facts that legislators have failed to propose an acceptable budget, and that the budget is 7 months overdue, Governor Wolf is standing strong against politicians’ attempts to further slash public education.  Seven long months.  Education operations are still decimated from hundreds of millions of dollars cut by the previous governor.

The issues go deeper than money. They include how the budget is allocated to districts.  They also include politicians trying to increase their own micromanagement of individual schools.

Politicians have failed in Philadelphia Schools.  So…close schools?    

State-­level politicians have a clear, 15-year track record since they took over the School District of Philadelphia.  Their record is one of stunningly consistent academic starvation with simultaneous fiscal disaster.

Fifteen long years ago, the State created the ‘School Reform Commission’ (SRC) to eliminate local control in Philadelphia.  The State appoints the majority of SRC members.  The SRC has hired multiple “outsider” CEOs with multiple organizational structures.   CEOs have come.  CEOs have gone.   Teaching staff is at all-time lows.   Vacant positions remain unfilled.   Teachers have been An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View | LucidWitness.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Safe and Secure

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Safe and Secure:

CCSS: Safe and Secure

 The Collaborative for Student Success is yet another Common Core shilling group, supported by folks like the Gates Foundation, the New Ventures Fund, and the Fordham. It has to be lonely over there, standing up for the Common Core when nobody will even mention its name unless they're paid to do so.


Election Doesn't Matter

Last week executive director Karen Nussle issued a memo declaring Common Core a non-issue in the race for President, and she has a legitimate point. At this point Common Core lacks support among Presidential candidates as surely as roasting and eating baby pandas does. But Nussle sorts out the different types of non-support.

Many of the contenders have a complicated relationship with the standards marked by inconsistencies and shifting positions, while others have staked out governance positions on standards that are unconstitutional. 

I think "complicated relationship" is a nice way to put it. There are, for instance, the flip-floppers. She calls out Rubio, who used to brag about his role in getting CCSS adopted in Florida. And Chris Christie and Fiorina and Huckabee (and Jindal and Walker) who are all for Common Core before they were against it. Nussle does not dig further, considering that this might be a result of selling the Core, not on their merits as educational standards, but on their merits as a good political posture. I suppose you can argue that the flip floppery is a sign that these candidates are unprincipled, but I think it's also a sign that Common Core was never a matter of principle to begin with. The Core were sold as politically expedient and politically sale-able. These deserters of the Core deserted the standards as soon as it became evident that they did not possess the only qualities that ever made CCSS in the first place.

Nussle's "unconstitutional" crack is for Cruz and Trump, both of whom have promised to undo the federal Common Core laws, and while I hold the feds responsible in large part for the Core's CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Safe and Secure:

New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law - The New York Times

New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law - The New York Times:

New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law

The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, has taken issue with an investigation into access by disabled students at city schools by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, center. Credit Mike Segar/Reuters

 The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has rejected federal government findings that the vast majority of New York City’s public elementary schools are not “fully accessible” to children with disabilities, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Last month, the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said that a two-year investigation had shown that six school districts, serving more than 50,000 elementary students, lacked a single school that was fully accessible. Mr. Bharara’s office gave the cityDepartment of Education a month to respond with proposals to “remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.”

In a letter released late on Friday, senior officials of the city’s Law and Education Departments rejected the federal government’s criticism, contending that Mr. Bharara’s office, in its Dec. 21 letter detailing the findings, “inaccurately characterizes the number and geographic distribution of accessible schools, and erroneously concludes that the D.O.E. is not providing program access to students with disabilities.”

“We believe the D.O.E.’s elementary schools, when viewed in their entirety, provide full program accessibility for all elementary students,” the city said in an eight-page response, which was dated Jan. 20 and addressed to Mr. Bharara and two lawyers in his civil rights unit.

The city did offer to “work collaboratively” with the Justice Department to develop “a reasonable and feasible plan” and listed nine proposals. Its letter was signed by Georgia Pestana, the second-ranking lawyer under Zachary W. Carter, the city corporation counsel, and by Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, the Education Department’s general counsel. Mr. Bharara’s office declined to comment on the city’s response.

In rejecting the findings, the city noted that Mr. Bharara’s office said the city “should, at a minimum, make the first floor of every elementary school building accessible.”

But, the city wrote, “Making every first floor of every school accessible is neither feasible, required by the A.D.A., nor a warranted allocation of resources.”

The disabilities law was intended to ensure broad access to public services,New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law - The New York Times: 

Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time: Editorial Agenda 2016 | OregonLive.com

Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time: Editorial Agenda 2016 | OregonLive.com:

Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time

All sixth graders in Portland Public Schools take a test to measure readiness for algebra. But even those who pass might not be able to access the class at some schools. (Oregonian/OregonLive file photo)

Jane, a sixth-grader at the largely low-income King K-8 in Northeast Portland, does well on a grade-wide math assessment that shows she's ready for algebra. Jack, another sixth grader, doesn't perform quite as well but attends the higher-income Laurelhurst K-8 a few miles away. Which student gets to take algebra in seventh grade?  

The answer should be both, of course. Algebra – otherwise called compacted math – is considered part of Portland Public Schools' regular curriculum for those students who test into it. But for years, unfortunately, some PPS schools decided they didn't have enough students to justify teaching it. Those students instead were generally given the choice of commuting to another school for the one class or doing without. The schools not offering the class? High-poverty schools including King, Woodlawn, Scott and Vernon, according to data compiled by school board member Paul Anthony. 

That some schools would repeatedly put the burden on low-income students to access a class that the district considers part of its core curriculum amounts to a dereliction of its basic duty to educate students. Sadly, it's far from the only example of how the district that preaches equity fails to practice it.  

Take, for instance, recent data showing that middle-school students at Chief Joseph/Ockley Green K-8, another school with a large low-income population, receive as much as 55 minutes to 85 minutes of instruction a week less than their counterparts at stand-alone middle schools, according to a spreadsheet compiled by Ockley Green parent Gabrielle Mercedes Bolivar. If the district truly wants to close the "achievement gap" between low-income students and the population at large, why would it allow those students to be shortchanged in instruction time, she asks. Could that be part of the reason some schools don't have a larger group of students ready for algebra?  

 For its part, the district says the difference in instructional time at some K-8s stems from running a schedule that gives parents a single drop-off and pick-up time for elementary and middle-school kids. As for compacted math, the district is now looking at how a teacher can differentiate math curriculum for students. So even if only a few students at school qualify for compacted math, they can be taught in their home school, said district spokesman Jon Isaacs.  

That's good news, but years late. Consider that parents like Nicole Markwell at Scott K-8 had to press for her son to receive a class that was routine at other schools. Although he was recommended for algebra, he and several others at Scott were told that their math class would be a self-directed course on the computer, she said. Eventually, her son transferred to Access, the district's alternative program for accelerated learning. 

Certainly, Superintendent Carole Smith has not had it easy as superintendent, Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time: Editorial Agenda 2016 | OregonLive.com:

NYC Educator: Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules

NYC Educator: Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules:
Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules

Eva Moskowitz is pissed off that mean old NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is demanding she sign a contract over her pre-K classes. So what if 277 other pre-K programs have signed it? She's Eva Moskowitz, dammit, and rules don't apply to her. If you, a lowly public school teacher, made kids sit in chairs until they peed their pants, you'd be subject to CR A-420, corporal punishment, and if you kept treating kids like that you'd find yourself fired.

But those rules don't apply to Eva. In fact, chancellor's regs don't apply to any charters. They can make their own rules. Verbal abuse? No problem. Harass families until they withdraw their inconvenient low-scoring kids? That's fine, and an added bonus is their low scores can be counted against those awful public schools. You know, the ones with unions and stuff.

So now Eva is reaching out to reformy MaryEllen Elia, our esteemed education commissioner, and letting her know she's had it with all these stinking rules. Now it's one thing to apply them to public schools, but quite another when they come to her and her BFFs. For example, mayoral control was a fantastic thing when Michael Bloomberg was in charge. Eva had a hotline to Joel Klein, and could push for whatever she needed back then.

When that Bill de Blasio came in, though, things got ridiculous. First of all, he was elected. That sucked, because Joel Klein was appointed by Mike Bloomberg, who pretty much gave Eva carte blanche. Second, he ran on a platform of support for public schools and opposition to charters, and those stupid NYC voters actually chose him overwhelmingly. Who the hell do those people think they are?

Eva was having none of that, so she went to Governor Cuomo, who had taken millions from her reformy BFFs and had had it up to here with that "democracy" nonsense. Cuomo pushed a state law saying that de Blasio would have to either approve Eva's schools or pay rent for them. Now NYC Educator: Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules:

Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools

Kludge

1. (electronics engineering) An improvised device, usually crudely constructed. Typically used to test the validity of a principle before doing a finished design.
2. (general) Any construction or practice, typically inelegant, designed to solve a problem temporarily or expediently.
3. (computing) An amalgamated mass of totally unrelated parts forming a distressing whole.

Any definition of “kludge” that you pick among the three above–I lean toward the second one but I do like the third as well–fits what has occurred over the past three decades with the introduction of desktop computers into schools followed by laptops, tablets, and hand-held devices with scads of accompanying software. Computing devices and accompanying software have been (and are) adds-on to education; all were initially introduced into U.S. manufacturing and commerce as productivity tools and then applied to schooling (e.g., spreadsheets, management information systems). Software slowly changed to adapt to school and classroom use but the impetus and early years applied business hardware and software to schooling. That birth three decades ago of being an add-on tinged with business application has made it a “kludge.”

The initial purposes over thirty years ago for buying and distributing desktops to schools were to solve the nation’s economic problems: U.S. students performing at levels lower than students in other countries. Teachers teaching an outmoded curriculum in traditional ways that failed to exploit the wealth of information available to them and their students electronically. Unpreparedness of students entering the job market in an economy that shifted from industrial- to information-based (see the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk). These were problems that higher standards, better teaching, and new technologies could solve. To end those problems, solutions of stiffer graduation requirements (e.g., four years of each academic subject), uniform and tougher curriculum standards (e.g. Common Core), and, yes, lots of electronic devices and software (e.g., computer labs, 1:1 laptops and tablets) were adopted to speed along more efficiently the improvement of U.S. schools to strengthen the economy. The push for more Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score | deutsch29

The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score | deutsch29:

The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score

On January 20, 2016, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried a story about the possibility that the GED Testing Service would retroactively lower the cut score for passage of its revised GED.  That same day, EdWeek picked up the story, and on January 26, 2016, GED Testing Service confirmed that the GED cut score would indeed be retroactively lowered from 150 to 145 but that states would be left to decide to follow such advice:

GED Testing Service …recommends that states apply retroactively the 145 passing score to test-takers who have tested since January 1, 2014. When a state approves applying the passing score retroactively, students who earned scores between 145-149 on the new GED test launched in January of 2014 would be eligible for their state’s high school equivalency credential.

“The scoring enhancements are based on an extensive analysis of test-takers’ performance data from the past 18 months, conversations with state policymakers and elected officials, and external validation with experts,” said GED Testing Service President Randy Trask. “This is part of our ongoing commitment to make data-based decisions, and continually improve the efficacy of the GED program.”

Even as GED Testing Service promotes this change as positive because it is based on research showing that GED students were faring better than traditional high school grads on that all-too-oft-heard “college readiness,” what it also reveals is the power of cut scores to drive individuals’ lives.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that if Georgia follows the GED Testing Service recommendation for states to retroactively issue GEDs based on the lowered passing score of 145, then approximately 1,900 Georgians will be awarded GEDs after being told they failed– and likely adjusting their lives to that failure.

High-stakes cut scores profoundly affect peoples’ lives.

While my view of the value of standardized testing in general has waned sharply over The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score | deutsch29:

Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 - The New York Times

Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 - The New York Times:

Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78

Mr. Kennedy, right, at a news conference in 1982 with his client Bernadine Dohrn and her fellow former Weathermen member William C. Ayers, whom Ms. Dorhn married that year.CreditDavid Handschuh/Associated Press

 Michael J. Kennedy, who as a criminal lawyer championed lost causes and deeply unpopular defendants — including John Gotti Sr., Huey P. Newtonand Timothy Leary — and finally won freedom for Jean S. Harris, the convicted killer of Dr. Herman Tarnower, the Scarsdale Diet doctor, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 78.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, which developed while he was being treated for cancer, his wife, Eleanora, said.

A steadfast defender of the underdog and the First Amendment, Mr. Kennedy represented radicals including Rennie Davis, Bernardine Dohrn and Mr. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party. His clients also included the Native American protesters at Wounded Knee, S.D., the family of the rogue real estate heir Robert A. Durst; Mr. Leary, the LSD guru; and Mr. Gotti, the mob boss.

He also represented High Times magazine from its inception (and was later an owner) and shared its agenda to decriminalize marijuana possession. As matrimonial counsel for Ivana Trump in 1991, Mr. Kennedy publicly rejected as insufficient a divorce settlement — trumpeted by her husband, Donald J. Trump — in which she was to receive more than $10 million and their Connecticut home and Manhattan apartment. The settlement was renegotiated.

Photo

Mr. Kennedy, right, at a news conference in 1982 with his client Bernadine Dohrn and her fellow former Weathermen member William C. Ayers, whom Ms. Dorhn married that year.CreditDavid Handschuh/Associated Press

Mr. Kennedy prided himself on membership in a reviled circle of radical lawyers from the 1960s on, including William M. Kunstler, Gerald B. Lefcourt and Michael E. Tigar, who could often afford to represent shunned clients at a discount because of the hefty fees they collected from defending organized crime figures. (Mr. Kennedy was said to have been paid $250,000 in the mid-1980s Pizza Connection drug-smuggling case; his client, a former Sicilian Mafia don, was convicted.)

Mr. Kennedy was so aggressive as a guardian of constitutional rights that he sometimes needed a lawyer himself.

In 1968, he was ejected from a congressional hearing investigating the violent demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The next year he was held in contempt with three other lawyers byJudge Julius J. Hoffman for failing to appear at the trial of eight leaders of the previous summer’s protests, including Mr. Davis.

Mr. Kennedy was even the stuff of fiction. The actor Raul Julia consulted Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 - The New York Times:

Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’ - Yahoo News

Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’ - Yahoo News:

Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’

Thousands of people have fled the Detroit public schools, but Alise Anaya decides every day to do the opposite, commuting from the suburbs to teach in one city school and drop her children off at another.

It's a surprising choice. Anaya grew up in Southwest Detroit, but many of the families she was raised alongside have left the city’s public schools in part because of conditions like those Anaya and hundreds of her colleagues have highlighted in a recent series of protests and sickouts — dead rodents, rotting floors and overcrowded classrooms.

The sickouts have shuttered dozens of schools on several days this month including on Jan. 20 – the day President Obama was in town – when 88 of the city’s 100 schools were closed. The teacher’s union took their complaints even further on Thursday, filing suit against the district to demand building repairs and the removal of the state-appointed emergency manager who runs the system.

The teacher’s frustrations reflect the alarming realities of a district struggling to survive after losing the bulk of its students. As Detroit's population has plummeted and its schools have faced new competition from suburban and charter schools, the city's public schools have gone from educating nearly 300,000 students in 1966 to just under 48,000 today. The district now carries an estimated $3.5 billion in debt.

And families are not the only ones leaving. Many of Detroit’s teachers have left, too, in search of better pay and cleaner, safer conditions in charter schools or the suburbs.

But Anaya, 32, is among those who’ve doubled down. Not only has she remained committed to the school system where she and her mother have both taught for years, she has chosen Detroit schools for her own kids, driving them in every morning from her home in suburban Allen Park.

View gallery

The teacher-led protests have closed dozens of public schools

Her son, Victor, 10 and daughter Analise, 8, attend the Academy of the Americas in Southwest Detroit, where classes are taught in both English and Spanish. Anaya teaches English as a Second Language at Clippert Academy, a middle school a few blocks away.

“My neighbors think I’m crazy,” she said of her decision to bypass a solid public school in Allen Park in favor of schools in a district that ranksdead last — or near the bottom — on most national measures. But Anaya said those statistics can obscure the caliber of teachers who remain committed.

“Because of all the cuts that have happened and so many teachers have left, the teachers that stay are really motivated. They really are staying out of the goodness of their hearts and they feel that this is where they need to be,” Anaya said. “Those are the kinds of people I want in front of my kids in the classroom.”

When teachers started calling in sick to protest deteriorating conditions in recent weeks, critics — including Emergency Manager Darnell Earley — accused them of harming children by depriving them of crucial learning time. The district has sought temporary restraining orders to block future sickouts. So far, judges have refused to grant the injunctions.

"Detroit Public Schools is a district that has been going through some very difficult financial challenges over the last number of years and we've worked very hard over the last year to get our internal house in order," said Michelle Zdrodowski, a spokesperson for the district. "We're getting resources into the classroom and school buildings. But while we do understand their frustrations, we don't agree with their method of voicing those frustrations. Students need to be school every day and to take a day of instruction away is not necessarily appropriate in our Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’ - Yahoo News:

 

Alfie Kohn: ‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’ - The Washington Post

‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’ - The Washington Post:

‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’

Do you remember sitting in class, trying to be inconspicuous so that the teacher wouldn’t call on to answer a question you couldn’t answer, or were too shy to express yourself well in front of the class? Here’s a piece about the practice of calling on students who aren’t offering to contribute to a lesson. It was written by Alfie Kohn, author of 14 books on education, parenting and human behavior, including, most recently, The Myth of the Spoiled Child (Da Capo Press) and Schooling Beyond Measure (Heinemann). This first appeared on www.alfiekohn.org. I am republishing it with permission.

By Alfie Kohn

Doctors in training call it “pimping.” A medical student or junior resident is abruptly put on the spot, sometimes during patient rounds, as an instructor fires off difficult questions about anatomy, diagnostic protocols, or surgical procedures.[1] The practice is defended in pretty much the same way that other forms of humiliation, bullying, hazing, or punishment are defended: Keeps ’em on their toes! Shows ’em I mean business! Toughens ’em up for when other people abuse them later! And of course that old chestnut: Isuffered through it; why shouldn’t they?[2]

Children in school are rarely questioned with such ferocity, but similar moral and pedagogical concerns arise — with particular urgency, in fact, precisely because they are younger: Should teachers call on students who haven’t indicated they want to talk and, in fact, have tacitly indicated they don’t want to talk?

I recently suggested on Twitter that this practice — “cold-calling” — is so fundamentally disrespectful of students that I’d be disinclined to take advice about anything from someone who endorsed it. Reactions to my tweet fell into three clusters. The first group basically agreed: “It’s a great way to shame a kid.” “Too many teachers actually believe it is a trait of a good teacher, that ‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’ - The Washington Post:

Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise - City & Region - The Buffalo News

Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise

 The Buffalo Teachers Federation unanimously rejected the Board of Education’s latest contract proposal, which called for a 10 percent increase in teacher salaries.

The BTF called the district’s offer “insulting and demeaning.”

“Teachers were furious, angry and insulted when they saw the district’s contract offer. It was like a slap in the face,” BTF President Phil Rumore said.

BTF leaders said the district’s offer was less than a 1 percent increase each year over the 11 years teachers have been without a new contract.

“Buffalo teachers are $20,000 behind their colleagues in other districts, which is a $600,000 loss in lifetime earnings and a $10,000 a year loss in retirement benefits,” Rumore added.

The district’s offer also demanded 10 percent to 20 percent teacher health care payments for decreased health care benefits, an increase in the workday, a 20 percent increase in the workload and other cuts in teacher benefits.

The BTF did not respond to the bulk of the district’s proposal because union negotiators stated that the wage proposal was not sufficient to secure an agreement, said Nathaniel Kuzma, executive director of labor relations for the district.

“Our offer is reasonable with a total compensation package that is competitive with other districts in the region and benefits that are in line with what other districts in the region provide to teachers,” Kuzma said.

Superintendent Kriner Cash has been given the authority to force certain contract terms at 20 city schools in receivership – like lengthening the school day and year, requiring teacher training and making staff changes based on merit instead of seniority. The changes can be made at the schools without the approval of the teachers union, which significantly cuts into its power.

The next step for BTF is to hear from the School Board on the timing to resume negotiations, Rumore said.

The district’s negotiating team plans to meet with Cash next week to discuss strategy on how to proceed, said Kuzma.

Attorneys for the district plan to meet with the School Board on Feb. 10 to keep members apprised, Kuzma said.

“Then we’ll have a more clear vision of what our next steps are,” Kuzma said.

The school district’s recent contract proposal included a 10 percent increase in teacher salaries. Teachers also would receive a 1 percent increase, plus step increases of 2.5 percent in each of the next three years of the proposed four-year contract. Teachers who work at least 160 days Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy | Shanker Institute

The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy | Shanker Institute:

The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy

Our guest authors today are Kara S. Finnigan, Associate Professor at the Warner School of Education of the University of Rochester, and Jennifer Jellison Holme, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.  Finnigan and Holme have published several articles and briefs on the issue of school integration including articles in press in Teachers College Record and Educational Law and Policy Review as well as a research brief for the National Coalition on School Diversity. This is the first of a two-part blog series on this topic.

Imagine that you wake up one morning with a dull pain in your tooth. You take ibuprofen, apply an ice pack, and try to continue as if things are normal.  But as the pain continues to grow over the next few days, you realize that deep down there is a problem – and you are reminded of this every so often when you bite down and feel a shooting pain.  Eventually, you can’t take it any longer and get an x-ray at the dentist’s office, only to find out that what was originally a small problem has spread throughout the whole tooth and you need a root canal.  Now you wish you hadn’t waited so long.

Why are we talking about a root canal in a blog post about education? As we thought about how to convey the way we see the situation with low-performing schools, this analogy seemed to capture our point. Most of us can relate to what happens when we overlook a problem with our teeth, and yet we don’t pay attention to what can happen when we overlook the underlying problems that affect educational systems.

In this blog post, we argue that school segregation by race and poverty is one of the underlying causes of school failure, and that it has been largely overlooked in federal and state educational policy in recent decades.

Our research has focused on the ways that students are segregated from one another across school The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy | Shanker Institute:

 

Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? | The Range Tucson Weekly

Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? | The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch | Tucson Weekly:
Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards?

 Today's post in honor of School Choice Week: State proposals and lawsuits in Minnesota look at charter schools and desegregation. In general, segregation has increased in our public schools over the last few decades around the country, but charter schools tend to be more segregated than district schools. Should this be considered a civil rights issue? That's the question being raised in Minnesota.


The Minnesota Department of Education is considering making charter schools create integration plans if they have large minority populations. The reporting I've read on the issue is confusing. Does it address charters with large white populations as well as those with large black populations? Is it more concerned with academic progress or desegregation? Whatever the specifics, the proposal is creating heated discussion in the state.

At the same time, a lawsuit accuses the state of allowing greater segregation in its public schools and maintains that charter schools have made the problem worse. A graph in the article shows 65 percent of black charter school students attend schools that are 90 percent minority, compared to 15 percent of students in district schools; 28 percent of white students are in charters with less than 10 percent minority students, compared to 12 percent in district schools.

My research in Tucson also shows that segregation is higher in charter schools than in TUSD. TUSD's student population is 64 percent Hispanic and 21 percent Anglo, which is a reflection of the population of school-aged children in the city. Tucson charters are 53 percent Hispanic and 37 percent Anglo, meaning that charters attract a disproportionate number of Anglo students. In Tucson charters, 35 percent of students attend schools with fewer than 30 percent Hispanic students, compared with 2 percent of TUSD students.

Minnesotans arguing against using desegregation rules with charter schools say that parents make active choices to send their children to charter schools, so it's not the state's concern if parents choose to send their children to schools with high percentages of white or black students.

School desegregation remains a hot-button issue across the country, not just here in Tucson, and the importance of charters in the deseg equation is receiving increased attention.Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? | The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch | Tucson Weekly:

Teach for America director out-raises union leader

Teach for America director out-raises union leader:

Teach for America director out-raises union leader

COLUMBUS — A Teach for America leader out-raised presumptive frontrunner Brigid Kelly in the second half of 2015 in an expensive, six-way primary to replace term-limited Rep. Denise Driehaus.

Ben Lindy, founding executive director of Teach for America of Southwest Ohio, raised nearly $103,000 from July 19 to Dec. 31. About $58,000 came from Cincinnati area donors and $42,000 came from contributors outside Ohio. They included Teach for America colleagues, relatives, attorneys and educators, according to campaign finance records. His median contribution was $100 and he has more than $86,000 on hand in the crowded, six-way Democratic primary.

"I have really enjoyed working hard to find support where I can find it," Lindy said. "I don’t give up."

Who raised the most in the 31st district?

Create bar charts

Kelly, a former Norwood city councilwoman and union leader, raised $47,495 in the second half of 2015 from Democratic leaders like Norwood Mayor Tom Williams, former Rep. Wayne Coates, former Mayor Mark Mallory and current Rep. Kathleen Clyde. She has nearly $95,000 on hand and her median contribution was $50.

The next closest competitor was Brian Garry, who owns Clifton-based construction company Green City EcoStruction. He raised $4,425 from 25 contributors since July; all but one donation was from the Cincinnati area and the median contribution was $50. Garry ran unsuccessfully for Cincinnati City Council in 2003 and 2007.Teach for America director out-raises union leader:

‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’ - The Washington Post

‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’ - The Washington Post:

‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’

Supporters of charter schools rally at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, in Albany, N.Y. Speakers at the rally said they’ll push lawmakers to increase funding for charters. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

This past week was School Choice Week with no less than 16,140 events held across all 50 states, according to the School Choice Week websites.  They took place in 13,224 schools, with 1,012 chambers of commerce and 808 homeschooling groups staging events too. Twenty seven governors and more than 200 mayors/county leaders issuing proclamations to recognize School Choice Week, and, to top it off, there were rallies and special events at 20 state house buildings.

What is the purpose of the week? According to the website, to shine “a positive spotlight on effective education options for every child.”  (Of course School Choice Week wouldn’t want to shine a spotlight on the many problems with school choice, including poorly operated charter schools and voucher programs that allow kids to go to sub-par schools.)

School choice proponents say that charter schools (including ones run by for-profit companies) offer parents important options for their children’s education and that traditional public schools have failed in many places. School choice opponents say that school choice is aimed at privatizing the public education system and that many of the choices being offered are not well-regulated, sometimes discriminatory and siphon funding away from local school districts.

So many activities need support, obviously, and School Choice Week had scores of educational, philanthropic, faith-based, school-based, business and other partners, as you can see here, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Walton Family Foundation, the Florida Department of Education, Harold Ford Jr. (as an individual), American Federation for Children, Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, Democrats for Education Reform, Choice Media,and StudentsFirst.

The Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in ‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’ - The Washington Post:

National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) Group: 1 in 5 charter schools not doing well enough to stay open

A group that oversees more than half of the nation's 5,600 charter schools said as many as one in five U.S. charter schools should be shut down because of poor academic performance. 

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019784379_charterschools29.html

Big Education Ape: Got Choice? Ubetcha! - ALL The RIGHT People Celebrate National School Choice Week http://bit.ly/1z2lai7