Friday, September 23, 2016

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/23/16

Featured Post

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine

CURMUDGUCATION: CA: Court Rejects Test-based Teacher Eval

1by mike simpson / 2h

CURMUDGUCATION: CA: Court Rejects Test-based Teacher Eval : CA: Court Rejects Test-based Teacher Eval While astro-turf group Students Matter, a front for the reformster activism of Very Rich Man David Welch, is most famous for concocting and then losing the Vergara case , they have been trying to skin the reformy cat with other knife-like lawsuits as well. With Doe v. Antioch, Welch's group set o

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: TUNE IN TOMORROW 9 AM (CDT) TO LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND

by mike simpson / 2h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: TUNE IN TOMORROW 9 AM (CDT) TO LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND : TUNE IN TOMORROW 9 AM (CDT) TO LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND September 24, 2016 • 9-10 am CDT The Live from the Heartland Show Standing Rock, Song & Good Food in School • Nick Estes, Mike Klonsky, Joel Frankel, Alexander DeSorbo-Quinn • MIKE KLONSKY & NICK ESTES —Report from Standing Rock • JOEL FRANKEL —Old

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine - October 2016 - Sacramento, California

by mike simpson / 3h

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine - October 2016 - Sacramento, California : Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was hit in the face with a pie at the Edible Sac High Seeds of Hope Harvest Dinner at Sacramento Charter High School on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The mayor struck a blow before Sean Thompson, 32, was

Schools Matter: Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2

by mike simpson / 6h

Schools Matter: Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2 : Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2 Triumph Learning’s Waggle is a personalized learning system now in use by Clarke County Schools in Athens, Georgia, where Dr. Philip Lanoue is Superintendent. Dr. Lanoue was named Superintendent of the Year in 2015 by the American Association of School Admi

Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? - LA Times

by mike simpson / 6h

Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? - LA Times : Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? the early days of our nation, it was a crime to teach slaves to read. And through the first half of the 20th century, segregation funneled their descendants into inferior

WILLIAM J. BARBER, II: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice - NBC News

by mike simpson / 7h

Editorial: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice - NBC News : WILLIAM J. BARBER, II: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice Just before 4pm, on Tuesday, September 20th, a Charlotte police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott outside Scott's parked car. Eyewitness and police reports do not agree on who the officer was, whether Scott was holding a book or a gun, or what took pl

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners | U.S. Department of Education

by mike simpson / 8h

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners | U.S. Department of Education : U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners The U.S. Department of Education today released non-regulatory guidance to help states, districts and schools provide effective services to improve the English language proficiency and academic achievement of English learners (ELs)

Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam | janresseger

by mike simpson / 8h

Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam | janresseger : Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam For those of us who know more about public education than Wall Street investment schemes, Valerie Strauss and Kenneth Saltman (education writer and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) did us a favor last week. In her Washi

Asleep at the Switch?

by mike simpson / 8h

Asleep at the Switch? : Asleep at the Switch? In response to this very unexpected action, the district has assembled a team to provide support to students and families as they transition during this difficult time, just one month after the start of the district’s traditional school year ”. – LAUSD The charter industry has a propensity for manipulating data to meet their propaganda needs. For exam

The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate.

by mike simpson / 8h

The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate. : Charter Schools Aren’t All Scams. They’re Just Not a Good Enough Solution. Two smart writers engaged in a familiar debate about education reform this week on account of a proposition on the ballot in Massachusetts this November that would allow more charter schools to operate in the state . Esquire 's Charles Pierce, a Massch

State urging charter school reform | Centre Daily Times

by mike simpson / 8h

State urging charter school reform | Centre Daily Times : Pa. auditor general calls for charter school reforms The state auditor general is calling for charter school reform, including that of PA Cyber Charter School, which educates more than 75 students from Centre County. It comes on the heels of a longtime audit led by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale that he said showed “how poorly” charter

Yuba City strike magnified tension over funding formula | EdSource

by mike simpson / 9h

Yuba City strike magnified tension over funding formula | EdSource : Yuba City strike magnified tension over funding formula Yuba City Teachers Association President Dina Luetgens speaks outside of Yuba City High following the vote Monday in which 97 percent of teachers approved the contract. A tense, closely watched seven-day teachers strike at Yuba City Unified that ended this week was, at its

Man who hit mayor with pie says it was ‘least violent action I could take’ | The Sacramento Bee

by mike simpson / 9h

Man who hit mayor with pie says it was ‘least violent action I could take’ | The Sacramento Bee : Man who hit mayor with pie says it was ‘least violent action I could take’ The man who hit Kevin Johnson in the face with a coconut cream pie Wednesday night said he told the Sacramento mayor before the attack that “he has to do better to represent the people.” In an interview at the Sacramento Count

Turkey’s Battle With Muslim Cleric Careens Through U.S. Classrooms - WSJ

by mike simpson / 9h

Turkey’s Battle With Muslim Cleric Careens Through U.S. Classrooms - WSJ : Turkey’s Battle With Muslim Cleric Careens Through U.S. Classrooms American charter schools have become embroiled in a proxy fight between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen Lawyer Robert Amsterdam is working for the government of Turkey to investigate schools and other institutions he says are conn

YESTERDAY

2016–17 Exemplars of 21st Century Learning - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

by mike simpson / 22h

2016–17 Exemplars of 21st Century Learning - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education) : State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces California Districts, Schools Chosen as 2016–17 Exemplars of 21st Century Learning SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that two California districts, three schools, and one early learning program have been chosen throughout the

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/22/16

by mike simpson / 23h

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/22/16 Featured Post Walton public school attack continues for Massachusetts charters and Arkansas vouchers | Arkansas Blog We have to talk about opioids and heroin. Our kids are dying - Lily's Blackboard by mike simpson / 1h We have to talk about opioids and

September 24, 2016 • 9-10 am CDT
The Live from the Heartland Show
Standing Rock, Song & Good Food in School

• Nick Estes, Mike Klonsky, Joel Frankel, Alexander DeSorbo-Quinn

• MIKE KLONSKY & NICK ESTES
—Report from Standing Rock
• JOEL FRANKEL
—Old Town School of Folk Music
• ALEXANDRA DESORBO-QUINN
— Pilot Light: helping kids make healthier choices

• MARY MEYER

—Rogers Park Food Co-op

Join Michael James, Katy Hogan & Thom Clark this Saturday for a solid hour of conversation & entertainment with people doing good in the World.

On wluw.org (worldwide!) and 88.7 fm, and now streaming live on The Live from the Heartland Show's Facebook

site! https://www.facebook.com/Live-From-The-Heartland-Show-176044392448701/

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: TUNE IN TOMORROW 9 AM (CDT) TO LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND:

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine - October 2016 - Sacramento, California:

Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was hit in the face with a pie at the Edible Sac High Seeds of Hope Harvest Dinner at Sacramento Charter High School on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The mayor struck a blow before Sean Thompson, 32, was restrained, transported to a hospital, then booked into the Sacramento County Jail on a felony charge of assaulting a public official and a misdemeanor charge of battery on school property.

See the Rest: Exclusive Photos of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Pie Incident - Sacramento Magazine - October 2016 - Sacramento, California:

The Man Who Pied the Sacramento Mayor

Sean Thompson said the coconut-cream pie was a protest of Kevin Johnson’s $556 million basketball arena.

The man who pied Kevin Johnson, the Sacramento mayor, this week says the former NBA star “has to do better to represent the people.”

Sean Thompson, a member of the Occupy movement, is being held at the Sacramento County jail on charges of felony assault on a public official, and misdemeanor battery on school property. From behind a glass partition late Thursday, he said Johnson has spent his time in political office focusing on the Golden 1 Center, the Sacramento Kings arena that’s expected to cost more than half a billion dollars, instead of projects that can actually help the community. So, Thompson said, Johnson deserved a pie in the face.

The pieing occurred Wednesday night, while Johnson spoke at a farm-to-fork fundraiser for a charter school to a crowd of about 200 people. Thompson walked near the mayor, pulled a coconut-cream pie from a bag, and smacked the pie into Johnson’s face. Accounts of Johnson’s reaction vary. The East Bay Expressreported that Johnson tackled Thompson, then punched him more than half a dozen times until his face looked like a “bloody pulp.” But Johnson’s Chief of Staff, Crystal Strait, has denied that claim, saying, “He struck back in some way” but this “was not like some bloody punch-fest.”

In images and video of the interview, Thompson has a swollen black eye and two sets of stitches on his face. Of his politically motivated pieing, he said: “I feel bad that I sent the message to a lot of people of violence and that I sent a message that would scare people, because that wasn’t my intention. I still stand by what I did.” Thompson said instead of spending $556.6 million on the new arena, Johnson should have collected the money for public schools, community development, or to help the city’s homeless. “If he had put the energy into those things that he put into the arena, we would have so few problems left in the city,” he said.

And when asked if he’d pie the mayor again, Thompson said: “Absolutely, I’d do it twice.”

As The Sacramento Bee pointed out, the Bay Area has a history of political pieing, most notably in 1998, when then-San Francisco Mayor Willie brown “was struck by cherry, pumpkin and tofu pies while giving a speech. Three pie-throwers from the Biotic Baking Brigade were arrested and later sentenced to six months in jail for committing misdemeanor battery. The protesters said they were opposed to police sweeps of the homeless in downtown San Francisco.”The Man Who Pied the Sacramento Mayor

Man who hit mayor with pie says it was ‘least violent action I could take’ | The Sacramento Bee:

Schools Matter: Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2

Schools Matter: Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2:

Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2

Triumph Learning’s Waggle is a personalized learning system now in use by Clarke County Schools in Athens, Georgia, where Dr. Philip Lanoue is Superintendent. Dr. Lanoue was named Superintendent of the Year in 2015 by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA’s next conference is entitled “Personalized, Accountable, and Visionary). Lanoue's name is prominently posted in Triumph Learning's online ads and in their sales promotions.

The video linked from the this Waggle ad is provided further down in this post. In the video, Dr. Lanoue and two of his principals at Clarke County praise the new Waggle system for a number of reasons, chief among them being that students may progress at their own pace and that the system’s endurance training system (it grades for Grit) requires students to get the right answer before moving on.

The learning analytics running within Waggle are handled by Knewton, which has the capacity to collect, store, and share data on individual student performance for both academic proficiency and "grit."

Earlier this year,Knewton and Pearson created a partnership to "personalize K–12 math education starting with elementary school students."

Utilizing Knewton’s adaptive learning platform, Pearson is updating enVisionMATH2.0, a dynamic digital curriculum. The product tailors core instruction for each student, helping teachers better address unique
Schools Matter: Mis-Educative Technology and Human Capital Management: Part 2:

Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? - LA Times

Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? - LA Times:

Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education?

Image result for big education ape detroit

the early days of our nation, it was a crime to teach slaves to read. And through the first half of the 20th century, segregation funneled their descendants into inferior schools. Like the ugly attempts to disenfranchise African Americans through so-called literacy tests calculated to make them seem illiterate, these efforts were a perverse tribute to literacy’s power, which was recognized by the many people of color who fought so hard, against the odds, to educate themselves.

Now, at least in theory, literacy is universally regarded as a human right. Every state makes K-12 education mandatory, and basic education has been recognized unanimously by the Supreme Court as “necessary to prepare citizens to participate effectively and intelligently in our open political system if we are to preserve freedom and independence,” to quote what Warren Burger, appointed chief justice by Richard Nixon, wrote in 1972.

Yet as a carefully crafted lawsuit filed this month by seven Detroit schoolchildren reveals, deliberate indifference to public schools in already disadvantaged communities means that many children of color still do not receive an education — at least not an education that will prepare them to participate effectively and intelligently in our system.

The Detroit lawsuit describes a shocking and comprehensively documented denial of access to literacy. These students attend schools all but exclusively serving children of color. Barely a pretense of education takes place there, under deplorable conditions that make teaching and learning nearly impossible: classrooms without adult teachers, wildly outdated books or no books at all, sweltering or freezing temperatures, rampant vermin infestation and other grossly unsafe physical conditions.

Unsurprisingly, students in these schools perform years below their grade level, many altogether unable to read or write. In one school, not a single sixth-grader achieved even minimal proficiency in English or math. The result is whole generations of students who lack the skills to earn a lawful living and who, in consequence, are relegated to the criminal justice system.

The Detroit students, ably represented by attorneys from Public Counsel and Sidley Austin LLP, have asserted an innovative legal claim: that Michigan has violated the 14^thAmendment’s equal protection clause by effectively excluding them from the state’s system of free public education and denying them the right to literacy.

Although novel, this claim is well grounded in decades of Supreme Court precedent, including a landmark 1982 decision, Plyler vs. Doe, in which the Supreme Court held that a state cannot bar children in the country illegally from its tuition-free public schools, recognizing that “the stigma of illiteracy” would hobble them for the rest of their lives, rendering them a permanent underclass.

Without a functioning right to literacy, moreover, the Supreme Court’s affirmative action jurisprudence collapses. Some justices oppose the continued use of race-based preferences to grant students admission to college and universities; they believe that admissions, and the law, should be color blind. But that aspiration is only as good as its essential premise: that everyone has an at least minimally adequate opportunity to succeed. The Detroit lawsuit shows that some students are instead starting out with their ankles shackled, and that they have no meaningful ability to compete on equal terms — either to improve their lot in life or to contribute to the life and governance of their communities.

The Detroit case gives the federal court system a chance to consider the massive body of evidence demonstrating what schools undeserving of the name do to the children forced to attend them — and to consider the appropriate role of the judiciary in remedying this problem.

Federal judges should not look to the California Supreme Court, which last month twice decided against hearing cases that questioned the circumstances under which students may sue the state for failing to guarantee equal educational opportunity. Over compelling dissents, the California justices rejected claims that appeared to pit the interests of students against those of teachers and their unions. The Detroit litigation poses no such difficulties.

Federal courts should look instead to the example set in Connecticut. A judge there recently found that the state was not fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide an adequate education to all children. He ordered state officials to overhaul the public school system.

Like the historic litigation leading to Brown vs. Board of Education, the Detroit lawsuit has the potential not only to improve the opportunities afforded to poor children of color in one community, but also to make good nationally on some of our most fundamental and cherished constitutional obligations. Although the Brown ruling ended legally sanctioned segregation, it has not in practice eliminated separate and inferior schools for many students of color. The conditions in Detroit will sound all too familiar to those acquainted with school-system failures across the country.

The federal judiciary has a responsibility to ensure that Brown vs. Board of Education is not, to borrow a phrase from Justice Robert Jackson, an empty “promise to the ear to be broken to the hope, like a munificent bequest in a pauper’s will.” It has a duty to ensure that a school is more than a building, and that all children have access to literacy and the broad range of powers it confers. Our Constitution’s commitments to the “Blessings of Liberty” and to the “equal protection of the laws” demand no less.

Recognizing that the 14^th Amendment confers a right to basic literacy would mark a legal development that liberals and conservatives alike should welcome. To liberals, such a right is essential to social justice. To conservatives, it is essential to social stability and order.

Laurence Tribe is a university professor and a professor of constitutional law atHarvard University. His most recent book is “Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution,” co-authored with Joshua Matz. Follow him on Twitter @tribelaw.Classrooms with rats instead of teachers: Is Detroit denying children of color their right to an education? - LA Times:

Image result for big education ape detroit public schools dps

WILLIAM J. BARBER, II: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice - NBC News

Editorial: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice - NBC News:

WILLIAM J. BARBER, II: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice

Just before 4pm, on Tuesday, September 20th, a Charlotte police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott outside Scott's parked car. Eyewitness and police reports do not agree on who the officer was, whether Scott was holding a book or a gun, or what took place between officers and Scott before the shooting.

There is much we do not know. But there is unrest in Charlotte because of what we do know.

Protests Break Out In Charlotte After Police Shooting — CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 21: Protestors march down W.T. Harris Blvd. September 21, 2016 in Charlotte, NC. The protests began the previous night following the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott by a police officer at an apartment complex near UNC Charlotte. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) Sean Rayford / Getty Images

We know, whatever the facts, that the law protects the officer, not the victim, in cases like this. Three years ago, a Charlotte officer shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man who was asking for help after his car broke down.

The Movement for Black Lives led peaceful protests, and the state conference of the NAACP insisted on due process. The case ended in a hung jury. The attorney general's office denied our request for a re-trial.

There is unrest in Charlotte because of what we know.

We know that the law, as written and enforced, cannot protect us from police violence. We know Darryl Hunt and Henry McCollum, two in a long list of African-American men wrongfully convicted in this state. We know our criminal justice system does not function to protect black life, but to control it.

We also know, since the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling on August 31st, that Governor Pat McCrory, former mayor of Charlotte, targeted African-Americans with "almost surgical precision" when he signed a 2013 voter suppression bill. When the highest court in the land declared the law intentionally racist, McCrory made no apology. His party's chairman doubled-down by trying to use the state Board of Elections to limit the number of polling places in areas where African-Americans generally vote.

We know that, despite the fact that it would benefit more poor white people than African Americans, our legislature has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, denying health insurance to the most vulnerable among us, simply because they don't like a black man in the White House.

We know that, while 56 percent of African-American workers make less than a living wage, Governor McCrory signed the mean-spirited HB2, which not only writes discrimination into state law but also forbids municipalities from passing a living wage ordinance or even measures to protect children in the workplace.

We know that our legislature, while touting an average increase in teacher pay, reduced total funding for public education and supported policies designed to undercut schools like the one Keith Scott's son was coming home from on the bus when he lost his daddy.

We know that they increasingly funnel public money to private academies, which lend themselves to the resegregation of public education, even though we know segregation hurts poor kids.

True, there are things about the Scott case that we do not know. But it's the injustices we do know—the facts on the ground that are choking the life out of black and brown communities—that created what we see in Charlotte this week.

Some say we must condemn the unrest in Charlotte. As a pastor and as an organizer, I do not condone violence. I suspect that much of it has been instigated by provocateurs with their own agenda. But to condemn the uprising in Charlotte would be to condemn a man for thrashing when someone is trying to drown him.

Whatever righteous indignation the public can muster ought to be directed toward the systems that created a situation where a man can drive to the bus stop to pick up his son and end up dead before he gets there.

I am a pastor. I will not condemn grief. But I was trained as a lifeguard, and I learned a long time ago that when people are drowning, their instincts can kill them and anyone who tries to help them. If a lifeguard can get to a drowning person, the first thing the lifeguard says is, "Stop struggling. Let me hold you up in this water, and we can get to the shore together."

The riots in Charlotte are the predictable response of human beings who are drowning in systemic injustice. We must all pray that no one else gets hurt. But we must understand why this is happening.

Ta-Nahisi Coates writes: "A society that protects some people through a system of schools, government-backed home loans, and ancestral wealth but can only protect you with the club of criminal justice has either failed at enforcing its intentions or has succeeded at something much darker." The unrest in Charlotte is not about black people hating police. It's about black, white and brown people rising up against systems of injustice that shield officers who kill but leave millions defenseless.

As hopeless as the situation may seem, we also know what's needed to change the conditions under which Keith Scott lived and died. Right here in North Carolina, we have seen how people impacted by unjust policies can come together in coalitions across color and lift up a moral agenda that embraces the good of the whole. Just last week, I was outside Pat McCrory's office with clergy and the Fight for 15, with Black Lives Matter activists from Charlotte and education advocates, with healthcare workers and citizens fighting coal ash pollution. This coalition that came together in North Carolina's Moral Mondays has spread to 30 states, uniting people who can elect new leadership and continue to push for a more perfect union in this nation.

Just last week, I was outside Pat McCrory's office with clergy and the Fight for 15, with Black Lives Matter activists from Charlotte and education advocates, with healthcare workers and citizens fighting coal ash pollution. This coalition that came together in North Carolina's Moral Mondays has spread to 30 states, uniting people who can elect new leadership and continue to push for a more perfect union in this nation.

This kind of coalition movement building is not easy, and we cannot win the change we need in a single election. But every step forward in this nation's history has come from movements like this one. This week our decision is as clear as ever: it's the ballot or the riot. We who believe in the possibility of democracy must mobilize to vote like never before.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II is president of the NC NAACP and architect of the Moral Mondays movement. His book The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear, was just released in paperback. Editorial: Charlotte is Drowning in Systematic Injustice - NBC News:

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners | U.S. Department of Education:

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners

Image result for U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners

The U.S. Department of Education today released non-regulatory guidance to help states, districts and schools provide effective services to improve the English language proficiency and academic achievement of English learners (ELs) through Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The guidance is an effort to ensure that students who are English learners receive the high-quality services they need to be college and career ready.

“In too many places across the country, English learners get less access to quality teachers, less access to advanced coursework, and less access to the resources they need to succeed. Together, we can change that reality,” said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. “Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, we have an opportunity to give students the gift of bilingualism and of multilingualism so they are prepared for college and career with a better sense of themselves, their community, their future, and a better appreciation for our diversity as a country.”

In the 2014-15 school year, more than 4.8 million English learners were enrolled in U.S. schools in grades K-12. English learners comprise nearly 10 percent of the student population nationwide, a figure that has more than doubled in the past few decades, and in many schools, districts and states, English learners are an even higher percentage of the student population. Estimates suggest that this number may be even higher for learners under the age of six. For example, nearly a third of children in Head Start programs are classified as dual language learners. There is also a growing body of research that makes clear that students who are bilingual have advantages, not only in their literacy development, but in the development of problem-solving skills and other areas of cognition in addition to a potential for greater earnings over their lifetimes.

The members of the National Council of State Title III Directors noted, “The Every Student Succeeds Act provides states with an opportunity to consider their unique local contexts in developing plans to meet the diverse needs of English Learners. This is an exciting time for states to lead the work to ensure that ELs are college and career ready, and that educational systems are poised to meet the academic and affective needs of English Learners and engage families and communities to maximize educational outcomes for children who are English Learners.”

The aim of this guidance is to help states, districts and schools improve educational outcomes for ELs and immigrant children, and youth by promoting effective, research-based, educational language instruction programs. Additionally, recognizing the diversity of the EL population, the guidance touches upon distinct populations of ELs (e.g., EL students with disabilities and long-term ELs) as well as supports ELs in early learning programs. This guidance will help inform the work done to all states and to school districts receiving Title III funds as they transition to the new requirements under ESSA.

This guidance includes information and resources for state, district, and school personnel, including:

Use of Title III funds to serve ELs;
Design and delivery of language instruction educational programs, which include educators of ELs;
Key information on family, parent and community engagement;
Key information on distinct populations of ELs, including early learners, former ELs, immigrant students, and ELs who are also students with disabilities;
Clarifications of the rights ELs have under federal civil rights law related to supports and services;
A list of publications and resources for administrators and educators who work with ELs

The Administration has been releasing guidance to assist states and districts with new opportunities under ESSA. To date, the Department has released guidance for children and youth affected by homelessness as well as foster youth. In the coming weeks and months, the Department will continue to release guidance on new provisions in ESSA.

The full guidance released today can be found here.

U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on English Learners | U.S. Department of Education:

Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam | janresseger

Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam | janresseger:

Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam

Image result for big education ape Social Impact Bonds

For those of us who know more about public education than Wall Street investment schemes, Valerie Strauss and Kenneth Saltman (education writer and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) did us a favor last week. In her Washington Post column, Strauss published a column by Saltman explaining simply and clearly what Social Impact Bonds are, how they are now privately funding education projects at public expense, and problems with these investment instruments.

In her introduction to Saltman’s column, Valerie Strauss’s describes the use of Social Impact Bonds for funding education projects: “Within the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, the K-12 education law that replaced No Child Left Behind, is a provision that provides for the use of federal funds by states and school districts for something known as ‘Pay for Success.’ The Obama administration has actually been funding Pay for Success programs in education and other areas for years, and Congress likes the concept… According to the Corporation for National & Community Service: ‘Pay for Success (PFS) has emerged as a new approach for government to partner with the private sector to fund proven community-based solutions. PFS is an innovative contracting and financing model that leverages philanthropic and private dollars to fund services up front, with the government, or other entity, paying after they generate results. This strategy has gained strong bi-partisan support in Congress, as a strategy for increasing return on taxpayer dollars while improving the quality of services provided in our communities.’ If it sounds as if it’s a way for the private sector to make money off investments in pubic education, that’s because it is.”

Strauss provides an example of the use of Social Impact Bonds: “A Pay for Success program in Utah funded by Goldman Sachs earned a profit for the global investment bank for every student who went through an early-childhood program and was not referred for special education. According to the New York Times: ‘Goldman said its investment had helped almost 99 percent of the Utah children it was tracking avoid special education in kindergarten The Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam | janresseger:

Asleep at the Switch?

Asleep at the Switch?:

Asleep at the Switch?

In response to this very unexpected action, the district has assembled a team to provide support to students and families as they transition during this difficult time, just one month after the start of the district’s traditional school year”.

–LAUSD

The charter industry has a propensity for manipulating data to meet their propaganda needs. For example, a recent press release stated that “more than 2,000 families [had] marched in support of charter schools”. However, the first sentence of the release told a completely different story. Instead of families showing support of these private schools operating with public funds, “more than 2,000 charter school teachers, students, families, supporters, and local representatives joined together” had participated in the march. Unless families had been prevented from sending more than one representative to the march, the headline was clearly misleading.

Given the recent headlines, it is unclear what the California Charter School Association (CCSA) was actually celebrating. In May, the Los Angeles Daily News released the first in a series of articles detailing the “financial shenanigans” at El Camino Charter Real Charter High Asleep at the Switch?:

Carl J. Petersen for LAUSD School Board, District 2 because:

All Kids Are Our Kids!

The LAUSD School Board needs a parent's perspective. None of the current Board members has a child enrolled in the district.
One size education does not fit all. The District must provide opportunities to all students, not just those who are college bound. We will fight to block the closure of special education centers and return funding to vocational education.
Eli Broad's plan to privatize education must be stopped. Unlike Mónica García's campaign, this campaign will not be funded by the charter industry. I will answer to the parents and students of the district, not corporate donors.

CHANGE IS COMING!

March 7, 2017

Carl J. Petersen for LAUSD School Board 2017 (ID# 1384794) -http://www.changethelausd.com/

The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate.

The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate.:

Charter Schools Aren’t All Scams. They’re Just Not a Good Enough Solution.

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Two smart writers engaged in a familiar debate about education reform this week on account of a proposition on the ballot in Massachusetts this November that wouldallow more charter schools to operate in the state. Esquire's Charles Pierce, a Masschusettan, wrote a column critical of the proposal on Monday. New Yorkmagazine's Jonathan Chait, a charter-school advocate, responded to Pierce's pieceon Tuesday, taking offense to Pierce's suggestion that charter advocates don't "give a rat's ass about educating children in Roxbury or Mattapan," two low-income Boston neighborhoods:

It is strange to accuse people who are giving away their money to the cause of educating poor children of not “giv[ing] a rat’s ass about educating children in Roxbury or Mattapan,” and also to imply that they are going to make money off the donation, without the slightest substantiation for the charge. The people who don’t give a rat’s ass about educating poor children aren’t the ones who are giving their money away on the issue. They also aren’t the ones (like my wife) who spend their working days trying to give a better education to low-income city kids. But they just might be the people who publish strong opinions on education policy while treating what is best for poor kids as a complete afterthought.

The back and forth speaks to the way the charter/education reform issue is often framed, by pundits and advocates, in one of two ways:

1. If the writer is anti-“reform,” he/she defends the ideals of public education and organized labor against a charter movement bent on embezzling every single school dollar into the pockets of crony capitalists.

2. If the writer is pro-reform, he/she defends the interests of poor/nonwhite children (sometimes referring to the charter-school cause as the "civil rights issue of our time") against an anti-reform caucus that perpetrates the systematized graft schemes of inept, lazy teachers and their powerful unions.

This binary does not describe on-the-ground reality. I've never met anyone who worked for an education-reform/charter-school initiative who wasn't motivated by a personal commitment to doing social good—or anyone who worked in a public school who didn't complain that some teachers and administrators whose jobs are protected by unions are apathetic and incompetent. Charter school educators can obviously make hugely meaningful differences in kids' lives, and some public-school employees are obviously wasting the public's money. The best people in both charter- and public-school jobs give many rats’ asses about educating low-income kids.

What Pierce and Chait both miss is that you don’t need to argue at all about whether every charter school is a pawn in a cynical, intentionally fraudulent scheme to understand the most compelling critique of its model of education reform: Namely, that it’s a misallocation of resources on a nationwide political level. Opening individual academies, which are often supported by donors from the financial services/management consulting/venture capital industries, is not a scalable solution to the problems of educating every single American student. Moreover, the good done by individual charter schools can be coopted by unreliable and ethically challenged operators who oversell reform as the one neat trick that can close the achievement gap. And that's a sales job which suppresses the uncomfortable truththat sending undercompensated, undersupported teachers into schools radically segregated by race and class should never be considered an acceptable solution to American racial and economic inequality no matter how well a few of those schools do. Meanwhile, while some charter schools work and some fail, the one class of people the model always seems to reward are the upper-middle-class consultants who get brought in to work on reform projects at salaries much higher than the typical classroom teacher.

This isn't to suggest that consultants or reform-movement donors are, on an individual basis, not well-meaning. It does mean that maybe we need to realign our national system of incentives so that the best job title in the public school system is not “charismatic reform guru” or “data consultant,” but “public school teacher.”The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate.:

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The enduring false binary of the "education reform" debate.

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Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, September 23, 2016

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/23/16

Featured Post

YESTERDAY

Top Posts This Week

TUNE IN TOMORROW 9 AM (CDT) TO LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 24, 2016 • 9-10 am CDTThe Live from the Heartland Show Standing Rock, Song & Good Food in School • Nick Estes, Mike Klonsky, Joel Frankel, Alexander DeSorbo-Quinn

• MIKE KLONSKY & NICK ESTES —Report from Standing Rock • JOEL FRANKEL —Old Town School of Folk Music• ALEXANDRA DESORBO-QUINN — Pilot Light: helping kids make healthier choices

September 24, 2016 • 9-10 am CDT
The Live from the Heartland Show
Standing Rock, Song & Good Food in School

• Nick Estes, Mike Klonsky, Joel Frankel, Alexander DeSorbo-Quinn

• MIKE KLONSKY & NICK ESTES
—Report from Standing Rock
• JOEL FRANKEL
—Old Town School of Folk Music
• ALEXANDRA DESORBO-QUINN
— Pilot Light: helping kids make healthier choices