Big Education Ape

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Ohio Gov. Kasich is trying to impose this misguided mandate on teachers - The Washington Post

Ohio Gov. Kasich is trying to impose this misguided mandate on teachers - The Washington Post:

Ohio Gov. Kasich is trying to impose this misguided mandate on teachers

Image result for big education ape Kasich

Buried deep in the proposed fiscal 2018-19 budget proposed by Gov. John Kasich — on page 1,056 of 3,512, to be exact — is a provision that requires teachers to do something more than teach their students.

If the budget gets passed and signed into law with this provision intact, all new teachers applying for a license — and all working teachers applying for license renewal in Ohio — will be required to get some “on-site work experience with a local business or chamber of commerce.”

As Columbus Business First explained it: “Take your child’s teacher to work day could become a reality in Ohio.

The exact details of what experience would suffice to meet the requirement are yet to be worked out, but perhaps an art or social studies or physical education or kindergarten teacher might meet this requirement by touring a factory where car parts are made or watch an urban planner plan an urban area.

Again, to be exact, here is the relevant section of the proposed budget:

What’s wrong with this?

Ryan Burgess, director of the governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, told news organizations that the idea is a good one in part because it would help teachers get a better idea for what jobs are available to students and what skills employers need.

Opponents, however, said making it mandatory is a bad idea. According to Cleveland.com, Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said it could benefit some Ohio Gov. Kasich is trying to impose this misguided mandate on teachers - The Washington Post:

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District: My Favorite Bloggers

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District: My Favorite Bloggers:

My Favorite Bloggers

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District: My Favorite Bloggers:

L.A. school board races draw millions in outside spending - LA Times

L.A. school board races draw millions in outside spending - LA Times:

L.A. school board races draw millions in outside spending

Based on outside campaign spending, the school board is where the action is in the March 7 Los Angeles city election.

This is true even though there are 11 city contests, including races for mayor, city controller, city attorney and eight City Council seats — and just three seats up for grabs on the L.A. Board of Education.

The total outside spending in the city races as of Friday afternoon was $465,803. For the school board, it was $3,358,847.

Independent spending is when a group or political action committee chooses to support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. As long as the candidate or the candidate's campaign plays no role in managing this spending, there are no limits.

In the school board races, the largest spending was in District 4, covering the Westside and west San Fernando Valley, to defeat school board President Steve Zimmer ($1,256,121). Zimmer also was the single candidate with the most money spent on his behalf ($705,157).

Zimmer is in the unusual position of having critics who are backing two candidates against him. Nick Melvoin ($242,157) and Allison Holdorff Polhill ($183,415) both have benefited from allied independent campaigns on their behalf. Likewise, Zimmer supporters are running a campaign against each, totaling close to a combined $140,000, according to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, which collects campaign finance records.

In the city races, District 5 drew the most independent spending, with $154,054 in supportL.A. school board races draw millions in outside spending - LA Times:

Wizard of Oz Lollipop Guild Gets Update for Trumplandia

Lollipop Guild Gets Update for Trumplandia

We represent the Sugar Daddy Guild,

The Sugar Daddy Guild,

The Sugar Daddy Guild

And in the name of the Sugar Daddy Guild,

We wish to welcome you to Trumplandia.

We welcome you to Trumplandia, Tra la la la la la la

Big Education Ape: Broad's Billion dollar Babies rack up early fundraising leads in LA Unified school board race | 89.3 KPCC - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/12/broads-billion-dollar-babies-rack-up.html

Beware of Trump and DeVos’ grand plan to privatize public education - Wait What?

Beware of Trump and DeVos’ grand plan to privatize public education - Wait What?:

Beware of Trump and DeVos’ grand plan to privatize public education

For Published on Washington D.C.’s The Hill Website, Beware of Trump and DeVos’ grand plan to privatize public education;

To Betsy DeVos, school choice is not simply the inherent right that every parent has to choose their child’s educational setting, it is all about requiring taxpayers to pick up the tab for that parent’s private individual choice, regardless of whether the parent chooses a public school, a charter school, a nonprofit private school, a religious school or even a fly-by-night online virtual school.

Historically, the United States has devoted itself to a comprehensive system of public schools, locally controlled and funded by public resources. Parents who didn’t want their children to attend the public schools, could, of course, pay for them to go to a private school.

But DeVos and her associates in the corporate education reform movement have been working hard to undermine that historic concept and replace it with one in which public funds are used to subsidize whatever “choice” a parent makes for their child.

The most common form of public subsidy for “school choice” has been the rapid rise of the charter school industry. Today there are approximately 3 million students attending about 6,900 charter schools in the United States. Supporters of these publicly funded but privately owned Beware of Trump and DeVos’ grand plan to privatize public education - Wait What?:

Trump to roll back Obama-era protections for transgender students: report

Trump to roll back Obama-era protections for transgender students: report:

Trump to roll back Obama-era protections for transgender students: report

esident Donald Trump's White House will undo an Obama administration policy that allowed transgender students in the nation's public schools to be called by their preferred names and pronouns and use restrooms, locker rooms and other single-sex facilities matching their gender identity. The announcement from the Trump administration was expected to come Tuesday and marks the beginning of his second month in office during which the GOP leader has targeted immigrants, Syrian refugees, abortion access and travelers from some Muslim-majority nations.

“This is the first day of the president’s second month in office and he is now fully coming after LGBT people,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the Washington Blade. “I’m angry; I’m outraged. This is about kids who just want to go to school who just want to be themselves... it’s just outrageous that he go after trans kids this way.”

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement to the Washington Blade that the Trump administration's record so far on transgender student rights was “deeply disappointing.”

Former President Barack Obama's Education and Justice Departments approved the non-binding guidelines on transgender student rights in May, warning that schools practicing sex discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 could lose federal funding. “A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so,” officials from the Education and Justice Departments said in a letter at the time.

Several Republican-leaning state governments led by Texas sued the federal government over the policy and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled that he will not defend the Obama guidelines. Trump had pledged last year to strike down the guidelines on the Trump to roll back Obama-era protections for transgender students: report:

Educator's guide to Islam a step in the right direction - NonDoc

Educator's guide to Islam a step in the right direction - NonDoc:

Educator’s guide to Islam a step in the right direction

Headquarters of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City is seen Monday, Feb. 20 in OKC. (Ashiq R. Zaman)

All you need is love, or at least information.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter of Oklahoma (CAIR-OK) released its Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices earlier this month in an effort to increase understanding of Islam and Muslim students in Oklahoma schools.

The document’s release comes at a time when tensions surrounding Islam in the Sooner State seem to be at their highest.

Recent history of Islamophobia in Oklahoma

In June, Oklahoma Rep. Pat Ownbey (R-Ardmore) stated he was uncertain if Islam, the world’s second-largest religion, deserved protection under the First Amendment.

Months later in October, Oklahoma Rep. John Bennett (R-Sallisaw) brought even more overt anti-Islamic sentiments to the Oklahoma State Capitol. He held a hearing during which he labeled local Muslim leaders as terrorists and demanded that they not be hugged.

But perhaps the most striking recent example of open Islamophobia in Oklahoma came from Dan Close, a Dewey High School teacher, who encouraged his Facebook followers last summer to vote for Donald Trump if “you want (Muslims) butchered.”

One wonders if Close’s blunder inspired CAIR-OK leaders to publish its educator’s guide, or at least contributed to the decision to do so.

The educator’s guide

CAIR-OK’s educator’s guide contains 14 pages of practical information and explanations of religious requirements and customs that many Muslim students in Oklahoma public schools follow.

The guide covers topics such as dietary restrictions, gender relations, holidays, daily prayers and fasting during the month of Ramadan.

The information conveyed Educator's guide to Islam a step in the right direction - NonDoc:

Gentrifying Chicago. CPS now targets Hispanic schools. | Fred Klonsky

Gentrifying Chicago. CPS now targets Hispanic schools. | Fred Klonsky:

Gentrifying Chicago. CPS now targets Hispanic schools.

Logan Square’s Darwin Elementary School hit hard by CPS budget cuts that are targeting Hispanic schools.

The numbers tell the story.

A quarter of a million African Americans have left the city over the past two decades.

Several years ago the Mayor’s hand-picked school board closed 50 neighborhood public schools, nearly all in African American communities.

Now the target is neighborhood public schools in the Hispanic communities of Chicago.

CPS CEO Forrest Claypool blames the governor.

But that is like Al Capone blaming Bugsy Moran for the increase in crime.

“Governor Rauner’s cut forced agonizing choices, including whether to lay off teachers or allow an uneven distribution of cuts from
Gentrifying Chicago. CPS now targets Hispanic schools. | Fred Klonsky:

The Facts about Reading Just Don’t Matter: On the Absence of Ethical Leadership | radical eyes for equity

The Facts about Reading Just Don’t Matter: On the Absence of Ethical Leadership | radical eyes for equity:

The Facts about Reading Just Don’t Matter: On the Absence of Ethical Leadership

Elizabeth Kolbert’s Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds is even more sobering in Trumplandia, but “reasonable-seeming people are often totally irrational” being confirmed—again—is incredibly frustrating for educators.

The facts of many years of research show that people cling to their beliefs regardless of the evidence; contrary evidence, in fact, tends to cause people to dig in even deeper to their misguided beliefs.

Democracy is a tenuous thing, then, when the willfully misinformed vote for those who learn to speak to and perpetuate that misinformation.

Trump has cashed in on false claims that work because of the public’s beliefs and the power of fear:

Opinion surveys regularly find that Americans believe crime is up, even when the data show it is down. In 21 Gallup surveys conducted since 1989, a majority of Americans said there was more crime in the U.S. compared with the year before, despite the generally downward trend in both violent and property crime rates during much of that period. In a Pew Research Center survey in late 2016, 57% of registered voters said crime had gotten worse since 2008, even though BJS and FBI data show that violent and property crime rates declined by double-digit percentages during that span.

Public policy in the U.S. too often is driven by popular beliefs not grounded in evidence. And an ugly irony to this dynamic includes public education policy—mostly a jumble of pet programs by people without any expertise in education who offer platitudes that resonate with a public ill-informed about what works in teaching and learning.

The misinformed echo chamber about education among political leaders, The Facts about Reading Just Don’t Matter: On the Absence of Ethical Leadership | radical eyes for equity:

In First Week on the Job, DeVos Shows She Likes Choice, Doesn’t Understand Public Education | janresseger

In First Week on the Job, DeVos Shows She Likes Choice, Doesn’t Understand Public Education | janresseger:

In First Week on the Job, DeVos Shows She Likes Choice, Doesn’t Understand Public Education

The irony is stunning. Although Donald Trump was sometimes called a populist during the presidential campaign, his domestic policy agenda features cutting taxes for the rich and cutting back on the policies and institutions that serve the rest of us. Despite that traditional public schools—the schools that serve 90 percent of America’s 50 million children and adolescents— are the quintessential institution of the 99 Percent, neither President Trump nor his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos seems to know or care very much about public education. Neither one ever attended a public school; both educated their children in private schools. DeVos is a certified member of the One Percent, and President Trump claims to be a One Percenter, although he has not released his tax returns to prove it. For years now mega-philanthropists have been prescribing education policy, and hedge funders and far-right philanthropists like Betsy DeVos herself have been paying the lobbyists. One Percenters have been driving public policy about the public schools with which they have little experience. BetsyDeVos, our new education secretary, is an extreme case of this trend.

Just as many predicted during her confirmation hearing, last week Betsy DeVos began her first days on the job demonstrating that she has really only one interest and one priority: expanding school choice. She delivered speeches and granted interviews last week. While her comments might seem to be merely platitudes supporting children and education, they all In First Week on the Job, DeVos Shows She Likes Choice, Doesn’t Understand Public Education | janresseger:

A cautionary tale about the fight over a charter school and the effect on a community - The Washington Post

A cautionary tale about the fight over a charter school and the effect on a community - The Washington Post:

A cautionary tale about the fight over a charter school and the effect on a community

President Trump and his new education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have made clear that their interest in education is pushing more school “choice” — charter schools, vouchers, etc. There are consequences to choice policies, though, and this post explains how the spread of charter schools can affect traditional public schools, the ones that educate the vast majority of America’s schoolchildren.

This cautionary tale from Philadelphia was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education. She was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year. She has been chronicling problems with corporate school reform for years on this blog, including with a series about troubled charter schools in California.

[Why California’s charter school sector is called ‘the Wild West’]

By Carol Burris

The popular rationale for charter schools is that they provide families with “choice.” Competition is good, proponents claim, and neighborhood schools will get better as they compete for students and resources.

Increasing numbers of parents, however, argue that the opposite is happening. They complain that charters take away the choice they want — a public school in their neighborhood in easy walking distance from their home. The playing field is not even, they argue. Charters have more money to spend, and are favored by political forces.

And when a charter chain aggressively lobbies to take over a public school, parents are pitted against each other. Surely that is no one’s choice.

What follows is just such a story — that of Philadelphia’s John Wister Elementary, a neighborhood school replaced by a charter, and how that replacement tore a community apart.

[What taxpayers should know about the cost of school choice]

John Wister Elementary School

John Wister Elementary School had 400 students, nearly all were black and from low-income A cautionary tale about the fight over a charter school and the effect on a community - The Washington Post:

School Vouchers Will Indoctrinate a Generation in Alternative Truths | gadflyonthewallblog

School Vouchers Will Indoctrinate a Generation in Alternative Truths | gadflyonthewallblog:

School Vouchers Will Indoctrinate a Generation in Alternative Truths

My middle school students are good at telling the difference between facts and opinions.

Facts, they’ll tell you, are things that can be proven.

They don’t even have to be true. They just have to be provable – one way or the other.

For instance: “I’m six feet tall.” It’s not true, but you could conceivably measure me and determine my height.

Opinions, on the other hand, are statements that have no way of being proven. They are value judgements: That is good. This is bad. Mr. Singer is short. Mr. Singer is tall.

It doesn’t make them less important – in fact, their relative importance to facts is, itself, an opinion.

But today the very ability to prove facts has been called into question.

Our government has put forward statements that are demonstrably false: The Bowling Green Massacre. Undocumented immigrants commit massive amounts of crime. Donald Trump had the largest electoral college victory of modern times.

All of these should objectively be viewed as facts. They’re false, but they are provable. Yet when we resort to the kinds of things that should count as proof, we refuse to agree, we come to a clash of epistemologies.

Today, your truth depends more on your political affiliation than your commitment to objective reality.

There was no Bowling Green Massacre. No one was killed in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Certainly there was no large scale mass death perpetrated by terrorists. There were two Iraqi nationals arrested who had been planning an attack outside of School Vouchers Will Indoctrinate a Generation in Alternative Truths | gadflyonthewallblog:

NYC Public School Parents: How NY & Other States Should Count Opt-Outs in the New School Accountability System

NYC Public School Parents: How NY & Other States Should Count Opt-Outs in the New School Accountability System:

How NY & Other States Should Count Opt-Outs in the New School Accountability System

Cross-posted on NYSAPE's website.

Below is a memo that Class Size Matters and NY State Allies for Public Education sent to Commissioner Elia and the NY Board of Regents last week, on what may seem like an arcane and technical subject but is actually critical to ensure that opt-out students aren't counted as failing in the new State Accountability system under ESSA.

ESSA, or Every Student Succeeds Act , passed last year by Congress, was an attempt to move away from the overly-prescriptive No Child Left Behind and the even more prescriptive NCLB waivers imposed by Arne Duncan. Not only does ESSA authorize states to allow parents to opt their children out of exams with no fear of consequences, as the below memo points out, it also specifically bars the Secretary of Education from telling a state how school participation rates must be factored into its accountability system.

And yet then-Secretary King and the accountability hawks managed to slip a poison pill into the law: that for the academic component of the system, at least 95% of all students in the testing grades must be included in the denominator -- whether they took the state exams or not.

This provision appears to be written with the goal of forcing schools to try to force parents to make their children take the tests - lest the schools be counted as failing. Since many NY schools had opt-out rates of 20 percent or more, this would incorrectly identify many otherwise successful schools as the lowest performing and in need of comprehensive improvement and support.

What we point out in the memo is that though the denominator may be specified in the law, there is nothing that specifies the numerator. Thus, we propose that instead of counting opt-out students as having failed these exams, the state should insert into the numerator scores that are average for other students at the school or for their subgroup.

If and when we receive a response from the Commissioner or the Board of Regents we will let you know. Meanwhile, this memo could be useful for advocates and parents in other states as well who don't want their children's schools unfairly penalized on the basis of high opt-rates.

NYC Public School Parents: How NY & Other States Should Count Opt-Outs in the New School Accountability System:

What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day | deutsch29

What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day | deutsch29:

What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day

Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos received an unprecedented amount of public resistance to her confirmation as US secretary of education.

Her take on public resistance to her utter disregard, painfully obvious ignorance, and established disdain for American public education changes with each situation– which she has already demonstrated in three US Department of Education press releases within a single week.

Consider an excerpt from her press release regarding the protesters who attempted to block her entrance into Jefferson Middle School in DC on February 10, 2017:

I respect peaceful protest, and I will not be deterred in executing the vital mission of the Department of Education. No school door in America will be blocked from those seeking to help our nation’s school children.

Sounds good. It is, after all, politically correct to “respect peaceful protest.” However, DeVos’ neutral tone changed on February 15, 2017, in a speech to the Magnet Schools of America:

Last Friday, a handful of protestors tried to block my entrance into Jefferson Middle School Academy here in D.C. While I eventually made it in, and had very constructive conversations with Chancellor Wilson, many DC administrative leaders, some terrific teachers and Principal Dohmann, the protestors’ behavior is a reflection of the way some seek to treat our education system – by keeping kids in and new thinking out.

Friday’s incident demonstrates just how hostile some people are to change and to new ideas. Without realizing it, we, too, can fall victim to this trap of seeing our work in education as an “us vs. them” approach.

Thus, five days later, DeVos’ “respect” for protest morphed into the judgment that such individuals are “hostile to change and to new ideas.” DeVos champions public money for private schools in the form of school vouchers. This is not new. However, the overriding “new” is for a a Congressional majority to put a billionaire whose What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day | deutsch29:

McD Happy Meal schools for all in Seattle with SPS IT Officer John Krull | Seattle Education

McD Happy Meal schools for all in Seattle with SPS IT Officer John Krull | Seattle Education:

McD Happy Meal schools for all in Seattle with SPS IT Officer John Krull

This article was originally published in The Progressive.

Long before she became Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos was pushing online education.

Check out this statement from a 2013 interview:

“We are trying to tear down the mindset that assigns students to a school based solely on the zip code of their family’s home. We advocate instead for as much freedom as possible. One long-term trend that’s working in our favor is technology. It seems to me that, in the internet age, the tendency to equate “education” with “specific school buildings” is going to be greatly diminished.”

And, if you are hellbent on making education a profitable business, as many of DeVos’s allies are, moving education online eliminates the expense of a brick and mortar building, as well as cutting down on salaries for teachers and support staff. Instead of a teacher, there is a tutor, who might even be automated. Assessments of the student are done via software that gives rewards for student success.

Another strong supporter of online learning is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC has offered templates for legislation on public education that supports privatization at every level, via charter schools, increased testing, online learning, eliminating democratically elected school boards, and limiting the power of local school districts.

It’s learning on the cheap with no bothersome public oversight.

Dick and Betsy DeVos’ foundation The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a funder of ALEC. The group hired former Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen as a lobbyist. In 2006 Jensen was convicted of three felonies and a misdemeanor stemming from abuse of his office. He is now an advisor to the Trump administration.

Jensen was on ALEC’s Education Task Force and proposed bills to ALEC on behalf of AFC that were adopted as “model” legislation for state legislatures. One proposal, the “Education Savings Account Act,” creates financial incentives for families to take their children out of public school and enroll them in for-profit charter schools. The AFC has also worked with ALEC to draft model legislation promoting “school choice.”

Michigan’s governor and “Skunk works”

Another fan of online learning is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. In 2011, Snyder presented his “Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace” plan. It creates a kind of “open-McD Happy Meal schools for all in Seattle with SPS IT Officer John Krull | Seattle Education:

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