Big Education Ape

Monday, July 3, 2017

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/3/17 #NEARA17

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/3/17

Featured Post

#NEARA17 Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post

'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators #NEARA17

by mike simpson / 23min

'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators : ‘We Must All Stand Together’: NEA Honors Top Educators 2017 National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee and 2017 Education Support Professional of the Year Saul Ramos. (Photos: Calvin Knight, Scott Iskowitz) On a day that spotlighted how NEA members advance professional practice, the more than 7,000 delegates to the 2017 NEA Representative

#NEARA17 Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post

by mike simpson / 2h

Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post : Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ The president of the country’s largest labor union, Lily Eskelsen García of the National Education Association, told delegates at her organization’s annual gathering that they would

Reminder: Education Is Not a Damn Marketplace - Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia

by mike simpson / 2h

Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia : Reminder: Education Is Not a Damn Marketplace And charter schools are not working. Here's a debate I'd like to see pursued vigorously within the Democratic Party. (Hey, everybody else gets to complain about this, why not me?) Resolved: No matter how noble the original motives, public school "reform" as pursued b

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education

by mike simpson / 2h

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education : Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade This article was originally published in The Progressive. Trump and Devos Ignore Science, but This High School Teacher and His Students Embrace It The announcement on June 1 by President Donald Trump that he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog

by mike simpson / 3h

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog : Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply Who gets to enroll in your school? This question is at the heart of the charter school debate . While traditional public schools have to accept any student who meets residency requirements, charter schools can be entirely more selective. They don’t ha

CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising

by mike simpson / 4h

CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising : Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising Charter fans like to say that charters will improve public education by pushing public schools to compete. Here's a story that proves them half right-- some public schools apparently feel compelled to compete, but not in ways that have anything to do with educational quality. The public school system of Bethle

What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org

by mike simpson / 4h

What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org : What can turn the teachers' union around? Michael Mochaidean, a public school teacher in West Virginia, provides his view on the direction for the union after its strategy for the 2016 elections failed completely. Public school teachers rally against "right to work" legislation in West Virginia (West Virginia Education Association

Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer

by mike simpson / 4h

Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer : Can't Tell Liberals from Conservatives in Dallas School Reform Debate The school reform issue ought to split up conservatives as badly as it does liberals. But it doesn’t. I can’t figure that out. No matter which side looks at it, school reform turns on the same fundamental question: Can a poor, minority kid from

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two

by mike simpson / 4h

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two : Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two As I wrote last week, these are dire times for public education. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education leading the charge for big budget cuts, charter schools, and a radical privatization agenda, the possibility that free quality public education f

The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky

by mike simpson / 5h

The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky : The NEA RA. Random thoughts As a delegate to the 2011 NEA RA surrounded by my friends in leadership. Mike Antonucci, NEA union gadfly and reporter for his blog, is having a great time being banned from the press section of the Boston RA. Look. It was a dopey move by the leadership. I’m thinking Mike is loving it. Antonucci makes note of the irony in a

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle

by mike simpson / 6h

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle : UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found evidence to suggest school districts could be losing out on millions of dollars in funding due to the bullying of students. The researchers used survey data from California to estimate that school distr

You are the Future Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

by mike simpson / 6h

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all : You are the Future Diane Ravitch's blog A site to discuss better education for all This High School Adopted (De)personalized Education for All, Thanks to Laurene Powell Jobs 4 by dianeravitch / 1h A California public high school received a grant of $10 million from Laurene Powell Jobs to redesign itself. Guess what? They have gon

TEACHER VOICE: Raising the bar on high school diplomas slams the doors on the weakest students - The Hechinger Report

by mike simpson / 6h

TEACHER VOICE: Raising the bar on high school diplomas slams the doors on the weakest students - The Hechinger Report : TEACHER VOICE: Raising the bar on high school diplomas slams the doors on the weakest students A Maine teacher of struggling readers expresses her concern for the state’s disenfranchised Who isn’t in favor of high standards? The recent three-part series on proficiency-based lear

Votes coming on teacher tenure, for-profit charters, other key bills | EdSource

by mike simpson / 7h

Votes coming on teacher tenure, for-profit charters, other key bills | EdSource : Votes coming on teacher tenure, for-profit charters, other key bills Between now and July 21, when they take a month off, state legislators will have to decide the fate of bills that passed one chamber of the Legislature and await action in the other. Among those are key education bills that would lengthen teacher p

“I make the trains run on time,” says Rahm. | Fred Klonsky

by mike simpson / 7h

“I make the trains run on time,” says Rahm. | Fred Klonsky : “I make the trains run on time,” says Rahm No sooner had I pushed the publish button on my post about the stalled negotiations between the Mayor, the CTA and the transit workers union than I opened up the New York Times to find Mayor Rahm echoing the words of the Italian fascist, Benito Mussolini. “In Chicago, the trains actually run on

On Global Teacher Prize Winner Maggie Macdonnell and What Humility Looks Like | The Jose Vilson

by mike simpson / 8h

On Global Teacher Prize Winner Maggie Macdonnell and What Humility Looks Like | The Jose Vilson : ON GLOBAL TEACHER PRIZE WINNER MAGGIE MACDONNELL AND WHAT HUMILITY LOOKS LIKE We met at a fancy hotel on Central Park South, a place that most native New Yorkers scurry past before they get priced out of the sidewalk. Whenever I meet teachers that gain acclaim on a macro-level, I always ask two quest

California school leaders fear GOP cuts to Medicaid could harm special education | 89.3 KPCC

by mike simpson / 8h

California school leaders fear GOP cuts to Medicaid could harm special education | 89.3 KPCC : California school leaders fear GOP cuts to Medicaid could harm special education California education officials are sounding the alarm over Congressional Republicans' proposed health care overhaul bills, saying changes to Medicaid could leave the state or school districts scrambling to pay for critical

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by mike simpson / 8h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES : WEEKEND QUOTABLES Ken Franklin Ken Franklin, Pres. of Local 308, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) [Transportation workers] are like the vessels in the heart. We feed the economic engine of the cities. That allows hundreds of thousands of businesses to operate and gives the people in the cities a way of life. -- Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothe

KIPP Houston and Its “Etc.” Fees | deutsch29

by mike simpson / 8h

KIPP Houston and Its “Etc.” Fees | deutsch29 : KIPP Houston and Its “Etc.” Fees On June 29, 2017, the Houston Chronicle carried a story entitled, “KIPP Schools Charged Unallowable Fees, State Agency Finds.” KIPP stands for Knowledge is Power Program– ironic given that the primary point of the article is that some parents who even advocated for Texas’ KIPP charter schools discovered that they had

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/2/17

by mike simpson / 23h

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/2/17 Featured Post Joan Kramer's Story - The War Report NEA President to Representative Assembly: We Have the Power... and They Know It by mike simpson / 4h NEA President to

Top Posts This Week

'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators #NEARA17

'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators:

‘We Must All Stand Together’: NEA Honors Top Educators

2017 National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee and 2017 Education Support Professional of the Year Saul Ramos. (Photos: Calvin Knight, Scott Iskowitz)

On a day that spotlighted how NEA members advance professional practice, the more than 7,000 delegates to the 2017 NEA Representative Assembly celebrated two educators at the top of their profession: NEA Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year Saul Ramos and National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee.

In his address to the assembly, Ramos, a paraeducator at Burncoat High School in the Worcester Public School system in Massachusetts, said the professionalism and dedication of ESPs adheres to principles of service to students, parents, and members of the community,

“They (ESPs) are leaders, they are passionate about their work and the success of their students,” said Ramos. “I have learned that leadership is taking what is given to you and moving it forward.”

Educators don’t choose which students they work with, he added, “we don’t select and disregard the rest, we take who we are given and pour our hearts and souls into their lives.”

We must all stand strong together, and let our elected leaders know what we need as educators to nurture successful students” – 2017 Education Support Professional of the Year Saul Ramos

Ramos urged delegates to fulfill the promise of this year’s assembly theme: “Uniting Our Members and the Nation for Strong Communities, Empowered Professionals, Successful Students.”

“Our hearts and spirits are in the right place,” said Ramos, a self-taught braillist and advocate for the visually impaired. “We are full of passion and purpose and we will continue to work together to make a difference in the lives of our students.”

Ramos called attention to the dedication of educators as exhibited by their commitment to professional development, community involvement, and service to the whole child.

“As an educator, you want the same success for all your students,” he said. “You want'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators:

#NEARA17 Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post

Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post:

Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’

The president of the country’s largest labor union, Lily Eskelsen García of the National Education Association, told delegates at her organization’s annual gathering that they would not work with the Trump administration because the president and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could not be trusted to do what is in the best interests of children.

Eskelsen García just addressed the 96th NEA Representative Assembly meeting in Boston, accusing President Trump of residing “at the dangerous intersection of arrogance and ignorance” and labeled DeVos as “the queen of for-profit privatization of public education.” She said in part:

Let me say this to all of you as clearly as I can, so that even if you disagree with me, you understand what is in my heart: I will not allow the National Education Association to be used by Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos. I do not trust their motives. I do not believe their alternative facts. I see no reason to assume they will do what is best for our students and their families. There will be no photo-op.

We will find common ground with many Republicans and many Democrats on many issues. We will not find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children and their families. And I don’t just judge them by their words; I judge them by their actions.

Neither the Education Department nor the White House responded to queries for a reaction to the speech.

It’s no surprise that Eskelsen García, who became president of the union in 2014, would attack Trump and DeVos. The NEA in January 2017 launched an effort to persuade enough senators Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post:

Reminder: Education Is Not a Damn Marketplace - Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia

Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia:

Reminder: Education Is Not a Damn Marketplace
And charter schools are not working.

Here's a debate I'd like to see pursued vigorously within the Democratic Party. (Hey, everybody else gets to complain about this, why not me?)

Resolved: No matter how noble the original motives, public school "reform" as pursued by private interests in general, and by plutocratic dilettantes in particular, has been an abject failure and an almost limitless vista of low-rent scams and high-tech brigandage.

Discuss.

Through the inexhaustible Diane Ravitch, we have found several recent examples of evidence for the affirmative here. First, there was this account in The New York Times about how the ragged remnants of the Detroit public schools were handed over to the charter-industrial complex willy nilly, and how that notion has crashed and burned in spectacular, if entirely predictable, fashion.

Michigan leapt at the promise of charter schools 23 years ago, betting big that choice and competition would improve public schools. It got competition, and chaos.

Detroit schools have long been in decline academically and financially. But over the past five years, divisive politics and educational ideology and a scramble for money have combined to produced a public education fiasco that is perhaps unparalleled in the United States.

While the idea was to foster academic competition, the unchecked growth of charters has created a glut of schools competing for some of the nation's poorest students, enticing them to enroll with cash bonuses, laptops, raffle tickets for iPads and bicycles. Leaders of charter and traditional schools alike say
Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia:

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education:

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade
This article was originally published in The Progressive.

Trump and Devos Ignore Science, but This High School Teacher and His Students Embrace It

The announcement on June 1 by President Donald Trump that he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement defies everything we know about the science of climate change. It also left science teachers everywhere grappling with how to present this important subject to their students.

Trump ignores the advice of scientists and justifies his actions with his belief there are “draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.”

United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made matters worse when she joined in Trump’s exercise in science denial.

“President Trump is making good on his promise to put America and American workers first,” she declared, endorsing the U.S. withdrawal from the climate accord.

The President and the person in charge of all of our nation’s public schools are explicitly undermining science. What is a teacher to do?

I asked one of my daughter’s high school science teachers, Adam Croft at Nova High School in the central district of Seattle, what he thought.

This is what he wrote to me:

“Since his June 1, 2017 announcement, my students have not stopped talking about President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. All school year, we have been inquiring into the meaning of our planet’s changing climate. . . . We observe shifting conditions in our local forests and waters, study climate data, question guest experts, envision possible sustainable and just futures, and challenge each other to take responsible action.

To them, and to me, the President’s decision is a cruel injustice to those most vulnerable to climate change. My students are angry and frightened and I am humbled by the fact that most of them have only deepened their commitment to do what Trump will not: honestly explore and enact how best to live on Earth.

As a teacher of science, I am responsible for facilitating this inquiry of my students. I work to scaffold their research, experiments, writing, presentations, discussions, community service, and other learning so that all of them can access this inquiry. I Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education:

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog:

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply

Who gets to enroll in your school?

This question is at the heart of the charter school debate.

While traditional public schools have to accept any student who meets residency requirements, charter schools can be entirely more selective.

They don’t have to take just any student. They can pick and choose based on pretty much whatever criteria they want.

Despite the fact that charters are publicly funded and privately run, transparency requirements are so low in most states that regulators aren’t even allowed to check up on their enrollment practices.

It’s a situation rife with the potential for fraud and abuse with America’s most vulnerable students often being victimized and huge corporations raking in record profits.

Critics say that charter schools routinely accept only the easiest students to educate. They take those with the best academic records, without disciplinary problems or special education needs. This allows them to spend less money to run their schools Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog:

CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising

CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising:

Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising

Charter fans like to say that charters will improve public education by pushing public schools to compete. Here's a story that proves them half right-- some public schools apparently feel compelled to compete, but not in ways that have anything to do with educational quality.

The public school system of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has, like many Pennsylvania school districts, has been hit hard by money being drained by charter schools-- last year the district lost about $26 million to charter schools. So the board accepted Superintendent Joseph Roy's recommendation that they take this "opportunity" to "better market" themselves. The board had previously hired a firm to help manage its social media accounts; now they have decided to hire Imagevolution, a marketing firm, to help get the word out about the public school system's successes. The goal, says Imagevolution's Randi Mautz, is to win students back from the charters.

The only vote against the proposal was from a board member who was unsure that Imagevolution is the firm for the job. Their website is under construction, but they've been around since 2006. But you can see some of their work on their facebook page. They are apparently run by a quartet of school district parents, so they're invested. They've worked with the Bethlehem Area School District Foundation, Lehigh University, and the Downtown Bethlehem Association-- so they know the territory.

They are not going to get filthy rich. The district has contracted for slightly over $3K a month for marketing help. The social media management contract (with Lehigh Valley With Love Media) was for $2K a month.

Again, none of this is huge money. But we're talking about public tax dollars spent on marketing. We're talking about enough money to have hired part of a teacher, or a small pile of educational resources. And instead, it will go to create competitive marketing. Because the free market does not foster superior quality; the free market fosters superior marketing.

The students of Bethlehem will pay an opportunity cost, because that money will not go to make CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising:

What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org

What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org:

What can turn the teachers' union around?

Michael Mochaidean, a public school teacher in West Virginia, provides his view on the direction for the union after its strategy for the 2016 elections failed completely.

Public school teachers rally against "right to work" legislation in West Virginia (West Virginia Education Association | Facebook)

CAN LEFT-wing politics and action save conservative unions from themselves?

This April, the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), met in West Virginia's capital for its annual delegate assembly.

Nominally, the NEA is a progressive education union whose mission is "to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world," according to the NEA's website.

Similarly to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the chief means by which the NEA pursues these goals politically is by courting Democratic candidates whom they believe will advocate for teachers in their state. That strategy has proven to be ineffective, particularly in the current right-wing political climate--and in a state that has tipped more and more to the right along with mainstream politics.

West Virginia acts as a stand-in for all things Appalachian in our national consciousness--rural, exclusively white, poor, bigoted and isolated. To some extent, these caricatures tell us more about the liberal observer than the reality of life in the state.

Upon further analysis, it becomes clear that West Virginian interests and attitudes aren't monolithic. The stereotypes and even the statewide surveys of public opinion miss the critical junctures of a population that historically has been active politically, including around the most left wing of ideals.

It's politically unwise to neglect the state's history of solidarity and struggle, something that WVEA members have learned the hard way.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A SENSE of paternalism loomed over the 2016 Delegate Assembly, its 150th such gathering.

Dale Lee, president of the WVEA, opened the 2016 assembly with optimism at the What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org:

Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer

Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer:

Can't Tell Liberals from Conservatives in Dallas School Reform Debate

Image result for Can't Tell Liberals from Conservatives

The school reform issue ought to split up conservatives as badly as it does liberals. But it doesn’t. I can’t figure that out.

No matter which side looks at it, school reform turns on the same fundamental question: Can a poor, minority kid from a chaotic background be as smart — as accomplished in school — as a rich, white kid from a nice home? If so, why aren’t public schools closing that gap?

Conservatives ought to have as much to fight about with each other over that question as liberals. But I don’t hear it. Not where I live.

In East Dallas, it’s almost always the liberals going after each other. Many of my neighbors and friends are teachers. They tend to be liberals, and you know how we are. We liberals agree wholeheartedly on a whole menu of issues, hyperlocal to intergalactic, but that stops at school reform. There, we split, often with drama.

And here in this space, the drama goes on: I get a lot of sincere questions from a certain kind of reader asking me how I can be so right on some issues yet be such a Trumpian, corporate lackey fool on school reform. I don’t know that I think the question about me is very interesting — if it’s inconsistency you want, I’ve got plenty more where that came from — but I’m beginning to think the way we all approach the topic is something for the whole city to ponder.

First of all, I bet we’re in for some long-overdue national attention on school reform. We’re pretty far away geographically and culturally from the coastal and Northeastern media beats where most big news happens, so it takes us a while to get noticed. But the fact is that Dallas is a national leader on many school reform issues. Recently The New York Times took note of some of the programs left behind by former Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles.

I wrote about the piece, mainly to point to the one thing the Times didn’t notice, probably because it was too local: Many of the programs the Times thought Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer:

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two:

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two

As I wrote last week, these are dire times for public education. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education leading the charge for big budget cuts, charter schools, and a radical privatization agenda, the possibility that free quality public education for all in America could soon be a thing of the past is real.

One would think that such clear and present danger to a cornerstone of our democracy coming from the right would unite Democrats behind the mantle of defending public education.

Sadly, however, that is not the case as even now, in the face of this assault, we see Democrats lining up with the billionaire-funded charter school lobby to wage holy war on teachers’ unions in name of making it easier to get rid of “bad teachers” to save the children.

This is not good news for American education or our democracy.

This week, again, I cede my column space to my wife and comrade in arms in the battle to defend public education to explain why this is the case.

Part Two: Why We Need to Protect Public Education:How Demonizing Teachers and Unchecked Charterization Hurts Kids—and Our Democracy

By Kelly Mayhew

In last week’s column, I outlined the general issues facing public education and teachers, and noted that many systemic issues are sidestepped in order to promote charter schools (http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/06/are-we-witnessing-end-of-public.html).

This is how the privatization story goes: demonize public schools and their teachers, hold charter schools up as excellent alternatives, create corporate charters and charter chains that use management companies to do the daily operations and siphon public tax money for schools into private businesses, employ non-union teachers who you can hire and fire at will. That’s how it works in a nutshell.

As an Alternet piece on the NAACP’s resolution calling for a moratorium on charter expansion and more oversight for charter schools reported (insert link: ):

In a move increasingly typical of the K-12 privatization industry, the charter industry slammed the Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two:

The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky

The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky:

The NEA RA. Random thoughts

As a delegate to the 2011 NEA RA surrounded by my friends in leadership.

Mike Antonucci, NEA union gadfly and reporter for his blog, is having a great time being banned from the press section of the Boston RA.

Look. It was a dopey move by the leadership. I’m thinking Mike is loving it. Antonucci makes note of the irony in a tweet today.

It’s not as if the press section is overflowing with reporters. At my last convention a couple of years ago I went looking for Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk who was writing as if he was there, only to discover he had left a couple days before the convention was over.

I should have been so lucky. I was there for three days of an NEA Retired meeting and then five more of the RA.

My sympathy for the anti-union Antonucci has limits. Aside from the fact that he should be allowed to cover the meeting as he has done for two decades (some strange fetish I would say) we agree on little else.

Bloggers, pro and anti-union, get little respect from the NEA. As most readers would The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky:

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle:

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found evidence to suggest school districts could be losing out on millions of dollars in funding due to the bullying of students.

The researchers used survey data from California to estimate that school districts there missed out on about $275 million annually when students stayed home from school because they felt unsafe in class. When a student misses school, the local district often receives less funding, depending on the state.

The findings were published Thursday in a journal, School Psychology Quarterly.

"Preventing bullying and absenteeism while promoting feelings of safety has both economic and social benefits," the researchers wrote. "While existing research often focuses on consequences of bullying to the individual, the work presented here gives schools information to assess costs of bias-based bullying and missed daily attendance."

The study's authors cautioned against using the data to estimate funding losses in other states, such as Texas, because rates of bullying and absenteeism might vary.

To estimate the financial impact of bullying, the study's authors analyzed survey responses by middle and high school students in California. The researchers focused on how often students reported that they stayed home from school because they felt unsafe, and how often they were harassed or bullied.

Using the stay-at-home response data, the authors calculated how much districts lost in funding, which is tied to daily student attendance.

The researchers found a strong link between absenteeism due to safety and rates of bullying. But the student survey did not ask how often children stayed home specifically because of bullying. Other factors, such as in-school violence, could have contributed to absenteeism.

As a result, the researchers could not estimate funding losses caused exclusively by bullying-induced absenteeism.UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle:

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, July 3, 2017

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/3/17 #NEARA17

#NEARA17 Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post

YESTERDAY

Top Posts This Week

'We Must All Stand Together': NEA Honors Top Educators #NEARA17

#NEARA17 Teachers union leader: We won’t work with Trump and DeVos because ‘I do not trust their motives’ - The Washington Post

Reminder: Education Is Not a Damn Marketplace - Charter Schools Not Performing Better Than Traditional in Detroit, Florida, Georgia

Seattle Teacher’s Response to DeVos Anti-Science Crusade | Seattle Education

Charter School Lotteries – Why Most Families Don’t Even Apply | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: Wasting Tax Dollars on Advertising

What can turn the teachers' union around? | SocialistWorker.org

Dallas School Reform Debate Shakes up Liberals and Conservative | Dallas Observer

Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two

Part Two: Why We Need to Protect Public Education:How Demonizing Teachers and Unchecked Charterization Hurts Kids—and Our Democracy

The NEA RA. Random thoughts. | Fred Klonsky

UT-Austin study: Student bullying costs districts millions - Houston Chronicle

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