Education Research Report

Education Research Report

Education Research Report

National School Climate Survey for LGBTQ

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 13h

GLSEN, the leading education organization working to create safe and inclusive schools for LGBTQ students, announced today new findings from the 2017 National School Climate Survey , showing for the first time in a decade that victimization of LGBTQ youth is not decreasing at rates previously seen -- and has, in fact, gotten worse for transgender and gender nonconforming youth. Begun in 1999, the

School counselors reflect on their experience following student deaths

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 19h

When five school counselors who were part of a counseling team were interviewed to learn how they professionally and personally experienced the deaths of multiple students in one year in their school while attending to the needs of the school community, several themes emerged. The Journal of Counseling & Development study's first theme, gravity of the losses, related to the significance of the lo

By using recorded audio feedback academics can reduce workload mentally and physically

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h

Academics experience that by using the Recorded Audio Feedback (RAF) in higher education they can give more relaxed and dialogic feedback for their learners and reduce their own workload both mentally and physically. Recorded Audio Feedback (RAF) is one method for providing feedback for learners that is becoming increasingly popular, especially in e-Education. RAF can be defined as formative or s

Controlling children's behavior with screen time leads to more screen time

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h

Giving your child extra time on the iPad for good behaviour may not be the best idea according to a new University of Guelph study. Researchers found children, whose parents dole out screen time as a reward or revoke it as punishment, spend more time on a smartphone, tablet, computer or in front of the television than children whose parents don't. "It's similar to how we shouldn't use sugary trea

Minority Ph.D. students in STEM fare better with clear expectations, acceptance

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h

Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields are more likely to advance professionally, publish more research and secure postdoctoral and faculty positions if their institutional culture is welcoming and sets clear expectations, according to a study of hundreds of Ph.D. students at four top-tier California research universities. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA,

Teacher Pensions Have Important Retention Impact, Provide Substantially Greater Retirement Security than 401(k)-Style Accounts

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

A new report finds that teacher pension plans play a critical role in retaining educators while also providing greater retirement security than 401(k)-style retirement accounts. Eight out of ten educators serving in the six states studied can expect to collect pension benefits that are greater in value than what they could receive under an idealized 401(k)-type plan. The study also finds that the

Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Data Matters Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success, by Hedy N. Chang, Lauren Bauer and Vaughan Byrnes, September 2018. *Revised December 2018. This report provides a national and state analysis of how many schools face high levels of chronic absence and discusses the implications for state and local action. Nearly 8 million students, in every state and at every grade leve

JAN 09

School teasing and bullying after the presidential election

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

In response to media reports of increased teasing and bullying in schools following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, researchers in this study investigated its prevalence with a Virginia school climate survey completed by approximately 155,000 7th and 8th grade students in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Survey results were mapped onto presidential election results for each school division’s locality.

Teachers make the difference -- even in virtual reality, but boys and girls differ in terms of how they learn best

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Few years from now, students in schools all over the world will receive part of their education in virtual learning environments. Wearing VR-goggles the students will be able to enter 3-dimentional, simulated places and situations that they would normally not have access to because it would be too expensive, too dangerous or physically impossible. Teaching via VR-technology is spreading widely th

How today's high school cliques compare to yesterday's

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, have found that while many high school peer crowds and influences have remained constant over time, changing demographics, cultural influences and the increasing number of college-bound youth have led to the emergence of new peer groups and perceptions. The study, which i

Immigrant kids in U.S. deliberately build STEM skills

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

U.S. immigrant children study more math and science in high school and college, which leads to their greater presence in STEM careers, according to new findings from scholars at Duke University and Stanford University. "Most 

Education Research Report

Charter School Debate Fueling the Los Angeles Teacher Strike | Time

Charter School Debate Fueling the Los Angeles Teacher Strike | Time

How the Debate Over Charter Schools Is Fueling the Looming Los Angeles Teacher Strike

More than 30,000 Los Angeles teachers are preparing to strike on Monday for the first time in 30 years due to failed negotiations over school funding, pay raises and classroom sizes. But as they look to mobilize support, teachers are also focusing on the growth of charter schools as a central issue in the nation’s second largest school district.

At a press conference Wednesday night following another day of negotiations, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl accused district leaders of wanting “to starve our schools in order to justify cuts and justify handing more schools over to privately run charter schools.”

He called for a cap on charter school growth, including it on a list of issues that, while not on the bargaining table now, “absolutely shape the direction of public education in Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles schools Superintendent Austin Beutner has said previously that the contract dispute should not be seen as a referendum on charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated. And he has called claims that he wants to privatize the school district “baseless.” But the issue has become a focal point in the debate over the future of Los Angeles schools, as union leaders accuse Beutner and the city’s Board of Education of favoring charter schools over traditional public schools.

About one in five Los Angeles students now attend charter schools, and charter school enrollment has continued to grow in the past decade as overall enrollment in the district has declined. The city now has more charter schools and more charter school students than any other school system in the country, the Los Angeles Times reported. Most charter school employees are not unionized.

Meanwhile, charter school advocates have been gaining ground in the city. In 2017, outside spending on campaigns for two school board seats topped $14 million in what was described as “the most expensive school board race in U.S. history” — an election that pitted teachers unions against wealthy charter school backers, resulting in a pro-charter majority on the board.

Union leaders and other charter school critics argue that such schools have CONTINUE READING: Charter School Debate Fueling the Los Angeles Teacher Strike | Time

Sacramento City leaders walk out of budget talks with teachers union | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City leaders walk out of budget talks with teachers union | The Sacramento Bee
Standoff between Sacramento City school district and teachers flares up

Talks between teachers and the Sacramento City Unified School district aimed at resolving a severe budget crisis have broken down as a dispute between the two parties heats up.

A scheduled meeting between the Sacramento City Unified School District and Sacramento City Teachers Association Wednesday to discuss the union’s proposal to solve the budget crisis ended before it began, after district officials walked out and the teachers union called it a “setup.”

The two were scheduled to meet to discuss cost saving ideas to alleviate a pending financial meltdown, according to a statement by the district. 

In December, an independent financial audit identified a $30 million shortfall in the district’s budget, and warned of a possible takeover by the state if the problem was not addressed by November 2019, when money is expected to run out.

The district and the union were scheduled to meet for an hour Wednesday afternoon to discuss their differences, but a dispute about the location of the meeting and the time the two parties arrived derailed the talks before they began.

District officials said Thursday that union officials were late to the meeting, leaving Superintendent Jorge Aguilar waiting. Aguilar left about 20 minutes after the scheduled start time, when no union officials were present, district spokesman Alex Barrios said.

Union officials said Thursday they were in the lobby of the meeting space, and entered the meeting room about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. An argument with remaining district officials then allegedly ensued, with all parties eventually leaving without conducting the scheduled meeting.

“SCTA leaders showed up late to the designated meeting location,” read a statement from the CONTINUE READING:Sacramento City leaders walk out of budget talks with teachers union | The Sacramento Bee

Decades of Academic Research Support Community Schools Strategy in New York City’s Renewal Schools | janresseger

Decades of Academic Research Support Community Schools Strategy in New York City’s Renewal Schools | janresseger

Decades of Academic Research Support Community Schools Strategy in New York City’s Renewal Schools

So-called “corporate” school reform has been defined by setting standards and testing students to see if they have met the standards.  Rewards and punishments follow for the teachers and schools said to have produced these results. The assumption has been that a school is a closed box that can turn around the lives of the enrolled students—all apart from the fact that students spend only six or seven hours of the day at school. Corporate school reformers said they would disrupt the stasis they thought defined bureaucratic public schools by offering rewards and punishments to motivate teachers to work harder and smarter. Many of these so-called education reformers came from the business schools and employed competition as their primary motivator. And the politicians who followed their advice brought us test score targets to be met and a promise quickly to make every child a winner.

We were warned in advance that this wouldn’t work as we planned.  Dr. James Comer at the Yale School Development Program created a multifaceted program to help schools support the most vulnerable children and to engage educators, parents and the community in this process of building trust and strong relationships.  In 1997, in his book Waiting for a Miracle, Comer described the results. While his staff and outside evaluators believed that the Comer schools had made important progress in improving the children’s education, Comer wrote: “Our best approximation suggests that after three years about a third of the schools make significant social and academic improvement, a third show a modest improvement which is often difficult to sustain, and a third show no gain.” (Waiting for a Miracle, p. 72) The Comer program suggested that seven years was a more realistic timeline to look for real school improvement.

One of the most artificial aspects of corporate school reform was the setting of achievement test targets and short timelines as a motivator.  No Child Left Behind established that all American children in public schools would be proficient by 2014 or their schools and teachers would be punished. As we moved closer to 2014, everybody began to realize that making all CONTINUE READING: Decades of Academic Research Support Community Schools Strategy in New York City’s Renewal Schools | janresseger

On Creativity and The Stories Our Schools Tell Themselves | The Jose Vilson

On Creativity and The Stories Our Schools Tell Themselves | The Jose Vilson

ON CREATIVITY AND THE STORIES OUR SCHOOLS TELL THEMSELVES

Around each March, a few students say they can do my job better than me. At the end of the year, I let them mock the adults in the building for a bit before they graduate to high school. A few years ago, however, I decided to flip that challenge and gave them a lesson plan template to work from. They were interested in how they could get their class to learn. They’d create whole poster boards for their lessons and develop PowerPoint projects that they’d use to teach me. In May, they were a few days from presenting and teaching their classes.

A few adults walked in with power and gaze. One of them said, “Does this look like the kids are learning?” The question already prompted disapproval. Instead of asking for my lesson, asking my students, and watching them speak as if the learning was theirs, a few minutes passed by and a whole department and district would be pushed, prodded, berated, and prompted over the years and to this day to the traditional, rote pedagogy that would supposedly raise test scores and, ostensibly, learning.

With only a hint of irony in these adult voices, the call for creativity has rung louder recently. No. Don’t do that.

Creativity continues to float around the educational zeitgeist even as the ropes tighten the noose around our pedagogies. The move to emulate rigorous – the actual meaning of the word – instruction may have had good intentions. We assigned more numbers to what we felt the students learned. Graduation rates. College acceptance rates. Test scores. All of them. If these and other numbers CONTINUE READING: On Creativity and The Stories Our Schools Tell Themselves | The Jose Vilson

2017 National School Climate Survey | GLSEN

2017 National School Climate Survey | GLSEN
2017 National School Climate Survey
New Data Shows Progress on Safe Schools for LGBTQ Youth Slows for First Time in Years

The GLSEN National School Climate Survey is our flagship report on the school experiences of LGBTQ youth in schools, including the extent of the challenges that they face at school and the school-based resources that support LGBTQ students’ well-being. The survey has consistently indicated that specific school-based supports are related to a safer and more inclusive school climate, including: supportive educators, LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, inclusive and supportive policies, and supportive student clubs, such as Gay-Straight Alliances or Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs).

The full GLSEN 2017 National School Climate Survey report includes information on LGBTQ middle and high school students' experiences, including:

• Hearing biased language, from both students and educators
• Experiences of harassment and assault
• Anti-LGBTQ discrimination
• Effects of a hostile school climate on educational outcomes and psychological well-being
• The availability and utility of supportive school resources

This report also examines demographic and school differences in students’ experiences, as well as changes in school climate over time. In addition, for the first time, this installment of GLSEN’s National School Climate Survey also includes insights on LGBTQ-inclusive sex education, student activism, parent advocacy, experiences of LGBTQ students with disabilities, and experiences of LGBTQ immigrant students.

  

CONTINUE READING: 2017 National School Climate Survey | GLSEN

Whatever Happened To ‘The Waiting For Superman’ Kids? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Whatever Happened To ‘The Waiting For Superman’ Kids? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Whatever Happened To ‘The Waiting For Superman’ Kids?

The PR of education reform focuses on the feel-good, beating the odds, stories about heroic teachers and and rock-star superintendents who never give up on their students.

There are the 106 original graduates of Chicago’s Urban Prep Charter school that Arne Duncan saved by shutting down the failing school that they would have attended if not for his policies.  There is the boy whose Memphis Teach For America teacher taught him rugby — his ticket to college which got the boy featured in an ESPN documentary and got the TFA teacher on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.  And there are the four inner-city kids who were featured in ‘Waiting For Superman’ — Anthony Black, Daisy Esparza, Bianca Hill, and Francisco Regalado.  After ‘Waiting For Superman’ came out, they were even invited to The White House.

But what happens to these kids after they have served their purpose as PR pawns for education reformers?

For the most part, we don’t know.

Urban Prep had promised that they were going to publish their 6-year college graduation rate for that first class.  They were supposed to do that, but never did, to the best of my knowledge.  Recently one of the three Urban Prep campuses has been put on the school CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened To ‘The Waiting For Superman’ Kids? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

CURMUDGUCATION: GA: Cyber Schools Failing Here, Too

CURMUDGUCATION: GA: Cyber Schools Failing Here, Too

GA: Cyber Schools Failing Here, Too

In what could be news only to someone who has not been paying any attention to cyberschooling in the US, a report from Georgia's Department of Audits and Accounts found that the state's cyber schools "underperformed."

Mind you, I'll argue that the state's College and Career Ready Performance Index is a lousy way to measure the performance of schools. But those are the rules that reformsters want to play by, so that's the yardstick we're stuck with. And by that yardstick, Georgia's virtual schools are failing.\

This is not a shock. The CREDO study in 2015 found that cyber charters have an "overwhelming negative impact," with student falling a full year behind their regular classroom peers. This matches the anecdotal information one can capture from classroom teachers to whom many cyber-students return. The cyber situation has been so bad that the National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools issued a report calling for cybers to shape the hell up. In Pennsylvania, a magical cyber school playground, not a single one of the states cyber charters has ever scored a "passing" grade on the state's evaluation. And Indiana is just now coming to grips with a cyber charter sector that is both failing and corrupt.

So Georgia is just one more guest at the failing cyber charter party.

While the audit's findings are bad, they aren't exactly news. In July of 2016, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a piece looking at the Georgia Cyber Academy, a huge cyber with over 14,000students:

Georgia Cyber Academy students log onto online classes from home, where they talk to and CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: GA: Cyber Schools Failing Here, Too

“Pragmatic” NETFLIX Chooses Profit over Principle | The Merrow Report

“Pragmatic” NETFLIX Chooses Profit over Principle | The Merrow Report

“Pragmatic” NETFLIX Chooses Profit over Principle

The news that Netflix has pulled one of its programs at the ‘request’ of the Saudi dictatorship in order to prevent Saudi citizens from seeing it is causing  concern among defenders of free speech, who say Netflix is putting profits above principle. For its part, the giant company defends its action as normal business practices; it’s just following a country’s laws. In a prepared statement, Netflix said, “We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request – and to comply with local law.”  In other words, this was Pragmatism, nothing more.

Maybe so, but it’s also precedent-setting…and a slippery slope.  How long before other dictators and populist strong men demand that Netflix remove episodes of this or that from Netflix Poland, Netflix Turkey, Netflix Hungary, Netflix Philippines, and so on?  If all it takes is a local law, well, that’s hardly a challenge for a dictator.

As a (retired) reporter, I regard Netflix’s action as deplorable.  It is yet another crack in freedom’s wall.  Presented with the opportunity to support freedom of expression, Netflix failed to do so.  I find its ‘pragmatic’ behavior upsetting.

However, as someone who has had a modest relationship with Netflix founder Reed Hastings, the company’s ‘pragmatism’ is not surprising. I’ve experienced it first-hand.

Here’s the backstory:  I meet Reed around 2004, when we were working on a documentary about California public education, the film “First to Worst.”  I hadn’t CONTINUE READING: “Pragmatic” NETFLIX Chooses Profit over Principle | The Merrow Report

The Real Story Behind the L.A. Teachers Strike - LA Progressive #UTLA #REDFORED #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

The Real Story Behind the L.A. Teachers Strike - LA Progressive

The Real Story Behind the L.A. Teachers Strike

Superintendent Austin Beutner and his allies have made it clear they do not believe that the L.A. Unified School District in its current incarnation is worth investing in – or even preserving.

Sometimes strikes are exactly what they seem to be – battles over wages and working conditions, with relatively few implications for anything or anyone else. But sometimes a strike is about something much bigger: a fundamental clash over vision and values, with repercussions that extend far beyond the warring parties. Call it a meta-strike.

If Los Angeles teachers walk off the job January 14, as widely expected, it will be a meta-strike with extremely high stakes not only for teachers, students and parents in L.A., but for public education across the U.S. The stalemated negotiations over wages, class size, staffing and other issues matter – but they are proxies for an epic fight that has been playing out in American school districts for more than a decade.

The head of the country’s second-largest school district is aggressively advancing a controversial blueprint that could make LAUSD almost unrecognizable.

On one side of this divide are those who believe that public education as an institution should be preserved more or less in its current form, with a greater infusion of money to address chronic underfunding and understaffing. On the other side is an array of forces that want to radically restructure public schools, and who have made it clear they do not believe that the L.A. Unified School District in its current incarnation is worth investing in – or even preserving.

Austin Beutner, LAUSD’s superintendent, is nothing if not a proponent of radical restructuring. He was appointed to his post not because of his experience in education – he has never held a position in that field – but because he is a fervent advocate of an approach that has its roots in the private sector, where he spent the bulk of his career. Beutner made his considerable fortune in business, starting at the powerhouse private equity firm CONTINUE READING: The Real Story Behind the L.A. Teachers Strike - LA Progressive

Trump’s school lunch program: How the administration is changing health standards - Vox

Trump’s school lunch program: How the administration is changing health standards - Vox

Federally funded school lunches are about to get a lot less healthy
By relaxing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act’s rules for school lunches, the Trump administration is doing a big favor to the dairy industry — at the expense of children’s health.

School lunches are about to be more dairy-laden — and, as a result, much less healthy.

The new school lunch rules, which roll back Obama-era nutrition standards for federally subsidized school lunches, were first announced in May 2017 by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (who has no relation to Perdue chicken, but does have other ties to agribusiness).

Under the new rules, cafeterias no longer have to worry about reducing sodium in school lunches, nor do they have to transition to serving whole grains. Schools can once again offer 1 percent chocolate and strawberry milk — under the previous rules, flavored milks had to be non-fat. (“I wouldn’t be as big as I am today without chocolate milk,” Perdue reportedly said at the time of the announcement.) The Trump administration codified the change last December.

Perdue’s initial changes to the school lunch rules are mostly cosmetic but signal bigger shifts down the line, Vox’s Julia Belluz reported last month. Perhaps most troublingly, the changes are a big handout to the dairy industry, which makes a substantial amount of money from its contracts with public schools and was reportedly struggling under the Obama-era regulations, according to a new report by Bloomberg.

The Trump administration is gutting the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Perdue is essentially slowing down the implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The law required the National School Lunch Program to use guidelines from the Institute of Medicine to make school lunches healthier. The regulations prioritized whole grains over more processed grains, an emphasis on whole fruits and vegetables, and a reduction in sodium, full-fat milk, and meat. Schools were given 10 years to gradually reduce the amount of sodium in school lunches, with the first phase going into effect in 2014, and the following phase CONTINUE READING: Trump’s school lunch program: How the administration is changing health standards - Vox

30,000 LA teachers 'strike ready' as district refuses to spend $1.86 billion reserve on better pay, smaller class sizes - NationofChange #UTLA #REDFORED #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

30,000 LA teachers 'strike ready' as district refuses to spend $1.86 billion reserve on better pay, smaller class sizes - NationofChange

30,000 LA teachers ‘strike ready’ as district refuses to spend $1.86 billion reserve on better pay, smaller class sizes

Educators and their allies in the second-largest school district in the nation are making a stand for students and education quality this week as more than 30,000 Los Angeles teachers prepare to go on strike, after the school district has refused to use its nearly $2 billion dollar reserve to provide educators with better pay, students with smaller class sizes, and much-needed funding for school programs.

After working for more than a year without a contract, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is planning to walk out as early as Thursday if the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) does not meet their demands. The teachers voted almost unanimously last August to go on strike, and state-mandated mediation since the vote has done little to help further negotiations between the two sides.

UTLA argues that the school district has plenty of money set aside to provide educators with a 6.5 percent raise, hire more teachers to ensure smaller class sizes, and hire more nurses, school counselors, and librarians to support school communities. District nurses currently split their time between schools, leaving many buildings without a healthcare provider for much of the week.

Teachers also want the elimination of a section of their contract which states that the district can increase class sizes to save money.

“We want an agreement that works for our kids – that gets to a place where we’re CONTINUE READING:30,000 LA teachers 'strike ready' as district refuses to spend $1.86 billion reserve on better pay, smaller class sizes - NationofChange

2019: The Year of Living Emergently? – Sam Chaltain

2019: The Year of Living Emergently? – Sam Chaltain

2019: THE YEAR OF LIVING EMERGENTLY?

We’re doing it again.

2019 is barely a week old, yet everyone seems to be searching for the singular person, policy or program that can restore order and usher in the better world we seek. From the excitement over the looming presidential race (and the promise of a return to normalcy) to the anticipation of the pending Mueller report (and the vision of a president in handcuffs), we are hardwired to hope for the sweeping solution, the quick fix, the reset button.

In reality, life works differently. What if we started to work in closer accordance with life?

What if we made 2019 the year of living “emergently?”

Emergence is not a word we hear or use often, yet it is the dynamic origin of development, learning and evolution, and we see evidence of its existence in everything from our cells to our cities. Indeed, the conditions for emergence flow from the reciprocal relationship that exists between any living form and its environment. A single ant, following the chemical trail of its neighbors to carve out a vital, completely decentralized role in a teeming colony. An adaptive software system, seeking patterns in individual behavior that shape which banner ad you see. A human stem cell, self-organizing into increasingly more complicated structures based on the behavior of its neighbors. Or even a solitary Tunisian fruit vendor, whose decision to set himself ablaze eventually sets the entire Arab world on fire.

As Steven Johnson writes in his book on the subject, the capacity for emergent systems to learn and grow “derives from their adherence to low-level rules. . . Emergent behaviors are all about living within the boundaries defined by rules, but also using that space to create something greater than the sum of its parts.”

In that sense, the central features of emergent systems outline a set of rules from the natural world that are both timeless and timely:

Give and receive feedback.

Pay attention to your closest neighbors.

Seek order, not control.

Start anywhere, and follow it everywhere.

It’s the songline of life itself — the deeply resonant story that flows through all living systems, including our own. And in a world that is becoming increasingly interwoven, and at a moment in history when the promise and peril of artificial intelligence are becoming more than just a sci-fi script, our ability to shift to a more emergent way of thinking may just be the difference between survival and extinction. As Johnson puts it, “our ability to capture CONTINUE READING: 2019: The Year of Living Emergently? – Sam Chaltain

Schools Matter: Help Kristen Paulson Support Her Students Without Being Punished for It

Schools Matter: Help Kristen Paulson Support Her Students Without Being Punished for It

Help Kristen Paulson Support Her Students Without Being Punished for It

Below is a plaintive letter from first grade teacher, Kristen Paulson, to my colleague, Mark Naison. If you believe that teachers have the right and responsibility to advocate for their students, please share her letter far and wide.  Also let her principal, Bertie Alligood (615-824-3217), know that teachers should not be punished for being advocates for student learning.

Hi, Dr. Naison,

My name is Kristen Paulson and I am a first grade teacher in Tennessee.  While I am only in my fifth year of teaching, I have been working in schools and with kids my whole life in several different states throughout the country.  My kids are my passion.  

I found an article about your incredible commitment and passion towards helping teachers have a voice while I was researching teachers being mistreated.  I have been at my current school for three years, and completed part of my student teaching there as well.  It is a low income school with lots of diversity in every sense of the word.  Long story short, I am being pushed out by administration. I cannot prove it, but I feel strongly that it is because I have a very strong voice for my students and also because I am vocal about my refusal to "teach to the test."  

Every year 30-60% of my students face incredible difficulties - things that no person, never mind child, should ever have to deal with.  I advocate for them tirelessly, and I put my focus into growing them as people to help them be their best selves.  I promise them every year that I would never ask them to do something I didn't think they could do, academically or otherwise.  Unfortunately, my administration does not like that my students are not performing at a scholar level on their benchmarks and state assessments.  

My principal has put me on an indefinite "growth plan" that requires me to do outrageous amounts of work on top of the 60+ hour work week I am already working.  I have had 4s and 5s (5 is highest in TN) on all of my observations, with the exception of observations she completed over the last two years.  I was always a level 4 teacher until this past school year.

I don't know that there is necessarily anything that you could do, but I wanted to reach out and share my story with you if not for anything else, to share my voice to the community.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all that you do.

All my best,

Kristen Paulson

M.Ed Instructional Practice K-6 and ELL K-12 Lipscomb University

1st Grade Teacher Walton Ferry Elementary School, Hendersonville, TN

Schools Matter: Help Kristen Paulson Support Her Students Without Being Punished for It

Teachers in Los Angeles Delay Strike Till Next Week; District Faces Long and Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis | janresseger #UTLA #REDFORED #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

Teachers in Los Angeles Delay Strike Till Next Week; District Faces Long and Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis | janresseger

Teachers in Los Angeles Delay Strike Till Next Week; District Faces Long and Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis

After months of failed negotiations, the United Teachers of Los Angeles had scheduled a strike beginning today. They have now postponed the strike until Monday, January 14th. The problems in the district that have driven teachers to strike are complex; their situation is impossibly simple. Their pay has not risen adequately and the conditions in the city’s schools for children and for teachers are deplorable. For the NY Times, Jennifer Medina and Dana Goldstein report: “Some classes have as many as 45 students… and school nurses, art and music teachers must serve thousands of students by traveling to multiple schools.”

We are told that, with its huge economy, California is unlike the other states where teachers walked out last spring. They were Red states for the most part—exemplars of supply-side, tax cutting and promoters of marketplace choice through charter schools. Instead, we are told, California is a Blue state.

A long, long time ago, California had Blue-state education funding, but that was from 1959 to 1967, under Jerry Brown’s father, Governor Pat Brown. For forty years, however, California has, in reality, been the primary exemplar of Red-state school funding and school privatization.  In 1978, California voters passed Proposition 13, the state law that began the state-by-state, anti-tax slide which has undermined public school funding across the country.  In 2012, with Proposition 30, California Governor Jerry Brown pushed through new taxes for education, but they have not been enough to undo the impact of Proposition 13.

In a profound 1998 book, Paradise Lost, about what happened in California, Peter Schrag, the long-time editorial page director of the Sacramento Bee, defines the principles that have dominated California school funding since 1978: “Proposition 13 and the initiatives that followed in its wake—the tax and spending cuts, the growing constraints on both state and  CONTINUE READING: Teachers in Los Angeles Delay Strike Till Next Week; District Faces Long and Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis | janresseger