The Discipline Gap at My High School | John Thompson

The Discipline Gap at My High School | John Thompson:

The Discipline Gap at My High School

I strongly support the work of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies to close the racial "discipline gap." I want to be clear in my agreement with "Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap?" by Daniel Losen et. al.

Part of my support, however, could be described as something that lawyers call a "concurring opinion." Students can't learn if they are not in class and we need to invest in Restorative Justice, and other alternatives to suspensions. Neither do I claim that educators are blameless or that we don't need to invest heavily in professional development. So, I concur with Losen's findings while worrying that systems will, once again, take the cheap and easy approach of claiming that better classroom instruction is enough to reduce suspensions.

Although I intensively studied nearly 15 years of Oklahoma City suspension data, and taught at the state's lowest performing high school, I am surprised that in the two years after I left the classroom that the Oklahoma City Public Schools became "one of the top ten highest-suspending districts at the secondary level for all students, and is the highest suspending district in the nation for black secondary students." Moreover, between 2010 and 2012, "overall suspension rates at the high school level also increased from 24.7 percent to 45.2 percent during the same period."

The latest database shows that at the secondary school level, OKCPS "suspension rates for Black students climbed dramatically from 36.3% to 64.2%." (I have my own theories on why, at a time when education funding was cut by 23%, the rate ballooned, but I will limit myself to what I witnessed and studied.)

The OKCPS experience confirms a key finding in the Consortium on Chicago School Research's Organizing Schools for Improvement. It identified the intertwined factors of discipline and attendance as prime reasons why troubled schools fail to improve. When the Consortium looked deeply into stalled reforms, its "most powerful single finding" was the relationship between attendance problems and the failure to manage disciplinary issues. Moreover, the Consortium, "found virtually no chance of improving attendance in schools that lacked safety and order," and "where instruction alignment was weak or predominantly basic skills oriented."

By 2009-2010 school year that was first studied by Losen et. al, the OKCPS had no choice but to invest all of its discretionary money for high schools in remediation for students who were failing their basic skills graduation exams. We were in the middle of the Great Recession which increased the state's homeless rate by 79%. The district barely had more than 40,000 students at any given time. Oklahoma City had 20,000 students who lived with their grandparents, foster parents, or other guardians, and most attended OKCPS neighborhood schools.

During that year, I had 227 students with the majority being on special education IEPs or English Language Learners; eighteen of my students volunteered that they were mentally ill and I suspected that the diagnosis applied to another dozen. Every The Discipline Gap at My High School | John Thompson:

Steve Zimmer Defends Bennet Kayser Against Charter Industry Attacks | Diane Ravitch's blog

Steve Zimmer Defends Bennet Kayser Against Charter Industry Attacks | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Steve Zimmer Defends Bennet Kayser Against Charter Industry Attacks 

Los Angeles school board member Steve Zimmer supports fellow board member Bennett Kayser, who has been the target of vicious attacks by the charter industry. Kayser has also been endorsed by Board chairman Dr. Richard Vladovic.

Here is Bennett’s website:

http://www.bennett2015.com/about.html

Here is how to volunteer to help:

http://www.bennett2015.com/events.html

By Steve Zimmer

Exactly two years ago, The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) sent out a series of campaign hit pieces blaming me for the budget cuts that hit LAUSD during the great recession. They attacked me on every front they could with over three million dollars raised from the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and Eli Broad. It was the ugliest, most expensive school board campaign in the history of the nation. We thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Then, last summer CCSA came after Dr. George McKenna with a vengeance. With lies, filth and distortion they tried to mar the career of one of the most beloved educators ever to teach and lead schools in South Los Angeles. The effort failed and McKenna won handily. We thought we had seen the worst.

We were wrong.

In the current School Board election campaign the Charter Schools Association has turned their sights on my colleague Bennett Kayser. In an onslaught of mail, radio and TV commercials, CCSA has gone completely off the rails in their effort to vilify Bennett Kayser. The first mailer attacks Kayser as a racist (http://bit.ly/racistattack) despite the fact that he has a 100% voting record on every major district transformation supported by civil rights groups. They claim he protected child molesters (http://bit.ly/distortingrecordsondismissals) when the entire Board has voted to dismiss every single teacher accused of crimes against children . The most disgusting TV advertisement (http://bit.ly/MockingDisability) directly mocks and mimics his public fight against Parkinson’s.

We have never, ever seen attacks like these in political campaigns.

Bennett Kayser is a good man. His entire adult life has been devoted to public service. And he is an outstanding policy maker. He has been a leading advocate on the Board in support of Early Childhood Education, Adult Education, Arts Education and Immigrant Rights. His courage in his fight against Parkinson’s has been a ray of hope to families fighting neurological diseases.

So why is the Charter Schools Association so hell bent on destroying this man?

One reason and one reason only: he votes against charter schools. Not all charter schools. But most. He has many explanations for this including that charter schools do not serve an equitable number of special education students.

It is fair to disagree with Kayser. In a tough campaign it is fair to attack him for voting against charters. But this is not what the Charter Schools Association is doing.

CCSA seeks to take over the Board of Education by any means necessary. The Association believes in a private sector, corporate model for privatizing our public schools. If CCSA’s candidate, Ref Rodriguez, wins on March 3rd, CCSA will gain control of the LAUSD Board. This will mean an even greater expansion of charter schools and a much greater number of colocations on district campuses, without concern for the financial stability of our district or its impact on district students.

But that’s not the most important reason we should stand against what CCSA is doing.

We should stand against this because it is morally and ethically wrong. By equating voting against a charter school to racism, CCSA cheapens the deep struggles that still face our city and our nation. The crimes against children in school districts are both heinous acts and moral outrages. But to use the suffering of children and families as a campaign issue is the lowest form of political exploitation I have ever seen.

The most shocking attack is the attack on Mr. Kayser’s disability. I have seen very closely how difficult Bennett’s struggle against Parkinson’s is. It is a disease that affects his mobility, physical stability and his speech. But Parkinson’s does not affect Bennett Kayser cognitively nor does it impair his conscience. Bennett Kayser is absolutely fit to serve a second term on the school board. Bennett talks openly about Parkinson’s and uses his profile to raise awareness and allay fears about his disease. His courage to face down illness and to battle publicly should be celebrated not derided.

Do not let the Charter School Association get away with this. They are not only destroying a man; they are degrading our entire electoral process. This is one of those moments when if you do not directly stand against this, you are complicit.

This is especially true for every charter school that is a member of CCSA. If you think it is wrong to dehumanize a person, call upon the leadership of the organization that represents your schools to take these ads down.

Do not let Ref Rodriguez get away with this.

The candidate will tell you he has nothing to do with this. But when a candidate directly or indirectly accepts the dehumanization of his or her opponent it raises serious questions about their character. The willingness to view those who disagree with you as less than human is what actually raises questions about one’s fitness to serve. I have grave concerns that the ethical recklessness that has driven this campaign will become the operational norm of the Board of Education if CCSA is successful in taking control.

Finally, it is a time to lead. We cannot let Bennett Kayser stand alone.

I call on all of our elected leadership and community leadership to stand against the moral low bar of this campaign. If we allow the public tar and feathering of those who follow their conscience to become an acceptable norm, we are endangering the very republic itself; we are rupturing the fibers of our social contract. Stand up and call on CCSA to take down its commercials and apologize for its mailers (jed@calcharters.org). Stand next to the courageous charters to withdraw their membership from CCSA.

And most importantly, let us all commit to re-focusing our attention on children, their families and their school communities. While we argue and hurt one another their dreams languish. It is these dreams, after all, to which we are all accountable.Steve Zimmer Defends Bennet Kayser Against Charter Industry Attacks | Diane Ravitch's blog:

The Choice 
         Of Students 
                Of Teachers
                      Of Community

Here is Bennett’s website:

http://www.bennett2015.com/about.html

Inside Rick Scott’s Budget Proposals For Education | Scathing Purple Musings

Inside Rick Scott’s Budget Proposals For Education | Scathing Purple Musings:

Inside Rick Scott’s Budget Proposals For Education

Posted on February 28, 2015by Bob Sikes

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Writing for PolitiFact, the joint Miami Herald-Tampa Bay Times venture, Joshua Gillin and Amy Sherman have a useful overview of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s budgetary initiatives for education. There’s good and bad. Let’s take a look:

(Scott) pledged to investigate every standardized test, and he’s taken action on this even before the session.Scott asked the Department of Education to prepare a report about every district’s testing data. After the report was released on Feb. 18, Scott issued an executive order suspending an 11th-grade language arts test. His agency is also asking the Legislature to consider several other recommendations about end-of-course exams and progress monitoring. Meanwhile, a Department-led focus group will discuss issues about implementing the controversial new Florida Standards, which are similar to the Common Core.

Scathing Purple Musings agrees.

But Floridians must be ready for more high-stakes testing drama. This year’s “pilot tests” have been “rented” from Utah for three years, and some Utah republican legislators are ready to scrap the whole thing. It may turn out that Florida’s teachers pull republicans chestnuts out of the fire as they are battle-hardened by the narrow expectation of testing. Yet they have no idea what these new tests look like. Stay tuned.

The “focus group” won’t be an actual focus group if it’s dominated by education commissioner Pam Stewart. But at least for once, naysayers will have a seat at the table.

Two other promises Scott made for K-12 education are to increase school security spending and double investment in digital learning initiatives. Scott is recommending increasing the Safe Schools Allocation, a fund that school districts use to pay for after-school programs, school resource officers and detection dogs, as well as programs aimed at preventing suicide or bullying. Scott is recommending a $14.25 million increase to bring the total up to $78.7 million. On digital learning, more money will go toward improving school district information technology infrastructure and providing computers for students. Scott is proposing doubling that money, from $40 million to $80 million.

Scathing Purple Musings gives kudos to Scott on proposing new funding for both of these need areas.

Scott’s recognition that “after-school programs, school resource officers and detection dogs, as well as programs aimed at preventing suicide or bullying” is indeed timely – Inside Rick Scott’s Budget Proposals For Education | Scathing Purple Musings:

Who really gets tested by state exams - The Washington Post

Who really gets tested by state exams - The Washington Post:

Who really gets tested by state exams

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

I entered my classroom on test day, armed with a positive attitude and a calm smile. Neither guaranteed test success or reflected my true feelings. Both made me feel better.

Preparation for the Virginia Standards of Learning tests had begun in September. Third grade was an especially demanding year, since it was the first time the children had been tested. Merely practicing for the test wasn’t enough. We practiced for the practice for the practice test. Online testing meant that a large part of the computer lab had been transformed from a time of creative discovery into endless drills. The counselor even directed a skit that was full of test tips: If you feel anxious, breathe deeply and slowly count to 10. Remember to go to bed early the night before the test. Eat a healthy breakfast on the morning of the test. Our efforts couldn’t guarantee higher test scores, but they made us feel better.

These tests were high stakes for the classroom teachers and for the schoolbut not for the 8-year-olds. The children would be promoted even if they failed the tests, and the scores would not appear on their progress reports. My goal was to be sure that my students did their best, in spite of the fact that there were no consequences — for them.

“Mrs. Baker, why do I have to do a good job on the test, if my grade doesn’t really count?”

“Well, it’s important to always do your best. Your parents and I will receive a copy of your test scores. In fact, even the principal will know how you did, and the results will always be part of your permanent record.”

“Oh, but my dad told me that the permanent record is a myth.”

So much for my goal of persuading this particular student to take the test seriously, although my explanation did make me feel a bit better.

The first child who entered my classroom on the morning of the test had red, puffy eyes, and her cheeks were streaked from leftover tears. She hated her newly (quite poorly) trimmed bangs. A bad hair day was certainly not a valid reason to exempt her from testing. However, I knew that her botched bangs would affect her score. I gave her a hug and then moved on to a particularly needy student. After getting his attention — a test in itself — I looked him in the eyes and said, “I know you are going to do well today. Just remember to answer every question and to always do your best.” He squared his shoulders and confidently replied, “Eric’s my name, and guessing’s my game!”

At that point, I took a deep breath and slowly counted to 10. My anxiety was unabated, and somehow I did not feel any better. I moved on to the Who really gets tested by state exams - The Washington Post:

House Republicans Slip Anti-Abortion Language Into Education Bill ‪#‎NOonHR5‬

House Republicans Slip Anti-Abortion Language Into Education Bill:

House Republicans Slip Anti-Abortion Language Into Education Bill

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) speaks at a House Financial Services subcommittee field hearing on mortgage markets in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011. (Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Bloomberg via Getty Images

House Republicans attached language to a major education bill Wednesday night that would financially penalize school districts that allow school-based health centers to provide information about abortion to pregnant high school students.

The amendment to the Student Success Act, a GOP overhaul of No Child Left Behind, would withhold federal funding from school districts that contract with health centers unless the center certifies that it will not provide abortions or give students any information about abortion, including directions to the nearest abortion provider. (School-based health centers already do not provide abortion services.)

The House Rules Committee slipped the new language into a part of the bill known as the "manager's amendment," which is normally reserved for non-controversial fixes to a piece of legislation that are agreed to ahead of time.

"This amendment is a cowardly attack on young people's access to the full range of information about their reproductive health care," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. "This provision ties the hands of health care professionals in schools, and would deny teens access to important and basic information about their health care options."

"Once again, abortion opponents in the House went after women's health under the dark of night," Richards continued. "And because they know this attack on abortion is deeply unpopular, [they] won't take an actual vote on it."

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), who authored the amendment, did not respond to a request for comment.

Republicans also tried to attach an anti-birth control amendment to the bill, but it was ruled out of order, or irrelevant to the main legislation. That amendment, authored by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), would have prohibited federal funds to any school that provides emergency contraception, or a prescription for it, on the premises of a high school or elementary school. The "morning-after pill" is an example of such contraception.

The House is expected to vote on the education bill Friday. The bill would strip the federal government of much of its current power to lift up struggling schools in low-income districts, instead giving the states the authority to make such decisions.

The White House has said President Barack Obama will veto the bill if it passes, arguing that it "abdicates the historic federal role in elementary and secondary education of ensuring the educational progress of all of America's students, including students from low-income families, students with disabilities, English learners, and House Republicans Slip Anti-Abortion Language Into Education Bill:

Call and Tweet your House Rep and ask him/her to vote ‪#‎NOonHR5‬ http://bit.ly/17s6O1b

Report assails K12, Inc.-backed California virtual charter school for producing more dropouts than graduates | The Progressive Pulse

Report assails K12, Inc.-backed California virtual charter school for producing more dropouts than graduates | The Progressive Pulse:

Report assails K12, Inc.-backed California virtual charter school for producing more dropouts than graduates

Posted by : Lindsay Wagner Friday, February 27, 2015 Leave a comment In News

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A report released Thursday blasts K-12, Inc.-backed California Virtual Academies (CAVA), that state’s largest provider of online education, for producing few graduates and directing large amounts of revenue toward advertising, executive salaries and profit — while paying its teachers less than half the average wage traditional public school teachers earn.

“It is too easy for kids to fall through the cracks in CAVA’s current online schooling system,” said Donald Cohen, executive director for In the Public Interest, the Washington-based think tank that penned the report. “We are calling on California to immediately increase oversight of online education to ensure students are receiving a quality education.”

Notable findings of the report include:

• In every year since it began graduating students, except 2013, CAVA has had less than a 50 percent graduation rate, while California’s traditional public school graduation rate has hovered around 80 percent;
• Some CAVA students log into their virtual classroom for as little as one minute a day, which is enough to give the charter its daily attendance revenue from the state;
• While K12 Inc. paid almost $11 million total to its top six executives in 2011-12, the average CAVA teacher salary was $36,150 that same year — close to half of average teacher pay in California; and
• In December 2011, the California Charter Schools Association called for the closure of CAVA in Kern County because the school did not meet its renewal standards.

North Carolina’s State Board of Education gave the green light to K12, Inc. earlier this month to finally open up shop here after years of efforts on their part to open a virtual charter school in the state.

K12, Inc. has a history of producing low performance and graduation rates across the country, recently prompting the NCAA to announce that it will no longer accept coursework from 24 virtual schools that are affiliated with the company.

The company has also been compared to subprime mortgage lenders, pulling in and churning out a disproportionate amount of students who are not well prepared for the online learning model–all in the name of big profits from taxpayer budgets.

Last summer, Tennessee’s education commissioner ordered the closure of a struggling K12, Inc.-operated online school there thanks to poor academic outcomes.

While the State Board of Education has authorized the arrival of K12, Inc. in North Carolina, their approval didn’t come without reservations; several members of the board expressed concerns that the virtual school would only be accessible to those with considerable means, excluding economically disadvantaged students that lack computers or parental support critical to academic success.

Click to read the full report, Virtual Public Education in California.

Possibly related posts:

1. Virtual charter schools expected to get approval from NC this week
2. More on virtual charter school companies in front of N.C. education committee tomorrow
3. Virtual charter schools get go-ahead from NC education board
4. State Board of Education may require virtual charters to pony up computers for needy students
5. Application of predatory, for-profit virtual charter company goes before State Board of Ed

- See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2015/02/27/report-assails-k12-inc-backed-california-virtual-charter-school-for-producing-more-dropouts-than-graduates/#sthash.W79pUnsg.dpuf

Separating fact from fiction in 21 claims about charter schools - The Washington Post

Separating fact from fiction in 21 claims about charter schools - The Washington Post:

Separating fact from fiction in 21 claims about charter schools

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools  released a report last year titled “Separating Fact & Fiction: What You Need to Know About Charter Schools,” which takes 21 statements that it calls “myths” about charters and attempts to debunk them, one by one. Now three education researchers have completed a fact-checking analysis of the charter report, coming to some difference conclusions about each myth.  Following is part of the new analysis, which was published by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, and which you can find in full, complete with extensive footnotes on the NEPC website. (I have removed the footnotes and endnotes from the text in this post but you can see them,as well other parts of the report, here.)

This analysis was written by Gary Miron, William J. Mathis and Kevin G. Welner. Miron is a professor of evaluation, measurement, and research at Western Michigan University. Mathis is the managing director of the NEPC and a former Vermont superintendent. Welner is the director of the NEPC as well as an attorney and a UC Boulder professor of education policy.

Here are the first two parts of the seven-part fact-checking analysis of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report:

By Gary Miron, William J. Mathis and Kevin G. Welner

Introduction

Separating Fact & Fiction: What You Need to Know about Charter Schools is a concise policy document assembled by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS).  No authors or contributors are identified. The paper (we use the term “report” throughout this review) lists 21 common “myths” about charter schools, which it then summarily rejects.

There exists an extensive body of research around charter schools, including a great deal of scholarly work published in peer-reviewed journals. The NAPCS report attempts to support its claims in response to the 21 “myths” with a narrative that includes 47 endnote references. But a closer look at these endnotes reveals that 15 of the citations came from NAPCS (the group that prepared the report), and another eight are from two reports produced by the school-choice department at the University of Arkansas, which have been strongly critiqued for advocacy-driven problems.

Because the report relies almost exclusively on other advocacy documents, does not give a balanced or thorough examination of any of the “myths,” and does not provide more than superficial research evidence to support its position that the myths are indeed false, this review will use the more neutral and factual term “criticism” instead of “myth.” The 13-page report is written for a lay audience and is beautifully laid out with colorful text and photographs of children. The criticisms are organized across four general areas: (i) charter school resources, (ii) students served, (iii) performance, and (iv) accountability and impact.

II. Findings and Conclusions of the Report

 Although the NAPCS report claims to “set the record straight on the truth Separating fact from fiction in 21 claims about charter schools - The Washington Post: