Quit Playing Politics With the Health of Children | Bruce Lesley

Quit Playing Politics With the Health of Children | Bruce Lesley:



Quit Playing Politics With the Health of Children

Go to First Focus Website

 Having worked in the Senate and House for over a decade, it is tragic is witness the inability of Members of Congress to forge bipartisan compromises to move our nation forward. Even worse, as the recent debacle over funding of the Department of Homeland Security demonstrates, Congress has a difficult time even getting members of the same party to reach agreement on a fundamental act that is necessary to fund our nation's homeland security.

In a recent National Journal article, members of Congress expressed lament about the dysfunction that has prevented Congress from getting much accomplished.

However, there is a path that they can take and is staring them in the face. For example, Congress could begin that process by finding common ground on a few important issues of importance to our nation's children, including the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and education.

Earlier this year, former House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor talked about how the Congress should move beyond gridlock by keeping in mind that over eight million children will be born over the next two years. As he wrote, "The future of those 8,053,000 little boys and girls deserve to have the two years of this Congress focused on them and not the next election."

Of course, a focus on children will require that Democrats and Republicans actually talk to one another. For example, failure to work on a bipartisan basis in the House resulted in the bill having to be pulled off the House floor because it didn't have the votes to pass due to splits within the Republican Party on it. And, even if it were to voted out of the House, the legislation stands no chance of being passed in the Senate or signed into law by President Obama.

Fortunately, Republican Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander and Democratic Ranking Member Patty Murray have chosen a different path and are engaged in bipartisan negotiations to move an education package forward to modify the failed No Child Left Behind law.

And, with respect to child health, over 1,500 organizations from across the country have called upon Congress to extend CHIP for four years, and our nation's governors, on a bipartisan basis, have called for CHIP's extension while highlighting the long-time success of the federal-state program. They recognize that, in tandem with Medicaid, that CHIP has successfully cut the nation's uninsured rate in half and has improved the health and well-being of millions of children over the last 18 years. Bipartisan conversations on Capitol Hill have begun on this as well.

Unfortunately, there are the forces swirling around Washington, D.C., that just cannot avoid playing politics with the lives of children. For example, Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, wrote an opinion piece on February 27, 2015, forForbes entitled "The Next ACA (Affordable Care Act) Battle: Extending The Children's Health Insurance Program."

Although she notes that there is strong bipartisan support "to continue funding CHIP," she, unfortunately, calls for cutting hundreds of thousands of children off of coverage and proclaims that the "CHIP reauthorization is a battle worth fighting because it is a harbinger of things to come with future ACA battles."

There are some incredibly ironic things about Turner's proposals. First of all, she lauds that "Republicans also want to put the 'S' for State back in SCHIP (rather than CHIP) to emphasize the state nature of the program and give states more flexibility in managing the program." Second, it is important to note that Turner is strongly opposed to the ACA or Obama Care. She has written dozens of articles that are highly critical of the ACA or Obama Care. So, she likes state flexibility and dislikes Obama Care, right?

The answer is "yes," but shockingly, she proposes to restrict state flexibility in CHIP and to, thereby, expand Obama Care in her opinion piece. For example, she touts the idea of capping eligibility and coverage that states have used to vary their eligibility and coverage levels for children. This proposal would restrict state flexibility and slash federal support to states for covering certain children in 27 states (Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia.

She points out that states like New York covers children up to a higher level of poverty than North Dakota, but that is exactly what has always been a strength of CHIP, as it allows states to adjust their programs to meet the needs of their children, the differences in the cost of living or health care states between states, etc.

If the federal government were to impose eligibility limits upon states in this fashion, it would create a financial incentive for states to drop health coverage for hundreds of thousands of children in working families -- many of whom would lose coverage Quit Playing Politics With the Health of Children | Bruce Lesley:

P.S. Governor Walker | The Marquette Educator

P.S. Governor Walker | The Marquette Educator:

P.S. Governor Walker

Published March 9, 2015 Alumni Voices , Education in the news Leave a Comment 
Tags: Claudia Felske, Scott Walker

I sat down a few weeks ago to knock out my monthly blogpost the night before deadline. Little did I know that my Open Letter to Governor Walker would go viral, traversing the Internet, radiowaves, and newsprint, even landing (still surreal to me) in the New York Times. It seems to have struck a chord with many. And it seems, whenever that happens, a slew of corrections is not far behind. So here are mine, a “P.S. Governor Walker” addendum to my original letter.

__________________________________________________________________________

Dear Governor Walker:

Please note the following corrections to my earlier letter:

Though you didn’t respond directly to me (I didn’t suspect you would) I’d like to start by correcting the indirect response you gave reporters when asked about my letter. You called it a distraction and you insisted that the story you had told was true. I take issue with both points. First, calling educational policy, the state of Wisconsin schools, and the concerns of those teaching our children a distractionwholly disregards and disrespects the children of Wisconsin and those who care about their future. Another gaffe, or was that your intent?

I’m also offended by your evolving characterization of teachers: In 2011, you called us “thugs”; in reference to my letter, we were a distraction; and most recently, you actually likened us to “terrorists” (equating your ability to handle the 2011 Wisconsin protestors with your ability to handle the Islamic extremist group, Isis).

To be honest, we are far too busy trying to educate Wisconsin youth and far too exhausted trying to do more with less these days than to partake in terrorist activities unless questioning policies which harm Wisconsin children truly is, in your mind, tantamount to terrorism.

As for your truth telling, I’ll leave that to Politifact Wisconsin which generously declared the anti-union story you wove at the Iowa Freedom Summit “half true.”

The next correction concerns my own words. In my letter, I  mentioned that you were waging war on public education in Wisconsin through your draconian budget cuts and questionable reforms. Therein lies my error. In reality, you are not only waging war on public education in Wisconsin, you are waging war on the entire middle class.

While running for re-election, you repeatedly voiced your intent not to move forward with Right to Work legislation. After re-election, however, you swiftly and proudly announced that you’d sign Right to Work into law. It’s pretty clear now that was your intent all along. Interesting that the timing of your announcement so tightly coincided with your presidential fundraising tour. Most clear, despite your claims to the contrary, is the ruinous legacy this legislation will leave Wisconsin families: plummeting wages, reduced benefits, and increased poverty.

So where did all of this come from?

It turns out that Deep Throat’s famous “Follow the money” mantra coupled withElizabeth Warren’s recent tweet (“If Scott Walker sees 100,000 teachers & firefighters as his enemies, maybe it’s time we take a closer look at his friends”) makes for a fruitful examination.

A closer look at your friends, Governor Walker, reveals the impetus for your educational “reforms” and your Right to Work legislation. A closer look divulges your BFF status with ALEC [American Legislative Exchange Council] a private organization of lobbyists, politicians and corporations including Coca-Cola, ExxonMobile, GE, Walmart and others whose aim is to push pro-corporate legislation nation-wide, state by state, at the expense of the American public.

Your ALEC loyalty is now well documented and astonishingly reveals that Wisconsin’s Right to Work legislation was lifted verbatim from ALEC model legislation. I hope Wisconsin citizens learn about your special friendships and the lasting impact they will have on Wisconsin families. While you can certainly be accused of fleecing Wisconsin, no one can ever accuse you of not being a good friend to your corporate BFFs.

My final correction concerns my signature: I signed my letter in the singular, and at the time, I thought that was appropriate. But after realizing 300,000+ people read my blogpost and after receiving a barrage of grateful calls and emails from teachers, parents, and other citizens, many of whom I’ve never met, it’s clear to me that my letter voiced not just my concerns, but the concerns of many.

Once more, my letter was not an isolated incident. In recent weeks, an abundance of letters to the editor, penned by school boards, administrators and teachers from localities across the state, have been published in newspapers and distributed to P.S. Governor Walker | The Marquette Educator:

Do you have five minutes to understand whether @TeachForAmerica is effective? | Cloaking Inequity

Do you have five minutes to understand whether @TeachForAmerica is effective? | Cloaking Inequity:

Do you have five minutes to understand whether @TeachForAmerica is effective?

Do you have five minutes to understand whether Teach For America (TFA) is effective? Mathematica does and they did in their latest study of TFA. More on this lead later in the review. The taxpayers of the USA paid Mathematica about $12 million for a couple of studies of TFA. We reviewed the prior 2013 study on “secondary” teachers in two prior posts on Cloaking Inequity: New Mathematica TFA Study is Irrational Exuberance and “Does Not Compute”: Teach For America Mathematica Study is Deceptive? In the Irrational Exuberance post we sought to write a review of the 2013 study that was in language readily accessible to parents, policymakers, educators and others. In the postDeceptive Study, we conducted a more technical review of Mathematica’s 2013 TFA study.

Last week, the newest Mathematica study on TFA was released and focuses only on teachers in prekindergarten through grade 5. So we (Myself and Dr. Francesca Lopez, faculty at the University of Arizona) are again seeking to decipher and discuss their latest study for the general public.

Teach For America, Arne Duncan and the Obama Administration apparently liked the idea that TFA should be expanded dramatically over the past couple of years. To do so, they gave them $50 million in taxpayer dollars in the i3 grant program. From the Mathematica report:

In 2010, TFA launched a major expansion effort, funded in part by a five-year Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up grant of $50 million from the U.S. Department of Education. Under the i3 scale-up, TFA planned to increase the size of its teacher corps by more than 80 percent by September 2014, with the goal of placing 13,500 first- and second-year corps members in classrooms by the 2014–2015 school year and expanding to 52 regions across the country. While TFA ultimately fell short of the growth goals set in its scale-up application (Mead et al. 2015), by the 2012–2013 school year, the second year of the scale-up, it had expanded its placements by 25 percent, from 8,217 to 10,251 first- and second-year corps members.

About 1/3 of TFA operating funds come from taxpayers sources. For example, they have a $12 million appropriation in Texas that was off limits even when the state cut $5.4 billion from education a few years ago. The new Republican governor has promised to give TFA millions more in Texas.

So is TFA taxpayer money well spent?

Let’s start with Mathematica’s three main “findings”:

• First- and second-year Teach For America (TFA) corps members recruited and trained during the Investing in Do you have five minutes to understand whether @TeachForAmerica is effective? | Cloaking Inequity: 

Yo Gov. Scott Walker: "If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar."

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar."

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company, Eugene, Oregon, May 17, 1960 - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum:

For as Abraham Lincoln said of labor:

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms labor is treason to America. No line can be drawn between these two.

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.

"If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

"There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other."

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company, Eugene, Oregon, May 17, 1960

This is a transcription of this speech made for the convenience of readers and researchers. One draft of the speech exists in the John F. Kennedy Pre-Presidential Papers here at the John F. Kennedy Library. Page images of the press release and thefirst and second reading copies are available.

I come to you today as a friend of labor.

I have worked with the leaders and members of organized labor for fourteen years as a member of the House and Senate Labor Committees. My credentials are written in the record of that fourteen years. On the basis of that record, I hope I can - in the words of the old-time orators - claim kinship here and have it allowed.

The cause of the friends of labor has not been an easy one in the past few years. Unfortunately the headlines, the speeches, the attention has been largely focused on the few hoodlums and racketeers who have insinuated their way into the labor movement - plundering its members, destroying the hard won gains of the workers, and harming the reputation of the entire, great brotherhood of organized labor.

But these men are just the few parasites on the body of a great, vital group of men and women - a group that has contributed more to the economic health, the well-being and the strength of this country than any other organized group, in any other country, in any other period of human history.

And it has been this same labor movement - not Congress or its Committees - which has been the most ardent and effective champion of clean, honest unions in America. I know of no parallel instance in American history when a large and important part of our society so frankly recognized its own internal problems and set out to correct them - even though it meant expelling a large portion of its dues-paying members.

I know of no business organizations which have disciplined their members the way labor has - even though some of those members have been engaged in activities which deserve the just condemnation of a law-abiding society. And I know of no voluntary organization which has set any higher standards of discipline than the Ethical Practices Codes adopted by the AFL-CIO - even though our hearings showed that higher standards of ethics are often badly needed in these other groups. Labor is cleaning its own house - let business do the same.

There are those in America today who say that labor is too big - that it has grown too strong. But I say that the size of organized labor is a blessing - and its strength is a powerful force for the good of all America.

Throughout its history, the labor movement has used its growing strength to eliminate industrial terror, sweatshops and inhuman working conditions, to give to the worker - for the first time - a voice in his own economic destiny.

And equally important is the way in which labor has served the entire nation.

George Meany has truly said that the record shows beyond contradiction that the trade union movement "has consistently used whatever power it has to raise the American standard of living, to promote the interests of all the American people, and to enhance the power and prestige of the nation as a whole."

That record can be seen in every city and town - every household and factory in America. We can see it in the thousands of hospitals which organized labor has built. We can see it in the new schools and roads which the unremitting work of labor - on every level of government - has helped to bring about.

Labor has also played a vital and a constructive role on the world scene - resisting Communist expansion - helping the underdeveloped nations - encouraging the struggle for freedom wherever it is waged - and, at home as well as abroad, constantly demonstrating its dedication to the cause for which it will continue to fight until the last oppressed group is guaranteed that equality which is his right as a member of the human race.

But despite these great achievements of organized labor - labor has not solved all its problems or won all the battles. It must summon all its resources of strength and mind and vision if it is to meet the new problems and the new challenges of the sixties.

First on the agenda is a vast new program of social welfare legislation - increased minimum wage, adequate unemployment compensation, medical care for the aged - and all the other many extensions and expansions of New Deal programs which are no longer adequate to meet the needs of the sixties.

Second, we must end the interminable and unjustified delay in the handling of certification proceedings and unfair labor practice charges by the National Labor Relations Board. As a result of these delays the controversy is often over, labor is defeated, and the worker has suffered - long before the Board acts. We must have an NLRB which understands the problems of labor and is not merely an instrument of management.

Third, we must act - and act soon - to meet the growing challenge of automation. We cannot - and we would not - halt the steady advance of technology with its promise of economic growth and increased productivity for the future. At the same time, government, industry and labor must collaborate in planning for the important social and economic changes which automation is certain to bring. Workers must be retrained - factories must be relocated - and, above all, we must be certain that the worker himself shares in the fruits of his increased productivity - in terms of greater leisure and higher income.

Fourth, we must halt the growing deterioration of the basic natural resources on which the welfare of labor ultimately depends - our vast resources of land, water, power and timber. Here in Eugene the prosperity of much of your industry - and your own prosperity depends upon the development and preservation of our great natural forests. Yet valuable timber is going uncut, reforestation has virtually come to a halt, and vital access roads are not being built. And despite these immediate and pressing needs this administration has requested less than half of the amount which its own Secretary of Agriculture has said is absolutely essential to the preservation of our forests. A Democratic Administration - acting in the great conservation tradition of Franklin Roosevelt - will rebuild the resources on which the strength of labor - and of all America - depends.

Fifth, we must work to defeat legislation designed to repress labor - to destroy its power - and render the worker helpless to advance his own welfare. Let me make it clear once again, as I have in the past, that - whatever office I shall hold - I shall always be unalterably opposed to so- called "right-to-work" laws at any level, Federal or State. And I shall oppose, as I have for 14 years, any and all other such devices which are sure to spring from the fertile minds of labor’s powerful foes.

Guided by these principles - and with a plan of action based on its magnificent heritage of the past - and its hopes for the future - American labor can advance into the sixties unafraid, and with full confidence in its strength and in the righteousness of its cause. For as Abraham Lincoln said of labor:

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms labor is treason to America. No line can be drawn between these two.

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.

"If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

"There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other."

Big Education Ape: AFT's Weingarten: Walker Will Say and Do Anything to Attack Workers | American Federation of Tea... http://bit.ly/1wUWtH6

REMINDERS AND UPDATES ABOUT TFA…. LET’S NOT FORGET HOW IT LURKS OUT THERE. | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

REMINDERS AND UPDATES ABOUT TFA…. LET’S NOT FORGET HOW IT LURKS OUT THERE. | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:



REMINDERS AND UPDATES ABOUT TFA…. LET’S NOT FORGET HOW IT LURKS OUT THERE.

 From September 2008- June 2012 I mentored TFA corps members for Fordham University in the Bronx, NY. As a result of my direct work with them in their schools and some basic research, it is clear to me that what the public is told does not match what goes on behind the TFA scenes.

http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Right-Thing-Teacher-Speaks/dp/1460225481

This just in from Bloomberg: Most Teach For America Instructors Plan to Flee Teaching:

More than 87 percent of TFA teachers say they don’t plan on remaining teachers throughout their careers, compared with 26.3 percent of non-TFA teachers working in the same subjects, grades, and schools, according to an analysis released last week by Mathematica Policy Research (PDF).

Twelve percent leave after their first year in the classroom.

A full 25 percent of them said they would quit teaching after the current school year, compared with only 6.7 percent of non-TFA teachers. And of those who plan to quit, 42.9 percent of TFA teachers anticipated leaving education altogether, compared with 6.7 percent of non-TFA teachers. TFA doesn’t provide the number of TFA recruits who don’t complete the two-year commitment, or who don’t stay in teaching. I wonder why.

TFA has stressed that the organization has more than 37,000 alumni of which 900 are now school heads, and 250 are leaders of district and charter school systems. That is their real GOAL: to create this corps of policy makers

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE A CORP MEMBER?

– Corps members are usually successful and energetic students. Unfortunately many are also naïve. Often followers, they are perfect fodder for TFA leaders.

– Regardless of what TFA says, their 5-week boot camp training period and process is hell and does not come close to preparing corps members for what they are to face.

– They are taught by TFA to follow. Stay in line. Be formulaic. They are taught not to be like the great teachers they remember: wise, creative, independent, and spontaneous. Most of all, they are trained by TFA to be a corps member above all and not a part of a school or district.

– Most TFA corps members do not have command of the 4 c’s: Culture of schools, Culture of community, Culture of curriculum, and Culture of classroom management. Most also lack the practical wisdom or street smarts to have a good chance of success in the schools where they are placed.

– They must attend “mandatory” TFA meetings at “headquarters” (even if that time is spent on street corners surveying passers by).  They travel hours out of their way to go to local TFA “headquarters” for meetings or get the already prepared materials to copy and plug into the prescribed curriculum.

– TFA uses former corps members with only 2 years experience to go into corps members’ schools to provide what they call support, reinforce the TFA REMINDERS AND UPDATES ABOUT TFA…. LET’S NOT FORGET HOW IT LURKS OUT THERE. | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:

Charter schools are cheating your kids: New report reveals massive fraud, mismanagement, abuse - Salon.com

Charter schools are cheating your kids: New report reveals massive fraud, mismanagement, abuse - Salon.com:



Charter schools are cheating your kids: New report reveals massive fraud, mismanagement, abuse

Millions of dollars are being vacuumed out of public schools and into the corporate pockets -- or fraudulent execs

Just in time for National Charter School Week, there’s a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business. Titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse,” the report focused on 15 states representing large charter markets, out of the 42 states that have charter schools. Drawing on news reports, criminal complaints, regulatory findings, audits and other sources, it “found fraud, waste and abuse cases totaling over $100 million in losses to taxpayers,” but warned that due to inadequate oversight, “the fraud and mismanagement that has been uncovered thus far might be just the tip of the iceberg.”

While there are plenty of other troubling issues surrounding charter schools — from high rates of racial segregation, to their lackluster overall performance records, to questionableadmission and expulsion practices — this report sets all those admittedly important issues aside to focus squarely on activity that appears it could be criminal, and arguably totally out of control. It does not even mention questions raised by sky-high salaries paid to some charter CEOs, such as 16 New York City charter school CEOs who earned more than the head of the city’s public school system in 2011-12. Crime, not greed, is the focus here.

In short, the report is about as apolitical as can be imagined: It is narrowly focused on a white-collar crime wave of staggering proportions, and what can be done about it within the existing framework of widespread charter schools.

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The report, co-authored by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education, makes the point that the problem of charter school waste, fraud and abuse, which it focuses on, is just one symptom of the underlying problem: inadequate regulation of charter schools. But it’s a massive symptom, which has so far received only fragmentary coverage.The report takes its title from a section of a report to Congress by the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General, a report that took note of “a steady increase in the number of charter school complaints” and warned that state level agencies were failing “to provide adequate oversight needed to ensure that Federal funds [were] properly used and accounted for.”

But, the report noted, it’s not just the federal government that should be concerned. Reform efforts are underway in several states; Hawaii even repealed its existing charter school law in 2013, and put strict new oversight measures in place, and “Even the Walton Family Foundation, an avid charter advocate, launched a $5 million campaign in 2012 to make oversight of charters schools more stringent.”

“We expected to find a fair amount of fraud when we began this project, but we did not expect to find over $100 million in taxpayer dollars lost,” said Kyle Serrette, the director of education justice at the Center for Popular Democracy. “That’s just in 15 states. And that figure fails to capture the real harm to children. Clearly, we should hit the pause button on charter expansion until there is a better oversight system in place to protect our children and our communities.”

The report explained that the problem has its roots in a historical disconnect between the original intentions that launched the charter school movement and the commercial forces that have overtaken it since. At first, the report noted:

Lawmakers created charter schools to allow educators to explore new methods and models of teaching. To allow this to happen, they exempted the schools from the vast majority of regulations governing the traditional public school system. The goal was to incubate innovations that could then be used to improve public schools. i The ability to take calculated risks with small populations of willing teachers, parents, and students was the original design. With so few people and schools involved, the risk to participants and the public was relatively low.

But the character of the movement has changed dramatically since then. As charter school growth has skyrocketed (doubling three times since 2000), “the risks are high and growing, while the benefits are less clear,” the report continued, adding:

This is not an uncommon occurrence in our nation’s history. In the past—in some cases, our very recent past—industries such as banking and lending have outgrown their respective regulatory safety nets. Without sufficient regulations to ensure true public accountability, incompetent and/or unethical individuals and firms can (and have) inflict great harm on communities.

The report found that “charter operator fraud and mismanagement is endemic to the vast majority of states that have passed a charter school law.” It organized the abuse into six basic categories, each of which is treated in its own section:

• Charter operators using public funds illegally for personal gain;
• School revenue used to illegally support other charter operator businesses;
• Mismanagement that puts children in actual or potential danger;
• Charters illegally requesting public dollars for services not provided;
• Charter operators illegally inflating enrollment to boost revenues; and,
• Charter operators mismanaging public funds and schools.

Perhaps most disturbingly, under the first category, crooked charter school officials displayed a wide range of lavish, compulsive or tawdry tastes. Examples include:

• Joel Pourier, former CEO of Oh Day Aki Heart Charter School in Minnesota, whoembezzled $1.38 million from 2003 to 2008. He used the money on houses, cars, and Charter schools are cheating your kids: New report reveals massive fraud, mismanagement, abuse - Salon.com:

One in three California students reported being bullied | EdSource

One in three California students reported being bullied | EdSource:

One in three California students reported being bullied

Big Education Ape: Unkle Adams - I Am Stronger (Official Anti-Bullying Music Video) http://bit.ly/1do3kZq

One in three California middle school and high school students reported having been harassed or bullied at least once in the previous year, according to new data from a statewide student survey.

Thirty-four percent of students in grades 7, 9 and 11 said they had been bullied one or more times, according to the 2011-13 California Healthy Kids Survey, which is administered by the California Department of Education. That rate is roughly the same as the 33 percent of students in those grades who reported having been bullied in the 2009-11 California Healthy Kids Survey, although that survey used different methodology. (See map below for county-by-county data on bullying reported in 2011-13 by seventh graders.)

Nationally, the percentage of students who report having been bullied has decreased slightly or remained the same in recent years, said John Kelly, a board member of the National Association of School Psychologists, a Maryland-based membership organization.

In recent years, widely publicized bullying incidents, including the anti-gay harassment of Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old gay student from Tehachapi who committed suicide in 2010, have led to federal and state laws, including Assembly Bill 9, known as Seth’s Law, in California, that require schools to do more to protect student safety. Studies have found that schools can reduce bullying through research-based approaches that build relationships and social skills, establish behavior norms and foster empathy.

“It’s a lot about how classroom culture is set up,” said Bridget Early, a social worker at Everett Middle School in San Francisco. “You’ve got to have a skilled, socially intelligent teacher in the classroom,” she said. “When kids say mean things, the teacher can squash it right then.”

At Everett, she said, classroom teachers hold weekly classroom circles to check in with students on topics including bullying, are coached to create a welcoming environment including greeting students with a smile, and use social and emotional strategies as part of classroom instruction. One such strategy is the Good Behavior Game, in which middle school students and teachers decide which classroom behaviors they’d like to see reduced, such as talking out of turn, and then teams of students compete to follow the rule and win a prize. The Good Behavior Game has been widely studied and proven to have long-term effects on students’ mental health, alcohol and drug use and smoking.

The bullying data come as school districts in California are newly required by the State Board of Education to create a written plan for a positive “school climate,” to be measured by surveying students, teachers and parents about their sense of safety at school, among other indicators. These efforts must be part of districts’ three-year planning documents, known as Local Control and Accountability Plans, which first took One in three California students reported being bullied | EdSource:

No Child Left Behind: What standardized test scores reveal about its legacy - The Washington Post

No Child Left Behind: What standardized test scores reveal about its legacy - The Washington Post:



No Child Left Behind: What standardized test scores reveal about its legacy

Click Here to go to the Website FairTest

 With Congress now attempting to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law (the current version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary School Act), it’s a good time to look at what NCLB accomplished and did not accomplish. Here’s one attempt to answer that question, and the post below is another, this one looking entirely at standardized test scores and how “achievement gaps” fared during the NCLB era.  This seems only fair, since modern school reformers have made standardized test scores the chief metric of student achievement and school effectiveness.

Since data is so important to school reformers today, here’s a look at some, by Monty Neill, executive director of  FairTest, explains in this post. FairTest, or the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, is dedicated to eliminating the abuse and misuse of standardized tests.

By Monty Neill

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law in 2002, the latest version of the long-standing Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Its provisions, such as testing grades 3-8 annually in reading and math and punitive sanctions, took effect over the next several years. The law is more than seven years overdue for reauthorization by Congress. This year, both the House and Senate are showing strong interest in voting for a new version.

NCLB provided that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) should be the primary means for evaluating the success of NCLB.  (NAEP was long referred to as “the nation’s report card” because it was the only measure of student achievement given periodically to a sampling of students around the nation.) We can also consider evidence such as scores on the SAT and ACT college admissions exams and on the international PISA exams.

Here are key findings, comparing the rate of progress pre- and post NCLB for NAEP and recent trends on SAT and ACT tests:

• The rate of progress on NAEP at grades 4 and 8 was generally faster in the decade before NCLB took effect than since. That is a consistent trend both overall and for individual demographic groups, including blacks, English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities.
• Score gaps in 2012 were no narrower and often wider than they were in 1998 and 1990.
• The slowdown in math was pronounced, especially at grade 4.
• In many cases, the rate of gain slowed even more after 2007.
• Score gains slowed after NCLB for English language learners, while score gaps increased between ELLs and non-ELLs.
• In three of four grades/tests, scores for students with disabilities flattened or declined, while gaps with whites remained unchanged or widened.
• Scores for high school students have stagnated. NAEP scores were highest for blacks, and gaps the narrowest, in 1988. Hispanic scores and gaps have stagnated since NCLB.
• SAT scores declined from 2006 to 2014 for all demographic groups except Asians.
• ACT scores have been flat since 2010 for all demographic groups.
• PISA scores have declined from 2002 to 20132.

NCLB’s failure to even raise scores on other standardized exams should be considered in light of widespread evidence of curriculum narrowing and No Child Left Behind: What standardized test scores reveal about its legacy - The Washington Post:

Stephanie Miner says Cuomo school reforms 'scapegoat teachers,' ignore funding inequities | syracuse.com

Stephanie Miner says Cuomo school reforms 'scapegoat teachers,' ignore funding inequities | syracuse.com:

Stephanie Miner says Cuomo school reforms 'scapegoat teachers,' ignore funding inequities

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Mayor Stephanie Miner has once again challenged Gov. Andrew Cuomo, this time by demanding more money for poor school districts like Syracuse.

Saying Cuomo's educational policies "scapegoat teachers'' for the problems of failing schools, Miner said many failing schools do not get as much state aid as they are entitled to by law.

Miner today joined forces with another occasional Cuomo critic, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, to demand better school funding.

They issued a joint news release (see below) calling on the state to honor a 2006 decision by the state's highest court, which held that the state had provided inadequate financial support to New York City and other poor school districts.

In an interview today, Miner said she understands Cuomo's effort to reform schools and to weed out bad teachers, but she said money must be part of the discussion.

"You cannot scapegoat teachers, then say 'We're going to give them more tests and more evaluations,' and walk away from the significant constitutional underfunding that's been going on in this state for years,'' Miner said.

The Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, ruled in 2006 in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case that the state had failed to meet its constitutional obligation to provide adequate education to New York City students.

The state Legislature in 2007 approved an increase in need-based school funding in response, but reduced school aid again in subsequent years, undoing the progress, according to Alliance for Quality Education, an Albany advocacy group.

Billy Easton, the group's executive director, said he hopes the state Legislature this year will restore funding consistent with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision.
He praised Miner and de Blasio for taking a public position on the issue.

"Mayors have a lot of business to do with the state, and it takes a willingness to stand up in order to do this,'' Easton said. "I think it's a very significant thing that these two mayors have stood up.''

Cuomo's agenda this year includes significant education reforms that he says would help improve failing schools. Among other details, the governor has proposed tougher teacher evaluations that would make it easier to fire underperforming teachers, and fewer limits on charter schools.

Miner said she does not oppose those ideas in principle, but said they do not address the core problems of struggling public schools.

Cuomo's office responded with a statement questioning the significance of funding to improving education:

"New York today spends more per pupil than any other state in the nation -- $19,552-- nearly double the national average of $10,608 per pupil. Over the last 15 years, spending on education in New York has more than doubled, from $28 billion to $58 billion, and we spend more per pupil than any other state in the nation, yet our students remain in the bottom half when it comes to results. Clearly throwing more money at the problem isn't working."

Two years ago, Miner publicly criticized Cuomo's leadership, calling one of his budget initiatives to help cities a "gimmick'' in a New York Times opinion piece. Their relationship has been rocky at times ever since.

But Miner endorsed Cuomo for re-election last fall, saying she supported him despite their occasional disagreements.

Asked whether her relationship with Cuomo has become more confrontational since then, she responded: "I have continued to believe that it my responsibility is to stand up Stephanie Miner says Cuomo school reforms 'scapegoat teachers,' ignore funding inequities | syracuse.com: