The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago:

2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

If you haven’t registered for the 2nd Annual NPE Conference in Chicago, April 25-26, there is still time! You can register for the conference on our Eventbrite page, and you can also get adiscounted room at the nearby Downtown Marriott Residence Inn.

The theme of this year’s conference is:

“Public Education: Our Kids, Our Schools, Our Communities”

In addition to a powerhouse line-up of featured speakers, including Yong Zhao, Diane Ravitch, Lily Eskelson Garcia, Randi Weingarten and Chicago’s own Karen Lewis and Jitu Brown, we’ve put together more than forty dynamic and informative panels. There is no other conference that provides the opportunity to be inspired by over 100 of the nation’s leading education activists, and share in their passion for public education. The lineup of panels and panelists is guaranteed to make your weekend with our family of NPE friends and allies one to remember.

They include:

Student Panel – Tanaisa Brown, Kristin Towkaniuk & others. 

If you’re coming to this conference you care about our students and probably have your own ideas on how to help. This is your chance to hear directly from some of our nation’s leading student leaders. Tanaisa, Kristin & Hannah will talk about what life is like for students today, how they feel about all of these so-called reforms, and what they’re doing to take back their schools.

 The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago:

BATs and Social Justice - Dr. Denisha Jones, Aixa Rodriguez and Kristin Vogel 

Looking to grow your understanding on the connection between race, inequity in education funding and what’s happening in your classrooms? Then join these three prominent voices from the Badass Teachers Association who are committed to social justice and equity in the schools and communities in which we work and live. The conversation starts here.

 The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago:

Perils of Ed Tech - Leonie Haimson, Rachael Strickland and Cynthia Liu

Want to know what’s happening in the world of student privacy? Three leading national activists will bring you up to speed. Between these three women, they have lead the movement to stop inBloom, built a national Student Privacy Coalition, and exposed the iPad scandal in LA Unified School District leading to the downfall of LAUSD Superintendent Deasy. Their workshop will focus on ways to strengthen federal protections, outline strategies for successful coalitions that lobby state & federal officials, and discuss how to expose the fraud and waste inherent in these systems.

Defending the Early Years - Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin

Concerned about what’s happening to our youngest children? Join leading national experts as they discuss their work pushing back against the current ed reform climate where academic skills and tests are replacing experiential, play-based learning. This interactive workshop will bring you into full participation by sharing experiences of what has worked and what has not as the group develops concrete actions steps for moving forward to Defend the Early Years.

 The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago:

More Than A Score - Jesse Hagopian

Black Student Lives Matter: The achievement gap is often used by corporate reformers to justify their policies. Are you looking for a way to respond to them that is both respectful of the experiences of communities of color, but does not accept high stakes testing is the way to close the achievement gap? Then join teacher and author Jesse Hogapian as he explores this topic. Jesse will share his experience in leading the successful MAP boycott in Seattle, discuss examples of gaining support from civil rights groups, and talk about how we can all help build a multicultural, anti-racist movement to support all students.

In the coming days and weeks we will continue to highlight additional panels and panelists, but don’t wait to register for the conference! We look forward to seeing you in Chicago!

Chicago from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo.

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago:

The Lost Purpose of School Reform by Diane Ravitch | NYRblog

The Lost Purpose of School Reform by Diane Ravitch | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books:

The Lost Purpose of School Reform

Diane Ravitch

Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

One-room schoolhouse near Selma, Alabama, 1965

Fifty years ago, Congress passed a federal education law to help poor children get a good public education: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Revised many times, it is still the basis for federal education policy today. When it was last reauthorized in 2001, it was named “No Child Left Behind,” which was President George W. Bush’s signature education initiative. Both the House and the Senate are now debating a reauthorization of the law, which has been pending since 2007. Since the law gives Congress the power to determine how federal dollars will be spent, it is crucial to understand its origins and how it has evolved over time. Much is at stake.

ESEA was originally conceived as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty.” It had one overriding purpose: to send federal funding to schools that enrolled large numbers of children living in poverty. The schools that stood to benefit most were mainly in the South and in big cities.

Advocates of federal aid to public schools had been trying without success to persuade Congress to approve it since the 1870s. Their efforts consistently failed because neither party trusted the other to control the nation’s schools. Over the years, there were other complicating issues: Southern members of Congress (all of whom were white) feared that federal aid might be used to interfere with racially segregated schools; urban members of Congress opposed federal aid unless it also served children in Catholic schools; and in the mid-twentieth century, far-right conservatives suspected that the federal bureaucracy might push Communist ideas into school curriculums.

President Johnson was a master persuader, and he assuaged everyone’s concerns. The purpose of the law, he insisted, was to help poor children get a better education, and everyone could agree on that. The South could no longer preserve its segregated system, not only because of the Brown decision of 1954, but because Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, giving the federal government the power it needed to demand desegregation of southern schools. Catholics were mollified because they were included in ESEA’s funding (a Supreme Court decision later removed them). And by 1965, the Red Scare had subsided and was no longer an obstacle to federal aid to education. The bill was funded with $1 billion, and the federal government was at last committed to policies aimed at providing minorities and the poor with the same quality of education as everyone else. That funding, however, was far from sufficient, because public schools are typically underwritten by property taxes, which favor those who live in affluent areas.

Over the years, federal education funding for poor children has steadily grown but has never been enough to overcome the vast inequities between rich and poor. The United States is one of the few advanced nations in the world that spends more public moneyon rich children than on poor children.

With the passage of time, new federal programs were added to ESEA, such as funding for bilingual education, anti-drug programs, and charter schools. But the major shift in its purpose occurred in 1994, when the Clinton administration renamed it the Improving America’s Schools Act and required states to write academic standards and develop state tests for at least reading and mathematics. This was the first codification in federal law of the idea that uniform standards and testing were necessary to insure The Lost Purpose of School Reform by Diane Ravitch | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books:

Merryl Tisch Suggests Firing A Lot of Black and Hispanic Teachers | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

Merryl Tisch Suggests Firing A Lot of Black and Hispanic Teachers | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Merryl Tisch Suggests Firing A Lot of Black and Hispanic Teachers

New York Regents Chancellor Dr. Merryl Tisch has been downplaying the potential negative consequences of sweeping changes to teacher tenure and evaluation in the new state budget.  On April 1st, she commented that the new system does not specifically say that test scores make up 50% of teacher evaluations and suggested that concerns over the weight given to tests was overblown.  Dr. Tisch is technically correct which, as we all know, is the best kind of correct.  The new evaluation law does not say scores are 50% and it leaves various weighting decisions to the Regents and the NYSED.  However, the scoring matrix, which is in the law, has two axes, one of which is for test scores.  I can count really well up to two, and it is fairly obvious the tests, as one axis out of two, are 50% of the evaluation (not to mention that both axes determine the outcome in the matrix roughly equally).

Dr. Tisch was back in the press this morning, suggesting that she thinks the new evaluation system should potentially be lifted from districts that have had strong records of student achievement.  The upshot is that if a district has high graduation and college acceptance rates and strong “college readiness” (aka test scores), they could be freed from state regulations and allowed to craft their own evaluation and accountability systems within certain parameters.  Dr. Tisch suggested that such changes could come from the Commissioner’s regulatory power, but she would also consider asking legislators to make amendments to the newly passed system allowing these changes.  In her view, such changes in favor of high performing districts would “…give them the respect that they deserve for the job that they do, and let us turn our attention, our scarce resources and our capacity to the districts that really need us in terms of access and opportunity for students.”

It would also mean many fewer African American and Latino teachers would ever get tenure and many more of them would be fired.

Now I am not suggesting that Chancellor Tisch actually hopes to do this, but there are consequences to not thinking things through in policy.  Exempting districts with records of high achievement from the new evaluation requirements would place a significantly heavier burden on teachers of color and result in their removal at disproportionate percentages.  The reason for this is fairly simple: just as our communities and schools are segregated by race and income, so are our teachers.  In New York State, 9.8% of teachers are Hispanic and 8.6% are Merryl Tisch Suggests Firing A Lot of Black and Hispanic Teachers | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Did Comcast Ghostwrite Rahm Emanuel’s Letter to the FCC? | The Nation ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Did Comcast Ghostwrite Rahm Emanuel’s Letter to the FCC? | The Nation:

Did Comcast Ghostwrite Rahm Emanuel’s Letter to the FCC?

The Chicago mayor’s office confirmed that Comcast advised Emanuel on how to support a proposed merger with Time Warner—but it is refusing to make the communication public.

On August 26th of last year, David L. Cohen, a Comcast Executive Vice President, joyously announced that the cable giant’s controversial proposed merger with Time Warner had generated a frenzy of supportive letters to the Federal Communications Commission from nearly 70 mayors and dozens of other state and local officials. In particular, Cohen singled out a letter from one of the country’s most high-profile mayors.

“We’re proud to have the support of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who praised Comcast’s acclaimed Internet Essentials program and the increased investment and faster Internet speeds that the transaction will bring in his letter,” Cohen wrote, referring partly to Comcast’s discounted services for low-income customers. Emanuel’s letter, submitted to federal regulators just days before, was indeed glowing. The mayor asserted his belief that the proposed merger would not reduce consumer choice or drive up prices (a primary concern of the proposal’s critics), before launching into breathless praise of the company’s charitable activity in Chicago.

“Comcast currently makes considerable contributions in Chicago,” Emanuel writes, “and we expect those contributions to continue—and increase—if the proposed combination is approved.”

The authorship of Emanuel's letter, however, may be more complex than meets the eye. Before Emanuel wrote to federal regulators, Comcast appears to have furnished the mayor with some writing assistance in the form of suggested language—and perhaps even a whole first draft—regarding his FCC letter. When The Nation submitted a FOIA request to his office requesting any records of suggested language or any Comcast-supplied draft, the mayor's office responded that such a communication does indeed exist. It is refusing, however, to turn over the Comcast document, citing a state law that allows the withholding of preliminary drafts, suggestions, notes and communications in which opinions are expressed or actions or policies are formulated.

Emanuel’s office also would not respond to questions The Nation originally sent more than four weeks ago—and followed up on several times—that asked whether Comcast had helped draft Emanuel’s letter to the FCC. As long as this record is withheld, any definitive knowledge of the extent to which Emanuel’s letter used corporate lobbying language will likely remain a secret between the mayor's office and Comcast. Emanuel is just days away from a hotly contested runoff election against progressive challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

“It's unfortunate that the mayor’s office is trying to avoid transparency,” said Todd O’Boyle, program director for Common Cause, a nonprofit organization that advocates for government accountability and opposes Comcast’s proposed merger. “FOIA laws should be serving the public interest—they should be vehicle to inform the public not a vehicle for politicians to find Did Comcast Ghostwrite Rahm Emanuel’s Letter to the FCC? | The Nation:

Toward Fiscal Sustainability: A New Approach in Prudent Fiscal Management of Chicago

Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Parent Horror Story from BASIS: Charter school chain “bullying” Black parents? | Cloaking Inequity

Parent Horror Story from BASIS: Charter school chain “bullying” Black parents? | Cloaking Inequity:

Parent Horror Story from BASIS: Charter school chain “bullying” Black parents?

Everywhere you look there are wonderful stories and elegant arguments about why charters are GREAT for kids… especially poor Latina/os and Blacks. Today Cloaking Inequity has an exclusive— another horror story from a charter parent. I first discussed the BASIS charter schools, a quasi for-profit charter chain (see What BASIS?: Nepotism and aggrandizement in charters?), in the post Parent Horror Stories from BASIS: Corporate Charter Hurting Children? It is still one of the five most popular posts ever on Cloaking Inequity.  Here at Cloaking Inequity we can deliver the counter-narrative.  Without further ado, here is an open letter from a concerned parent.

Public Charter School Board

3333 14th Street, NW, Suite 210

Washington, DC 20010

Hello Ms. [BASIS administrator],

The purpose of this email is to establish a formal complaint against the Public Charter School Basis-DC. My son, [student name], is 12 and in the 6th grade. He is a Sixth grader that has been retained. The entire school year, I went to [BASIS administrator], whose email identifies her as being the Director of Exceptional Education & Student Advocacy for assistance with XXXX’s studies and behavior issues which included i.e. a heighten sense of frustration in not understanding the material, obsessive talking, a delay in response, appearing not to listen when spoken to and not focused on immediate tasks. I consulted the Basis Student Handbook. And I focused on the section and paragraph, where it outlined that student services are available for a child that is experiencing education problems. I then picked up the phone and called Basis-DC and was given [BASIS administrator]’s, name and contact information by the women in the Basis-DC front office.

After several voicemails and missed calls between us, [BASIS administrator] and I finally spoke early November. I then expressed to [BASIS administrator], about my son’s frustrating disposition to learning Physics, Math and Chemistry at BASIS. Several days passed and on December 6, I received an email where [BASIS administrator] acknowledged my call and stated that “[BASIS administrator], the 6th grade Learning Specialist, is working on his plan.  I will keep you posted and we will send as soon as it is completed.” On December 16th, I got an email message from [BASIS administrator], that [student]’s SST plan crafted from her office was still being worked on and it would be implemented immediately after the Holiday’s.

After the plan was put into action, I immediately started questioning the process with [BASIS administrator]. I then requested for my son to be retested for perhaps a learning disability which could be the reasoning behind his learning difficulty. Meanwhile, [students]’s grades continued to decline. The Office of Exceptional Education & Student Advocacy, then placed him into the Basis Saturday Academy, which was designed to go beyond the regular tutorial services. Sadly, this Saturday Academy failed to cover any of the important core classes in which [student] was having difficulty i.e. Chemistry, Math or Physics.

Upon my further questioning about the education services, another meeting was set up by the Office of Exceptional Education & Student Advocacy to discuss the current non-working SST plan. This time,[ BASIS administrator], promised to monitor [student] “behavior” and submission of homework to see if that would make a difference. She continued to update me on the status of {students]’s assignments. This action and the reading class were the only items in his SST that continued until the end of the school year. No other items were addressed i.e. Math, Chemistry, or Physics deficiencies.

I then was informed that [student] did not earn promotional status and was retained. He had passed certain classes, but did not pass the Basis’ Comprehensive exams for those courses mentioned above. I was told, he had until the summer to finish and complete four sets of informational packets per subject that ranged from two–three hundred pages each, with no assistance from the school. In addition, at the conclusion of packet completion, he would have to take a series of two exams per subject and pass in order to be promoted. This meant he took a double Math exam, double Biology exam, a double History exam, a double Physics exam, a double Chemistry exam and a double Latin exam. Again, these exams included the D.C. portion which consisted of 30 – 60 questions and an Arizona portion which carries additional 50-70 questions. These exams are combined to produce one series of test. The Arizona portion of the test is specifically created and corrected from the curriculum from the Arizona Basis School’s. At the conclusion of the test it is then sent to be corrected by the Arizona Basis Schools and then sent back to Basis-DC for disclosure of scores.

Several times, I questioned the Basis-DC Administration about the retake process. Each time, I was told that, at no time will staff be available during the summer to assist or help with the four sets of 2-3 hundred page packets. Even though, the Basis Student Handbook clearly outlines mechanisms that would be in place to assist for the school’s “uniquely rigorous curriculum”. My repeated requests were denied. I then contacted another highly regarded After School program to assist us with finishing the packets. They enrolled him into their High Achievement Summer School Academy which consisted of over 250 hours plus hours of instructional classes on Spanish, Math, Science, English and History from 8am until 4pm, Monday –Friday. Even upon the completion, we were still told, “it wasn’t enough to 

Parent Horror Story from BASIS: Charter school chain “bullying” Black parents? | Cloaking Inequity:

Why Has Michelle Rhee "Disappeared"?

Big Education Ape: FBI Capitol sting shines light on Latino caucus - UPDATE on Scandal involving Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Calderon - The Sacramento Bee:



Education reformer Rhee to leave advocacy group she founded

(Reuters) - Education reform advocate Michelle Rhee is stepping down from the nonprofit advocacy group she founded, saying she will focus on her family and the political career of her husband, former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Rhee's move from StudentsFirst, founded after she spent three years as chancellor of the Washington, D.C., schools, comes amid retrenchment at the organization and rising political success for Johnson, who won national attention for recent efforts to keep the Kings basketball team in Sacramento and serves as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.

"Kevin and I view our goals in life and public service as a team," Rhee said in a statement sent to Reuters Thursday. "He was right there with me when we created this organization and has worked alongside me throughout these past four years. I am excited to continue working side by side on these new opportunities we have."

Rhee, who took Johnson's name last year but still uses her own name professionally, did not elaborate on the new opportunities, and Johnson still has more than two years to go on his second term as mayor of Sacramento, California's capital. His spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Rhee started StudentsFirst in 2010, using it to push ideas that had led to considerable controversy during her time with the Washington schools, including tying teacher evaluations to student test scores and making it easier to fire teachers deemed incompetent.

Many of the ideas have gained some measure of acceptance. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that five laws granting tenure and other job protections to public school teachers hurt students and were unconstitutional. The case was not filed by Rhee's group, but it highlighted policy issues that she was critical in raising.

Even so, teachers unions and many Democrats continue to view Rhee's group as anti-union. Despite the embrace of some reform agenda ideas in school districts across the nation, the organization failed to reach Rhee's ambitious goal of raising $1 billion in its first five years.

StudentsFirst, which has raised $62 million since 2011, has shuttered paid operations in Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and Maine, said spokesman Francisco Castillo.

But he said the group would continue to press for reform. Even before Rhee's decision to step down, StudentsFirst has been seeking a new president to handle day-to-day operations, he said. A previous president left, Castillo said.

Rhee, whose transition will extend over the next few months, will remain on the organization's board.

"Even when she transitions away from her day-to-day management role, there is no question that her leadership and vision will continue to guide Students First," Castillo said.

(This story corrects amount of money raised, $62 million instead of $662 in paragraph 8, clarifies previous president leaving in paragraph 9)Education reformer Rhee to leave advocacy group she founded

 

FBI Capitol sting shines light on Latino caucus

By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013 - 12:00 am

Rhee-lated $tory: Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New Book

al$o $ee Rhee-lated $tory: Excerpts from "Rhee The Art of the Deal" a new $tory about Corporate Education Reform and the Woman that make$ it Happen!

It makes sense that state lawmakers might feud over who gets to lead California’s Latino Legislative Caucus. The 25 Democrats who make up the group, after all, constitute more than a fifth of the Legislature, control hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds and wield influence that affects millions of Californians.

But the details of the most recent leadership fight caught the attention of FBI agents investigating one caucus member, state Sen. Ron Calderon, for allegedly taking bribes, according to a court-sealed affidavit made public by Al Jazeera America last month.

The affidavit alleges that another caucus member, Sen. Kevin de León, brokered a deal between Calderon and Sen. Ricardo Lara that resulted in Lara retaining the caucus chairmanship and the group paying $25,000 to a nonprofit run by Calderon’s brother, former assemblyman Tom Calderon. According to the affidavit, Ron Calderon told an undercover FBI agent that the brothers planned to draw eventually on money held by the nonprofit to make “part of a living.”

No charges have been filed, but the emerging case has exposed caucus decisions to public view just as the group’s influence is peaking. Its membership has grown from five members when it formed in 1973 to 25 members today – and the caucus now controls hundreds of thousands of dollars that donors with business at the Capitol give to its political action committees and nonprofit foundations. The caucus played a major role in influencing legislation this year, including a

 

National education reform advocate sought Calderon'€™s influence | Al Jazeera America

National education reform advocate sought Calderon'€™s influence | Al Jazeera America: National education reform advocate sought Calderon'€™s influenceby Trevor Aaronson October 31, 2013  5:41PM ETA private meeting with lobbyists for Michelle Rhee occurred before the CA state senator sponsored education reform billTopics: Politics Crime Law & JusticeDanny Moloshok/UPI/LandovSACRAMENTO, Calif.

3 by mike simpson / 20h  

More on the Breaking Scandal: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Calderon Scandal - The Sacramento Bee

Capitol and California - Political, Government and Election News - The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California: Rhee-lated $tory: Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New Bookal$o $ee Rhee-lated $tory: Excerpts from "Rhee The Art of the Deal" a new $tory about Corporate Education Reform and the Woman that make$ it Happen!Who is Michael Drobot? Leaked affidavit touches on embattled donorBy Jer

by mike simpson / 4h  

AND More on the Breaking Scandal: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Calderon Scandal

Capitol and California - Political, Government and Election News - The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California: Top Ron Calderon Articles see all Los Angeles TimesRhee-lated $tory: Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New Bookal$o $ee Rhee-lated $tory: Excerpts from "Rhee The Art of the Deal" a new $tory about Corporate Education Reform and the Woman that make$ it Happen!Top Ron Calderon Arti

3 by mike simpson / 10h  

Apparently, No StudentsFirst Kiss for Ron and Thomas Calderon in 2011

Apparently, No StudentsFirst Kiss for Ron and Thomas Calderon  But Some Did Get a Big StudentsFirst Kiss(with Tongue) Click here to see Full Screen pdfNational education reform advocate sought Calderon's influence | Al Jazeera AmericaNational education reform advocate sought Calderon's influence | Al Jazeera America: National education reform advocate sought Calderon'€™s influenceby Trevor Aaronso

2 by mike simpson / 3h 

 

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Calderon Scandal - The Sacramento Bee

Capitol and California - Political, Government and Election News - The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California: Special circumstance cited in Ron Calderon removal from film boardBy Christopher Cadelago - Published: 12:38 pmLawmakers took an extraordinary step to remove embattled Sen. Ron Calderon from the California Film Commission, a post he was entitled to hold until at least the end of his term.

3 by mike simpson / 1h

Excerpts from "Rhee The Art of the Deal" a new story about Corporate Education Reform and the Woman that makes it Happen!

Excerpts from "Rhee The Art of the Deal" a new story about Corporate Education Reform and the Woman that makes it Happen!Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New BookRhee: Good Birdie! Rhee: Corporate Ed Reform is not what it seemsRhee: Imagination is vital in Corporate Ed ReformRhee: It is Easier to Make a Deal to Buy a Closed SchoolRhee: With enough Corporate CashYou Can Buy Anything!Rhee:

2 by mike simpson / 5h  

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New Book

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee answers Ravitch in New BookNational education reform advocate sought Calderon's influence | Al Jazeera AmericaNational education reform advocate sought Calderon's influence | Al Jazeera America: National education reform advocate sought Calderon'€™s influenceby Trevor Aaronson October 31, 2013  5:41PM ETA private meeting with lobbyists for Michelle Rhee occurred

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

FBI Capitol sting shines light on Latino caucus