Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/8/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education

Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education: Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter SchoolsThis letter was issued on July 7, 2015.“We respectfully disagree that the proliferation of high stakes assessments and top-down interventions are needed in order to improve our

by mike simpson / 12min 

50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" - Living in Dialogue

50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" - Living in Dialogue: 50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" The 50th anniversary of Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age comes as we confront the horror of the Charleston, S.C. massacre and the epidemic of police killings of unarmed blacks. At a time like this, it is best to read Kozol’s masterpiece o

by mike simpson / 2h 

What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law - The Washington Post

What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law - The Washington Post: What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education lawBoth the U.S. House and Senate are now — eight years late — debating this week how to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known in its current form as No Child Left Behind. Signed into law in 2002, NCLB was supposed to

by mike simpson / 2h 

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post: The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floorThe main focus of the current conversation on rewriting No Child Left Behind has been on whether or not annual standardized testing of students will be retained in a new bill. But there are other important issues t

by mike simpson / 2h 

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody - Garn Press

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody - Garn Press: Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony CodyThis article originally appeared on Living In Dialogue | Anthony Cody | 2015(This essay is also included in Anthony Cody’s book, The Educator and the Oligarch.)By Anthony Cody.In the summer of 2012  I

by mike simpson / 2h 

4LAKids NTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS: INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS7/8/2015 2:57 pm EDT   ::  I am posting from Madrid, Spain where I am presenting a paper, Hacking Away at the Pearson Octopus, at the International Conference on Learning. The movement to stop the Pearson octopus' stranglehold on education is global.In

by mike simpson / 2h 

Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools | janresseger

Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools | janresseger: Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban SchoolsOn Monday, in the week when the Senate is taking up the reauthorization of the federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Journey for Justice Alliance sent a powerful

by mike simpson / 7h 

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?: THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. RicciottiEducation advocate and retired educator Joseph Ricciotti recently published this commentary piece on the BAT Blog website.Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is to be applauded for his recently announced presidential p

by mike simpson / 7h 

Jersey Jazzman: More Obnoxious Charter School Propaganda

Jersey Jazzman: More Obnoxious Charter School Propaganda: More Obnoxious Charter School PropagandaMake it stop! MAKE IT STOP!State Sen. Shirley Turner recently introduced legislation seeking a moratorium on expanding enrollment for New Jersey’s charter public schools. This legislation will rob educational opportunity from thousands of New Jersey’s children already in charter schools, and deny more

by mike simpson / 7h 

No Child Left Behind Is Heading Out, but Standardized Tests Are Here to Stay - The Atlantic

No Child Left Behind Is Heading Out, but Standardized Tests Are Here to Stay - The Atlantic: No Child Left Behind Is Heading Out, but Standardized Tests Are Here to StayNo Child Left Behind is really, really unpopular. Roughly three in 10 Americans think the George W. Bush-era federal education law has actually worsened the quality of education, according to a 2012 Gallup poll. The original law on

by mike simpson / 7h 

Cuomo says de Blasio must earn mayoral control | Capital New York

Cuomo says de Blasio must earn mayoral control | Capital New York: Cuomo says de Blasio must earn mayoral controlGovernor Andrew Cuomo is not finished antagonizing Mayor Bill de Blasio on mayoral control of New York City's schools. Speaking Tuesday about de Blasio's recent criticism of the governor, Cuomo said the mayor will have to earn further extensions of mayoral control."Next year we can

by mike simpson / 7h 

The Great Common Core Textbook Swindle - The Daily Beast

The Great Common Core Textbook Swindle - The Daily Beast: The Great Common Core Textbook SwindleOnly one in eight Common Core-aligned textbooks actually meet Common Core standards—and none by textbook giants Pearson or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—but they were repackaged and sold to public schools anyway, at taxpayers’ expense.Cheryl Schafer was a veteran math teacher by the time Common Core arrived

by mike simpson / 8h 

The False Promise of Core Knowledge | Nicholas Tampio

The False Promise of Core Knowledge | Nicholas Tampio: The False Promise of Core KnowledgeWhen I was in second grade, my friend Rebecca and I used to read books together. We would peruse classics such as C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series, Charles Dickens's novels, and Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, a history of the scientists who discovered vaccines. Rebecca and I were both public school

by mike simpson / 8h 

Reid, McConnell point fingers over No Child Left Behind fix | TheHill

Reid, McConnell point fingers over No Child Left Behind fix | TheHill: Reid, McConnell point fingers over No Child Left Behind fix"Republicans and Democrats have long agreed that the No Child Left Behind is broken and needs to be fixed, but the Senate didn't do anything about it for seven long years, missing its deadlines repeatedly," McConnell said from the Senate floor, referring to Re

by mike simpson / 8h 

Teachers union opposes BROADIE Metro schools chief finalist

Teachers union: Reference opposes Metro schools chief finalist: Teachers union: Reference opposes Metro schools chief finalistAt least one of the references listed by a controversial candidate for Metro Nashville Public Schools director wouldn't actually recommend the candidate, which should raise another red flag about the candidate, says the local teachers unions.The Metro Nashville Education As

by mike simpson / 8h 

Congressman Fattah Statement on ESEA Reauthorization and Its Implications for Education Reform in Pennsylvania | news.sys-con.com

Congressman Fattah Statement on ESEA Reauthorization and Its Implications for Education Reform in Pennsylvania | news.sys-con.com: Congressman Fattah Statement on ESEA Reauthorization and Its Implications for Education Reform in PennsylvaniaWASHINGTON, July 8, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) issued the following statement on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

by mike simpson / 8h 

Poverty rates in every U.S. school district, in one map - The Washington Post

Poverty rates in every U.S. school district, in one map - The Washington Post: Poverty rates in every U.S. school district, in one mapAnyone who cares about the plight of poor children in America should take a look at a new interactive map, below, put together by the new nonprofit EdBuild.The map shows Census Bureau poverty rates in each of the nation’s nearly 14,000 school districts nationwide. T

by mike simpson / 8h 

Tell Congress: No to School Vouchers! Protect Public Education in ESEA Reauthorization

CFI Office of Public Policy | Center for Inquiry: Tell Congress: No to School Vouchers! Protect Public Education in ESEA ReauthorizationThis week both the House and Senate are debating the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). We expect that there will be attempts, in both chambers, to amend ESEA to include private and religious school voucher schemes.This means your taxpayer dollars coul

by mike simpson / 9h 

Holding Charter Schools Accountable | Center for Popular Democracy

Holding Charter Schools Accountable | Center for Popular Democracy: Why Are Charters Exempt from Meaningful Oversight?Charter enrollment has doubled three times since 2000. Today, there are an estimated 6,400 charter schools in the U.S. enrolling over 2.5 million students.[i] While charter schools were originally envisioned as small-scale, innovation incubators that encouraged risk-taking—and were

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Back To School: Congress Takes Up Controversial Education Bill - Bloomberg Politics

Back To School: Congress Takes Up Controversial Education Bill - Bloomberg Politics: Back To School: Congress Takes Up Controversial Education BillSenate, House debate changes in key piece of George W. Bush's domestic legacy.The U.S. House will try again this week to pass a Republican rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education law, with party leaders seeking to gain support from conservative me

by mike simpson / 23h 

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education: The Non-Profit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education"In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They're what botanists would call an indicator species. It's almost as though the greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism

by mike simpson / 1d 

Unions Love This New Version of No Child Left Behind

Unions Love This New Version of No Child Left Behind: Unions Love This New Version of No Child Left Behind. That Should Worry Conservatives.The Senate has begun floor consideration of a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).This congress has the opportunity to consider conservative policy reforms that would genuinely re

by mike simpson / 1d 

Secretary Duncan flip on parental involvement a real flop | WagTheDog

Secretary Duncan flip on parental involvement a real flop | WagTheDog: Secretary Duncan flip on parental involvement a real flopAccording to the Educational Testing Service web site, ETS isthe world’s largest private educational testing and measurement organization, ETS develops, administers or scores more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries at more than 9,000 locations inter

by mike simpson / 1d 

Al Franken: What Congress must do for LGBT kids - CNN.com

Al Franken: What Congress must do for LGBT kids - CNN.com: What Congress must do for LGBT kidsStory highlightsAl Franken, Randi Weingarten: Many LGBT students live in fear of harassment, abuse. Current civil laws don't protect LGBT youthThey say Congress must include Student Non-Discrimination Act in overhaul of No Child Left Behind ActAl Franken represents Minnesota in the U.S Senate and is a mem

by mike simpson / 1d 

Michigan governor outlines plan to dissolve Detroit public school system - World Socialist Web Site

Michigan governor outlines plan to dissolve Detroit public school system - World Socialist Web Site: Michigan governor outlines plan to dissolve Detroit public school systemMichigan’s Republican governor Rick Snyder has called for breaking up the Detroit Public School system. The plan is modeled on the Obama administration’s forced bankruptcy and restructuring of General Motors, which created a “b

by mike simpson / 1d 

Sacramento city documents detail Kevin Johnson’s involvement in black mayors’ group | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento city documents detail Kevin Johnson’s involvement in black mayors’ group | The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento city documents detail Kevin Johnson’s involvement in black mayors’ groupThe city of Sacramento released more than 6,100 emails and more than a dozen documents Tuesday detailing Mayor Kevin Johnson’s past involvement in the embattled National Conference of Black Mayors.The involvemen

by mike simpson / 1d 

Obama Admin Says It Won’t Support Senate ESEA Draft; Higher Ed Wants Those “Higher Standards” | deutsch29

Obama Admin Says It Won’t Support Senate ESEA Draft; Higher Ed Wants Those “Higher Standards” | deutsch29: Obama Admin Says It Won’t Support Senate ESEA Draft; Higher Ed Wants Those “Higher Standards”There is a lot of info in this post. I could not capture it all in the title. All quotes are from Politico’s Morning Education for July 07, 2015, which has much more to it than I highlight in this pos

by mike simpson / 1d 

Thompson: Remembering The Full Horror of "Death at an Early Age"

This Week In Education: Thompson: Remembering The Full Horror of "Death at an Early Age": Thompson: Remembering The Full Horror of "Death at an Early Age"Thanks to Alexander and NPR's Claudio Sanchez for reminding us of the 50th anniversary of the firing of Jonathan Kozol for "curriculum deviation."Everyone should (re)read this book. Rather than immediately using it t

by mike simpson / 1d 

GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger

GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger: GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to NewarkBy JONATHAN ALSTONChris Cerf Must Not Become the Next Superintendent of Newark’s Public Schools: He has Already Exploited Us Enough(Editor’s Note: Mr. Alston calls this the “polite” version of his incomparable analysis of what is going on in the New

by mike simpson / 1d 

Marriage ruling may boost school climate for LGBT families and students | EdSource

Marriage ruling may boost school climate for LGBT families and students | EdSource: Marriage ruling may boost school climate for LGBT families and studentsWhen the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major civil rights decision on marriage in Loving v. Virginia in 1967, striking down a state law banning interracial marriage, Alameda Unified teacher Gene Kahane was a 3rd-grader in Richmond, California, and

by mike simpson / 1d 

CURMUDGUCATION: Jeb's Ed Backers Revealed

CURMUDGUCATION: Jeb's Ed Backers Revealed: Jeb's Ed Backers RevealedLong-time observers of the reformster scene are familiar with the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) the advocacy group that was, among other things, supposed to help Jeb Bush leverage his reformy career into a Presidential run.At various times they have promoted specious arguments for testing, tried to use aging demogra

by mike simpson / 1d 

Obama administration: Education bills lack accountability - Yahoo News

Obama administration: Education bills lack accountability - Yahoo News: Obama administration: Education bills lack accountabilityWASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Monday it cannot support either the Senate or the House versions of bills being considered this week to update the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law.Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Counc

by mike simpson / 1d 

Principal: Stop blaming Common Core for problems in public education - The Washington Post

Principal: Stop blaming Common Core for problems in public education - The Washington Post: Principal: Stop blaming Common Core for problems in public educationThis is the tenth in a continuing series of letters between two award-winning school principals, one who likes the Common Core State Standards and the other who doesn’t. The debate over the Common Core State Standards has become so polarize

by mike simpson / 1d 

Q&A: Post education reporter Lyndsey Layton pulls back the curtain on this week’s No Child Left Behind fight in Congress - The Washington Post

Q&A: Post education reporter Lyndsey Layton pulls back the curtain on this week’s No Child Left Behind fight in Congress - The Washington Post: Q&A: Post education reporter Lyndsey Layton pulls back the curtain on this week’s No Child Left Behind fight in CongressBoth the House and Senate will consider major education bills this week. Lyndsey Layton covers national education issues for The

by mike simpson / 1d 

'Every Child Achieves' Won't Fix The Fed-Ed Farce

'Every Child Achieves' Won't Fix The Fed-Ed Farce: ‘Every Child Achieves’ Won’t Fix The Fed-Ed FarceBills to rewrite No Child Left Behind put Republicans in a bad political position and expand the federal role in education.Tuesday, the House and Senate are scheduled to take up separate bills to replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB). While out here in the hinterlands normal people are calling for an

by mike simpson / 1d 

Charter Schools Are Not Required To Provide Bus Transportation to Students, Judge Rules | FlaglerLive | FlaglerLive

Charter Schools Are Not Required To Provide Bus Transportation to Students, Judge Rules | FlaglerLive | FlaglerLive: Charter Schools Are Not Required To Provide Bus Transportation to Students, Judge RulesPointing to choices made by parents, a state judge has ruled that a Southeast Florida school district cannot require a charter school to provide bus transportation to students.Administrative Law J

by mike simpson / 1d 

Battle Over Standardized Testing Exposes Deep Rifts in Education Reform Community | TakePart

Battle Over Standardized Testing Exposes Deep Rifts in Education Reform Community | TakePart: Battle Over Standardized Testing Exposes Deep Rifts in Education Reform CommunityOne faction says the high-stakes exams hurt children of color, while the other side believes they help the fight for civil rights.The words read like a familiar manifesto against standardized testing, condemning it as harmful

by mike simpson / 1d 

5 Key Principles to Guide Consideration of any ESEA Title I Formula Change | Center for American Progress

5 Key Principles to Guide Consideration of any ESEA Title I Formula Change | Center for American Progress: ESEA Reauthorization: 5 Key Principles to Guide Consideration of any ESEA Title I Formula ChangeLast year, the federal government spent more than $14 billion to help educate low-income students as part of Title I, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. For schools, pa

by mike simpson / 1d 

Warren Buffett gifts record $2.84 billion to Gates Foundation, other charities - World - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Warren Buffett gifts record $2.84 billion to Gates Foundation, other charities - World - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News: Warren Buffett gifts record $2.84 billion to Gates Foundation, other charitiesDonation mark Buffett's largest annual philanthropic contribution, increasing his total charitable giving to over $21.5 billion; 'Oracle of Omaha' has pledged to give away nearly all of his weal

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Common Core Math Writer: “Too Busy with K-8″ to Adequately Develop High School Math Standards | deutsch29

Common Core Math Writer: “Too Busy with K-8″ to Adequately Develop High School Math Standards | deutsch29: Common Core Math Writer: “Too Busy with K-8″ to Adequately Develop High School Math StandardsOn July 06, 2015, Andrew Ujifusa of EdWeek posted a piece entitled, “Are Test Scores Proving Fears About Common-Core High School Math Correct?”In his post, Ujifusa writes about the Smarter Balanced As

by mike simpson / 1d 

Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education

Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education:

Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools

This letter was issued on July 7, 2015.

“We respectfully disagree that the proliferation of high stakes assessments and top-down interventions are needed in order to improve our schools.  We live in the communities where these schools exist.  What, from our vantage point, happens because of these tests is not improvement.  It’s destruction.”

Nearly 200 Civil Rights, Community Groups Send Letter to Senate Demanding Fair & Equitable Reforms to ESEA Reauthorization

This week, the Journey for Justice Alliance—a coalition of parents, students, teachers, and community and civil rights organizations—along with 175 other national and local grassroots, youth, and civil rights organizations, sent a letter to Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid demanding that high stakes tested be removed from the civil rights provisions within the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill currently being debated in Congress. Instead, the groups are calling for an end to school closures and privatization and investment in sustainable community schools with well-balanced assessments and challenging and varied curriculum.

In the letter, the groups state: “We respectfully disagree that the proliferation of high stakes assessments and top-down interventions are needed in order to improve our schools.  We live in the communities where these schools exist.  What, from our vantage point, happens because of these tests is not improvement.  It’s destruction.”

The letter continues: “High stakes standardized tests have been proven to harm Black and Brown children, adults, schools and communities. Curriculum is narrowed. Their results purport to show that our children are failures. They also claim to show that our schools are failures, leading to closures or wholesale dismissal of staff.  Children in low-income communities lose important relationships with caring adults when this happens. Other good schools are destabilized as they receive hundreds of children from closed schools. Large proportions of Black teachers lose their jobs in this process, because it is Black teachers who are often drawn to commit their skills and energies to Black Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education:

50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" - Living in Dialogue

50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" - Living in Dialogue:

50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" 

The 50th anniversary of Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age comes as we confront the horror of the Charleston, S.C. massacre and the epidemic of police killings of unarmed blacks. At a time like this, it is best to read Kozol’s masterpiece on its own, without using it as evidence for any side of our current edu-political conflicts. After a decent interval for letting the tragedies sink in, we can then draw upon it as we debate contemporary school policy.

The subtitle of Death at an Early Age is The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. It is an unrelenting indictment of the segregated Boston Public School System in 1965. Back then, I was twelve years old and I didn’t know a single black person, and George Washington Carver was the only black person in our textbooks. It was easy for an Oklahoman like me, however, to grasp the overt racism of “the Redneck.”  As Kozol knew, it would be far harder to comprehend the covert racism of “the Reading Teacher.” As he guides us through his quest to understand the Reading Teacher, however, Kozol reveals the disgusting soul of Boston’s curriculum, its governance, and its segregation.

The Redneck seemed to be the most honest teacher in this predominantly poor and black elementary school. He’d been treated rough while growing up and so were the black children who he was supposed to teach. The Redneck exemplified the mentality of “we did it, and we never had any fancy schools either.” He said he was just as “culturally deprived” as Negroes, and:

I don’t need anyone to tell me. I haven’t learned a thing, read a thing that I wished I’d read or learned since the day I entered high school, and I’ve known it for years and I tried to hide it from myself and now I wish I could do something about it but I’m afraid it’s just too late.

In perhaps the most straightforward conclusion in Kozol’s nuanced analysis of prejudice and segregation, he observed, “Former Irish boys beaten by Yankee schoolmasters may frequently make ungenerous 50 Years Later: Jonathan Kozol’s "Death at an Early Age" - Living in Dialogue:

What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law - The Washington Post

What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law - The Washington Post:

What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law

Both the U.S. House and Senate are now — eight years late — debating this week how to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known in its current form as No Child Left Behind. Signed into law in 2002, NCLB was supposed to have been rewritten by Congress in 2007, but sheer negligence and an inability among lawmakers to agree meant that America’s public schools were forced to live under a law that was fatally flawed.

Here is a letter that was sent to every senator about what the signatories believe should  — and should not — be in any new education law. Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the letter was sent by the Journey for Justice Alliance, a coalition of nearly 40 organizations of parents and students of color in 23 states, as well as from 175 other national and local civil rights, youth and community organizations.

Dear Senators McConnell and Reid,

The Journey for Justice Alliance, an alliance of 38 organizations of Black and Brown parents and students in 23 states, joins with the 175 other national and local grassroots community, youth and civil rights organizations signed on below, to call on the U.S. Congress to pass an ESEA reauthorization without requiring the regime of oppressive, high stakes, standardized testing and sanctions that have recently been promoted as civil rights provisions within ESEA.

We respectfully disagree that the proliferation of high stakes assessments and top-down interventions are needed in order to improve our schools. We live in the communities where these schools exist. What, from our vantage point, happens because of these tests is not improvement. It’s destruction.

Black and Latino families want world class public schools for our children, just as white and affluent families do. We want quality and stability. We want a varied and rich curriculum in our schools. We don’t want them closed or privatized. We want to spend our days learning, creating and debating, not preparing for test after test.

In the Chicago Public Schools, for example, children in kindergarten through 8th grade are administered anywhere between 8 and 25 standardized tests per year. By the time they graduate from 8th grade, they have taken an average of 180 standardized tests!   We are not opposed to state mandated testing as a component of a well-rounded system of evaluating student needs. But enough is enough.

We want balanced assessments, such as oral exams, portfolios, daily check-ins and teacher created assessment tools—all of which are used at the University of Chicago Lab School, where President Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have sent their children to be educated. For us, civil rights are about access to schools all our children deserve. Are our children less worthy?

High stakes standardized tests have been proven to harm Black and Brown children, adults, schools and communities. Curriculum is narrowed. Their results purport to show that our children are failures. They also claim to show that our schools are failures, leading to closures or wholesale dismissal of staff. Children in low income communities lose important relationships with caring adults when this happens. Other good schools are destabilized as they receive hundreds of children from closed schools. Large proportions of Black teachers lose their jobs in this process, because it is Black teachers who are often drawn to commit their skills and energies to Black children. Standardized testing, whether intentionally or not, has negatively impacted the Black middle class, because they are the teachers, lunchroom workers, teacher aides, counselors, security staff and custodians who are fired when schools close.

Standardized tests are used as the reason why voting rights are removed from Black and Brown voters—a civil right every bit as important as education. Our schools and school districts are regularly judged to be failures—and then stripped of local control through the appointment of state takeover authorities that eliminate democratic process and our local voice—and have yet so far largely failed to actually improve the quality of education our children receive.

Throughout the course of the debate on the reauthorization of ESEA, way too much attention has focused on testing and sanctions, and not on the much more critical solutions to educational inequality.

In March, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools issued a letter to the House and Senate leadership, with four recommendations for ESEA Reauthorization.:

1. First, there are 5000 community schools in America today, providing an array of wrap around services and after school programs to children and their families. These community schools serve over 5 million children, and we want to double that number and intensify the effort. We are calling for a significant investment in creating thousands moresustainable community schools. They provide a curriculum that is engaging, relevant and challenging, supports for quality teaching and not standardized testing, wrap-around supports for every child, a student centered culture and finally, transformative parent and community engagement.We call on the federal government to provide $1 billion toward that goal, and we are asking our local governments to decrease the high stakes standardized testing with its expensive test prep programs and divert those funds into resourcing more sustainable community schools.
2. Second, we want to include restorative justice and positive approaches to discipline in all of our sustainable community schools, so we are calling on the federal government to provide $500 million for restorative justice coordinators and training in all of our sustainable community schools.
3. Third, to finally move toward fully resourcing Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we call on the federal government to provide $20 billion this year for the schools that serve the most low income students, and more in future years until we finally reach the 40% increase in funding for poor schools that the Act originally envisioned.
4. Finally, we ask for a moratorium on the federal Charter Schools Program, which has pumped over $3 billion into new charter schools, many of which have already closed, or have failed the students drawn to them by the illusive promise of quality. We want the resources that all our schools deserve – we don’t need more schools. We need better ones.

So now we are prepared to say, clearly, that we will take nothing less than the schools our children deserve.   It will cost some money to support them, but that’s okay, because we have billionaires and hedge funders in this country who have neverpaid the tax rates that the rest of us pay. We are a rich country, and we can afford some world class community schools.

As we continue to organize for educational justice, it is that tradition of struggle that will guide J4J, AROS and the scores of organizations who have signed on to this letter.  We are the people directly impacted and will continue to organize in the memory of the great institution builder Ella Baker who said, “Oppressed people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is, and move to transform it.”  Our voices matter.

In Anticipation,
Jitu Brown
Journey for Justice Alliance

Along with…What should — and should not — be written into a new U.S. education law - The Washington Post: 

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post:

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor

The main focus of the current conversation on rewriting No Child Left Behind has been on whether or not annual standardized testing of students will be retained in a new bill. But there are other important issues that have gotten less attention — school vouchers, for instance.

The House and Senate are now debating their respective bills to revamp the federal government’s education law. The House bill includes vouchers — which essentially allow the use of public funds for private school tuition — while the Senate version does not, though some Republican senators want to put them in.

On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee, made a speech on the Senate floor opposing efforts to amend the Senate’s “Every Child Achieves Act” to include vouchers. Murray has been working closely with Senate education committee chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Here is Murray’s speech, as prepared for delivery, in which she makes a case against vouchers:

M. President, since our nation’s founding, the idea of a strong public education for every child has been a part of the fabric of America. In the late 1770s, Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in Virginia that outlined his plan for public schooling.

At the time he wrote, “By far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people.” Jefferson knew that educating children would strengthen our country.  And that is still true today.

Today, a good education can provide a ticket to the middle class. And when all students have the chance to learn, we strengthen our future workforce and economy.

But M. President, nearly everyone agrees that our nation’s current education law – No Child Left Behind – is badly broken.  The bipartisan bill – the Every Child Achieves Act – that we’re debating on the floor is a strong step in the right direction to finally fixing that law. And it will help continue our nation’s tradition of making sure all students have access to a quality public education.

But, M. President, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are interested in voucherizing the public school system.  Instead of investing in our public school system, they want to send federal resources to private schools.  That would be a major step backward.

Vouchers undermine the basic goals of public education by allowing funding that is designated for our most at-risk students to be re-routed to private schools. I urge my colleagues to oppose any attempt to use federal education funds for private school vouchers.

M. President, I strongly oppose vouchers for several reasons. For one, vouchers divert much-needed resources away from public 

The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post:

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody - Garn Press

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody - Garn Press:

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody

This article originally appeared on Living In Dialogue | Anthony Cody | 2015

(This essay is also included in Anthony Cody’s book, The Educator and the Oligarch.)

By Anthony Cody.

In the summer of 2012  I traveled to Seattle and spent most of the day meeting with leaders of the Gates Foundation, discussing their work around education reform. I have been critical of the impact their agenda has had, but they expressed an interest in opening up a dialogue. This blog post was the first in a series of exchanges that  explored some of the key issues in education. I am re-posting, as these issues remain central to the ongoing debate over how to improve our schools.

In the weeks that followed we got into some nitty gritty issues, such as what it means to “measure” teacher effectiveness? What is the role of poverty in relationship to education reform? What is the purpose of a k-12 education? And what role should the drive for profit play in our schools? But as our starting point, we are took a narrower focus, and tackled something a bit more concrete. This first exchange will focus on these questions: How can educators create a strong professional culture in our schools? How do we build the teaching profession?

The Gates Foundation has presented effective teaching as the focus of its education work for the past few years. Unfortunately much of the reform work of the past few years has focused on the negative side of the teacher-effectiveness equation. Reports like “The Widget Effect” have built up the idea that American schools are places where nobody is ever fired. Films like “Waiting for Superman” have reinforced the concept that due process for teachers means we have “jobs for life.” The Gates Foundation, I believe, has actively promoted these ideas, and in 2010, Bill Gates stated on Oprah that if we could get rid of bad teachers, “our schools would shoot from the bottom of these (international) rankings to the top.”

But there seems to be a growing awareness that real growth will not come from this strategy of rooting out the bottom 5 percent of performers. We will need to do some heavy lifting to reverse some of the counterproductive work that has been done to advance that agenda—but we will save that for another post. For this discussion, I want to explore what a healthy collaborative culture looks like, and how it relates to teacher evaluation.

Let’s take a look at the best model of collaboration I have seen in recent years, the teachers at New Highland Academy in East Oakland. This team of teachers worked with the support of a team at Mills College to engage in thoughtful inquiry into their practice. They met regularly to look at student work and talk about where their students were struggling. When they looked at their students’ work, they saw that while the curriculum they were using was helping the students learn to decode, their comprehension was lagging. They chose a set of strategies to help their students to find meaning in what they read, and worked across the school to try this out.

Here is how teacher leader Aija Simmons explained it:

“The Answers” are what we all problematize. Because what “the answer” is for me in this moment might not be the 

Dialogue With the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession? by Anthony Cody - Garn Press:

4LAKids NTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS:

INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS

7/8/2015 2:57 pm EDT   ::  I am posting from Madrid, Spain where I am presenting a paper, Hacking Away at the Pearson Octopus, at the International Conference on Learning. The movement to stop the Pearson octopus' stranglehold on education is global.

In April, protesters from teacher unions and global justice groups stormed the gates at Pearson's annual general meeting held in London. Protesters accused Pearson of turning education into a commodity and profiting from low-fee private schools in poverty-stricken regions of Africa and India. They claimed is making millions by privatizing education in the global south. Pearson's Chief Executive Officer John Fallon, forced to respond to dissidents, declared his enthusiastic "support free public education for every child around the world." However he did not offer to provide Pearson's educational services for free. In 2014, Pearson reported an adjusted operating profit of £720 million (approximately $1.1 Billion) on sales of £4,874 million.

A joint letter from Great Britain's National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the organization Global Justice Now, declared "From fuelling the obsessive testing regimes that are the backbone of the 'test and punish' efforts in the global north, to supporting the predatory, 'low-fee' for-profit private schools in the global south, Pearson's brand has become synonymous with profiteering and the destruction of public education."

ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: "School curricula should not be patented and charged for. Tests should not distort what is taught and how it is assessed. Unfortunately, as the profit motive embeds itself in education systems around the world, these fundamental principles come under ever greater threat leading to greater inequality and exclusion for the most disadvantaged children and young people." Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, added the voice of American teachers to the protest movement. "We fight this kind of profit making to get kids a good education and fight for governments which gives students a high quality education."

A major player in the anti-Pearson campaign is a British organization Global Justice Now (GJN). GJN is committed to "a world where resources are controlled by the many, not the few." The group champions social movements that "propose democratic alternatives to corporate power." GJN accuses the British government's Department for International Development (DfID) of having a too cozy relationship with Pearson and using government aid money "to set up private healthcare and education in Africa and Asia which has benefited British and American companies." The DFID is heavily promoting private schooling in Pakistan where its Chief Education Representative is Sir Michael Barber, who is also Chief Education Advisor at Pearson. Barber is also chair of the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund. Under pressure because of this conflict of interest, Pearson claimed it had granted Barber a 30 day unpaid leave while he was advising the DFID in Pakistan.

According to the Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden, "aid is being used as a tool to convince, cajole and compel the majority of the world to undertake policies which help big corporations like Pearson, but which detract from the real need to promote publicly funded services that are universally accessible."

Dearden also argued "Aid should be used to support human needs by building up public services in countries that don't have the same levels of economic privilege as the UK. So it's shocking that DfID is dogmatically promoting private health and education when it's been shown that this approach actually entrenches inequality and endangers access."

GJN presented research by ActionAid on Pearson's use of tax havens to avoid tax laws and enhance corporate profits. Although it is a British company, in 2013 Pearson had at least 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS:

Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools | janresseger

Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools | janresseger:

Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools

On Monday, in the week when the Senate is taking up the reauthorization of the federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Journey for Justice Alliance sent a powerful letter to leaders in the Senate to demand that Congress shift the federal approach to public education: “The Journey for Alliance, an alliance of 38 organizations of Black and Brown parents and students in 23 states, joins with the 175 other national and local grassroots community, youth and civil rights organizations signed on below, to call on the U.S. Congress to pass an ESEA reauthorization without requiring the regime of oppressive, high states, standardized testing and sanctions that have recently been promoted as civil rights provisions within ESEA.”

The letter continues: “We respectfully disagree that the proliferation of high stakes assessments and top-down interventions are needed in order to improve our schools.  We live in the communities where these schools exist… High stakes standardized tests have been proven to harm Black and Brown children, adults, schools and communities. Curriculum is narrowed.  The results purport to show that our children are failures.  They also claim to show that our schools are failures, leading to closures or wholesale dismissal of staff.  Children in low income communities lose important relationships with caring adults when this happens.  Other good schools are destabilized as they receive hundreds of children from closed schools.  Large proportions of Black teachers lose their jobs in this process, because it is Black teachers who are often drawn to commit their skills and energies to Black children.  Standardized testing, whether intentionally or not, has negatively impacted the Black middle class, because they are the teachers, lunchroom workers, teacher aides, counselors, security staff and custodians who are fired when schools closed.”

The Journey for Justice Alliance’s letter was penned by Jitu Brown, the leader of Journey for Justice  and a Chicago community organizer.  A number of national organizations that signed on to the letter are also members of the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, including American Federation of Teachers,  Alliance for Educational Justice, Center for Popular Democracy, Gamaliel, and the Journey for Justice Alliance.

The new letter from Journey for Justice endorses four concrete recommendations for the ESEA reauthorization that were presented in a letter sent to Congress in March by the Alliance for Educational Justice: provide $1 billion in new federal investment in Community Schools that wrap medical and family social service agencies into the school building and around the families served by the school; invest $500 million in restorative justice coordinators to reduce Journey 4 Justice Alliance Demands that ESEA Stop Test-and-Punish and Improve Urban Schools | janresseger:

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?:

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti

Education advocate and retired educator Joseph Ricciotti recently published this commentary piece on the BAT Blog website.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is to be applauded for his recently announced presidential platform and for his courage as a presidential candidate to address the issues that are crucial to the future of the United States as well as emphasizing the importance of fighting for the middle class. However, what should also be included in his campaign platform as well as in the campaign platforms of other presidential candidates that is also highly significant is the future of public education in the country. Including the role of public education in the upcoming presidential is critical in order for the United States to maintain its prosperity as well as its global leadership in the decades to come. Hence, the United States needs a president with a 21st century outlook who will elevate the importance of public education as a presidential campaign issue.

Public school teachers, parents and administrators need to elevate the issue of how public education in this country is under siege and currently undergoing its greatest challenge for survival from the threat of privatization and high-stakes standardized testing. Just as Bernie Sanders believes that the middle class in our country is in jeopardy from the oligarchs, likewise oligarchs such as Bill Gates, Bill Walton, Michael Bloomberg, to name a few of the corporate education oligarch reformers, are threatening to change and destroy public education in the nation by replacing public schools with charter schools.

Sadly, in the tri-sate areas of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, we also have governors who are in the privatization camp as all three governors have implemented policies that are considered by many teachers and parents to be anti-public education and who also advocate the replacing of public schools with charter schools. Their anti-public education stance and their erroneous philosophical beliefs are evident as Governors Malloy, Cuomo and Christie have all appointed commissioners of education in their states who support and promote privatization practices. These include their support of education programs such as Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with its stifling high-stakes standardized testing which is meeting severe parent resistance throughout the nation as the “opt-out” movement spreads like wildfire.

Unfortunately, two of the tri-state governors are Democrats who supposedly belong to the political party that has always supported public education. Needless to say, support of public education is not part of the playbook of either Governor Malloy or Governor Cuomo who have earned the dubious title of “education assassins.” Their anti-education policies are meeting with fierce resistance from organizations such as BATs, United Opt Out, Save Our Schools as well as the Network for Public Education which places the political futures of these Democratic governors in jeopardy as parents and teachers in these states are working together and have formed political movements that are in opposition to the anti-education policies espoused by Malloy and Cuomo. It appears to be a political movement as these groups of parent and teacher activists are in the process of developing clearly articulated positions that are highly critical of the tri-state governors. Likewise, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel of Chicago faces similar political opposition in his political future. This also raises the fascinating question regarding whether Hillary Clinton in her campaigning for the presidency can choose to ignore this political movement.

As most public school teachers, parents and administrators are aware, our present Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been a champion of the wealthy privatization corporate reformers such as Bill Gates. Moreover, 

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?: