Supreme Court will soon decide if schools can punish students for off-campus, online speech

Supreme Court will soon decide if schools can punish students for off-campus, online speech:

Supreme Court will soon decide if schools can punish students for off-campus, online speech

 January 2014, Reid Sagehorn, a student at Rogers High School in Minnesota, jokingly tweeted “actually yeah” in response to a question about whether he had made out with one of his high school teachers.

The public school, acting on the tweet, suspended him for seven weeks. Sagehorn, a member of the National Honor Society, fought the suspension in a federal court,claiming the actions of school officials violated his First Amendment right to free speech.

Did the school have the right to punish him for his off-campus expression? It turns out – no.

In August 2015, a federal judge rejected the school officials’ motion to have the case dismissed. After all, the court found that Sagehorn made the post while away from campus, during nonschool hours, without using the school’s computers. And last month Sagehorn collected a settlement of more than US$400,000.

Sadly, Reid Sagehorn’s case is not unique. For at least the past 15 years, schools across the nation have engaged in Orwellian overreaches into the homes and bedrooms of students to punish them for their off-campus, online expression regarding classmates, teachers and administrators.

Despite the bevy of cases, the issue of whether schools can punish students for off-campus, online speech remains unresolved.

Cases where school kids were suspended

For instance, in April 2015, a federal court in Oregon considered a case called Burge v Colton School District 53 in which an eighth grader was suspended from his public middle school based upon out-of-school comments he posted on his personal Facebook page.

And in September 2014, a federal court in New York considered a case called Bradford v Norwich City School District in which a public high school student was suspended “based on a text-message conversation he had with another student regarding a third student while outside of school.”

Judge Glenn Suddaby observed in Bradford that “the Supreme Court has yet to speak Supreme Court will soon decide if schools can punish students for off-campus, online speech:

Detroit Public School Teachers Protest - The Takeaway

Detroit Public School Teachers Protest - The Takeaway:

Detroit Public School Teachers Protest

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

Hundreds of public school teachers in Detroit called in sick yesterday, effectively canceling classes in 64 city schools. The "sickout" is not officially sanctioned by the teachers' federation, but the organizers, a group called DPS Teachers Fight Back, say it is also not a strike. 

Detroit's public schools have been under emergency management since 2008, but have continue to wrack up debt. The current emergency manager in Detroit is Darnell Earley, who promised to make major budget cuts when he was appointed last January. He was also the emergency manager for the city of Flint, Michigan, and oversaw a disastrous overhaul of that city's water system. Just last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared the lead contamination in the water in Flint a state of emergency after unsafe levels had been recorded more than a year ago. 

Earley called the "sickout" in Detroit yesterday an action by a minority of public school teachers, saying it "served no purpose other than to harm and disrupt the efforts intended for those who cannot afford to lose instruction time, social building time, and time in the classrooms." 

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a former teacher and current state representative, says the teachers are not fighting for their own pay, but for improvements in basic, physical conditions so they can teach effectively. Detroit Public School Teachers Protest - The Takeaway:

Hey Malloy, Wyman and Jepsen - Connecticut children have a Constitutional Right to a quality education! - Wait What?

Hey Malloy, Wyman and Jepsen - Connecticut children have a Constitutional Right to a quality education! - Wait What?:

Hey Malloy, Wyman and Jepsen – Connecticut children have a Constitutional Right to a quality education!

Six years ago the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in the case of CCJEF v. Rell that Connecticut’s State Constitution REQUIRES that all public school students have the fundamental right to “an effective and meaningful (quality, adequate) education, the standard for which is “dynamic” and dependent on the “demands of an evolving world.”

Connecticut’s Supreme Court then sent the case to a trial judge to determine what the State of Connecticut must do to meet that standard.

However, for the past six years Governor Dannel Malloy, Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, Attorney General George Jepsen and the Malloy administration have fought to derail, destroy or dismiss this incredibly important lawsuit.

Instead of stepping up to fulfill their legal duty to the children of Connecticut, these “Democratic” politicians have devoted a massive amount of taxpayer resources in an immoral attempt to prevent Connecticut’s children (and Connecticut’s local property taxpayers) from having their “day in court.”

Despite Malloy, Wyman and Jepsen’s best efforts, the CCJEF V. RELL trial begins today.  (See CT Newsjunkie Trial on Landmark Education Funding Lawsuit Begins)

As CCJEF explained in a recent press release;

(Hartford, CT)—The landmark CCJEF v. Rell education adequacy and equity 

Hey Malloy, Wyman and Jepsen - Connecticut children have a Constitutional Right to a quality education! - Wait What?:

100,000 NYC School Children Face Airport-Style Security Screening Every Day - ProPublica

100,000 NYC School Children Face Airport-Style Security Screening Every Day - ProPublica:

100,000 NYC School Children Face Airport-Style Security Screening Every Day

Crime in the schools has dropped sharply but New York still requires students at more than 200 schools to take off their shoes and send their belongings through x-ray machines.

 This story was co-published with WNYC.

On the coldest morning New York City has seen this winter, a stream of teenage students hit a bottleneck at the front of a Brooklyn school building. They shed their jackets, gloves and belts, shivering as they wait to pass through a metal detector and send their backpacks through an x-ray machine. School safety agents stand nearby, poised to step in if the alarm bleats.

It’s an everyday occurrence for more than 100,000 middle and high school students across the city.

On this morning, as on every school day, senior Justin Feldeo prepares to be pulled aside for separate screening by a hand wand. Feldeo is studying to be a firefighter and the boots he wears for class trigger the metal detectors.

Fifteen minutes after the formal start of the school day, students are still pouring in, even later for having to go through the machines.

Almost as many New York City students run the gauntlet of x-ray machines each day as pass through the scanners at busy Miami International Airport. And the procedure is numbingly similar. Students must remove belts, shoes, and sometimes bobby pins as the wait stretches as long as an hour.

A ProPublica survey found that the daily ritual is borne disproportionately by students of color; black and Hispanic students in high school are nearly three times more likely to walk through a metal detector than their white counterparts.

Nearly 21 years after a fearful city installed them at the front doors of more than 80 schools, there are growing questions about whether the security precautions do more 100,000 NYC School Children Face Airport-Style Security Screening Every Day - ProPublica:

State to apply for federal waiver to try out new school evaluation system | POLITICO

State to apply for federal waiver to try out new school evaluation system | POLITICO:

State to apply for federal waiver to try out new school evaluation system

ALBANY — A new type of assessment system could be in the works for New York as the state Education Department plans to apply for a federal pilot program under the new Every Student Succeeds Act — a program lawmakers said was written with New York in mind.

The federal legislation, which passed in December and replaced the broad No Child Left Behind law, would initially give waivers to seven states allowing them to have a school district, or in some cases the whole state or consortium of states, the opportunity to operate a new assessment system in lieu of state tests for accountability purposes, according to federal lawmakers involved in creating the bill.

“We’re probably going to apply for any kind of relief we could have in being one of those states that does pilot programs with certain types of assessments,” state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia told POLITICO New York. “I’ve got people that are watching for that to come out so that we can be one of the ones that applies, but we don’t know if we’ll get it.”

When asked if the pilot would be for one school district or for the entire state, Elia said they would wait to see what guidance the the federal education department issues. It State to apply for federal waiver to try out new school evaluation system | POLITICO:

Attack on Public Employee Unions Is A Project of the Far Right | janresseger

Attack on Public Employee Unions Is A Project of the Far Right | janresseger:

Attack on Public Employee Unions Is A Project of the Far Right

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.  Adam Liptak of the NY Times explains what is at stake in this case: “Under California law, which is similar to ones in more than 20 other states, public employees who choose not to join unions must pay a ‘fair-share service fee,’ also known as an agency fee, which is typically equivalent to members’ dues.”  “Such fees are constitutional, the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. ‘To compel employees financially to support their collective-bargaining representative has an impact upon their First Amendment interests,’ Justice Potter Stewart wrote for the majority.  But he wrote, ‘such interference as exists is constitutionally justified’ to prevent freeloading and to ensure ‘labor peace.'”

Richard Kahlenberg writing for the Century Foundation, explains what’s at stake in this case: “The current legal framework in which courts weigh cases such as Friedrichs is narrowly constrained, balancing the free speech rights of dissenting union members against the state’s interests in promoting stable labor relations with its public employees. In the 1977 case ofAbood v. Detroit Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a sensible compromise that properly balanced these two sets of interests by splitting union dues into two categories: those that support political speech, and those that support bread-and-butter collective bargaining.  Because the First Amendment’s free speech clause provides a right to not be compelled by the state to subsidize speech with which one disagrees, dissenting public employees cannot be required by the state to join a union, or to subsidize the union’s political and lobbying efforts to promote certain positions of public  concern.”  In Abood, “the Court held, the state may prevent employees from being ‘free riders’ by compelling contribution to Attack on Public Employee Unions Is A Project of the Far Right | janresseger:

Florida’s Big Bonuses for Teachers’ High School SAT Scores Miss the Point

In her Washington Post column, Valerie Strauss recently described a scheme being implemented by Florida’s state legislature, “called ‘Florida’s Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarships’… using 44 million of taxpayer dollars to give up to $10,000 bonuses to teachers who got high SAT and ACT scores before entering college—even if they took the test decades ago.  New teachers would just need to show their test scores at or above the 80th percentile on the SAT and ACT, while veteran teachers would also have received a ‘highly effective’ evaluation rating… And now Florida lawmakers want to extend the program to go beyond one year.  In fact the House education committee recently approved a bill to do just that.  So this nonsense could easily last more than one year and waste more than $44 million.”

Strauss’s column has caused me to reflect on the qualities of the fine educators I’ve known and to marvel at the crazy logic of today’s school “reformers” who seem to need a a number to measure excellence.

I thought about Florida’s SAT bonus program when, late in December, Strauss reprinted a column from Michelle Gunderson, “a 29-year… veteran who teaches first grade in the Chicago Public Schools.  She is a doctoral student at Loyola University in curriculum and instruction.”  Ms. Gunderson describes the challenge faced by teachers when children appear mid-year, children who bring serious problems to a setting where many other children also need her attention: “One of the things you learn as an elementary teacher in the Chicago Public Schools is to always have materials available and an extra desk or space for new students.  You learn to expect the unexpected and that a child can show up on your doorstep at any minute of any day… Many times children who come to us after the first weeks of school are displaced or have parents who are seeking a school that can help their troubled child.  These were the Florida’s Big Bonuses for Teachers’ High School SAT Scores Miss the Point

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why the Coming Supreme Court Decision Might Not Be The End of the World for Teachers Unions and Labor

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why the Coming Supreme Court Decision Might Not Be The End of the World for Teachers Unions and Labor:

Why the Coming Supreme Court Decision Might Not Be The End of the World for Teachers Unions and Labor

The coming Supreme Court decision elminating mandatory dues check off by public employees unions will create a crisis in the labor movement- especially for the big national teachers unions- but it need not destroy them

A look at labor history suggests why labor supporters, and teachers union members should avoid a doomsday scenario.

The greatest gains in the history of the US labor movement took place between 1933 and 1941 when unions, without any government support for dues collection, and sometimes in the face of violent attacks from police and private armies, fought an heroic battle for workplace rights, freedom of expression and higher living standards for the nation's industrial workers. To secure these gains, they not only had to convince workers and their families to take unprecedented risks, they had to convince a majority of the people in the communities where they organized that labor's gains would improve living standards for them. Without that community support, the unions could never have won the great strikes that marked labor's struggle for recognition, especially the Minneapolis Teamsters Rebellion of 1934, and the Flint Sit-Down Strikes of 1936-37,

The labor leaders of that era were not career bureaucrats with comfortable salaries. They didn't hold conventions at fancy hotels or resorts.. They, along with their members, risked With A Brooklyn Accent: Why the Coming Supreme Court Decision Might Not Be The End of the World for Teachers Unions and Labor:

Robert Snyder's Great New Book:"Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City"

 " am in the middle of reading Robert Snyder's 'Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City' and will tell you straight out, it is one of the best pieces of New York City social history I have read in a long time. It contains incredible interview material as well as displaying a familiarity with every documentary source available and is written with clarity, insight and occasionally with eloquence. Few people have written with greater insight about how race, religion and nationality shape life in rapidly changing New York City neighborhoods. The book begins at a time when Washington Heights was a predominantly Jewish and Irish neighborhood, discusses the sometimes fierce resistance to Black and Latino migration inside its borders, covers years of disinvestment and drug epidemics and deals in great depth with the huge Dominican presence within its boundaries which is now threatened by gentrification. It was extremely helpful to me in writing the introduction to my book of Bronx Oral Histories, but I recommend it to anyone interested in NYC neighborhood life.With A Brooklyn Accent http://bit.ly/1l3didn

Acting Secretary of Education Dr. John King Jr. is unfazed by politics - CBS News

Acting Secretary of Education Dr. John King Jr. is unfazed by politics - CBS News:

Acting secretary of education is unfazed by politics

The new acting secretary of education, Dr. John King Jr., steps into a role his predecessor, Arne Duncan, left deep in controversy. With support for Common Core waning and student debt skyrocketing, King faces a series of challenges.

King can already speak softly, but in his new role, he may also need to carry a big stick, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell.

In 2010, King scored New York state a $700 million federal grant. Controversy followed when, as New York's education commissioner, he rolled out Common Core standards.

Parents and teachers shouted him off the stage at a PTA meeting in 2013.

"You ended up cancelling further meetings like that?" O'Donnell asked.

"Well, we restructured them. So that meeting got to a place where it just wasn't productive. Folks were screaming and yelling, it was hard to have a real conversation," King said in an exclusive interview with "CBS This Morning."

"Why were people screaming and yelling?" O'Donnell asked.

"Some of it was the politics of the moment... Some of it was misunderstandings that folks have," King said.

Critics have said they do not need the federal government delivering standards in their states.

"It's important that folks realize that the standards are a matter of state policymaking," King said. "And what we've said...is that states need to have standards that push towards college and career readiness."

At first, 46 states adopted Common Core standards. Three states have since dropped them, and 19 more have put them under review. King will have to continue the fight for uniform standards without overstepping the bounds of his federal role.

"You went from this school to becoming the first African-American education commissioner, the first Puerto Rican education commissioner of New York. What does that mean to you?" O'Donnell asked.

"I think it's a testament to what's possible if students have the right opportunities," King said. "Teachers could've looked at me and said, 'You know, here's a African-American/Latino student, difficult family situation. What chance does he have?' And they could've given up on me. But they didn't."

The teachers King called "life-saving" taught at P.S. 276 in Brooklyn, which CBS News visited with King.

"My mom also worked here and was a guidance counselor here. And so it felt like home," King said. "And then my mom passed away when I was in fourth grade, and school took on a different role in my life."

He was just eight years old when he lost his mother and 12 when he lost his father, who was once the highest-ranking African-American educator in the country, and who later suffered from undiagnosed Alzheimer's disease.

"I can recall one night -- he woke me up at, like, two in the morning, said it was time to go to school," King said. "And I can remember holding onto the banister Acting Secretary of Education Dr. John King Jr. is unfazed by politics - CBS News:

More Detroit schools closed; mayor to tour some buildings - Times Union

More Detroit schools closed; mayor to tour some buildings - Times Union:

More Detroit schools closed; mayor to tour some buildings

DETROIT (AP) — At least two dozen Detroit public schools were closed Tuesday as teacher sick-outs forced officials to again keep students at home, although the number of schools affected was not as high as a day earlier.

Mayor Mike Duggan, meanwhile, planned to visit schools with health officials after complaints from a labor union that some school buildings are moldy and infested with rodents.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers is not part of the sick-out, which teachers have undertaken to protest pay and large class sizes, among other things. But union officials complained Monday about conditions in the schools after about half of them had to close because of a wave of teacher absences described by an activist as "rolling strikes."

"This is why those sick-outs happened," the union's interim president, Ivy Bailey, told reporters while displaying photographs of mold in schools.

More than half of Detroit's 100 public schools were closed Monday, idling thousands of kids.

Duggan said he understands the teachers' frustrations but urged them to return to work. He also urged state officials "to move quickly to address these pressing educational problems."

A teacher and former union president, Steve Conn, said the shutdowns were "great." Conn had warned the district Sunday that parents needed to be notified about the "rolling strikes."

Snyder has called for the state to commit $715 million over a decade to address the district's $500 million debt and relaunch the district under a new name. The plan includes a reorganization that could lead to closing independent, publicly funded charter schools, where more than half of Detroit students are enrolled. However, Snyder's plan has yet to receive support in the Legislature — including from fellow Republicans.

The district's emergency manager, Darnell Earley, said in a statement that officials "understand and share" the frustrations of teachers but that the teacher absences make it "more challenging" to reach a political solution with state lawmakers.

State schools Superintendent Brian Whiston said he has scheduled a meeting with Earley to discuss health and safety concerns brought up by the teachers' union. Whiston did not say when the meeting would take place.More Detroit schools closed; mayor to tour some buildings - Times Union:

Legislature shouldn’t put charter schools on the back burner | The Seattle Times

Legislature shouldn’t put charter schools on the back burner | The Seattle Times:

Legislature shouldn’t put charter schools on the back burner
State lawmakers must act to keep charter schools alive in Washington in a way that aligns closely with the original, voter-approved initiative.

 By Seattle Times editorial board

After the state Supreme Court delivered a devastating blow to Washington’s new charter schools, lawmakers must act to save this important option for families.

In 2012, Washington voters approved the creation of charter schools as public schools that would operate independently using taxpayer dollars. But the court ruled last year that charter schools do not qualify as “common schools,” a term for most public schools in the state, and therefore cannot receive public dollars that are restricted to common schools under the state constitution.

The state Legislature must tailor a solution that maintains the intent of the charter school law without running afoul of the constitution.

The good news is that state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are acting with urgency to keep charter schools alive and have proposed two bills to fix the problem.

More than 1,300 students enrolled in the state’s nine charter schools last fall. In their brief existence, the schools have energized students and parents, who wanted an alternative to traditional public schools. Charters have more options in their approach to serving students, including offering more days of instruction, more training for teachers and specialized curriculum.

Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, and Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Renton, have proposed an approach that is most promising in mirroring the charter school bill and allowing charter schools to continue and new ones to start. Senate Bill 6194 would use the Washington Opportunities Pathways account to pay for charter schools and other publicly funded education programs that also don’t qualify as common schools, such as tribal schools and the Running Start program.

The account, funded by the state lottery proceeds, doesn’t touch common schools money and has paid for a variety of programs, including college scholarships and early childhood education.

Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, and Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, proposed Senate Bill 6163 to put charter schools under the supervision of local school boards. That might help the two Spokane schools that already operate under their local school board, but does not assure that districts in other parts of the state would show the same willingness to oversee charter schools.

A hearing on both bills is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Senate is likely to pass a solution, but the path is less certain in the House, where the teachers union that opposes charter schools holds more sway. Speaker Frank Chopp and Education committee Chair Sharon Tomiko Santos need to ensure there are hearings and votes on worthy proposals.

Gov. Jay Inslee has never been a champion of charter schools. He needs to show some leadership and help the Legislature craft a bill he will sign.

In this short session, lawmakers must show progress toward fully funding basic education in this state. Some suggest that the charter schools issue is a distraction from that important job. Nonsense.

Charter schools are an important part of meeting the needs of all of our state’s students. The Legislature can do both.

Editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Ryan Blethen, Brier Dudley, Mark Higgins, Jonathan Martin, Thanh Tan, Blanca Torres, William K. Blethen (emeritus) and Robert C. Blethen (emeritus).Legislature shouldn’t put charter schools on the back burner | The Seattle Times:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Off to Olympia (with this story in my brain)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Off to Olympia (with this story in my brain):

Off to Olympia (with this story in my brain)

I was interviewed last Friday for a KUOW story by Ann Dornfeld on the legislative efforts to save the (former) charter schools.  It played today.  Astonishing.
It explained the two current bills in play.  One is SB 6163 by Senator Andy Billig and Senator Michael Baumgartner of Spokane; the other bill is from Senator Steve Litzow, Mullet, Fain and Hobbs, SB 6194. (House companion bill is HB 2367.) 

SB 6163 would basically make school BOARDs (not districts, boards), the only authorizers for charter schools.  In the old law, school districts and the Charter Commission could both be authorizers (once a district had applied and been approved.)  In this law, the Charter Commission? Gone.

And, under the old law, there wasn't exactly a gold rush of districts who even applied to be charter authorizers.  There ended up being just one.

But, it solve both problems with the old law - elected oversight that leads to access to state education funding. (But you can imagine how polarizing this could make school board elections.)

SB 6163 is vague and kinda incoherent.  They still have a conversion clause but the mystery now is how it works.  There is no explanation that I can find.  It expands a charter contract from five years (old law) to seven years (this bill.)   No and no.

Litzow's bill would only work on the funding issue.

State Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, is co-sponsoring a bill with a different source: lottery money. The change would affect not only charters but other non-traditional public schools, such as tribal schools and the state schools for the deaf and blind.

“We are funding them out of the Opportunity Pathways, which is the account funded by the lottery," Litzow said.

This is always a big question that gets asked - doesn't lottery money go to Seattle Schools Community Forum: Off to Olympia (with this story in my brain):



 Big Education Ape: Second Charter School Fix is also a Framework for Fraud http://bit.ly/1l33Pmr

La. Governor John Bel Edwards’ Inaugural Speech (and Some Commentary) | deutsch29

La. Governor John Bel Edwards’ Inaugural Speech (and Some Commentary) | deutsch29:

La. Governor John Bel Edwards’ Inaugural Speech (and Some Commentary)

I became involved in the fight against corporate education reform in March 2012 as part of the effort to recall Bobby Jindal as Louisiana governor.

With the backing and influence of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Jindal had the Stepford-household allegiance of most of the 2012 Louisiana legislature, which had in March 2012 advanced with lightening speed Acts 1 (“Teacher Tenure” Law) and 2 (Vouchers). Also in late 2011, Bush had helped Jindal seat a state ed board (BESE) that would approve Jindal’s choice for corporate-reform-promoting state superintendent, Teach for America (TFA) ladder climber, John White.

In 2012, our efforts to recall Bobby Jindal did not work, but it is January 11, 2016, and he is gone now.

Jindal left Louisiana in a major budgetary crisis, and he used his position as governor to try to advance his own career, one that he hoped would lead to the White House either in 2012 or 2016.

That did not happen.

What also did not happen was the assumed shoe-in of another Republican who puts his career first, US Senator David Vitter, as next Louisiana governor.

When Vitter lost to Edwards, he announced that he would not run again for the US La. Governor John Bel Edwards’ Inaugural Speech (and Some Commentary) | deutsch29: "a"

Brown says it’s time to abandon API to judge schools’ performance | EdSource

Brown says it’s time to abandon API to judge schools’ performance | EdSource:

Brown says it's time to abandon API to judge schools' performance

Members of the State Board of Education who favor replacing the three-digit Academic Performance Index with a “dashboard” of measurements highlighting school performance can count on the backing of Gov. Jerry Brown.

The K-12 summary (pages 22-23) of Brown’s proposed 2016-17 state budget, released last week, stated, “The state system should include a concise set of performance measures, rather than a single index.” Brown said the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act creates the opportunity to design a “more accurate picture of school performance and progress” than in the past.

But whether the state should or even can switch, under the new federal law, from a single index like the API to a more complex school improvement system will be a potentially contentious issue this year. Both approaches to accountability, the dashboard with multiple measures – such as test scores, high school graduation rates and an indicator of student readiness for college and jobs – and a single index compiled from a mix of factors, have strong advocates.

The state board is in the process of drafting a new school accountability system and will continue the debate at its meeting on Wednesday (see agenda, Items 1 and 2). A state consultant, attorney Julia Martin, will outline how the state board may have to tailor its concept of school improvement to meet the requirements of the new federal law, which Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed last month as the successor to the No Child Left Behind Act.

The API rates schools and districts on a scale of 200 to 1,000, based on standardized test results. The Legislature established it in 1999. But with the passage of the Local Control Funding Formula and the transition to the Common Core standards in English language arts and math, accompanied by a new set of state tests, the state board suspended calculating the API two years ago. While the board hasn’t yet voted of get rid of it, members, led by President Michael Kirst, appear inclined to.

The Local Control Funding Formula, the school funding and accountability law that Brown proposed and the Legislature adopted in 2013, calls for a Brown says it’s time to abandon API to judge schools’ performance | EdSource:

Ed Notes Online: Nancy Carlson-Paige on Childhood and Play Plus My Student Shares Some Memories

Ed Notes Online: Nancy Carlson-Paige on Childhood and Play Plus My Student Shares Some Memories:

Nancy Carlson-Paige on Childhood and Play Plus My Student Shares Some Memories

It’s in low-income, under-resourced communities like this one where children are most subjected to heavy doses of teacher-led drills and tests. Not like in wealthier suburbs where kids have the opportunity to go to early childhood programs that have play, the arts, and project-based learning. It’s poverty — the elephant in the room — that is the root cause of this disparity.
 ..... Nancy Carlson-Paige

I understood exactly what Nancy is talking about when I found myself teaching in one of the poorest communities in the city. The neihborhood was considered dangerous and some parents did not let their kids out to play, especially the girls. I knew I had to close the play gap. 

I taught upper elementary grades and always believe in the value of play, ---didn't need no stink'n research--- or theory--  but from observing the impact of play on my kids and how positively it affected my kids and the classroom atmosphere. I used a lot of trips and took them to places they would never get to go with their families. There were lousy playgrounds - if at all - in Williamsburg so when I found a bunch of them state of the art playgrounds in Central Park, they became a regular haunt on our trips. They had rubberized equipment and sand all around. Oh the joy I saw on their faces.

Early childhood expert Nancy Carlson-Paige talked about the loss of play in her speech accepting the Deborah Meier Award. Valerie Strauss in her WAPO column publishes Nancy's speech in full. (Nancy also happens to be great actor Matt Damon's mom.) 

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become —

Play is the primary engine of human growth; it’s universal – as much as walking and talking. Play is the way children build ideas and how they make sense of their experience and feel safe. Just look at all the math concepts at work in the intricate buildings of kindergartners. Or watch a 4-year-old put on a cape and pretend to be a superhero after witnessing some scary event.

Recently, a bunch of my former students from almost 40 years ago have connected on Facebook and were remembering some of the things I did with them -- and here one of them touches on some things she remembered, especially on the trips and how she interacted with strangers. 

Mr. Scott you did take us to see a few movies Grease, Wiz with Michael Jackson a few more can't remember the Ed Notes Online: Nancy Carlson-Paige on Childhood and Play Plus My Student Shares Some Memories:

F is for Friedrichs… and Freeloader: A Supreme Court Nightmare | gadflyonthewallblog

F is for Friedrichs… and Freeloader: A Supreme Court Nightmare | gadflyonthewallblog:

F is for Friedrichs… and Freeloader: A Supreme Court Nightmare

Say you’re on an airplane flying high over the Rockies.

The plane is going down.

You need a parachute.

Luckily, before you took off, all the passengers got together and pooled their money to buy them.

There’s enough for everyone. We’re all going to make it out of this alive.

People line up at the doors getting ready to jump.

Right in front of you is a lady with a sour look on her face.

“I can’t believe they’re making us pay for these parachutes,” she says.

“Really?” you reply. “Don’t you want one?”

“Sure I do!” she says. “I just don’t think I should be forced to pay for it.”

You give her a look. You can’t help it.

“But how else can they buy the parachutes?” you say.

She puts her hands on her hips and says, “There are some people on other airplanes F is for Friedrichs… and Freeloader: A Supreme Court Nightmare | gadflyonthewallblog:

CURMUDGUCATION: Ranking Is Not Measuring

CURMUDGUCATION: Ranking Is Not Measuring:

Ranking Is Not Measuring

This point came up in passing a few days ago when I was reviewing some writing by Mark Garrison,
but it is worth hammering home all by itself.

We have been told repeatedly that we need to take the Big Standardized Tests so that we can hold schools accountable and tell whether our teachers are succeeding or not. "Of course we need accountability systems," the policy makers say. "Don't you want to know how well we're doing?"

And then we rank schools and teachers and students. But ranking is not measuring.

Would you rather be operated on by a top-ranking surgeon or one who was the bottom of his class? What if the former is the top graduate of Bob's Backyard School of Surgical Stuff and the latter is the bottom of Harvard Medical School? Would you like homework help from the dumbest person in MENSA or the smartest person in a 6th grade remedial class? And does that prompt you to ask what we even mean by "dumb" or "smart"? 

"But hey," you may reply. "If I'm going to rank people by a particular quality, I have to measure that quality, don't I?"

Of course not. You can find the tallest student in a classroom without measuring any of them. You can find the heaviest box of rocks by using a scale that doesn't ever tell you how much they weigh. Ranking requires no actual measurement at all.

Not only that, but when we are forced to measure, ranking encourages us to do it badly. Many qualities or characteristics would best be described or measured with a many-dimensional matrix with a dozen different axes. But to rank-- we have to reduce complex multidimensional CURMUDGUCATION: Ranking Is Not Measuring:

LAUSD board picks long-time administrator Michelle King as new superintendent | 89.3 KPCC

LAUSD board picks long-time administrator Michelle King as new superintendent | 89.3 KPCC:

LAUSD board picks long-time administrator Michelle King as new superintendent

After months of speculation and a closed-door search process, the seven members of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education announced on Monday that they have selected long-time district administrator Michelle King to be the district's next superintendent.

King, 54, has served as the district's chief deputy superintendent since October 2014. She has worked in the district since 1984, first as a life sciences teacher and then in a variety of academic and administrative roles, including as a high school principal, local district superintendent and the district's chief instructional officer for secondary schools. 

Her appointment caps a months-long national search for an educational leader who can fix the school district’s financial and academic problems. 

All eyes will be on how the new superintendent will turn around the school district’s dire financial outlook and raise academic achievement levels that have been inching up but are still far below state averages.

In November, a financial review panel commissioned by Cortines reported that the district faces a $333 million budget deficit by the 2017-18 school year and that shortfall could grow to more than $600 million two years after that.

The report found that the school district lost 100,000 students in the past six years, in part due to an exodus to independent charter schools. Additionally, a 2012 state LAUSD board picks long-time administrator Michelle King as new superintendent | 89.3 KPCC: