In Sacramento, Parents Pitching In

Parents Pitching In:
Parents Pitching In
In Sacramento, the school district is getting moms and dads involved, which helps their kids—and the schools

 When Judy Mont­gomery’s daugh­ter star­ted kinder­garten in 1984, she did what came nat­ur­ally: She joined a par­ent coun­cil at her Sac­ra­mento school. “I just star­ted vo­lun­teer­ing and tak­ing on lead­er­ship roles,” she said. “It’s what my mom did. I was raised with that—it’s what you did.”

As she guided her three chil­dren through the Cali­for­nia cap­it­al’s pub­lic schools, she pro­gressed from a vo­lun­teer to a part-time par­ent­al ad­vis­ory role that al­lowed her to serve as a li­ais­on between par­ents and the school dis­trict. Her in­volve­ment be­came more than a hobby: When she needed a job in 1996, she be­came a sev­enth-grade teach­er. After sev­en years in front of a classroom, she be­came an ad­min­is­trat­or and, in 2012, the prin­cip­al of Mat­suyama Ele­ment­ary School, where half of the stu­dents come from poor fam­il­ies.

Her unique ex­per­i­ence—from con­cerned par­ent to teach­er to prin­cip­al—made her ap­pre­ci­ate the im­port­ance of par­ent­al in­volve­ment to a school’s suc­cess. So, last fall, she jumped at the chance to join the school dis­trict’s Par­ent Lead­er­ship Path­ways pro­gram, which shows par­ents and care­givers how they can play a more act­ive role in their child’s edu­ca­tion. This is es­pe­cially use­ful at the Mat­suyama school, with a his­tory as a less di­verse, more af­flu­ent stu­dent body that can make it harder for new, non­white par­ents to feel at home.

The Sac­ra­mento City Uni­fied School Dis­trict star­ted the pro­gram in 2010 as a way to bet­ter serve par­ents while en­list­ing them as part­ners, as part of a stra­tegic plan that stressed fam­ily en­gage­ment. This was a chal­len­ging task in this ra­cially and eth­nic­ally di­verse city, where the av­er­age fam­ily earns $20,000 a year less than statewide. Among the dis­trict’s 43,000 stu­dents, 71 per­cent are poor enough to qual­i­fy for a sub­sid­ized lunch. Many stu­dents come from fam­il­ies of im­mig­rants; 38 per­cent speak a lan­guage oth­er than Eng­lish at home, primar­ily Span­ish but also Hmong, Vi­et­namese, Rus­si­an, Chinese, and more than three dozen oth­er tongues. The pro­gram of­fers par­ents a crash course of sorts, cov­er­ing everything from us­ing so­cial me­dia to nav­ig­at­ing Cali­for­nia’s sys­tem of pub­lic high­er edu­ca­tion, in 30 weekly, two-hour-long ses­sions.

“Schools can’t run without par­ents,” par­ent-turned-prin­cip­al Mont­gomery said—and the schol­ar­ship backs her up. Stud­ies have shown con­sist­ently that chil­dren with par­ents who are more in­volved per­form bet­ter aca­dem­ic­ally. Wil­li­am Jeynes, an edu­ca­tion pro­fess­or at Cali­for­nia State Uni­versity (Long Beach), looked at 77 stud­ies in­volving more than 300,000 stu­dents as part of a meta-ana­lys­is pub­lished by the Har­vard Fam­ily Re­search Pro­ject. He found that chil­dren with more-en­gaged par­ents per­formed “sub­stan­tially high­er” in school, scor­ing sev­en-tenths of a grade bet­ter than their peers with less-in­volved par­ents. That’s the dif­fer­ence between a B+ and an A.

From the stand­point of child de­vel­op­ment, par­ent­al in­volve­ment mat­ters for sev­er­al reas­ons, ac­cord­ing to Nancy Hill, a de­vel­op­ment­al psy­cho­lo­gist and pro­fess­or of edu­ca­tion at the Har­vard Gradu­ate School of Edu­ca­tion. First and fore­most, par­ents or care­givers rep­res­ent a sta­bil­iz­ing force in a child’s life. Bey­ond that, by vo­lun­teer­ing at a school, par­tic­u­larly at the ele­ment­ary level, par­ents can find out how the school func­tions and make im­port­ant con­tacts with­in the build­ing. They can also watch their child in the classroom and gauge her or his style of learn­ing. When par­ents un­der­stand what’s hap­pen­ing at school, they can ap­ply the same ex­pect­a­tions and rules at home—a “com­mon lan­guage,” in Hill’s words.

For many par­ents and care­givers, spend­ing time at school isn’t easy. Someone work­ing two jobs might be hard-pressed to de­vote an even­ing a week to school activ­it­ies. Par­ents who don’t speak Eng­lish may feel in­tim­id­ated or simply un­able to com­mu­nic­ate with the school staff. In some Lat­in Amer­ic­an cul­tures, Hill noted, a par­ent who ex­presses con­cern to a teach­er might be con­sidered rude.

Re­gard­less of these im­ped­i­ments, it’s im­port­ant that schools try to get par­ents in­volved, ex­perts say, and in a way that re­flects the di­versity of the stu­dent body. Too of­ten, the same par­ents vo­lun­teer for everything, Hill said—“and then you have sys­tem­at­ic­ally left out en­tire voices, or even some­times en­tire sub­pop­u­la­tions.”

The Sac­ra­mento cur­riculum for par­ents is split in­to three courses—“Emer­ging,” “Learn­ing,” and “Lead­ing”—each re­quir­ing par­ents to at­tend weekly ses­sions for 10 weeks. The first level be­gins with some ba­sic yet vi­tal con­cepts such as main­tain­ing open com­mu­nic­a­tion between par­ents and chil­dren. The middle course ex­plains the Com­mon Core stand­ards, which Cali­for­nia ad­op­ted in 2010, and how to keep tabs on­line on their child’s per­form­ance, among oth­er top­ics. The last course pre­pares par­ents for lead­er­ship roles in the dis­trict, teach­ing them how to en­list the sup­port of oth­er par­ents and to or­gan­ize pro­jects in their school. Par­ents also learn how to fa­cil­it­ate a meet­ing, ana­lyze data, and un­der­stand the nu­ances of group dy­nam­ics.

The goal of the fi­nal set of classes is to dis­cov­er com­munity lead­ers who can help the schools and their ad­min­is­tra­tion. School of­fi­cials hope to en­cour­age par­ents to “build that con­fid­ence so that they can run for some sort of po­s­i­tion,” said Tu Moua-Car­roz, an as­sist­ant su­per­in­tend­ent who over­sees the ef­fort. Some of the roughly 400 par­ents who en­roll in the pro­gram each year will wind up on a school site coun­cil or in a lead­er­ship role in a Par­ent Teach­er As­so­ci­ation or a sim­il­ar group. The courses can also serve as a place for im­mig­rants to prac­tice their Eng­lish.

Susana Bravo, a 46-year-old Mex­ic­an im­mig­rant with two chil­dren in the Sac­ra­mento pub­lic school sys­tem, raves about the pro­gram, which she com­pleted last Parents Pitching In:

City charter suit caught up in high court turmoil

City charter suit caught up in high court turmoil:

City charter suit caught up in high court turmoil 

A charter-schools suit with major financial implications for the Philadelphia School District is one of 27 cases caught up in the turnover of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Back in September 2014, the court heard arguments in the case that centers on the School Reform Commission's authority to manage charter-school growth in the financially distressed district.

The court never ruled.

And now that only three of the justices who heard the arguments are still on the bench, the court last week said it would resubmit the case and decide it based on the legal briefs that have already been filed.

That would allow the newest members of the court to participate in this and the other cases that preceded their arrival.

Josh Wilson, a court spokesman, said Tuesday that the 27 so-called resubmissions were unusual and reflected the unprecedented changes in the makeup of the seven-member panel.

"Certainly the extensive turnover on the court is unprecedented in modern history," he said. "We have three new justices.

The charter-school suit brought by West Philadelphia Achievement Charter Elementary School contends that the SRC illegally suspended parts of the state School Code to cap charter enrollment in 2013 and then threatened to close schools that did not sign agreements with enrollment maximums.

The school also asks the state's top court to rule that the 1998 law that led to the state

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20160127_City_charter_suit_caught_up_in_high-court_turmoil.html#kz0BOLI8boL7i6Kb.99

How Math Class Has Evolved From the Progressive-Education Movement to the Common Core - The Atlantic

How Math Class Has Evolved From the Progressive-Education Movement to the Common Core - The Atlantic:

The Man Who Tried to Kill Math in America

One educators’ reform efforts in the early 20th century say a lot about current attacks on the Common Core.

The Common Core math standards have been contentious since they were launched several years ago, with many parents taking to social media to complain about their kids getting incomprehensible homework. Kids are now expected, for example, to explain how multiplication works using the “box” and “lattice” methods. These methods take longer, and are harder to master at first, but have been shown by some research to be more effective than the multiply-and-carry method, particularly for kids who have trouble memorizing things. And while they may be new for this generation of parents, they have been around since at least the 13th century.    

The research and philosophy behind the new math standards aren’t new either: They mirror the ideas espoused by the Mathematical Association of America’s National Committee on Mathematical Requirements, which formed in 1916 and put together a plan to reform math education in the United States. Until then, math education consisted of few attempts at helping students reach a deeper understanding. One impetus for reform was that, while the country had become a leader in technological and industrial innovation in the early 20th century, and while more students were taking algebra and geometry than before, many of its schools had yet to be as sophisticated or academically rigorous as those in Europe.

The suggestions contained in the committee’s 600-page-plus report, “The Reorganization of Mathematics in Secondary Education,” should be familiar to anyone who has pored over the Common Core standards. They encouraged the teaching of algebra concepts as early as the sixth grade. They promoted understanding over rote memorization using practical math applications. They stressed the importance of a solid math education—including in areas like geometry and even trigonometry—for all students, whether they go into engineering or philosophy, college or the workforce.

One of the primary purposes of math education, the authors stated, was “to develop those habits of thought and of action which will make these powers effective in the life of the individual.” But no matter how exhaustive, the report did not bring about the changes for which the committee had hoped.

That initiative gave way to the increasingly popular progressive education-reform How Math Class Has Evolved From the Progressive-Education Movement to the Common Core - The Atlantic:

EXCLUSIVE: Common Core and ESSA: Part 9 | Diane Ravitch's blog

EXCLUSIVE: Common Core and ESSA: Part 9 | Diane Ravitch's blog:

EXCLUSIVE: Common Core and ESSA: Part 9

This is the ninth and final installment in a series of exchanges about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). I wrote the questions, and David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander, wrote the answers.

I may have overlooked important issues. David has agreed to write a follow-up post if there are any additional questions that need explaining. I thank David Cleary, other members of the staff, and especially Senator Alexander for taking the time to explain the ramifications of the new law.

How does ESSA affect Common Core? Some says ESSA “locks in” CCSS. True or false.

Short answer: No. This one is absolutely the biggest whopper we’ve heard.

Some advocates have tried to pretend that there were no mandates to adopt Common Core, but in the same breath point with glee to how many states adopted Common Core in order to secure a waiver from the broken NCLB or a grant under Race to the Top.

States are completely, totally, 100 percent free to set their standards on their own and relegate the Common Core State Standards to history, if they choose.

Long Answer:

States do have to have academic standards in order to receive federal education funds. That’s been a federal requirement for a very long time.

Here’s what the new law requires:

States have to have “challenging State academic standards.” This requirement has been in effect since at least the 1994 Improving America’s Schools Act. But “challenging” means what the states want it to mean. The Secretary and peer reviewers are strictly prohibited from EXCLUSIVE: Common Core and ESSA: Part 9 | Diane Ravitch's blog:

 The series about the new Every Student Succeeds Act is concluded. I want to thank Senator Lamar Alexander and his staff, especially David P. Cleary, chief of staff, for responding to my questions. I know that readers have additional questions or want clarifications of some of the statements. The new law is the result of negotiations between the two parties. Questions will inevitably arise as the new law is implemented. Meanwhile, feel free to submit your questions and you can be sure that Senator Alexander’s staff will answer them as best they can. Let me add that there are things in this law I like, and things I don’t like. I will spell those out in a separate post.

Here Are All the Links on ESSA Series: Ask Your Own Questions

Here are the links to each of the posts written by Senator Lamar Alexander’s staff.

1. ESSA and Testing

2. ESSA and Teacher Evaluation

3. ESSA and the Bottom 5% of Schools

4. ESSA and Opt Outs

5. ESSA and Special Education

6. ESSA and Teacher Education

7. ESSA and Charter Schools

8. ESSA and the Federal Role

9. ESSA and Common Core

http://dianeravitch.net/2016/01/27/here-are-all-the-links-on-essa-series-ask-your-own-questions/

Gambling on Fast-Track Teachers in Nevada and Beyond and Personalized Learning

Gambling on Fast-Track Teachers in Nevada and Beyond and Personalized Learning:

Gambling on Fast-Track Teachers in Nevada and Beyond and Personalized Learning

Nevada school officials claim they can’t find 1,000 teachers to fill their classrooms.Education Week is claiming this isn’t much different than what’s found in the rest of the country. In the middle of it all you will think about Personalized Learning.Education Week won’t let you forget it.

If you don’t have a need for teachers where you live—wait for it. It’s coming. This article looks at Clark County which includes Las Vegas.

In Nevada, the problem seems to be a growing Hispanic population; surges in student-enrollment; teacher retirements; and fewer young people wanting to go into teaching.

The stakeholders—including education schools, business leaders, and lawmakers—are Gambling on Fast-Track Teachers in Nevada and Beyond and Personalized Learning:

Our Fading Understanding of the Common Good | janresseger

Our Fading Understanding of the Common Good | janresseger:
Our Fading Understanding of the Common Good

 At the top of this blog is a quote from the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who describes our “nation of citizens called to a common purpose… tied to one another by a common bond.”  Wellstone is defining the idea of public responsibility—the common good.  A quaint notion these days. Think about the verbs in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “We the People… establish… insure… provide…promote… secure… to ourselves and our posterity.”

More and more often today we seem to accept a very different notion: that good people are the ones “who give back.”  They have done well, and so they contribute through their charitable foundations or donate to the many causes or services they choose to support.  Notice that the operative verbs in this transaction are “to give” and “to choose.” A gift is very different than an obligation because giving grants power to the donor who gets to choose the recipient the giver deems worthy.  People who present gifts also get to choose what to give and and how much. The Preamble to our U.S. Constitution defines the recipient a little differently: “ourselves”—all of us—and “our posterity”—all of our children their children.

In Monday’s NY Times, in response to the disaster of Flint, Michigan’s lead-poisoned drinking water, Paul Krugman distinguishes between government spending on social insurance programs, Medicaid and Social Security—topics he explains are of understandable public debate due to ideological conflicts about the philosophy of government—and public goods:

“There should, however, be much less debate about spending on what Econ 101 calls public goods—things that benefit everyone and can’t be provided by the private sector.  Yes, we can differ over exactly how big a military we need or how dense and well-maintained the road network should be, but you wouldn’t expect controversy about spending enough to provide key public goods like basic education or safe drinking water.  Yet a funny thing has happened as hard-line conservatives have taken over many U.S. state governments.  Or actually, it’s not funny at all.  Not surprisingly, they have sought to cut social insurance spending on the poor.  In fact, many state governments dislike spending on the poor so much that they are rejecting a Our Fading Understanding of the Common Good | janresseger:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Fordham Alumni For Change Moving Forward

With A Brooklyn Accent: Fordham Alumni For Change Moving Forward:

Fordham Alumni For Change Moving Forward

Great meeting last night of Fordham Alumni for Change. We had alumni there from the class of 1971, 1979, 1997, 2000, 2004 along with one Fordham senior and several more recent grads Marlene Taylor-Ponterotto brought the food and we had many productive discussions about strategy. For those alums who weren't able to make it, or who live in other parts of the country, here are a few highlights of the discussion

1. Some kind of permanent organization is going to be created in the next few months, either by reviving and transforming the Black and Latino Alumni Association or creating an entirely new group. Either way, the group will be open to ALL alumni who want Fordham to be a more diverse community, a place where people of all back grounds are welcomed and where the Bronx, its people and culture are honored rather than walled off and shunned.

2. Some time in April there is going to be an Anti-Racism/ Anti-Gentrification vigil organized outside the gates of the Rose Hill Campus organized by alumni, students and community groups. More information about this will be available as plans for this event proceed

3. One of the biggest goals of the group is to entirely change the Narrative about the Bronx that shapes student recruitment, With A Brooklyn Accent: Fordham Alumni For Change Moving Forward:

Snake Oil (and vouchers) Don't Work. Community Schools, Do! - Lily's Blackboard

Snake Oil (and vouchers) Don't Work. Community Schools, Do! - Lily's Blackboard:

Snake Oil (and vouchers) Don’t Work. Community Schools, Do!

It’s fitting that “National School Choice Week,” the annual promotion of vouchers, tuition tax credits, and other schemes that siphon money from public schools and take opportunities away from students, falls in January. Everything about “school choice” leaves students out in the cold.

School choice is about schools that take public money, hand it over to private schools that have little or no accountability to taxpayers, and then pick and choose their students. Our students deserve more than this coldhearted, profit-driven approach to education. They deserve something that puts their needs front and center, providing the support and tools to help them flourish.

There’s a great model in place across the nation: community schools. We’re part of the Coalition for Community Schools, and I’ll be sharing NEA’s perspective this April as a featured speaker at the coalition’s National Forum.

These schools are first and foremost places of learning, but what sets them apart is their focus on the entire child. They can include partnerships with doctors, social service providers, mentors, and more, offering everything from medical care and counseling for students, to job resources and emergency assistance for parents.

Commonsense tells us that students can’t focus inside the classroom if their basic needs aren’t metoutside the classroom. That’s the premise of community schools.

Each of these schools is different because every community is different. At the outset, parents, educators, and community partners come together to figure out what the students’ needs are. They devise a plan based and pull in partners that can help. They change and update the plan as needed, responding to any gaps that exist.

Community schools are dynamic, constantly adapting to what’s happening around them. They’re influenced by what happens around them and because of that, they have an influence that goes well beyond the school doors. I visited one of them last year: Brooklyn Center Arts and IB Community High School. I was over-the-moon excited by what I saw – and so is the entire city. The school district adopted the community schools model in 2009.

Brooklyn Center is a city of about 30,000 just northwest of Minneapolis, on the banks of the Mississippi River. It’s part of a metropolitan area of about 3.2 million people. More than 43 percent of Brooklyn Center’s public school students are Black, 22 percent are Hispanic, 16 percent are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 16 percent are White. More than 21 percent are English Language learners, and 80 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. Many are recent Snake Oil (and vouchers) Don't Work. Community Schools, Do! - Lily's Blackboard:

 

CPS seeks $10 million from convicted Barbara Byrd-Bennett

CPS seeks $$$ from BBB:
CPS seeks $$$ from BBB

Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool is demanding that his convicted predecessor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, reimburse the cash-strapped school district about $10 million — or triple the salary she was paid at CPS and the kickbacks promised her.

Last fall, Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty to a scheme to get a 10 percent kickback from contracts granted to SUPES Academy, a north suburban principal training company that once employed her.

The woman once affectionately known as B3 was done in by her own audacious emails demanding a college fund for her twin grandsons. In one, she claimed she had “tuitions to pay and casinos to visit.”

Now Claypool wants to throw the book at Byrd-Bennett, using a state law that allows government agencies to go after corrupt individuals or contractors to the tune of triple the amount paid to those criminals.

Triple damages for the $893,000 Byrd-Bennett was paid over three years in total salary and benefits would amount to about $2.6 million. Three times Byrd-Bennett’s 10 percent kickback on the $23 million SUPES contracts would amount to about $7 million.

The fact that Byrd-Bennett never got that 10 percent kickback matters little to CPS. The school district can still pursue those damages.

CPS is also seeking to recover money spent on outside legal fees — it’s spent about $300,000 to date — and compensation for internal staff time spent compiling information to respond to grand jury subpoenas and countless Freedom of Information requests. The district could not immediately quantify those amounts.

Lawyers for all parties have been in conversations with CPS, but no offers are currently on the table.

Byrd-Bennett did not respond to requests for comment. Her attorney declined to comment.

As the Chicago Sun-Times has reported, she collects at least $140,000 a year in public pensions. The letters indicate that CPS could also go after insurance policies as well for her and her co-defendants.

The school contracting scandal undermined Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plea for $480 million from Springfield to solve the teacher pension crisis.

It also prompted the mayor to shake up a Board of Education that approved the SUPES contract and replaced Byrd-Bennett with Claypool, who had just returned to City Hall for a third stint as chief of staff after a successful run as CTA president.

On Tuesday, Claypool insisted that the demand for payment from Byrd-CPS seeks $$$ from BBB:

Marcos Breton can’t stop talking Mayor Kevin Johnson | The Sacramento Bee

Marcos Breton: Sacramento can’t stop talking business | The Sacramento Bee:

Marcos Breton: Sacramento can’t stop talking business

Even though some of his foes despise him and always will, Mayor Kevin Johnson has been good for the business of Sacramento.

His term ends this year and new candidates are vying to replace him, yet Johnson is likely to announce new investment for Sacramento at his State of the City address on Thursday. In past years, Johnson has used his glitzy annual showcase to trumpet civic victories such as the Golden 1 Center, the rescue of the Kings and the revival of downtown.

Johnson has been able to get local CEOs to engage in the political process as never before and to fund a new organization built solely to promote Sacramento as a place to invest. That organization, the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council, is trying to position the city as the gateway to Silicon Valley and a hub for medical and agricultural innovation.

It’s all critical groundwork that Johnson has laid over the past seven years in an effort to move Sacramento beyond its image as a government town. His energy and telegenic persona have helped to create interest and optimism around the issue. But that work is fragile and could collapse once Johnson leaves office. The local economy, while improving, is still soft and propped up by low-paying jobs.

In its annual economic forecast, released earlier this month, the Sacramento Business Review found that while Sacramento reached a full jobs recovery late last year, most of those jobs were low-paying and in the retail, leisure or hospitality sectors. Unemployment, while under 6 percent, remains higher than in other large communities on the West Coast, according to the report. The state capital continues to be a tough place for small businesses.

Meanwhile, even Johnson’s successes are tempered by Sacramento’s limitations. Johnson has pushed for a revival of the urban core, and more people are moving to downtown and midtown. But more people in the urban core mean more traffic there every day. How to alleviate that?

It’s as if Sacramento suddenly discovered it needed a good public transit system to move people around, only to find the one it has is truly awful.

A harbinger of a potential danger to Sacramento’s economy surfaced at this week’s Regional Transit meeting. The local system of buses and light rail is dirty and inefficient. RT is running in the red. It doesn’t take passengers to critical destinations such as Sacramento International Airport.

Advocates for the poor and disabled have been vocal in voicing their concerns about potential rate hikes. Lost in the discussion is that most RT riders pay less than half the regular fare because the system has granted so many discounts over the years, according to agency officials. RT’s fare-box collection is around 21 percent, much lower than other cities such as Portland.

WHEN THE COMMUNITY SUCCEEDS, EVERYONE DOES BETTER. WHEN IT DOESN’T SUCCEED, IT’S ALWAYS THE PEOPLE AT THE BOTTOM WHO PAY. WHEN WE COMPETE, WE TAKE CARE OF MORE PEOPLE THAT WAY.

Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council

RT has depleted reserves and a terrible public-relations problem. Many people who could pay full fare don’t want to take RT because of its current condition. But needed discussions about raising revenues and improving services keep falling out of focus. Unless new revenueMarcos Breton: Sacramento can’t stop talking business | The Sacramento Bee:

A Look at the Education Crisis | Center for American Progress

A Look at the Education Crisis | Center for American Progress:

A Look at the Education Crisis
Tests, Standards, and the Future of American Education

• Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF and Scribd versions.

• Download the report: 
  PDF
• Download introduction & summary: 
  PDF
• Read it in your browser: 
  Scribd

In many ways standards-based school reform is at a crossroads. On one side, the movement has made tremendous strides. The Common Core State Standards Initiative, known simply as Common Core, is now strongly established in more than 40 states. Many teachers believe that the new, higher academic standards have helped them improve instruction. And, most importantly, a solid body of data demonstrates that the standards-based reform movement has shown success in raising student outcomes.

In some areas, outcome indicators are on the rise. Over the past two decades, for instance, the number of students of color performing at grade level in reading and math has more than doubled in elementary and middle school. Meanwhile, high school graduation rates are the highest they have ever been: 81 percent of the class of 2013 received their diploma within four years.

But clearly much work remains. Achievement gaps in many subject areas remain large. For example, only 21 percent of low-income fourth-grade students achieved proficiency on the 2015 NAEP reading test compared to 52 percent of nonpoor students. And if students of color graduated at the same rate as their white peers, they would receive nearly two hundred thousand more diplomas each year.

In a way, the question for education advocates boils down to: What’s next? For a few vocal observers, the answer to this question is—surprisingly—anything but standards-based reform. In other words, these observers believe that the standards-based reform effort—and its associated assessments and accountability efforts—have been a total failure. In a policy memo released last year, Kevin Welner and William Mathis of the National Education Policy Center argued that “we as a nation have devoted enormous amounts of time and money to the focused goal of increasing test scores, and we have almost nothing to show for it.”

Some, such as blogger Anthony Cody, argue that policymakers should not really even focus on raising standards or improving tests or reforming accountability systems. Instead, Cody A Look at the Education Crisis | Center for American Progress:

As charter school expansion continues, regulatory oversight varies: tips for digging into local education - Reynolds Center

As charter school expansion continues, regulatory oversight varies: tips for digging into local education - Reynolds Center:
As charter school expansion continues, regulatory oversight varies: tips for digging into local education

 Backed by wealthy advocacy groups like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, charter school proponents have long touted the schools as the way to improve education performance for low-income children. Backed by millions of dollars from pro-business interests and market-based reform-minded groups, they aim to expand charter school options and school vouchers.

Earlier this month, The Bentonville, Ark.-based Walton Family Foundation pledged to spend $1 billion backing new charter schools over a five-year period, Arianna Prothero of The Associated Press reported. A foundation spokesperson said poor families deserve more school options that help children succeed, including charters.

The problem: charter school oversight varies widely across the country — and while some charter schools have succeeded well, many remain no better (or even worse) than their public school counterparts. In some states, records laws are so lax, finding data to compare charter schools to the performance of public schools is tough. Opponents to charter schools, like former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, argue that charter schools hollow out existing public schools and benefit business interests without any clear upside to poor (often majority black) students.

Even the often-promoted, “2015 Urban Charter School Study,” found that, on average, less than half of urban charters perform better than traditional public schools in both reading and math.

Use the old journalism adage: follow the money in your own community. What foundations and business interests back education reform in your community? And how is that support changing the local education landscape?

Charter school laws and funding varies widely across the U.S. but in general charter schools receive public tax dollars from the local school district for each student enrolled, including for transportation. That formula puts them in competition with local, traditional education districts. Unlike public schools, in many states, anyone can start a charter school: parents, community leaders, businesses and even professional athletes.

Institutional Investor writer Imogen Rose-Smith reported former tennis star Andre Agassi has partnered with money manager Bobby Turner to fund charter schools across the nation through two private hedge funds. In October, Rose-Smith reported Agassi and Turner had just closed their second fund, expecting to raise $400 million from investors.

The charter school movement is a boom for hedge funds and investors, Huffington Post contributor Alan Singer explained. Tax code incentives designed to promote economic development in low-income areas allow As charter school expansion continues, regulatory oversight varies: tips for digging into local education - Reynolds Center:

Infrastructure Failures, Like Flint, Are a Crisis For Black America - The Root

Infrastructure Failures, Like Flint, Are a Crisis For Black America - The Root:

Infrastructure Failures, Like Flint, Are a Crisis For Black America 

Flint Michigan's water crisis is a prime example of institutional neglect compounding a crumbling infrastructure.

The City of Flint Water Plant is illuminated by moonlight on January 23, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. A federal state of emergency has been declared in Flint due to dangerous levels of contamination in the water supply.

BRETT CARLSEN/GETTY IMAGES

 t’s easy to view the bubbling toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan as yet another majority black city victimized by institutional neglect. Michigan itself is a cautionary tale on once thriving northern manufacturing towns, once the heart of black northern migration, now disintegrating from economic malaise.  

But, in reality, Flint serves as primary example of what could become Black America’s most pressing problem in the 21^st century: a failing infrastructure.

We all take hated potholes and cracked freeway bridges for granted. Yet, as dreary fact-of-life as infrastructure appears, it’s unavoidable as one of the most crucial quality-of-life issues for African Americans – if not the most crucial. Infrastructure is the nuts and bolt foundation of a city. Without it, societies can’t survive. If a city can’t keep itself together, then where will you live?  

“Typically out of sight and out of mind, many pipes are more than a century old and are expected to need $1 trillion in repairs nationally over the next 25 years alone,” was Brookings’ Joseph Kaneraising red flags about the infrastructure conundrum.  

But race could define why, as Kane notes, governments keep the issue low key even as water pipe degradation and contamination crises in urban cores grow in frequency, exacerbated by rampant disregard for the plight of underserved or low income communities as occurred in Flint.

Black voters who are living it sense something’s wrong, as reflected in a July 2014 YouGov poll that gauged national attitudes on the issue.  When asked if the federal government should spend more on infrastructure projects, a far greater share of black respondents (56 percent) said yes compared to whites (45 percent) and Latinos (40 percent).  A 2015 AAA survey found an even larger gap between black and white sentiments on infrastructure investment.

And black Mayors have been sounding off on it, too, like Jackson, Mississippi’s Tony Yarber during a Mississippi Conference of Black Mayors summit last spring. When The Root caught up with him, Mayor Yarber explained a bleak situation of mass “infrastructure disinvestment.”

“Particularly, when we look at cities that have experienced white flight [like Flint],  Yarber tells The Root. Disinvestment has taken the place of infrastructure stability. But when you look at predominantly white areas, or suburbs, that’s where the investment flows to for better streets, better roads, better water treatment systems.”

Yarber stresses infrastructure as the most basic function of government. As black populations are persistently concentrated in metropolitan cores (with trending “black flight” to suburbs creating rings of working and barely middle class pockets), infrastructure is also the top, yet most ignored black agenda item on tap.  President Obama himself, with mixed success, raised it as a central element of post-recession national recovery.  Remember the nearly forgotten American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a.k.a. the $832 billion “stimulus package?” Pitching it as an ambitious, shy-of-$1 trillion anti-Depression fund, that was the Obama administration’s major Infrastructure Failures, Like Flint, Are a Crisis For Black America - The Root:

Ashana Bigard: An Insider’s View of Post-Katrina New Orleans Public Education | deutsch29

Ashana Bigard: An Insider’s View of Post-Katrina New Orleans Public Education | deutsch29:

Ashana Bigard: An Insider’s View of Post-Katrina New Orleans Public Education

On January 14 and 15, 2016, renowned education blogger and ed reform podcaster extraordinaire, Jennifer Berkshire, visited me during her time in town to conduct some interviews in New Orleans.

In the course of her meetings, she ended up with an umbrella that was not hers and which needed to be returned to New Orleans parent activist, Ashana Bigard.

So, I met Ashana for lunch on Monday, January 18, 2016– Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday– to return said umbrella. And as it turns out, I had the great fortune and pleasure to interview Ashana for 90 minutes on her experiences with the New Orleans schools post-Katrina.

  

Ashana Bigard, reunited with her umbrella

I transcribed the entire interview (barring small talk). The transcript is 27 pages long and can be accessed here: Ashana Bigard 01-18-16.

Our conversation takes a number of interesting turns. Those with a particular interest in the nuances of navigating post-Katrina public education in New Orleans would do well to read the entire exchange. However, for the purposes of this post, I will highlight a few choice excerpts.

First, a word about Ashana:

Ashana Bigard is at least a fifth-generation New Orleans native and a product of the New Orleans public school system. Bigard did drop out of high school; the lure of ready cash from working in tourism prompted her to drop out in her senior year (“I wasn’t that interested in school; I was interested in making money.”)

Bigard realized the need to “drop back in,” so to speak, which involved her attending Job Corps and earning her GED and then attend Delgado Community College and the Ashana Bigard: An Insider’s View of Post-Katrina New Orleans Public Education | deutsch29:

Top 10 Reasons School Choice is No Choice | gadflyonthewallblog

Top 10 Reasons School Choice is No Choice | gadflyonthewallblog:

Top 10 Reasons School Choice is No Choice

On the surface of it, school choice sounds like a great idea.

Parents will get to shop for schools and pick the one that best suits their children.

Oh! Look, Honey! This one has an exceptional music program! That one excels in math and science! The drama program at this one is first in the state!

But that’s not at all what school choice actually is.

In reality, it’s just a scam to make private schools cheaper for rich people, further erode the public school system and allow for-profit corporations to gobble up education dollars meant to help children succeed.

Here’s why:

1) Voucher programs almost never provide students with full tuition.

Voucher programs are all the rage especially among conservatives. Legislation has been proposed throughout the country taking a portion of tax dollars that would normally go to a public school and allowing parents to put it toward tuition at a private or parochial school. However, the cost of going to these schools is much higher than going to public schools. So even with your tax dollars in hand, you don’t have the money to go to these schools. For the majority of impoverished students attending public schools, vouchers don’t help. Parents still have to find more money somewhere to make this happen. Poor folks just can’t afford it. But rich folks can so Top 10 Reasons School Choice is No Choice | gadflyonthewallblog:

CURMUDGUCATION: UT Offers Gobbledeegook Education Program

CURMUDGUCATION: UT Offers Gobbledeegook Education Program:
UT Offers Gobbledeegook Education Program

Here's one for the Has To Be Seen To Be Believed file, or perhaps the Ugly manhandling of English Language file, or most especially, the Why Regular People Don't Listen To Academics file.

The University of Texas is launching a... well, to be honest, I'm not sure. Some kind of MOOC. A newly tech-based instructional delivery system. Probably a version of Competency Based Education.  But Marni Baker Stein, Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning, is at Inside Higher Ed to plug the... whatever it is. 

The entry is entitled "The Future Is Now." Treasure that phrase, because it's the last thing in the piece that will make plain sense (and was probably written by the IHE editor and not Stein). Can we figure it out?

UT is onto something new, and they've launched an initiative to "envisage" new models of delivery for a college education. For the first couple of paragraphs, one can almost make out some sense in the fog, some notion that a new workplace calls for new modes of preparation, and the UT campuses have been working on this in conjunction with certain disciplines and programs. But then we hit this...

These experimental sites disaggregate the post-secondary pathway as we know it into scalable and CURMUDGUCATION: UT Offers Gobbledeegook Education Program: