Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/1/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test The Winter 2016 issue of the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice includes an important piece of research by Dario Sforza, Eunyoung Kim, and Christopher Tienken, showing that when it comes to demanding complex thinking, the Common Core Standards are neither all that nor the bag of chips.You may recognize Tienken's name--

by mike simpson / 54min 

CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC

CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC: CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandateCalifornia's schools are no longer required to send students to pricey for-profit and nonprofit tutoring providers, state education officials announced Monday afternoon.California joined more than 40 states granted a waiver by the US Department of Education from sanctio

by mike simpson / 59min 

FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control | The Lens

FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control | The Lens: FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board controlBecause the Orleans Parish School Board’s hasn’t addressed key issues in its governance, the directors of FirstLine Schools voted unanimously Friday to remain under the supervision of the Recovery School District.The board does,

by mike simpson / 1h 

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJ

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJ: Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJThis year, I'm doing an occasional series about the many unknown charter schools that aren't affiliated with the big, non-profit charter management organizations like KIPP or Uncommon or Success Academies. Last time, I showed how a small charter in Red Bank, NJ, was likely impeding any chance

by mike simpson / 1h 

How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown - The Washington Post

How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown - The Washington Post: How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in YoungstownIt was late on a Tuesday in June when Ohio State Sen. Joe Schiavoni got the call from a staffer for Gov. John Kasich (R). It was a courtesy call to let the Democratic minority leader know that Republicans would introduce legislation the next morning to d

by mike simpson / 1h 

Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016 - Wait What?

Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016 - Wait What?: Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016Following up on my recent Wait, What? blog post entitled;“My daughter will not be taking the “state mandated” NEW SAT on March 2nd 2016.”Here is a SPECIAL WARNING for high school juniors who are thinking about applying to a colle

by mike simpson / 2h 

Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano – Save Maine Schools

Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano – Save Maine Schools: Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for MarzanoOn Saturday, I wrote about Dr. Marzano – the consultant who was never a teacher, but makes millions telling those in the classroom how to teach.Since then, teachers from around the country have told me how wasteful and insulting they find his latest professional development scheme.Tea

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools - The Washington Post

Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools - The Washington Post: Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools The Department of Education cut off federal loans and grants Monday to dozens of beauty schools and three technical trade schools for falsifying a wide range of records.“Our students depend on higher education institutions to prepare them for careers through

by mike simpson / 4h 

CURMUDGUCATION: How High Are the Standards?

CURMUDGUCATION: How High Are the Standards?: How High Are the Standards? Raise standards. High standards. Deciding whether Core standards are higher or lower than the old standards, or the newer standards.And nobody has any idea what any of it means.I mean, I'm not an idiot. I understand what it means to say that I hold my students to a high standard or that my classroom is based on having high st

by mike simpson / 4h 

The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton | gadflyonthewallblog

The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton | gadflyonthewallblog: The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary ClintonI Believe Bernie Sanders. I Don’t Believe Hillary Clinton.Really. It’s that simple.These two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency both have things going for them. But at the end of the day one of them is much more credible

by mike simpson / 4h 

Choosing Democracy: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education

Choosing Democracy: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil.by Duane Campbell. Prof. Emeritus.  Bilingual/Multicultural Education. CSU-S. In 2015 after the Great Recession  a new state budgets sent large amounts of funds to

by mike simpson / 5h 

Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children | Creative by Nature

Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children | Creative by Nature: Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children“The factory model was developed to ensure quality control and produce identical “consumer” products cheaply. It is NOT an approach that should be used with children. Modern researchers and professional educators ha

by mike simpson / 6h 

Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education | PopularResistance.Org

Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education | PopularResistance.Org: Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized EducationAbove Photo: A Zapatista mural in the town of San Pedro Polhó illustrates ideas about education. Photo by Dario Ribelo on Flickr.“In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They’re what botanists would

by mike simpson / 6h 

Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year - The Hechinger Report

Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year - The Hechinger Report:Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the YearThe education conversation people aren’t havingI want to tell you a secret: America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There I said it.In my positio

2 by mike simpson / 7h 

California schools rolling in dough, but 'scary' clouds appear on horizon - San Jose Mercury News

California schools rolling in dough, but 'scary' clouds appear on horizon - San Jose Mercury News: California schools rolling in dough, but 'scary' clouds appear on horizonVALLEJO -- Vallejo High School teacher Lewis Brown starts his morning government class with a question of the day that takes advantage of newly assigned iPads."Today is the one year anniversary of the French magazine terror

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teacher: ‘If Donald Trump gets elected, will me and my family be deported?’ — and other questions from 9-year-olds - The Washington Post

Teacher: ‘If Donald Trump gets elected, will me and my family be deported?’ — and other questions from 9-year-olds - The Washington Post:Teacher: ‘If Donald Trump gets elected, will me and my family be deported?’ — and other questions from 9-year-olds Political discussions can be sensitive for teachers to lead —  especially when young students ask direct and personal questions. How much should tea

by mike simpson / 7h 

Glass Not Even Half Full: Per-Pupil Spending in the U.S. Falls Again - NEA Today

Glass Not Even Half Full: Per-Pupil Spending in the U.S. Falls Again - NEA Today: Glass Not Even Half Full: Per-Pupil Spending in the U.S. Falls Again Per-pupil spending in the United States declined for a third consecutive year in 2012-13, according to new data released by the National Center for Education Statistics(NCES). Although the drop slowed down to less than 1 percent from the previous ye

by mike simpson / 7h 

Schools Matter: Ravitch Revisionism

Schools Matter: Ravitch Revisionism:Ravitch Revisionism It has taken just over a month since the passage of the god-awful rewrite of ESEA for Diane Ravitch to begin revising the history of her earlier enthusiastic support for the piece of dreck legislation that Gary Orfield and others have noted will turn back education policy in this country by more than a half century.  In initiating her own lim

by mike simpson / 8h 

Malloy Budget Plan – Coddle the rich while cutting vital state services - Wait What?

Malloy Budget Plan – Coddle the rich while cutting vital state services - Wait What?:Malloy Budget Plan – Coddle the rich while cutting vital state services On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, flanked by Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman and the rest of his administration will submit his latest budget plan to a joint session of the Connecticut General Assembly.Malloy’s approa

by mike simpson / 8h 

Education Department Tells States: If Students Don't Take Tests, You Will Lose Funding

Education Department Tells States: If Students Don't Take Tests, You Will Lose Funding:Education Department Tells States: If Students Don't Take Tests, You Will Lose Funding"The volume of testing remains the same, which many parents and educators view as overkill." BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- The U.S. Education Department is not relenting on requirements to test students on math and language a

by mike simpson / 9h 

State says number of students approved to get free lunch is way up | 89.3 KPCC

State says number of students approved to get free lunch is way up | 89.3 KPCC:State says number of students approved to get free lunch is way up A change in the way California determines which students are eligible for meal programs means far more kids this year will receive free lunch at school.There was a 32 percent increase in December to the number of California studentsautomatically enrolled

by mike simpson / 9h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rahm's council rubber-stamp, Ald. Will Burns bails out. Takes job with AirBnB.CTU Vice-Pres. Jesse Sharkey “The Big Bargaining Team will tell us if there’s a [tentative agreement].” -- Sun-TimesFreep Editor Stephen Henderson on FlintThis is about cities themselves, and how Michigan’s system of governance permits and even incentivi

by mike simpson / 9h 

All Things Education: Charter schools in Virginia whether we want them or not

All Things Education: Charter schools in Virginia whether we want them or not: Charter schools in Virginia whether we want them or notCharter schools may soon be coming to Virginia communities whether those communities want them or not. This is not about whether or not to have charter schools or whether or not charter schools work. This is about power and democracy.In Virginia, what's known as the

by mike simpson / 9h 

What Does the So-Called Corporate Takeover of Government Mean? | janresseger

What Does the So-Called Corporate Takeover of Government Mean? | janresseger: What Does the So-Called Corporate Takeover of Government Mean? Democracy has failed in Michigan.  In November, 2012, voters repealed a state law permitting the governor to impose state appointed austerity fiscal managers on local jurisdictions, but the legislature came back by the end of the year with a new, un-repealabl

by mike simpson / 9h 

School spending per student drops for a third year in a row - The Hechinger Report

School spending per student drops for a third year in a row - The Hechinger Report:School spending per student drops for a third year in a rowTowns and cities spent more on schools during 2012-13, but federal poverty and special education funds droppedTurn the education spending clock back to 2007.Per-pupil spending in the nation’s public schools fell for the third straight year in 2012-13*, accor

by mike simpson / 9h 

Pondering the future of CTA, Sacramento post-Friedrichs :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Pondering the future of CTA, Sacramento post-Friedrichs :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: Pondering the future of CTA, Sacramento post-Friedrichs(Calif.) For decades they have cast an imposing political shadow over the Capitol – dictating terms on budget deals, elevating supporters and isolating opponents while exercising a de facto veto powe

by mike simpson / 10h 

You Have To Read This Letter From A School To Students Receiving Test Scores - Yahoo News

You Have To Read This Letter From A School To Students Receiving Test Scores - Yahoo News: You Have To Read This Letter From A School To Students Receiving Test Scores A primary school has sent out a heartfelt letter to pupils alongside their exam results.The letter sent by staff at Harmony Hill Primary School in Lisburn, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, contained words of inspiration for pupils recei

by mike simpson / 10h 

Teachers reported moderate to major concerns prior to 2015 state testing

Teachers reported moderate to major concerns prior to 2015 state testing: Teachers reported moderate to major concerns prior to 2015 state testingPrior to the first round of K-12 standardized testing under Common Core education standards last year, most teachers had moderate to major concerns about test difficulty and low student performance, according to new studies from the RAND Corporation.Most

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Big news: from LA School Report founder Jamie Alter Lynton - LA School Report

Big news: from LA School Report founder Jamie Alter Lynton - LA School Report:Big news: from LA School Report founder Jamie Alter LyntonDear Readers:I am thrilled to announce today a partnership betweenLA School Report and the online education news site The 74.I founded LA School Reportmore than three years ago on the belief that there is an urgent need for quality journalism in the education aren

1 by mike simpson / 19h hide  //  save

La. House Ed. Chair, Nancy Landry, Publicly Demeaned Teachers in 2012 | deutsch29

La. House Ed. Chair, Nancy Landry, Publicly Demeaned Teachers in 2012 | deutsch29: La. House Ed. Chair, Nancy Landry, Publicly Demeaned Teachers in 2012On January 28, 2015, the Louisiana House Education Committee chose chose Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette) as its chair.  Nancy LandryLouisiana teachers remember Landry from 2012– March 14, 2012– and the House Education Committee hearings on the Jindal “o

2 by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/31/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMParadigms are Made for ShiftingParadigms are Made for Shifting: Paradigms are Made for ShiftingDo we need a radical change in our thinking to survive on Earth?“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.” – Albert Einstein, N.Y. Times, 1946Over the course of the last hundred years, Western scientists have given us a deeper view of

7 by mike simpson / 22h 

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test:

CCSS Flunks Complexity Test

 The Winter 2016 issue of the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice includes an important piece of research by Dario Sforza, Eunyoung Kim, and Christopher Tienken, showing that when it comes to demanding complex thinking, the Common Core Standards are neither all that nor the bag of chips.


You may recognize Tienken's name-- the Seton Hall professor previously produced research showing that demographic data was sufficient to predict results on the Big Standardized Test. He's also featured in this video from 2014 that does a pretty good job of debunking the whole magical testing biz.

The researchers in this set out to test the oft-repeated claim that The Core replaces old lower order flat-brained standards with new requirements for lots of higher-order thinking. They did this by doing a content analysis of the standards themselves and doing the same analysis of New Jersey's pre-Core standards. They focused on 9-12 standards because they're more closely associated with the end result of education; I reckon it also allowed them to sidestep questions about developmental appropriateness.

The researchers used Webb's Depth of Knowledge framework to analyze standards, and to be honest CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS Flunks Complexity Test:

CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC

CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC:

CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate

California's schools are no longer required to send students to pricey for-profit and nonprofit tutoring providers, state education officials announced Monday afternoon.

California joined more than 40 states granted a waiver by the US Department of Education from sanctions established under No Child Left Behind, which mandated schools that failed to post higher test scores for low-income students pay for outside, after-school tutoring. 

Nearly 700 California districts spent $142 million on tutoring last school year, despite studies showing the providers returned small or insignificant improvement in student achievement.

"We wanted the flexibility," Tom Torlakson, state superintendent, told KPCC. "The money will be more effectively invested."

Federal officials are working with all states to begin early implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which passed in December and overhauls NCLB over next couple years. 

Federal funds remain earmarked for academic intervention for struggling students from low-income families, but starting next year, districts will be able to decide how to spend it – whether on after-school tutoring with their own teachers, summer school or high school credit recovery. 

The policy change is expected to cripple the private and nonprofit tutoring industry, which garnered more than $500 million in California public school funds over three years. 

"The idea I think coming from Washington at the time was the schools couldn’t do it," Art Revueltas, Deputy Superintendent from Montebello Unified, said of the old CA schools freed from costly after-school tutoring mandate | 89.3 KPCC:

Big Education Ape: SES IS A MESS: State’s ESEA waiver request related to tutoring requirement denied | EdSource http://bit.ly/1L714f6

FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control | The Lens

FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control | The Lens:

FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control

Because the Orleans Parish School Board’s hasn’t addressed key issues in its governance, the directors of FirstLine Schools voted unanimously Friday to remain under the supervision of the Recovery School District.

The board does, however, hope to make the switch next year, said board Chairman Gregory St. Etienne.  Three of the organization’s five schools could have made the move this year.

The same decision faces several other charter school boards this year. It’s part of the structure of the state-run Recovery School District, which took over most schools in New Orleans in 2005, and created other charters since. If schools perform at an acceptable level on in the state accountability program for two consecutive years, they’re eligible to move back to the Orleans Parish School Board. But the first move is up to the charter board.

Nearly three dozen charters are eligible to make the switch, and many have been eligible for a few years. Only Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School has done so, making the move for this academic year.

Over the past two years, the elected Orleans Parish School Board has been working on many charter boards’ concerns about rejoining, including school autonomy, equitable funding for special-needs students and the framework for reintroducing the charter schools.

“We have had schools in our group eligible for return for a number of years now,” St. Etienne said. “And in each case we have considered what the day after would be like. We want to make sure that we identify those key areas that we think the OPSB should have addressed before we return – such as the equity issues.”

FirstLine’s board meeting on Friday was short and undivided. Chief Executive Officer Jay Altman said FirstLine does have plans to FirstLine close, but not quite ready to return campuses to School Board control | The Lens:

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJ

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJ:

Charter School Realities: East Brunswick, NJ

This year, I'm doing an occasional series about the many unknown charter schools that aren't affiliated with the big, non-profit charter management organizations like KIPP or Uncommon or Success Academies. Last time, I showed how a small charter in Red Bank, NJ, was likely impeding any chance of the community being able to integrate their schools. Let's stay in the Jersey 'burbs and discuss another small charter, and how it's affecting the local public district schools.

  * * *

Nearly two years ago, the NJDOE denied an expansion request for Hatikvah Academy Charter School in East Brunswick. But if there's one thing to know about charter operators, it's that they can be a persistent bunch: a year later, Hatikvah got permission to enroll its current students, who were in grades K through 5, to stay until Grade 8. But even that wasn't enough...

According to this letter from the East Brunswick Public Schools -- the "hosting" public

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/02/charter-school-realities-east-brunswick.html#sthash.ibNxuPJv.dpuf

How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown - The Washington Post

How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown - The Washington Post:

How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown

It was late on a Tuesday in June when Ohio State Sen. Joe Schiavoni got the call from a staffer for Gov. John Kasich (R). It was a courtesy call to let the Democratic minority leader know that Republicans would introduce legislation the next morning to dramatically alter the Youngstown public schools, in Schiavoni’s district.

They would offer a 66-page amendment to a pending education bill, and it would be brought before a legislative committee in the morning, and then both houses would vote on it later in the day, the staffer said.

Schiavoni protested, saying that he and his colleagues needed to read the proposal. Kasich wanted a vote on Wednesday, the staffer said.

The lawmaker jumped in his car outside his home in northeast Ohio and drove 177 miles to the State House in Columbus, arriving at about 9 p.m. to get a copy of the proposal from Sen. Peggy Lehner (R), the chair of the How Ohio Gov. John Kasich took over the schools in Youngstown - The Washington Post:

Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016 - Wait What?

Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016 - Wait What?:

Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016

Following up on my recent Wait, What? blog post entitled;

“My daughter will not be taking the “state mandated” NEW SAT on March 2nd 2016.”

Here is a SPECIAL WARNING for high school juniors who are thinking about applying to a college or university that requires applicants to submit all of their SAT scores, rather than just their best score.

Last spring, without understanding the ramifications of their action, Governor Dannel Malloy and the Connecticut General Assembly “mandated” that all high school students take the NEW SAT on March 2, 2016, despite the fact that the NEW SAT hasn’t even been released, let alone validated as an accurate measure of mastery.

There is so little known about the NEW SAT that Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education and his political appointees on the State Board of Education won’t even identify what constitutes a passing score on the NEW SAT until after Connecticut’s high school juniors have taken the test and the State Department of Education has been given and analyzed the results

What is known about the NEW SAT is that the College Board, the corporation that Yet another warning about taking the state “mandated” NEW SAT on March 2, 2016 - Wait What?:

Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano – Save Maine Schools

Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano – Save Maine Schools:

Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano

On Saturday, I wrote about Dr. Marzano – the consultant who was never a teacher, but makes millions telling those in the classroom how to teach.

Since then, teachers from around the country have told me how wasteful and insulting they find his latest professional development scheme.

Teachers with many years of experience are told to take down their classroom rules and replace them with “Codes of Conduct” and “Standard Operating Procedures.”  During workshops, teachers are asked to self-assess their understanding of material by placing stickers beside their names on a wall chart. Those in the Reinventing Schools program are told to come up with a “shared vision” for their school – but the shared vision must “align” with that established by the district administrators.

Meanwhile, teachers in the iObservation program are under the grip Detroit: Crumbling Walls, Millions for Marzano – Save Maine Schools:

Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools - The Washington Post

Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools - The Washington Post:

Department of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools

 The Department of Education cut off federal loans and grants Monday to dozens of beauty schools and three technical trade schools for falsifying a wide range of records.

“Our students depend on higher education institutions to prepare them for careers through a quality education. Unfortunately, some schools violate their trust through deceptive marketing practices and defraud taxpayers by giving out student aid inappropriately,” said Under Secretary Ted Mitchell  in a statement. “These unscrupulous institutions use questionable business practices or outright lie to both students and the federal government.”

Marinello Schools of Beauty, a for-profit chain owned by B&H Education, is accused of illegally requesting federal financial aid for students with invalid high school diplomas, charging students for excessive overtime and withholding a portion of students’ federal aid. As a result, the government is withholding aid from 23 of the chain’s 56 campuses in Nevada and California that enroll about 2,100 students.

In the 2014-2015 academic year, students enrolled in Marinello received more than $87 million in Pell grants and federalDepartment of Education pulls federal aid to trade schools - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: How High Are the Standards?

CURMUDGUCATION: How High Are the Standards?:

How High Are the Standards?

 Raise standards. High standards. Deciding whether Core standards are higher or lower than the old standards, or the newer standards.


And nobody has any idea what any of it means.

I mean, I'm not an idiot. I understand what it means to say that I hold my students to a high standard or that my classroom is based on having high standards or hold the donuts I eat to a high standards. As a general principle, we all know what high standards are.

But as a matter of policy, "high standards" is really meaningless. In fact, it's worse than meaningless because it's a metaphor that obscures an important truth.

"High standards" suggests a two-dimensional model of education. It suggests a model in which all students are trying to climb exactly the same ladder in exactly the same direction.It's a single one-directional arrow, with all students progressing steadily, dutifully along the single path toward the single point.

It's a model that doesn't correspond to anything in human experience or behavior. Instead of the blind men and the elephant, we can tell the modern fable of thousand blind administrators and the feds.

The blind administrators were called before the Department of Education. Looking down at them from his throne made of 95% excellent mahogany, the Secretary said, "Have you all led your schoolCURMUDGUCATION: How High Are the Standards?:

The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton | gadflyonthewallblog

The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton

I Believe Bernie Sanders. I Don’t Believe Hillary Clinton.

Really. It’s that simple.

These two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency both have things going for them. But at the end of the day one of them is much more credible than the other.

They’re both career politicians.

Sanders has been a Vermont Senator for nine years, a U.S. Representative for 16 years, and Mayor of Burlington for eight years.

Clinton was Secretary of State for four years, a New York Senator for eight years, and – most famously – First Lady of the United States for eight years and of Arkansas for 11 years.

But when they speak, only Sanders seems genuine.

I know that’s a personal value judgement. Maybe it doesn’t hit you the same way.

I just don’t know how it could hit you differently.

For instance, both candidates say they’re going to keep the banking industry in check and stop the risky practices that crashed the economy under President George W. Bush. However, that same industry is Clinton’s main financial supporter while The Credibility Gap Between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton | gadflyonthewallblog:

Choosing Democracy: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education

Choosing Democracy: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education:

The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education

 Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil.

by Duane Campbell. Prof. Emeritus.  Bilingual/Multicultural Education. CSU-S. 

In 2015 after the Great Recession  a new state budgets sent large amounts of funds to k-12 schools and the funds of the Local Control and  Accountability Plan  were targeted to low income schools.  This increased funding will lead to a dramatic need for new teachers.  Sacramento City Unified plans to hire 100 new teachers, and many other local urban districts will do the same.  This faculty growth will continue for from 3-5 years.

But credentialed teachers from the Latino community and several Asian communities will not be available to hire because the Sac State pipeline for minority teachers  has been broken.  A new generation of mostly Anglo teachers will be hired which will continue the past failure to integrate the teaching profession in this region. Ending the pipeline will shape the nature of the local teaching profession for decades. Latino students make up 37 % of Sac City Unified students, Asians 17.4 %, African Americans 17.7 %, and White students 18.8 %. Latino families now make up over 37 % of California residents and Latino descent children now make up over 50% of public school students.

   The Bilingual Multicultural Education Department at Sac State was  set up as  a structure so that the university, CSU-Sacramento, could  serve the community by preparing and advancing hundreds of Chicano and Asian teachers each year.  Unfortunately, others shut down this vehicle. Between 1994 -2006, Latino descent students were about 35% of the total teacher preparation students each year ( 60 -90 students per semester).  After the termination of the department in 2010, Latino descent students were less than 10% of the total students in teacher preparation at Sac State (about 7 students).  This decline was a direct consequence of eliminating the department. 

The Pipeline

 The Bilingual Multicultural Education Department  program at Sac State, like the earlier Mexican American Education Project, was a product of the  Chicano movement, the influence of the United Farm Workers, and the social justice movement in public education.  A goal was to penetrate the institutions ( universities) to create an alternative democratic social justice educational vehicle as a strategy for social change.

            A significant organizing vehicle at Sac State  was a small changing core group of faculty focused on a series of common goals.  Specific organizational and change strategies changed over time.

            A major  strategy for change  was to create a program with majority status for Chicano/Mexicano students and students of color.  The experience of being in the majority ( majority status) changed the lives of many, focused the students and faculty on empowerment, and  introduced, renewed and continued the positive aspects of the Chicano/social justice movements to students from later generations who were born, reared, and educated after the movement decline.  The program kept the dream of educational justice alive for over two decades.

            Over the decades of the 1980’s and 90’s,  fewer and fewer faculty had themselves participated in the social movements. As a consequence   the commitment to educational efforts based upon  social movements, empowerment, and participatory democracy declined.   By 2006 the political culture of the College of Education regressed to its mean- away from multicultural education goals and toward an increase in the normal, traditional, College of Education culture of  faculty seeking individual  advancement.

            In each generation of students after the 1980’s  we had fewer and fewer students who had participated in movements, particularly the Chicano Civil Rights movement.  However until 2006 the BMED center was a place where the  few students who had experienced movements and had been educated by movements  were re-enforced, encouraged, and where they became opinion leaders.

          Our programs presented  multicultural and bilingual teacher preparation as  a vocation ,as a change agent as much as a career.  When the student population of conscious students Choosing Democracy: The Latino Teacher Shortage in the Area Was Created by the Sac State College of Education:

Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children | Creative by Nature

Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children | Creative by Nature:

Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children

“The factory model was developed to ensure quality control and produce identical “consumer” products cheaply. It is NOT an approach that should be used with children. Modern researchers and professional educators have come to understand that the human brain is wired for learning, and that the most effective methods of education are aligned with how children naturally learn.”

Education reforms that attempt to enforce fixed standards, continuous data collection and high-stakes testing are applying an industrial model of factory production developed in the early part of the last century. It’s a manufacturing approach that should not be applied to children. 

The factory model was developed over a hundred years ago, to ensure quality control and produce identical “consumer” products cheaply. It is NOT appropriate to use these methods with children, because their bodies and brains are designed to learn in self-directed ways that can be sabotaged by adult attempts to manipulate, measure and control them.

Learning is a creative self-directed process. Modern researchers and professional educators have come to understand that the human brain is wired for learning, and that the most effective methods of education must are aligned with how children naturally learn.

In the business world the early 20th century industrial organization models of Scientific Management (aka, Taylorism) &  Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Model have been updated and re-branded, but can still be recognized by authoritarian social hierarchies that emphasize top-down controls, strict standards, chains of command, rules enforcement, and data collection.

This system provides a highly effective way of making products cheaply and generating profits (turning everything the organization touches into a commodity to be bought, sold and traded), but is completely inappropriate in educational settings, and with children, Factory Model Education “Reforms” Were Designed for Product Testing, Not Children | Creative by Nature:

Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education | PopularResistance.Org

Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education | PopularResistance.Org:

Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education

Above Photo: A Zapatista mural in the town of San Pedro Polhó illustrates ideas about education. Photo by Dario Ribelo on Flickr.

“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, the greater the outbreak of NGOs” (Roy, 2004)

Those ruling society have long utilized non-profits and similar outfits as a means to further their interests, ameliorate their public image, and disseminate their ideologies. Whether we call them Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), or Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC), the era of neoliberalism has seen the role of these private organizations further entrench itself in spaces that used to be that of the public commons. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is in the realm of education policy, where the activities of huge foundations, coupled with the actions of NPIC funded by those foundations, have insidiously begun to displace, replace, and even set the stage for the possible elimination of public education altogether.

Education historian Diane Ravitch opens the chapter entitled “The Billionaire Boys’ Club” in her seminal book (Ravitch 195) with a discussion of the Ford Foundation’s intervention in the so-called “community control” movement as early as 1967. Considered one of the more socially liberal foundations, Ford’s ostensibly good intentioned social engineering ended up exacerbating the problems that undergirded the struggles at the time. Whatever one makes of Ford’s intentions, the fact that they have a long history of being instrumental to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in terms of surveilling social movements is revealing (Incite! Women of Color Against Violence 88). Compared to Ford, modern foundations are far more overt in their political goals – especially their neoliberal agenda, and far more powerful in terms of their influence.

Taking neoliberalism as the modern term describing the “Washington Consensus” policies of deregulation, austerity, and privatization, we can best describe the current assault on public education as “neoliberal corporate education reform.” While a number of arch-reactionary foundations like The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, The Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Milken Family Foundation fund neoliberal aims in education, the most influential foundations in terms of advancing school privatization are those that author Joanne Barkan (Barkan, 2011) came to call the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate. An exhaustive survey of what these three mega-foundations have done to undermine public education nationwide (e.g. The Gates Foundation’s machinations behind the malignant Common Core State Standards) exceeds the scope of this essay. Instead, we will focus on a single city. Perhaps because of its size, or its proximity to The Broad Foundation’s headquarters, Los Angeles has been one of the central fronts on which the neoliberal ideologues have waged their war on public education. Evidenced by the staggering amounts the ruling class spends on school board and related elections, the number of well funded NPICs working as a neoliberal axis, and the collusion of the corporate media, those in power see Los Angeles as a high value target. In a word, it is a microcosm of what is happening to education everywhere.

The Neoliberal Emperor of Los Angeles

In the aforementioned Ravitch chapter, she outlines the “venture philanthropists” most Non-Profit Industrial Complexes Role In Corporatized Education | PopularResistance.Org:

Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year - The Hechinger Report

Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year - The Hechinger Report:
Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year
The education conversation people aren’t having

I want to tell you a secret: America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There I said it.

In my position as a Teacher of the Year and a teacher leader (an ambiguous term at best), I am supposed to be a voice and hold positions on a host of ed policy issues: teaching evaluations, charter schools, test refusal, and (fights over) Common Core come to mind. I am so sick of reading about McCleary (Washington’s ongoing intragovernmental battle for equitable funding for K-12) I don’t know what to do with myself. But, increasingly I find myself tuning out of these conversations. As a nation, we’re nibbling around the edges with accountability measures and other reforms, but we’re ignoring the immutable core issue: much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding. We have the schools we have, because people who can afford better get better. And sadly, people who can’t afford better just get less — less experienced teachers, inadequate funding and inferior facilities.

There is simple lack of political will. The situation in education is analogous to the status of gun control. Last June, @DPJHodges tweeted that “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the U.S. gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.” Unless dozens of members of Congress are themselves directly impacted by gun violence, there is no major gun legislation coming anytime soon. We have retreated to our camps; there is no turning back. It is the same with school funding and school segregation.

Related: Child care crisis: Weak oversight puts children in harm’s way in Mississippi

If you are reading this, you’ve probably seen the images coming out of Detroit Public Schools: buckled floors, toilets without seats, roaches, mold and even mushrooms growing in damp, disgusting, mildewy classrooms. Like the images of American torture and abuse Much of white America is ‘perfectly happy’ with segregated schools, says one Teacher of the Year - The Hechinger Report: