Saturday, May 14, 2016

Schools Matter: Duckworth Panned, Grit Roasted, KIPP Cooked

Schools Matter: Duckworth Panned, Grit Roasted, KIPP Cooked:

Duckworth Panned, Grit Roasted, KIPP Cooked

New York Times reviewer, Judith Shulevitz, concludes a negative review of Angela Duckworth's new book with this:

You can’t blame Duckworth for how people apply her ideas, but she’s not shy about reducing them to nostrums that may trickle down in problematic ways. On the one hand, some of the “no excuses” charter schools that her research helped to shape have raised math and literacy scores among minority and poor students. On the other hand, a growing number of scholars as well as former teachers at those schools report that some of the schools, at least, feel more like prisons than houses of learning. Schools that prize self-regulation over self-expression may lift a number of children out of poverty, but may also train them to act constrained and overly deferential — “worker-learners,” as the ethnographer Joanne W. Golann calls them. Meanwhile, schools for more affluent children encourage intellectual curiosity, independent reasoning and creativity. Ask yourself which institutions are more likely to turn out leaders. Perhaps an approach to character training that’s less hard-edge — dare I say, less John Wayne-ish? — and more willing to cast a critical eye on the peculiarly American cult of individual ascendancy could instill grit while challenging social inequality, rather than inadvertently reproducing it.

Actually, you can blame Duckworth for how people apply her ideas, since the humiliation that we see at KIPP and other other KIPP Model schools is directly linked to her and David Levin's design for teaching grit, which is based on the "learned helplessness" and "resilience" research of psychologist and CIA consultant, Dr. Martin Seligman.

Below are a few excerpts from my book that provide more context for Duckworth's role in creating the ethnic character cleansing used by the KIPP Model schools.

Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys through "No Excuses" Teaching may be purchased with a 20 percent discount from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Use code: RLEGEN16 when ordering.

-->

Performance Character

Seligman’s influence and that of his protégé, Angela Duckworth, continue to be central in controlling the “non-cognitive” behaviors and attitudes that are central to completing the KIPP Model mission. As “KIPP teachers believe their job is to teach 49 percent academics and 51 percent character” (Morris, 2011), “grit” and “self-control” are the two most important character traits that KIPP develops in their students. The other components of character are zest, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, and curiosity,although the KIPP model is principally concerned with developing grit, or relentless determination to achieve and to maintain self-control.

KIPP further divides self-control into two categories, each having four components:Schools Matter: Duckworth Panned, Grit Roasted, KIPP Cooked:

Raising the Common Core Bar Until Nobody Can Get Over - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Raising the Common Core Bar Until Nobody Can Get Over - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Raising the Common Core Bar Until Nobody Can Get Over

The legislature in my home state is currently on a roll. They're planning to systematically destroy the largest public school system in Michigan, once a landmark district, drain it of resources, and make it super-easy for predatory, for-profit charters to move in. Plus other ultra-important stuff likepreventing municipalities from banning plastic shopping bags, and keeping open-carry laws as open as possible.

And, of course, getting rid of Common Core State Standards.

I'm no advocate for the Common Core (although the thought of abandoning all the CCSS alignment work and pricey professional training teachers have been dragged through makes me shake my head). But here's the funny thing: the Michigan House wants to adopt the old Massachusetts State Standards--the ones MA abandoned when they adopted...the Common Core.

I know. Confusing to the general public (and more than a few educators). Didn't we already adopt the CCSS to raise standards? Aren't teachers complaining about how unrealistic the standards and tests are--even harmfully inappropriate for our youngest learners? What do the old Massachusetts standards have that made them more--what, successful?--than the Common Core?

Good question. Quick answer: they were being utilized in Massachusetts. Fully 55% of adults in Massachusetts have at least an Associates' degree, compared to 39% in Michigan. Poverty rates?MA is in the top ten, nationally--and Michigan's in the bottom third.

Massachusetts had a reputation for having excellent state-built education standards, but they (like many other states) dropped all their in-house work and jumped on the Common Core bandwagon, probably in hopes of tapping into the federal grant machine. And here's the real irony: MA standards are very similar to the Common Core--especially the math standards.

So why is the MI Senate so hot to dump the Common Core?

The legislation was introduced by Sen. Patrick Colbeck, a longtime critic of Common Core who argues the change is needed because the standards haven't delivered on their promise of increased student achievement.
"The goals that it has set out to achieve, which are improved student performance or academic achievement, it's not achieving," said Colbeck, R-Canton.

Colbeck and his media cheerleaders are making a classic mistake, here (albeit one that many citizens make): Believing that raising standards will raise achievement. Problems with low-achieving students? Don't look for causes! Don't bother trying solutions! Just raise the standards!

Besides, I'd be willing to bet that none of the senators co-sponsoring this bill have actually read the standards--either set. This is a political ploy--a jab at the folks who adopted the CCSS in the first place (the State Board), and a chance to poke some more at public schools, who have been diligently (and often reluctantly) rolling out the Common Core to meet the latest tests--whatever the legislature decided was the test du jour.

By shifting to the Massachusetts standards, the lawmakers think they can claim they raised the bar. So high that an increasing number of students can't get over them. "Proving" that public schools are failing, and need to be replaced by for-profit charters.

I do agree with Colbeck and his anti-Common Core crew on two issues:

Colbeck says the state shouldn't bet on standards that aren't proven.
"Beyond that, I think it's important from a government control perspective ... I'm actually very concerned about making sure that we have Michigan control of our education system."

Maybe adopting the unproven Common Core standards wasn't such a great idea. But blaming them for not raising test scores is idiotic--and expecting another set of standards to do the job is worse.

Nobody seems to understand that the Common Core was the essential building block in crafting a set of national tests that would generate a comparative-data gold mine for would-be "reformers" and a boondoggle for publishers and professional training. There was a lot of happy talk about building your own curricula and using rich content to develop critical reading skills, but in the end, the Common Core was mostly about what Arne Duncan called "the same goalposts."

Some people think the Common Core is what has ruined the teaching of English or forever screwed up arithmetic. We can argue about instructional, curricular and assessment issues--it's my professional wheelhouse--but the Common Core is not what has broken public education. It's the accountability movement and austerity funding. And maybe, in some states, a craven disregard for the children of the poor.

The Common Core is just another set of standards. We can raise and lower, tweak and replace standards until the cows come home, but until other things are in place (clean, safe classrooms, say--or books, supplies and experienced teachers), it's an exercise in blah-blah over reality.

Most important: if we're going to dump everything we've been working on, let's put the rebuilding back in the hands of educators, not politicians. Raising the Common Core Bar Until Nobody Can Get Over - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Schools offer lessons on accommodating transgender students - Yahoo Finance

Schools offer lessons on accommodating transgender students - Yahoo Finance:

Schools offer lessons on accommodating transgender students

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — From locker rooms and sex education classes to dress codes and overnight field trips, many U.S. public schools already are balancing the civil rights of transgender students with any concerns that classmates, parents and community members might have.

The U.S. Department of Education is drawing on those practices to guide other schools as they work to comply with the Obama administration's directive that transitioning children be treated consistent with their gender identity.

That has been the policy since 2013 of the Arcadia Unified School District in Southern California. As part of a settlement with the federal departments of Justice and Education that became the foundation for the national mandate issued Friday, students may use the bathroom, locker room or wilderness cabin that corresponds with their recognized gender outside school, Superintendent David Vannasdall said.

"This is absolutely not about a student on a day-to-day basis saying, 'Today I'm a boy, tomorrow I'm a girl.' That has never happened," Vannasdall said. "By the time these students are at a point where they are asking for our help, they are presenting in all areas of their life as that gender."

The administration had warned schools before Friday that denying transgender students access to the correct facilities and activities was illegal under its interpretation of federal sex discrimination laws. But the new guidance, for the first time, offers advice for accommodating the privacy needs of nontransgender youngsters.

Citing guidelines adopted by Washington, New York, the District of Columbia and Atherton High School in Louisville, Kentucky, President Barack Obama's Education Department said schools could erect privacy curtains in changing areas, permit all students to make use of single-stall restrooms or work out other case-by-case arrangements as long as the burden doesn't rest exclusively on transgender students.

"The concerns for right to privacy and safety of children applies to every single child, including the transgender child," said Atherton's principal, Thomas Aberli, who faced community opposition when he first allowed a transgender freshman to use the girls' restrooms two years ago. Since that first student, about a half-dozen more have come out as transgender, Aberli said.

Asaf Orr, a lawyer who directs the Transgender Youth Project Staff at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the guidance could help temper the transgender rights backlash that the restroom issue has engendered in states such as North Carolina by showing that minority rights and privacy rights can co-exist if schools respect all students' need to be comfortable.

At least 13 states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity in schools. Hundreds of school districts, from Anchorage, Alaska, and Tucson, Arizona, to Fairfax County, Virginia and Chicago, have adopted similar protections.

Nearly two dozen state high school sports federations have adopted rules governing the participation of transgender athletes on competitive teams, including the ones in South Dakota, Maryland and Nevada.

In Portland, Oregon, Lincoln High Principal Peyton Chapman recalls the "challenging times" about seven years when a transgender student who identified as female transferred there after being bullied at her previous school. The student made the cheerleading squad and "bathroom and locker Schools offer lessons on accommodating transgender students - Yahoo Finance:

Want to fix schools? Start with equal funding.

Want to fix schools? Start with equal funding.:

Want to fix schools? Start with equal funding.

As a teacher and administrator who has spent more than 13 years serving children in Detroit, I wholeheartedly understand the frustrations of students, parents and educators in the city today. It is a travesty that more than 50 years after the Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education we continue to accept segregated schools. Although schools can no longer base enrollment on race or ethnicity, we now have schools that are highly segregated by social class and socioeconomic status. According to the Michigan Department of Education finance records for the 2015-2016 school year, Detroit receives $7,434 in state funding per pupil, while school districts in more affluent communities often receive significantly more. For example, Grosse Pointe receives $9,864, Birmingham receives $11,924, and Bloomfield Hills receives $12,004 in state funding for each student.

Teachers in urban communities are working under increased levels of accountability at the local, state and federal levels, yet they are not provided with the appropriate tools, such as adequate instructional materials or technology for all students. Not to mention the unsafe conditions for both students and staff. How are students supposed to learn and be prepared to compete academically with boarded-up windows and mold infestations in their schools?

While some would argue that schools in communities with high poverty rates often receive additional federal funding, I counter that those funds, while helpful, typically come with stringent guidelines and penalties for not following those guidelines. This leaves districts with high percentages of students eligible for free and reduced lunch at a disadvantage in ensuring that all students have adequate staffing and supplies such as books, technology and lab equipment. Just two years ago, I taught at a high school with a significant level of low-income students where we did not have enough history books for one class, let alone one for every student.

While nearly all teachers are overworked and underpaid, teachers in communities like Detroit are often working even harder for less compensation and fewer benefits, in their effort to ensure students are prepared to compete academically with students from more affluent schools. These circumstances often lead to teachers having higher health insurance premiums. In my previous district, instead of bringing home a paycheck, some employees would owe the district $11 per pay period just to cover the cost of health care premium co-pays.

Challenging conditions make it more difficult for districts to attract and retain top educators.

Detroit Public Schools has 180 teacher vacancies. I am sure that other districts are facing similar shortages and staffing turnover because of similar working conditions. Schools with higher turnover often have lower academic achievement rates and students from schools serving a high concentration of students eligible for free and reduced lunch often enter post-secondary opportunities significantly less prepared than students from suburban communities with larger budgets and per-pupil funding allowances. We must ensure that students with the most needs have the teachers with the capacity to support their learning.

As the state Legislature works to develop a plan to “fix” Detroit’s Public Schools, I agree that many school districts, not just Detroit, should right-size their infrastructure because of declining enrollment. However, neither legislative plan, in the House or the Senate, address the inequity in per-pupil funding for schools in Detroit. The Senate plan, which includes the Detroit Education Commission, has drawn opponents from the charter sector. But public school advocates also should be concerned about an appointed authority with no real accountability to parents and community members. Instead, we should look to create equity and access for all students, not a Want to fix schools? Start with equal funding.:

Governor’s latest early education budget proposal disappoints advocates, providers | EdSource

Governor’s latest early education budget proposal disappoints advocates, providers | EdSource:

Governor's latest early education budget proposal disappoints advocates, providers

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for early education, released Friday as part of the May revision of the 2016-17 state budget, is virtually unchanged from his initial proposal in January, offering no new spending and envisioning the creation of a $1.6 billion block grant that would combine funding for the state’s preschool, transitional kindergarten and quality rating and improvement programs.

Early education advocates and providers expressed swift disappointment. For months they had urged greater spending and asked that the block grant – which would give local school districts more flexibility to spend early education funds and be a major change in how the state allocates those funds – be removed from the budget process for further review.

“The governor is proposing a substantial policy change to the early childhood system without any new funding for children,” said Debra Kong, president of the advocacy organization Early Edge. “And the few weeks left in the budget process is not enough time for the field, families, and policymakers to consider the ramifications.”

At the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group that last week took 60 members to Sacramento to lobby Brown administration officials on early education spending and reform, Senior Vice President of Public Policy Matt Regan said: “There’s certainly not the additional investment we’d hoped to see. I know the revenue numbers are a little short of what we’d hoped for, but at the end of the day we’re still under-resourcing early education programs and we’re still in deficit for where we were before the recession, and that needs to be made up.”

“The governor’s correct, we do need reforms,” Regan added. “Unfortunately, it’s being done through the budget process. It needs to be done through a more thoughtful process … through the legislative process.”

In announcing his revised budget at a morning press conference, Brown did not directly reference early education. But he made clear, as he has before, that his hand is being guided by the inevitable prospect of the next economic downturn.

“Things don’t last forever and the surging tide of revenue is beginning to turn, as it always does,” Brown said.

The budget proposal reflected none of the recent sentiment articulated in the state Legislature, where lawmakers in the Assembly subcommittee on education voted in April to reject the block grant plan. Legislators in both the Assembly and state Senate had also given generally friendly receptions to Governor’s latest early education budget proposal disappoints advocates, providers | EdSource:

Friday, May 13, 2016

To Pee or Not To Pee: Where is the Question

To Pee or Not To Pee: Where is the Question

U.S. Depts of Ed and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Help Schools Ensure the Civil Rights of Transgender Students http://bit.ly/1Tbff5C

To Our Transgender Students: We See You, We Stand With You! - Lily's Blackboard http://bit.ly/1TCsto8

Big Education Ape: US gives directive to schools on transgender bathroom access http://bit.ly/1TCsw3g

SEAT OF UNREST: Inside transgender students' war over school bathrooms -- NY Daily News Daily Dig http://bit.ly/1TCsqbT

How Schools Around The Country Are Treating Transgender Student Rights : NPR Ed : NPR http://n.pr/1TCsubF

Here's Exactly What The Administration Is Saying About Transgender Students : The Two-Way : NPR http://n.pr/1X7i5tN

Transgender High School Student Responds To White House Guidelines : NPR http://n.pr/1TCsA36

N.C. Governor Calls Obama Transgender Guidelines A 'Massive Overreach' : NPR http://n.pr/1TCsFni

Seattle Schools Community Forum: New Gender Neutral Bathroom to Open in SPS High School http://bit.ly/1TCsB7e

States Dig in Against Directive on Transgender Bathroom Use - ABC News http://abcn.ws/1TCsKHG

Texas will forgo federal funds over LGBT policy, official says | NOLA.com http://bit.ly/1TCsCrQ

Asa Hutchinson Tells Schools to Disregard LGBT Directive | Arkansas Business News | ArkansasBusiness.com http://bit.ly/1TCsMiM

LGBT fight is everyone's fight (Opinion) - CNN.com http://cnn.it/1siZNef

To Our Transgender Students: We See You, We Stand With You! - Lily's Blackboard

To Our Transgender Students: We See You, We Stand With You! - Lily's Blackboard:

To Our Transgender Students: We See You, We Stand With You!

It’s hard to be a teenager. You remember. You’re too tall. You’re too short. Your body’s changing. You break out in pimples. You want to be noticed. You don’t want to be noticed.

Now pile all that adolescent angst on top of: I was designated a boy at birth, but I’m a girl.

Or, To others I look like a girl, but I know I’m a boy.

Most of us can’t imagine what that would be like. But I think we all realize that being forced to live a life inconsistent with our authentic self or gender identity– would be wrong. If, when I was growing up, people told me that I was a boy and that I must – under threat of harassment and intimidation – live as a boy even though I knew I was a girl, that would have been painful; confusing; and frightening.”

I’m a teacher, and it’s my duty to protect students. I’ve comforted them when they’ve been scared. I’ve held them crying in my arms when someone was cruel to them. I wish my arms were big enough to hold all our transgender students today who have to undergo the onslaught of powerful politicians right now who are using that power to hurt them.

For some of these politicians, I believe they are acting out of profound ignorance of the transgender community. If I wanted to be generous, I’d say that their education is lacking and they don’t know what they’re talking about.

But I don’t want to be generous with everyone. I believe there are some who are cynically acting out of politics– they believe that an issue like this will mobilize certain voters to support them or oppose someone else. It’s an old political trick: Propose a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist so that you can pontificate and legislate and appear to be strong in defending family, morality, democracy, etc. It’s a game.

But there are others who aren’t playing games. They welcome the opportunity to harass and humiliate LGBT people. They don’t believe LGBT people have the right to exist and if they do exist, they should at least have the good taste to be embarrassed about it and hide it. People who have decided not to be ashamed of who they are offend them.

Whatever the motivation, some state legislators have responded to cities that passed nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people by passing their own laws prohibiting such protections and going further. In North Carolina, amongst other things, they required a public school to prohibit a transgender student from using the restroom with which the student identifies. Specifically, students must use the restroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificates.

So. Imagine.

A teenage transgender girl who struggles to make herself appear on the outside the way she feels on the inside; a teenager who dresses as a young girl, fixes her hair as a young girl, speaks and walks and acts as the young girl she is on the inside must, by North Carolina law, use the boys’ restroom. She must walk into the boys’ bathroom and be gawked at by the teenage boys who will surely make her feel as if she’s walked into the wrong bathroom.

A teenage transgender boy who struggles to make himself appear on the outside the way he feels on the inside; a To Our Transgender Students: We See You, We Stand With You! - Lily's Blackboard:

May Revise: Governor's Revised Budget

California State Budget:

Governor's Revised Budget
California State Budget:

Summary PDF

Detail

California State Budget:

Brown’s revised budget helps teacher shortage, emergency repairs

by Alisha Kirby

(Calif.) Acknowledging a growing teacher shortage that is putting education gains at risk, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed Friday a $10 million package of tuition support and other incentives aimed at attracting young people into the profession.

As part of his long-awaited revised budget plan, the governor also once again withheld support for a statewide bond to help with school construction and repair costs, but offered a $100 million loan program for health and safety improvements.

The governor, becoming renowned for his tight-fisted spending policies, referenced the need to be cautious in the face of economic uncertainties.

“Our reserves are not adequate,” Brown said during the press conference at the Capitol. “But at least it will minimize the cuts to all the programs that people want to spend more money on now, and what I’m trying to do is to protect those programs in the event of the next recession, which is coming.”

Despite a surprise dip in April revenue collections, the overall budget for K-12 schools remains rosy. If the governor’s plan is adopted as proposed, per pupil spending will have increased by more than $3,600 over the spending provided during the nadirs of the recession.

The minimum funding guarantee of $71.9 billion for 2016-17 represents a 52 percent increase over the past five years. His plan would also bring the state to within 4 percent of the commitment made four years ago with the creation of the Local Control Funding Formula.

Even before news broke of April’s slip in personal income tax revenue, the administration had signaled to schools that there would not be a lot of additional spending proposed for new programs or services. Brown did, however, provide new details for an early learner initiative that he proposed in January.

The plan consolidates a number of existing resources to form a $1.6 billion Early Education Block Grant, which will align academic priorities between pre-kindergarten programs and local school districts.

According to the implementation plan:

• School districts, county offices of education, families, teachers and community stakeholders will work to develop a regional early learning plan in order to align pre-kindergarten and K-12 programs; and

• County offices of education and school districts with early education programs can aid school districts that lack the infrastructure to operate such programs with technical support.

Preparation for program implementation should begin in 2017-18.

Brown also wants to respond to the troubling trend within the teacher employment sector – characterized as the position losing status among young people enough so that shortages are visible in many communities.

As a number of bills are pending in the Legislature to address the problem, Brown proposed a $10 million General Fund one time investment for grants to California postsecondary institutions to improve upon or develop four-year integrated teacher credential programs. Grants of up to $250,000 Brown’s revised budget helps teacher shortage, emergency repairs

Teacher Segregation in Los Angeles and New York City | Shanker Institute

Teacher Segregation in Los Angeles and New York City | Shanker Institute:

Teacher Segregation in Los Angeles and New York City

The effort to diversify the teacher workforce in U.S. public schools has received increasing attention in recent years, including a major 2015 Shanker Institute report examining the state of teacher diversity in nine large cities. The impact of levels of racial and ethnic diversity, however, will depend in no small part on the distribution of that diversity within and between districts. In other words, the benefits for teachers and students of a more diverse teacher workforce are influenced heavily by the degree to which teachers are distributed across districts schools by race and ethnicity. And, while there is decades of strong research on student segregation, there is virtually none on that among teachers.

In this report, we present a descriptive analysis of teacher segregation in the two largest districts in the U.S. - New York City and Los Angeles Unified. We find meaningful levels of teacher segregation in these districts, particularly of Black teachers from their White, Hispanic, and Asian colleagues. We also find that, unlike student segregation, teacher segregation is driven as much by the separation of minority teachers from each other as it is by the separation of White teachers from minority teachers. Finally, our results suggest that teacher segregation is related systematically to that of students, which can have a rather drastic effect on the experiences of those students. Black students in NYC and LA, for example, are four to five times more likely to have a Black teacher than are their White peers. Recent efforts to improve teacher diversity must include close attention to teacher segregation, and states and districts should be collecting the data necessary to do so.

You can view and/or download (PDF) the full research brief directly below.

Documents

Resource Type

Publications

Issues Areas:

K-12 Education

Author

Kinga Wysieńska-Di Carlo

Matthew Di Carlo

Esther Quintero

Teacher Segregation in Los Angeles and New York City | Shanker Institute:

The Golden Age of Education Reporting? | The Merrow Report

The Golden Age of Education Reporting? | The Merrow Report:
The Golden Age of Education Reporting?

Education reporting has never been better than it is right now. That said, there’s room for improvement. That’s the conclusion I have come to after 41 years on the beat and after attending the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association in Boston last weekend.

When I got into the game in 1974, EWA was gasping for breath. When I joined its Board in the late 70’s, I discovered that the executive director kept the organization’s financial records in a shoe box; moreover, there was no annual budget, just some numbers scribbled on a legal pad. The education beat itself was, for most reporters, a way station, a stepping stone to something with prestige. Only a handful of reporters like Mike Bowler, Anne Lewis, Ron Moskowitz and Fred Hechinger made a career out of reporting about schools.

When Lisa Walker became Executive Director of EWA, she and a revitalized Board brought EWA into the big leagues. Under current Executive Director Carolyn Hendrie, the organization now stands alone as a model–and the education beat has become a beacon for reporters assigned to cover other issues. The EWA’s powerful ‘listserve’ allows reporters to stay connected and share insights and, when appropriate, sources.

National coverage is strong: Chalkbeat (now in 4 states and expanding), The Hechinger Report, Pro Publica and Politico Education are providing outstanding national and local coverage. NPR (National Public Radio) has a strong education team, as does the PBS NewsHour (the latter team includes my former colleagues at Learning Matters). Although Education Week is a trade publication, it remains a “must read” for anyone interested in the both the big picture and the weeds of the business. (One of my regrets is that when we negotiated the merger into Ed Week, I did not ask for a lifetime subscription!) There are more interesting education blogs than I could begin to count, and that’s a good thing.

When The Tampa Bay Times won a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, that clinched it: education had become THE cool and significant issue to The Golden Age of Education Reporting? | The Merrow Report:

Big Education Ape: Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough - Brookings Institution http://bit.ly/1WvAAZT

Exemplary Program Awards and Title I Schools - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Exemplary Program Awards and Title I Schools - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces Exemplary Program Awards and Title I Achieving Schools

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced additional honors for 508 of the 779 elementary schools that were recognized as Gold Ribbon Schools.

Thirty-five of those Gold Ribbon Schools have been selected as having an Exemplary Program in Arts Education or Physical Activity and Nutrition. Schools applied separately for those honors.

Additionally, Gold Ribbon Schools that are also Title I schools were recognized as Academic Achieving Schools. This distinction is given only to schools receiving federal Title I funds that aid in meeting the educational needs of students living at or below the poverty level. The list of recognized schools follows at the end of this press release.

"I'm delighted to honor these schools and programs, which are doing a tremendous job preparing our students for 21stcentury opportunities and graduating lifelong learners in the process," Torlakson said.

Several Gold Ribbon Schools won multiple awards. Two schools—Jefferson Elementary School in the Sanger Unified School District, Fresno County, and Gordon J. Lau Elementary School in San Francisco—won all three additional honors (recognized for being a Title I Academic Achieving School and given Exemplary Program Awards in both Arts and Physical Activity and Nutrition).

The Exemplary Program Awards were created in 2013 to celebrate those schools carrying out the goals in Torlakson's A Blueprint for Great Schools report, which provided vision and direction for the California education system. That report was updated in 2015 with A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0.

More information on Exemplary Program Awards is available at the California Gold Ribbon Schools Program page on the California Department of Education's Web site.

The 2016 Elementary Gold Ribbon Schools as well as the 2016 Exemplary Program recipients, Title I Academic Achieving Schools, 2016 Green Ribbon Schools, 2016 Civic Learning Award Schools, and the National Blue Ribbon Schools from 2015 will be honored in May and June during regional ceremonies held in Santa Clara, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Visalia, and Sacramento.

2016 Exemplary Program Awards and Academic Achieving Schools

* AAA = Academic Achieving School Award
* ARTS = Exemplary Arts Education Program Award
* PAN = Exemplary Physical Activity and Nutrition Education Program Award

Exemplary Program Awards and Title I Schools - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

U.S. Depts of Ed and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Help Schools Ensure the Civil Rights of Transgender Students

U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Help Schools Ensure the Civil Rights of Transgender Students | U.S. Department of Education:

U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Help Schools Ensure the Civil Rights of Transgender Students

The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released joint guidance today to help provide educators the information they need to ensure that all students, including transgender students, can attend school in an environment free from discrimination based on sex.

Recently, questions have arisen from school districts, colleges and universities, and others about transgender students and how to best ensure these students, and non-transgender students, can all enjoy a safe and discrimination-free environment.

Under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, schools receiving federal money may not discriminate based on a student's sex, including a student's transgender status. The guidance makes clear that both federal agencies treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX.

"No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus," said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. "This guidance further clarifies what we've said repeatedly—that gender identity is protected under Title IX. Educators want to do the right thing for students, and many have reached out to us for guidance on how to follow the law. We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence."

"There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. "This guidance gives administrators, teachers, and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies. I look forward to continuing our work with the Department of Education—and with schools across the country—to create classroom environments that are safe, nurturing, and inclusive for all of our young people."

"Our federal civil rights law guarantees all students, including transgender students, the opportunity to participate equally in school programs and activities without sex discrimination as a core civil right," said Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. "This guidance answers questions schools have been asking, with a goal to ensure that all students are treated equally consistent with their gender identity. We look forward to continuing to work with schools and school communities to satisfy Congress' promise of equality for all."

"Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow. And we know that teachers and administrators care deeply about all of their students and want them to succeed in school and life," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Our guidance sends a clear message to transgender students across the country: here in America, you are safe, you are protected and you belong—just as you are. We look forward to working with school officials to make the promise of equal opportunity a reality for all of our children."

The guidance explains that when students or their parents, as appropriate, notify a school that a student is transgender, the school must treat the student consistent with the student's gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to have a medical diagnosis, undergo any medical treatment, or produce a birth certificate or other identification document before treating them consistent with their gender identity.

The guidance also explains schools' obligations to:

Respond promptly and effectively to sex-based harassment of all students, including harassment based on a student's actual or perceived gender identity, transgender status, or gender transition;
Treat students consistent with their gender identity even if their school records or identification documents indicate a different sex;
Allow students to participate in sex-segregated activities and access sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity; and
Protect students' privacy related to their transgender status under Title IX and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

At the same time, the guidance makes clear that schools can provide additional privacy options to any student for any reason. The guidance does not require any student to use shared bathrooms or changing spaces, when, for example, there are other appropriate options available; and schools can also take steps to increase privacy within shared facilities.

In addition to the Departments' joint Title IX guidance, the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education also released Examples of Policies and Emerging Practices for Supporting Transgender Students, a compilation of policies and practices that schools across the country are already using to support transgender students. The document shares some common questions on topics such as school records, privacy, and terminology, and then explains how some state and school district policies have answered these questions, which may be useful for other states and school districts that are considering these issues. In this document, the Education Department does not endorse any particular policy, but offers examples from actual policies to help educators develop policies and practices for their own schools.

Many parents, schools, and districts have raised questions about this area of civil rights law. Together, these documents will help navigate what may be a new terrain for some.

The mission of ED's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is to ensure equal access to education and promote educational excellence throughout the nation through the vigorous enforcement of civil rights. OCR is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination by educational institutions on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex and age, as well as the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act of 2001. Additional information about OCR is available here.

The mission of ED's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) is to promote academic excellence, enhance educational opportunities and equity for all of America's children and families, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning by providing leadership, technical assistance, and financial support. Additional information about OESE is available here.

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, created in 1957 by the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status and national origin. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is available here.

U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Help Schools Ensure the Civil Rights of Transgender Students | U.S. Department of Education:

Latest News and Comment from Education