Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

GLSEN Joins National Call to Make School Values Known | GLSEN

GLSEN Joins National Call to Make School Values Known | GLSEN:

GLSEN Joins National Call to Make School Values Known 

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GLSEN is among nine leading national education organizations to announce a national call to action affirming the right of all students to attend school in an environment free from fear, violence, and intimidation, including those who are black, brown, undocumented, LGBTQ, Muslim, and/or living with disabilities. 

A National Call to Action to Make Our Schools' Values Known


We come together as national education organizations in the wake of the troubling rash of reports of bias incidents and violence occurring in schools across the nation in recent days.
As learning communities, schools and school systems are responsible for providing all students with a physically and emotionally safe learning environment. This principle is the foundation of academic achievement, healthy individual development, and civic engagement. Violence, intimidation, and purposefully harmful expressions of bias undercut the core mission of schools and have no place in our school communities. We applaud the many schools and school districts that have already taken meaningful steps to develop and support positive school climate in their communities.
At a time when specific groups of students are being targeted, we must ensure that those students specifically know that their schools welcome them and that they will be safe. We urge all education stakeholders, including district leaders, heads of schools, principals, teachers, parents and guardians, and other educators to take action immediately within their school communities to support all students, especially those who face bias incidents in their schools. These actions should specifically affirm the right of all students, regardless of race, color, national origin, immigration status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or religion to be educated in an environment free from fear, violence, and intimidation.
We call upon our constituents and all education leaders to:
  • Publicly reaffirm the inclusive values that are the foundation of healthy learning cultures,
  • Lead a conversation with their school community on the core values of respect and inclusion at the heart of all learning; and
  • Consider posting a statement regarding these core values throughout their schools and/or all the schools within their district.
 Logos of nine National Education Partners, including The School Superintendents Association (AASA)  American School Counselor Association (ASCA)  GLSEN  National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)  National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)  National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)  National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)  National School Boards Association (NSBA)  National PTA
AASA: The School Superintendents Association
American School Counselor Association (ASCA)
GLSEN
National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National School Boards Association (NSBA)
National PTA

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GLSEN Joins National Call to Make School Values Known | GLSEN:

RFA: School Improvement Grant (SIG) Cohort 4 (CA Dept of Education)

RFA: School Improvement Grant (SIG) Cohort 4 (CA Dept of Education):

Request for Applications

School Improvement Grant (SIG) Cohort 4

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 Projected Funding Profile: No due date information is available.

The School Improvement Grant (SIG), authorized under section 1003(g) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), are grants to state educational agencies (SEAs) that are used to make competitive subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs) that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to use the funds to provide adequate resources in order to substantially raise the achievement of students in their lowest-performing schools.
Program Questions: Linda Moscatelli, e-mail: LMoscatelli@cde.ca.gov, tel. 916-445-1256
Downloading Questions: Kevin Donnelly, e-mail: KDonnelly@cde.ca.gov, tel. 916-324-3278

DocumentDescription
Request for Applications
(DOC; Revised 03-Aug-2016)
Updated School Improvement Grant Cohort 4, Fiscal Years 2014, 2015, and 2016, Local Educational Agency Request for Applications. Updates include revisions to the timeline, eligibility language, and the California State-determined Intervention Model. The application contains general information, SIG forms, a SIG application checklist, an application rubric, and important links. The application was closed on September 8, 2016.
A letter announcing the release of the School Improvement Grant Cohort 4, Local Educational Agency, Fiscal Years 2014, 2015, and 2016, Request for Applications. The letter also provides details regarding the SIG program.
Rubric, Scoring Guide, and Application Checklist (DOC)This document contains a separate copy of the SIG application checklist, scoring guide, and application rubric that is included in the School Improvement Grant Cohort 4, Fiscal Years 2014, 2015, and 2016, Local Educational Agency Request for Applications as Appendices D―F.
SIG Form 2 (XLS)This Excel document contains SIG Form 2—Implementation Charts for each of the SIG Intervention models. The LEA must complete one SIG Form—2 Implementation Chart, that is specific to the intervention model to be implemented for each school site. This document is required for the application.
SIG Form 3 (XLS)This Excel workbook contains templates for the School Improvement Grant (SIG) Form 3—Local Educational Agency (LEA) and School Budget. Only one workbook should be submitted and it must include budgets for all school sites and the school district.
Funding Results (XLS)A total of 11 districts were funded on behalf of 26 schools.
Certifications and Assurances

DocumentDescription
The following General Assurances and Certifications are requirements of applicants and grantees as a condition of receiving funds. Applicants do not need to sign and return the general assurances and certifications with the application; instead, they must download them and keep them on file to be available for compliance reviews, complaint investigations, or audits. Applicants that participate in the Consolidated Application should already have a copy of the general assurances and certifications on file and do not need to keep a separate copy. Program-specific assurances are not included here and should be listed separately on the RFA.

Initial Response to Betsy DeVos for EduBloggers and Everyone Else


Initial Response to Betsy DeVos for EduBloggers and Everyone Else



Washington Post: Meet Betsy DeVos | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://wp.me/p2odLa-fKO via @dianeravitch

CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos-- Secretary of Education - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/11/betsy-devos-secretary-of-education.html

Betsy DeVos, billionaire donor and school privatizer, is the new EdSec. | Fred Klonsky - http://wp.me/p4C3g-i2g via @fklonsky

Trump Picks DeVos for Secretary of Education | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://wp.me/p2odLa-fKM via @dianeravitch

News Flash! I Withdraw My Support for Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education; I Support Bill Evers! | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://wp.me/p2odLa-fKJ via @dianeravitch

Big Education Ape: Trump Picks Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary - BuzzFeed News - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/11/trump-picks-betsy-devos-as-education.html

Potential Trump Education Chief Pick Betsy DeVos is Pro-Common Core, Family Donated to Clinton Foundation - Breitbart - http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/23/potential-trump-education-chief-pick-betsy-devos-pro-common-core-family-donated-clinton-foundation/ via @BreitbartNews


Trump Diversifies Cabinet; Picks Nikki Haley and Betsy DeVos - The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/donald-trump-president-elect.html

Trump Chooses Betsy DeVos For Education Secretary : NPR Ed : NPR - http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/11/23/499642077/trump-chooses-betsy-devos-for-education-secretary on @NPR

5 Things to Know About Betsy DeVos, Trump's Pick for Education Secretary - The Atlantic - http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/5-things-to-know-about-betsy-devos-trumps-pick-for-education-secretary/508661/

Trump names Betsy DeVos new U.S. secretary of education | EdSource - https://edsource.org/?p=573207 on @edsource

Statement on Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary - http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/

Trump picks Betsy DeVos for education secretary post - http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/23/trump-devos-education/94344918/ via @detroitnews

Betsy DeVos: Five Things to Know About Trump's Pick for Education Secretary - Politics K-12 - Education Week - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/11/betsy_devos_education_secretary_five_things_to_know.html on @educationweek

What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice might tell us about his plans | Chalkbeat - http://www.chalkbeat.org/?p=108022

Trump Picks School-Choice Advocate Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary - WSJ - http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-picks-school-choice-advocate-betsy-devos-for-education-secretary-1479927146 

Trump Picks Betsy DeVos, Daughter-In-Law Of Billionaire Amway Cofounder, For Education Secretary - http://go.shr.lc/2f7Rnnj -  by @ChaseWithorn on @forbes

Trump Picks Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary - The Daily Beast - http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/23/trump-picks-betsy-devos-for-education-secretary.html

President-Elect Donald Trump Picks Pro-Life Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary | LifeNews.com - http://www.lifenews.com/?p=83940


Hey Buzzfeed, DeVos Is Not Anti-Common Core | Truth in American Education

Hey Buzzfeed, DeVos Is Not Anti-Common Core | Truth in American Education:

Hey Buzzfeed, DeVos Is Not Anti-Common Core 



Buzzfeed reports that Donald Trump has narrowed his choices down to Betsy DeVos and Michelle Rhee whom he met with over the weekend.
This is based on an anonymous source who says he or she is familiar with the search process. I have my doubts. The Washington Post indicates the time table is not known, and for now, I agree with that. I have found that most people who talk to the press anonymously tend to do so out of self-importance. Not saying anonymous leaks are always wrong, but they are not always right either. Often times the person giving the information is not nearly as close to the process as they let on.
Buzzfeed’s Molly Hensley-Clancey’s article, however, is more opinion than news and she doesn’t have her facts straight. She says Michelle Rhee is the “f_k you candidate for teacher’s unions” while Betsy DeVos is the more “conventional choice.”
They both suck, but in different ways, and what teacher’s unions think is irrelevant to me.
Here is what Molly Hensley-Clancey said about the “conventional choice” of DeVos:
DeVos is in most ways a conventional choice for the position: a longtime advocate of alternatives to the public school system, with close ties to many on Capitol Hill, she is closely aligned to Republican education officials like Sen. Lamar Alexander and serves on the board of Jeb Bush’s education foundation. She has also proclaimed herself an opponent of the Common Core education initiative, which Trump often denounced at his rallies with promises of a “repeal,” though she initially supported the standards.
Yes she is very much part of the Republican education establishment, but where Hensley-Clancey got the idea that she proclaimed herself an opponent of the Common Core education initiative is beyond me.
Betsy DeVos through the Great Lakes Education Project and Michigan Freedom Fund tried to influence Michigan’s Republican primaries. Karen Braun at Stop Common Core in Michigan wrote:
GLEP is a strong supporter of the Common Core and its continued implementation in Michigan. They are part of the Michigan Coalition for High Student Standards which opposes SB 826 to Repeal and Replace Common Core, science, social studies, and aligned assessments with pre-common core Massachusetts standards.  Stop Common Core in Michigan believes there is a high correlation between candidates who accept the GLEP endorsement and their future votes on legislation.
GLEP claims NOT to have a litmus test on Common Core.  This allows candidates to say they are against common core and still gain the endorsement of GLEP.   But DeVos  is a champion for “school choice” while at the same time continuing the implementation of common national standards.    The DeVos definition of “school choice” is the freedom to choose which common core school will track your child from cradle-to-career (P20).   All Michigan charters must use common national standards.  That’s NOT true choice.
Like Bill Gates, Betsy DeVos has some money and has some things she’d like to see different.   Like all good investors, DeVos likely expects a return on her investment.  And if you don’t play the game under their rules and vote the way you want her to vote, you may find yourself challenged the next time you run for office.
DeVos’ involvement with GLEP which supports Common Core and with the Foundation for Excellence in Education should make any denunciation of Common Core from DeVos’ lips suspect.Hey Buzzfeed, DeVos Is Not Anti-Common Core | Truth in American Education:

Trump Picks Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary - BuzzFeed News

Trump Picks Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary - BuzzFeed News:

Trump Picks Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary
Picking the Republican mega donor will please mainstream Republicans but may anger some of Trump’s far-right supporters.

Donald Trump has appointed Republican megadonor Betsy DeVos as his education secretary, in a move that is likely to appease mainstream Republicans but will also upset some of his most passionate supporters, who are deeply opposed to the Common Core education initiative that DeVos has supported.
DeVos is well-connected in Washington and on Capitol Hill, where she aligns closely with Senator Lamar Alexander, a top-ranking Republican who chairs the senate committee on education.

I am honored to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again. The status quo in ed is not acceptable.
Trump called DeVos a “brilliant and passionate education advocate,” in a statement announcing her selection. “Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back,” he said.
While DeVos is well-regarded by many Republicans, a number of conservative websites and activist parent organizations have already denounced her due to her position on Common Core. DeVos sits on the board of several organizations that support the Common Core, including the Jeb Bush-backed Foundation For Excellence in Education.
“If Trump wants to increase school choice and be known as a president who dramatically improved education options for kids, he needs to send DeVos packing,” wrote Joy Pullman, managing editor of conservative site The Federalist, in response to BuzzFeed News reporting on Monday that DeVos was a leading contender for the post.
Pullman said she would “now commit seppuku” as DeVos emerged as the most likely pick.
DeVos has long been an active player in Republican politics, with deep pockets enabling her to act as a leading donor to conservative causes. Her husband Jim DeVos is an heir to the Amway fortune and member of a prominent family of conservative donors, and her brother Erik Prince founded Blackwater, the private mercenary business that rose to infamy during the Iraq War.
Molly Hensley-Clancy is a business reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. She covers the intersection of business and education.
Contact Molly Hensley-Clancy at molly.hensley-clancy@buzzfeed.com.


Trump Picks Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary - BuzzFeed News:

Fordham: Make America Great Again, but for education - NonDoc

Fordham: Make America Great Again, but for education - NonDoc:

Fordham: Make America Great Again, but for education

Fordham
Capitol Hill High School is one of Oklahoma City's largest high schools. (Josh McBee)

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister spoke recently at a community meeting hosted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. After hearing what she had to say, it was easy to believe that Oklahoma schools are ready to move beyond the use of unreliable and invalid test scores (such as the A-F School report card) to intimidate educators into overcoming the educational legacies of poverty.
The audience made it obvious Nov. 14 at Capitol Hill that they have had enough of bubble-in accountability, and the Hofmeister administration is listening. She previewed its new effort to expand college-readiness instruction and equal access to challenging and meaningful courses. Given federal pressure, the administration will almost certainly have to incorporate some test-driven growth measures, but its intent was made clear: As long as school systems are convinced that those estimates won’t be used to punish unfairly, the questionable statistics’ downsides can be minimized.
Superintendent Hofmeister’s most important message was that a completely different, thoughtful and collaborative mindset has replaced the top-down and punitive accountability obsession of the last 15 years. To that end, her department carefully seeks to employ research-based methods that address each individual flaw of grading schools.

Meanwhile, back at the Fordham Institute …

About a week before Hofmeister’s appearance, The Oklahoman published a guest editorial from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli and Brandon Wright. In it, the authors outline a plan to do the seemingly impossible: Fordham would make the discredited A-F grade card guesstimates even more destructive than at present.
It’s not like Fordham has researched Oklahoma’s grade cards and the options for improvement created by the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and then contemplated a better system for Oklahoma. Quite the opposite: Fordham has championed its own national boilerplate matrix, which shifts the emphasis from poor students to high-performing, mostly affluent kids. (When incorporating Fordham’s Fordham: Make America Great Again, but for education - NonDoc:



NASBE - The Impact of the 2016 Elections on State Boards of Education

NASBE - The Impact of the 2016 Elections on State Boards of Education:

The Impact of the 2016 Elections on State Boards of Education

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This NASBE analysis examines the 2016 election results in the 11 states (plus Guam and the District of Columbia) that elect state board members directly, as well as 12 states where the governor appoints the board that held gubernatorial elections this year. In general, the analysis suggests there will be significant changes in the composition of state boards come January, with half of the seats that were up for election changing hands and many new members being sworn in.

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election-2016-frame

Make America dumb again: What Michelle Rhee’s meeting with Donald Trump says about the president-elect’s education priorities - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Make America dumb again: What Michelle Rhee’s meeting with Donald Trump says about the president-elect’s education priorities - News - Local Stories - November 24, 2016:

Make America dumb again: What Michelle Rhee’s meeting with Donald Trump says about the president-elect’s education priorities
Focus on expanding school vouchers could further segregate schools, say education policy experts


 The rumors that controversial charter school champ Michelle Rhee could be the nation’s next education czar accelerated Saturday when she and husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, emerged from a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump outside the swanky New Jersey clubhouse where Trump has been making cabinet-seekers kiss his ring.

And, on the surface, that all seems strange.
After all, Trump is the divisive Republican billionaire who wants to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, ban Muslims from entering the country, overturn women’s reproductive rights and who anointed a white nationalist as his closest political adviser.
What could Sacramento’s first couple have in common with such a man?
Turns out, more than it would appear.
Rhee is one of a dozen people that have been mentioned for the education secretary post, and joins other “school choice” proponents like Indiana Rep. Luke Messer and Eva Moskowitz, a New York charter school executive who withdrew from contention last week after taking part in The Donald’s pageant-style cabinet auditions.
For her part, Rhee has largely maintained radio silence on the topic of Trump. Like other media outlets, SN&R was unable to reach Rhee for an interview, and the mayor’s office ignored multiple requests for comment.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rhee tweeted that she was not interested in the cabinet position, but supportive of the president-elect and “hopeful about the opportunity to find common ground on this important issue of education.”
There are plenty of signs why Trump and Rhee could make a simpatico team, and what Rhee’s candidacy suggests about the president-elect’s education goals, say education policy experts.
According to Julian Vasquez Heilig, a Sacramento State University professor of educational leadership and policy studies, Trump is espousing a pro-market philosophy adopted by the corporate education interests that Rhee runs in circles with. Trump has also indicated a desire to completely warp the public educational system by shifting $20 billion in federal education spending into expanding student vouchers and privatized charter schools. Heilig says that could only happen if Trump guts federal education entitlements like Title 1, which provides funding to the poorest public schools.
The effects could speed up the segregation that already exists in many school districts, Heilig says, and wither public schools into near collapse.
“A lot of people think that what Trumps says sounds good, but a lot of people don’t understand the implication of what it means,” said Heilig, director of Sac State’s Doctorate in Educational Leadership program and an education blogger.
“Our public education would be completely different than what we have now,” he added. “You could actually see more districts go bankrupt.”
The teachers’ unions actually invented the idea of charter schools during the 1980s, Heilig says. Back then, the notion was to create schools run by teachers and community members, cutting out middle-men administrators. But by the ’90s, the plan had been co-opted by private management conglomerates that looked to schools as profit-vessels, and teachers disavowed the model.
Vouchers, on the other hand, originated in the South as a way to outmaneuver the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, “to make sure white kids don’t have to go to school with black kids,” Heilig said. They’ve since been repackaged as a golden ticket to poor students in failing schools, but that’s not how they work over time, Heilig says.
In Florida, for instance, vouchers were first issued to low-income students, but then expanded to the greater population in a bait-and-switch that left poor children stranded in undercapitalized schools.
“Over time, it actually made schools more segregated,” Heilig said.
That’s because privately-run schools can decide which vouchers they accept, while public schools cannot. So a private or parochial school can deny a minority student with special needs, for instance, and only accept vouchers from affluent white students with good test scores and who can pay additional tuition.
“It might even exacerbate segregation of rich and poorer schools,” said Robert Bifulco, an associate professor of public administration and a senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University.
Public schools are then left with the most challenging students and not enough resources to serve them, creating a vicious cycle of plummeting enrollment, school closures and bankruptcies.
And that’s really the intent, Heilig says, borne of a free-market ideology that believes schools should be able to profit and segregate. “It has nothing to do with poor kids,” Heilig said of vouchers.
Like Trump, Rhee’s rise to celebrity owes more to attitude than accomplishments.
“Michelle Rhee is more of a pundit than she is an educator,” Heilig noted.
Related stories: 
On Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee’s latest power moves
Some call the mayor and his wife the next Bill and Hillary. SN&R, 08.21.14.

Preparing to fail
“Radical” Michelle Rhee's “blood sport” agenda syncs up with district's plan to close its most diverse schools.SN&R, 03.14.13.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and wife Michelle Rhee bring Students First education road show back to Sacramento
The mayor asks, “Is education the civil-rights issue of our time?” SN&R, 02.02.12.