Connecticut NAACP keeping education a top priority, including charter school concerns

Connecticut NAACP keeping education a top priority, including charter school concerns:

Connecticut NAACP keeping education a top priority, including charter school concerns

NEW HAVEN >> Racial disparities in employment, housing, health, law enforcement, and a new president, are all issues the NAACP continued to discuss throughout 2016. But starting a nationwide discussion on education, more specifically charter schools, was a top priority at the Connecticut NAACP’s annual state convention Saturday.

“The charter schools are in our communities, in no other place. They’re in the poor, minority districts. So we need to figure this thing out,” NAACP State Chairman Scot X. Esdaile told members attending the convention Saturday morning.

On Oct. 15, the NAACP national board called for a moratorium on charter school expansion and for the strengthening of oversight in governance and practice.

The board said it wanted charter schools to be subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools, that public funds not be given to charter schools at the expense of the public school system, that charter schools stop expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate, and that charter schools stop “to perpetuate de facto segregation” of high performing children from children whose “aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.”

“We are moving forward to require that charter schools receive the same level of oversight, civil rights protections and provide the same level of transparency, and we require the same of traditional public schools,” Chairman Roslyn M. Brock said at the time in a statement. “Our decision today is driven by a long held principle and policy of the NAACP that high quality, free, public education should be afforded to all children.”

After the announcement, seven national special hearings on charter schools were set to take place in Los Angeles, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, Orlando, and the first was on Saturday at the Omni New Haven Hotel.

“We need to have our young people a the forefront, have that discussion to try to make the changes that are necessary,” Esdaile said.

On Saturday, a diverse group of panelists, from both sides of the charter school argument, made presentations to local, state, and national leaders, including members of the NAACP national board, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

“We want to hear from people,” Esdaile said.

“We hear what (charter school advocates) want, we hear what (charter school opponents), but what do we want?” Esdaile asked members. “That’s what we need to determine after hearing what everyone has to say.”

Doris J. Dumas, president of the NAACP Greater New Haven branch said while there are many issues communities of color face today, education is among the most important.

“It all starts with education. If we want to make our communities better, we need to start there,” Dumas Connecticut NAACP keeping education a top priority, including charter school concerns:

My Turn: If you want to see the perils of a school voucher system, look at Chile

My Turn: If you want to see the perils of a school voucher system, look at Chile:

My Turn: If you want to see the perils of a school voucher system, look at Chile

Upon hearing that President-elect Trump has picked billionaire Betsy DeVos, a school voucher advocate, to be secretary of education, I realized that I had to write publicly about my recent experiences teaching in Chile – a country that has had a voucher system for more than 35 years.

I firmly believe that a voucher system would destroy the very American ideals our public schools currently foster and protect.

As part of my sabbatical this past school year from John Stark Regional High School, I went to teach English in Chile after having been certified to teach English as a second language here in New Hampshire. For 4½ months, I taught public school students in grades five through 12.

Chile adopted its voucher system in 1980 with many of the same goals as today’s voucher advocates. However, due to the voucher system, Chile has three distinct school systems: public, semi-private and private. All students receive a voucher to attend public or the semi-private schools. Parents of students in fully private school must pay the entire tuition bill.

Public schools require only the voucher while the semi-private schools, which are often religious schools, charge fees on top of the voucher. The semi-private schools also have waiting lists and these schools can refuse students who are often more difficult to teach, those with disabilities and behavioral problems. The results are grim.

According to an article from the Washington Post, as of 2012 three-quarters of Chilean public school students are from the lower 40 percent of family incomes in the country while 90 percent of students attending private schools are from Chile’s top 60 percent of income-earning families. Only 10 percent of disadvantaged students use the vouchers to attend the semi-private schools.

But I’m not writing to summarize an article. I’m writing to tell you about what I saw.

The students attending the middle school where I taught, Manuel Blanco Encalada, came from poor families. Many of my students received public assistance for basic needs. The school had a disproportionate number of hearing-impaired and autistic students who were refused admission to the semi-private school. Chilean semi-private schools can pick and choose whom they take, and they take few students with learning challenges. With few resources to pay teachers, the average class size was 41. I had a student load of 277 students. A student I knew who attended a private school had classes of 30 students – none with learning or behavioral issues. This disparity is made possible by diverting public funds to the semi-private schools through the voucher system.

My classroom was heated only by a wood stove. When I ran out of wood, I was told I would have to buy my own. Public school teachers buy wood to heat their classrooms or parents donate it. The semi-private and private schools have modern heating systems. Basic supplies in my school were scarce, and the lights frequently went on and off, due to an aging electrical system. If you think this is unique to a South American country and would not happen here, think about the crumbling public schools in many of our own cities. A voucher system would only accelerate and amplify decay that is already occurring.

What shocked me the most was what the three-tiered system of education did to Chilean culture.

I met adults at my gym who told me they would never send their children to public schools because “those children don’t bathe.” My students were clean.

I lived with a host family whose 4-year-old went to a semi-private pre-kindergarten. His aunt is an assistant principal at a public elementary school, which he visited one day. When asked what he thought of the public school, he said the children were “desordenados,” which in Chile means undisciplined or unruly.

Where does a 4-year-old get an idea like this, especially when all 4-year-olds are undisciplined and unruly? Thirty-five years of vouchers have helped make Chile very classist – hardly an American value.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush wrote of DeVos that she is an “outstanding pick” and “her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next.” School vouchers don’t help the poor. They take resources away from public schools and their economically diverse students. Vouchers separate children by disability or class and magnify social disparities and prejudice. When people say vouchers will benefit the disadvantaged, don’t believe it. The past 35 years of Chilean history prove otherwise.

American public schools foster the American values of opportunity for all, inclusiveness and diversity. Voucher systems promote disparities and prejudice. Our children deserve something better; they deserve schools that reflect American values.

(Michele Kirschbaum lives in Concord.)My Turn: If you want to see the perils of a school voucher system, look at Chile:

New Research: Vouchers— schools do the choosing – Cloaking Inequity - http://wp.me/p2D92I-2Ho via @ProfessorJVH

Timeline of Mayor Kevin Johnson's life in Sacramento | The Sacramento Bee

Timeline of Mayor Kevin Johnson's life in Sacramento | The Sacramento Bee:

Highs, lows, hoops and pie. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson through the years

A timeline of important dates in the personal, athletic and political life of Kevin Johnson.

Kevin Johnson and his Mom, Georgia West, in 1975.

March 4, 1966: Kevin Johnson is born in Sacramento. His father dies when he is 3 years old, and Johnson is raised by his grandparents in Oak Park.

1983: Johnson leads the state of California in scoring as a senior on Sacramento High School’s basketball team.

1983-1987: Johnson attends and plays basketball at Cal.

June 22, 1987: Johnson is picked seventh by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft. He is traded to the Phoenix Suns in February 1988.

July 19, 1996: A teenager named Mandi Koba tells Phoenix police that Johnson fondled her in his home. Koba was 16 at the time of the alleged encounter, and Johnson was 29. Johnson was never criminally charged, but The Bee later reported that he and Koba signed a draft confidential settlement agreement in 1997 worth $230,000.

May 16, 2000: Johnson retires from the NBA and returns to Sacramento.

March 3, 2003: Johnson’s nonprofit, St. Hope, is granted control of Sacramento High School by the Sacramento City Unified School District board. The agreement is finalized a few months later after a legal battle.

March 5, 2008: Johnson announces he will challenge two-term Mayor Heather Fargo for City Hall’s top post.

Nov. 4, 2008: After a sometimes ugly campaign in which Johnson’s opponents highlighted sexual misconduct allegations against him, the former NBA star is elected 55th mayor of Sacramento, defeating Fargo in a landslide.

Mayor elect Kevin Johnson embraces supporters following his speech at the election night party at Zocalo in Midtown Sacramento in November 2008.

Nov. 25, 2008: Johnson holds an inauguration gala at Memorial Auditorium, a departure from the traditional low-key swearing-in at City Hall.

Dec. 11, 2008: Less than two weeks into his term, Johnson proposes his first strong-mayor plan to greatly increase his office’s power.

Continue your walk down KJ memory lane: Timeline of Mayor Kevin Johnson's life in Sacramento | The Sacramento Bee:

Marie Corfield: 75 Reasons Betsy DeVos is Wrong for Public Education

Marie Corfield: 75 Reasons Betsy DeVos is Wrong for Public Education:

75 Reasons Betsy DeVos is Wrong for Public Education

Still don't know who Betsy DeVos is or why she would be the worst Secretary of Education in this modern era? Look no further. Compiled by eduator/activist/blogger, Jonathan Pelto, the following is only a partial list of posts written by members of the Education Bloggers Network about her since Donald Trump announced her nomination.  

Granted, I'm sure you have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than read through every single one of these, but even if you pick a few, you will find that she is about as swampy a swamp creature as an alligator—and just as dangerous. 

Unless the US Senate blocks her nomination, this pro-voucher, pro-charter, pro-religious-education-on-the-taxpayer-dime, billionaire, Washington insider who has no degree in education, no teaching experience, nor any experience working in a public K-12 environment, who never attended pubic school (nor have any of her children) will make Arne Duncan look like Fred Rogers.

I could go on, but far too many great minds have already written a boatload. So, sit back, grap a cup of coffee (or a bottle of Xanax), and browse. Then call your US Senators and demand they vote No on her nomination.

From Alan Singer

Charter School Failure (The Schools, Not The Kids)

From A View From the Edge
Redefining Our Definitions

From A View From the Edge

Educational “Entitlement” Accounts

From A View From the Edge

Our New Education Secretary, Mr$. Bet$y DeVo$

From Badass Teachers Association
The DeVostater: Public School Advocates Unite! by Dr. Michael Flanagan

From Badass Teachers Assocation

A BATS Reading List to Learn About Betsy DeVos

From Badass Teachers Association
BATs Board of Directors Statement on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education

From Bob Braun's Ledger
These Democrats "Applaud" Trump's Billionaire Education Secretary

From Bust•ED pencils
What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice might tell us about his plans

More Reasons from Marie: Marie Corfield: 75 Reasons Betsy DeVos is Wrong for Public Education:

State finally inks plan to combat rampant school absenteeism | OregonLive.com

State finally inks plan to combat rampant school absenteeism | OregonLive.com:

State finally inks plan to combat rampant school absenteeism

Oregon education officials laid out their plans late Thursday for how to fight chronic absenteeism, a rampant problem in schools and a prime reason the state has one of the nation's worst graduation rates.

In a report required by the Legislature, the Oregon Department of Education and Gov. Kate Brown's Chief Education Office said they would deploy a team of on-the-ground experts to help the 30 percent of schools with sky-high absenteeism do better. They also call for more attention from the top.

But training and deploying those 20 coaches, along with other fixes laid out in the report, would first require the state to commit the resources to make it happen. That includes an estimated $7 million a year in funding, half of which would go to hire the coaches.

Gov. Kate Brown, who'd been briefed on the request for that money, did not specifically recommend any in her proposed $20.6 billion state budget Thursday.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10 percent of the school year. At the 350 Oregon schools with absenteeism crises, at least one in five students misses that much. The Oregonian/OregonLive first chronicled the depth, causes and impacts of that problem in a February 2014 special report, Empty Desks.

Missing that much school in kindergarten and first grade can mean never learning to read well. Missing that much in high school is a sure statistical sign that a student is unlikely to earn enough credits to graduate.

Only a handful of states have as big a chronic absenteeism problem as Oregon's, and there is no evidence it's substantially improved since the problem was first reported on a school-by-school basis in fall 2013.

Framers of the plan say they expect at least 80 percent of Oregon schools to have fewer than 10 percent of their students be chronically absent. Currently, just one in five schools meet that test.

On the flip side, they say it's reasonable to expect Oregon would have only about 3 percent of its schools, or fewer than 40, with at least 20 percent of their students missing so much school. Right now, 30 percent of all schools do.

Backed by new data tools and expertise from the two education agencies, the 20 attendance coaches would help those schools examine in detail what is going wrong not only at the school but also with families it serves. They then would make a customized plan to reverse those patterns.

Though Brown hasn't specifically recommended funding the coaches, she did recommend that her "education innovation officer," Colt Gill, be given a $20 million "graduation equity fund." A spokeswoman said Friday that Brown intends for Gill to devote some of it to fighting chronic absenteeism.

"Strategies for addressing attendance are essential to the governor's goal of improving graduation outcomes," spokeswoman Melissa Navas said.

The report also calls for the state to commit resources that don't cost money, including use of the bully pulpit.

Brown, Gill, state schools chief Salam Noor and Lindsey Capps, Brown's chief education officer, should all make the most of their influence in speeches, emails, State finally inks plan to combat rampant school absenteeism | OregonLive.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: As It Sinks In (12/4)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: As It Sinks In (12/4):

ICYMI: As It Sinks In (12/4)

Share what speaks to you. Amplifying each other's voice is how we cut through the noise, how we make sure that what needs to be heard has a chance to be heard. Oh, and call your Senator and tell him to just say no to Betsy DeVos.

The Need To Read

An uplifting an encouraging essay about the value of reading.

Waiting for the Barbarians

Chris Hedges is, as always, really pissed off. And not very optimistic. But there are few things in this piece to think about.

A Nashville Board Member Figures out the Secret of How Charter Schools Get Rich off Public Tax Dollars

A Nashville board member writes to say... well, the title kind of gives it away.

Secret Teacher Invasion: An Invasive Alien Species Is Taking Over Education

The UK is suffering from their own version of reformsterism. Here's one assessment of the effect it's having on the teaching force.


Betsy DeVos and the Segregation of School Choice

A look at how DeVos's version of school choice is also a powerful tool for segregation in Michigan. This piece comes recommended by Nancy Flanagan, so you know it's worth your time.

Unspoken Rules of the Teachers lounge

Let's just take a little McSweeney's break in the midst of all this, shall we?

Public School Enemy Number 1

Yes, I keep saying I'll stop reading DeVos profiles, but there's a lot to know and I want to be fully informed when I call up my Senator to say, "Please do not approve this woman." Democracy Now does a great job with the topic.

The Teacher Union Vote

You've know doubt read the headlines that the teachers union skewed Trump in the election. Here's Fred Klonsky with some old-fashioned facts to put all the data in proper context.


Amy Moore Welcomes Donald Trump to the Service Profession

Reminding Herr Trump for whom he actually works now. Moore has been away from the blogging game for a bit; it's nice to have her back.

The Long Game of Betsy DeVos

Jennifer Berkshire (Edushyster) provides a well-researched piece of reporting that gives us the big picture of DeVos's big picture view of public education and the dismantling thereof.


Madeline L'engle, Creativity and Hope

If you don't subscribe to Brain Pickings, you really should. Here is a wonderful piece chock full of encouraging and beautiful L'engle quotes. Just the thing to finish today's reading with. Also, call your Senator.

Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: Smarick: How It Could All Go Wrong + Book Banning and Gaslighting America - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/12/catch-up-with-curmudgucation-smarick.html

CURMUDGUCATION: How Charter Students Would Benefit from Teacher Unions

CURMUDGUCATION: How Charter Students Would Benefit from Teacher Unions:

How Charter Students Would Benefit from Teacher Unions

As part of the general "Please don't leave us" hubbub arising from the nominally-Democratic-neo-liberal fear that a bunch of Trump-hating lefties are about to bolt out of the reformster tent, Peter Cunningham over at Education Post ran a big discussion about how unions and charters should maybe be BFFs (you can read my take on the discussion here, here and here). 

Arguments included that unions would be great if they didn't act like unions, charters would start implementing policies they've always avoided like the plague, unions would make charters look better, and it would be innovative, somehow. But these all involved supposed benefits for the unions and charter operators. Can the marriage of unions and charters be a happy one?  Later on twitter, Cunningham tweaked the focus--

Would there be a benefit to charter students if charters welcomed a teachers union? Would this be the kind of marriage that would benefit the children, even if it's a little rocky?

Benefits for the Kids

Well, actually he used the term "student achievement" which is a euphemism for "standardized test scores." If the question is "Would having a teachers union raise student scores on the Big Standardized Test," I have three responses.

1) We already know that there is a positive relationship between unions and test scores. We've known this for a while. It's a fuzzy correlation-causation connection, but we've done the research CURMUDGUCATION: How Charter Students Would Benefit from Teacher Unions:

Not What, But Who: Remaining Grounded as a Teacher of Students | the becoming radical

Not What, But Who: Remaining Grounded as a Teacher of Students | the becoming radical:

Not What, But Who: Remaining Grounded as a Teacher of Students

Because she’s older and the teacher, she’s right and I’m not.

Sandra Cisneros, “Eleven”

The field experience students complete as part of my foundations of education course has this semester blended well with their reading Chris Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too.

As we have discussed both during class sessions, students have been drawn to witnessing and reading as well as thinking about how teachers view and respond to their students.

Although these students have virtually no background in formal education, they have been very perceptive about the inordinate, and distracting, pressures on teachers to cover the curriculum (standards) and prepare students for testing—notably while observing and tutoring at a local majority-minority elementary school.

High student/teacher ratios have also been identified as making good classroom practice nearly impossible.

Running through our discussions has been a concern about how teachers treat students (often more harshly than my students anticipated or endorsed) and about the pervasive deficit perspective throughout the school.

Observing and tutoring in special needs classes and among Latinx students needing to acquire English have intensified how my students have responded to their field placement and their recognition of the myriad factors that impact negatively formal education.

Often unspoken, but what teachers and students share in far too many schools is a “no excuses” imperative that demands teachers perform well (even miraculously) despite being placed in circumstances that work against their efforts and that demands students somehow leave the pressures and inequities of their lives in order to excel at academics being imposed on them.

Teresa Watanabe’s Can a child who starts kindergarten with few reading or math skills catch up? is a snapshot of what my students have witnessed and what Emdin’s work challenges.

Responding to that article, Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California, Not What, But Who: Remaining Grounded as a Teacher of Students | the becoming radical:

Growth of Charter Schools Has Increased Inequality in Education - Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: Growth of Charter Schools Has Increased Inequality in Education:

Growth of Charter Schools Has Increased Inequality in Education

Exploring the negative consequences of charter school expansion in U.S. cities

 

In a new EPI report (see PDF below), Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker finds that charter school expansion has exacerbated inequities in education. In his study of 11 city school systems, Baker finds, in most cases, the non-charter public schools have received fewer resources due to charter school expansion. Also, he finds that many leading charter operators have been charged with conflicts-of-interest and financial malfeasance.  

Baker recommends communities hold charter operators publicly accountable and consider the cost and benefits to the community and to the greater public good.

 Exploring the consequences of charter school expansion in U.S. cities | Economic Policy Institute - http://www.epi.org/?p=109218

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: Growth of Charter Schools Has Increased Inequality in Education:

TBFURMAN: Euphanism

TBFURMAN: Euphanism:

Euphanism

I do not believe "euphanism" has received enough attention.

The story is over in Slate, but even they whitewashed the fact that Trump not only does not know what a euphemism is, he also does not know how to pronounce the word.

By the way, the whole clip is just batshit. I've known guys like this; they just keep talking and string together nonsense and nobody calls them on it because it's just not worth the effort.

Here's the whole thing. It's a CNN embed code so don't blame me if it doesn't work on your IOS device.

Very, very low intelligence on display there. No internal coherence throughout the whole thing. It's not just a failure to know the meaning and pronunciation of a word; it's the whole I'm going to bully you with my voice thing he's got going. It probably works inside his family, but the Russians or the Chinese or even that little monster running the Philippines---- someone is going to call him on it. He's going to get a lot of people killed before he's done.
It's all such familiar behavior, if you've been TBFURMAN: Euphanism:

Betsy DeVos and Her 2015-16 School Choice Yearbook | deutsch29

Betsy DeVos and Her 2015-16 School Choice Yearbook | deutsch29:

Betsy DeVos and Her 2015-16 School Choice Yearbook

On November 23, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Betsy DeVos for US secretary of education.

DeVos is zealous for school choice, and it seems that she is particularly fond of private school choice.

Below is her foreword for the choice organization, American Federation for Children (AFC) Growth Fund’s 2015-16 school choice yearbook. DeVos was the AFC Growth Fund chair:

As a result of the work of education advocates across the country and the education revolution we’ve created, our nation’s education system is changing. The antiquated, top-down model of education in this country that originated in the 1800s in order to “educate the masses” is beginning to transform to a student-centric model that respects every child’s unique learning style.

This change has come about through victories and some setbacks, with moments of pause and moments of great change, but the momentum continues to shift in our favor. Educational choice is an essential part of the solution to our nation’s education challenges, including the greater issue of education inequality in America. The idea that no child should be defined or limited by his or her ZIP code or family’s income is deeply rooted in our movement’s commitment to social justice. Every parent should be free to choose the best educational environment for their children and low-income and minority children are too often the ones without choice. The only way to truly improve and innovate our nation’s system and help these students is through educational choice. The public is recognizing that true choice will break open our nation’s closed education system, encouraging innovation and education entrepreneurs to develop new ways for children to learn and reach their full potential.

Today there are 50 private school choice programs in 25 states plus the District of Columbia. Last year alone, four states enacted their first school choice programs, and a total of eight new programs were signed into law. Additionally, half of all states passed at least one private school choice bill out of one chamber of their respective state legislatures.

With an education system that’s 200 years old, and an entrenched establishment, change can be slow, but great progress continues to be made. There’s a monumental transformation underway as more and more parents rise up, speak out and demand access to educational choices for their children.

Thank you for your steadfast support and resolve to educate America’s school children, and thank you for joining me in the education revolution!

Betsy DeVos, Chairman

DeVos’ yearbook is 59 pages long. However, it falls short of critically appraising the programs it features. There are lots of stats (numbers of students enrolled in a variety of choice programs and in what states; total funds expended), and there are the criteria for a variety of choice programs.

There is even an accountability checklist but no discussion of the implication of the results, including the finding that only 10 out of 22 voucher programs (45 percent) are required to produce proof of financial viability, or that only 13 out of 22 (59 percent) are required to produce annual financial reports, or that only 9 out of 22 (41 percent) require public reporting of results.

There is no accountability checklist for charter schools. However, there is a declaration that presumes certain charter schools are models of innovation that are the road maps to the elysian fields of Higher Test Scores and College Readiness. An enlightening excerpt:

By almost all accounts, the U.S. education system is failing its students. On standardized tests, when compared with peers worldwide, American students continue to fall in the middle of the pack. …

While proponents of the status quo may point to rising graduation rates, the

Betsy DeVos and Her 2015-16 School Choice Yearbook | deutsch29: