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Saturday, September 29, 2018

Top Posts This Week 9/29/18


Top Posts This Week 9/29/18




 Posts This Week 9/29/18

TODAY

John Thompson : Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS
by mike simpson / 9min
Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS A t the Oklahoma City Public School System working board meeting Sept. 24, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health Commissioner Terri White introduced a “historic” collaboration. She explained that the OKCPS has committed to Embrace OKC , a holistic process to study and systematically address th
A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA | tultican
by mike simpson / 1h
A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA | tultican A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA First it was KIPP, then it was YES Prep and now IDEA has become the point of the destroy public education (DPE) spear in Texas. KIPP flourished because GAP founders Don and Doris Fisher gave them big money. YES Prep so excited Oprah that she presented them with a million dollar check during a TV int

YESTERDAY

Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety – Mother Jones
by mike simpson / 15h
Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety – Mother Jones Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety Do they approve of Trump’s approach? A young man holds a sign during the March for Our Lives protest in Washington, DC.Cal Sport Media/AP The disturbing number of high-profile mass school shootings have forge
Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? | The Merrow Report
by mike simpson / 18h
Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? | The Merrow Report Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? Can we agree that the charter school ‘movement’ is in big trouble? Scandals emerge daily, or so it seems. “ Are Charter Schools the New Enron?” , one reputable study asks, for example. Here’s one awful scandal . Here’s another . This is not just smoke; it’s a raging fire that threatens all charter schools, i
Google’s School & Student Data Collection | National Review
by mike simpson / 19h
Google’s School & Student Data Collection | National Review How Google Co-opts Our Schools to Collect Kids’ Data Local school administrators have sold out vulnerable children to Silicon Valley. N o consent. No disclosure. No escape. For legions of unwitting students and teachers across the country, this is the dangerous, de facto data policy Google has imposed over their school districts. An esti
Black Teachers Are Not Enough - The Philadelphia Citizen #educolor
by mike simpson / 19h
Black Teachers Are Not Enough - The Philadelphia Citizen BLACK TEACHERS ARE NOT ENOUGH DO SOMETHING Support Black Male Educators for Social Justice T here are six black male teachers in our school. They represent twelve percent of our classroom teachers. That sounds like only a few (and it is) but in a city where black men represent four percent of classroom teachers, it seems like that’s a lot.
The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford - The Washington Post
by mike simpson / 1d
The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford - The Washington Post The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford There are too many candidates this week to choose the worst teacher of the week, so I’ll leave that to you. But the best teacher — that one is easy. The person who used her time at the public pulpit with the most dignity and composure and directness
Should We Teach About Consent In K-12? Brett Kavanaugh's Home State Says Yes : NPR #MeTooK12
by mike simpson / 1d
Should We Teach About Consent In K-12? Brett Kavanaugh's Home State Says Yes : NPR Should We Teach About Consent In K-12? Brett Kavanaugh's Home State Says Yes When the Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump , along with sexual assault stories involving Brock Turner and Bill Cosby , hit the news back in 2016, a middle school student in Maryland named Maeve Sanford-Kelly was listening. "I was frank

SEP 27

Why A ‘Blue Wave’ May Depend On Changing Education Politics
by mike simpson / 1d
Why A ‘Blue Wave’ May Depend On Changing Education Politics Why A ‘Blue Wave’ May Depend On Changing Education Politics Democratic party strategists and supporters may believe a “blue wave” is coming in the midterm elections because of widespread opposition to President Trump, but they risk their party’s success if they forget that state and local races more often revolve around issues closer to
What’s Behind TIME Magazine’s Teacher Hate Turnaround?
by mike simpson / 2d
What’s Behind TIME Magazine’s Teacher Hate Turnaround? What’s Behind TIME Magazine’s Teacher Hate Turnaround? The recent TIME Magazine article about teachers describes beaten-down, courageous individuals, struggling to remain in a profession where they are not honored like they deserve. TIME seems to suddenly love teachers. It had those of us who support public schools and teachers scratching our
Rick Hess’s Mistake: Failure of Test-and-Punish Is Not Limited to a Few Districts That Have Disappointed | janresseger
by mike simpson / 2d
Rick Hess’s Mistake: Failure of Test-and-Punish Is Not Limited to a Few Districts That Have Disappointed | janresseger Rick Hess’s Mistake: Failure of Test-and-Punish Is Not Limited to a Few Districts That Have Disappointed Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, has always been a corporate education reform kind of guy. That is why Hess’s
Second Draft: A Continuum of Personalized Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
by mike simpson / 2d
Second Draft: A Continuum of Personalized Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice Second Draft: A Continuum of Personalized Learning A year and a half ago, I published a post that tried to make sense of the spread of “personalized learning” as the “ next big thing ” in U.S. schooling. To make sense of the heralded innovation in teaching and learning, I created a continuum o

SEP 26

The $3.5 Trillion West Coast Public School Privatization Plan
by mike simpson / 3d
Schock Market seeks auction of public schools--for $3.5 Trillion Schock Market seeks auction of public schools--for $3.5 Trillion BEND, Ore. , Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet startup, Schock Market, Inc. ( www.schockmarket.com ) will seek to auction off the public school systems of Oregon , Washington , and California—for half a trillion dollars. Success would extrapolate to a $3.5 trilli
Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019?
by mike simpson / 3d
Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019? Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019? WHAT will happen if, as the 2019 legislative session gets rolling, it appears common education isn't in line for another big boost in funding? Will teachers strike again, as they did this year? It wouldn't be surprising if the answer is yes. And why not? The threat of a walkout paid off h
LA teachers are ready to walk | SocialistWorker.org
by mike simpson / 3d
LA teachers are ready to walk | SocialistWorker.org LA TEACHERS ARE READY TO WALK EDUCATORS IN United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) voted overwhelmingly in late August to authorize a strike in a vote in which an impressive 83 percent of members cast a ballot. Now a showdown looms in the coming months between a fired-up union and a labor-hating school superintendent — a showdown that could add im
FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work | deutsch29
by mike simpson / 3d
FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work | deutsch29 FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work On September 25, 2018, WFTV reported that eighth-grade social studies teacher, Diane Tirado, says she was fired for refusing to assign 50 percent credit to students who did not hand in assignments. Diane Tirado According to the Florida teach
The straw man in the new round of the reading wars - The Washington Post
by mike simpson / 3d
The straw man in the new round of the reading wars - The Washington Post The straw man in the new round of the reading wars By Valerie Strauss September 25 at 3:52 PM The “reading wars” never go away — at least not for long. What exactly are they? Fights in the education policy world about the “best way” to teach reading to kids — as if there were a single best way. So what are the “reading wars”

SEP 25

Study: Girls 'Significantly' Better Than Boys At Reading, Writing - Study Finds
by mike simpson / 3d
Study: Girls 'Significantly' Better Than Boys At Reading, Writing - Study Finds Study: Girls ‘Significantly’ Better Than Boys At Reading, Writing QUEENSLAND, Australia — Maybe they’re born with it. In the never-ending battle of the sexes, its the girls who prove victorious when it comes to grade-school English class skills. A new study finds that girls perform significantly better than boys in th
Charter’s $30m payout sparks political backlash :: K-12 Daily
by mike simpson / 4d
Charter’s $30m payout sparks political backlash :: K-12 Daily :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet Charter’s $30m payout sparks political backlash (Ariz.) Charter schools and policies supporting parental choice may have no greater champions than the Republican leadership in the Arizona state house, but a recent school real estate deal could test that commitment. In a quie
No Thank You to Naviance – Seattle Education
by mike simpson / 4d
No Thank You to Naviance – Seattle Education NO THANK YOU TO NAVIANCE The district has designed a scope and sequence of how to use Naviance with a focus on 11th and 12th grade but actual implementation will be left school to school. Once parents have forfeited their chance to opt out there will not be any other chances to give consent for certain portions. They told me it is an all in system with
New Yorker Profile Warns: When It Comes to Mark Zuckerberg, Be Careful! | janresseger
by mike simpson / 4d
New Yorker Profile Warns: When It Comes to Mark Zuckerberg, Be Careful! | janresseger New Yorker Profile Warns: When It Comes to Mark Zuckerberg, Be Careful! Evan Osnos’s extraordinary profile of Mark Zuckerberg , published in the September 17, New Yorker , wouldn’t seem a fitting topic for coverage in this blog about public education. Osnos hardly touches on Mark Zuckerberg’s ventures thus far i

SEP 24

After the Education Wars: Someone Needs to Save Us from Our Billionaire Saviors
by mike simpson / 4d
After the Education Wars: Someone Needs to Save Us from Our Billionaire Saviors After the Education Wars: Someone Needs to Save Us from Our Billionaire Saviors After failing to prop-up Antonio Villaraigosa’s flagging gubernatorial campaign last June , Michael Bloomberg apparently spent the summer pondering whether it would be wiser for him to personally save the United States rather than waste hi
35 Years Adrift on an Ocean of Reforms - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People
by mike simpson / 5d
35 Years Adrift on an Ocean of Reforms - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People 35 Years Adrift on an Ocean of Reforms A Nation at Risk began as a commissioned report to define problems in America’s schools. It became known more for the longstanding political debates that developed. But did this single report produce the ocean of reforms that now threaten to destroy our pu
‘It’s Like Amazon, But for Preschool’ (Audrey Watters) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
by mike simpson / 5d
‘It’s Like Amazon, But for Preschool’ (Audrey Watters) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice ‘It’s Like Amazon, But for Preschool’ (Audrey Watters) Audrey Watters describes herself as “ … an education writer, an independent scholar, a serial dropout, a rabble-rouser, and ed-tech’s Cassandra.” A year ago, the richest man in the world asked Twitter for suggestions on how he should m

SEP 23

Florida charter schools are “wasteful” and prone to corruption - enrique baloyra YouTube
by mike simpson / 5d
DeSantis: Let them each choice - YouTube Florida charter schools are “wasteful” and prone to corruption This week GOP nominee for Florida governor Ron DeSantis unveiled his education plan. Not much of a plan, really, just recycling a bunch of old talking points. Predictably, the former congressman promised to help poor kids by expanding school choice. But on the same day Integrity Florida publish
Poverty vs Test Scores: Ranking all Ohio school districts (income adjusted) for their test scores on report cards; Steubenville is No. 1 | cleveland.com
by mike simpson / 5d
Ranking all Ohio school districts (income adjusted) for their test scores on report cards; Steubenville is No. 1 | cleveland.com Ranking all Ohio school districts (income adjusted) for their test scores on report cards; Steubenville is No. 1 CLEVELAND, Ohio - The 2018 Ohio school report cards released last week again produced a predictable result. Generally, higher income districts scored better
Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools Do Not Promote Diversity
by mike simpson / 6d
Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools Do Not Promote Diversity Charter Schools Do Not Promote Diversity Peter Greene had a useful post the other day about how to spot bad education research. One sure sign is cherry-picking: focusing on a few observations – or even just one – and then suggesting these few are representative of the whole. This tactic is a favorite among charter school cheerleaders, who w
Who is Behind the Leaders in Education PAC? | deutsch29
by mike simpson / 6d
Who is Behind the Leaders in Education PAC? | deutsch29 Who is Behind the Leaders in Education PAC? In preparing for my presentation on “dark money” in purchasing elections for promoting ed reform (i.e., charters, vouchers), a presentation for the Fifth Annual Network for Public Education (NPE) conference in Indianapolis, IN, on October 20 – 21, 2018, I have been reviewing some campaign finance f
Thirteen Things I learned While Blogging for Education Week - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher
by mike simpson / 6d
Thirteen Things I learned While Blogging for Education Week - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher Thirteen Things I learned While Blogging for Education Week This is the 500 th blog I've written as the Teacher in a Strange Land, for Education Week Teacher . As it turns out, it's also my final blog for EdWeek . I'm leaving because it's been nearly nine years since I started, and bec

SEP 22

Top Posts This Week 9/22/18
by mike simpson / 6d
Top Posts This Week 9/22/18 "Punitive Discipline Policies Have Proven to Be Destructive to Children" #PhilanthropySoWhite: Challenging Structural Racism as White Leaders in Philanthropy | Schott Foundation for Public Education 






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John Thompson : Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS

Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS

Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS

Embrace OKC


At the Oklahoma City Public School System working board meeting Sept. 24, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health Commissioner Terri White introduced a “historic” collaboration. She explained that the OKCPS has committed to Embrace OKC, a holistic process to study and systematically address the district’s mental health challenges. Other districts have joined with the Department of Mental Health and other service providers in the past, but no other leader has tackled these health problems in such a comprehensive manner as OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel.
Embrace OKC is a five-step campaign to transform the future of OKCPS’s children. White praised United Way President Debby Hampton, who helped lead the three-hour meetings during the first two phases: assessment and planning. They are now moving into the next three phases: capacity-building, implementation and measuring the outcomes.
Embrace OKC will be a collaborative, evidence-based effort to address:
  • individual risk factors,
  • peer influences,
  • family factors,
  • schools’ contributions
  • and community inputs.
This mental health partnership grew out of the Compact, a collective effort involving the OKCPS, the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Central Oklahoma, the Foundation for the Oklahoma City Public Schools, and the City of Oklahoma City. (I would add that former city councilman Pete White deserves great praise for his efforts to bring the partners together.)
The Compact is embracing a challenge that requires more than quick and cheap shortcuts. It shows promise because the partners are pledging that, in terms of staffing and resources, “we stand with the district.”

Alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts rank high in survey results

White introduced the findings of the Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment (OPNA) survey of sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. The scientific survey required a participation rate of 70 percent. It was completed by 7,074 students in 55 sites for a participation rate of 80 percent. The students answered questions on:
  • Substance use
  • High-risk behavior
  • Psychological distress
The first eye-opening finding involved alcohol use by young people and their families. Almost 10 percent of these sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders reported alcohol use in Continue reading: Embrace OKC seeks to prevent mental illness in OKCPS



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A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA | tultican

A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA | tultican

A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA



First it was KIPP, then it was YES Prep and now IDEA has become the point of the destroy public education (DPE) spear in Texas. KIPP flourished because GAP founders Don and Doris Fisher gave them big money. YES Prep so excited Oprah that she presented them with a million dollar check during a TV interview. Now, John Arnold has given IDEA $10 million to expand into Houston and the El Paso based Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development has pledged another $10 million for IDEA to expand into El Paso.
The oddest DPE inspired plan of all comes from Austin, Texas. In 2016, the Austin American Statesman reported that the relatively small KLE foundation is committing $16 million to IDEA. Odd because that represents more than half of the foundation’s assets and is 20 times greater than any previous grant. The Statesman article says, “The financial gift … will more than double IDEA Austin’s previous expansion plans by 2022, and the charter school says the donation will help it boost enrollment to 20,000 students, more than 12 times as many as it has now.”
A recent article in the Santa Fe New Mexican says about the IDEA growth initiative, “Those plans include expanding to 173 pre-K, elementary, middle and high schools from Texas to Louisiana and Florida by 2022 — a goal of serving 100,000 students compared to 35,595 today.”
YES Prep, KIPP and IDEA have many similarities. All three charter school systems were started by Teach for America (TFA) alums. None of the founders had more than three years experience teaching, nor did they have any education training other than a five week TFA summer course. It is perplexing when industry leaders like Walton, Fisher, Broad and Gates lavish inexperienced and  Continue reading: A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA | tultican






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Friday, September 28, 2018

Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety – Mother Jones

Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety – Mother Jones
Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety
Do they approve of Trump’s approach?
A young man holds a sign during the March for Our Lives protest in Washington, DC.Cal Sport Media/AP

The disturbing number of high-profile mass school shootings have forged an alliance between the gun safety movement and education advocates. Their partnership has been reinforced by the actions of the Trump administration in the aftermath of the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, when it emphasized the importance of school safety measures instead of gun control.
Just weeks before the midterm elections, two prominent national organizations have come together to learn whether voters agree with the president’s approach. Today, they release a survey suggesting that in House battleground districts, they do not.
The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm, was a joint venture between the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a national gun safety advocacy organization, and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the largest teachers unions in the country. The two have worked together on matters of gun violence and school safety since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Recently, they’ve been particularly concerned about the findings of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ commission on school safety—especially in light of reports DeVos is examining whether to use federal funds to arm teachers.


“We were interested in learning how folks on the ground felt about the efforts the [Trump] administration were working toward as opposed to the ones we’ve proposed,” says Kris Brown, Brady’s co-president. Brady, like the March For Our Lives student activists, advocates background checks for all gun sales, laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who Continue reading: Teachers and Gun Control Groups Paired Up to Ask Voters About Their Views on Gun Safety – Mother Jones






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Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? | The Merrow Report

Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? | The Merrow Report

Can the Charter Movement Be Saved?

Can we agree that the charter school ‘movement’ is in big trouble?  Scandals emerge daily, or so it seems.   “Are Charter Schools the New Enron?”, one reputable study asks, for example.  Here’s one awful scandal.   Here’s another.  This is not just smoke; it’s a raging fire that threatens all charter schools, it seems to me.

Everyone knows that charter schools are publicly funded but privately run, supposedly bound by a ‘charter’ that spells out what the school will accomplish.  These licenses, typically for three or five years, are not supposed to be renewed if the school does not deliver. That does happen occasionally, but most often charters are renewed unless and until some awful scandal–usually financial–emerges.  And most charter schools are not financially transparent, meaning that it’s probable that more skullduggery goes unnoticed than is exposed.  That means that public funds–possibly billions of dollars–have been going into private pockets. I write about this at some length in “Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education” (which is available at good bookstores and on Amazon).
Charter schools were supposed to allow educators to innovate and improve student learning, and the best of them have done so.  However, academically, the overall results are mixed at best, and in some instances have led to more segregation by race and class. 
Those interested in the history of the movement should turn to Ember Reichgott Junge’s book, Zero Chance of Passage, a compelling read.  For critical analysis of the book and the charter story in Minnesota, go here.
I’ve been interested in this story since I moderated the founding meeting at the Continue reading: Can the Charter Movement Be Saved? | The Merrow Report




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Google’s School & Student Data Collection | National Review

Google’s School & Student Data Collection | National Review

How Google Co-opts Our Schools to Collect Kids’ Data
Local school administrators have sold out vulnerable children to Silicon Valley.
No consent. No disclosure. No escape.
For legions of unwitting students and teachers across the country, this is the dangerous, de facto data policy Google has imposed over their school districts. An estimated 80 million students and teachers are now signed up for free “G Suite for Education” accounts (formerly known as Google Apps for Education); more than 25 million students and teachers now use Google Chromebooks. A Google logon is the key to accessing homework, quizzes, tests, group discussions, presentations, spreadsheets, and other “seamless communication.” Without it, students and teachers are locked out of their own virtual classrooms.
Local administrators, dazzled by “digital learning initiatives” and shiny tech toys, have sold out vulnerable children to Silicon Valley. Educators and parents who expose and oppose this alarmingly intrusive regime are mocked and marginalized. And Beltway politicians, who are holding Senate hearings this week on Big Tech’s consumer privacy breaches, remain clueless or complicit in the wholesale hijacking of school-age kids’ personally identifiable information for endless data mining and future profit.
Over the past several years, I’ve reported in my column and on my CRTV.com investigative program on EduTech plundering the personal data and browsing habits of millions of American schoolchildren. Remember: State and federal educational databases provide countless opportunities for private companies exploiting public-school children subjected to annual assessments, which exploded after the adoption of the tech industry–supported Common Core “standards,” tests and aligned texts and curricula. The Every Student Succeeds Act further enshrined government collection of personally identifiable information — including data collected on attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions — and allows release of the data to third-party contractors thanks to Obama-era loopholes carved into the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.

The racket includes Facebook’s Digital Promise partnership with the U.S. Department of Education and the social/emotional-behavior tracking system of TS Gold (Teaching Strategies Gold) targeting preschoolers. Yes, preschoolers. The Big Business–driven Project Unicorn promotes “data interoperability” between and among a cornucopia of EduTech products vying for your kid’s clicks and data. And despite getting caught data-mining students’ emails without consent, Google Continue reading: Google’s School & Student Data Collection | National Review




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Black Teachers Are Not Enough - The Philadelphia Citizen #educolor

Black Teachers Are Not Enough - The Philadelphia Citizen

BLACK TEACHERS ARE NOT ENOUGH
DO SOMETHING
Support Black Male Educators for Social Justice


 There are six black male teachers in our school. They represent twelve percent of our classroom teachers. That sounds like only a few (and it is) but in a city where black men represent four percent of classroom teachers, it seems like that’s a lot.
Over the course of my career, I have been committed to supporting current and aspiring black male educators. I was one of them and I had the support of black male teachers at John P. Turner Middle School. Teachers like Dr. Blackwell and Mr. Gibbs. I also had the support of other black men when we launched the Association of Black School Administrators (ABSA), a group of black male principals. In 2014, we would launch The Fellowship – Black Male Educators for Social Justice to support current and aspiring black male educators.

Related from The Philadelphia Citizen:
I Want To Be a (Black Male) Teacher
A Mastery principal and organizer sees progress—and much work to do—in his efforts to recruit effective black male teachers
I intimately know the power of having black men teach and lead me. I know what my Nidhamu Sasateachers like Baba Changa, Baba Juhudi, Baba Mjenzi, and Baba Chavis meant to my development as an impressionable elementary school student. Their influence is everlasting. I wistfully think about the role my coach and Health/PE teacher, Mr. Jones, played for me in high school. I also recognize that as a nascent teacher, teachers at John P. Turner Middle School like Mr. Rutland, Mr. Gibbs, and Dr. Blackwell, played instrumental roles in my development as a teacher and leader.
We need more black men to teach and lead classrooms, but is that all black kids need?
When all of the responsibility for social justice lenses is placed on the shoulders of a few black people, it can lead to burnout. The responsibility to approach education as a human right and to prepare students in the school-to-activism pipeline is the responsibility of all who have the honor to call themselves educators.

While I readily agree that we need far more black men teaching our students—both black and white students—I am always a little nervous that policy makers, principals, etc. will use our call for immediate diversity and inclusion of black men in schools and classrooms to slow-walk so many other pressing needs.
There is research that demonstrates that black teachers can have a tremendous impact on the trajectory of black students, particularly boys in elementary schools; there is also plenty of research that highlights the need for more robust and comprehensive school improvement planning.

DO SOMETHING
Black teachers not only enter the field in smaller numbers than their white counterparts, black teachers tend to be attracted to the schools with the highest needs. Many black people (teachers are no exception) tend to be communal and the success of the community is more important than the individual which leads these teachers to the lowest performing schools. However, this can lead to added stress and burnout.
Dr. William Hayes, one of the founding members of The Fellowship – Black Male Educators for Social Justice shares that black men (and women) can’t do it alone. When all of the responsibility for social justice lenses is placed on the shoulders of a few black people, it can lead to burnout. The responsibility to approach education as a human right and to prepare students in the school-to-activism pipelinecannot solely be the work of woke and conscientious black teachers—it is the responsibility of all who have the honor to call themselves educators.

READ MORE
One way to prevent minority teacher burnout, Hayes says, is to make sure one or two people aren’t shouldering the social-justice load. At his school, white, black, and Latino/bilingual teachers each make up a third of the staff. The front office workers are Latino. Assistant principals are black, white, male, female. I think it’s important that staff can have a personal connection with Continue reading: Black Teachers Are Not Enough - The Philadelphia Citizen

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The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford - The Washington Post

The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford - The Washington Post
The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford
There are too many candidates this week to choose the worst teacher of the week, so I’ll leave that to you. But the best teacher — that one is easy.
The person who used her time at the public pulpit with the most dignity and composure and directness and duty — important lessons all — was Christine Blasey Ford.
She is the California professor who testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about what she said Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, did to her when they were teenagers more than 35 years ago.
You would have to have your head in the sand not to know the story, so there’s no need to go into details.
But whatever you think of Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, her disposition Thursday before the committee and millions of people watching live broadcasts was so forthright that even those who support Kavanaugh didn’t believe she was lying; they just said she was confused.
The American Bar Association came out after the hearing and urged a delay in a nomination vote, calling for an FBI investigation into the allegations. The comments are striking because an association committee had unanimously given Kavanaugh its highest rating of “well qualified” for the Supreme Court. It is not a stretch to think that had Ford presented herself in a different way, the ABA may not have made this call.
What Ford did was offer a lesson in public service: first, by coming forward with her concerns about the judge before he was nominated by Trump for a seat on the Supreme Court, and then overcoming deep fears about going public and testifying because she thought it was her duty to her country. She was never belligerent during her testimony but only cooperative and direct, and never manipulative.
That makes her the best teacher of the week, hands down.
Valerie StraussValerie Strauss is an education writer who authors The Answer Sheet blog. She came to The Washington Post as an assistant foreign editor for Asia in 1987 and weekend foreign desk editor after working for Reuters as national security editor and a military/foreign affairs reporter on Capitol Hill. She also previously worked at UPI and the LA Times. 
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