NewBlackMan (in Exile) MARK ANTHONY NEAL

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Virgil Abloh: ‘Figures of Speech’

by Mark Anthony Neal / 14h

'In this video produced for the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Abloh discusses his wide-ranging influences and the creative philosophy that has shaped his career in fashion and beyond.' -- Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

This Is What the Early Days of Digital Were Like

by Mark Anthony Neal / 14h

'Dial-up, floppy disks, Listservs. If you don’t know what any of these terms mean, you weren’t using computers back in the '80s and ’90s. Use this reel to brush up on your early digital era history. You’ll be schooled by programmers who created created ctrl+alt+del and Tetris, an artist who makes drawings with Excel, the voice behind AOL’s iconic “Welcome! You’ve got mail!” message and the last m

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 60

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

'The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded by the groundbreaking dancer-choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989), is celebrating 60 years as one of the world's preeminent modern dance companies. Rita Braver looks back at the legacy of Ailey, including his school for aspiring dancers, and talks with those who succeeded him as the company's artistic director, Judith Jamison and Robert Battle .'

Algee Smith Talks Toxic Masculinity In "Euphoria" And The World

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

' Algee Smith discusses his Euphoria character, McKay, and how his internal frustrations reflect major societal issues.'-- BUILD Series

James Baldwin vs William F Buckley: A Legendary Debate from 1965

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

'In 1965 at the University of Cambridge, two of the foremost American intellectuals were challenged with the question: ‘Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro?’ From William F Buckley ’s highly stylised posturing and pointing, to James Baldwin ’s melodious rhetorical flourishes and memorable scowls, what’s become known as the ‘Baldwin-Buckley Debate’ now stands

The Sound of NYC’s Underground Vogue Scene

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

'Some are familiar with New York’s underground ballroom scene through Madonna ’s Vogue or films like Paris is Burning . This subculture has been recognized for creating the inventive dance style voguing, but they’ve also created a music genre that’s all their own. Nahre and LA traveled to New York to meet MikeQ , the founder of the first ballroom record label: Qween Beat. MikeQ invited us to Hous

Theatre Corner: Interview with Playwright Dr. Lisa B. Thompson

by Mark Anthony Neal / 20h

' Dr. Lisa B. Thompson is a celebrated playwright who is currently teaching at University of Texas at Austin. Her latest production, The Mamalogues , plays at the Vortex Rep beginning August 23, 2019.' -- theatre corner

The Racial Divide of Breastfeeding in the U.S.

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'In 2011, the United States Breastfeeding Committee declared August National Breastfeeding Month , as a way to promote and support breastfeeding. But the decision to breastfeed, and access to resources around it, can vary a lot depending on your race. In the U.S., white, educated women are more likely to breastfeed and for longer periods, and some reasons for that are deeply rooted in our nation’

On 'Pose,' Janet Mock Tells The Stories She Craved As A Young Trans Person

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

' Janet Mock remembers when she saw the documentary Paris is Burning for the first time. She was in 10th grade, living in Hawaii, and had already socially transitioned her gender identity. She was about to embark on her medical transition. That same ball culture she saw in Paris is Burning would come up again in her career, decades later. After launching a career in journalism, writing two memoir

AUG 18

'The Black Messiah' And The Legacy Of Cannonball Adderley

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Cannonball Adderley was a mere 46 when he died, of a brain hemorrhage, in 1975. An alto saxophonist of robust intellect and irrefutable soul, he left a monumental legacy during his two decades in the spotlight — as a member of the Miles Davis Sextet, an exemplar of 1960s soul jazz and the leading avatar of a brand of post-bop modernism with popular appeal. This episode of Jazz Night In America t

Mapping Pop Music’s Falsetto Obsession

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'It’s nearly impossible to turn on the radio and not hear a male artist singing really high. This isn’t a trend — it has been the status quo for decades. Using the data diving know-how of The Pudding, and drawing on the expertise of Anthony Roth Costanzo , a professional opera singer, Vox digs into the world of the high male vocal range by tracking how pervasive it really is across the decades.'

10 Years of MASCHINE: 9th Wonder

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Step into the studio with 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit), the legendary producer behind Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, and more. Find out what makes him one of the most energetic, inspiring, and influential producers in the game – and see how he creates his signature soulful sound with MASCHINE.'-- Native Instruments

Electric Miles: Behind The 'Brew'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3d

'Electric Miles. Few word pairings in the jazz lexicon are apt to inspire so much contention and challenge and ferment. What the phrase refers to, of course, is a period in the career of trumpeter Miles Davis , spanning the last third of his 

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Can Teachers Afford a Home in the Nation’s Largest Metros? | LendingTree

Can Teachers Afford a Home in the Nation’s Largest Metros? | LendingTree

Can Teachers Afford a Home in the Nation’s Largest Metros?

According to recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, there are around 4.2 million preschool, primary, secondary and special education teachers in the United States, making teaching one of the most popular careers in the country. Teachers are also among the most trusted professionals in the nation, with at least 60% of Americans placing high or very high degrees of trust in both grade and high school teachers.

That makes it no surprise that teacher pay is a hot-button issue for many Americans.

With that in mind, LendingTree, the nation’s largest online loan marketplace, asked whether or not teachers in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas are paid enough to be able to afford a home. What we found is that, assuming they can afford to dedicate around 28% of their income toward housing, most teachers are paid well enough to be able to buy the median-priced home in their area.

Key findings

• In 46 of the nation’s 50 largest metros, teachers in the nation’s largest metros can afford to buy the median-priced home in their city. Assuming a teacher can afford to spend 28% of their annual salary on a home, then they shouldn’t have too much trouble paying for a house in most of the nation’s largest metros. Our data shows teachers can afford to spend about $431 more on a home than they would need to buy a median priced home.
• Teachers from the Buffalo, N.Y., Pittsburgh and Detroit areas will likely have the easiest time affording a home. On average, teachers in these areas can afford to spend a little over $1,000 more a month on housing than what would be required to buy a median-valued home.
• San Jose, Calif., San Francisco and Los Angeles are the metros where home affordability would be hardest for teachers. In these metros, a teacher would need to shell out an average of $985 more than what they could comfortably afford in order to buy a house.
• While homes in many of the nation’s metros might look affordable to the average teacher, it is important to remember that teachers are often saddled with things like massive student loan debt and other monthly expenses related to their job. For example, those who earned a master’s degree in education graduated with an average loan debt of $50,879 in 2012. This debt load could require hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in monthly loan payments each month, which can severely limit the amount of money left over for home costs. As a result, many teachers may struggle to allocate 28% of their salary to a home, regardless of what their salary is.

Most affordable metros for teachers CONTINUE READING: Can Teachers Afford a Home in the Nation’s Largest Metros? | LendingTree

CURMUDGUCATION: The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

CURMUDGUCATION: The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

It's been a great summer. You've had a chance to recharge and reflect. You've developed some new ideas, units, and materials, and most importantly, away from the dailiness of the job, you have gotten back in touch with all the reasons you love the work. You cannot wait to get back to it., take a couple of in service days to get fully up to speed, and then-- bring on the students!

Unfortunately, your administration thinks that your very first day(s) back should be spent sitting in some professional development sessions. In some lucky few school districts, these sessions will actually be useful and even  inspiring. But if you are really unfortunate, you'll spend those sessions with one of these soul-crushing people:

The Defense Specialist

"I'm here to remind you that at any moment this year, someone might burst into your room and kill you and your students. I'm going to talk about how you should react when someone is about to shoot you, presenting a variety of scenarios and details of previous shootings that will all be so vivid that for the rest of this week you won't be able to concentrate on teaching material because you're too busy looking for hiding places in the room, peering into your own soul to consider whether or not you are the kind of person who would die for your students, and just generally staring into the abyss of human mortality and brutality."

The Social Issues Specialist

"I'd like to talk to you about some issue that affects your students-- something like hunger or poverty or gang violence or homelessness or whatever drug is currently out of control. I will remind you that many of your students are being slowly crushed by forces outside of your control and you CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

Students speak on DC schools, SBOE roles 8/15/19 – Education Town Hall Forum

Students speak on DC schools, SBOE roles 8/15/19 – Education Town Hall Forum

STUDENTS SPEAK ON DC SCHOOLS, SBOE ROLES 8/15/19

Before DC students head back to school later this month, Education Town Hall was privileged to have in studio three DC public school students serving in a variety of roles both at their schools as well as with the DC State Board of Education (SBOE).

Show begins at 6:20 mark on this recording —

Valerie, Shayla, Alex, Maya, Thomas

Shayla Dell is a rising sophomore at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, studying vocal music, and has participated in classical singing competitions. As a student advocate, Ms. Dell has served on the student government association at Duke as well as the DCPS chancellor’s student cabinet and is a continuing member of the student advisory committee of the DC SBOE. (The student advisory committee is consulted by the state board on issues of policy before the board.)

Maya Gray is a rising senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic high school and a returning member of the SBOE’s student advisory committee. Having attended both DC public and charter schools, Ms. Gray has worked as a teen aide with DC Public Library, served as a member of the National Building Museum’s teen council, and completed internships with DC government agencies. She is also involved in a variety of sports and looks forward to a career in either architecture or veterinary medicine.

Alex O’Sullivan is a rising sophomore at BASIS DC. He is one of two student representatives CONTINUE READING: Students speak on DC schools, SBOE roles 8/15/19 – Education Town Hall Forum

CARL J. PETERSEN: State of Our Schools: Rudderless

State of Our Schools: Rudderless

State of Our Schools: Rudderless

That’s it?”
– Audience member’s reaction to Austin Beutner’s speech

As parents were making their final preparations to send their children back to school, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) leadership was gathering downtown last Thursday for the annual “State of Schools” event. After a breakfast in Grand Park provided by the Food Services Division (no, there was none of the Walmart surplus that is said to be part of the Breakfast in the Classroom program), principals, five out of the seven school board (Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez were conspicuously absent) and district bureaucrats headed to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the headline event – a speech by Superintendent Austin Beutner.

Beutner started his speech by looking back at the most significant event of the past year – the strike by the District’s teachers. While acknowledging that many of the concessions won by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) would be beneficial to the students, he did not explain why a work stoppage was necessary to achieve them. Nor did he accept responsibility for his part in creating animosity between the district and its workers that led to the strike.

From here, Beutner segued to the cost of providing the services CONTINUE READING: State of Our Schools: Rudderless

NYC Educator: Long Discredited, Merit Pay Dies in Newark

NYC Educator: Long Discredited, Merit Pay Dies in Newark

Long Discredited, Merit Pay Dies in Newark

I'll leave it to Jersey Jazzman, who's followed this far more closely than I have, to fill you in on chapter and verse. He does mention, though, that only 20% of those with a choice opted into the system, and that highly rated teachers were mostly found in the opt-out pool. I'd argue well-informed, smart people make the best teachers. Diane Ravitch has written extensively on merit pay, and states it's been around for over a hundred years, and has never worked anywhere.

Why on earth does it keep bouncing back? In a world looking for quick fixes and quick answers, it makes sense. If you're good, you should earn more money. The question then becomes how you measure who is good. The answer, usually, is via test scores. When I first started this blog, I assumed that test scores measured something. I've since evolved. I think it was Alfie Kohn who suggested what they actually measured was zip code.

I'm in a funny position. Someone told me recently that my students had very good test scores. Assuming that's true, it has very little to do with me and everything to do with the test. I'm rated on the NYSESLAT, and it appears that everyone is advanced, even if they know little to no English. Can't form present tense? Advanced. Can't write a coherent sentence? Advanced. Can't make basic conversation? Advanced.

So I'm a frigging genius, and all my students will go to the advanced class. Therefore, I deserve merit pay. However, the tests give, and the tests taketh away. Next year, NY State CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Long Discredited, Merit Pay Dies in Newark

Jeffrey Epstein, Apollo Global Management and IL TRS investments. – Fred Klonsky

Jeffrey Epstein, Apollo Global Management and IL TRS investments. – Fred Klonsky

JEFFREY EPSTEIN, APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT AND IL TRS INVESTMENTS

Pensions and Investments is reporting this morning:

CalPERS is pressing Apollo Global Management LLC, one of its private equity managers, over co-founder Leon Black’s relationship with registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“CalPERS takes this issue very seriously. The actions our general partners take, both in professional and private contexts, impact our assessment of which firms we desire as long-term partners,” said Megan White, spokeswoman for the $376 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Sacramento, in an email.

While CalPERS is the largest pension system in the United States, they are not the only ones doing business with the shady Leon Black and Apollo Global Management.

Other retirement systems making commitments to Apollo within the past 18 months include the $152.5 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, $80.4 billion Virginia Retirement System, $29 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System, $20.1 billion Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana and $2.6 billion Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System. Pension fund representatives either

What about the Illinois Teacher Retirement System? CONTINUE READING: Jeffrey Epstein, Apollo Global Management and IL TRS investments. – Fred Klonsky

NYC Public School Parents: High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!

NYC Public School Parents: High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!

High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!

In all the news about peeling lead paint in schools, there has been little attention given to the fact that there were more than 500 NYC public schools and/or preK centers in which lead was found in the water above the “action” level of 15 parts per billion. 

The DOE spreadsheet showing the lead test results of water outlets in 534 schools is posted on this page.  DOE says that “One third of all schools were tested in this round, with the remainder of schools scheduled to be tested in 2019 and 2020.”  Of those 534 schools, more than 80% had at least one outlet with elevated levels of lead.  The detailed DOE spreadsheet is here. 

We created a new spreadsheet, adding tabs for fixtures found to have lead above the action level of 15 ppb sorted by district and by concentration (with outlets found to have the highest levels at the top).  The new spreadsheet is here.

Some of the schools with the highest levels are listed below, showing outlets with lead at 54 to 873 times the action level, with the most alarming results from a cold water faucet in the 4^th floor boys bathroom in Prospect HS.  This outlet emitted water with lead at an incredible 13,100 parts per billion.  In that same school as well, a hallway fountain (or “bubbler”) on the 3rd floor was found to emit water at 3,070 parts per billion. CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!