A Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation-Pipeline | Parents Across America

A Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation-Pipeline | Parents Across America

A Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation-Pipeline

Through this endorsement, Parents Across America joins over 130 organizations nationwide who are demanding an end to practices and policies that infringe on the civil rights of students of color, disabled students, and LGBTQ+ youth and funnel them into the criminal legal system.

We’re asking presidential candidates to commit to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, ending the privatization of our public schools, and ensuring civil rights protections for our nation’s youth. Please join us as we stand up for the right for every student to be able to learn in a safe and nurturing school environment.

From the Center for Popular Democracy’s Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates:

“Young people across the country demand the next president permanently dismantle the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline. The following guidelines outline the minimum policies required to reach that end.

I. Fund education, not incarceration
A. Divest all federal funds from police and criminalizing infrastructure in schools. End programs that militarize schools.
B. Invest federal funding in effective non-punitive school climate strategies such as restorative justice, mental health supports, and hiring counselors and social workers.
C. Fully fund Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

II. Restore and strengthen the civil rights of students
A. Fully fund and staff the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Ensure that those who CONTINUE READING: A Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation-Pipeline | Parents Across America

Spread the Word: UK Education Policy Studies and Evaluation is hiring faculty! | Cloaking Inequity

Spread the Word: UK Education Policy Studies and Evaluation is hiring faculty! | Cloaking Inequity

SPREAD THE WORD: UK EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES AND EVALUATION IS HIRING FACULTY!

Join us! The University of Kentucky College of Education is hiring two Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation faculty this year. We are hiring Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Policy Studies and Assistant Professor in Research Methods in Education

Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Policy Studies

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8G060:Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky invites applications and nominations for a tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor, effective August 16, 2020.

The individual will be responsible for carrying out research, teaching and service within the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation (EPE), in their specialty area related to law, policy, sociology, and/or international education with a focus on education equity, civil rights and social justice. The successful candidate will be expected to have an active research agenda, pursue external funding, teach EPE courses, provide advising to graduate students, participate in the activities of professional organizations, and support philanthropy. This position has the possibility of serving as associate director for a civil rights institute/center.

Main duties and responsibilities include the following: teach courses in EPE; have an active research and professional service agenda; assist with the recruitment and advising of graduate students and serve on program committees; and support the college’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Required qualifications include an earned doctorate in area related to educational law, policy, sociology, or international education; evidence of scholarly productivity; experience working with diverse populations; and excellent oral and written communication abilities.

Preferred qualifications include successful college/university level teaching experience; online teaching experience; experience working in the public policy arena; experience in leadership or program building; and evidence of securing research funding.

Applicants must include a cover letter (upload under Cover Letter), curriculum vitae (upload under Curriculum Vita), and the names of three people from whom references maybe solicited when prompted in the application. The cover letter should address the candidate’s area(s) of specialization and courses that the candidate desires to teach.

The review of applications begins November 1st, 2019, and continues until the position is filled. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Questions regarding the position should be directed to Dr. Jane Jensen, Search Committee Chair, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, 131 Taylor Education Building, Lexington, KY 40506, jjensen@uky.edu.

Assistant Professor in Research Methods in Education

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8G060:Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky invites applications and nominations for an Assistant Professor, tenure-track, effective August 16, 2020.

The Assistant Professor in Research Methods in Education (RMinE) will be responsible for carrying out research, teaching, and service within the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation (EPE). The faculty member will be responsible for teaching 12 credits per academic year, predominately in an online setting, with a primary focus in the area of quantitative and/or qualitative Research Methods. This individual should also have a disciplinary focus within K-12 or postsecondary educational policy studies, within which they will be expected to teach approximately one course per academic year. In addition, this faculty member will provide consultation and advising to graduate students and help facilitate the graduate certificate in RMinE. This faculty member will be an active participant in the RMinE program and its implementation, development, evaluation, and promotion. The successful candidate will be expected to have an active research agenda, pursue external funding, and participate in the activities of professional organizations.

Main duties and responsibilities include the following: teach graduate-level courses in the area of Research Methods in Education (RMinE) and educational policy studies/higher education in an online format; have an active research agenda connected to Research Methods in Education; support the implementation and promotion of the master’s in RMinE and the graduate certificate in RMinE; assist with advising of graduate students and serve on exam committees for RMinE.

Required qualifications include an earned doctoral degree, preferably in Educational Research Methods; experience in research methodology; experience/training in mixed methods research; excellent oral and written communication abilities; evidence of scholarly productivity; and experience and/or training in online course delivery.

Preferred qualifications include successful college/university level teaching experience; experience working collaboratively and with diverse populations, including practitioners and researchers from theoretically, methodologically, and substantively diverse backgrounds relevant to the practice of research methods; extensive knowledge of subject matter of RMinE courses, including the areas: research writing, evaluation, survey research, quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods research methods; knowledge of research designs; knowledge of analysis tools and their use in research methods in education; skill in preparation of all instructional materials in both paper and electronic formats; and evidence of securing funds for research and/or program development grants and applications.

Applications should include a letter of application (upload under Cover Letter), curriculum vitae (upload under Curriculum Vita), and the names of three people from whom the system may solicit references. The cover letter should address the specific quantitative and/or qualitative areas that the candidate is qualified to teach, along with (but not limited to) courses in survey research, research writing, evaluation, or others.

The review of applications begins October 14, 2019, and continues until the position is filled. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Questions regarding the position should be directed to Dr. Joseph Waddington, Search Committee Chair, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, 131 Taylor Education Building, 859-257-4923, email rjwaddington@uky.edu

People often ask me what my biggest surprise about the Lexington community has been. I will have to admit that the restaurants are incredible! For me, they are better than what I experienced in Texas and California.

Check out my conversation in my walk across campus about my transition to the University of Kentucky in the Cloaking Inequity post Take a walk with me

Read more here: http://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/campus-walk-meet-new-dean-uks-college-education

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Check out and follow my YouTube channel here.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Spread the Word: UK Education Policy Studies and Evaluation is hiring faculty! | Cloaking Inequity

While I Wasn’t Paying Attention…… | The Merrow Report

While I Wasn’t Paying Attention…… | The Merrow Report

While I Wasn’t Paying Attention……

To be honest, the slow-motion train wreck known as the Trump presidency has absorbed most of my energy lately, and so I haven’t been paying close attention to public education.  However, during all this mess, 50.7 million K-12 students, 3.6 million of their teachers, 16 million college students, and their 1.6 million teachers have been going about their business.

Think about that for a minute.  A social studies teacher right now is a modern-day Hamlet.  Should he or she embrace the chaos and encourage students to debate the morality of the flood of demonstrable lies coming from the Oval Office on a daily basis, knowing that doing so is guaranteed to incur the wrath of some parents, and perhaps some administrators as well?  Or should the teacher studiously avoid controversy, knowing full well that doing that sends a powerful value-laden message?  To teach, or not to teach, that is the question…..

Or suppose you were an elementary school teacher trying to model appropriate behavior for your impressionable students.  How do you respond when one of your kids asks you why the President said Joe Biden was kissing Barack Obama’s ass?  Or why Trump can say ‘bullshit’ but kids get punished for swearing?

During my time ‘off task,’ the flood of charter school scandals has continued.  I wish this weren’t the case because the idea of giving school-based educators authority of CONTINUE READING: While I Wasn’t Paying Attention…… | The Merrow Report

Please send a message to the FTC today: do not weaken student privacy! | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Please send a message to the FTC today: do not weaken student privacy! | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE TO THE FTC TODAY: DO NOT WEAKEN STUDENT PRIVACY!

Update: On Oct. 17, the FTC Extended the Deadline for Comments on COPPA  until December 9.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comments before “updating” their regulations on COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the law that was originally passed in 1998.  The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy is concerned that the FTC may be considering weakening the law, by allowing for the collection of personal data from kids under 13 by school vendors without parent consent.  The deadline for comments is next Wednesday, Oct. 23.  A sample, brief message you can send is below, along with instructions.  Below that and here are the detailed comments submitted by our Parent Coalition.

Given all the breaches of student data in recent years, the widespread use by schools of surveillance software, data-mining apps, digital programs that deliver so-called “adaptive learning” and behavior modification tools, as well as the ubiquity of sites and apps that display advertising to children, the FTC should be strengthening the COPPA regulations rather than weakening them.

Moreover, we agree with this bipartisan group of Senators, who sent a cautionary letter to the FTC on October 4th, pointing out that the FTC isn’t obligated to issue new regulations until 2023, and urging them not to weaken the law through rewriting the regulations.

If the FTC is going to go ahead with issuing new regulations anyway, it should:

1. Continue to require parental consent for any digital collection of CONTINUE READING:Please send a message to the FTC today: do not weaken student privacy! | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Sacramento’s school district needs to own up to its mistakes | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento’s school district needs to own up to its mistakes | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified School District superintendent deserves blame for budget mess

The Sacramento City Unified School District approved 102 layoffs of certificated employees during a Board of Education meeting on May 9, 2019, as it continues to struggle financially and contends with a possible state takeover. BY VINCENT MOLESKI

BY NIKKI MILEVSKY  SPECIAL TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Four weeks into this new school year, more than 100 teaching vacancies remain unfilled. Thousands of Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) students are in classrooms without fully credentialed educators. At C.K. McClatchy High School, one government teacher surveyed her class and found that more than half of her students had a temporary substitute teacher for some of their classes.

How did we get into such a mess?

In February, SCUSD somehow failed to count 730 students in its enrollment figures – which could have been an $8 million per year mistake. Incredibly, District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and the county administrator charged with overseeing the district’s finances confirmed the error on April 1, but hid this information from the public. Nevertheless, SCUSD plowed ahead in May with layoffs.

While the district reports substantially lower numbers, we know that more than 400 staff were laid off – including 175 certificated teachers – making SCUSD the only major school district in California to implement mass layoffs during a national teacher shortage.

Now the district can’t fill positions. Would you want to work in a school district that lays off dynamic young educators based on dodgy budget numbers?

In March, a top state education finance official, Michael Fine, said he has “no confidence” in the district’s financial data and that he has other serious concerns. District leaders also kept this information from the public and even from members of the school board.

In the face of poorly staffed classrooms, improper budgets and “no confidence” from state officials, what’s the path forward for Sacramento public schools?

Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Bretón thinks he has the answer: He says teachers should sit down and shut up. Breton believes the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA), which represents district educators, should accept whatever the school board demands. He maintains teachers should agree to set aside the collective bargaining agreement, a contract that was personally negotiated by the superintendent with union representatives and unanimously approved by the school board.

Bretón also says teachers and others who care about our schools should stop organizing, stop talking and stop holding our elected school board accountable.

You are wrong, Mr. Bretón. This situation is too critical to stay silent and, as education activists, we won’t apologize for robustly advocating on behalf of our students and families.

Bretón also makes the absurd claim that everyone in Sacramento should feel grateful that the superintendent has moved to live in Sacramento rather than close to his parents in Fresno. Many teachers have made far greater sacrifices to teach in Sac City, joining thousands of our students CONTINUE READING: Sacramento’s school district needs to own up to its mistakes | The Sacramento Bee

Nikki Milevsky

The Delicate Ethics of Using Facial Recognition in Schools | WIRED

The Delicate Ethics of Using Facial Recognition in Schools | WIRED

The Delicate Ethics of Using Facial Recognition in Schools
A growing number of districts are deploying cameras and software to prevent attacks. But the systems are also used to monitor students, and adult critics.

On a steamy evening in May, 9,000 people filled Stingaree Stadium at Texas City High School for graduation night. A rainstorm delayed ceremonies by a half-hour, but the school district’s facial recognition system didn’t miss a beat. Cameras positioned along the fenceline allowed algorithms to check every face that walked in the gate.

As the stadium filled with families, security staff in the press box received a notification that the system had spotted someone on their watchlist. It was a boy who had been expelled from the district and sent to a county disciplinary school, whose pupils are barred by district rules from visiting other campuses.

Less than 30 seconds after the boy sat down, a sheriff’s deputy asked for his name. When he replied, he was escorted from the stadium, and missed his sister’s graduation. “Mama was upset, but that’s the rules,” says Mike Matranga, executive director of security at Texas City Independent School District, on the shore of Galveston Bay south of Houston.

Matranga proudly relates the incident to show how facial recognition can make schools safer. It also shows how the nation’s schoolchildren have been thrust into a debate over the CONTINUE READING: The Delicate Ethics of Using Facial Recognition in Schools | WIRED

Please help us purchase a “wondrous” book for children | Cloaking Inequity

Please help us purchase a “wondrous” book for children | Cloaking Inequity

PLEASE HELP US PURCHASE A “WONDROUS” BOOK FOR CHILDREN

A project to enrich learning at two local schools has launched on Big Blue Crowdfunding. It will help the University of Kentucky College of Education’s efforts to support students at Fayette County’s two Promise Academies, Harrison Elementary and William Wells Brown Elementary.

The Fayette county district is taking extra steps to ensure every student’s success within the Promise Academies. UK College of Education students, faculty, and staff will be giving their time and talents at the schools through literacy and the arts. 

We are reaching out to the community to help support the role we will play at the schools. Every contribution will be an investment in helping students use literacy and art to develop an understanding of the values of creativity and tolerance and an appreciation of differences

Dr. Margaret Mohr-Schroeder, associate dean for clinical preparation and partnerships at the UK College of Education.

You can support the effort by making a donation by Oct. 31.

“We want to step up in a big way to make a difference and are raising funds to purchase a special book that will allow volunteer mentors to not only engage in literacy promotion and conversation regarding the text’s important themes, but also to lead the students to develop voice and authorship,” said Carolyn Oldham, a doctoral student in Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the UK College of Education.

The opening weekend of the campaign saw donations totaling more than $500. To launch the program at full-scale across the two schools, organizers are seeking to raise $3,000.

Contributions to the project will allow organizers to purchase copies of a unique children’s picture+coloring book that provides students with two books in one.  The students will be able to discuss the book with volunteer mentors and take it home to read with their families.

The book, Wondrous Things, was authored by Liz Swanson, an associate professor in the School of Architecture in the UK College of Design. The text prompts children and guides mentors to engage in conversation regarding the values of creativity, tolerance, and the appreciation of differences. It is set in one continuous landscape and printed on accordion-style pages.

“The message of the book is simple,” said Swanson. “We all have gifts and talents to share with the world, and there’s room for each of us to express ourselves.  The goal of Wondrous Things is to give readers a space to draw and express their own ideas and vision of how a new story might unfold.”

The aim of Fayette County Public Schools Promise Academies is to provide enhanced educational opportunities by extending the school day and adding more days to the school year. This structure allows the district to build in more learning time and give students additional enrichment experiences in art, music, technology, physical education, science, and world languages.

To help purchase copies of Wonderous Things for students at William Wells Brown Elementary and Harrison Elementary, visit Big Blue Crowdfunding.

Thank you!

Please help us purchase a “wondrous” book for children | Cloaking Inequity

CURMUDGUCATION: Are State Takeovers A Useful Tool

CURMUDGUCATION: Are State Takeovers A Useful Tool

Are State Takeovers A Useful Tool

Earlier this month, the 74 published an unusual article from  Ashley Jochim and Paul Hill, both of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Their argument is that state takeovers of school districts "remain a powerful tool."

What's exceptional about the piece is that it is loaded with evidence to the contrary. I mean, ordinarily I would have had to go hunt this stuff down myself, but it's right here in the piece. Tennessee, having pioneered the Achievement School District model for state school takeover and having proven thavte model doesn't actually work, is finally backing away from the whole idea. Ohio's state takeover law has created some real disasters, and the legislatures is wrestling with getting rid of it, but in the meantime, it has hit pause on takeovers. Louisiana, New Jersey, Georgia-- the list of states getting out of the takeover biz is growing.

There's the culprit

The authors acknowledge all of that. They acknowledge some of the criticisms, including those from conservative and even reform-friendly writers like Jay Greene, saying that takeovers are just overreach by distant bureaucrats and have a lousy track record. Plus, folks object to how state takeovers often seem to be part of dismantling public education, which is apparently a lefty position (some say we need to figure out how rejecting a foundational institution in society became a "conservative" idea).

Also, they note that state takeovers "can carry steep political costs," as in the way that takeovers of mostly black districts invariably result in the stifling of black voices. And takeovers can suppress union vices as well, which I'm pretty sure some folks see as a feature and not a bug.

Despite all this, the authors argue that states should keep takeovers in their bag of tricks anyway.

Their evidence? Well, none, really. Their argument is that there were no takeovers in the 1990s and schools were "unable to shake persistent low performance." Well, no. First, we'd need to clear up what exactly their basis for writing off the nineties is, and second, correlation does not equal CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Are State Takeovers A Useful Tool

Demanding ‘pay and benefits that give us dignity,’ 25,000 Chicago public school teachers go on strike – Raw Story

Demanding ‘pay and benefits that give us dignity,’ 25,000 Chicago public school teachers go on strike – Raw Story

Demanding ‘pay and benefits that give us dignity,’ 25,000 Chicago public school teachers go on strike

Our children deserve the best that this city has to offer. They do not deserve broken promises.”

Accusing Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot of rejecting contract proposals that would create better public school conditions for educators and students, the 25,000-member Chicago Teachers Union went on strike Thursday to push for “pay and benefits that give us dignity and respect.”

In addition to teachers, more than 7,000 teacher aides, security guards, and custodians—members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73—will join CTU’s strike.

The goal of the walk-out in the nation’s third-largest school district is “to win—in writing, in an enforceable contract—learning and working conditions that respect educators and provide Chicago’s students with the schools they deserve,” the union said in a statement Wednesday night.

It's official. Rank and file strikers are telling the press why we're out on the picket lines tomorrow. #FairContractNow #CTUSEIUstrike #PutItInWriting pic.twitter.com/1ViBN6jAgm

— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) October 16, 2019

Classes for around 300,000 Chicago Public School students were canceled on Thursday in anticipation of the strike, which follows months of tense contract negotiations. Teachers and school workers CONTINUE READING: Demanding ‘pay and benefits that give us dignity,’ 25,000 Chicago public school teachers go on strike – Raw Story

Seattle Schools Community Forum: New Messaging to Teens: Tell Your Friends NOT to Take Unknown Drugs

Seattle Schools Community Forum: New Messaging to Teens: Tell Your Friends NOT to Take Unknown Drugs

New Messaging to Teens: Tell Your Friends NOT to Take Unknown Drugs

Maybe you have already talked to your teen; if not, please do so.

From The Issaquah Reporter:

“This is a student-to-student problem,” she said. “We can give out as many messages as we want but at the end of the day, what will really help is a face-to-face, heart-to-heart [communication.]”

It's sometimes hard to say out loud for kids but ask them to look their dearest friends in the face and say, "I care so much about you. My life would be so much less if you were not here.  And your parents and siblings. Please don't take any pills from anyone."

Look at those faces in the photograph - so young and full of promise.

Two Skyline High School juniors — Tom Beatty and Lucas Beirer, both 16 — died because of fentanyl overdoses. And Ballard High School student Gabriel Lilienthal, 17, died of the same cause. His death was the most recent and happened on Sept. 29 in Seattle.  

Skyline ASB secretary Alex Singereanu addressed the recent CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: New Messaging to Teens: Tell Your Friends NOT to Take Unknown Drugs

Why NEA Members Are Talking about Racism - NEA Today

Why NEA Members Are Talking about Racism - NEA Today

THE CANCER OF INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
It still exists—just more invisibly than ever before

Why do we care about racism in education?

Because we care about children.

Because we care about justice, and equity, and opportunity.

And because, says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, our calling as public educators and union members is to “build a system where there is a place of honor for all in this diverse and interdependent world, a place where every blessed child has a fair chance to live the lives that will make them happy.”

And because we’re failing—not every child in America today gets a place of honor, or a fair chance, or even the full recognition of his or her humanity.

The problem is institutional racism, or the historic ways of seeing people and doing things in the United States, which our founding fathers entrenched in our public systems, including education, housing, law enforcement, and more. “As a teacher I have done my homework,” said Eskelsen García this spring in Austin, Texas. “Our history is clear: We have never in this country, from the Mayflower to this very moment, ever achieved racial justice in education. Never.”

In 2015, NEA committed the union to fight institutional racism through a “business item” submitted by NEA’s Board of Directors and adopted by NEA Representative Assembly (RA) delegates. It begins, “We, the members of the National Education Association, acknowledge the existence in our country of institutional racism—the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based upon race.”

Three years later, RA delegates followed up with a resolution about white supremacy culture, saying, “(NEA) believes that, in order to achieve racial and social justice, educators must acknowledge the existence of white supremacy culture as a primary root cause of CONTINUE READING: Why NEA Members Are Talking about Racism - NEA Today

The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools — Garn Press - https://www.garnpress.com/news/the-history-of-institutional-racism-in-us-public-schools
Amazon.com: The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools (9781942146728): Susan DuFresne: Books - https://www.amazon.com/History-Institutional-Racism-Public-Schools/dp/1942146728

Storefront School: Excavating A Radical Education Experiment in Harlem – Have You Heard

Storefront School: Excavating A Radical Education Experiment in Harlem – Have You Heard

Storefront School: Excavating A Radical Education Experiment in Harlem

In the latest episode of Have You Heard we climb into the time machine and head to central Harlem in the late 1960’s, home to a radical—and little known—education experiment. For seven years, Harlem Prep, an independent school that was entirely funded by private donations, operated out of a storefront, sending students who’d dropped out or been pushed out of the NYC Public Schools onto college. Education historian Barry Goldenberg, the runner up in our Have You Heard Graduate Student Research Contest, takes us on a tour of a radically alternative school. And speaking of the Have You Heard Graduate Student Research Contest, it’s back! If you’re a grad student and think your research on K-12 or higher education is *pod worthy,* this is your chance! All the info you need is here. And a full transcript of our Harlem Prep episode is here. 

Storefront School: Excavating A Radical Education Experiment in Harlem – Have You Heard

Mike Klonsky's Blog: On the way to the picket line...

Mike Klonsky's Blog: On the way to the picket line...

On the way to the picket line...

William Estrada, CTU member, Visual Arts teacher, Telpochcalli Elementary School. (Alan Maass)

It's a cold and blustery morning in Chicago. We're heading over to walk the picket line with my teacher/daughter and her colleagues at Telpochcalli Elementary in Little Village. Telpochcalli is one of the few remaining original small schools started by activist teachers, including Jennifer, back in the '90s. Its dual-language curriculum is focused on Mexican culture and the arts. My grandson Oscar, now 19, went there.

As we always do when there's a teacher strike, Susan & I will stop first to pick up a box of coffee and some donuts for the teachers (and me).

The Nation begins its story on the strike by interviewing Telpochcalli art teacher William Estrada.

Estrada teaches visual arts to classes [at several public schools-m.k.] as large as 36 students, and he doesn’t have enough chairs to go around, much less supplies. “The chairs that we have in my classroom, we actually got them out of storage from other schools that closed down because we didn’t have enough money to buy them ourselves,” he says. “We want to make sure we’re given the resources that we need in order for us to do our job and to support the students and the needs that they have.”

Yesterday, CTU Prez Jesse Sharkey told the teachers to prepare for a "short-term strike". I hope so but I'm not so sure. I don't know how he is either. Soon after union leaders had CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: On the way to the picket line...

Common Core Salesman Michael Petrilli: *Economics Affect NAEP, but Stay the Ed-Reform Course* | deutsch29

Common Core Salesman Michael Petrilli: *Economics Affect NAEP, but Stay the Ed-Reform Course* | deutsch29

Common Core Salesman Michael Petrilli: *Economics Affect NAEP, but Stay the Ed-Reform Course*

On October 15, 2019, I read a report produced by Thomas B. Fordham Institute (TBF) president, Michael Petrilli, entitled, “Fewer Children Left Behind: Lessons from the Dramatic Achievement Gains of the 1990s and 2000s.”

This 2019 report builds on a 2017 report by Petrilli in a TBF commentary piece prior to release of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] scores, in which Petrilli et al. concluded the following:

• There have been [NAEP score] gains almost across the board since the 1990s.
• Most of the gains happened in the 1990s and early 2000s.
• Progress in math has been especially remarkable.
• Children of color are reading much better in the early grades than before.

Right out of the starting gate, I took issue with the likes of Michael Petrilli issuing such a report because of his history as an ed-reform salesman.

Before proceeding with discussion related to TBF’s “fewer Children Left Behind” report, I’d like to brief readers on what comes to my mind when I think of Petrilli and TBF.

TBF: Common Core Opportunists

Michael Petrilli and former TBF president, Chester “Checker” Finn, accepted $2 million dollars (see here and here) from billionaire Bill Gates to promote the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and in that position, these two had no qualms about shaping the image of CCSS into a marketable product, despite the fact that TBF itself did not even rate CCSS as better than all other state CONTINUE READING: Common Core Salesman Michael Petrilli: *Economics Affect NAEP, but Stay the Ed-Reform Course* | deutsch29