Students Worldwide Join Week of Action to Reclaim Education | PopularResistance.Org

Students Worldwide Join Week of Action to Reclaim Education | PopularResistance.Org:

Students Worldwide Join Week of Action to Reclaim Education

RESIST! STUDENT ACTIVISM, STUDENT PROTEST 
By Roshan Bliss, www.PopularResistance
May 10th, 2014

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Students across the world rallied, held teach-ins, and took to the streets this week as part of the Global Week of Action to Reclaim Education slated to take place from May 1st – 8th. The week of action was part of an ongoing effort being mounted by groups of students from many different countries to resist the commodification of education – a trend being seen across the world wherein access to education is becoming less a public good for all and more a consumer product to be purchased by those who can afford it – and to demand instead an “emancipatory education” that would help lift youth across the world from poverty and prepare them for the challenges their generation faces.

The week of action saw protests and educational events hosted in at least 10 different countries from Morocco to India to the US. Student groups organized the events as an answer to a call to action to organize the Global Week of Action against problems faced by students around the world: “Budget cuts, outsourcing, school closures, climbing costs of living and tuition fees, among other phenomena, are all linked to an increasing commercialization and privatization of education. Uniting globally is our answer to these obstacles – fighting for emancipatory education for all.”

The initial call was made by transnational student activists coordinating via the International Student Movement platform (ISM). United by the ISM’s International Joint Statement and theglobal framework, which includes the popular “#1World1Struggle” slogan and hashtag, the week of action advances the ISM’s aim to build more connection and solidarity among student and youth activists across the globe who are increasingly beset by the same sets of issues. The overarching goal of emancipatory education, for the ISM, means “being enabled to critically reflect and understand the power structures and environment surrounding him-/herself. Education must not only enable the emancipation of the individual but society as a whole.”

The ISM has helped coordinate global student actions aimed at aligning global education systems with this goal since 2008, and has been gaining momentum. One of the ISM’s co-founders and administrators is known as Mo from Marburg. A former University of Marburg student and General Students’ Committee member, Mo currently works with Free Education Movement Marburg (FreEduMM) in Germany. He has worked with ISM since its inception, and he talked with Popular Resistance about the Global Week of Action to Reclaim Education.

Talk about the International Student Movement platform. What is it?

Mo: When people hear about the International Student Movement, they often assume that it is some sort of organization or fixed network. But that’s not the case. The ISM is an open communication platform for individuals and groups around the world identifying with the struggle for free and emancipatory education. After all, people worldwide face very similar challenges within schools and universities: tuition fees, out-sourcing, repression, de-democratization, and commercialization. The ISM is used to network, exchange information, and help with coordination on the transnational level.

Since the ISM is a communication platform, nobody can represent or speak for it. The infrastructure consists mainly of a global mailing list that currently connects 1,500 contacts worldwide, a website, regular chat meetings, as well as social media channels.

The ISM was initiated in 2008 following an international day of action against the commercialization of education on November 5th. After the day of action, which was mostly coordinated on the transnational level by individual activists in Paris, Dublin, Bristol, Students Worldwide Join Week of Action to Reclaim Education | PopularResistance.Org:

Where Shame Is Policy: Inside LA’s ‘Teacher Jail’ | The Nation

Where Shame Is Policy: Inside LA’s ‘Teacher Jail’ | The Nation:

Where Shame Is Policy: Inside LA’s ‘Teacher Jail’

Using sex as an excuse, Los Angeles has created a disciplinary limbo in which hundreds of teachers languish.

JoAnn Wypijewski 

April 30, 2014   |    This article appeared in the May 19, 2014 edition of The Nation.

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(Shutterstock/hxdbzxy)

Iris Stevenson hurt no child, seduced no teenager, abused no student at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. This is what her supporters say in rallying outrage that this exemplary teacher has languished for months in the gulag of administrative detention known as “teacher jail”: she doesn’t belong there.

And she doesn’t.

Days before being removed from her music classes in December and ordered to spend her workdays isolated on a floor of the LA Unified School District (LAUSD)HQ with other suspect teachers, Stevenson, a legend in South LA and beyond, was at the White House directing the renowned Crenshaw Elite Choir as it sang for President Obama.

She has not been officially informed of the charges against her. Unofficially, Stevenson is said to have swept off the choir to perform first in Paris and then in Washington without permission—an absurd claim, since parents had to consent, and Stevenson has conducted such foundation-supported field trips untroubled for decades. District authorities say only that Stevenson is under investigation.

If she were a de facto kidnapper, police should have been called long ago. But, no, this is not about criminality or even misconduct; it is about a larger game of control being played by School Superintendent John Deasy. That game owes quite a lot to sex, because a few years ago a scandal tripped the panic button, which Deasy has kept his finger on ever since, exploiting justified public anger over a classroom pervert to pursue a war on teachers.

The political question, then, is not just whether Stevenson belongs in teacher jail but what this institutionalized containment regimen, this sub-bureaucracy of punishment, exists for in the first place, and how the specter of sex is the cowing excuse to go after anyone.

Some form of disciplinary netherworld has long existed in the LAUSD, but teacher jail, also known as “housed employee” locations, entered its high rococo period in early 2012, not long after Mark Berndt, a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School now serving twenty-five years in prison, was arrested for lewd conduct.

For years, administrators had swatted away complaints about Berndt. When he came under suspicion in January of 2011, they removed him from the classroom but initiated a secretive Where Shame Is Policy: Inside LA’s ‘Teacher Jail’ | The Nation:

Education Law Center | ELC OBTAINS CONFIDENTIAL NJDOE SCHOOL “TURNAROUND” PLAN

Education Law Center | ELC OBTAINS CONFIDENTIAL NJDOE SCHOOL “TURNAROUND” PLAN:

ELC OBTAINS CONFIDENTIAL NJDOE SCHOOL “TURNAROUND” PLAN

PROPOSAL TO BROAD FOUNDATION SEEKS MILLIONS FOR CLOSURES, “RECOVERY DISTRICT”

July 31, 2012

In response to a request under the NJ Open Public Records Act (OPRA), Education Law Center has obtained a confidential proposal prepared for the Broad Foundation by the NJ Department of Education (NJDOE) to “turnaround,” take control, and potentially close over 200 public schools over the next three years. 

NJ Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf submitted a draft “School Turnaround Proposal” to the Eli Broad Foundation in November 2011, seeking to secure millions in grant funds from the private, Los Angeles-based foundation. The draft formed the basis of a final proposal, submitted February 2012, requesting $7.6 million in grant funds.

The proposals provide new details on NJDOE plans to aggressively “intervene” in schools recently designated as “priority” and “focus” schools based mostly on low test scores, including:

• reallocation of $24 million per year in NJDOE funds and “repurposing” of 166 employees to seven Regional Achievement Centers (RAC) to direct “advanced interventions” in the targeted schools; 
• proposed legislation eliminating NJ's district monitoring statute, known as the Quality School Accountability Continuum (QSAC);
• creation of an “Achievement School District” (ASD) – based on a “recovery district” model borrowed from post-Katrina New Orleans – in which schools are placed under the direct control of the Commissioner with the following conditions:
  • no possible appeal by school or district of placement in ASD;
  • suspension of existing collective bargaining agreements;
  • turning over management of schools to private charter or Education Management Organizations (EMO), with the EMO controlling all personnel decisions upon takeover;
  • returning the state operated districts (Newark, Jersey City and Paterson) to “local control” within four years, but keeping some schools in those districts in the ASD;
  • taking State control of any district with more than 40% low-performing “priority schools;”
  • closing schools that don't show enough improvement after two years.

The final proposal says that “direct interventions” will “reach approximately 253 schools and almost 185,000 students” and begin “as early as the fall of 2012.” 

In March 2012, the Broad Foundation notified Commissioner Cerf that NJDOE would receive $1.9 million in foundation funds to support the plan. In an email, the Commissioner said it was “the largest grant [Broad] has ever made to a state dept of education.”

It is unclear whether NJDOE received these funds directly. In June, the State Board of Education approved receipt of $430,000 in Broad funds – $290,000 to support the RACs and $140,000 for oversight of charter schools. The State Board also approved a separate $200,000 grant from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Startup:Education foundation to “hire a grants writer and attract additional funds to support the NJDOE’s innovation agenda.”

However, it is not clear from the documents obtained by ELC whether the Broad funds approved by the State Board in June were part of the larger Broad grant or a separate one.  Broad’s March 12 award letter to Commissioner Cerf notes, “Per your designation, the grant funds will be directed to your fiscal sponsor, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).” ELC has submitted additional OPRA requests seeking clarification of the distribution and oversight of these funds.

In June, the Legislature removed a $1.7 million allocation from the State Education Department Budget for the RACs, citing a lack of specificity as to how NJDOE would use the funds. Legislators expressed concern that NJDOE was by-passing and/or duplicating the Department’s county offices and ignoring efforts to promote “greater consolidation and efficiencies.”Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto said, “We didn’t know exactly what they are doing with this.”

There is no evidence that Cerf submitted the plans for the RACs, the elimination of QSAC, or the creation of the ASD to the State Board or to Legislators prior to submission to the Broad Foundation.

Broad is well known for placing foundation-trained administrators in key positions in urban school districts. A Broad Center memo, included in the OPRA documents, boasts that the Foundation has “over 30 sitting superintendents in large urban systems, as well as state superintendents in four of the most reform-oriented states – Delaware, Rhode Island, Louisiana and New Jersey." Broad also aggressively promotes expansion of charter schools, public school closures, and corporate-style management of public education.

Press Contact:

Sharon Krengel
Policy and Outreach Coordinator
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x 24

The Roller Coaster of Teaching in Finland - Taught by Finland

The Roller Coaster of Teaching in Finland - Taught by Finland:

The Roller Coaster of Teaching in Finland

05/10/2014

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A roller coaster of joys and frustrations. That’s how I would describe my first year of teaching at a Finnish public school.

The Joy of More Free Time

I nearly did a somersault the moment I first set eyes on my fulltime teaching schedule in Finland. I discovered that I would teach just 18 hours each week, which is slightly less than four hours in the classroom per day. The thought of a lighter teaching burden was blissful.

At my previous elementary school in the States, I had 5 ½ hours of instructional time every day, which added up to a weekly total of 27 ½ hours in the classroom - nearly 10 hours more than I would spend teaching in Finland!

A lighter teaching burden would mean more time to spend with my family. More time to collaborate with colleagues. More time to reflect on my practice, and plan more effective lessons.

But I quickly learned that there was another side to this coin. Less teaching time in Finland meant that I would have less time to work with my fifth graders.

The Frustration of Less Teaching Time

How was I going to squeeze everything in? I was used to having ten hours more with my students each week.

As I stressed about the lack of time, I grew resentful about certain aspects of my Finnish teaching schedule. Why in the world are my fifth graders in Finland getting as many music lessons (three) as math lessons each week? Do they really need to do woodwork (or textiles) for two hours every week? Do my fifth graders really need to take a 15-minute break for every 45 minutes of classroom instruction? These frequent breaks sounded excessive to me!

In Finland, I learned to shift my pedagogical mindset. I had to embrace the time that I had with my students, or I would never move away from this place of frustration.

The Joy of Adapting

Over time, I came to accept my lighter teaching schedule. I was starting to understand that what ultimately counts is not the quantity of lessons, but the quality.

With less hours of teaching, I have been pushed to make sure that every lesson is an important one for my fifth graders. I have to think carefully about what my students absolutely need to learn because there just isn’t time in the schedule for fluff.

I have found myself relying a lot on the other fifth grade teacher for planning help. Frankly, a heavier teaching load in the States discouraged me from reaching out to my colleagues. I was often too tired, and too busy. And I knew my American colleagues felt the same way.   

When I’m concerned about one of my students in Finland, I have more time in my schedule to look for extra support. I’m The Roller Coaster of Teaching in Finland - Taught by Finland:

Leader of ‘Bad Ass Moms’ speaks out | People's TribunePeople's Tribune

Leader of ‘Bad Ass Moms’ speaks out | People's TribunePeople's Tribune:

Leader of ‘Bad Ass Moms’ speaks out

By Leslie Willis
May 2014

Rousemary Vega, with daughter Zamara, is a mother of four, and a leader in the battle to save our public schools.
PHOTO/ANDY WILLIS

CHICAGO — “How can you celebrate anything when you kill schools and over test our children . . . Stop threatening students and teachers, stop over testing and closing schools . . . stop making it rain with our tax dollars!” These words took aim at Mayor Rahm Emmanuel at a public event on March 4 to celebrate Chicago’s 177th birthday. Rousemary Vega, a mother of four children and a leader in the battle to save our public schools, was forced to use this method to address our mayor with grievances she shares with thousands of parents and teachers across the city. “This was an action of frustration,” she explained during an interview for Momenpopcast,* “because the mayor is not listening and he needs to know what he is doing to the community.”

The movement to “opt out” of taking yet another test (in this case the ISAT) grew into a citywide protest with over 80 schools reporting that parents were refusing to let their children be tested. “This vigorous testing is taking away the children’s creativity and their ambition of wanting to be educated. Our schools are becoming testing camps. We’re crying over this money we don’t have and yet we have tests raining on our children. Why can’t we make good use of this money we are spending on tests?”

Rousemary became active attempting to stop the city from closing Lafayette Elementary, in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, where her children were happy and doing well, and taking advantage of a great music program. The heartbreak of losing that battle has prompted Rousemary to deepen her commitment to seeing this struggle through to the end. She is a founder of the group Bad Ass Moms (BAM), a group of Moms with diverse backgrounds and coming from all parts of the city. “We believe in equality for the children.”

Momenpopcast talked to Rousemary about the present inequality in education, and the process of sucking the funds from public schools and selling schools to corporations (charters). “What they are creating is hunger games in education . . . a competitive Leader of ‘Bad Ass Moms’ speaks out | People's TribunePeople's Tribune:

Marie Corfield: NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action Part 2: When bad things happen to good schools

Marie Corfield: NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action Part 2: When bad things happen to good schools:

NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action Part 2: When bad things happen to good schools

In Part 1 I wrote about the recent Congressional vote on a charter school bill. Part 2 is about Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson's plans to convert Hawthorne Avenue School, a successful and beloved neighborhood public school, into a charter.

A Newark teacher sent me this heartfelt post written in April by Hawthorne Ave PTSO President Grace Sergio about the successes this school has had under Principal H. Grady James. You may remember that along with three other principals, James was briefly suspended earlier this year for speaking at a parent/community forum (something Anderson no longer does) on the fate of their school in light of her One Newark plan. Read Bob Braun's excellent coverage of this here. 

Originally under One Newark this school was destined to be converted to a charter, but I guess after reviewing the school's data here and here, she had no choice but to back down—sorta.

See, the school is improving under James' leadership. Even though 94% of its students are free and reduced lunch eligible, and 89% are African American (both numbers higher than the district average), many of its numbers are heading in the right direction: 

True, their language arts proficiency trend numbers are a little erratic, but I defer to Jersey Jazzman and Dr. Bruce Baker for explanations. They are the Marie Corfield: NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action Part 2: When bad things happen to good schools:

NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action! Part 1

We interrupt this Teacher Appreciation Week to bring you a call to action:Two pieces of information crossed my cyber desk this morning at the crack of dawn:1. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve bipartisan legislation to expand access to charter school funding.2. This very sad accounting of Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson's conversion of one of the city's—and state's—m

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MAY 07

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: Delirium at the State BOE Meeting Part 1!

Today was open topic day at the NJ State BOE, which means anyone can testify about any education topic. The board has their regular meeting in the morning, then public testimony in the afternoon. Due to NJASK testing, there was a small contingent of NJEA members present along with concerned parents and citizens.It started with a resolution to recognize May 2014 as Physical Education and Sport Mont

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MAY 05

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: How China and the US are swapping education philosophies

Early on in my teaching career I taught elementary art in the Bernards Township School District in Somerset County. The township is about 83% white with the largest minority being Asian at 14%. With a median family income of $153,000 and poverty below 3%, the children don't want for much. Many parents take an active role in their children's education, encouraging and even demanding they be involve

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MAY 04

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: Tales from the front lines

Tuesday is National Teacher Appreciation Day, and all across the country PTOs and PTAs will be honoring us for the work we do. I am continually grateful for and humbled by all the PTO does at my school this week because they already do so much for us throughout the year. This week I will be showing my appreciation for my profession and those who support us, like our PTO, by writing stories from th

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APR 27

#NJEdTruthSquad: Just Gimme Some Truth, Jersey!

#NJEdTruthSquad  #NJEdTruthRemember these hash tags.Education 'reform' may be stifling creativity and collaboration in the classroom, but it's had an unintended consequence: it's made many of us stronger advocates for public education outside the classroom. All across the country education professionals, parents and community members are joining together, taking action and speaking out against the

26 by noreply@blogger.c... / 13d 

Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog

Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea

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Whatever could go wrong with a medical company pushing a product to students?

Missourians and others concerned about the Common Core Initiative and curriculum being online are redeemed.  Representative Mike Lair put $8.00 in the education appropriations budget for tin foil in an attempt to marginalize those who have concerns about not being able to see the curricula their students are studying and on which they are tested.  These worries are proving to be valid.

From helio.com and Curriculum developed to improve vaccine uptake:

Researchers are developing a new curriculum to educate children and adolescents about immunization to reduce vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination rates for this and future generations, according to findings presented here.

Despite advances in vaccine technology and successful elimination of diseases such assmallpox, polio, measles and rubella from the United States and much of the rest of the world, resistance to immunization remains a significant problem, according to Edward B. Lewin, MD, of Georgetown University School of Medicine.

What we’re presently doing to promote immunization is not adequately improving vaccine acceptance or lowering vaccine hesitancy …” Lewin said during a presentation. “It’s actually going in the wrong direction. We need a new approach.”

As a result, Lewin and colleagues launched the Vaccine Education Project, an interactive curriculum focused on educating children, not adults, on the science of vaccination. The project is based on the following concepts:

• Educate children about vaccine science so they can make informed decisions about vaccination for themselves and eventually their own children;
• Develop a curriculum that incorporates the use of iPods, social media and a website, intended to be “interactive and fun”;
• Deliver the curriculum at home to avoid taking up class time;
• Coordinate with professional educators;
• Assess the efficacy of the curriculum by measuring students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward immunization.

The curriculum originally consisted of 13 videos to inform students on vaccination. More than 2,000 science teachers were surveyed about the videos in a study conducted by the National Science Teachers Association; 72% said they were “very supportive” of the project.Up to 27% of science teachers expected “pushback” from parents regarding the Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Can 5 Year Old Children Be Fined for Bullying? Maybe it’s Coming in California.

  We have officially crossed over into the Land of Make Believe by holding young children responsible for childish behavior with adult consequences. From The California Daily Breeze: Carson is moving to become the first California city to criminalize bullying, paving the way for misdemeanor charges to be filed against children as young as 5 […]

by Gretchen Logue / 17h 

Daughter of NH Arrested Dad Confronts the School Bullies: The School Administrators.

  After her father was arrested for speaking out at a school meeting to discuss questionable fiction she was assigned to read, the daughter confronts the adults who sponsored the meeting and allowed his arrest.  From Daughter, 14, confronts school board after dad was arrested over sex book: ‘I don’t feel safe’:     Did […]

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MAY 08

How Not to Get Arrested at a School Board Meeting While Speaking Out Against Common Core.

A story went viral this week about a dad being arrested at a school board meeting.  Concerned citizens spoke out on what they considered pornographic reading assigned by a New Hampshire school.  A father was arrested for disorderly conduct when he went over his allotted 2 minute limit and added comments.  Apparently when it comes […]

by Gretchen Logue / 1d 

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On Monday I wrote, “You can be sure that, if a student needs an NCRC in order to get a job,  your local school will be aligning its curriculum with those requirements.” The National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC)  comes from an ACT program called Certified Work Ready Communities (CWRC). Businesses that sign on to this […]

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MAY 07

SB 1490 Moves To Conference Committee

May 6, 2014 HB1490, the Common Core bill,  has moved to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions. The Senate has announced their committee appointees: EMERY, PEARCE, LAMPING, CHAPPELLE-NADAL, KEAVENY. We are waiting on House leadership to appoint their three members. Rep. Bahr will be one of them. There will […]

by Anne Gassel / 3d 

MAY 06

This is Common Core in Action. A Music Teacher is “Ineffective” Based on ELA/Math Standards.

    Common Core is NOT “just standards”.  It is part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative which includes the four assurances contained in the State Fiscal Stabalization Fund given to the states with these strings:   The State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) program is a new one-time appropriation of $53.6 billion under the […]

by Gretchen Logue / 4d 

MAY 05

Don’t Fall For The Teacher Tenure Boogey Man

Lots of very nice well meaning people were approached by a person standing outside their grocery store or library in the last several months and asked to sign a petition to get rid of teacher tenure so we could “finally get rid of the really bad teachers who were making our school system so awful.”  […]

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