Guest Blog: Who Speaks for the Children? - Lily's Blackboard

Guest Blog: Who Speaks for the Children? - Lily's Blackboard:

Guest Blog: Who Speaks for the Children?

By Kim Irvine

I believe the biggest problem we face in education is this: Our society does not understand the heart and mind of an educator.

Educators are constantly running behind schedule because, for instance, we spend hours helping a frustrated kid understand multiplying fractions, and then to save time, we secretly correct papers during faculty meeting or in church behind the hymnbook.

Educators hardly earn enough to run our own households, yet we engineer small miracles so that a new pair of shoes suddenly materializes in a student’s locker, the product of educators who noticed he was in need and gathered their pennies.  And when it is discovered at dress rehearsal for the school play that the costume wigs are infected with lice, educators stay up all night spraying and freezing wigs so the show will go on.

Educators are a peculiar bunch, mostly because we choose to spend our days with those in our society who are often ignored: the children. We understand our students because we choose to make them our priority.  Every day. We are experts on what motivates them and what makes them shut down. Educators have pure motivations: We simply want all our students to succeed. We know success looks different for each student, and we honor and celebrate those differences. We know a mere test score does not effectively communicate the talents, triumphs and trials of any student.

The answers to authentic education reform must come from those who understand the large and small issues that the individual children they serve face. The answers must come from the community. The caring professionals, parents and others who live locally are the only ones who truly understand the particular needs of the students in their communities. These tireless champions of education are the PTA members, the parents, the school bus drivers, the local librarians, the custodians, the local school board and the teachers, among many others. These supporters of education have not had a voice in national educational policy…until now.

December 10 marks the first anniversary of ESSA—the Every Student Succeeds Act. This is not another sound byte to be manipulated by politicians or vendors. ESSA marks an auspicious change. It gives voice to the educational Guest Blog: Who Speaks for the Children? - Lily's Blackboard:

Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 15: Neural Remapping of Children

Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 15: Neural Remapping of Children:

Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 15: Neural Remapping of Children

Earlier this week the Wharton Schoool of Business and the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, both of which are at UPenn, hosted a two-day conference on transforming teacher education for the poor, specifically, and higher ed for the non-elite, generally, to conform to the human depersonalizing and dehumanizing model prescribed by the big money in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. 

Central to the new mission of human alienation and behavior control is the goal of character improvement of the working classes.  It is based on an amateur application of neuroscience and psychology, and itexploits the neural plasticity of children and their teachers to produce populations of compliant and culturally sterilized go-getters who always ask "how high?" when someone in authority says "jump."

This 21st version of eugenics comes packaged as social emotional learning (SEL), and it is being sold by people like Martin Seligman, Angela Duckworth, and Carol Dweck, all of whom have their own product lines to sell and their territories to protect.  

The conference at UPenn was co-organized by UPenn's Graduate School of Education, and UPenn's (and the CIA's) Professor Seligman offered a keynote.  

UPenn Announced KIPP Support in 2014

These prefatory remarks are offered to provide context for Chapter 15 of Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys through "No Excuses" Teaching, which examines a little closer the emerging social-emotional learning Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 15: Neural Remapping of Children:

Teacher to Trump’s education pick: Let’s ‘address the elephant in the room.’ It’s you. - The Washington Post

Teacher to Trump’s education pick: Let’s ‘address the elephant in the room.’ It’s you. - The Washington Post:
Teacher to Trump’s education pick: Let’s ‘address the elephant in the room.’ It’s you.

 The selection of Betsy DeVos by President-elect Donald Trump as his education secretary nominee has been attacked by public school advocates who see her longtime support for school “choice” and private Catholic education as evidence that she does not support America’s public education system. In this post, that sentiment is explained by an educator who has written an open letter to DeVos.

He is Patrick Kearney, facilitator for Teacher Leadership in the Johnston Community School District in Iowa. He spent 25 years as a band director in private and public schools of Iowa, and is a past-president of the Iowa Bandmasters Association and past co-chair of the Iowa Jazz Championships. He was also a founding board member of the Jazz Educators of Iowa.  His wife teaches in the Des Moines Public Schools and his son is studying education at Drake University.

Here’s the letter, which first appeared on Huffington Post. Kearney gave me permission to republish it.

Dear Ms. DeVos,

I don’t think we’ve really met yet; we are America’s public school teachers. There are about 3.1 million of us. We teach in large urban areas, we teach in the suburbs, we teach in small rural communities, and we teach in some really remote parts of our country. The most important thing to recognize is that we teach every kid who shows up. We don’t pick and choose the types of kids that we will teach, we teach ALL of them.

Because we haven’t really had much interaction, we thought it might be nice to share a little bit about the public schools we teach in. First of all, we are very proud of our schools. Public schools today have the highest graduation rate in 

Teacher to Trump’s education pick: Let’s ‘address the elephant in the room.’ It’s you. - The Washington Post:

 ExxonMobil’s Rex Tillerson was a big booster of Common Core

 ExxonMobil’s Rex Tillerson was a big booster of Common Core

California School Districts Sue County for Approving a Charter Under Criminal Investigation - NPE Action

California School Districts Sue County for Approving a Charter Under Criminal Investigation - NPE Action:

California School Districts Sue County for Approving a Charter Under Criminal Investigation

A Press release from:Two Anaheim School Districts Sue Orange County Board of Education Over Approval of ‘Educationally Unsound’ Charter Being Investigated for Fraud

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA — Anaheim Union High School District and Anaheim Elementary School District filed suit today in Orange County Superior Court, challenging a decision by the Orange County Board of Education (OCBE) to approve EPIC charter school, despite it being under investigation for fraud in Oklahoma and despite the school board’s own staff recommendation to reject the petition as “educationally unsound.”

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction preventing Excellence Performance Innovation Citizenship (EPIC) from continuing to operate its K-12 virtual school, and ordering the Orange County Board of Education to revoke its charter.

“EPIC was illegally authorized by the Orange County Board of Education in violation of the Charter School Act,” AUHSD Superintendent Michael Matsuda said. “The county school board failed to exercise its oversight duty when the flawed petition first came before them. Instead, they approved it with conditions that were never met. The OCBE’s actions have left us with no recourse other than to seek this injunction.”

Supporting the two Anaheim school districts in seeking the injunction is constitutional scholar and founding dean of the UCI Law School, Erwin Chemerinsky.

“In approving EPIC’s petition, the Orange County school board acted California School Districts Sue County for Approving a Charter Under Criminal Investigation - NPE Action:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Budget Deficit Revealed (Kinda)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Budget Deficit Revealed (Kinda):

Budget Deficit Revealed (Kinda)

I spoke at the School Board meeting on Wednesday.  One of my topics was the fact that in order to understand the raging budget deficit facing SPS, I was told to file a public disclosure request.  I pointed out to the Superintendent and Board that this was not transparency at its best and if they want support from the community, it might be useful to be open about the situation.

This information  is not some state secret and, in fact, the finance/budgeting folks probably all know the numbers by heart.   

To my surprise, I was sent this information by JoLynn Berge,Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance. Great but, once again, not specific enough (but, of course, that's by design.)  

I'll first note the obvious for every single one of us adults - when creating a budget, you start with what money you DO have and what you owe/needed spending and THEN you see what is leftover for other things.  The district seemingly operates with what they WANT to do and then moves on to paying for needs.  

This is obvious when you consider the underspending on maintenance of the facilities, both new and old.  This is obvious when the Board votes a COLA for the Superintendent (after giving him a raise the previous year) and yet schools like Northgate don't have money for copy paper.  It's obvious when some Sped students don't get to come to school on a late start weather day because of transportation (I had no idea but this is happening.)

Most of all, when the Superintendent and staff, in the face of all operational problems, puts Strategic Plan initiatives ahead of a well-operating district.  This district will NOT ever move ahead for its students (especially those who are low-income and/or of color) if this district is not well-run.

I do not believe it is well-run and I have thought this for a very long time.
The Times has an editorial on this subject, Seattle School District should take responsibility for budget problems.  They say Nyland has "erroneously" put the full blame on the Legislature.  That was not my read of the letter but yes, the letter certainly laid no blame at the feet of the district.  But the Times goes right after the union, blaming the district for settling the teachers strike by giving them raises.  Amazingly they also call out the high salaries of administrators.  

About 37% of the Seattle School District's projected budget deficit Seattle Schools Community Forum: Budget Deficit Revealed (Kinda):

Teacher Shortages Are Looming, but It Doesn't Need to Be This Way

Teacher Shortages Are Looming, but It Doesn't Need to Be This Way:

Teacher Shortages Are Looming, but It Doesn't Need to Be This Way

Teacher Libby Garland vividly recalls the excitement she felt when she was accepted into the New York City Teaching Fellows Program in 2005. The program's mission, "preparing a group of exceptional teachers committed to a better future for the NYC students who need them most," seemed like a perfect fit, and she was pleased to get a position in the School for Democracy and Leadership in Brooklyn.

The school was then in its second year, and Garland was assigned to teach social studies to tenth graders.

"It was a very idealistic project staffed by a bunch of bright, committed people who saw social justice as central to education," Garland told Truthout. "Everyone, including the principal, really cared about the kids." Despite this, Garland said, problems were immediately evident. For example, it took until late October for the Department of Education to provide Garland with textbooks. "Every night at 9:00 p.m. I'd find myself in Office Max making copies of readings and assignments, paying for them myself," she said. "Everyone in there at that hour was also a teacher."

Eighteen-hour workdays were common. "It was a really brutal lesson," Garland said. "Having smart, dedicated and hard-working teachers is not enough. The school was chaotic. Things rolled along without systems in place -- even something as basic as taking attendance fell through the cracks -- and many of the students simply got caught in the chaos."

By the end of her first year, Garland decided she'd had enough. "The despair I felt, Teacher Shortages Are Looming, but It Doesn't Need to Be This Way:

Stop ignoring early education findings from the 1970s - NonDoc

Stop ignoring early education findings from the 1970s - NonDoc:

Stop ignoring early education findings from the 1970s

Across the nation, the post-election transition period has proven to be just as angry as our bitter election, which is likely to be followed by possibly the most divisive presidency in modern America. Today’s anxiety recalls that of the 1970s, when Watergate, the collapse of the Nixon administration, the fall of Saigon and the 1973 energy crisis launched the deindustrialization of America (which was one of the legacy tragedies that recently culminated in Trumpism).

Although it occurred in October, the Potts Family Foundation and Oklahoma Early Childhood Coalition’s conference offered a message even more important after the election. Keynote speaker Nancy Fishman, deputy director of the public-policy organization ReadyNation, provided at least two more reasons why Americans should stop ignoring a 1970s scientific discovery.

Early education a smart investment, transcends partisanship

First, high-quality early education is the smartest investment Oklahoma can make. Fishman cited data from various sources in her presentation that highlight how returns on investment in high-quality early childhood range from $9 to $16 for every dollar invested. As cognitive science shows, these benefits accrue because 90 percent of brain growth occurs by age 5. Learning gaps appear as early as 9 months of age and, consequently, disadvantaged children can come to school 18 months behind.

For 20 years, public education has been engaged in a bitter edu-political civil war over the Stop ignoring early education findings from the 1970s - NonDoc:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: Bystanding Educators + Disrupting the Moral Center

CURMUDGUCATION:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION:  Bystanding Educators +  Disrupting the Moral Center

Bystanding Educators

48by Peter Greene / 3h

Over at EdWeek, Peter DeWitt asks the question " Have educators been bystanders too long ?" I like the question because it doesn't even waste time asking if educators are bystanders, because, yes, that's what we do. This is probably one of the reasons we don't get more respect from business-folks. In the private sector, you sometimes have to play hardball. You "negotiate" by being non-compliant, l

YESTERDAY

Disrupting the Moral Center

19by Peter Greene / 1d

Sarah Jones at the New Republic yesterday posted a blistering take on technocracy entitled " The Year Silicon Valley Went Morally Bankrupt ." It doesn't address education, but it surely could. She takes us back to 1996, and “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" by John Perry Barlo, a statement of Silicon Valley's manifest destiny to rise over and above the nation that birthed it: Barlo

DEC 08

New Test Rules: Old Baloney

17by Peter Greene / 2d

Yesterday, John King unveiled the Department of Education's final rules for testing under the Every Student Succeeds Act, aimed at spinning the continued emphasis on the Big Standardized Tests. Jennifer C. Kerr of the Associated Press signals that she bought the PR and fumbled the story with her very first sentence: Aiming to reduce test-taking in America's classrooms, the Obama administration rel

DEC 07

What Do The Tests Measure?

83by Peter Greene / 3d

Christopher Tienken (Seton Hall) has solved a mystery. Along with Anthony Colella (Seton Hall), Christian Angelillo (Boonton Township SD), Meredith Fox (Nanuet Union SD), Kevin McCahill (George W. Miller Elementary) and Adam Wolfe (Peoria Unified SD), Tienken has once again answered the question -- what do the Big Standardized Tests actually measure? Put another way, Tienken et. al. have demonstra

ESSA Won't Spur "Best Practices"

9by Peter Greene / 3d

Eric Kalenze, Director of Education Solutions at the Search Institute , is guest-blogging at Rick Hess's EdWeek spot this week. His interest leans towards questions of research and best practices and how any of those things ever hope to line up with actual classrooms. Today he's asking one particularly interesting question-- Will ESSA's Evidence Requirements Spur Actual Best Practices? comes with

DEC 06

Write Your Own PISA Post

14by Peter Greene / 3d

I actually considered a Reaction to PISA Scores post and then decided that I didn't have the heart for this annual exercise in futility, and wiser heads than mine were already on the case. So instead, I'll let you take this little quiz (in, of course, multiple choice form) and in the process create a Choose Your Own Madlibs Fake Journalism story for the occasion. Enjoy! International Testing Auth

DEC 05

Kindergrinder Toxicity

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

The LA Times last week ran this story aimed directly at the feels. It's the tragic cautionary tale of a poor little five year old who arrived at kindergarten only to discover that she was already behind. At a kindergarten screening two months before her first day, she happily chattered about her dog Toodles, her favorite color pink, her Santa Claus pajamas, her nickname Gigi, her outings with dad

DEC 04

How Charter Students Would Benefit from Teacher Unions

16by Peter Greene / 6d

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

ICYMI: As It Sinks In (12/4)

7by Peter Greene / 6d

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

CURMUDGUCATION:

Culture Warrior Princess – EduShyster

Culture Warrior Princess – EduShyster:

Culture Warrior Princess

Betsy DeVos’ support for anti-gay groups goes much deeper than the media has reported…

Is there anything left to say about the awfulness of Betsy DeVos, President-Elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education? Alas, there is… Not nearly enough has been made of DeVos’ extreme closeness to the extreme fringes of the Christian right. She and her family have spent decades and millions upon millions to help further the reach of organizations like the Family Research Council, known for its *research* into homosexuality, which, by the way, is not a civil right. While media reports have referred in passing to DeVos’s support for Christian causes, they’ve largely glossed over what these causes are and how deeply enmeshed she is in a world that views homosexuality as immoral and abhorrent. Since her position comes with some responsibilities of the civil rights variety, should we maybe be concerned about this?

Remember the big *It Gets Better* campaign from a few years back? The viral video series in which gay grown ups recorded messages of hope and encouragement for students who are being bullied or just enduring life as an American teen won major plaudits and showed how the Interwebs could really be a force for progress. But it Culture Warrior Princess – EduShyster:

Oregon Department of Education risked breach of private student data, audits find | OregonLive.com

Oregon Department of Education risked breach of private student data, audits find | OregonLive.com:

Oregon Department of Education risked breach of private student data, audits find

Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - http://www.studentprivacymatters.org/

 Two separate audits found the Oregon Department of Education didn't do enough to ensure that its huge cache of data on more than 600,000 students remains private.

Hundreds of people in school districts and in state government have access to some or all of that data. That means keeping it safe is a daunting technological challenge.

A report by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General found Oregon at risk of being unable to "prevent or detect unauthorized access and disclosure of personally identifiable information."

A state audit, made public Thursday, also found insufficient security measures to keep confidential student data confidential.

"The department does not provide an appropriate layered defense," auditors wrote.

Neither the state nor federal department issued a notice about the federal audit. The Oregon Department of Education provided it to The Oregonian/OregonLive in response to a public records request.

Oregon Department of Education officials say they have taken careful and technically advanced steps to protect data, and are constantly updating and upgrading those efforts.

Oregon student data in their possession has never been breached, said Susie Strangfield, the department's chief information officer.

But state and federal auditors both identified weaknesses in the steps and procedures the agency has used to ensure cyber security.

Federal auditors named several highly technical details; state auditors disclosed only general information, saying they listed precise problems in a confidential letter to state education department, to avoid flagging them for hackers.

The data doesn't include students' home addresses, health records or discipline Oregon Department of Education risked breach of private student data, audits find | OregonLive.com: