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Friday, January 20, 2017

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Walkouts on Inauguration Day

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Walkouts on Inauguration Day:

Student Walkouts on Inauguration Day

Image result for Seattle Schools Student Walkouts on Inauguration Day


Apparently, some students at Jane Addams Middle School walked out of school just before noon and joined with students from Nathan Hale High School who were also walking out in protest.

From the principal, Paula Montgomery:

Seattle Public Schools security, non-teaching staff and officers from the North Precinct will be monitoring the students during this walkout. Many students are planning to return to school after the rally at Nathan Hale.
Please talk to your students about your expectations for them with regards to this walk-out. While school staff will monitor the activities on campus, once students leave our campus there will not be school supervision. Should students wish to return to school after the rally, they should enter through the front doors and sign in at the main office in order to get a pass back to class. 

I want to be clear that this is not a school-sponsored event. This is 
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Walkouts on Inauguration Day:





Stay Calm and Join the Resistance
by Melissa Westbrook / 1h
Women's March , tomorrow, January 21, 2017. The early estimate is 50,000 people. Look for me; I'll be the one with pink cat ears.




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Trump White House takes down website pages about disabilities - The Washington Post

Trump White House takes down website pages about disabilities - The Washington Post:

Trump White House takes down website pages about disabilities


During the Obama administration, there was a page on the White House website that had information about federal policy regarding people with disabilities. Its URL was https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/disabilities. Not under the Trump administration. The Trump-run White House website — which went live moments after Friday’s inauguration of President Trump — says: “You are not authorized to access this page.”
The Obama White House website page labeled “Contact the Disability Issues Outreach Team | The White House” isn’t there any longer either.  Click on it and it now says: “The requested page/disability-issues-contact could not be found.” And the Obama White House website’s fact sheet about expanding opportunities for people with disabilities is gone too. (You can see the former disabilities page here.)
Trump did not talk about expanding opportunity for people with disabilities during the primary and general election campaigns, but he did become known for mocking a New York Times reporter with disabilities.  In late 2015, Trump went after reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a physical disability that affects the flexibility and movement of his arms. Trump said at a rally in South Carolina, “You’ve got to see this guy,” and then jerked his arms spastically. Later Trump said he did not know Kovaleski had a disability and wasn’t trying to mock him. Kovaleski noted that Trump had met him repeatedly.


The subject of disabilities is not the only one that has lost prominence — or even space — on the new White House website. As Post reporters wrote here, the energy page no longer mentions climate change, which was featured on Obama’s White House website.
If you search for the word “disabilities” on the Trump White House website, you get links to historical stories and posts about how people with disabilities can visit the White House and apply for fellowships. Here’s the list of URLs:
www.whitehouse.gov/1600/first-ladies/idamckinley
www.whitehouse.gov/1600/elections-and-voting
www.whitehouse.gov/participate/tours-and-events
www.whitehouse.gov/administration/karen-pence
www.whitehouse.gov/participate/fellows/faq
www.whitehouse.gov/1600/executive-branch
www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/grovercleveland22
www.whitehouse.gov/participate/fellows/2016-2017

 Trump White House takes down website pages about disabilities - The Washington Post:


In his inaugural address, Trump groups public schools with gangs, drugs and rusted-out factories
by Valerie Strauss / 1h
He referred to an education system that leaves students with “no knowledge."

American President Donald Trump


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CURMUDGUCATION: How Not To Improve Schools + What Do You Want?

CURMUDGUCATION: How Not To Improve Schools:

How Not To Improve Schools

Image result for throwing money out the window

The report is in from the US Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences-- "School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness." It is our last lesson in school reform from the Obama-Duncan-King education department, and although that version of the department is being bulldozed under even as I type, there are still important lessons to be learned here.

The full report is over 400 pages long, and if you want to read the whole thing, be my guest. But I don't think there are any devils lurking in these details. Because the fourth-of-five findings pretty much tells the story:

Overall, across all grades, we found that implementing any SIG -funded model had no significant impacts on math or reading test scores, high school graduation, or college enrollment. 

The Obama administration spent $3 billion dollars on school improvement grants (actually $7 billion by the time you factor it all in), and it did not produce any measurable improvements, at all.


Some folks are going to jump straight from there to their favorite conclusion-- throwing more money at schools doesn't do any good. But that's the wrong conclusion, for two reasons.

First, this results of the study are inconclusive because they checked only for Big Standardized Test scores, graduation rate, and college enrollment. For the sixty gazzilionth time, let me point out that these are narrow, twisted, not-very-good measures of education. I would argue, for instance, that if the three billion had been used to add music and art teachers to every single school in America, education would have been vastly improved-- but that improvement would not show up in a study like this. Likewise more guidance counselors, more welding instructors or field trips would improve CURMUDGUCATION: How Not To Improve Schools:




 
What Do You Want?
by Peter Greene / 3h
In teacher school, we're taught that effective classroom management involves focusing on what you want the students to do, not what you don't want them to do. In other words, "stop twiddling your thumbs" is less effective than "please read the story." I always think of Larry Shreckengost, my high school driver'


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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Global anti-Trump protests

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Global anti-Trump protests:

Global anti-Trump protests



"It’s growing by the day," says Politico's Natasha Korecki in Illinois Playbook. She's talking, of course, about Saturday's Women's Marches in D.C. and cities around the country.

Here in Chicago, 24,000 people have RSVP’d on social media for the rally in Chicago. Organizers are expecting more than 200,000 in Washington D.C. while New York City and L.A. are likely to attract some 70,000 each.

Actually, now more than 50,000 are expected to turn out in Chicago. I'll make it 50,001.


SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to the students at Glenbard East H.S. who have organized an anti-Trump walkout. They're also publishing The Glenbard Underground. Don't miss.

Chicago Public School students will walk out after their 7th period classes and head to the Resist Trump rally in Daley Plaza at 3:00pm.

CHICAGO (1/20) - The Chicago Students Union has coordinated a walkout across Chicago Public Schools today after 7th period to demonstrate to the Trump administration that the students of Chicago are prepared to defend their schools and communities.The nomination of vastly unqualified cabinet members like Betsy DeVos and the President's promises to deport their undocumented brothers and sisters has sparked widespread resistance. 
Following the walkout, students will head to the Chicago Movement for the 99%'s "ResistTrump" rally in Daley Plaza at 3:00pm. Sabah Hussain, a student activist, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Global anti-Trump protests:


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Donald Trump is really president and I’m not really dead. | Fred Klonsky

Donald Trump is really president and I’m not really dead. | Fred Klonsky:

Donald Trump is really president and I’m not really dead.

dead

If you were watching Chicago Med last night, yes, that was me playing a deceased man.
A few months back I got hired as an extra to play the role.
“How long can you hold your breath?” I was asked. “Don’t know,” I said. So he timed me. I took a deep breath and held it for about a minute.
“Should we do eyes open and mouth closed or eyes closed and mouth open?” asked somebody else.
How would I know?
The entire scene took up less than 90 seconds on air and took three hours to shoot. Anne found it disturbing to watch me but I thought it was all fun.
And I’m not really dead. It’s a TV show.
Donald Trump is not really a TV show. He is president.
I find that far more disturbing and there is no doubt it will be bad, at least for those not represented by his cabinet of dopes and Wall Street wheeler-dealers.
But there is this.
At the exact moment when Trump was taking the oath of office in Washington, I was Donald Trump is really president and I’m not really dead. | Fred Klonsky:
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DeVos ethics review complete – but controversy isn’t - The Washington Post

DeVos ethics review complete – but controversy isn’t - The Washington Post:

DeVos ethics review complete – but controversy isn’t


The long-awaited ethics review for Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos has been completed, clearing the way for the Senate to vote on the nominee for education secretary, despite the objection of Democrats.
The Office of Government Ethics, an agency that examines nominees’ financial disclosures and resolves potential conflicts of interest, released its report for the controversial education pick. Ethics Director Walter M. Shaub Jr. had said a full vetting of extremely wealthy individuals, such as DeVos, could take weeks, if not months, much to the chagrin of Senate Democrats who wanted the review in hand before this week’s confirmation hearings. (See the full report below).
[Ethics office director says proper vetting of ultrawealthy Cabinet nominees can take weeks, months]
Despite Democrats’ pressing Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, for another round of questioning, the Republican leader has scheduled a vote on DeVos for Jan. 24. Her critics say Alexander is rushing what should be a careful examination of someone they say is unqualified to lead the nation’s education system.
Eli Zupnick, a spokesman for Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the senator is concerned that members will not have a chance to have their ethics concerns and questions answered before the vote.
“Ms. DeVos and her family have incredibly complicated and opaque financial entanglements and staff is now reviewing all of her and her family’s holdings that have conflicts with her role as Secretary of Education,” he said. “Senator Murray has also not yet received answers to her questions about missing information in Ms. DeVos’ Committee financial disclosure. And Committee Democrats have sent Ms. DeVos a number of reasonable questions for the record that she committed to answer and that they expect clear and complete responses to.”​​​
Alexander has stressed that DeVos has taken steps to prove herself, including answering questions for nearly four hours and meeting individually with committee members.
“We know that Betsy DeVos is a passionate defender of improving opportunities for low-income children who has committed to implement the law fixing No Child Left Behind as Congress wrote it, support public schools, and work to protect all children and students from discrimination and ensure they are educated in a safe environment,” said Margaret Atkinson, a spokeswoman for Alexander.
DeVos has no professional experience in public schools, but she has lobbied for decades to expand charter schools and taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and religious schools. Her inexperience proved to be a liability at Tuesday’s hearing, as Senate Democrats grilled her on education policy questions that she had trouble answering.
[Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, lauded as bold reformer, called unfit for job]
At the hearing, DeVos pledged to resolve any conflicts of interest the office identified, a commitment she reiterated in a letter she sent Thursday to the ethics office of the Education Department. DeVos said she has resigned from a dozen foundations with education goals, including All Children Matter and Great Lakes Education Foundation. She is, however, allowed DeVos ethics review complete – but controversy isn’t - The Washington Post:
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Helping DeVos Understand How States Measure Achievement - The Atlantic

Helping DeVos Understand How States Measure Achievement - The Atlantic:

Delving Into One of the Questions Betsy DeVos Couldn't Answer
Trump’s pick for education secretary was slammed for her failure to differentiate between growth and proficiency in response to a question from Senator Al Franken. Here’s how the states currently measure achievement.
It doesn’t sound particularly sexy, but the growth-versus-proficiency debate is one of the most consequential to have shaped education policy in recent years.
The “proficiency” approach amounts to evaluating kids based on whether they arrive at a set benchmark—whether, for example, they achieve a certain math score on standardized tests. (This was, controversially, pretty much the exclusive focus of No Child Left Behind.) The “growth” approach is more customized in that it involves, say, evaluating each individual student based on how much he or she has progressed from the beginning to the end of the school year; schools aren’t punished for serving consistently below-average yet improving children and they’re responsible for being attentive to those who are steadily high-performing.
Clashes over the two models have long bedeviled deliberations over education policy because they play a huge role in determining which schools, for instance, get shuttered for low performance.   

When asked at her confirmation hearing whether she preferred using growth or proficiency to measure student achievement, DeVos fumbled.

But that debate is one on which Betsy DeVos, who’s slated to be the country’s next education secretary, hasn’t offered substantial input. In fact, when asked at her confirmation hearing whether she preferred using growth or proficiency to measure student achievement, she fumbled, apparently conflating the two very-different approaches.
In one of many testy exchanges that took place at the Michigan billionaire’s hearing Tuesday evening, Democratic Senator Al Franken, of Minnesota, started off with a wonky-sounding prompt that could’ve easily caused many viewers to tune out: “I would like your views on the relative advantage of assessments and Helping DeVos Understand How States Measure Achievement - The Atlantic:


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Read: President Barack Obama’s goodbye letter to America


Read: President Barack Obama’s goodbye letter to America

Image result for goodbye obama


My fellow Americans,
It's a long-standing tradition for the sitting president of the United States to leave a parting letter in the Oval Office for the American elected to take his or her place. It's a letter meant to share what we know, what we've learned, and what small wisdom may help our successor bear the great responsibility that comes with the highest office in our land, and the leadership of the free world.
But before I leave my note for our 45th president, I wanted to say one final thank you for the honor of serving as your 44th. Because all that I've learned in my time in office, I've learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.
Throughout these eight years, you have been the source of goodness, resilience, and hope from which I've pulled strength. I've seen neighbors and communities take care of each other during the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I have mourned with grieving families searching for answers -- and found grace in a Charleston church.
I've taken heart from the hope of young graduates and our newest military officers. I've seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and wounded warriors once given up for dead walk again. I've seen Americans whose lives have been saved because they finally have access to medical care, and families whose lives have been changed because their marriages are recognized as equal to our own. I've seen the youngest of children remind us through their actions and through their generosity of our obligations to care for refugees, or work for peace, and, above all, to look out for each other.
I've seen you, the American people, in all your decency, determination, good humor, and kindness. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I've seen our future unfolding.
All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into that work -- the joyous work of citizenship. Not just when there's an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime.
I'll be right there with you every step of the way.
And when the arc of progress seems slow, remember: America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word 'We.' 'We the People.' 'We shall overcome.'
Yes, we can.
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AFT President Weingarten, Rep. Keith Ellison Join Broad Coalition of Parents and Community Groups for National Day of Action for Public Schools

AFT President Weingarten, Rep. Keith Ellison Join Broad Coalition of Parents and Community Groups for National Day of Action for Public Schools – SAT Press Releases:

AFT President Weingarten, Rep. Keith Ellison Join Broad Coalition of Parents and Community Groups for National Day of Action for Public Schools
Tens of Thousands Participate in Day of Action Events in More Than 200 Cities and Towns



WASHINGTON—Tens of thousands of parents, teachers, students and community members took action in more than 200 cities and towns today as part of the #ReclaimOurSchools National Day of Action. The day of action was spearheaded by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools with support from the American Federation of Teachers.
Community members took to the streets on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration to draw a stark contrast between his destructive agenda to undermine public education and the growing movement to fulfill the promise of public education. AFT President Randi Weingarten and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) joined the historic day of action at an event in Washington, D.C., and Weingarten also joined community members in Newark, N.J., earlier in the day.
“This is really a tale of two movements. We are a movement of educators, parents, students and neighbors, standing up to make sure every child has access to a great neighborhood public school—a school that is safe and welcoming, that is focused on the well-being of kids, and where there is powerful learning,” said Weingarten. “That’s the opposite of the agenda being pushed by Donald Trump and his inexperienced and unqualified education nominee, Betsy DeVos, who simply want to privatize, defund and destabilize public education.”
Today’s mobilization took place at more than 2,000 sites from New York City to San Francisco to Cincinnati to Detroit, and included schools, hospitals, college campuses and government buildings. The events included rallies, marches, demonstrations, “walk-ins” and community forums, and mobilized around three national demands:
  • That all schools and campuses be named “sanctuary spaces” free from the threat of deportation, racism and bullying.
  • That the U.S. Senate support public education and reject Betsy DeVos as the secretary of education.
  • That policymakers invest in high-quality public schools; make billionaires and Wall Street pay their fair share; and protect Title I, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other federal funds directed to at-risk students.
In Washington, D.C., hundreds of community members were joined by Ellison and Weingarten at Anne Beers Elementary School, where they held hands around the school—a symbolic action to show the community’s commitment to public education and the well-being of all the district’s students. Beers Elementary is a thriving public school with deep community ties that has suffered funding cuts due to the unregulated expansion of charters and a congressionally mandated voucher program that has siphoned off the limited educational resources in the District of Columbia.
“Day after day, public schools help educate our children and prepare them for a brighter future. And so, the work that AROS and the AFT are doing could not be more important. Through ‘walk-ins’ and days of action, they’re getting parents, community members and students to voice their support for public schools and a high-quality education,” said Ellison. “That’s exactly the approach we’ll need to fight back against Donald Trump and his secretary of education nominee, Betsy DeVos, a notorious anti-public schools crusader.”
During the day of action, AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson stood with Baltimore educators and parents in their struggle to increase the number of community schools and fight back against Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s attempt to open more charter schools. In St. Paul, Minn., AFT Executive Vice President Mary Cathryn Ricker stood alongside community members in their fight to ensure that all students, no matter their race, religion or neighborhood, have access to safe, high-quality public schools, free from discrimination.                                                
This is the third national day of action organized by AROS in the past year. 
AFT President Weingarten, Rep. Keith Ellison Join Broad Coalition of Parents and Community Groups for National Day of Action for Public Schools – SAT Press Releases:

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No Struggle, No Progress — 50+ Organizations Working to Defend and Improve Public Education

No Struggle, No Progress — 50+ Organizations Working to Defend and Improve...:

50+ Organizations Working to Defend and Improve Public Education.



 I asked my social media feed to send me the names and links of organizations that are working to defend and improve public education. The 50+ that were sent to me are listed below. This is, of course, a partial and provisional list. There are many, many states and organizations not represented below. Also, some may disagree about whether certain organizations should be included or not, based on stances or compromises they may have made. I cannot vouch for these organizations. I asked for organizations that people know and trust, and this is what I received. Personally, I think we are going to need broad, principled and democratic organizations and alliances in the next few years. I am publishing this list in that spirit. If you think something should be added or subtracted, I may not agree with you, but i’m happy to hear about it. Write to me. See you in the streets.
NATIONAL
REGIONAL
CALIFORNIA
ILLINOIS
MARYLAND
MASSACHUSETTS
MICHIGAN
NEW JERSEY
NEW YORK
NORTH CAROLINA
PENNSYLVANIA
RHODE ISLAND
WASHINGTON
WISCONSIN


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