Presentation for Advocacy 101: My Personal Journey | Seattle Education

Presentation for Advocacy 101: My Personal Journey | Seattle Education:

Presentation for Advocacy 101: My Personal Journey

On March 5th, my friend Shawna Murphy, co-hosted a roundtable discussion on advocacy. I was invited to participate on the panel. These are my opening remarks. 

My name is Carolyn Leith and I write for the Seattle Education blog. However, I think the real reason why I’m sitting at this table is because I’m a gifted trouble maker. 

I want to share with you what I believe are the three ingredients to advocacy.

First, by being here, you’re demonstrated the first ingredient: A willingness to act on your passion to make a difference.

I started out sitting in the same place you are now. I wanted to do something, but couldn’t see how I could fit into the organizations that were doing the work.

One day, it hit me.

I didn’t need to join a group to work on the things I cared about. I could do it myself, with friends who were worried about the same things.

That’s when I started to write for the blog.

Writing led to making a connection with other people who were concerned about the brand new Smarter Balanced Assessment. Together we formed the Seattle Opt Out Facebook Group.

Through Seattle Opt Out, I met Shawna Murphy and we decided to create the tongue-in-cheek group, Teacher Retention Advocate Parents or TRAP.

Together we threw a half-baked bake sale at district headquarters to protest school Presentation for Advocacy 101: My Personal Journey | Seattle Education:

In Defense of Independent Reading - Teacher Habits

In Defense of Independent Reading - Teacher Habits:

In Defense of Independent Reading

In the entire history of stupid school tricks, there may be none dumber than the practice of banning independent reading from classrooms. Not only does the research not support such a drastic measure, but administrators who take such action should have their brains scanned to see if common sense has somehow slipped out their ears.

While there is vigorous debate about Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, no one claims that practice isn’t vitally important. You can’t become proficient at playing the piano, cooking gourmet meals, shooting a basketball, cross-stitch, writing novels, or carpentry by watching others do it, listening to them talk about how they do it, and completing worksheets about it. You actually have to do those things. Why would the skill of reading be any different?

Reasons for Independent Reading

Two goals of independent reading in the classroom that teachers regularly cite are to promote positive attitudes about reading and to provide students the opportunity to practice reading to achieve proficiency (Allington, 1977, 2009, Gambrell, 2009).

To these reasons I would add a third, more logistical reason: teachers have students read independently because many districts require progress monitoring and intervention time with identified students. While the teacher’s attention is with the at-risk learner(s), the other students must be engaged in an independent activity that is both beneficial and requires no teacher assistance or monitoring so that she may concentrate her efforts on the at-risk learner(s). Many teachers feel that independent reading is a more effective use of students’ time than other independent activities. In this belief they are supported by reading researcher Richard Allington, who says that time spent reading contributes to reading achievement in ways that simply doing worksheets or other activities does not (Allington, 2002; Foorman et al., 2006).

Does Independent Reading Increase Achievement?

Much of the criticism about independent reading is because of a report by the National Reading Panel. It states:

With regard to the efficacy of having students engage in independent silent reading with minimal guidance or feedback, the Panel was unable to find a positive relationship between programs and instruction that encourage large amounts of independent reading and improvements in reading achievement, including fluency. In other words, even though encouraging students to read more is intuitively appealing, 

In Defense of Independent Reading - Teacher Habits:

Don’t fall for the White lies. – Educate Louisiana

Don’t fall for the White lies. – Educate Louisiana:

Don’t fall for the White lies.

Parents across the nation have let it be known that they do not want their children subjected to standardized test.  In 2015, Louisiana parents initiated a statewide opt-out movement. With just weeks to go before testing, and under immense pressure from districts, Supt. John White agreed not to penalize schools with large opt-outs. Schools with 10% or more students opting out would receive the same score they received the previous year. Of course, schools with up to 10% were penalized, although technically the law didn’t allow penalties until 5%, but that’s another story. The most notable districts with opt-outs were Caddo Parish, Calcasieu Parish and Central School District. Calcasieu garnered the most with about 1300 students opting out of the PARCC assessment.

In 2015, the opt-out numbers dropped, considerably, for a couple of reasons.

• The test name was changed from PARCC to LEAP 2025.
• White declared that he would not give a free pass to schools with excessive opt-outs.

As a result, the districts were faced with the possibility of having their performance scores penalized because of parents exercising their right to exclude their child from the assessment. While most districts honored the parents’ decisions, some resorted to strict testing policies up to, and including, “sit and stare” policies. This means students who opted out would be placed in the testing room with a test booklet, but not forced to take the test. Policies such as this are damaging to the relationships that schools have with the very people they serve and subject children to unjust punishment.

Since his very first days in office, John White has masterfully spun a deceitful web. Often times, his narratives are referred to as “White Lies.” I want to address some of those very common  White lies, regarding opt-outs, which filter down to districts when parents ask about opting-out.

We are still under NCLB.
This is the most common response when a parent says, “ESSA specifically allows parents to exclude their children from Don’t fall for the White lies. – Educate Louisiana:

 Slow your roll, Mr. White.

by Ganey Arsement / 13h

A draft ESSA plan has been submitted to the governor for review, and Superintendent John White is pressing forward with plans to submit the plan to U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) in April. USDOE has originally issued a timeline of implementation with April as the deadline submission. That 

The ignorance and callousness of Betsy DeVos' 'gaffe' (Opinion) | OregonLive

The ignorance and callousness of Betsy DeVos' 'gaffe' (Opinion) | OregonLive.com:

The ignorance and callousness of Betsy DeVos' 'gaffe' (Opinion)

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos ironically touted historically black colleges and universities as a successful example of her beloved pet cause of "school choice." Of course, the existence of historically black institutions in America, in many cases, is the result of the opposite of school choice. Instead, they are a legacy of the "separate but equal" regime of segregated public schools that existed prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, which in reality was a regime of separate but unequal and inadequate funding for black education.

In 1865, Congress created the federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to assist former enslaved people in the South, including with the creation and supervision of schools. The Freedman's Bureau and black community organizations sponsored the creation of 24 private black colleges and training schools, primarily in the South, in response to the systematic state-sanctioned regime of racial segregation preventing black Americans from being integrated into existing white schools.

The school privatization movement that DeVos champions itself has its roots in racial oppression.

In 1890, Congress passed the Morrill Act, allowing Southern states to appropriate existing black colleges and to create new land-grant public universities for African Americans. Following the Supreme Court's infamous decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson, "separate but equal" became the organizing principle of public education throughout much of the United States. Even after Brown formally ended segregated education in 1954, many black college students chose to attend historically black institutions in order to escape prejudice and institutionalized racial discrimination in historically white colleges. Studies have continued to show that predominantly white universities suffer from institutionalized bigotry and racism, both overt and subtle.

But Secretary DeVos's "gaffe" not only reflected ignorance and callousness about the history of American school segregation, it was cruelly Orwellian in its level of distortion. The school privatization movement that DeVos champions itself has its roots in racial oppression. The "school choice" movement originated in white resistance to school integration, when, after Brown, Southern states offered vouchers to white students so they could attend all-white private schools -- beyond the reach of the Equal Protection Clause -- to escape their newly The ignorance and callousness of Betsy DeVos' 'gaffe' (Opinion) | OregonLive.com:

Congress Erases K-12 Rules, A Financial Aid Foul-Up And Other Education News : NPR Ed : NPR

Congress Erases K-12 Rules, A Financial Aid Foul-Up And Other Education News : NPR Ed : NPR:

Congress Erases K-12 Rules, A Financial Aid Foul-Up And Other Education News

The case of transgender high school student Gavin Grimm, seen here last year, has been sent back to a lower court by the Supreme Court.

Steve Helber/AP

Once again, it was another big week for national education news. Here's our quick take on the top stories.

Senate scraps federal regulations

On Thursday, the Senate voted to roll back Obama-era rules that clarified and elaborated on a wide range of accountability requirements in the federal education law known as The Every Student Succeeds Act.

The vote was narrow, 50 to 49. To be clear, Congress is not scrapping or even changing the law itself. When it comes to school accountability, ESSA still requires that states flag schools where groups of students are "consistently underperforming." And it requires that the measurement of school performance include not just test scores and graduation rates but also some other indicator of school quality, including absenteeism or access to AP courses.

After ESSA became law, the Obama administration was tasked with writing rules to clarify key sections. What the Senate voted to do this week was to scrap the previous Education Department's interpretation of the law's accountability requirements, not the requirements themselves.

If that's not clear enough, here's a handy, point-by-point comparison of the law and that interpretation by Education Week's Alyson Klein.

Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is himself a former Education Secretary, hailed the change. He called the vote "a victory for everyone who was fed up with Washington telling them so much about what to do about their children in 100,000 public schools, and I look forward to President Trump's signature of this resolution."

The Education Trust, an advocacy group where John B. King Jr., the most recent education secretary under President Obama, is now president and CEO, called the rollback "misguided." "This resolution will cause unnecessary confusion," the group said in a statement, "disrupting the work in states and wasting time that students — particularly those who are most vulnerable — cannot afford for us to waste."

New Executive Order on Immigration

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Monday, a new version of Congress Erases K-12 Rules, A Financial Aid Foul-Up And Other Education News : NPR Ed : NPR:

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Charter Schools - A Fool's Gold Rush: Prelude

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Charter Schools - A Fool's Gold Rush: Prelude:

NJ Charter Schools - A Fool's Gold Rush: Prelude

Chris Christie begins his last year in Trenton as the least popular governor in the nation. But that doesn't mean he still can't impose his will on New Jersey; the governorship here is one of the most powerful in the nation. So even though many communities throughout the state may not like Christie, he can still act against their wishes and jam through any numbers of policies in his last year simply because he can.

Take, for example, charter schools:

Trenton, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) is announcing decisions on new public charter school applications, charter renewals, amendment requests for expansions, and closures. 

“All New Jersey public schools, which include charter schools, must be held to a high standard in order to ensure that all of our children receive the quality educational experiences they deserve,” said Acting Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington. “These decisions reflect this Administration’s continued commitment to hold low-performing charter schools accountable, while expanding access for New Jersey families to high-quality charter schools.”

Sure, it reflects Christie's commitment to charter schools -- no matter what local communities may think. As regular readers know, New Jersey charters are only answerable to the NJDOE, which is under the direct control of the governor. Local school boards have no say in charter approvals or renewals, even though they must fund them -- no matter how damaging those charters may be to the local public schools.

The greatest fiction produced by the New Jersey charter school industry -- and, for that Jersey Jazzman: NJ Charter Schools - A Fool's Gold Rush: Prelude:

Keeping retirement weird. TrumpCare is Soylent Green. | Fred Klonsky

Keeping retirement weird. TrumpCare is Soylent Green. | Fred Klonsky:

Keeping retirement weird. TrumpCare is Soylent Green.

Good morning from Brooklyn.

We are here to celebrate Anne’s birthday with kids and grandkids. So not even Donald Trump can put me in a bad mood.

Episode #6 of the podcast of Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers is in the can. It is an hour-long convo with tenth ward Alderwoman Susan Sadlowski Garza and I think it is good one. You can subscribe to our weekly show at Liberated Syndication or iTunes.

One of my trolls wrote this morning to comment on our show saying nobody cares. He must care, since he writes me daily. And the number of subscribers is growing every show.

Let’s talk about TrumpCare, the dismantling and replacement of the Affordable Care Act and its potential impact on seniors.

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman wrote in Friday’s paper, “Affluent young people might end up saving some money as a result of these changes. But the effect on those who are older and less affluent would be devastating. AARP has done the math: a 55-year-old making $25,000 a year would end up paying $3,600 a year more for coverage; that rises to $8,400 for a 64-year-old making $15,000 a year. And that’s before the death spiral.”

What is the “death spiral”?

Soaring premiums and collapsing coverage.

TrumpCare would allow insurers to charge older customers up to five times as much as younger customers.

The costs could be even higher for older people in blue state regions, where the cost of living is higher. The new legislation would give a flat amount for subsidies to buy coverage based on age, as opposed to their income, and the cost of insurance in their area, as with Obamacare.

Two of the biggest tax cuts in Republican proposals to repeal the Keeping retirement weird. TrumpCare is Soylent Green. | Fred Klonsky:

Some want and expect the GENERAL education teacher to do it all.

by Fred Klonsky / 1h

-By Bev Johns Some want and expect the GENERAL education teacher to do it all. In the future there will be ONLY one special ed funding formula (every bill ELIMINATES the Chicago special ed Block Grant). The still secret Amendment to Senate Bill 1, and the language now in House Bill 2808 would change all of the school funding formulas in Illinois, and for special education, aims to reduce the clai

Poor old grandma is a special interest group.

1by Fred Klonsky / 2h

Available now. Download this week’s podcast. Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers with Alderwoman Sue Sadlowski Garza.

Suspending California students costs the state billions, report finds | EdSource

Suspending California students costs the state billions, report finds | EdSource:

Suspending California students costs the state billions, report finds

Students in the class of 2014 who never graduated because they were suspended from school will cost California an estimated $2.7 billion in increased criminal justice costs and lower taxes paid over the course of their lifetimes, according to a new study from two University of California researchers.

The researchers said they hoped putting a financial cost on school discipline practices that send students out of school would mobilize communities to urge their districts to lower suspension rates.

“This puts the price tag on it,” said Russell Rumberger, director of University of California Santa Barbara’s California Dropout Research Project and co-author of the report with Daniel Losen, director of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project at the Center for Civil Rights Remedies. “For people who say, ‘I don’t care about kids, jail ’em up or whatever,’ these are fiscal costs. It affects taxes, and your taxes are building more prisons.”

The $2.7 billion includes $809 million in direct taxpayer costs for criminal justice services as well as the reduced revenue that is generated by the lower wages earned by most who don’t hold a high school diploma. The total also includes $1.9 billion in social costs, such as reduced economic productivity and higher health care expenses. On average, a single person without a high school diploma will experience $579,820 in economic losses over a lifetime compared to a high school graduate, the report states.

The impact of school discipline practices on students, staff and communities has been under a state spotlight during the past several years, and as a result of the  Obama administration’s “Rethink Discipline” initiative, a federal spotlight as well. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has yet to issue guidance to schools related to school discipline.

“California is a leader in addressing suspensions,” Losen said, noting that alternatives to suspensions, such as restorative justice and Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, have become more commonly used in school districts. The shift has been prompted in part by the development of the new state education Suspending California students costs the state billions, report finds | EdSource:

 

'Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. and Today ...Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

'Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. and Today ...Diane Ravitch's blog

Christine Langhoff on the Latest Trumpian Evil: Deporting Parents, Putting Their Children in Foster Care

2by dianeravitch / 25min

Yesterday I heard from my friends at Pastors for Texas Children about parents who had been deported while their American-born children were left at the church, in East Texas. Christine Langhoff added that this is now policy: cruel, inhumane, and swift: “Here’s an example of Trumpian evil: “Head of Homeland Security John Kelly proposes to separate children from their mothers when they are detained

Ethics Agency Criticizes Kellyanne for Promoting Ivanka Products on TV; White House Says WH Employees Not Subject to Ethics Law

5by dianeravitch / 1h

This is an extraordinary exchange of documents, which I learned about by reading Bill Moyers’ website. Walter Shaub, director of the Office of Governmental Ethics, wrote a letter to the White House saying that Kellyanne Conway should be disciplined for using her official position to encourage people to buy Ivanka Trump’s merchandise. The White House responded by saying that officials who work for

Steve Bannon: The Man with No Address

4by dianeravitch / 1h

In this article , the Washington Post tries to figure out where Steve Bannon has lived for the past three years. He is now the most powerful advisor to the president. But who is he? Where does he vote? Where is his home? Does he have one?

Denver Charter Chains Seek to Fulfill DeVos Privatization Agenda

7by dianeravitch / 2h

Now that the U.S. Department of Education has an advocate for privatization in charge, Denver’s charter chains have moved for rapid expansion. Denver has been under corporate reform control for several years. The charter industry and 

Chicago: Parent Discovers Massive Breach of Privacy of Student Records

4by dianeravitch / 36min

A parent in Chicago discovered a massive breach of private data about students in private schools receiving special education services. The data was controlled by Chicago Public Schools, but obviously with little regard for privacy. The parent was a student Privacy activist, Cassie Creswell. The following post is by Cassie Creswell, a Chicago parent activist from Raise Your Hand Illinois and a ke

Singapore Will Drop Grades, Reduce Testing

25by dianeravitch / 1h

Singapore has decided to eliminate grades. No more standardized testing for young children. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39142030 Singapore has decided that values and character must be emphasized, not test-taking skills. The BBC reports: “Singapore is in top place in the international rankings for education. But it wants the next upgrade of its school system to focus on keeping students posi

Peter Greene: ESSA is Now Officially a Big, Hot Mess

6by dianeravitch / 2h

At the end of 2015, Congress finally replaced No Child Left Behind–ten years late–with a new law called Every Student Succeeds. The two names actually mean exactly the same thing, and mean nothing at all. Does anyone really believe that a federal law will cause “no child” to be “left behind,” or that “every student” will “succeed”? Washington ships out some money and some mandates, and therefore

YESTERDAY

Seattle Withdraws Investments in For-Profit Prisons

28by dianeravitch / 20h

This report from In the Public Interest: Earlier this month, the Seattle City Council voted not to renew its contract with Wells Fargo, pulling more than $3 billion in city funds from the Wall Street giant. Headlines focused on the bank’s financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline and its recent fake account scandal. And rightly so—Wells Fargo defrauded over two million of its own customers. But Sea

PEN: Artists, Writers Detained by Trump Travel Ban

23by dianeravitch / 21h

PEN International represents artists and writers around the world. I am a member. It advocates for freedom of expression. It recently issued this condemnation of Trump’s travel ban. https://pen.org/interrogation-us-border/ It begins like this: “The Trump Administration’s draconian immigration policies, from the Muslim ban to the deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of hard-

What You Need to Know about Putin and Trump

8by dianeravitch / 22h

This is a long, a very long, article in the New Yorker. It was written by Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Joshua Yaffa. David Remnick is the editor-in-chief of the New Yorker and a Russian specialist. The article is a history of the past twenty years of relations between the United States and Russia. It gives an in-depth explication of Vladimir Putin. It explains the origins of the new cold war. I

CNN: Bizarre Computer Contacts Involving Trump-Russian Bank-DeVos

10by dianeravitch / 23h

In a strange political Year, this story is one of the strangest. The FBI is checking into an unusual number of contacts between the Russian mega-bank Alfa and the Trump Organization. Stranger still are the hundreds of contacts between Alfa Bank and Spectrum Health, owned by the DeVos family. http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-

Nicholas Kristof: Is It Possible to Connect the Dots Between Trump and Putin?

7by dianeravitch / 23h

Nicholas Kristof reviews the questions about the Trump campaign that can be answered only by an independent special prosecutor who conducts a nonpartisan investigation, if that is possible. Was there collusion between the Trump team and the Putin regime? “There are a lot of dots here, and the challenge is how to connect them. Be careful: Democrats should avoid descending into the kind of conspira

Quote of the Day: Hapless Rep. Shimkus of Illinois

11by dianeravitch / 1d

In a debate about health care, Republican Rep. Shimkus asked why men should pay for prenatal care. Does he think all children are virgin births? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/03/09/is-that-not-correct-male-gop-lawmaker-asks-why-men-should-pay-for-prenatal-coverage/ At the start, Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle (Pa.) was talking with Republican Rep. John Shimkus (Ill.) about Shi

The Nation: Teachers Are on the Front Lines to Protect Vulnerable Students

11by dianeravitch / 1d

Teachers are on the front lines to protect students targeted by the Trump administration: immigrant students, Muslim students, transgender students. Never in our national history has the federal government threatened the safety and security of students. It is a new and terrible day in America. Teachers are first responders in protecting their students. The article reports on a march sponsored by

John Kuhn: Vouchers Are the Civil Wrongs Movement of Our Time, Hurting the Children They Pretend to Help

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

John Kuhn is an eloquent, wise superintendent in Texas who spreads truth to power. In this address to the Association of Texas Professional Educators, he warned that the very existence of public education was under fire by a coalition of the rich and the greedy. He is so brilliant, so eloquent, and so on target that it is hard to excerpt his speech. I urge you to read it in full. If you know anyo

Helen Gym: How Philadelphia Beat Back the DeVos Privatization Agenda

39by dianeravitch / 1d

Helen Gym is a parent activist in Philadelphia who recently won a seat on the City Council, where she advocates on behalf of the city’s beleaguered and underfunded public schools. In this article in The Nation , Gym explains that Philadelphia parents and activists have developed a successful way to fight back against the DeVos agenda. DeVos, she notes, was confirmed in a Senate vote that was humi

More on Demise of John King’s Regulations

18by dianeravitch / 1d

The Senate, in a narrow vote, ditched John King’s last-ditch effort to preserve NCLB accountability by regulation. http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F49%2F%3Fuuid%3D65341&cmp=RSS-

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: