Texas High Schoolers Rise Against Anti-Immigrant SB 4 Law - News Taco

Texas High Schoolers Rise Against Anti-Immigrant SB 4 Law - News Taco:

Latin@ high school students are rising to protest hateful SB 4 law in Texas.

Students raising a fist at the WT White High School Day Without Immigrants walkout. (Photo courtesy of Madison Barber)

These young Latin@s are organizing a strike and a protest against hateful laws in Texas. Click on The Grito to support them. VL



 Four months ago, on February 16, thousands of high school students across Texas joined in a collective effort to stand up against hate. On that day, we stood with our classmates and walked out of school to join the national “Day Without Immigrants” strike. It was a non-violent protest against Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and retaliatory immigration raids in central Texas. We intend to rise again against Texas’s SB 4.

That day we walked out of school to show the world that we will not live in fear or be divided by injustice.  The message from students was clear:  This is our home.  And we will fight to get the Latino community in Texas the dignity and respect that we deserve.

That’s exactly what we did and will continue to do.

Since that day in February, we have worked to organize our community to fight the attacks against immigrants, Latinos and all people of color.  Today, that means fighting back against SB 4, Texas’ racist “show me your papers” law, and it means building grassroots power from the ground up.

Signed into law on May 7 by Texas Governor Abbott, SB 4 is one of the most anti-Latino and anti-immigrant laws in the country.

When the law goes into effect on September 1, SB 4 will force local police into the role of Texas High Schoolers Rise Against Anti-Immigrant SB 4 Law - News Taco:

The Charlatans Are Here – Live Long and Prosper

The Charlatans Are Here – Live Long and Prosper:

The Charlatans Are Here

[Part 2 of 2: A followup post on the recent increase of anti-science and anti-intellectualism in America. Click HERE here to read Part 1, Standing in Denial, Rising to Power.]

GOOD TEACHERS RETEACH

What can we, as actual educators (not the Betsy DeVos kind), do to change the country’s direction when it comes to science, and to learning in general?

1. When students don’t learn the first time, good teachers reteach. As teachers, we can take it upon ourselves to reteach history, including scientific innovations and developments, to the American people. Even the know-nothings like Pruitt and Perry use science every day with their cell phones, their cable and satellite TVs, and their kitchens. It’s important to remember how those advancements came about. This, of course, won’t deter those who deny science or are “reforming” schools in order to enrich themselves. However, it might help support regular citizens who are interested in planning for the nation’s future.

As teachers, we must become active lobbyists. We should lobby parents, local, state and federal legislators and policy-makers to do what needs to be done to Make America Smart Again.

Teachers need to speak out, write to legislators, support public education advocacy groups like the Indiana Coalition for Public Education or the Network for Public Education, and educate their friends, neighbors, and relatives.

TEACH THE COMMUNITY

Specifically teachers should lobby for the following.

2. End the waste of our time and money on standardized tests and use the savings to The Charlatans Are Here – Live Long and Prosper:

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Half a Summer Gone + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Half a Summer Gone:

ICYMI: Half a Summer Gone

So what have we found to read this week?

David Brooks and the Language of Privilege

Robert Pondiscio on how language reinforces privilege. Lots to think about here.

Massachusetts Parents United-- New Wine in Old Bottles

One thing about astro-turf, it never actually dies. And no fields grow astro-turf as lush and green as the lawns of Massachusetts. Here's the newest batch.

Betsy DeVos, Queen of Obfuscation, Talks Nonsense

Jennifer Berkshire is over at AlterNet, with a good clear look at Betsy DeVos's latest non-interview.

Field Guide To Jobs That Don't Exist Yet

That annoying stat about how 65% of the jobs our students will have do not exist yet-- it turns out to be pretty much made up. Here is a beautifully researched explanation of where that little slice of baloney came from.

Four Things Betsy DeVos Doesn't Want You To Know About EDucation Tax Credits

Dora Taylor with some important information about how those ETC really, truly work.

An Educational Scam from the 1980s Returns

We've connected the dots between personalized learning and its many antecedents, but Steven Singer reminds of it connection to that old classic, the correspondence course.

The Real Reason Your Child Is Being Psychologically Profiled at School

Emily Talmage points out one more type of data mining that may be going on at your school.

You Don't Know What You've Got

Jan Ressenger takes a look at the march of austerity and privatization.

School Reform's Hot Air Balloon

Journalist John Merrow takes a look at the unending PR push to keep DC schools looking like a success.

Digital Classrooms as Data Factories

Wrench in the Gears offers part of a series looking at the connection between social impact investing, future ready classrooms, and good old data mining.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Half a Summer Gone:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION Rural Schools and Phauxlanthropy - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/07/catch-up-with-curmudgucation-rural.html

One Way Teachers Can Fight Exhaustion Before It Starts - Teacher Habits

One Way Teachers Can Fight Exhaustion Before It Starts - Teacher Habits:

One Way Teachers Can Fight Exhaustion Before It Starts

One of the best things about being a teacher is we get to start anew each fall. With the school year around the corner, exhaustion is probably far from your mind. After a restorative summer, you are likely itching to get started. You have new ideas you picked up at conferences, new strategies for dealing with behavior you can’t wait to try, new technology in your classroom, new colleagues or principals, and what feels like a new lease on your career. The stress and fatigue you felt at the end of last year has drifted away like a dandelion fluff on the summer breeze.

So I hope you’ll forgive me for raining on your vacation and dousing your enthusiasm.

The stress and exhaustion will be coming back unless you do something different this year.

There are many steps you can take, all of which I outline in my forthcoming book, Exhausted, but there is one you must absolutely do if you hope to have more energy at the end of your work days. And you must start before students show up on the first day of school. What is it?

Plan and Perfect As Many Procedures As Possible

Every teacher knows the importance of teaching, modeling, and practicing classroom routines until students have them down. Teachers who want to avoid student confusion and the resultant One Way Teachers Can Fight Exhaustion Before It Starts - Teacher Habits:

Betsy DeVos Is Sending the Wrong Message to Rape Victims | Fortune.com

Betsy DeVos Is Sending the Wrong Message to Rape Victims | Fortune.com:

Betsy DeVos Is Sending the Wrong Message to Rape Victims 

According to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration, disability rights, hate crimes, predatory lending, or heading off an impending economic bubble rooted in student loan defaults are not the most pressing higher education matters. Instead, they’re focusing on establishing the terms and conditions for the legal redress of “false allegations” against the “victims”: students wrongly accused of sexual assault.

Save Our Sons, a group that advocates for “families whose college sons have been falsely accused of sexual misconduct” has been pushing for this day for years. Finally, after what the accused see as decades of abuse from the federal government’s Title IX protections and equity initiatives on college campuses, the supposed victims of wrongful sexual harassment claims have had an audience with the secretary of education.

By meeting with these accused sexual assaulters, the federal government risks creating and reinforcing a climate of intimidation against those who report them.

From my two-plus decades of higher education experience, I can assure DeVos that she has been misled by the victim’s rights advocates. No cabal of disgruntled feminists roam campuses in wolf packs looking to devour men. (Note: College-age students who identify as male are no longer “boys” needing protection of their mommies. They are adults.) Furthermore, faculty members, administrators, and students on equity committees and other Title IX-supervised programs don’t take their duties lightly. In fact, the process can often take longer to complete because of the amount of care that goes into making sure all complainants are fairly represented.

It’s important to note that Title IX protections and the campus equity systems were created to protect all students from a wide variety of predatory behaviors. These include sexual advances from professors, harassment in the college workplace, inappropriate behavior during an internship, and intimidation by advisors and other supervisors in the undergraduate and graduate classroom and degree completion process. In other words, Title IX protects everyone. It is wrong to reduce the problem of sexual abuse, harassment, assault, and cyberbullying to a stereotypical “he said/she said” drama with a cast of Betsy DeVos Is Sending the Wrong Message to Rape Victims | Fortune.com:

Schools Haunted by Ghost of No Child Left Behind Act | Observer

Schools Haunted by Ghost of No Child Left Behind Act | Observer:

Schools Haunted by Ghost of No Child Left Behind Act

More than 15 years ago, George W. Bush signed into law the bipartisan “No Child Left Behind Act,” which relied heavily on high-stakes standardized testing. Even though the bill was replaced by the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” those high stakes standardized tests could still reemerge at the state level. But does all of this standardized testing actually improve student performance?

No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act called for a number of changes and reforms, but its signature item was the standardized testing rigor. Standardized tests existed before NCLB, but the big difference was that NCLB bureaucrats could base their decisions on them; Test scores were used not only to evaluate performance but also to decide whether a school would keep its doors open.

NCLB supporters started their evaluation in 2005 and claimed there was progress between 2000 and 2005 (ignoring 2003, for some reason). Researchers Thomas Dee and Brian A. Jacob found gains for 4th grade math (about 25 percent of the improvement could be attributed to NCLB) from 1997 to 2007, slight but insignificant gains in 8th grade math, and no change in reading scores over a decade for fourth or eighth grade students. Even setting the bar low didn’t help.

Comparing The Results: NCLB vs. Local Control

The Pew Research Center just released data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), dubbed “The Nation’s Report Card” from 1990 to 2015 in math, the one area where NCLB could possibly count any success based on past reports. And here’s what we learned.

Among 4th graders in math, we had five percent considered “advanced” in 2005. Today, it’s seven percent. In 2005, 31 percent were graded “proficient.” Today, 33 percent are proficient. Back in 2005, 44 percent were considered “basic” in math. Today, that number is 42 percent. Finally, 20 percent were judged to be below basic in math. Now, that number has fallen to 18 percent.

It’s a similar story for 8th graders. In 2005, six percent were advanced; in 2015, eight percent are. In 2005, 24 percent were proficient; in 2015, it’s 25 percent. Basic scores went from 39 percent to 37 percent. Finally, for those below basic, it’s fallen from 31 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2015. In other words, there has been very little change.

Now, consider the story of what happened before NCLB and the high-stakes Schools Haunted by Ghost of No Child Left Behind Act | Observer:

Embattled charter school reported wrong data to state - The Boston Globe

Embattled charter school reported wrong data to state - The Boston Globe:

Embattled Mystic Valley Regional Charter School reported wrong data to state

A Malden charter school that recently faced criticism for banning certain hairstyles reported erroneous information to regulators about the number of students who left during the academic year, according to state education officials.

The data from Mystic Valley Regional Charter School cast a negative light on the school and made it appear — errantly — that many students had given up and left.

Schools report a mountain of student data to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education each year, information that is not audited by regulators, according to department spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis. Much of the information is then posted to the agency’s website.

But before it is publicly released, the data are sent back to each school to make sure they are accurate, Reis said.

Yet neither regulators nor administrators from Mystic Valley caught the mistaken information regarding the 2014 school year in the Malden district, which has been posted on the state’s website for two years.

The Globe used this information in a June 18 story about Mystic Valley’s track record of serving students who are disabled, have extra needs, or are low income. The story included an analysis of the percentage of these students who have stayed at Mystic Valley during the past five years.

One of those years — 2014 — included the problematic data, known as stability rates. The school reported to state regulators that approximately 25 percent of students left during 2014. The rate of departure reported by Mystic Valley during other years ranged from approximately 2 to about 5 percent.

It was after the Globe’s story appeared that Mystic Valley administrators acknowledged to the state that the 2014 figure was wrong.

The error happened the same year Mystic Valley adopted a new computer system, but it remains unclear whether that contributed to the mistake.

Mystic Valley’s error made it appear the school had among the worst stability rates of the six nearby communities.

The charter school made national news in May when some parents accused administrators of discriminatory policies toward black and biracial students. The school’s dress code prohibits extensions — additional hair that is woven in — citing them as an example of a style that is Embattled charter school reported wrong data to state - The Boston Globe:

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

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

Summertime Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Bridge International Academies: A Dutch Perspective

by dianeravitch / 1min

Dutch journalist Maria Hengeveld reviewed the claims and business plans of Bridge International Academies and found much not to like. She is clearly irked that the Dutch Ministry of Affairs has invested in this plan. Shannon May, a 

Nicholas Kristof Defends For-Profit Takeover of Schools in Africa

3by dianeravitch / 24min

In this column , Nicholas Kristof defends the takeover of schooling in Africa by Bridge International Academies. Kristof says that since the government failed to provide basic education, it is welcome news that BIA is doing it, for a fee. The 

Massachusetts: How to Kill a Successful School

4by dianeravitch / 21min

Pelham, Massachusetts, is a small town in the western part of the state. It contains about 1,300 residents. It has only one school, an elementary school that enrolls about 130 children. The Pelham school is part of the Amherst district; 

Jennifer Berkshire: Watch What Betsy DeVos Does, Not the Nonsense She Says

by dianeravitch / 0min

Jennifer Berkshire writes about Betsy DeVos’s radical agenda, which she cloaks in platitudes. She has become the mistress of not speaking to the press. When invited to address the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association in D.C., she skipped out, claiming she was too busy. She briefly appeared on a network news show, speaking about the only subject she cares about: choice. When asked a

Florida: Parents Fight Corporate Takeovers of Public Money!

2by dianeravitch / 1h

Parents in Alachua County in Florida have created an organization to fight the opening of a for-profit charter school run by Charter Schools USA in their community. Their organization is called Parents Against Corporate Takeovers (PACT) . The charter will drain students and money from their local community public schools. In addition to hurting public schools, the new charter will have poor overs

Massachusetts Professor Identifies Dark Money Funding Parent Group, Sets Off Twitter Controversy

19by dianeravitch / 2h

Maurice Cunningham is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. During the heated battle over a referendum to expand charter schools (Question 2), Cunningham wrote about the funding of both sides. The Massachusetts Teachers Association spent heavily to oppose Question 2, but they were far outspent by the many millions poured into the state to support charter schools. Mo

The Correct Link for “Fake News” about Vesilnitskaya

2by dianeravitch / 2h

The story appeared on the CNN WEBSITE. http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/14/media/trump-russian-lawyer-veselnitskaya-theories-obama/index.html

YESTERDAY

An Object Lesson in Fake News: Russian Lawyer Who Met with Don Jr. Was a Left-Wing Plant

12by dianeravitch / 11h

Earlier this evening I received a comment from a staunch Trump supporter claiming that Natalia Vesnilskaya was a Democratic Party plant, and the whole story about Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort meeting with her was part of a well-planned plot to embarrass the President. I was puzzled, since it did not seem consonant with reality. After all, the meeting was arranged by a trusted Trum

Senator Lamar Alexander: Did Anyone at Department of Education Read ESSA?

100+by dianeravitch / 17h

Senator Lamar Alexander took great pride in the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed at the end of 2015 to replace the failed and rancid No Child Left Behind law of 2002. ESSA explicitly prohibits the Secretary of Education from telling states what to do to meet their obligations under ESSA. SAlexander was taken aback when he read in the New York Times that Betsy DeVos’ aide Jason Botel had warned

Who Is Natalia Vesilnitskaya? Follow the Money, Part 2

11by dianeravitch / 22h

Martin Longman, web editor for The Washington Monthly, gives a valuable explanation of the Russian lawyer Natalia Vesilnitskaya and why she wanted to meet with the highest levels of the Trump campaign. We were told that she was lobbying to remove the American sanctions that provoked Putin to suspend the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. What a touching story. It was all about the children

“The Settlement:” Follow the Money

23by dianeravitch / 23h

Remember Preet Bahara? He was the fiercely independent U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was fired by Trump. Remember the Russian lawyer who met with Don Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort (and others) at Trump Tower in June 2016. They said she promised dirt about Clinton but only talked about sanctions and Russian adoptions. What do you think Preet Bahara and Natal

John Merrow Punches a Gaping Hole in the Great Big Hot Air Balloon of Corporate Reform in D.C.

9by dianeravitch / 1d

In his retirement, John Merrow has turned into a tiger, pulling apart the frauds that are regularly reported by the mainstream media. In this marvelous post , he punctures the great hot air balloon of “reform” in the District of Columbia under Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson. It begins like this: The current issue of The Washington Monthly contains an article by former journalist Thomas Toch, “H

“Democracy”: The New, For-Profit High School Rankings

20by dianeravitch / 1d

A regular reader uses the pseudonym. He/she posted this comment about high school rankings: “It isn’t just the US News & World Report school rankings that are dubious. It’s also Jay Mathews Challenge Index rankings at The Washington Post, which have been discussed on this blog. “But there’s another set of rankings that are equally suspect. And no one is saying anything much about them. These are

Why Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year Left for Texas, “Kicking and Screaming”

9by dianeravitch / 1d

Jennifer Berkshire released this podcast about the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year who left his job to teach in Texas. It is part of the Have You Heard series. Here is an excerpt: When Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Shawn Sheehan decided to 

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