All Students Deserve Professionally Certified Teachers - Network For Public Education

All Students Deserve Professionally Certified Teachers - Network For Public Education:

All Students Deserve Professionally Certified Teachers

We recently told you that the SUNY Charter Committee introduced a proposal to allow adults with minimal training to be certified to teach in charter schools. The plan would only require a college degree, supervision by another charter school teacher and 30 hours of coursework provided by the charter school.

Nearly 3,000 New Yorkers signed our petition to stop this plan. Now it is time to do more.

Send an email to the SUNY Board asking them to make sure that every New York student is taught by a professionally trained teacher.​ We make it easy. All you have to do is click here.​

If this plan moves forward, New York would have a two-tier system of teacher certification that would further the already inequitable treatment of children in our state. There would be a high standard for the teachers of students in public schools and a lesser standard for teachers in SUNY certified charters. As New York State increases its public school teacher requirements through the TEACH NY initiative supported by the same SUNY Board, the lowering of standards for charter school teachers is morally troubling–especially given that most charter students are students of color.

While the Network for Public Education has serious concerns regarding charter schools, we believe that the students who attend them deserve a professionally certified teacher who is trained beyond the narrow vision of charter school practices.

Send your email to the SUNY Board​ asking them to make sure that every New York student, charter or public, is taught by a professionally trained teacher. Then share the link to this email with family and friends.All Students Deserve Professionally Certified Teachers - Network For Public Education:

Ken Mitchell - My view: Charter schools haven't proved successful

My view: Charter schools haven't proved successful:

My view: Charter schools haven’t proved successful

In “Charters make a case to hire better teachers” (July 12) the editors dismiss those who question a proposal to allow uncertified individuals to teach in NY charter schools because some opponents have objected to the state’s use of student testing for purposes of accountability. The editors support the proposal without sufficient evidence or context and fail to examine the motives of those advocating for the deregulation of teacher certification.

Instead of questioning research about the effectiveness of Teach for America (TFA), charter schools or school choice, the editors assail New York’s education system, citing high costs and low scores. While TFA and its adherents have engaged in aggressive self-promotion, student performance, considering the investment and acclaim, has been unremarkable. Research on charter schools has shown that they have also failed to make promised gains, even with motivated families and enhanced investments - corporate and philanthropic. Recent studies of students using vouchers to choose their schools show higher failure rates in comparison to peers in public schools.

The editors decry a low return on investment from New York’s schools yet do not provide context for education My view: Charter schools haven't proved successful:

Anthony Scaramucci, Scaramouche, The Mooch or The Moocher

Anthony Scaramucci, Scaramouche, The Mooch or The Moocher

Anthony Scaramucci

Who Is Anthony Scaramucci? - The Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/who-is-anthony-scaramucci/534543/ 

Scaramouche

Why Donald Trump's Newest White House Hire Has Everybody Googling Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - http://ultimateclassicrock.com/?p=324389 

The Mooch or Just Another Rich Moocher

Read Anthony Scaramucci’s old tweets. You’ll understand why he deleted them. - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/22/read-anthony-scaramuccis-old-tweets-youll-understand-why-he-deleted-them/

Randi Said: School Vouchers Have a Shameful History | Alternet

School Vouchers Have a Shameful History | Alternet:

School Vouchers Have a Shameful History

The movement to privatize public education was started by white politicians who resisted school integration.

Photo Credit: Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University

At the exact time I was giving a speech last week to 1,400 educators about ensuring that all children have access to a powerful, purposeful public education, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was addressing the American Legislative Exchange Council—a group of corporate lobbyists and conservative legislators who are working to privatize and defund public education, and cloaking their efforts as school “choice.”

It’s no surprise; no matter the question, for DeVos, the answer is choice. When schools struggle, the “solution” privatization advocates invariably propose is “choice,” with the coda that poor families should have the same educational choices as more affluent families. But that innocuous word belies the record—both the academic results of private school choice and the way it was used historically to continue school segregation after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, many school districts, especially in the South, resisted integration. White officials in Prince Edward County, Va., closed every public school in the district rather than have white and black children go to school together. They opened taxpayer-funded private schools where only white parents could choose to send their children.

Members of the American Federation of Teachers sent funds and school supplies. And some traveled from New York and Philadelphia to set up schools for black students, in keeping with the AFT’s tradition of fighting racism and injustice, School Vouchers Have a Shameful History | Alternet:

Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools

Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools:

Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools

How the science of learning can get the best out of edtech

IN 1953 B.F. Skinner visited his daughter’s maths class. The Harvard psychologist found every pupil learning the same topic in the same way at the same speed. A few days later he built his first “teaching machine”, which let children tackle questions at their own pace. By the mid-1960s similar gizmos were being flogged by door-to-door salesmen. Within a few years, though, enthusiasm for them had fizzled out.

Since then education technology (edtech) has repeated the cycle of hype and flop, even as computers have reshaped almost every other part of life. One reason is the conservatism of teachers and their unions. But another is that the brain-stretching potential of edtech has remained unproven.

Today, however, Skinner’s heirs are forcing the sceptics to think again (see article). Backed by billionaire techies such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, schools around the world are using new software to “personalise” learning. This could help hundreds of millions of children stuck in dismal classes—but only if edtech boosters can resist the temptation to revive harmful ideas about how children learn. To succeed, edtech must be at the service of teaching, not the other way around.

Pencils down

The conventional model of schooling emerged in Prussia in the 18th century. Alternatives have so far failed to teach as many children as efficiently. Classrooms, hierarchical year-groups, standardised curriculums and fixed timetables are still the norm for most of the world’s nearly 1.5bn schoolchildren.

Too many do not reach their potential. In poor countries only a quarter of Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools:

Data flap could lead CA to drop Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Data flap could lead CA to drop test consortium :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Data flap could lead CA to drop test consortium

(Calif.) One of the Legislature’s leaders on education is fed up with the multi-state consortium that provides schools with assessments, and has suggested that California should consider going it alone.

Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach and chair of the education committee in the lower house, said in an interview last week that the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has failed to give teachers useable feedback from interim exams and doesn’t seem too interested in fixing the problem.

“I think California ought to think about going it alone,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be a member of the consortium. We can develop these tools on our own if they are not going to develop them for us. So, my question becomes, why are we in this consortium?”

O’Donnell is running legislation aimed at getting the state and school districts to provide classroom teachers with better interim data. AB 1035 would clarify that the Legislature expects student scores on interim assessments will be recorded so that teachers can view them by the standard being tested.

Interim testing is considered an extremely valuable component because it gives teachers early insight into what material students are having trouble comprehending. But the current system delivers a single score on a broad block of content that might contain multiple standards.

Teachers are also not able to see actual student responses to specific test questions, which prevents the kind of ‘item analysis’ educators had hoped to conduct using the new platform.

O’Donnell’s bill passed out of the state Senate last week without dissent and returned to the Assembly for concurrence on only minor amendments.

“This way the teacher will be able to tell what standard a student is struggling with,” O’Donnell said. “Right now, with the way the interim assessments are being recorded, you can’t do that.”

The consortium is one of two established in 2010 with a grant from the Obama administration to design tests that were aligned with the Common Core curriculum standards. As many as 45 states at one point utilized the assessments developed by one of the consortiums but, largely because of a shift in political sentiments related to the Common Core itself, only 27 states used the consortium assessment in 2016-17.

California joined the Smarter Balanced group in 2011 when there were a total of 30 states participating. Today there are only 16.

California is by far the largest state still a member of Smarter Balanced, which also includes Michigan, Washington, North Carolina and Oregon.

Officials at Smarter Balanced have said they will make the changes needed to give teachers scores by content standard, but O’Donnell remains skeptical.

“I met with the executive director and we held a hearing on the issue earlier this year,” he said.  “I understand that they will be making improvements, but I’m still concerned that SBAC doesn’t appreciate the importance of the issue.”Data flap could lead CA to drop test consortium :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Fearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools | Cornell Chronicle

Fearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools | Cornell Chronicle:

Fearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools

In the past 10 years, a boom in research has documented the many ways in which a parent’s incarceration has negative consequences for their kids. Children whose parents have spent time behind bars have worse social, economic, cognitive, behavior and health outcomes than kids whose parents haven’t.

But researchers know less about why that is.

A Cornell sociologist, who is a former elementary school teacher, recently identified a mechanism that may explain why these kids have worse educational outcomes – and strong, lasting, negative consequences that often span generations.

Dads who have been incarcerated at some point from their child’s birth through age 9 are nearly 50 percent less involved in their child’s education, compared with fathers of the same race and income level who have never been incarcerated, according a study co-written by Anna Haskins, assistant professor of sociology.

But that’s not necessarily because they don’t care about their child’s schooling.

Rather, they may avoid their child’s school because they see it as a “surveilling institution” – an entity, like a bank or a hospital, that has increased security, direct connections to other public agencies and keeps formal records, the research found.

“They may avoid institutions they see as ‘surveilling’ because of distrust or dislike of the criminal justice system and police or shame and stigma – regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong,” Haskins said. “Schools are unique because most people don’t think of them as surveilling institutions. But with their increases in security guards and metal detectors, they can seem that way to people wanting to avoid any further contact with the criminal justice system.”

Haskins and her co-author, Wade Jacobsen of the University of Maryland, published their studyFearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools | Cornell Chronicle:

How Betsy DeVos, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump Are Selling Our Schools to the Highest Bidder - Truthdig

How Betsy DeVos, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump Are Selling Our Schools to the Highest Bidder - Truthdig:

How Betsy DeVos, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump Are Selling Our Schools to the Highest Bidder

Where are Charlie and Dave, Mrs. Koch’s two mischievous boys?While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy. In fact, in late June, you could’ve found them in one of their favorite hideaways with about 400 other uber-wealthy rascals, plotting some political hijinks for next year’s elections.

This is the Koch Boys Billionaire Club, which meets annually at some luxury resort to schmooze, strategize, hear a select group of GOP elected officials kiss up to them — then throw money into a big pot to finance the Koch’s planned takeover of America. It costs $100,000 per person just to attend the three-day Koch Fest, but participants are also expected to give generously to the brothers’ goal of dumping $400 million into buying the 2018 elections.

This year, the group gathered in Colorado Springs at the ultra-lux Broadmoor Hotel and resort, owned by the brothers’ billionaire pal and right-wing co-conspirator, Philip Anschutz. Among the recent political triumphs that these elites celebrated in the Broadmoor’s posh ballroom was the defeat this year of the Colorado tax hike to fix the states crumbling roads. After all, who needs adequate roads when you can arrive in private jets? This attitude of the Koch’s privileged cohorts explains why the public is shut out of these candid sessions. A staffer for the Koch confab hailed such no-tax, no-roads policies as a “renaissance of freedom.” For the privileged, that is — freedom to prosper at the expense of everyone else.

This self-absorbed cabal of spoiled plutocratic brats intends to abandon our nation’s core democratic principle of “We’re all in this together.” If they kill that uniting concept, they kill America itself. Their agenda includes killing such working class needs as minimum wage and Social Security and privatizing everything from health care to public education.

For example, Betsy DeVos and her hubby are part of the Koch brother’s coterie. They are lucky enough to have inherited a big chunk of the multibillion-dollar fortune that Daddy DeVos amassed through his shady Amway corporation. But what they’ve done with their Amway inheritance is certainly not the American Way.

The DeVos’s are pushing plutocratic policies that reject our country’s one-for-all, all-for-one egalitarianism. In particular, Betsey DeVos has spent years and millions of dollars spreading the right-wing’s ideological nonsense that public education should be completely privatized. She advocates turning our tax dollars over to for-profit outfits—even to private schools that How Betsy DeVos, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump Are Selling Our Schools to the Highest Bidder - Truthdig:

PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report

PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report:

PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now?

Schools remain largely segregated

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared school segregation illegal. But in the decades since Brown v. Board of Education, the nation has largely given up on the idea of desegregating public schools. In 2007, another Supreme Court ruling made it illegal for school districts to prioritize racial balance when deciding who gets to enroll in what school. The decision effectively rolled back Brown.

Today, there are many schools where students are surrounded by kids of the same race.

But for a generation of Americans who rode buses out of their neighborhoods to cross racial lines, there were benefits to desegregation. Valda Jones was in middle school when busing started in Charlotte, North Carolina and she was sent to a white school. Jones told APM producers back in 2007 that people who oppose busing ignore the sacrifice her generation made. “It’s like it was all for nothing,” she said. “We were called some names and had some things thrown at us. But we all learned that the bottom line was we were all students, we were all kids, we could be friends.”

This week on the podcast, we revisit our 2007 documentary Imperfect Revolution: Voices from The Desegregation Era. To hear it, listen to the audio player below or, better yet, subscribe to Educate.

 PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report:

NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues

NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues:

Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues

Are you seeing a pattern here? Moskowitz and her pals don't want to bother with all that messy certification nonsense. They want to do it their way and take whoever they want. And why not? Their teachers aren't unionized and don't last anyway. When this one goes, just open another can. Reformy Bellwether Education wants to do away with pensions because they're unfair to the people who quit after five minutes. Now here's a piece saying do away with certification altogether.

This is not a new idea. Self-styled education expert Nicholas Kristof suggested thisyears ago. Evidently Merryl Streep and Colin Powell were unqualified to teach.The fact that neither one of them had any desire to teach was neither here nor there. New York City students were being deprived of imaginary teachers, and we needed to address this crisis immediately! The new arguments are not much better, actually.

Funding per student has been rising sharply for decades, resulting in lower class size, but such expenditures seem not to have succeeded.

I don't know what planet this guy lives on, but here in NYC, the opposite has occurred. In fact, there's a lawsuit right now trying to change it. We are the largest district in the country, with the highest class sizes in the state. The writer should be delighted to learn that maximum class size is now pretty much standard. Doubtless he'd revel in our busting-at-the-seams overcrowded school.

The key to successful education is to attract good teachers. We can try to do so by raising teachers’ salaries (as commonly advocated). But this strategy also seems to fail, partly because higher incomes go to both good teachers and bad, giving bad teachers as much incentive as good ones to become and remain teachers.

I don't remember much about economics, but there is the whole supply and demand thing. In fact, as you'll see, it's pretty much the crux of this NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues:

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom:

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom

CSU lecturer Eric Canin (center) addresses supporters at a rally. Photo: California Faculty Association

A Cal State Fullerton lecturer will return to his job this fall after his union, the California Faculty Association (CFA), laid bare the false accusations made against him by a right-wing student group. His return to the classroom marks a victory for faculty’s rights to academic freedom and free speech, CFA leaders said.

“Make no mistake, CFA will stridently defend our faculty who are under attack by forces who have contempt for the university and for free inquiry,” CFA President Jennifer Eagan told Cal State University trustees last week. “Our successful defense of Dr. Canin speaks to CFA’s commitment to protecting all members of the campus community from the new wave of attacks on academic freedom and free speech…”

Eric Canin, a 20-year instructor of anthropology at Fullerton, had been accused of hitting a student and interfering with the free speech of students during a Campus Republicans counter protest in February. But Canin denied it, and videos taken at the event did not show the alleged assault. (One photo showed Canin in a headlock by a student.) Still, he was quickly vilified on right-wing blogs, which called for his firing.

“When the incident happened, nobody really stopped, especially the students, to ask themselves whether what they said happened actually happened,” Canin told Inside Higher Ed. “The College Republicans put it online, and soon Breitbart had it and The Washington Times and other right-wing media, without a shred of evidence. It’s a simple yet sophisticated use of media … and this is not an isolated incident.”

Fullerton fired Canin after a short investigation, which CFA quickly challenged. The case was assigned an independent arbitrator, who ruled last week that the evidence showed Canin “did not engage in anything resembling a fight and did not have any conscious intent to cause any harm to the students in question.” It is possible, she wrote, that Canin grabbed a protester’s sign—a charge that Canin denies.

The Front Lines of Free Speech

That the “alternative fact,” as Canin calls it, was so quickly accepted and disseminated Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom:

Get Woke America Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Get Woke America Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Ann Cronin: Connecticut State Board of Education Rips Off Taxpayers and Children of Bridgeport

by dianeravitch / 16min

Ann Cronin taught English for many years in Connecticut, which has one of the most successful state school systems in the nation. However, Connecticut has several districts where people live in dire poverty. Under the administration of 

Jersey Jazzman: The Secrets of Successful Charter Schools (Extra Money and Shedding Students)

6by dianeravitch / 40min

This is second in Mark Weber’s two-part series about an amazing charter school in Philadelphia. He reveals its secrets: it gets more funding than public schools. It chooses its students with care. It loses students who can’t make the grade. A 

Jersey Jazzman: The Summer of Choice Love

2by dianeravitch / 58min

Jersey Jazzman, aka teacher Mark Weber, reviews the blossoming of choice-choice-choice this summer. Behind it, he says, is a failure of honesty and will. In recent weeks, we have been besieged with testimonials and heartening stories about choice. “The clever thing about this construction is that anyone who challenges the narrative is immediately put on the defensive: Why are you against helping

Texas: Fort Bend ISD Tells State Leaders: Stop Starving Our Public Schools!

2by dianeravitch / 58min

Texas Governor Greg Abbott called a special session of the legislature to try once again to ram through vouchers, a proposal that has been repeatedly rejected by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The State Senate is led by the voucher zealot and former talk-show host Dan Patrick; the House has responsible leadership that actually wants to help the public schools that enroll some

ALEC’s Hilarious Report Card on The States

63by dianeravitch / 1h

ALEC is the fringe-right American Legislative Exchange Council, which advocates for school privatization and elimination of unions, due process, and the teaching profession. It’s hero is Betsy DeVos, who is working daily to bring ALEC’s extremist agenda into the mainstream. ALEC publishes an annual report card on education, evaluating the state’s not by test scores or quality of education or resu

YESTERDAY

Would the Cross-Dressing Royal Drug Runner from Burma be Barred from a Texas Bathroom?

2by dianeravitch / 18h

Please indulge me. I usually read the New York Times every day, and yesterday I could not resist juxtaposing two interesting and weird stories. This one is a Ripley “Believe It or Not” story about a woman born to a royal family in Burma who was a cross-dresser and left her family to become a warlord and major drug runner, commanding her own private army. Then there was a story about the Texas Sta

The Kids from Burundi Are O.K.

7by dianeravitch / 19h

Six teens from Burundi competed recently in the international robotics contest in Washington, D.C. None had ever built a robot before but they learned to do it online and Skyping. They did well, coming in 73rd of 160 teams. When the three-day tournament was over, the entire team disappeared. Two are safely in Canada, and this article says the other four are also safe. They will likely all end up

Phyllis Bush Teaches Us What It Means to Face Life with Humor and Courage

52by dianeravitch / 20h

Here is the latest bulletin from Phyllis Bush on her battle against what she calls “cancer schmanzer.”

New York City: Parents Threaten to Sue City Over Failure to Reduce Class Size

10by dianeravitch / 21h

Watch this 2-minute clip, in which New York City parents and activists explain why class size in the public schools is far too large and how this hurts children and reduces educational opportunity. After a legal challenge, a judge ten years ago ordered the city to submit a plan for smaller classes. The city promised that by 2012, classes in kindergarten through third grade would be capped at 20 c

A MUST READ! Think National, Fight Local: The Story of Indianapolis and the DPE (Destroy Public Education) Movement

89by dianeravitch / 22h

This very important post was written for this blog by Jim Scheurich on behalf of himself, Gayle Cosby, and Nathanial Williams, who are identified in the text. They are experienced in the school politics of Indianapolis, a city whose school system is being systematically dismantled and privatized. They have been active in the fight against what they call the DPE (Destroy Public Education) model in

Jeff Bryant: How Are Public School Parents Like Criminals?

26by dianeravitch / 23h

Jeff Bryant is doing an article about the St. Louis public schools. As he has delved into the issues, he learned how the state of Missouri has underfunded the schools for years. And he learned something more. The city is gentrifying. It wants young childless couples. Parents of school age children are a burden to the budget. “As a local St. Louis reporter tells it, during a public meeting about a

Florida: The Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Behind the Charter Industry

17by dianeravitch / 1d

In some states, like Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, charter operators get what they want by making campaign contributions to state legislators and the governor. Florida is different. The charter operators and members of their families are members of the legislature. They shamelessly engage in self-dealing. You may well wonder: How can this be legal? I don’t know. This article in the Miami Hera

Education in Florida–Betsy DeVos’s Model for the Nation–is in Chaos

47by dianeravitch / 1d

Valerie Strauss summarizes here the mess created in Florida by former Governor Jeb Bush’s harsh accountability policies and the legislation passed recently to enrich the charter industry at the expense of public schools across the state. She 

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