Wendy Lecker: Public education as a political movement - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Public education as a political movement - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Public education as a political movement

NPE Action - The Network For Public Education  - http://npeaction.org/ on @NPEaction

My 18-year “career” as a public education parent ended in June as my youngest child graduated from high school. I am witness to the profound effect my children’s teachers had on their development as students and human beings — nurturing their passions, providing life lessons, sparking their interest in subjects they had never considered, and challenging their world view.

Events this past year have shown me just how much of an effect teachers have on all of us — not just those they teach.

Those of us who have been fighting for years for strong, adequately funded, integrated public schools and against reforms that are damaging to children, communities and democracy sometimes feel like we are banging our heads against the wall.

For years we presented facts about the harm of bad education policy and the benefits of good education policy. Yet politicians ignored us and continued to push failed policies. They dismissed calls for adequate resources in impoverished schools, branding these claims as “excuses” or “maintaining the status quo.”

The media narrative has also been impervious to facts, blaming impoverished schools for “failing” children when our politicians deprive them of essential resources to serve our neediest children; and accusing public school teachers of incompetence and selfishness when students do not perform well on standardized exams that were never designed to measure school or teacher quality.

This toxic public discourse seemed unending. Until teachers across the country took to the streets last spring. Teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and Kentucky walked out of their classrooms to protest the miserable conditions in which they had to work and their students had to learn.

And the public stood with them all the way. Parents brought their children to state capitols to support their teachers, supplied food, and participated in the protests. A new Phi Delta Kappan poll reveals that 78 percent of public school parents support teacher strikes for higher pay.

Once these protests began, the media focus changed. Cameras showed deplorable conditions in impoverished classrooms, including crumbling textbooks, broken desks and chairs. Newspapers reported on the four-day school weeks in Oklahoma resulting from years of budget cuts, and the severe lack of basic educational staff and services in the states where the Continue reading: Wendy Lecker: Public education as a political movement - StamfordAdvocate

Tierrabyte: Economically Disadvantaged Kids in Charter Schools Fare Worse on Math Exams

Tierrabyte: Economically Disadvantaged Kids in Charter Schools Fare Worse on Math Exams

Tierrabyte: Economically Disadvantaged Kids in Charter Schools Fare Worse on Math Exams

A fresh academic school year brings new challenges to students returning to class after the summer break. For economically disadvantaged students in charter schools, one of the biggest challenges might be performing well on math assessments.

Data released earlier this month by the Texas Education Agency shows economically disadvantaged students perform worse on major math assessments in charter school districts in San Antonio than in public school districts.

According to an analysis of the data by the Rivard Report, 63 percent of charter school districts reported that their economically disadvantaged students — those who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals — did not meet the math standard for their grade level, compared to 47 percent of traditional public school districts.

In San Antonio, there are 15 public school districts and 22 charter school districts.

Economically disadvantaged students in charter school districts in San Antonio did perform slightly better than public school districts on reading assessments, however. About 47 percent of San Antonio charter school districts report that their economically disadvantaged students did not meet the reading standard for their grade level, compared to 53 percent of traditional public school districts.

Economically disadvantaged children struggle because they face fundamental challenges to basic needs, such as access to food and safe environments, said Brian Gottardy, North East Independent School District superintendent.

Some are coping with violence in their homes or neighborhoods, and most economically disadvantaged children come to school with few previous educational experiences, are malnourished, or live in a chaotic environments, Gottardy said.

“As a result, they begin school behind their peers who have had more positive environmental experiences,” he said. “From the very beginning, they are at a disadvantage.”

The number of economically disadvantaged students in Texas schools is increasing. During the last decade, enrollment of economically disadvantaged students in Continue reading: Tierrabyte: Economically Disadvantaged Kids in Charter Schools Fare Worse on Math Exams

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all - https://wp.me/2odLavia @dianeravitch

Teachers have been walking out all year. Now they're walking straight to the ballot box

Teachers have been walking out all year. Now they're walking straight to the ballot box

Teachers have been walking out all year. Now they're walking straight to the ballot box

Teachers on strike in Vancouver, WA. on Aug. 29. (Amanda Cowan / Associated Press)

What unfolded in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona last spring was not supposed to happen. Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike in bright red states where government-employee unions are weak.

They were boiling over, angry at low pay and lawmakers who kept cutting taxes while letting school funding sink to woeful levels. The teachers in those states won raises, and so did the ones who walked out in Kentucky and Colorado.

On the eve of Labor Day, many teachers are still boiling over. More than 30,000 teachers in Los Angeles voted Thursday to authorize a strike if their union and school district fail to agree on a contract. Earlier in the week, teachers in Seattle voted to strike in September if their union and school district don’t reach a deal. And North Carolina’s teachers are inching closer toward a statewide walkout.

Whether or not the strike wave continues, it’s clear that teachers and their unions have been galvanized into focusing on the November elections. They are seeking to elect lawmakers who will support public education, not starve it. Some teachers are trying to become lawmakers themselves.

As teachers flex their political muscle, their unions are facing a coordinated attack.

Scores of teachers are running for political office in states where educators walked off the job earlier this year. They’re on the ballot in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, Colorado and North Carolina. Sixty are running for office in Oklahoma alone.

They include Craig Hoxie, a high school physics teacher in Tulsa who was making less than $50,000 a year after 19 years of teaching. Hoxie said he decided to run during last April’s strike while he was walking in the teachers’ 110-mile march from Tulsa to Oklahoma City.

“We need to get our funding back to levels where we will be able to sustain our operations Continue reading: Teachers have been walking out all year. Now they're walking straight to the ballot box