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Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Don't Offer Real Choice — National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE)

Don't Offer Real Choice — National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE)

Vouchers Do Not Offer Real Choice


Vouchers give a choice to private schools, rather than to parents and students. Voucher programs are governed by different laws in different states, but most allow private schools to accept taxpayer dollars yet reject students with vouchers for a variety of reasons, ranging from disability to ability to pay.


A 2016 report conducted by the Government Accountability Office found that of all the voucher programs across the country, only four required private schools to accept all students with vouchers, space permitting. The other programs allowed private schools to deny students admission or grant preference to certain students for many reasons including disciplinary history, academic achievement, and religious affiliation.
This lack of meaningful choice means that a student may have to turn down a voucher because he cannot a find a school that would accept him or provide the specialized educational supports he needs. Additionally, a private school may expel a student using a voucher without a disciplinary hearing. And, a private school may reject a student with a voucher because she or her parents are LGBT or the “wrong” religion. 
Parents also cannot exercise a real choice when voucher programs do not provide them with necessary or accurate data needed to make informed educational choices. In Washington, DC, for example, the voucher program’s administrator repeatedly failed to provide accurate information to parents about schools participating in the program until after the enrollment deadline had already passed. Nor are voucher schools generally required to give parents the information necessary to determine whether the schools are meeting the needs of their children, such as standardized test scores (which the schools might not even administer to all their students), curriculum used by the schools, or teacher qualifications. 
National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE)

Don't Offer Real Choice — National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE)


The Problem Isn't Robots Taking Our Jobs. It's Oligarchs Taking Our Power

The Problem Isn't Robots Taking Our Jobs. It's Oligarchs Taking Our Power

The Problem Isn't Robots Taking Our Jobs. It's Oligarchs Taking Our Power
Training for the jobs of the future keeps workers trapped as long as workers can't shape how technology is used and who profits from it



Each week workers are confronted with yet another article touting the threat of technology wiping out their jobs. A recent “60 Minutes” segment featured venture capitalist and author Kai-Fu Lee predicting that advances in artificial intelligence would “in 15 years displace about 40 percent of the jobs in the world.”
The message to workers is clear: the threat of obsolescence is real, so act accordingly.The advice of the World Economic Forum, the McKinsey Global Institute, and others, is that workers must “reskill” in order to have a livelihood available to them.
For workers, though, this advice is a trap.
Organizing unions and developing pathways to ownership is the best way workers can address the anxiety of the so-called “automation age,” not chasing the labor market demands of elites.
The presumed aspirant tech moguls of the automation age acknowledge that your current, barely-making-ends-meet job is going to get squeezed, shortchanged, or wiped out altogether by a robot or an algorithm. But go back to school (and take on some student debt) and get training in a new skill, and you will not only be able to weather the change but you’ll make even more money.
This prescription will only work however if workers refuse to question the paradigms that preserve the wealthy’s control of the game, and they coded it so they will always ultimately win. Practically, the “reskilling” that workers achieve will simply serve to lower the cost currently existing tech labor without any assurances that such sectors will be immune from “disruption” in a few years by the next wave of automation.
Ultimately, the better advice for workers seeking to avoid “disruption” is to become the agents of disruption themselves. What 21st-century workers need is what workers have always needed: power. Organizing unions and developing pathways to ownership is the best way workers can address the anxiety of the so-called “automation age,” not CONTINUE READING: The Problem Isn't Robots Taking Our Jobs. It's Oligarchs Taking Our Power



Did “Sesame Street” Create Twitter? | The Merrow Report

Did “Sesame Street” Create Twitter? | The Merrow Report

Did “Sesame Street” Create Twitter?


I’m old enough to remember when Sesame Street first appeared on public television in late 1969.  After its wildly popular first season, some critics complained that the program’s appealing structure–fast-paced short segments–would eventually destroy children’s ability to remain focused; they would grow up accustomed to receiving new stimuli every minute or so and would eventually become unable to learn any other way.  Any activity that required more than a few minutes of concentration would become beyond their reach, and their teachers would have to be, above all, entertainers.
As far as I know, that particular doomsday did not occur–not in the 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s, and not in the first 15 years of this century.
However, I fear that doomsday is upon us now, in the age of Twitter.   Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass were born in the 1970’s, which means they were in the program’s target audience during its golden years and probably grew up watching Sesame Street.  In creating Twitter, they have fulfilled the prophecies of the program’s fiercest critics. They invented the tool that has turned us into exactly what Sesame Street‘s critics predicted: a populace unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes (unless we are in actual danger).
Exhibit A would be Donald Trump (known in another context as “Individual A”).  Trump bounces from pillar to post, and Twitter is his favorite means of communication.
I’m afraid that I might be Exhibit B, because I have become addicted to Twitter.  At least 10 or 20 times a day I check the posts of the 1,578 people I follow.  I often CONTINUE READING: Did “Sesame Street” Create Twitter? | The Merrow Report

Striking, Negotiating, and What’s Next for Public Education in LA - LA Progressive

Striking, Negotiating, and What’s Next for Public Education in LA - LA Progressive

Striking, Negotiating, and What’s Next for Public Education in LA



The facts you need to know about the agreement, and why this was a progressive change

You may know a few things about the UTLA teacher strike that has taken place this last week from the article I wrote about it or elsewhere. You probably know that children who attend public school in Los Angeles County had the week off, while parents did not. You may know that people were standing outside schools picketing—and you may have even honked your horn in support or joined in. You may know there were some negotiations taking place behind the scenes, too.
But now that an agreement has officially been reached, you may wonder what has actually changed, and you may be left considering if it was enough. What negotiations were settled on? What will happen tomorrow when students return to school? What will happen in the next three years as the UTLA and LAUSD agreement unfolds?
These are not easy questions to pick apart and digest. Rather than digging through all the jargon yourself, continue reading for the stripped-down facts about what was agreed upon between UTLA and LAUSD. Perhaps even more pertinent to your interests is not what was decided upon, but why this matters for progressives; that’s here too.
24 points were agreed upon in the official summary published on January 22, six days after the strike started. I will not be mentioning every single point, but I will be referencing some highlights that are worth celebrating from a progressive viewpoint.  

Fair wages achieved for teachers

UTLA succeeded when it struck in 1989. After a 9-day strike, UTLA was victorious in securing three consecutive years of 8 percent pay increases for teachers. Yes, this is more than the 6 percent salary increase that was agreed upon in the 2019 negotiations; however, in ‘89, it was shortly followed by the 1990 recession, and successive layoffs of teachers. This balanced 6 percent increase shows UTLA learned from 1889, and is making efforts to support its teachers while still compromising with the school district.

Big business kept out of public, democratic institutions

Community involvement among parents, students, and UTLA allies made much more possible this round of negotiations, all with students in mind. This is a victory for UTLA, but also for unions and collective bargaining everywhere.

A resolution was passed in the recent agreement to put a cap on charter schools. Charter schools have historically introduced privatization into public education—a no-no for democracy (according to John Oliver and many others). This resolution is one step in the progressive direction to moving big business out of public spaces, toward equality.

This is a huge victory for unions

The LAUSD is only required to negotiate three things with UTLA: Wages, hours, and working conditions. However, community involvement among parents, students, and UTLA allies made much more possible this round of negotiations, all with students in mind. This is a victory for UTLA, but also for unions and collective bargaining everywhere.

Student interests supported from a socially-conscious perspective

Also agreed upon was an exemption of “random searches” at 28 schools and a plan to help CONTINUE READING: Striking, Negotiating, and What’s Next for Public Education in LA - LA Progressive



Black Lives Matter At School Makes Educator Unions Stronger – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Black Lives Matter At School Makes Educator Unions Stronger – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Black Lives Matter At School Makes Educator Unions Stronger



Jesse Hagopian is a Seattle teacher, anti-racist activist and co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives who helped organize the founding actions of “Black Lives Matter at School.” He recently talked to Socialist Worker’s Danny Katch about the importance of this year’s BLM at School week of action, set for February 4-8, as the initiative spreads around the country.
The Black Lives Matter at School website has information on how educators can participate in this year’s week of action, including:
  • Purchasing and wearing the week of action shirts
  • Sign the petition in support of BLM@Schools week
  • Social media posts using #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool
  • Using lesson plans and activities related to the 13 BLM principles
  • Attending events and rallies across the country
Black Lives Matter at School issued a statement declaring solidarity with the strike by United Teachers Los Angeles, concluding: “It is no coincidence that the cities and districts most targeted for divestment in public education and investment in privatization are communities with majority Black and Brown students and families. We urge all those involved in the Black Lives Matter at School movement to support the just demands of the UTLA community.”
CAN YOU describe the Black Lives Matter at School week of action and how it got started?
IT BEGAN as a grassroots effort at John Muir Elementary here in Seattle, where CONTINUE READING: Black Lives Matter At School Makes Educator Unions Stronger – I AM AN EDUCATOR
demands_blm@school_2019


Could Newsom’s “Choose Children” Budget Advance Digital Slavery in CA? – Wrench in the Gears

Could Newsom’s “Choose Children” Budget Advance Digital Slavery in CA? – Wrench in the Gears

Could Newsom’s “Choose Children” Budget Advance Digital Slavery in CA?


In the aftermath of the well-funded “Choose Children” campaign, we are left to ponder what Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2019 budget really means for California’s children. Will he use his position to do the will of the people, or instead sacrifice the state’s youth on the altar of technological surveillance and venture capital? I see alarming connections between elements of his budget, early childhood education and healthcare pilots underway in Silicon Valley, and predatory social impact investment initiatives tied to digital identity that have surfaced abroad with support from Bay Area venture philanthropists, global banking interests, and NGOs.
For years, hedge funders have been building infrastructure for a futures market in human capital, a global poverty-mining enterprise. California is among a handful of states that are in the vanguard of such developments in the United States. San Francisco, Newsom’s stomping grounds, is home to the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which opened at the Presidio in the fall of 2017. Increased calls for transforming the “social” sector to fit the requirements of this technologized age were made this week at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos. See this whitepaper, which outlines a planned three-year process to re-align the social sector, “Civil Society in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Preparation and Response.”
Newsom’s proposals reflect broader trends seen in many states where innovation, technology deployment, and adoption of an “evidence-based” approach to public services, including pre-k and digital learning, are being pitched as an answer to our current social ills. Money has been poured into branding digital enslavement as a fiscally prudent, even progressive option. I urge caution. Dig deeper; things are not what they appear.
Elements in his budget that are of particular concern include:
  1. The creation of a longitudinal database linking education at all levels with workforce outcomes and social service delivery
  2. $200 million for home visits and ACEs screenings
  3. $10 million to explore funding options for universal pre-school
  4. $500 million (one time) investment to expand childcare facilities and professional development among childcare workers
  5. $50 million to create an Office of Digital Innovation
Taken together these items could advance a repressive system of technological surveillance. Such a system would control not only lives of  CONTINUE READING: Could Newsom’s “Choose Children” Budget Advance Digital Slavery in CA? – Wrench in the Gears



Denver Teachers Vote To Authorize A Strike : NPR

Denver Teachers Vote To Authorize A Strike : NPR

Denver Teachers Vote To Authorize A Strike


The teachers union in Denver has voted to approve a strike that could begin as soon as Jan. 28. It would be the first time the city has seen a teacher strike in almost 25 years.
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association finished voting late Tuesday after more than a year of negotiations between the union and the district, which have failed to yield an agreement.
"Denver teachers overwhelmingly agreed to strike," said Rob Gould, the union's lead negotiator, at a press conference Tuesday. He unveiled that 93 percent of members had voted to go ahead with strike plans. "They're striking for better pay. They're striking for our profession. And they're striking for Denver students."
In the event of a strike, schools would remain open, according to the city's school superintendent, Susana Cordova. Substitute teachers would be paid double the normal rate, up to $250 a day, to cover classes while teachers are striking.
The union encouraged parents to continue sending their children to school during the strike. A union-authored FAQ document being shared on Facebook claims that "one major goal of the strike is for school buildings to be shut down as a demonstration of the essential labor performed by educators." Without teachers to staff buildings, "the CONTINUE READING: Denver Teachers Vote To Authorize A Strike : NPR



L.A. Teachers’ Strike Is Ending, but Economic and Racial Inequity Remain Along with State Funding Problems | janresseger #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

L.A. Teachers’ Strike Is Ending, but Economic and Racial Inequity Remain Along with State Funding Problems | janresseger

L.A. Teachers’ Strike Is Ending, but Economic and Racial Inequity Remain Along with State Funding Problems



Los Angeles teachers reached a tentative deal to end their strike yesterday morning. Teachers began voting on the agreement later in the day, and it was expected that teachers would return to their classrooms today. At noon yesterday, the Los Angeles Times‘ Howard Blume reported that the agreement includes a 6 percent raise, smaller classes, and a promise to create 30 Community Schools with wraparound medical and social services for students and their families. Even as the teachers won some of the protections they demanded for their students, however, years of serious school funding inequity, compounded by racial and economic segregation of students across the district’s schools will continue as major challenges for the school district.
Addressing the Los Angeles teachers’ strike for The Guardian, last week Andrew Gumbel untangled the impact on the state’s public schools of California’s taxing constraints wound together with racial segregation and explosive inequality: “California once had one of the best funded, most envied public education systems in the United States. Now schoolteachers in Los Angeles, who went on strike… to vent years of frustration, say they struggle with overcrowded classrooms and children whose need for academic support, psychological services and English-language coaching outstrips anything they can provide.  Many schools do not have a full-time nurse or counselor.  In many of the poorer neighborhoods—in south L.A., or the north-eastern San Fernando Valley—the library opens rarely. Janitorial service has become so spotty that some teachers have resorted to buying their own cleaning supplies and going over their own classrooms with rags and a mop at the end of a long day. It’s a grim picture.”
Gumbel described the power of money in a state and a public school district with explosive economic inequality: “California has a greater concentration of billionaires and holders of university doctorates than any place on earth. Yet it is also a state of vast inequalities and pervasive poverty, particularly in rural areas and in the blighted neighborhoods of its biggest CONTINUE READING: L.A. Teachers’ Strike Is Ending, but Economic and Racial Inequity Remain Along with State Funding Problems | janresseger

New Report Card Grading Each State On How Well it Protects Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Press Release: New Report Card Grading Each State On How Well it Protects Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

NEW REPORT CARD GRADING EACH STATE ON HOW WELL IT PROTECTS STUDENT PRIVACY


In the first of its kind, the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and the Network for Public Education have released a report card that grades all fifty states on how well their laws protect student privacy.
The State Student Privacy Report Card analyses 99 laws passed in 39 states plus DC between 2013 and 2018, and awards points in each of the following five categories, aligned with the core principlesput forward by PCSP: TransparencyParental and Student RightsLimitations on Commercial Use of DataData Security Requirements; and Oversight, Enforcement, and Penalties for Violations.
Two more categories were added to the evaluation: Parties Covered and Regulated and Other, a catch-all for provisions that did not fit into any of the above categories, such as prohibiting school employees from receiving compensation for recommending the use of specific technology products and services in their schools.
No state earned an “A” overall, as no state sufficiently protects student privacy to the degree necessary in each of these areas. Colorado earned the highest average grade of “B.” Three states – New York, Tennessee and New Hampshire– received the second highest average grade of “B-“.  Eleven states received the lowest grades of “F” because they have no laws protecting student privacy: Alabama, Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The report tracks specific versions of state laws over time.  For example, many of the state privacy laws enacted since 2013 were modeled after the California’s 2014 law known as the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA). While California barred all school vendors from selling student data, eight states subsequently passed laws that allowed the College Board and the ACT to do so.  Laws with specific loopholes to allow  these companies to sell student data were enacted in Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia –presumably because of lobbying efforts.
The issue of data security is also critical.  The primary federal student privacy law known as FERPA requires no specific protections against data breaches and hacking, nor does it require families be notified when inadvertent disclosures occur.  In recent years, the number of data breaches from schools and vendors have skyrocketed, and some districts have even been targeted by hackers with attempted blackmail and extortion.  A recent report rated the education industry last in terms of cybersecurity compared to all other major industries.  As a result, this fall the FBI put out an advisory, warning of the risks represented by the rapid growth of education tech tools and their collection of sensitive student data,  saying that this could “result in social engineering, bullying, tracking, identity theft, or other means for targeting children.”
“The inBloom debacle in 2013 exposed the longstanding culture of fast and loose student data sharing among government agencies, schools and companies,” said Rachael Stickland, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, parent of two public school children in Colorado and the primary author of the report. “Consequently, parents across the nation began urging their state legislators to address the problem, resulting in a complex web of state privacy laws that are difficult to untangle and understand. Our hope is to bring attention to state laws that make a reasonable effort to protect student privacy and identify those that need improvement. Parents and advocacy groups can use our findings to advocate for even stronger measures to protect their children.”
NPE Executive Director Carol Burris noted, “This report card provides not only critical information regarding the existing laws, but also serves a blueprint for parents to use for lobbying for better protections for their children.”
As Leonie Haimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, pointed out, “FERPA was passed over forty-five years ago and has been weakened by regulation over time to allow for the sharing of personal student data by schools and vendors without parent knowledge or consent.  State legislators have stepped up to the plate to try to fill in some of its many gaps and to require more transparency, security protections, enforcement, and the ability of parents and students to control their own data. Yet none of these laws are robust enough in each of these areas.  Congress must strengthen and update FERPA, but meanwhile, this report card can serve as a guide to parents and advocates as to which state laws should be strengthened and in which specific ways.”

An interactive map that shows the grades of each state, both overall and in each of the categories is posted here. The report is posted here ; here is a technical appendix with a more detailed account of how each law was evaluated.   There is also a downloadable matrixwith links to all of the state laws, as well as specifying how many points were awarded in every category. CONTINUE READING: Press Release: New Report Card Grading Each State On How Well it Protects Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy



NYC Public School Parents: LA strike tentatively settled with national implications; here's how to counter myths of the class size deniers #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

NYC Public School Parents: LA strike tentatively settled with national implications; here's how to counter myths of the class size deniers

LA strike tentatively settled with national implications; here's how to counter myths of the class size deniers


Today, it was announced that a deal has been struck between the Los Angeles teacher union and the district leadership, which will likely end the strike.

Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti said, "This is a historic agreement, it gets to lower class sizes, it gets to support services.” According to the New York Times,  " the three men declined to give specific details, but said that the county and city would pay for some services and that class sizes would be reduced incrementally in every school starting next year."  More on the agreement here. The press conference announcing the deal is here.

Depending on the details, this looks like a terrific victory for the union and most importantly, for Los Angeles public school students.

Class size has once again become a focus of national attention as a result of the week-long strike. See for example, last Saturday'sSNL segment, where Kenan Thompson one and half minutes in says, "Teachers don't gain paid enough, class sizes are too big". Or the photo posted a few days ago by Oscar-nominate actor Rami Malek  of his twin brother, Sami, an LAUSD teacher dressed as a cowboy, holding a sign saying "Wanted: smaller class sizes; Reward: higher student achievement." 

Scores of teachers from around the country have been using social media over the last week to speaking out about how overly large classes have undermined their ability to reach their students. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, a rumored candidate for President, just announced that he intends to introduce legislation soon that would "present a national plan for reinvesting in public education and reducing class sizes across America."

Merkley's office explained: "He’s seen up close the disturbing trend of disinvestment in public education and growing class sizes: His children attended the same public schools he did, but faced much larger class sizes and fewer elective options. We’re a wealthier nation than we were 40 years ago, so there’s no excuse for our public schools to be more poorly funded, or to offer less to low-income and working families."

Yet as time goes on and the issue gains more prominence, we can expect that the corporate reformers and their allies will start attacking efforts to reduce class size with everything they've got - tossing out various talking points in a desperate attempt to confuse and distract members of the public.

Most reasonable people will likely be sympathetic to the notion that kids learn best in small classes where they can receive sufficient feedback and support from their teachers, CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: LA strike tentatively settled with national implications; here's how to counter myths of the class size deniers




Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles! #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!

Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!


Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools makes many parents and teachers nervous. We worry there’s an ulterior motive to collect behavioral data on how children think and act, and that the ultimate goal is to privatize public schools and track students.
Talk about transforming our public schools away from cognitive learning to SELis everywhere!
Those promoting this kind of push for self-regulation of students and massive character data collection claim that teachers have methodically taught students without caring about their feelings.
This is an insult, especially since the test-and-punish era that hurt students, came from the same outside corporate reformers who mean to privatize public schools and who are now promoting social-emotional learning!
It’s the roadblocks that have been put in a teacher’s way by corporate outsiders that have made teaching regimented and cold. High-stakes testing, and increasingly difficult CONTINUE READING: Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!

The State Student Privacy Report Card - Network For Public Education

The State Student Privacy Report Card - Network For Public Education

The State Student Privacy Report Card



This Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and the Network for Public Educationreport card grades all fifty states on their student privacy laws, focusing on 99 laws passed since 2013 in 39 states plus the District of Columbia.
The State Student Privacy Report Card awards points to every state in each of the following five categories, aligned with the core principles put forward by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy: Transparency, Parental and Student Rights; Limitations on Commercial Use of Data; Data Security Requirements; and Oversight, Enforcement, and Penalties for Violations
Two more categories were added: Parties Covered and Regulated and Other, a catch-all for provisions that did not fit into any of the above categories, such as prohibiting school employees from receiving compensation for recommending the use of specific education technology products and services.
You can view the interactive map showing the overall grades of each state and in each of the categories, as well as a downloadable matrix with links to each of the state laws that were analyzed, accounting for every point awarded in every category by clicking the links below

The State Student Privacy Report Card - Network For Public Education