NANCY BAILEY: The Racism Behind Firing Librarians and Closing School Libraries

The Racism Behind Firing Librarians and Closing School Libraries

The Racism Behind Firing Librarians and Closing School Libraries

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.  ~Frederick Douglass

If a school has no school library or a flimsy excuse for a library, students are denied access to books and reading material. They miss opportunities to learn information and become proud of who they are. Look for racism behind the decision.

When school districts diminish school libraries and those who run them, they fail to address the critical issues involving history, civics, and race relations. With all the talk of schools and equity, it’s unconscionable that closing school libraries and firing school librarians are accepted practices.

In May 2020, the Washington D.C. school district passed a $70 million budget increase. In January 2021, the American Rescue Plan infused over $368 million of COVID relief and new aid to DC Schools. Today, school librarians there are begging to keep their jobs. Here’s the petition!

The dismal account of dwindling libraries and librarians is happening across the nation, especially in poor schools and schools with children of color. If your child’s school CONTINUE READING: The Racism Behind Firing Librarians and Closing School Libraries

Leslie T. Fenwick: All Students, Especially The Most Vulnerable, Need Certified, Well-Prepared Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Leslie T. Fenwick: All Students, Especially The Most Vulnerable, Need Certified, Well-Prepared Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Leslie T. Fenwick: All Students, Especially The Most Vulnerable, Need Certified, Well-Prepared Teachers

Leslie T. Fenwick is Dean emerita of the Howard University School of Education. She is an eloquent critic of efforts to deprofessionalize teaching. She believes that teachers need more, not less, preparation for the classroom. This post appeared in Politico.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated harmful educational inequalities in the preK-12 public education system. The nation’s poorest students, Black and Latino students, and our disabled students have been the most negatively impacted by school closings necessitated by the pandemic. Black students in high poverty schools have been especially hard hit because of the racialized, historic and ongoing disinvestment in the education of Black children and youth.

One of the most obvious — and dangerous — ways this inequality shows up is by channeling a proportionally larger share of less qualified or alternatively credentialed teachers to schools with higher percentages of Black, Latino and disabled students. Black and Latino students are more likely than their white peers to be taught by CONTINUE READING: Leslie T. Fenwick: All Students, Especially The Most Vulnerable, Need Certified, Well-Prepared Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Studying Black History Can Help You Address The Learning That COVID-19 Interrupted - Philly's 7th Ward

Studying Black History Can Help You Address The Learning That COVID-19 Interrupted - Philly's 7th Ward

STUDYING BLACK HISTORY CAN HELP YOU ADDRESS THE LEARNING THAT COVID-19 INTERRUPTED

We know all too well Black and Brown students in marginalized communities are now bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s effect on schools—with inadequate technology, lack of internet access, little to no basic training in typing and computer skills, not to mention canceled music, visual and performing arts, athletics, clubs and other enrichments that aren’t nice-to-haves, but life-saving for so many students.

Exponentially more of our underserved younger students won’t reach critical reading and math benchmarks. Exponentially more of our underserved older students will have been pushed out, their pathways to college further blocked, diminishing their motivations and dreams.

IF WE NEED A MODEL OF HOW TO COMBAT LEARNING LOSS AT SCALE, IN A WAY THAT RESPECTS THE CULTURE OF OUR STUDENTS AND SIMULTANEOUSLY BUILDS UP THE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH THEY LIVE, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN AMERICA’S RICH BLACK HISTORY.

If we need a model of how to combat learning loss at scale, in a way that respects the culture of our students and simultaneously builds up the communities in which they live, look no further than America’s rich Black history – including the idea that children don’t just learn within schoolhouses. Too often, their learning is actually short circuited inside of schools.

A key part of the answer to addressing our students’ needs can be found CONTINUE READING: Studying Black History Can Help You Address The Learning That COVID-19 Interrupted - Philly's 7th Ward

What's "Woke" And What's "Whack" About How Teachers Are Being Prepared? - Philly's 7th Ward

What's "Woke" And What's "Whack" About How Teachers Are Being Prepared? - Philly's 7th Ward

WHAT’S “WOKE” AND WHAT’S “WHACK” ABOUT HOW TEACHERS ARE BEING PREPARED?

Effective teachers can change and save lives, but being a great teacher is hard.

The challenge is especially acute in our high-poverty, under-resourced public schools where teacher tenure is lowest. Black and brown students are twice as likely to attend one of these schools than their white peers. As nearly 80 percent of teachers are white, our newest educators often find  themselves in a very different cultural context for the first time.

The result is often a gross underestimation of Black and Brown students’ academic abilities, misunderstanding and an inability to cope with what teachers perceive as “problem behavior”. This “culture shock” and racial bias drives many teachers out of schools educating Black and brown children as they escape to lower-poverty, whiter schools.  

Many white teachers are clearly not adequately prepared to teach Black and Brown students. Our students are paying the price for the failures of our teacher-preparation programs. Changes to these programs that result in better education for Black and brown students are long overdue.

The solution is threefold. Our teacher preparation programs must engender cultural fluency; equip teachers with the skills to actually teach Black and CONTINUE READING: What's "Woke" And What's "Whack" About How Teachers Are Being Prepared? - Philly's 7th Ward

Why Zip Codes Matter | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Zip Codes Matter | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Zip Codes Matter

From the earliest days of corporate reform, which is now generally recognized to have been a failed effort to “reform” schools by privatizing them and by making standardized testing the focal point of education, we heard again and again that a child’s zip code should not be his or her destiny. Sometimes, in the evolving debates, I got the sense that some people thought that zip codes themselves were a problem. If only we eliminated zip codes! But the reality is that zip codes are a synonym for poverty. So what the reformers meant was that poverty should not be destiny.

Would it were so! If only it were true that a child raised in an impoverished home had the same life chances as children brought up in affluent homes, where food, medical care, and personal security are never in doubt.

But “reformers” insisted that they could overcome poverty by putting Teach for America inexperienced teachers in classrooms, because they (unlike teachers who had been professionally prepared) “believed” in their students and by opening charter schools staffed by TFA teachers. Some went further and said that vouchers would solve CONTINUE READING: Why Zip Codes Matter | Diane Ravitch's blog

Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid

For American families and their children, school is more than just a building. It's a social life and a community, an athletic center and a place to get meals that aren't available at home. The pandemic has disrupted — and continues to disrupt — the lives of U.S. students in profound ways.

Many kids haven't set foot in their schools since March, when most in-person schooling shut down across the country. Teachers are working tirelessly to educate their students online, but they are growing increasingly anxious about the kids who aren't showing up at all.

An estimated 3 million students may have dropped out of school learning since March, according to Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit that focuses on underserved youth. The group's study cited a lack of Internet access, housing insecurity, disabilities and language barriers as major obstacles to attending virtual classes during the pandemic.

"It is really, really unsettling," says Alex, a teacher in western Virginia, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of repercussions for speaking out. "I think people don't realize how much we need to see these kids. A lot of times in schools, we are the first line for seeing signs of child abuse, for seeing signs of food insecurity. And you don't have that with virtual students. Especially when they ghost."

That "ghosting" is a constant problem for school employees who track attendance in CONTINUE READING: Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

Stop Using Black Children as an Excuse to Open Your Schools | Black&Smart

Stop Using Black Children as an Excuse to Open Your Schools | Black&Smart

STOP USING BLACK CHILDREN AS AN EXCUSE TO OPEN YOUR SCHOOLS

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog. The Corona Virus has forced me to address so many things virtually, that the last thing I’ve had the energy for was sitting down in front of the computer for yet another thing. I didn’t even want to think about an Op-Ed. However, the current chatter about returning to schools has me thinking about how Black children are once again being used to serve the needs of Whites. This is not a new slight-of- hand—claim something serves the needs of “the least of these” but in reality, the rich continue to get richer.

The current conversation regarding re-opening school is all about how closed schools are hurting the most vulnerable students—Black students, Latinx students, English Language Learners, poor students, and students with disabilities. But, in truth the parents clamoring the most about opening schools are the parents of the most privileged children. They are concerned that their children’s resumes are being tarnished by missing all of this school. They are comparing their children’s progress with that of their private school peers who they perceive to be moving ahead of them. They are concerned that their kids’ inability to participate in varsity sports and athletics may be hurting their scholarship chances. They are recognizing that having their kids at home and having to plan for each and every hour of their school day or perhaps having to sit beside them and assist with their virtual learning does not help one climb the corporate ladder. Actually, none of these reasons for wanting schools to be opened is a bad one. Just say that’s why you want schools to open!

Don’t pretend you have some deep conviction to the education of Black children. If that’s your motivation, where was it last year when school was in session? Weren’t Black children struggling then? Weren’t they over identified for special education CONTINUE READING: Stop Using Black Children as an Excuse to Open Your Schools | Black&Smart

The Crime of Branding Students As Criminals - Philly's 7th Ward

The Crime of Branding Students As Criminals - Philly's 7th Ward

THE CRIME OF BRANDING STUDENTS AS CRIMINALS

Throughout my time as an educator, I’ve been pulled into my share of “special taskforces” meant to address “at-risk” students – namely Black students. I have no doubt that such groups can be found in schools across America; primarily (I believe) because districts accept “helping” Black children on the backend with interventions that feign problem solving, rather than working on the frontend on behalf of Black children.

Districts that work on the frontend are districts that hire more Black teachers, make curricula culturally relevant and teaching culturally responsive – with rigor – districtwide, and ensure that teaching resources and assignments are both culturally and community affirming. They do not assume that pre-service training is good enough to serve Black students and spend time in deep and meaningful in-service, coaching, and mentoring. But I digress.

“At-risk” students are generally identified by teachers and administrators to identify which students have an increased risk for dropping out of school, usually because of failing grades and an unsightly discipline record. It always starts with an email attached with a list of names; educators love making lists. I’ve received these lists and I always notice the overabundance of Black children on them – lists of children of color that are often rife with racial biases and negative mindsets about Black and Brown communities .

Never did I consider that my colleagues would ever refer these lists to local CONTINUE READING: The Crime of Branding Students As Criminals - Philly's 7th Ward

A New Narrative About The Secretary of Education, Too [Medium] | The Jose Vilson

A New Narrative About The Secretary of Education, Too [Medium] | The Jose Vilson

A NEW NARRATIVE ABOUT THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, TOO [MEDIUM]

For EduColor’s Medium blog, I wrote a bit more about the Secretary of Education using some inspiration from Vanessa Siddle Walker’s The Lost Education of Horace Tate, a must read:

“I’ve witnessed how the narrative of public schooling and education writ large has forced parents to run towards alternatives, even when those alternatives are often used for exploitative and racist means. Some people would have never cared for the collective well-being of public schools without the breadth of reforms put in place by No Child Left Behind/Race To The Top, leaving Black and brown kids with no options while other parents send their children to the one public school in their district that they’ve funneled their tax dollars toward. I’ve witnessed how many folks on “both” sides of the education reform camp have gone out of their way to subvert racial justice even when they ostensibly say that Black lives matter. I’ve made note of when even the most well-intentioned of us who want to bridge the divide inevitably get perceived as mascots even by those who appear supportive.

Years ago, I feared the debate would make religions out of complicated human beings to the detriment of our poorest and ignored students and communities. There are no “both sides” to this situation. There are many.”

To read more, please do follow through and click here. Share and share alike.

A New Narrative About The Secretary of Education, Too [Medium] | The Jose Vilson

What A Biden Presidency Could Mean For Education | 89.3 KPCC

What A Biden Presidency Could Mean For Education | 89.3 KPCC

What A Biden Presidency Could Mean For Education

With the eyes of the country upon him, Joe Biden shouted out education during his speech Saturday in Wilmington, Del: "For American educators, this is a great day for you all. You're going to have one of your own in the White House."

Of course, the president-elect was talking about his wife, Jill Biden, an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. She continued her teaching career during Biden's two terms as vice president, and in a break with precedent, intends to continue doing so as first lady.

Which raises the question as the transition planning moves forward: How has this perspective shaped the president-elect's education agenda? And how much of that agenda can Joe Biden hope to achieve, with the massive challenges of the coronavirus and the economic recession, and with Democratic control of the Senate in doubt?

Here's our overview of his policy priorities for K-12 and higher education:

Reopening schools safely

Like so much in the country, experts say, the president's education agenda must start by confronting the threat of the coronavirus. As of Nov. 9, according to one national estimate, 63% of U.S. students were enrolled in districts that offered some in-person learning at least a few days a week.

But even within those districts, many or most students are staying home to avoid the virus. And education experts still forecast huge amounts of learning loss and negative social and emotional impacts, especially for younger students, those with special needs and lower-income students.

The question of whether, and when, to reopen schools became a political debate over the summer when President Trump called forcefully for reopening without providing additional funding through Congress. Biden, by contrast, has publicly CONTINUE READING: What A Biden Presidency Could Mean For Education | 89.3 KPCC

OPINION: U.S. public education should be federally funded

OPINION: U.S. public education should be federally funded

U.S. public schools should be federally funded

“The concept of ‘local control’ is grounded in and reflective of systemic racism”

How good are America’s public schools? It depends on where you live.

Education funding is like any other public infrastructure investment. School systems with sufficient funding tend to get better results. Schools that lack resources are less effective and resilient in the face of ordinary challenges, let alone unprecedented catastrophes like the coronavirus pandemic.

Even as distance-education removes the spatial component from public education — lessons no longer happen in a particular classroom, or at a particular school, but on the (ostensibly worldwide) web — these lines still separate children from one another. The endless Covid-19 crisis is revealing the primary weakness of decentralizing the funding of public services: Stark resource divides that fuel some of the deepest social inequities.

Related: “Kids wo have less, need more”: The fight over school funding

This starts with interstate funding gaps. In states like Kansas and Arizona, leaders have long underfunded their public education systems. This led to the spectacle, early in the pandemic, of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announcing that the state would “donate” 200 mobile hotpots to its public schools in an effort to kickstart private hotspot donations. We see even bigger disparities in public preschool spending: In 2019, the District of Columbia spent $18,669 per child, while North Dakota and Nebraska each spent less than $2,000 per child.

At the local level, these resource disparities regularly align with — and exacerbate — longstanding racial, socioeconomic, ethnic and linguistic divisions in American society. According to 2017 data from EdBuild, a nonprofit focused on inequitable education funding, schools in Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District were funded to the tune of $25,068 per student, while schools in neighboring Philadelphia received just $12,044. It’s bitterly unsurprising that Lower Merion schools are CONTINUE READING: 

Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

Ds and Fs surge, attendance slips among L.A.'s poorest students amid distance learning

Grades of D and F have increased in the Los Angeles Unified School District among middle and high school students in a troubling sign of the toll that distance learning — and the coronavirus crisis — is taking on the children, especially those who are members of low-income families.

The district released a chart Monday indicating that based on 10-week interim assessments, failing grades are increasing across the board, but are surging the most in lower-income communities. Compounding the disturbing trend, students in these same communities, hard hit by the spread of COVID-19, have the lowest attendance.

“The attendance figures and interim assessments don’t reflect the desire or capability of students,” said L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner in remarks recorded for broadcast Monday. “They’re eager to learn and every bit as capable as they were before school facilities closed. But the struggle to cope with COVID-19 and online learning for children and their families is very real.”

The data on grades made another announcement all the more painful, even though school board leaders foreshadowed it last week: Campuses will not reopen for most students before January, the superintendent said. And even that timing could prove doubtful, Beutner said, unless the coronavirus pandemic subsides and unless the state and local agencies offer more guidance and resources.

In the meantime, the district is expanding attempts to reach more students in person, providing instruction for groups of up to three students at a time. All participants, including teachers, will have to take a coronavirus test, even if they’ve had one recently. This gradual growth of in-person services is expected to reach several thousand of the district’s 460,000 K-12 students.

The district also will be speeding up the in-person assessment of students with special needs and will allow sports teams to begin conditioning work — outside with physical distancing and no team drills.

The next two months need to be spent in an all-out effort to get ready for a hoped-for January opening, Beutner said in an interview with The Times and in his broadcast remarks. As part of that effort, Beutner said that L.A. Unified is part of a coalition of seven California school districts calling for “a common standard of health, education and employee practices so schools have a clear path to open in the safest way.”

Some state legislators expressed overlapping concerns in a legislative hearing last week, directing their comments to the governor’s office and state agencies, including CONTINUE READING: Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

On Teaching: How to Be an Anti-racist White Educator - The Atlantic

On Teaching: How to Be an Anti-racist White Educator - The Atlantic

Working for Racial Justice as a White Teacher

Robert Roth on an anti-racist approach to high-school history

Editor’s Note: In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. In recent years, that number is closer to just three years leading a classroom. The “On Teaching” series focuses on the wisdom of veteran teachers.

One of this year’s largest youth-led Black Lives Matter protests took place on June 3 in front of Mission High School in San Francisco, where Robert Roth taught U.S. History and Ethnic Studies from 2005 until he retired in 2018. Roth was in the crowd, listening to teenage speakers who were urging white people like himself—including white educators, who make up 79 percent of the U.S. teaching force—to step up as allies in the fight for racial justice.

It was a message that Roth has been attuned to for a long time. In 1964, when Roth was himself a teenager, he joined what became the nation’s largest anti-school-segregation boycott in New York City. As a student at Columbia University in 1968, he was a key part of one of the largest college anti-war and anti-racist protests of that era. And since he first started teaching in San Francisco in 1988, Roth has been grappling with what it means to be an anti-racist teacher working in majority Black and Latino schools.

For Roth, in his 30 years in education this meant changing his curricula to highlight the role people of color played in transforming our society; helping develop the ethnic-studies program at Mission High School; working with students and teachers to make ethnic studies a part of every high school in San Francisco Unified District today; and learning from his students and from teachers of color about how to make his classrooms work for everyone, so that all students feel intellectually challenged and engaged.

In conversations in 2018 and 2020, I asked Roth to reflect on how he approached teaching U.S. history as an anti-racist educator. This Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. CONTINUE READING: On Teaching: How to Be an Anti-racist White Educator - The Atlantic

How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

How do you measure a child’s worth?

Over the past few weeks, the community members have been witnessing that conversations about Lowell’s selective admissions policy are once again stirring up anti-Black/Latinx sentiment in online spaces and within the Lowell High School community. #HereWeGoAgain

While folks may choose to believe otherwise, the admissions changes currently being considered were prompted by procedural, rather than political concerns. (Although to be fair, many of the Board’s feelings about this policy have not really been a secret.)

This spring, COVOD-19 rendered standardized testing and regular grading impossible statewide. With tests canceled and students receiving “pass/fail” grades, SFUSD staff will be unable to administer regular policies around Lowell’s selective enrollment process. So, over the past several weeks, the Board has been discussing a proposal by staff to temporarily discontinue the traditional enrollment policy and place Lowell in “the Lottery” with all other comprehensive high schools. (Cue pearl-clutching!)

As expected, anytime the topic of Lowell admissions comes up, so does race. While we have the discussion of what to do during this “not-normal” year in SFUSD, please be aware — What we say has impacts on Black and Brown children going to school at Lowell and across the city.

I am hearing from Black student leaders and Black alumni of Lowell that many of the comments folks have been making are toxic and hurtful. (Read their letter to the Board.) As these conversations reverberate across parent email groups and in the media, many of the things folks are saying are also creating secondary trauma for Black and Brown children, parents, and educators across our city who have been, or currently are, targets of racial microaggressions and outright aggression in our educational systems. This is true for charters, and private school settings as well.

Recently we saw this expressed in Board meetings when parents shouted down a student representative to the Board and targeted her and her colleague (a Latina) on Twitter, saying they were not valid representatives of their peers. Just recently my colleague Commissioner Gabriela Lopez, and I CONTINUE READING: How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

A patriotic education should include Black history

A patriotic education should include Black history

Here is what patriotic education should look like

resident Donald Trump recently announced his intention to create a 1776 Commission, charged with restoring patriotic, “pro-America” education to public schools.

Trump pointed to The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which explored the legacy of slavery in modern America and has been adopted by many districts across the country, as an example of framing America’s founding around “the principle of oppression, not freedom.”

The president fails to understand that acknowledging our shortcomings doesn’t mean perpetuating a story of oppression. We can admit our mistakes while also celebrating the heroes of our history — which must include Black history.

A truly patriotic education should inspire our students to reach their greatest potential — to lead movements, solve unsolvable problems, create new enterprises and fight for freedom. And to do that, we must build an education system that embraces Black history and cultures for the sake of all our children. 

A patriotic education should include the contribution of a Black doctor named Dr. Charles Drew, who developed techniques for preserving blood plasma — the very techniques that are showing promise in treatments for Covid-19 today. 

A patriotic education should include the story of  Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, the first doctor to perform open-heart surgery and a Black man who graduated from medical school just 18 years after the abolition of slavery. And it should include Gladys West, a Black mathematician whose work CONTINUE READING: A patriotic education should include Black history