Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas

Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas:

Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) — A textbook proposed to help teach the cultural history of Mexican-Americans in Texas public schools is under scrutiny by scholars, some of whom decry the effort as racist and not a reflection of serious academic study.

The textbook, titled "Mexican American Heritage," describes Mexican-Americans as people who "adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society." It also links Mexican-Americans to undocumented immigrants, saying illegal immigration has "caused a number of economic and security problems" in the U.S. that include "poverty, drugs, crime, non-assimilation, and exploitation"

The State Board of Education voted to include textbooks on Mexican-American studies after activists last year demanded the subject be formally included in state curriculum. "Mexican American Heritage" is the first textbook on the subject included in a list of proposed instructional materials.

"Paradoxically, we pressed for the board to include texts on Mexican-American studies, and we achieved it, but not in the way we were expecting," Tony Diaz, host of Nuestra Palabra (Our Word) radio program in Houston and director of Intercultural Initiatives at Lone Star College-North Harris, told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/244zWSq ). "Instead of a text that is respectful of the Mexican-American history, we have a book poorly written, racist, and prepared by non-experts."

The Texas Education Agency says it followed standard procedure for the call to submit instructional materials for Mexican-American curriculums for the 2017-2018 school year.

Texans have until September to submit comments on the proposed instructional materials, said TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson. She also said the proposed textbooks will undergo review by a committee that includes teachers and administrators and that committee will make recommendations to the board.

Ultimately, books adopted by the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education in November become part of the recommended instructional materials for statewide curriculums, but school districts aren't required to embrace them. Individual districts can use their state money to buy whatever textbooks they wish.

The book "is not a text that we have recommended nor we will be recommending," says Douglas Torres-Edwards, coordinator of a TEA-approved Mexican-American studies course that has been implemented in some Houston Independent School District schools. "Frankly, that author is not recognized as someone who is part of the Mexican-American studies scholarship and most individuals engaged in scholarship will not recognize her as an author."

The book is produced by Momentum Instruction, a company that appears to be owned or operated by Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Texas State Board of Education from 2007 to 2011. Dunbar, a right-wing Christian activist who questioned the constitutionality of public schools in 2008, labeled the education system "tyrannical" when she published her book, "One Nation Under God," while serving on the board.

The Chronicle was unable to reach Dunbar or any of the books other authors. A phone message and email to Momentum Instruction from The Associated Press were not immediately returned Monday.

The Texas Board of Education's members sanction textbooks for use statewide in a process that has for years been marred by ideological fights over lessons on subjects including evolution, climate change and the influence of biblical figures such as Moses on America's Founding Fathers.

Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas:

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

Even Apple (AAPL) is acknowledging that the “iPads in education” fad is coming to an end — Quartz

Even Apple (AAPL) is acknowledging that the “iPads in education” fad is coming to an end — Quartz:
Even Apple is acknowledging that the “iPads in education” fad is coming to an end

 “A disaster.”

“Largely gaming devices.”

“Students use them as toys. Word processing is near to impossible.”

“WE NEED LAPTOPS!!!”

These were the findings from a survey of high school students and teachers in a district in the US state of Maine on how effective iPads were for learning and teaching. Almost 90% of teachers and 74% of students preferred laptops over tablets, according to the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal.

Even Apple has bent to the will of students and teachers. Following the poll, the tech giant and Maine’s Department of Education are now offering schools in the state the chance to trade in iPads ordered in 2013 for new MacBook Air laptops, at no additional cost.

“If we had known how big a transition it would have been [to switch] from laptops to iPads we would have proactively done some good work with teachers to make the transition easier for them,” Mike Muir, the policy director of the Maine Learning Through Technology Initiative, told Quartz.

Muir said that Apple was “disappointed” by the survey’s results. According to one of the teachers surveyed, tablets provided “no educational function in the classroom.” More than 1,700 laptops will be delivered to two schools in the state later this year. (We have reached out to Apple for comment.)

Integrating technology and learning has been a bumpy ride. Last year, a school district in Los Angeles, the second-largest in the United States,aborted a plan to hand out iPads to every student and educator in the area. Launched in 2013, the $1.3-billion project was marked by poor planning and technical glitches. Other districts in Texas and North Carolina have also shelved their iPad learning initiatives.

One teacher in Virginia thought giving her third graders an iPad would enhance their learning, but found that, for all the device’s benefits in terms of adding more varied activities to lessons, it undermined her pupils’ conversation and communication skills.

It seems the iPad’s fortunes in the classroom are mimicking its fortunes in its shops.

In what was a record three months for Mac sales, iPad sales dropped to their lowest level since June 2011 in the fourth quarter of last year. Apple CEO Tim Cook hasn’t stopped believing there’s life in the tablet yet—the company launched an extra-large iPad Pro in September (and a 9.7-inch version earlier this year), dubbing it “the biggest news in iPad since iPad.” Even Apple (AAPL) is acknowledging that the “iPads in education” fad is coming to an end — Quartz:

Edvoice pumps cash into Assembly campaign | News | Palo Alto Online |

Independent groups pump cash into Assembly campaign | News | Palo Alto Online |:
Independent groups pump cash into Assembly campaign
Contributions from political action committees boost Berman's bid to replace Rich Gordon

 With the crowded race to succeed Assemblyman Rich Gordon in the 24th District heading into the final stretch, independent political action committees are throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the contest in hopes of influencing the outcome.

Palo Alto City Councilman Marc Berman has been the chief beneficiary of these political action committees, with groups funded by dentists, Realtors, car dealers, poultry farmers and pawnbrokers collectively contributing thousands of dollars to his campaign in the month leading up to the June 7 primary.

Berman, an attorney who until last fall worked as development director at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, benefited from huge infusion of cash from EdVoice Independent Expenditure Committee, the political arm of the Sacramento-based education-policy nonprofit. Last week, the committee made a series of expenditures totaling $368,291 to support Berman's bid for the Assembly.

The group paid for several flyers, one touting Berman as "one of our region's innovative leaders" and crediting him for "(leading) the charge to transition Palo Alto toward cleaner energy" and for helping to close the achievement gap in public schools.

Berman said the EdVoice expenditures were made completely independently from his campaign.

"We had no coordination with (EdVoice) whatsoever," Berman said.

The California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee, based in Los Angeles, is also backing Berman with fliers and contributions. Last week, the group issued several fliers urging voters to support Berman, one touting his "proven record of fighting for us" and another referring to him as a "progressive focused on fiscal responsibility."

Meanwhile, another independent group, Californians Allied For Patient Protection Independent Expenditure Account, paid for an ad that takes a swing at Vicki Veenker, who is also vying for the Assembly seat. The flier criticizes Veenker for not having held an elected office and for having "never been seen at council meetings." In an obvious allusion to Donald Trump, the flier states that Veenker "sounds like someone we know running for President, doesn't it."

The attack ad drew an immediate rebuke from the California chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus of California, which has endorsed Veenker. Angelica Ramos, president of the group's local chapter, issued a statement that blasted the ad for implying to Peninsula women and girls that "despite all the hard work they do behind the scenes, like Vicki, they are unqualified for advancement as well.

"This is the kind of institutional sexism that discourages other qualified women from running for office, and it shows," the statement read.

(Berman told the Palo Alto Weekly that his campaign had nothing to do with the mailer and that negative attacks have no place in the race.)

Veenker is also backed by numerous political action committees, though she lags far behind Berman in contributions from these groups. Last week she received one $4,200 contribution from the Women's Political Committee and another $4,200 contribution from the Women In Power Political Action Committee. And last month, she received $8,500 from the California Nurses Association Political Action Committee; $2,500 from the Mountain View Professional Firefighters Political Action Committee; and $1,000 from D.R.I.V.E., a political action committee of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Earlier this year, Veenker also benefited from an $8,500 contribution from the California Teachers Association, one of her top backers.

Veenker is also the only candidate in California who is being directly opposed by the Californians Allied For Patient Protection Independent Expenditure Account. The group has raised money to support numerous candidates for the state Assembly, including Joaquin Independent groups pump cash into Assembly campaign | News | Palo Alto Online |:

What and Who Is EdVoice? | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1TBlDlB

Big Education Ape: Analysis: EdVoice with an IE for Dodd; Educational Reform Group Has Ties to Vergara Suit and Wa... http://bit.ly/1SJq26U

Big Education Ape: News Analysis: Education fight ‘over shades of Democrat’ | CALmatters http://bit.ly/25csc6L

Big Education Ape: Local legislative races become battleground in statewide fight over education http://bit.ly/1WMlJKA

What's really behind the curtain of "school choice"?

What's really behind the curtain of "school choice"?:

What's really behind the curtain of "school choice"?

Neighborhood schools activist, linguistics PhD, and CPS mom Katie Gruber of Hyde Park has been getting very annoyed about the ideology of school choice lately. In the context of the CPS funding crisis, her guest post is more relevant than it was a few days ago. Any guesses about how much money CPS spends on charter proliferation? The mayor's ideologically-based priority for charters is suspect especially now, considering that doomsday budget cuts will take away 40% of each child's funding next year. Yet CPS is still planning--currently--right now--charter expansion in the name of "choice." It's time to set costly, dangerous, and failed ideologies aside. Here's Katie Gruber:

The new landscape of social responsibility involves a lot of choosing--choosing which stores to shop in (as in, ones that treat workers fairly) and which food to buy (as in, safe) takes up a lot more brain space today than it did for most of our parents.

There is also lot of talk about choosing the right school for your child. The notion that parents should have the right to choose the best school for their children is pretty powerful at face value. And since one’s choices have come to be seen as an extension of one’s very self, in a culture that prizes individualism, having choices is very, very important. In order to choose something, of course, you need various options to choose from. In order to choose a shampoo, you need more than one bottle of shampoo on the drug store shelf. In order to choose a school, you need multiple options of schools. This is how charter schools are being sold – as choices for parents who deserve to choose which school their children attend.

Offering parents a choice in terms of schools is built on the premise of a market economy for education: the idea is that parents will pull their children from lesser schools and send them to the better ones. In this process, the good schools will expand to meet the growing demand and the bad schools will eventually be forced to close.

There are big problems with this scenario:

• A market system is built on supply and demand. It is built on the premise that some products are more in demand than others. Foolish is the company that turns out 100,000 X’s when Y’s are all the rage. Suppliers must change their products with the whims of market demand. But in education, the demand is unchanging: strong schools. It’s not only parents that want good schools for their children: our society as a whole has a vested interest in the creation of good schools for everyone that stabilize communities and offer opportunities for the future. A market system is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of education.

• In a market-based system, the discrepancy between supply and demand means that winners and losers are woven into the very fabric of the system. For some schools to win, as in, “be successful and attract students from other schools,” means that other schools will lose. This means that actual students and families will win and actual students and families will lose. Lose--as in, not receive a well-rounded education that will give them a lifetime of curiosity and perspective, as well as access to interesting and fulfilling kinds of jobs when they grow up. Lose--as in, be in the schools that teach to the test, cut out recess and the arts, and do not offer after school enrichment programs. These students will not be equipped to succeed in high school and college. With a market-based education system, this is what we are offering to thousands of future tax-paying, voting citizens of our country. In contrast, when we view strong public schools for all as a public good, we understand that fairness in funding and fairness in allocating expertise and resources is necessary.

• Applying a market-based system to education means that there will be a significant element of market-ing in education. If your school is good (or even if it isn’t), you can use marketing to promote your product, I mean, your school. This means that in an economy of massive cuts in education--big class sizes, the slashing of art and music offerings, neither library nor librarian, insufficient social workers, nurses, and college counselors--schools will be spending precious dollars to advertise their wares. If we turn schools into businesses, we will need a Better Business Bureau to stay on top of which businesses are good ones and which are just trying to make a quick buck. When so many schools lack so many resources, it is an extremely poor use of education dollars to spend that money on marketing. I, for one, do not want one penny of my tax dollars spent to market any publicly-funded school.

As parents’ income correlates more and more with academic success, the circumstances of one’s birth become more and more defining variables of the path of one’s life. This is the opposite of the American Dream. The American Dream is that any person who works hard can get ahead; it’s that being born poor does not mean that you have to stay poor. Opportunity and education are even more linked today than they were at the time of Horatio Alger’s rags-to- riches stories. If a quality education is only available to those whose parents have money, we are sidelining millions of children and keeping them out of the game. Out of the game, as in, forced to take low-paying jobs with no benefits, or having no job at all.

The charter school movement is very big business! People are getting rich off of contracts that do not result in better educational outcomes for students. Many charter schools can be selective in the students they admit. Given their selectiveness in terms of their student body, their student outcomes ought to be a lot better than the schools that have to meet the 

How much do charter schools cost LA Unified? Fact-checking the teachers union's estimate | 89.3 KPCC

How much do charter schools cost LA Unified? Fact-checking the teachers union's estimate | 89.3 KPCC:

How much do charter schools cost LA Unified? Fact-checking the teachers union's estimate

If a study commissioned by Los Angeles' teachers union is right — that charter schools cost the L.A. Unified School District more than $591 million annually — it's a big deal.

Only extra cash expected in this year's state budget will allow L.A. Unified to balance its books over the next two fiscal years. And by 2018-19, officials have warned creeping pension obligations, health care costs and special education spending could push the district's budget deficit beyond $450 million. Reversing a $591 million loss would make a huge difference to the district's fiscal health.

But while L.A. Unified's enrollment — which roughly determines state funding levels — has declined more than 131,000 students since 2006, charter schools have only grown by about 66,000 students. A declining birthrate and transfers to other districts have also hurt LAUSD; some charter students would've never enrolled in an L.A. Unified-run school. Calculating how much of this loss to attribute to charter schools is tricky.

Last week, the California Charter Schools Association pushed back on United Teachers Los Angeles' estimate, calling the union-backed figure "riddled with inaccuracies." The district's principals union called for reading the report with a wary eye — "trust, but verify," as their newsletter put it.

But the report concluded the district's "financial future … is threatened and charter schools contribute to that threat." Who's right?

To fact-check the report's nearly-$600 million estimate, consider the biggest "cost" it identifies: an estimated $508 million due to lost enrollment.

Here's what makes accounting for the dollars lost so tricky: for example, if one-fifth of a school's student body were to leave, administrators could theoretically slash one-fifth of the school's teachers or one-fifth of the school's supplies budget. But some costs are "fixed": the school can't cut one-fifth of a principal; the costs of heating or lighting the building won't decrease by one-fifth.

The UTLA report's authors — a consulting group called MGT of America — assume 56 percent of the district's costs are fixed. The authors derived that figure from the study materials of the blue ribbon panel L.A. Unified convened to examine the district's finances last year.

That 56 percent figure is the linchpin for much of the UTLA report's overall estimate. The district receives a little more than $8,800 in state funding for the average student. But if 56 percent of the district's costs are fixed, the report figureseach departing student leaves behind fixed costs of $4,957.

The UTLA report's authors multiplied $4,957 by the enrollment in Los Angeles charter schools — around 102,000 students — to arrive at their estimate of $508.2 million in net revenues charter schools cost L.A. Unified.

The estimate is based, as the report notes, on the assumption "all students who How much do charter schools cost LA Unified? Fact-checking the teachers union's estimate | 89.3 KPCC:

 

California DOE Pushes Forward on ESSA-Based Improvement System -- THE Journal

California DOE Pushes Forward on ESSA-Based Improvement System -- THE Journal:

California DOE Pushes Forward on ESSA-Based Improvement System

Testing is out; "whole child outcomes" are in. California is working through the impact of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which places responsibility for figuring out how to evaluate schools and districts on the states themselves. Recently, a Department of Education task force handed in its recommendations for building an accountability and continuous improvement system that emphasizes three themes: performance, equity and, most prominently, improvement.

The overall result, as the Los Angeles Times reported in its coverage, is a model that moves beyond testing scores and incorporates such factors as "suspension rates, graduation rates, attendance and the rate at which students who are still learning English are becoming proficient."

At the heart of the new system are two sets of outcomes:

• Whole child outcomes with indicators that demonstrate the extent to which children are "healthy, safe, engaged, supported, challenged and valued"; and
• School and district academic outcomes with indicators that show the extent "to which students achieve meaningful learning outcomes, including the acquisition of the knowledge, language and lifelong learning skills needed to succeed in today's world."

The emphasis on improvement is an important one to the task force. As the report stated, "The value of improvement lies in both the importance of striving to increase student and system outcomes, and the opportunity that improvement provides for shared learning across the system."

"User-friendly" dashboards would allow people to monitor progress and pinpoint areas for improvement at each level of reporting. State-mandated indicators, for example, would be used for required state and federal purposes, including proficiency on annual high-stakes assessments, high school graduation rates and progress in achieving English language proficiency. But they'd also include some indicator of school quality or student success such as suspension or expulsion rates, school climate survey scores, chronic absenteeism or college and career readiness indicators.

Some of those measures would also show up in state-reported indicators, which would complement the required measures in order to gain a "holistic picture of California DOE Pushes Forward on ESSA-Based Improvement System -- THE Journal:

 

CURMUDGUCATION: The Future Ready Pledge

CURMUDGUCATION: The Future Ready Pledge:
The Future Ready Pledge

Has your superintendent taken the pledge?

Probably not-- the Future Ready Schools pledge is yet another one of those federal bully pulpit PR initiatives that must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but refused to go viral.

But the pledge, whipped up in October of 2014, is worth a look because it tells us what the USED thought the future would look like back in those halcyon days of Almost Two Years Ago.

FRS got tangled up with the Alliance for Excellence in Education in 2015. A4EE is one of those groups that exists in a magic land, the place where the revolving door between government agencies, private interests, and "advocacy" groups is spinning so fast that it looks like all three types of organizations are really just the same people wearing different party hats. A4EE is headed by former WV governor Bob Wise and includes Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford), Frederick Frelow (from the Ford Foundation), N. Gerry House (former superintendent, current big cheese at Educational Testing Services), some tech guys (amazon), and some policy wonks. A4EE loves it some reformy stew, from Common Core to digital learning.

The Alliance "partnered" with the USED to push Future Ready Schools through the first half of 2015. They sold the pledge hard, along with the various policies attached to it. What is the pledge, you ask? Let's take a look.

The opening is simple enough:

I, _______________________, Superintendent of _________________________ do hereby affirm the commitment of this district to work with students, educators, families, and members of our community to become Future Ready by engaging in a wide range of activities such as:

And then we get to the List of Goodies. 

Fostering and Leading a Culture of Digital Learning Within Our Schools.

The language here is plenty familiar. Leaders are supposed to use "the power of technology to help drive continuous improvement."

Helping Schools and Families Transition to High-speed Connectivity.

The pledging district is supposed to do analysis of tech connections, which is not a biggy. I regularly analyze my students' access to high-speed connectivity by a technique I like to call "Asking them." FRS are supposed to "work with community partners to leverage local, state, and federal resources to support home Internet access outside of traditional school hours." What do you mean, "leverage?" High speed internet connections cost money, both to pay for the connection as well as the equipment needed to connect. That equipment will have to be upgraded, maintained and replaced on a regular basis. Again, this is not rocket science-- it takes money. In rural areas like mine, a big pile of money that nobody here hasCURMUDGUCATION: The Future Ready Pledge: "The Future Ready Pledge"

Getting Derailed Parent-Teacher Relationships Back on Track

Getting Derailed Parent-Teacher Relationships Back on Track:

Getting Derailed Parent-Teacher Relationships Back on Track

Hello and welcome to the Blame Game, where parent blame teachers and teachers blame parents for low grades, mischievous behavior, and everything under the sun. I’m your host, and today we have two contestants who will … 

Wait! What? Stop!

While this game show doesn’t exist, and may exaggerate what actually happens, it’s not too far from the truth. Just at the comment section of any article or blog post on education. It’s not unusual to find comments like, “my son hates school because of his teacher” or “parents don’t care.”

“People make assumptions all the time,” says Bonnie M. Davis, a retired educator of 30 years from Missouri. “You’ll hear, ‘Kid doesn’t do homework because parents don’t care.’ But most people do care and they try to do their best.”

Most teachers are understanding of parents, too.

In a Reddit thread dubbed, When Parents Blame You, one user commented, “I don’t blame the parents. They are usually super stressed out. [I’ve] had parents go from irate to crying in 20 minutes. As soon as I can identify the underlying fear and address that directly, we can get on the same page and come up with a plan.”

“Try not to take it personally,” suggests Davis, “and give each other a break.”

The trigger, in a lot of cases, is that the communication between the educator and the parent has fallen to the wayside. That’s especially true amid the heavy demands of educating students and the weight of raising children. “Everyone is stressed,” says Davis, who taught in the Clayton School District just outside St. Louis.

Take a look at the statements below. Which sentiment belongs to whom? The parent or the teacher?

• I’m doing everything I can
• I need more hours in the day
• I’m so tired
• I feel like I work all the time
• I’m so stressed
• I have no “me” time

If you said a teacher and a parent could have said each one, you’re right. The good news is that a lot of parents already have strong relationships with educators.

In 2012, Parenting magazine and NEA surveyed 1,000 public school parents and Getting Derailed Parent-Teacher Relationships Back on Track:

Big Education Ape: WTF: Washington State PTA to Members: Not Qualified to Talk about Money for Education http://bit.ly/243dxVM

Today’s School Reforms and the Destruction of Invention

Today’s School Reforms and the Destruction of Invention:

Today’s School Reforms and the Destruction of Invention

Currently, school reformers impact schools in such a way that little is done to assist students to be inventors. To teach young people to invent means looking at them as individuals with interests and uniqueness—hopes and dreams.

It means providing experiences that foster those interests–introducing them to new ideas.

Schools need to encourage and trust students to have time to think on their own, and teachers need to have time to assist them to explore how the world works.

There is nothing to encourage invention when students focus mostly on reading and math performance for the high-stakes testing. Students spend much of their time doing classroom drill like they are in the army. Sit still, shape up, and do not break eye contact!

And, of course, obtain a high test score.

Students don’t even learn the beauty of reading and math as subjects!

Where are the other classes to inspire? What happened to learning science, social studies and the arts? Where’s music to make life joyful and worth exploring?

When students are highly controlled, they will act the way they are told, to get what the Today’s School Reforms and the Destruction of Invention:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State Superintendent Questionnaire: David Spring

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State Superintendent Questionnaire: David Spring:

State Superintendent Questionnaire: David Spring

Spring for Better Schools! http://bit.ly/1NHw1sM

David Spring is one of four candidates for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  

About David (partial from his website):

I am a parent and teacher from North Bend, where I have lived for more than 20 years. My daughter, Sierra, is now a 10th Grader Honors student at Mount Si High School. 

Education & Teaching Background
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Science Education from Washington State University and a Master’s Degree in Education and Child Development from the University of Washington. After graduating from WSU, I served as a VISTA volunteer developing an alternative educational program for at-risk youth in Rapid City, South Dakota. 

I then spent over 20 years teaching, mainly at Bellevue College, where I taught courses in problem solving and conflict resolution. I am also a ski instructor, climbing instructor and climb leader. I have successfully and safely led over 100 teams of climbers to the summit of Mount Rainier. I therefore know how to lead teams confronted with difficult circumstances and keep them moving towards a goal in the face of adversity. I am also a former Rescue Leader with King County Search and Rescue.

Spring has also served two terms in the Washington State Legislature. 

Here's his website and you can e-mail him with questions at David(at)SpringForBetterSchools.org.

1. Why are you running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction and what do you believe the role of the superintendent is to public education in Washington State?
I am running for Superintendent in order to fully and immediately fund our public schools. One of my opponents (Chris Reykdal) claims that the legislature has made "progress"; in funding our schools. But here are the facts. In the four years since January2012, when our Supreme Court ruled that the legislature has failed to meet their Constitutional Paramount Duty to fully fund our schools, the number of students in our state has increased 30,000 while the number of teachers has decreased by 1,000.

Every year class sizes for the past 20 years class sizes have gone up. Every year the number of students attending schools that do not meet either the health code or earthquake code standards has gotten worse. Legislators like Chris Reykdal have written draconian bills like House Bill 2214 to hold our kids and teachers accountable with horrible tests like the SBAC test -a test that is so difficult that almost no one in the legislature can pass. It is time to hold the legislature accountable for the harm they have inflicted on our kids and our schools. I will end the excuses, delays and gridlock in Olympia by going around the State legislature and asking the Supreme Court to repeal$10 billion per year in corporate tax breaks in order to double school funding, build hundreds of urgently needed schools, hire tens of thousands of teachers and increase the pay of teachers by 40% to increase teacher retention so that struggling students can get the help they need to succeed in school and succeed in life.

As for the role of Superintendent, many people (including the past three superintendents and my opponents in the current race) think the Superintendent is simply a rubber stamping figure head with no real power and no real duties. However, Article 3, Section 22 of our State Constitution states that the Superintendent"shall have supervision over all matters pertaining to public schools." Furthermore, Article 9, Section 1 states: "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders." Note that it is not Seattle Schools Community Forum: State Superintendent Questionnaire: David Spring:

Three Sanders Opportunities: Bernie or… - Living in Dialogue

Three Sanders Opportunities: Bernie or… - Living in Dialogue:

Three Sanders Opportunities: Bernie or… 

 The Bernie Sanders candidacy offers the American people several important opportunities that should not be missed. First and foremost, he offers us the chance to put forth a principled candidate as the Democratic nominee. If this is accomplished then we can begin the hard work of reclaiming the party from the careerist sellouts that have been in charge for decades. He has said he will replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chair of the DNC, and there are many more changes that can be made to ensure more democracy in the party. We can seriously take on campaign finance reform because the party will have a standard bearer who will have prevailed without billionaire support.

While this is by far the best opportunity, it is not the only one. There is another set of opportunities that await if Sanders fails to get the nomination.

To consider this, we have to engage in a bit of speculation, because the options depend somewhat on how history unfolds in the next few months.

For the second opportunity we have, let’s assume that Sanders fails to secure the nomination, but that the Democratic party leadership recognizes that Clinton doomed without the enthusiastic support of millions of Sanders voters. As a result, Clinton and other party leaders embrace key parts of the Sanders platform – a $15 minimum wage, real campaign finance reform, breaking up the banks, health care for all, an end to the super delegates, no more imperial wars, and end to mass deportations, criminal and racial justice reform, and so on. In this case it is possible that distrust of Clinton and party leadership could be overcome, and she could build a winning coalition to defeat Trump. If, and this is a very big if, she and party leaders stayed true to these principles, then the Democratic Party could once again become a party capable of representing working and poor people. I do not rate this possibility as very likely, unfortunately.

There is a third scenario that is less optimistic. Let’s assume for our third possible future history that Clinton secures the nomination through the use of super delegates and insider maneuvers. And she and party leaders believe (as they seem to believe now) that everyone will flock to vote for her because Trump is such a loathsome alternative, and therefore make little effort to win over Sanders voters. They do not embrace campaign finance reform, or any of the other key elements of the Sanders platform. Let’s assume, for the sake of this speculation, that Clinton actually manages to defeat Trump. While she is far more vulnerable to him than Sanders would be, she still could defeat the misogynistic blowhard. And we should support her, although it will be tough to muster much enthusiasm.

Under this scenario, we have a third term of Clintons in the White House. Based on the first two Clinton terms, and on her more recent work as Secretary of State, we can expect more corporate trade deals, more promotion of globalization and privatization, more military aggression, and little in the way of real change. In Three Sanders Opportunities: Bernie or… - Living in Dialogue:

What if... | A letter from the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Impatient Optimists

What if... | A letter from the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Impatient Optimists:

Lessons in U.S. Education

 

From the beginning, Bill and Melinda wanted their foundation to be a learning organization; one that evolves and course corrects based on evidence. We want to get continually smarter. One of our greatest areas of learning has been our work in K-12 U.S. education.

We are firm believers that education is a bridge to opportunity in America. My colleague, Allan Golston,spoke passionately about this at a gathering of education experts last year.

However, we’re facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make system-wide change.

For too many students today, the bridge to a prosperous and fulfilling life is obstructed and uncertain. In 2015, the ACT Condition of Career and College Readiness study revealed that only 40 percent of students met three of the four college-readiness standards across English, reading, math, and science. And performance was much lower for students of color.

That statistic reads like part of a bad word problem, but it is real. It is really tough to create more great public schools.

However, I’m optimistic that all students can thrive when they are held to high standards. And when educators have clear and consistent expectations of what students should be able to do at the end of each year, the bridge to opportunity opens. The Common Core State Standards help set those expectations.

We’ve begun to see signs of improvement in student performance in some of the states that have embraced the Common Core. Kentucky, the first state to adopt the standards, is a prime example.

To implement the Common Core, Kentucky engaged the community and worked with parents, teachers and school leaders to build an interconnected system of standards, teacher feedback and support, and measurement over time. As a result, Kentucky has increased from 27 percent to 33 percent students meeting three out of four ACT benchmarks for college readiness since 2011. The same metric nationally has remained flat since 2011, so a 6 percentage point increase is a sign of real progress.

Deep and deliberate engagement is essential to success. Rigorous standards and high expectations are meaningless if teachers aren’t equipped to help students meet them.

Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the standards. We missed an early opportunity to sufficiently engage educators – particularly teachers – but also parents and communities so that the benefits of the standards could take flight from the beginning.

This has been a challenging lesson for us to absorb, but we take it to heart. The mission of improving education in America is both vast and complicated, and the Gates Foundation doesn’t have all the answers.

But every tough lesson only reinforces our commitment to teachers and student success.

All teachers and students should have access to learning materials of the highest quality. But far too many districts report that identifying or developing Common Core-aligned materials is a challenge, meaning that teachers spend their time adapting or creating curriculum, developing lessons, and searching for supplemental materials.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to hear from educators. And no one knows teaching like teachers. So, we’re doubling down on our efforts to make sure teachers have what they need to make the most of their unique capabilities.

Digital content and tools that provide support for lesson planning – including LearnZillion, Better Lesson, and EngageNY – are providing millions of teachers with an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional textbooks.

We’re supporting a partnership with EdReports.org, the Consumer Reports of K-12 curriculum, to provide free and open-access teacher-led reviews and evidence on instructional materials. This will increase the capacity of educators across the country to seek, develop, and demand high-quality, aligned instructional materials.

Our learning journey in U.S. education is far from over, but we are in it for the long haul. I’m optimistic that the lessons we learn from our partners – and, crucially, from educators – will help the American school system once again become the powerful engine of equity we all believe it should be.What if... | A letter from the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Impatient Optimists: