Torlakson Announces 2017 CA Gold Ribbon Schools - Year 2017 (CA Dept of Education)

Torlakson Announces 2017 CA Gold Ribbon Schools - Year 2017 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces 2017 California Gold Ribbon Schools

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that 275 middle schools and high schools are being honored under the Gold Ribbon Schools Awards Program.

The list of recognized schools is attached at the end of this press release.

“These terrific schools are leading the way in embracing our new rigorous academic standards and showing others how to help students succeed on their way to 21st century careers and college,” Torlakson said. “I look forward to travelling the state to honor these schools and to help share the programs, methods, and techniques that are working.”                    

The California Gold Ribbon Schools Award was created to honor schools in place of the California Distinguished Schools Program, which is on hiatus while California creates new assessment, accountability, and continuous improvement systems. 477 middle schools and high schools applied this year.

Schools applied for the award based on a model program or practice their school has adopted that includes standards-based activities, projects, strategies, and practices that can be replicated by other local educational agencies. The award acknowledged elementary schools last year.

The Gold Ribbon Awards recognize California schools that have made gains in implementing the academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education. These include the California Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, California English Language Development Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards.

These schools represent examples of not just excellent teaching, learning, and collaborating, but also highly successful school climate efforts, ranging from real time conflict resolution to positive behavior intervention. Some examples of this year’s honorees are:

• Bear River High School, Nevada Joint Union High School District: The Bruin Time program at Bear River High School was developed to improve the performance of struggling students. Bruin Time is a 41-minute period built into the school day four days a week for the purpose of providing tutoring and other interventions for struggling students.
• Chico High School, Chico Unified School District: Chico High School has initiated and developed six College and Career Technical Education Pathways: Agriculture Mechanics/Manufacturing; Architecture/Engineering; Health; Information, Communication, Technology; Design, Arts, Media, and Agri-science. These programs are meant to motivate students by providing them with real-life, problem-based learning that will help keep them engaged in their studies and prepare them for their next chapter, whether it's a job, trade school, community college, or a four-year university.
• Downtown Magnets High School, Los Angeles Unified School District: Downtown Magnets High School has implemented an initiative called the Comprehensive Mathematics Achievement Gap plan, which aims to target the mathematics achievement gap that has historically existed between African-American and Latino students and their Caucasian and Asian counterparts. The plan provides assistance and tutoring within and outside of the school day and draws upon the support of teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.
• Middle College High School, West Contra Costa Unified School District: Middle College High School collaborated with Contra Costa College to create an Early College High School program, which helps prepare them for college by increasing their exposure to college. It has helped increase the number of students who graduate from high school and go on to pursue post-secondary education.
• Warm Springs Middle School, Murrieta Valley Unified School District: The AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program was implemented at Warm Springs Middle School to help encourage students whose parents did not attend college to enroll in college. AVID enhances instruction, school-wide systems, culture and climate, and leadership to focus on preparing students for college and career readiness.

Additionally, Gold Ribbon awardees that are also Title I schools were recognized as Academic Achieving Schools and are identified as such on the list. This additional recognition is given only to schools receiving federal Title I funds that assist in meeting the educational needs of students living at or below the poverty line.

The 2017 Gold Ribbon Schools as well as the 2017 Exemplary Program recipients, Title I Academic Achieving Award Schools, 2017 Green Ribbon Schools, 2017 Civic Learning Award Schools, and the National Blue Ribbon Schools from 2016, will be honored in May during regional ceremonies held in Costa Mesa, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Visalia, and Sacramento.

The Gold Ribbon Schools being recognized for Exemplary Programs in Arts Education and Physical Education and Nutrition will be announced soon.

Please visit the California Gold Ribbon Schools Program on the California Department of Education’s (CDE’s) Web site.

The CDE California School Recognition Program is presented by San Mateo-based California Casualty.

Click Here to see the complete list of 2017 California Gold Ribbon Schools

Schools Matter: Karl Dean Sits on Left Aisle of Corporate Party Jet

Schools Matter: Karl Dean Sits on Left Aisle of Corporate Party Jet:

Karl Dean Sits on Left Aisle of Corporate Party Jet

Former Nashville mayor, Karl Dean, is running to be TN's next governor.  He is running as a Democrat, but he is no less a Wall Street corporatist than Michael Bloomberg, Rahm Emanuel, or the Clintons.  As mayor, Dean's most visible accomplishments, aside from killing a mass transit effort that was opposed by the auto lobby and Gov. "Pilot Oil" Bill Haslam, were 1) providing incentives and other tax breaks for big business to locate or expand in Nashville and, 2) leading a muscular advocacy for school privatization via corporate charter school expansion.

Take Hospital Corporation of America, for instance.  Even though HCA was already headquartered in Nashville, Dean was able to wrangle a deal that gives HCA a $3 million annual tax abatement for 20 years, plus moving expenses to relocate into a new headquarters in West Nashville.  The year that Dean provided his corporate welfare deal to HCA, the company brought in over $30 billion and had a net profit of $2.45 billion.

And then there is the Omni Hotel deal, which provided Omni $103 million in tax breaks over 20 years, plus another $25 million to acquire the building site near downtown.  And, of course, there are other sweet deals of less impressive proportions.

Dean's generosity with public funds for corporate welfare projects was just as striking when it came the white elites' final solution for schooling the children of the disenfranchised.  In 2011, as public school buildings were crumbling and teachers were running around with garbage cans to catch the rain from leaky roofs, Dean ponied up 10 percent of Nashville's four-year school building budget, $10 million, for one KIPP, Inc. school in Nashville. 

When Dean left his mayoral post, he joined the board of a national charter school privatization venture bent on spreading the Schools Matter: Karl Dean Sits on Left Aisle of Corporate Party Jet:

Controversial Gulen Charter Schools Double in Size in New Jersey Under Pro-Privatization GOP Gov. Chris Christie - Network For Public Education

Controversial Gulen Charter Schools Double in Size in New Jersey Under Pro-Privatization GOP Gov. Chris Christie - Network For Public Education:

Controversial Gulen Charter Schools Double in Size in New Jersey Under Pro-Privatization GOP Gov. Chris Christie

$115 million price tag from taxpayer funds diverted from local school districts

On the heels of an explosive investigation of Gulen Charter Schools in New Jersey by The Record newspaper, comes a CBS-TV report claiming that teachers at Gulen charters were forced to turn over up to 40 percent of their salary to the Gulen movement, a controversial religious and social movement with roots in Turkey.

Leaving aside the insanely complex political issues, I’d like to add to the phenomenal job The Record has done investigating New Jersey’s Gulen charters. Unbeknownst to most of us, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the “least popular governor in America,” has exponentially increased the number of Gulen charters in New Jersey. This will, without a doubt, dramatically increase the price tag as well, but by how much?

Let’s find out.

When Christie took office four Gulen affiliated schools existed. They were: Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School (TEECS) founded in 2002, Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology (2003), Central Jersey College Prep (2006), and Bergen Arts and Science (2007).

Gov. Christie opened three new Gulen charters and has approved a fourth to open in September, 2017. These are: Passaic Arts and Science Controversial Gulen Charter Schools Double in Size in New Jersey Under Pro-Privatization GOP Gov. Chris Christie - Network For Public Education:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago:

Whitenizing Chicago

UNEMPLOYMENT AND DISINVESTMENT by the city and its corporations are destroying neighborhoods and pushing thousands of African-American families out of Chicago and other big cities. Some call it "reverse migration" but the net effect is the whitenizing or gentrification of the cities. 

Another driving force behind this push-out of black and poor from the city, is Mayor Rahm Emanuel's capital investment plan and his closing of schools, mental health facilities, and other city services. While investment-starved neighborhoods suffer, Rahm has pumped millions into ill-conceived projects like the new DePaul basketball arena.  Rahm's policies have further isolated, destabilized and blighted south and west-side neighborhoods, creating conditions for more crime and violence. Whole neighborhoods are now marked by boarded-up homes, stores and schools as thousands of families lose homes to foreclosure.

DePaul's new $200M basketball arena.

An article in Monday's Reader calls Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, "the eviction capital" of the county. Real estate owners and management companies like Pangea and Kass are doing Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago:

Give the White House Your Feedback About the Dept. of Education | Truth in American Education

Give the White House Your Feedback About the Dept. of Education | Truth in American Education:

Give the White House Your Feedback About the Dept. of Education

The Trump Administration is looking for feedback on reorganizing the executive branch, and they have set up a form on the White House website where you can share your input.

Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, makes his appeal so he can submit a plan to President Trump in response to an executive order recently signed to start work on making the executive branch more efficient.

Ideas need to be submitted by June 12. Take this opportunity to share with President Trump ways he could make the U.S. Department of Education more efficient, by, say, eliminating it. (Just a suggestion). President Trump’s first budget cuts the U.S. Department of Education’s budget by $9 Billion, so we can encourage him to go further.

You can find the form here.

Give the White House Your Feedback About the Dept. of Education | Truth in American Education:

Randi & Ed. Secretary DeVos to visit Van Wert schools Thursday - Paulding County Progress

Ed. Secretary DeVos to visit Van Wert schools Thursday - Paulding County Progress:

Ed. Secretary DeVos to visit Van Wert schools Thursday

VAN WERT – On Thursday, April 20, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will tour public schools in Van Wert. The visit comes in response to Weingarten’s challenge to DeVos to visit a great public school system and engage with teachers, parents, students and the community about what is working in their public schools and what they need in order to strengthen them.

Weingarten, DeVos, local union leaders and school officials will have roundtable discussions with pre-K, early childhood and special education teachers and staff. They will tour classrooms; hear presentations from students in robotics and engineering classes, as part of the district’s project-based learning focus; and discuss Van Wert’s public schools with teachers, students, parents and the community.

Van Wert, a rural district in northwest Ohio, exemplifies many of the strategies Weingarten outlined in a speech earlier this year on building great neighborhood public school systems, according to the AFT. "These strategies include promoting children’s well-being, engaging in powerful learning, building teacher capacity, and fostering cultures of collaboration; they stand in contrast to the massive budget cuts and privatization efforts being pushed by the Trump administration."

EVENTS

School Visits, Discussions

WHAT: School visits, conversations with teachers, students, parents, school officials

WHO:       Randi Weingarten, AFT president

                 Betsy DeVos, secretary of education

                 Jeff Hood, Van Wert Federation of Teachers president

                 Melissa Cropper, Ohio Federation of Teachers president

                 Paolo DeMaria, Ohio state superintendent

                 Ken Amstutz, Van Wert superintendent

WHERE:            Van Wert schools, Van Wert, Ohio

WHEN:            Thursday, April 20 11 a.m.-3 p.m.


Ed. Secretary DeVos to visit Van Wert schools Thursday - Paulding County Progress:

Why high school exit exams are a waste of time - The Washington Post

Why high school exit exams are a waste of time - The Washington Post:

Why high school exit exams are a waste of time

Not too long ago more than half of U.S. states required that students pass an exam to graduate from high school. That is changing, with a number of states dropping their exit exams — but a good number still require them, and that, this post explains, is a big and unnecessary problem for many students.

This was written by Stan Karp, a veteran educator and an editor of Rethinking SchoolsMagazine, which is now marking its 30th anniversary. The publication is produced by the Rethinking Schools organization, a nonprofit that began in the Milwaukee area by teachers who wanted to improve education in their own classrooms but also help shape public school reform across the country. Along with the magazine, Rethinking Schools publishes educational materials for use in all 50 states, Canada and other countries. Its focus is on balancing classroom practice and educational theory while addressing current policy issues, such as funding equity, school choice and school-to-work issues.

Karp gave me permission to publish this.

By Stan Karp

High school exit tests are the trapdoors of the education world. These are the tests that tie scores to high school diplomas and push students who miss the mark out of school into the streets, the unemployment lines, and the prisons.

A national uprising has highlighted the many ways the misuse and overuse of standardized testing hurts students. Now the effort to end high school exit testing may be its next step.

In the last few years, 10 states have repealed or delayed high school exit exams. California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona even decided to issue diplomas retroactively to thousands Why high school exit exams are a waste of time - The Washington Post:

Beat Back the Billionaires: Vote Zimmer, Padilla for LAUSD School Board - LA Progressive

Beat Back the Billionaires: Vote Zimmer, Padilla for LAUSD School Board - LA Progressive:

Beat Back the Billionaires: Vote Zimmer, Padilla for LAUSD School Board

Vote Now Absentee or at the Polls May 16th

Though Election Day isn’t until Tuesday, May 16th, Los Angeles’ epic school drama unfolds now, this minute, in real time, as absentee ballots in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board race arrive in voters’ mail boxes. The drama stars public school champions – incumbent Board President Steve Zimmer and non-profit founder Imelda Padilla – vs. billionaire barons – Eli Broad and the Waltons of Walmart.

With an overwhelming majority of voters expected to vote absentee in this monumental yet little known run-off election, there’s no time to waste for Zimmer and Padilla supporters, those campaigning to protect public education from Big Money bosses pulling the strings on marionette candidates Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez while plotting to take over or edge out proud neighborhood schools.

Yes, it’s show time in the $7.5 billion real-estate rich LAUSD, the country’s second largest school district, right behind New York City, where 95 different languages are spoken in a student version of the United Nations.

The antagonists in this drama, billionaires and their class pets, are hiding something from us, the audience. They’re not telling us that Zimmer, an ambassador for arts education, has led the District to restore arts education funding to pre-recession levels, so that Wonderland Elementary – a Blue Ribbon School – can continue its innovative choral program in which students both compose music and play the violin, the cello, the instrument of their choice – or so that Venice HS, where I teach English, can expand its two magnets: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine (STEMM) and World Languages, as well as its small learning academies that also include the Academy of Law and Public Policy (ALPS) and Sports Medicine. The antagonists in this drama – the ones jamming neighborhood mailboxes with hateful fliers – do not speak of our Venice HS students who apprentice in our graphic design shop, perform at the LA Music Center or deliver social commentary at Get Lit Poetry slams. No, the antagonists won’t tell you Venice High School is a school on the move.

Venice High School from Midnight Hour Studios on Vimeo.

Venice High School is not the only secret the billionaire boys are keeping from the audience. Zimmer’s District 4 is home to Grand View Elementary’s model language immersion program – one of 20 such LAUSD programs Zimmer champions because research shows that students Beat Back the Billionaires: Vote Zimmer, Padilla for LAUSD School Board - LA Progressive:

Familias deben tener cuidado con la elección de la escuela (school choice) “panacea” – Cloaking Inequity

Familias deben tener cuidado con la elección de la escuela (school choice) “panacea” – Cloaking Inequity:

Familias deben tener cuidado con la elección de la escuela (school choice) “panacea”

Los ricos han invertido millones de dólares en causas de “school choice” (elección escolar),  durante la última década. Bajo el mantra de los derechos civiles, los multimillonarios como Eli Broad, Bill Gates, los hermanos Koch y el poderoso grupo de presión financiado por corporaciones, el American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) están usando la filantropía y el proceso político para presionar por el neoliberal reformas escolares se centraron en el control privado y la privatización en los Estados Unidos. Recientemente, los hermanos Koch y otros han dirigido sus millones a la comunidad latina a través de Libre.

Libre fue fundada en 2011 y afirma ser una “organización de base sin fines de lucro  que avanza los principios y valores de la libertad económica para empoderar a la comunidad hispana de los EE.UU.” Media Matters informó que los altos funcionarios de Libre son casi todos campaña del Partido Republicano y ha sido respaldado por más de $ 10 millones en fondos de Koch, lo que sugiere que Libre no es ni partidista ni de base.

En sus artículos de opinión publicados en los periódicos de estados donde la población latina es sustancial, los representantes de Libre hacen afirmaciones simplistas, pero convincentes, sobre los beneficios de la “elección” escolar para las comunidades de color carentes de servicios. El predominio de la literatura revisada por pares no apoya las reivindicaciones grandiosas que hace Libre y en su lugar demuestra que la elección de la escuela, en promedio, no produce la equidad, la justicia social o el éxito del estudiante que los proponentes giran.

Nadie está diciendo que no hay ejemplos de escuelas charter de alta calidad o escuelas tradicionales de vecindario. Sin embargo, varias décadas de estudios de escuelas chárter revisadas por pares y comprobantes han demostrado que la elección no es una panacea. De hecho, la elección de la escuela ha mejorado en muchos aspectos el desafortunado y problemático sistema de escuelas desiguales y problemáticas de muchos estudiantes vulnerables, a menudo fallando en servir adecuadamente a estudiantes con necesidades especiales e intensificando la segregación.

El mantra de elección debe librarse de Libre y de los multimillonarios financiadores de las “reformas” educativas neoliberales. En vez de políticas que promuevan la elección a través del control privado de arriba hacia abajo y la privatización, debemos ofrecer enfoques basados en la comunidad y controlados democráticamente. Debemos responsabilizar a los legisladores para financiar lo que las encuestas nacionales han demostrado que los padres quieren elegir en sus escuelas públicas vecinales: mayor participación de los padres, menos pruebas, clases con menos estudiantes, maestros de calidad y menos hambre.

El elefante en la habitación de nuestro país es la desafortunada y consistente elección hecha por los políticos para hablar incesantemente sobre la elección de la escuela, al tiempo que falla en entregar los recursos para proveer las opciones de los padres en las escuelas ricas y pobres.Familias deben tener cuidado con la elección de la escuela (school choice) “panacea” – Cloaking Inequity:

EFF Releases Spying on Students Ed Tech Report | Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF Releases Spying on Students Ed Tech Report | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

EFF Releases Spying on Students Ed Tech Report

EFF Survey Reveals Gaps in Protecting the Privacy of K-12 Students Using School-Issued Devices and Cloud Apps

 “They are collecting and storing data to be used against my child in the future, creating a profile before he can intellectually understand the consequences of his searches and digital behavior."

This was the response of one parent to an online survey EFF conducted to learn more about the use of mobile devices and cloud services in K-12 classrooms across the country—so called education technology or “ed tech.” Today, EFF released a report entitled “Spying on Students: School-Issued Devices and Student Privacy” that summarizes the results of this survey.

While there are educational advantages to incorporating technology into the classroom experience, the survey results reflect an overarching concern that children as young as kindergartners are being conditioned to accept a culture of surveillance. EFF maintains that children should not be taught that using the Internet or technology requires sacrificing personal privacy.

The survey, launched in December 2015, elicited responses from over 1000 students, parents, teachers, librarians, school administrators, system administrators, and community members.

We organized the survey results into eight themes:

1. Lack of transparency: Schools and districts do not provide adequate notice and disclosures to parents about what technology their children use in the classroom, including devices and online applications that require transferring student information to private companies.
2. Investigative burden: Parents and even students themselves put in significant effort, sometimes over many months, to get information from both schools/districts and ed tech companies, about technology use in the classroom and its implications for student privacy. 
3. Data collection and use: Parents are concerned about the specific data about their children that ed tech companies collect, and what companies do with that data, particularly for non-educational, commercial purposes and without written notice to and consent from parents.
4. Lack of standard privacy precautions: Survey participants reported 152 apps, software programs, and digital services being used in classrooms. Only 118 of these have published privacy policies online. And far fewer address important privacy issues such as data retention, encryption, and data de-identification and aggregation.
5. Barriers to opt-out: Many schools and districts do not provide the ability for parents to opt their children out of using certain technologies. Or if administrators are open to providing an opt-out option, many parents and students have found it difficult to make alternative technologies and teaching methods a reality.
6. Shortcomings of “Privacy by Policy”: Survey participants expressed doubt that the privacy policies of both schools/districts and ed tech companies actually protect student privacy in practice.
7. Inadequate technology and privacy training for teachers: Survey participants emphatically reported that teachers, those who interface most directly with ed tech and students, lack adequate training to move from “privacy by policy” to “privacy by practice.”
8. Digital literacy for students: Survey results revealed that there is a ripe opportunity and need to educate students about how to protect their privacy online, operate safely online, and generally be savvy users of technology, which are skills that they should carry into adulthood.

A goal of the “Spying on Students” survey was to highlight the struggles of average people trying to navigate the student privacy issue. So throughout the discussion of the survey results, we present the case studies of a parent, technology director, system administrator, and school librarian.

In addition to summarizing the survey results, the “Spying on Students” report includes an overview of relevant student privacy laws, including the federal laws FERPA and COPPA, and a sampling of state laws from California, Colorado, and Connecticut.  

The report also discusses the inadequacy of the leading ed tech industry self-regulatory effort, the Student Privacy Pledge.

Finally, the report includes privacy recommendations and best practices for school/district administrators, teachers, librarians, system administrators, parents, students, and—of course—ed tech companies.

Today’s report is part of our larger student privacy campaign, which aims to educate students, parents, and school officials about digital privacy—and to encourage ed tech companies to institute better privacy policies and practices that actually protect the privacy of minor students, while enabling them to benefit from technology in the classroom.

With the right awareness and will—particularly from an $8 billion dollar industry—technology can be both educationally beneficial and privacy protective.EFF Releases Spying on Students Ed Tech Report | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Randi Weingarten: An indecent budget proposal | American Federation of Teachers

An indecent budget proposal | American Federation of Teachers:

An indecent budget proposal

Weingarten at a rally organized by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools held at the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo by Michael Campbell.

Donald Trump’s first budget proposal is a nightmare for children. Ironically named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” it contains $9 billion in cuts to education and forecloses on the federal government’s long-standing commitment to reduce educational inequalities. The budget would take a meat cleaver to public schools, and children with the greatest needs would suffer the greatest harm. Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos plan to slash programs that help low-income children—like after-school and summer programs, class-size reduction efforts, mentoring for early-career teachers, child nutrition programs and community schools.

Trump’s budget director said the administration “went looking for the most wasteful, most indefensible programs” in order to increase defense spending and build the infamous “wall.” Apparently, the wealthiest Cabinet in U.S. history considers Meals on Wheels for seniors and programs to alleviate child hunger to be wasteful.

Half of all children in America’s public schools live in poverty. Rather than make a specious claim that the budget blueprint protects “the nation’s most vulnerable populations,” DeVos should have fought for the programs that would actually do that. For example, in McDowell County, W.Va., formerly coal country and now the seventh-poorest county in the nation, 900 children could lose after-school programs that provide tutoring, technology, healthcare, counseling, recreational activities and, for some children, their only reliable meal of the day. Parents—like Irma Castanon, whose son Juan attends the after-school program at Hart Elementary School in Austin, Texas, while she is at work—have peace of mind knowing their children are safe, supported and engaged after school. And kids like Juan can experience things that, Irma says, “all children should be able to,” like being on a soccer team, joining Boy or Girl Scouts and getting help with homework. 

More than 80 House of Representatives members—including Trump supporters—and nearly 1,500 organizations are calling on Congress to maintain federal funding for after-school programs.

Trump’s budget proposal also targets funding for community learning centers, like the Community Health Academy of the Heights in New York City, that wrap services for children and families around the school. CHAH offers a full-service health clinic, mental health services, free eyeglasses for students who need them, a parent resource center and a food pantry. Far from wasteful, these resources are life-changing, as nearly all of the school’s 650 students live below the poverty line. Aside from the obvious benefits to their well-being, CHAH students are making the grade; the number of students reading at the lowest level fell by 37 percent between 2013 and 2016. Dozens of other communities have taken similar approaches with similar results. 

Compare this with school voucher programs, which get a windfall in the budget despite reams of research showing their ineffectiveness. The Louisiana voucher program has led to large reductions in kids’ reading and math scores. Even a study by a pro-voucher group, the Fordham Institute, found that students in Ohio’s voucher program did worse than children in public schools.

The proposal also targets initiatives that help teachers teach. In Toledo, Ohio, for example, teachers receive training in an intensive reading program for students who are not reading proficiently by third grade—which research shows puts them at greatly increased risk of not graduating from high school. Classes that have implemented the program have shown a 50 percent increase in reading proficiency. Escambia County, Fla., could lose a peer mentoring and assistance program that pairs accomplished teachers with first-year and struggling teachers. In addition to improving teaching quality, the high level of support has been an effective recruiting tool. All this is on the chopping block.

DeVos often says she wants parents to have more choices. Ask parents what they want, and most often you will hear they want things like a school that is safe, with well-prepared teachers and class sizes small enough that their child can get personal attention; a school that meets children where they are and helps them thrive. The Trump-DeVos budget does just the opposite. Indeed, it seems intended to do what DeVos did in Michigan: defund and destabilize public schools so parents feel the need to look elsewhere.

I have invited the education secretary to visit public schools with me so she can see that they are far from being a “dead end,” as she called them, but rather are foundational to our communities and our democracy. That is as true in deep-blue places as it is in places that are ruby red—like Van Wert, Ohio, the rural district we will visit next week. Van Wert’s public schools focus on children’s well-being, engage in project-based learning and anchor the community. They—like so many others—need federal investment in these programs, not a budget that takes a hatchet to public schools, which 86 percent of American children attend.

Download the Column (118.48 KB)

- See more at: http://www.aft.org/column/indecent-budget-proposal#new_tab

A gun is discharged in a US school about once a week: advocacy group analysis - ABC News

A gun is discharged in a US school about once a week: advocacy group analysis - ABC News:

A gun is discharged in a US school about once a week: advocacy group analysis

The gun violence at a California elementary school last week is hardly uncommon in the U.S., which has seen an estimated 220 shootings -- including suicides and accidents -- in schools and colleges since the start of 2013, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control and against gun violence.

The advocacy organization began tracking shootings in schools, including colleges and universities, after the December 2012 massacre at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school that killed 26.

The group's analysis doesn't go back far enough to include the deadliest school shooting in history, which occurred 10 years ago today, on April 16, 2007, when Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty.

But Everytown's figures, unlike some other tallies of gun violence, include shootings even if they are accidental or don't result in any injuries or fatalities.

The list tracks “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds,” which could include suicides, accidental discharges, and criminal activity, such as gunfire related to an armed robbery, according to the website of Everytown, which is backed by billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

This broad definition of school shootings has led to some criticism from gun rights advocates who argue that the Everytown's statistics present gun violence in schools as more common than it is.

But Everytown says on its website that its definition of school firearms incidents is “straightforward, fair, and comprehensive." It covers "any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement of school officials."

Politifact analyzed Everytown's figures in 2014 in response to the criticism and found that the group is open about its methodology and its broad definition of shootings in schools.

Politifact's conclusion? By grouping mass shootings in schools with suicides or accidental A gun is discharged in a US school about once a week: advocacy group analysis - ABC News:

SB 808 Scares the Hell Out of CCSA and Of Course It Was Pulled | EdSource

California bill that would restrict charter school approvals stalls in Sacramento | EdSource:

California bill that would restrict charter school approvals stalls in Sacramento

Charter school supporters are applauding a state senator’s decision to table a bill that would have allowed only school districts to approve new charter petitions.

The bill’s author, State Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, said Monday he will not ask the Senate Education Committee to vote on the bill next week when it was due to come up for consideration.

Mendoza said he remains behind the concept of the bill, which would greatly restrict how charters appeal district-level refusals to their county offices of education and remove the state Board of Education from the process altogether.

Mendoza made his decision following a rally and meeting with charter supporters at his Los Angeles-area office this past week.

“I’ve taken the concerns expressed about this bill and its impact on existing charters, and I am working to address them,” Mendoza told EdSource. “However, due to timing, I may present the bill in the Senate Education committee and not ask for a vote. This will allow us more time to find the best way to address the serious issues of charter school authorizations and petitioners.”

The setback for the bill reflects the growing clout of the California Charter School Association as it moves aggressively to expand charter school enrollments in the state. The association has called on its members to rally against the bill, including asking supporters to rally at Mendoza’s district office on April 13.

The bill was backed by the California Teachers Association, which argued that allowing school districts to approve charter schools was consistent with the “local control” approach espoused by Gov. Jerry Brown and adopted by the state Legislature.

“SB 808 is not dead,” said Claudia Briggs, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association. “There is a lot of important testimony that needs to be shared and myriad facts presented, therefore more time is needed to show the drastic and negative impacts the lack of regulations on corporate charter schools is having on our students and communities.”

The union wrote on its website that the ability of county offices of education to overrule some district decisions on charters “is undermining the practice of local control, wherein districts develop priorities and plans with input from all California bill that would restrict charter school approvals stalls in Sacramento | EdSource:

Big Education Ape: California Charter Schools and REAL Local Control - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/04/california-charter-schools-and-real.html

Big Education Ape: New Legislative Push for Charter School Accountability | UTLA - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-legislative-push-for-charter-school.html