Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory?

Hell yes!

Well, let me qualify that. It’s really, really important to have everybody vaccinated against a whole host of diseases — like

• the ones that killed nearly all of my uncles and aunts years before I was born; or

• The Smallpox that killed hundreds of millions over the past century or two before it was eradicated; or

• the polio that put my dad in an iron lung; or

• the mumps, chickenpox, measles, rubella, and hepatitis that I suffered through as a kid; or

the shingles that I got a year or so ago because I had chickenpox as a kid*; or

• So many others, including diphtheria, pertussis, and all the rest.

I can think of some exceptions Let me list them.

If you never ride public transportation (including taxis and rental cares); AND

You never shop in a store, attend a school, or go to a museum, CONTINUE READING: Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community

One of the remnants of House Bill 1 -- the landmark school funding and policy legislation during which I served as Chairman of the Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee -- was a provision that required all EdChoice voucher students to be tested the same as public school students.

This provision has allowed for there to be several years of testing data for some EdChoice students. The results are only posted if a certain number of students at a private school take vouchers. And only the EdChoice students at the private schools take the tests.

However, it is useful, I feel, to compare how students taking vouchers do vs. those who do not. The results are interesting. But there are several caveats:

1. The test results for voucher students only calculate the proficiency rate. Nothing on student growth. And nothing about how much over proficiency the students score. For example, public school students can rate Proficient, Accelerated or Advanced. But all voucher students get is whether they are proficient.
2. There are no test results for students in private schools who do NOT take a voucher. So the results I'm about to discuss do NOT necessarily indicate how the privates are doing overall. It is simply measuring how voucher recipients do and how proficient they are on state tests.

So here's how I did this comparison using 2017-2018 school year data (the latest available), given the caveats:

1. I looked at all private schools eligible to take EdChoice vouchers and sorted them by mailing address, then averaged their performance by that community. So, for example, I looked at the average CONTINUE READING: 10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

John Thompson: 'My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy'

'My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy'

‘My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy’

Americans are bracing for a fight — against ourselves.

Regardless of how the upcoming #Election2020 political battles are fought, our democracy is in danger. American democracy needs conversations about how we can reunite and rebuild. As is so often true, we should embrace the wisdom, eloquence, and grace in Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics and characters.

Springsteen’s Western Stars album was released in 2019 along with a film of his performances. It isn’t partisan. The name of President Donald Trump is never used. Instead, the album is about more than the Trump era and its anxiety. Springsteen portrays the fears of our post-frontier nation. He puts a face on individuals from the environments where Trumpism flourishes. Springsteen makes us come to grips with the humanity of people struggling with modern culture.

‘Hello sunshine, won’t you stay?’

As today’s conflict escalates, Western Stars pulls us into the souls of even our most combative neighbors, while exploring other, long-standing American themes. Without mentioning politics, Springsteen implicitly reteaches the principle: My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy.

Hello Sunshine is likely influenced by Springsteen’s own battle with depression. He sings:

I had a little sweet spot for the rainFor the rain and skies of greyHello sunshine, won’t you stay?

Springsteen recalls the mixed legacy of  CONTINUE READING: 

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

I am well known as an employee that ‘rocks the boat’ in giving my well-researched opinions and urgent advocacy in service of kids and upholding the law.”

– Dr. Silke Bradford

Dr. Silke Bradford is an education professional who states that she has spent the last 20 years in the field of education at every level (teacher, assistant principal, principal, and senior director) in school districts and the county office of education. As the Los Angeles Times notes, she “has worked mostly in traditional school systems, including overseeing charters, but [she] also has experience with a charter organization.” Depending on how she positions her campaign, she could use this broad experience to her advantage by presenting herself as the candidate not beholden to either UTLA or the charter industry. Or she could draw so much fire from both sides that her chances will be doomed. CONTINUE READING: LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC?

[Ed. Note: DC’s office of planning has promulgated revisions to the city’s comprehensive plan. The deadline for public comment was last week–but ANCs have additional time to review and comment on the draft document, which is here in a redlined version.

The changes made to this planning document not only are long on celebration and short on historical detail, but the emphasis throughout appears to be on public private partnership agreements for everything public, whether using public facilities, modernizing them, or locating in them. (Really: check out what it says about public private partnerships to construct new police stations (section 1113.4) and to remodel and construct correctional facilities (section 1114.13).) If the mayor’s planners succeed in pushing this privatized utopia through, it will likely lead to a landscape for public education in which privatizers are further encouraged to get their piece of public action, a la what DPR seems to be currently doing with Jelleff and nearby Ellington field.

(NB: If you don’t have time to wade through the >1500 redlined pages of the draft comprehensive plan to get a flavor for this, you can get the shorthand version (including a 999-year lease!) on this current list of DPR public private partnership agreements for DC’s publicly owned recreational facilities. That list was provided to the council after the public hearing on Jelleff.)

Anyhoo, below are my comments on this draft document, with an emphasis on CONTINUE READING: DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

Chad Aldeman (Bellwether Education Partners) wants us to take heart. He's over at The 74 (Campbell Brown's House of Reform Advocacy) arguing that although reformsters are writing off the last ten years as a "lost decade" there was actually some good news-- while "educational achievement" (by which Aldeman actually means "standardized test scores") remained stagnant, college attainment has been on the rise.

Well, that's a puzzler. Adelman suggests that you might explain the incongruity by claiming that colleges and high schools just lowered their standards. But he thinks the attainment rates deserve attention.

One reason is that it’s much easier to gauge attainment than achievement. Measuring attainment is as simple as asking adults what their highest level of education is, whereas measuring achievement involves a complex process of defining what people at various ages should know and be able to do, developing a tool to measure those skills, sampling the given population and then translating the sample results into larger estimates.

Well, yes. That second thing, the measuring achievement is hard, so hard I would argue (as I have for forever) that we can't actually do it, but in the education disruptor's desire to have such a tool, we've just rushed a couple of bad proxies to market and continued to pretend that they measure what they don't.

We already know that the NAEP is not actually a "gold standard" for measuring educational achievement. And the PARCC, SBA, and all their sad CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

Big Political Interests Control LAUSD’s Southern Ports District 7 (Election News, March 3, 2020) – redqueeninla

Big Political Interests Control LAUSD’s Southern Ports District 7 (Election News, March 3, 2020) – redqueeninla

Big Political Interests Control LAUSD’s Southern Ports District 7 (Election News, March 3, 2020)

Big political interests are big:  Yep, we all know this, but until a tiny little just-me person comes up against their fighting power it’s hard to comprehend.

Money to candidates comes in two flavors (see graphics here):  (a) that which is controlled by the candidate him/herself, and (b) that which the candidate has no control of, collected and spent by “independent expenditure committees” (IECs) “outside” the campaign.

While the really big shenanigans are contained within IEC expenditures, it turns out campaign donations can be useful indicators of “who” a candidate is, where and among whom their support lies; who considers them a worthy early investment, who chips in downstream.

These monies can even give clues as to regional culture and characteristics. Which is very useful considering the vastness of Los Angeles Unified’s school district (LAUSD), carved into just seven political zones of representation, mapped here. LAUSD encompasses 710 square miles including 26 municipalities and unincorporated areas of LA County, in which 100 different languages are spoken. Divide that by 7 as a rough estimate of what goes on in your particular district, and it’s no wonder if you have no clue of its diversity never mind what’s happening in the next one over.

Thus while we are all exhausted from the BOE campaigns of this past decade CONTINUE READING: Big Political Interests Control LAUSD’s Southern Ports District 7 (Election News, March 3, 2020) – redqueeninla

California's new charter school regulation is already helping its credit rating

California's new charter school regulation is already helping its credit rating

California’s new charter school regulation is already helping its credit rating

Here’s our weekly analysis of privatization in the news and in communities nationwide. Not a subscriber? Sign up.

This week’s highlights

• Moody’s says that California’s new law tightening up regulation of charter schools is credit positive for the state.
• We, In the Public the Interest, are taking a new direction in 2020. Well, sort of.
• A golf course wants to privatize a bird sanctuary in public parkland so that its wealthy members can enjoy themselves.

In the Public Interest will be taking a new direction in 2020, sort of. We’ve written about how corporate forces are taking power over the fundamentals of democracy—our voice, economy, and government. And we’ve created tools like our “10 questions” guide and helped organizations fight reckless privatization schemes. We’re going to continue to do all of that. We’re called “In the Public Interest” for a reason, and our new direction for 2020 is simple. We’re going to show what public control over public goods means and looks like—both a governing vision and practical examples from across the country.

Education

1) National: Mercedes Schneider reports that billionaire pro-charter education reformer Eli Broad has moved his Broad Center from Los Angeles to Yale University. “On December  05, 2019, the Yale School of Management announced that it “received the largest gift in its history from the Broad Foundation,”but it’s not a gift, really. It’s a purchase: the Broad Center at Yale School of Management (SOM). Broad is moving his operation from Los Angeles to Yale.

Same ed-reform story, with a facelift—and a new address that repackages the Broad ed reform push in a gloss of heightened prestige.” 

2) National: Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum reports that “Mike Feinberg, who was fired from the KIPP charter network he co-founded in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, continues to work in the charter school sphere, both nationally and in Houston. Feinberg, who has denied the allegations CONTINUE READING: California's new charter school regulation is already helping its credit rating

"We Are All Reformers" (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

"We Are All Reformers" (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

"We Are All Reformers" (Part 2)

An education timeline of laws, events, and key people would show that in the 20th and 21st centuries multiple school reforms occurred again and again touching students, practitioners, parents, and researchers. The problem with such chronologies, however, is that they overwhelm viewers with lists of factual details. It is hard to sort out the important from the trivial. So I present no such chronology. For those readers, however, who want to see a few examples, look here and here.

Instead, as a historian of school reform (with a point of view), I will consolidate all of the events, innovations, people, and legislation into three major reform movements since 1900–in each case originating outside of the public schools—that sought to improve the nation and its tax-supported public schools. These three movements were the basis of a course that David Tyack and I taught for over a decade (1987-1999) resulting in our book, Tinkering toward Utopia.

Sure, in merging together decades of reform, I run the risk of dropping innovations and people that other historians and contemporary reformers may find regrettable, even mistaken. So be it. In writing about the past, historians CONTINUE READING: "We Are All Reformers" (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement

Domingo Morel is a professor of political science at Rutgers University who has studied school takeovers across the nation. He is the author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. 

In this post, he describes the proposed state takeover of the Houston Independent School District as a hoax. 

It is a manufactured crisis. It is a theft of political power, and it is based on race.

If the state of Texas had its way, the state would be in the process of taking overthe Houston Independent School District.

But a judge temporarily blocked the takeover on Jan. 8, with the issue now set to be decided at a trial in June.

The ruling temporarily spares Houston’s public school system from joining a list of over 100 school districts in the nation that have experienced similar state takeovers during the past 30 years.

The list includes New York City, Chicago, Boston, CONTINUE READING: Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Operation Relentless Pursuit: Test Beds For “Smart City” Signals Intelligence? – Wrench in the Gears

Operation Relentless Pursuit: Test Beds For “Smart City” Signals Intelligence? – Wrench in the Gears

Operation Relentless Pursuit: Test Beds For “Smart City” Signals Intelligence?

On January 7, 2020 Black Alliance for Peace – Baltimore issued a demand that public officials reject a planned surge of militarized policing authorized by the Trump administration. Operation Relentless Pursuit is targeting Baltimore and six other mid-size cities, all of which have significant Black and Brown populations. The others include: Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis, and Albuquerque. Representatives of the FBI, DEA, AFT, and US Marshall Service were present at the Department of Justice’s December 18, 2019 press conference.

I write this post as a statement of solidarity in support of their demands and to examine this operation in light of my recent work around policing, diversion courts, and prison “reform” as a global investment market. I have concerns that some of the funds associated with this vile operation may be channeled into problematic technological systems. Residents of these cities could end up as test-subjects for new forms of militarized digital surveillance intended to further harm Black and Brown communities while allowing military interests to refine the signals intelligence required for future urban military actions. Data collected under the pretense of crime reduction could also create baselines to expand futures markets in human capital (pay for success). Baltimore, in particular, is home to major players CONTINUE READING: Operation Relentless Pursuit: Test Beds For “Smart City” Signals Intelligence? – Wrench in the Gears

Sarasota and Manatee educators to “Take On Tallahassee” - News - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL

Sarasota and Manatee educators to “Take On Tallahassee” - News - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL

Sarasota and Manatee educators to “Take On Tallahassee”

The “Take On Tallahassee” rally brings together public education advocates throughout the state on the eve of the 2020 legislative session.

Early Monday morning roughly 100 public education advocates will travel from Sarasota and Manatee counties to “Take On Tallahassee,” an all-day rally in the state capitol calling on lawmakers to increase support for public education on the eve of the 2020 Legislative Session.

Union leaders from both counties are each hoping to fill a charter bus of supporters.

“We are taking a small group of mighty warriors for a long hard day,” said Manatee Education Association President Pat Barber. “We want a decade of progress after more than a decade of backward for public education.”

The Florida Education Association is organizing the rally, with hopes for representatives from each of Florida’s 67 counties. FEA President Fedrick Ingram said the event will focus on calls for increased public education funding and for reforms to policies that have increased testing in schools and diminished local control.

“We are holding lawmakers accountable for the situation they have created — for severe shortages of teachers and other school employees, for a lack of the counselors who help keep schools safe, for the loss of programs such as band and P.E., for overcrowded classrooms, for decaying buildings with leaking roofs,” Ingram said. “The Legislature must step up to do the right thing for our students and for Florida’s future.”

Guest speakers will include Manatee School Board member James Golden, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. CONTINUE READING: Sarasota and Manatee educators to “Take On Tallahassee” - News - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL

SCHOOLING IN THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY - BILLIONAIRES ANTHEM

SCHOOLING IN THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY 

 BILLIONAIRES ANTHEM

Everybody must get OWNED

Lyrics

Well, they'll OWN you when you're trying to be so good

They'll OWN  you just like they said they would
They'll OWN  you when you're trying to go home
And they'll OWN  you when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get OWNED

Well, they'll OWN  you when you're walking on the street
They'll OWN  you when you're tryin' to keep your seat
They'll OWN  you when you're walkin' on the floor
They'll OWN  you when you're walkin' to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get OWNED

They'll OWN you when you're at the breakfast table
They'll OWN you when you are young and able
They'll OWN you when you're tryin' to make a buck
Then they'll OWN you and then they'll say "good luck"
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get OWNED

Well, they'll OWN you and say that it's the end
Then they'll OWN you and then they'll come back again
They'll OWN you when you're riding in your car
They'll OWN you when you're playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get OWNED alright

Well, they'll OWN you when you walk all alone
They'll OWN you when you are walking home
They'll OWN you and then say you are brave
They'll OWN you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get OWNED

H/T Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

 

DeVos Ignores a Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished? | Diane Ravitch's blog

DeVos Ignores a Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished? | Diane Ravitch's blog

DeVos Ignores a Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished?

During the Obama administration, Congress passed legislation to protect students who had been defrauded by for-profit colleges. In most cases, the “colleges” made claims about their success in placing their graduates in jobs. As a result of these misleading claims, thousands of students paid for a worthless degree. The Education Department attempted to help them get restitution. The Education Department was on the side of the victims of predatory colleges.

But times change, and now Betsy DeVos is in charge. In the past, she has invested in for-profit colleges. She has no sympathy for the students who were defrauded. She thinks they are trying to get free money, and she has dragged her heels. Clearly she sides with the for-profit colleges, not the students.

A lawsuit was brought against the Department of Education for sending debt collectors to hound students who had been defrauded. The judge in the case, Judge Sallie Kim, fined the U.S. Department of Education $100,000 after ED admitted that it attempted to collect on debts owed by 16,000 students. For some unknown reason, the $100,000 was supposed to help those students, but each one would receive just a few dollars, maybe enough for a cup of coffee.

After the fine was imposed and DeVos was held in CONTINUE READING: DeVos Ignores a Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Educational Redlining: GreatSchools Ratings Drive Housing Segregation | janresseger

Educational Redlining: GreatSchools Ratings Drive Housing Segregation | janresseger

Educational Redlining: GreatSchools Ratings Drive Housing Segregation

Back in 2015, Heights Community Congress (HCC) in Cleveland Heights, Ohio raised serious concerns (here and here) about the impact of online GreatSchools ratings of public schools. The GreatSchools ratings were, in 2015, being used in online real estate advertising by listing services like Zillow.  The practice continues.

HCC, founded in 1972, is Greater Cleveland, Ohio’s oldest fair housing enforcement organization. For over four decades HCC has been conducting audits of the real estate industry to expose and discourage racial steering and disparate treatment of African American and white home seekers. During 2015 and 2016, the fair housing committee of HCC held community meetings to demonstrate that such ads and ratings of public schools are steering home buyers to whiter and wealthier communities and redlining racially and economically diverse and majority black and Hispanic communities.

Last month, Chalkbeat published an in-depth examination of similar concerns on a national scale: “Arguably the most visible and influential school rating system in America comes from the nonprofit GreatSchools, whose 1-10 ratings appear in home listings on national real estate websites Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin.  Forty-three million people visited GreatSchools’ site in 2018…. Zillow and its affiliated sites count more than 150 million unique visitors per month.”

Chalkbeat reports that GreatSchools has calculated its ratings for schools using the annual standardized test scores mandated by the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a CONTINUE READING: Educational Redlining: GreatSchools Ratings Drive Housing Segregation | janresseger

Chaz's School Daze: Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Ceertification

Chaz's School Daze: Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Ceertification

Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Certification

The New York State Appellate Division, Third Department upheld  a lower court ruling that the SUNY alternate teacher certification scheme for charter schools was not allowed under State education law.  The Appellate Court unanimously rejected SUNY's argument that they had the authority to have an alternative teacher certification for charter schools.

It's no secret that charter schools are having trouble in recruiting and retaining certified teachers and by State law are only allowed to have no more than 15% uncertified teachers on their staff.  My guess is if the State scrutinize the charter schools they would find that most violate that limitation.  Take Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy High School in Manhattan that saw an astonishing 70% teacher turnover in one year.

  I know of a Science teacher that was unfairly terminated by the DOE but every year charter schools compete with each other to hire the teacher since most of them lack a certified Science teacher.  The Science teacher tells me that every charter school she teaches in, the next year most  teachers are either not invited back due to money, CONTINUE READING: Chaz's School Daze: Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Ceertification

More Reform Funded Research: KIPP Graduates Persist In College At The Same Rate As Their Mothers | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

More Reform Funded Research: KIPP Graduates Persist In College At The Same Rate As Their Mothers | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

More Reform Funded Research: KIPP Graduates Persist In College At The Same Rate As Their Mothers

Education Reform propaganda at The74 would try to make you believe that while low income students generally graduate from college at a rate of about 9%, charter school graduates complete college at a rate of 3 to 5 times that.

The main flaw in any comparison between the college graduation rates of charter school graduates to low-income students, in general, is that the charter school students do not represent a random sampling of the general population of low-income students.

In The Alumni, Richard Whitmire says that charter schools that have 5 times the expected college completion rate are ones that only counted their students who persisted until 12th grade in their charter schools.  Since for some charter schools, this only represents about 25% of the students who started in that charter school, this even more of a biased sample.  But, Whitmire explains, the one network that has the most valid way of doing a fair comparison is the famed KIPP network.  Since KIPP counts, in their data, any students who enrolled in KIPP, even if they left soon after starting.  And he says that KIPP students, including ones who didn’t persist at KIPP, graduate college 3 times the expected rate.

Reform supporting billionaire John Arnold commissioned Mathematica, a data analysis CONTINUE READING: More Reform Funded Research: KIPP Graduates Persist In College At The Same Rate As Their Mothers | Gary Rubinstein's Blog