Q &A with Leroy Clemons: Nearly 50 years after Freedom Summer, education is key to change in Mississippi | Hechinger Report

Q &A with Leroy Clemons: Nearly 50 years after Freedom Summer, education is key to change in Mississippi | Hechinger Report:

Q &A with Leroy Clemons: Nearly 50 years after Freedom Summer, education is key to change in Mississippi

By Liz Willen

Leroy Clemons, president of the Neshoba County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was only two years old when three civil-rights workers investigating the burning of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Miss., were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. He did not learn about the triple murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman until he was in eighth grade. Clemons has since devoted much of his life to ensuring the children of Mississippi and elsewhere learn exactly what happened duringFreedom Summer, the 1964 campaign to register blacks to vote in a climate rife with violent resistance. Clemons later became co-founder and president of the Philadelphia Coalition, a multiracial taskforce formed in 2004 and charged with planning the public commemoration of and memorial to the slain civil-rights workers. Clemons, who helped Mississippi develop the country’s first mandated civil-rights curriculum for K-12 students, now directs community relations at theWilliam Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

Leroy Clemons, president of the Neshoba County, Mississippi branch of the NAACP, gives a tour of Freedom Summer sites, including this memorial to slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner.  (Photo: Liz Willen)

Liz Willen of The Hechinger Report spoke with Clemons duringa recent tour of Freedom Summer sites in Mississippi. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: You’ve often said that education is the best lever for change, and that if you don’t know your history, you will be condemned to repeat it. Yet Mississippi’s children lag behind their peers in the rest of the United States on nearly every measure. As the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer approaches, racial division and inequities still run deep in the state, and there’s still a large achievement gap between black and white 

 

Common Core poses big challenge for students, big opportunity for teachers

Ed Source With an emphasis on developing verbal and analytical skills, the new Common Core standards will pose a big step up for most students. For English learners, who comprise a quarter of California’s children, it’ll seem more like a pole vault. “Common Core is pushing us toward a higher level of achievement, and that depth is predicated on an ability to use language in sophisticated ways,” sa

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8-13-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

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New Quinnipiac Poll Puts Bill De Blasio In The Lead

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Bloomberg: Let The Peasants Bathe In Porcelain, I Shall Bathe In Copper With A Nickel Finish

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McGraw Hill Loses Regents Exams, NYCDOE Makes Students Retake The Tests

Just outrageous:Students from a Chelsea high school have to retake their English Regents exams today after their original tests fell off the back of a truck on their way to be graded, the teachers union said last night. The United Federation of Teachers said about 75 11th-grade students from Chelsea Career and Technical Education HS have to retake the test after education company McGraw Hill lost

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Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Newark Star Ledger: Chris Christie And Cory Booker Share Same Key DonorsThe corporate education reformers are coming out for both Christie and Booker: Five dozen wealthy donors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley have placed their bets on both of New Jersey’s big political stars — Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker — this campaign season, a

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8-13-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

North Carolina anti-tenure and seniority laws follows Illinois lead. Local wing-nuts too dumb to notice.

  Illinois Policy Institute either lies or doesn’t know. North Carolina citizens are in a battle against a Republican state government that has launched a frontal assault on civil right, women’s rights and labor rights. Thousands have turned out for months of Moral Monday rallies. Ten thousand at the most recent event. While leaders of the North Carolina teachers’ union have been late in joining

by Fred Klonsky / 1min 

The in box. Support for Logan Square TIF – Schools rally Sunday.

From Will Guzzardi: Many of you joined with us in our struggle this past winter to keep Brentano Elementary open. Principal Salgado and the rest of the Brentano family are thrilled that the school will be opening its doors for another school year in just a couple of weeks.   Sadly, there will be a cost: $300,000, the amount that Chicago Public Schools has cut from Brentano’s bud

1 by Fred Klonsky / 5min 

8-12-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: A children’s forced march through murder zones marked by Safe Passage signs.It was another tragic weekend for the families of the dead in Chicago. It is hard to even keep up with the tally. Over 30 shot. 4 dead. Maybe more. As if to mock The Mayor and his promise of safe passage for students who on Au

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Diane Ravitch, other Common Core opponents to testify in Michigan | MLive.com

Diane Ravitch, other Common Core opponents to testify in Michigan | MLive.com:

Diane Ravitch, other Common Core opponents to testify in Michigan

 LANSING -- Prominent education expert and Common Core opponent Diane Ravitch is one of several high-profile witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday on the standards before a Michigan House subcommittee studying the math and language arts guidelines.

Ravitch is a professor of education at New York University and a former assistant education secretary in George H.W. Bush's administration. She maintains a blog where she has written extensively about Common Core's implementation and her opposition to the standards.

Ravitch will be joined at the hearing by Williamson Evers, a research fellow from Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and by Sandra Stotsky, an education professor at the University of Arkansas -- both of whom have expressed opposition to the standards in the past.

Also scheduled to testify are Michigan State Board of Education President John C. Austin and a group from Business Leaders for Michigan including president Doug Rothwell. The business group has already endorsed the standards, and Austin was vice-president of the state board when it voted to adopt the Common Core State Standards in 2010.

Wednesday's hearing is also expected to include some opportunity for public comment, 

COMMON CORE

• Diane Ravitch, other Common Core opponents to testify in Michigan
• Common Core hearings in Michigan House, Senate have been heated; more scheduled next week
• Common Core survey of education agencies shows states already developing curriculum
• Education leaders across nation optimistic about Common Core's future
• Common Core is right for Michigan (Business Leaders for Michigan guest column)

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-13-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

NY Test Score Collapse: What Now?

What should happen next in New York after the Common Core testing debacle? I won’t share my thoughts here, which are strong, but instead share the views of an experienced educator. Jere Hochman is superintendent of the Bedford Central school district in Westchester County. This is what he concludes: “Schools have always used standards, designed curriculum, taught kids, and assessed learning and ac

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Reader: What We Learned from the New York Test Score Debacle

The first Common Core test produced a massive decline in test scores across the state. Charter schools fared even worse than public schools, with many dropping by 50 percentage points in their proficiency rates. This reader read the handwriting on the wall:   “These test scores emphatically highlight the failure of vision that the corporate reformers bring to the table. What scares me is the treme

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Why Is Pennsylvania Unable to Pay for Public Schools?

Pennsylvania has more cyber charters than any other state (16 at last count). It also has a large charter sector that performs no better than public schools. The Governor took $1 billion out of the public schools’ budget, and he is allowing the public schools of Philadelphia to die. Here is a good explanation: “We cannot afford four separate school systems “Pennsylvanians must decide if we want t

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A Hero Principal Speaks Out Against Absurd State Tests

Anna Allanbrook, principal of PS 146 in Brooklyn, is not afraid. She is one of the remaining veteran principals in a city that has ruthlessly pushed out veterans and replaced them with teachers who have only a few years experience. Allanbrook is 58. She remembers what it was like to be an educator before the state and city leaders became obsessed with test scores. Her school is highly popular. Las

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Chile: The Most Pro-Market School System in the World, Part 2

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The Bammy Awards: A Celebration of Educational Leadership

This is an event you should try to attend if you are in the DC area on September 23. It is the Bammy awards, and it celebrates the contributions of educators, not corporate reformers. Last year, Linda Darling-Hammond, John Merrow, and I received Bammies for “lifetime achievement.” None of us is finished. We continue to fight for better days in American education. Congratulations to Errol St. Cl

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Diane in the Evening 8-12-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Will LA Mayor Choose Corporate Reformer to Advise Him?This Los Angeles parent explains why parents are alarmed by the prospect that the new mayor Eric Garcetti might choose Thelma Melendez, one of Arne Duncan’s deputies as his advisor. She writes: “In making this appointment, the Mayor should follow his creed to lead by listening a

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Educating Our Teachers — A Community’s Unappreciated Right | toteachornototeach

Educating Our Teachers — A Community’s Unappreciated Right | toteachornototeach:

Educating Our Teachers — A Community’s Unappreciated Right 

by Murali Balaji

Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, I was often peppered with questions from both classmates and teachers about my religion. A teacher asked me once if Hindus performed animal sacrifices while numerous classmates — including friends — asked me repeatedly about the caste system, arranged marriage, and reincarnation.

My parents used to feel frustrated by the stories I’d tell them when I came home. But ultimately they felt powerless to do anything about it. Sadly, for my generation of Hindu Americans who grew up in the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, there weren’t too many options in terms of dealing with misinformed teachers or ignorant classmates. Of course, our parents could complain (and they would), but it rarely led to any sort of tangible outcome. As a result, misrepresentations about Hinduism — whether they related to caste, cultural practices such as arranged marriage, or philosophical views such as karma and reincarnation — went unabated and sadly became entrenched in America’s classrooms and textbooks, where they continue to reside.

There are two extremes which may arise when it comes to relationships between Hindu parents and their children’s educators. One is the in-your-face approach and the other is non-confrontational. Much of this could be a result of how some Hindus, particularly those who immigrated from other parts of the world, feel constantly slighted in their workplace environments and in the public sphere, thus making them more sensitive to perceived affronts in the classroom. The latter might be more attributable to many in the post-Gandhi generation who conflate non-confrontation with passivity and do nothing to change misconceptions. Either way, Hindu parents too often end up being more reactive than 

UPDATE: Latest Pearson Foul Up - Indiana District Abandons A-F Grading System; Are Others About to Follow? | Scathing Purple Musings

Indiana District Abandons A-F Grading System; Are Others About to Follow? | Scathing Purple Musings:

The Latest Pearson Foul Up: 4000 VA Students Get Wrong Testing Results

From Washington Post reporter Michael Alison Chandler: Pearson, the world’s largest education and testing company, provided incorrect scorecards for more than 4,000 students in Virginia who took an alternative assessment last school year. That mistake led to many parents receiving news this summer that their children had passed the test when they actually had failed it. “We sincerely apologize for

17 by Bob Sikes / 31min 

Indiana District Abandons A-F Grading System; Are Others About to Follow?

Posted on August 13, 2013

by Bob Sikes

From 21Live reporters Rachel Martin and Eric Dutkeywicz:

Fort Wayne Community Schools will no longer use a statewide A-F performance system to determine schools’ achievement.

The school board approved a resolution Monday night that “will no longer give public recognition to its schools based solely upon the letter grade assigned to a school under the Bennett A-F System.”

“The Bennett A-F System has been determined to have been corrupted.” Mark GiaQuinta, FWCS board president, says. “It is not a legitimate method by which to assess excellence in our classrooms.”

The vote was 6-1. Lisa Olinger voted against the resolution.

The board’s resolution says other criteria should be used to determine a school’s performance, including: closing of achievement gaps between groups of students, overall improvement of student body, skill and experience of school leaders, attendance rates, extracurricular activities, 

8-13-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

Eugene Robinson asks "What NSA reforms?"

In this Washington Post op ed Robinson notes The modest reforms Obama proposed do not begin to address the fundamental question of whether we want the National Security Agency to log all of our phone calls and read at least some of our e-mails, relying on secret judicial orders from a secret court for permission. The president indicated he is willing to discuss how all this is done — but not wheth

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8-11-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos: A follow-up to Something weird has happenedIn this piece i remarked on the strange phenomenon of a piece originally posted in February again going viral on the Washington Post website.  Because in that original piece, I noted that what I was observing was a part of the reason I had retired from the classroom, and as regular readers here know I have decided to "un-retire" I

by mike simpson / 6h 

LAUSD- STILL ROTTEN TO ITS "COMMON CORE" - Perdaily.com

LAUSD- STILL ROTTEN TO ITS "COMMON CORE" - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD- STILL ROTTEN TO ITS "COMMON CORE"

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

Barbara Jones is not a reporter, but rather an unquestioning conduit for the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) irrational propaganda that clearly has no basis in fact. In her latest homage to Deasy & Company entitled Back to School Means Big Changes, Challenges at LAUSD, Ms. Jones uncritically reports LAUSD's latest addition to its disingenuous edspeak party line that doesn't stand the slightest chance of changing what remains its purposefully failed public education reality that is toxic to students and teachers. 

Far from the "watershed year" that her article proclaims with a "new curriculum, toughen[ed] graduation requirement and an innovative system for dealing with disruptive students," in reality, Jones completely ignores the fact that students who have been socially promoted years beyond their ability are objectively incapable of doing any curriculum- "new" or otherwise, because they clearly lack mastery of the basic prior grade-level standards necessary to do so- 

As for toughening its graduation requirements, schools like Roosevelt High School with existing graduation requirements already loses 55% of its students before they reach the 12th grade. And then, only 30% of these graduating seniors have the requisite college A-G requirements necessary to give them even a chance in 

One Teacher's Perspective: A Lesson George Zimmerman Never Learned

One Teacher's Perspective: A Lesson George Zimmerman Never Learned:

A Lesson George Zimmerman Never Learned

Usually I trend toward indifference on high-profile court cases, like the George Zimmerman trial, when the constant media coverage kicks in.

However, this case was different. I was and continue to be enthralled on many levels.

My anger toward Zimmerman and his supporters persists. Regardless of what the jury’s "not guilty" ruling indicates, Zimmerman’s inappropriate racial profiling, unnecessary gun-toting, and his obvious hypermasculinity (which allowed him to ignore the 911 dispatcher’s advice for restraint) are deserving of some sort of just punishment.

This Zimmerman case reminds me of my involvement in a criminal chase. I have shared this following story from time to time with my students and long before the Martin-Zimmerman incident. I wish Zimmerman had heard it before he played sheriff in pursuit of Trayvon.

I once was in the vicinity of a mugging by a pathetic, forty-something crook--who stole the purse of a senior in a McDonald’s parking lot. I had heard the victim scream, “he took my purse.”  Without much thought, my own machismo kicked in and I began to give chase after the perpetrator. The foolish mugger fled across an open 100-yard parking lot.  I had a clear view and was quickly gaining ground on him.

In telling my students this story, I usually ask them at this juncture what they think

Are reformers reviving ‘reading wars’?:

Are reformers reviving ‘reading wars’?

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 13 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer

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Mary Sullivan reads at Charles E. Beatley Jr. Central Library in 2012. (By Katherine Frey / The Washington Post)

In June a group called the National Council on Teacher Quality published ratings of teacher education schools that garnered a lot of attention — and a good deal of criticism. Why? The NCTQ wascreated by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2000 in order to promote alternative teacher certification and try to diminish the influence of education schools. Its largely negative results were hardly unexpected. In this post, Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, an expert on teacher training, critiqued the NCTQ’s methodology and said the ratings did not reflect the work of ed schools:

NCTQ’s methodology is a paper review of published course requirements and course syllabi against a check list that does not consider the actual quality of instruction that the programs offer, evidence of what their students learn, or whether graduates can actually teach.

After taking some time this summer to review what the NCTQ produced, members of the Reading Hall of Fame, an honorary group founded in 1973 with the aim of contributing to the improvement of reading instruction, just issued their own statement (see below) about the ratings. In its report, the NCTQ made declarations about what books were and were not acceptable in literacy instruction, determinations with which the literacy experts are taking issue. A good number of books by Hall of Fame authors