Eight things teachers want you to know about them - The Washington Post

Eight things teachers want you to know about them - The Washington Post:

Eight things teachers want you to know about them

 Lee-Ann Meredith taught second grade in a Chicago public elementary school for 15 years. She is the author of “Angels in My Classroom,” a story of  life in her classroom and how her 7- and 8-year-old students sustained her after her husband’s unexpected death. The following post by Meredith, which I am publishing with permission, is about teachers and what they do every day. It appeared on the  The Educator’s Room website.

By Lee-Ann Meredith

Everyone knows about teachers. We’ve all been on the receiving end of education. We think we know what it is all about. In fact, most people are not aware of half of what make a teacher. Teachers wish you knew more. Here are some of the things you might be surprised to realize.

1. We are well-educated and specialists in our field. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 52 percent of public school teachers have a master’s degree or higher.  Many teachers I know have more than one master’s degree with specializations such as reading or special education. We don’t stop learning when we become teachers either. We must reapply for our certificates with proof that we have continued our education and professional growth in our field. Grade-school teachers usually teach all subjects and we must have a strong grasp on the underlying themes. We are wildly knowledgeable in many areas.

2. We are communicators, quick decision makers, and creative problem solvers. Teaching is more than lecturing. It is often like being an orchestra director of beginning musicians. We have to be able to have a group working on task while sitting quietly with another small group of four of five pupils. We have to be able to create a working environment where a couple dozen people share an open space. It has to be done in a caring way that supports every child. This is not easy. Teachers might have to choose over Suzy’s bloody nose, Rupert’s hurt feelings, Trevor’s emotional, tear-filled crisis about a math problem, all while keeping the rest of the class at work. If you think this type of scenario never happens, think again. In primary grades some variation of this happens daily. (Two notes about this. First: Blood trumps everything, even vomit. Second: The crazier the situation is, the more likely a fire drill is about to occur.)

[You think you know what teachers do. Right? Wrong?]

3. We are realistic visionaries. We know what our students can do and we push, push, push some more to make them achieve. We celebrate successes and then push some more. We know where our kids are most likely to end up but we attempt to ratchet up the trajectory. We want our kids to beat the odds against them and we try to instill the tools that make it possible. Frequently, we have to hope that something we said one rainy Tuesday, or a hot day in May, made enough of an impact that it changed their most likely path. The joy of seeing a boy who ran on the fringes of a gang, now as a young man in the grocery store telling you that he is in college is breathtaking. Getting a Facebook message from a girl that had a drug-using mama telling you that you got her through those years, that makes it all worth while. I once heard that the most common request for a private investigator wasn’t spying on a cheating spouse but rather tracking down a favorite teacher. I don’t know if it is true but I love the idea of it.

4.We have personal lives that are completely ignored during the day. We simply don’t have a moment to spare when a class of twenty-some kids is in the room. In grade schools, we have bladders of steel because you cannot leave your class to go tinkle every hour or two. (I cringed every time I was told by a health professional to drink more water.) We come to work even when we don’t feel well because it is easier than taking a day off. Unless you are absolutely incapacitated you know the result of having a substitute in your classroom. We make up a year’s worth of doctors appointments in the summer break. We make all our business phone calls then also. We are with kids during business hours and don’t get to make phone calls with them in the room. If you believe we can do it the minute the kids leave for the day you need to read the next item.

5. We do more than “just teach.” Our paperwork load is tremendous. It is way beyond grading papers. We have to document most incidents that might be a reason for concern for all students. We have to document conversations with parents and guardians. We have to record any changes to routines for children who are struggling. This can include such simple things as how often I check in with a child or if I moved their desk. We have to keep track of test scores, comparing them to each other and to past Eight things teachers want you to know about them - The Washington Post:

Thousands of Washington state teachers plan one-day walkout - Yahoo News

Thousands of Washington state teachers plan one-day walkout - Yahoo News:

Thousands of Washington state teachers plan one-day walkout

 SEATTLE (Reuters) - Several thousand teachers across Washington state are planning a one-day strike on Wednesday to demand higher pay, better benefits and a reduction in class sizes, the state's largest teachers' union said.

Nearly 3,000 teachers in nine school districts were planning to participate in the walkout, said Washington Education Association spokesman Rich Wood. The 5,000 members of the Seattle chapter of the union are voting this week on whether to stage their own walkout in May.

At issue are cost-of-living raises and funding for benefits being considered by the state Legislature. Teachers are unhappy about a proposal to raise pay by 3 percent over two years, while the state has not increased teacher healthcare funding in five years, according to Wood.

Teachers also want the state Senate to abandon a plan that would increase class sizes in grades four to 12, the union said.

"The current budgets fall far short of funding the quality public schools our kids deserve," Wood said.

Lawmakers in the state capital, Olympia, are debating a public education budget of between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion to try to satisfy demands of a state Supreme Court order to increase funding for public schools.

Teachers say that money is not enough to fulfill the court order to fully fund schools by 2019. The educators have also taken issue with a bill passed by the state Senate that would mandate the use of state test scores in teacher evaluation.

"Instead of making the investment in public education that our children need and the Constitution mandates, the state Senate majority is lowballing the schools budget and passing bills that scapegoat teachers,” Shirley Potter, president of the Bellingham Education Association, said in a statement.

More than 20,000 parents signed a petition last month in support of the bill linking teacher evaluations to test scores, according to the education advocacy group Stand for Children.

The measure, which has moved to the state House of Representatives for debate, could also put Washington back in control of $40 million in federal funding it lost last year for failing to meet the U.S. Department of Education's requirement to include statewide student test results in teacher evaluations under the No Child Left Behind law, the group said.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Peter Cooney)Thousands of Washington state teachers plan one-day walkout - Yahoo News:

Education reformer Sir Ken Robinson on personalizing education, standardization as an impediment - CBS News

Education reformer Sir Ken Robinson on personalizing education, standardization as an impediment - CBS News:

Transforming education through imagination and creativity

 Is the culture of standardizing education alienating teachers and students?

Without a doubt, according to education reformer Sir Ken Robinson.

"There's a problem with the standards culture, which is, it sees teachers [as] kind of a delivery system and a branch of FedEx, dropping off the standards. Teachers are there to engage and motivate and inspire people. And great teachers do that," Robinson said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."

In his new book, "Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education," he advocates for personalized processes of education for children.

"People sometimes ask me what my theory is. Well, I say it's not a theory. It's actually what works," Robinson said. "It depends how you think of teaching. If you think of teaching as having people just sitting in rows all the time and talk to them, it's very hard to control them on that basis, but if you engage children's imaginations, their curiosity, you've got them working in teams, you've got them doing practical project work, it's a very different dynamic in schools."

His TED Talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity," is the most watched presentation with more than 32 million views. Robinson, who said governments are now looking at education strategies like defense strategies, began meeting with governments and school systems to discuss reform decades ago.

"I've never blamed teachers or schools. I've worked with teachers my whole life. It's a fantastic profession. Most teachers I know don't like this either. There is this deadly culture of standardizing that's being pushed on them politically," he said.

One of the schools Robinson writes about in his book is the Boston Arts Academy, an inner city school that focuses on the arts. According to the school, about 94 percent of their graduates are accepted to college each year.

"They have a broad curriculum, because children have very different talents, and it's important that they should do math and languages and so on. But music and theater and dance are just as important for talents in engaging kids," Robinson said. "It's not just about that. It's about a greater approach to science. It's a broad curriculum and they have flexibility in the way they teach individuals."

Robinson also recommends that parents partner with schools, since they know their kids better than anyone else.Education reformer Sir Ken Robinson on personalizing education, standardization as an impediment - CBS News:

N.Y. teachers union blasting Cuomo in new multimillion-dollar ad campaign - The Washington Post

N.Y. teachers union blasting Cuomo in new multimillion-dollar ad campaign - The Washington Post:

N.Y. teachers union blasting Cuomo in new multimillion-dollar ad campaign

 The United Federation of Teachers in New York is launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign  blasting Gov. Andrew Cuomo for education policies that have sparked a protest movement among parents and educators.

The union said the campaign began Tuesday with a 30-second ad in the New York City area  and moving to the rest of the state on Wednesday. It will run on popular television shows, such as “The Blacklist” and “Mad Men,” as well as during Yankees and Mets baseball games and news networks and programs.

Cuomo recently pushed through the legislature a package of education reforms that angered teachers, in part by elevating the importance of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations. Thousands of parents in New York have opted their children out of the state-mandated high-stakes tests that started last month and are continuing this week. A group of seven New York State Teachers of the Year wrote Cuomo an open letter in February, saying in part:

We are teachers. We have given our hearts and souls to this noble profession. We have pursued intellectual rigor. We have fed students who were hungry. We have celebrated at student weddings and wept at student funerals. Education is our life. For this, you have made us the enemy. This is personal.

Under your leadership, schools have endured the Gap Elimination Adjustment and the tax cap, which have caused layoffs and draconian budget cuts across the state. Classes are larger and support services are fewer, particularly for our neediest students.

We have also endured a difficult rollout of the Common Core Standards. A reasonable implementation would have started the new standards in kindergarten and advanced those standards one grade at a time. Instead, the new standards were rushed into all grades at once, without any time to see if they were developmentally appropriate or useful.

Then our students were given new tests—of questionable validity—before they had a chance to develop the skills necessary to be successful. These flawed tests reinforced the false narrative that all public schools—and therefore all teachers—are in drastic need of reform. In our many years of teaching, we’ve never found that denigrating others is a useful strategy for improvement.

Now you are doubling down on test scores as a proxy for teacher effectiveness. The state has focused on test scores for years and this approach has proven to be fraught with peril. Testing scandals erupted. Teachers who questioned the validity of tests were given gag orders. Parents in wealthier districts hired test-prep tutors, which exacerbated the achievement gap between rich and poor.

Beyond those concerns, if the state places this much emphasis on test scores who will want to teach our neediest students? Will you assume that the teachers in wealthier districts are highly effective and the teachers in poorer districts are ineffective, simply based on test scores?…

You can read the entire letter here. And here’s the UFT ad:N.Y. teachers union blasting Cuomo in new multimillion-dollar ad campaign - The Washington Post:

Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn’t good) - The Washington Post

Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn’t good) - The Washington Post:

Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn’t good)

The previous post is an excerpt from a new book by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica, titled “Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Changing Education.” Changing education is what Robinson has been all about for some years, as a professor, author, and adviser to governments and numerous nonprofit organizations around the world. From 1985 to 1988, he was the director of an initiative to develop arts education in England and Wales that involved a few thousand teachers and artists. He served as the head of a national youth arts development agency in the United Kingdom called Artswork. Robinson was a professor of education at the University of Warwick for a dozen years, and in 1998, he was appointed by the British government to lead a commission to examine creativity and education. He has written several books on creativity and learning, and in 2003, Queen Elizabeth II of England knighted him for his life’s work.

Robinson became famous worldwide in 2006 with his Ted Talk “How Schools Kill Creativity,” which now has more than 32 million page views on the TED Web site, with millions more views on YouTube videos of the same talk. His life’s work has been based on the belief that schools can and should nurture creativity in kids through instruction that is personalized and customized for the communities where students live. I talked to Robinson (who, incidentally, is very funny) about his book and his views of U.S. education reform. Here are excerpts of that conversation:

Q: Tell me about the new book.

A: I’ve been concerned about education obviously for a long time now. A lot of people know me best, I should think, through the TED talks I started giving in 2006. I remember I was actually at an event at a university in the Midwest last year, in Michigan I think it was. And I was there to talk to all the students in the basketball stadium, and over lunch one of the faculty, as I mentioned in the [new] book, said to me, “You’ve been at this a long time, haven’t you?” And I said, “What?” He said, “Trying to change education. What is it? Seven years now?” Since the TED talks. I said: “Yes, I’ve been alive before that. I’ve been doing this a long time.”

I’ve been involved in education all my professional life, since my early ’20s, and I’ve done a lot with systems reforms, with governments, school districts, different countries. And it’s all been empowered by the same set of principles, which is reduced to the fact that I think our systems are outmoded. They make poor use of people’s talents. And we can’t afford that socially, culturally or economically anymore. We do need to think very differently about how we educate kids… Now people keep asking me this: Supposing we agree with that — and a lot of people do — then what do we do about it? This book is my summary of what I think the sort of education I am recommending looks like and how we can make that happen for more kids, for all kids.

Q: What kind of education are you talking about?

A: It’s to make education more personalized for students and more customized to the communities in which they are part of. The reason I say that is that education has become, over the past 20 years particularly, increasingly seen as kind of a strategic issue for governments. Years ago, countries didn’t pay much attention to what was happening in other countries in terms of education. People in France weren’t much interested in what was happening in Germany and Italy …. Nowadays people compare the systems like they are defense policies or economic policies, and it is because people all around the world recognize that education is absolutely fundamental to economic growth. In fact, it is fundamental to the social fabric, fundamental to cultural development and so on. And the interest in all of these things has been driven very hard by the publication of these Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn’t good) - The Washington Post:

Marzano group takes issue with TNTP report criticizing Pasco schools | Tampa Bay Times

Marzano group takes issue with TNTP report criticizing Pasco schools | Tampa Bay Times:

Marzano group takes issue with TNTP report criticizing Pasco schools

 The group that supports Pasco County schools' teacher evaluations has issued a harsh rebuttal of TNTP's recent report criticizing the district's evaluation, training and hiring strategies.

Researchers for the Marzano Center blasted TNTP's methods, interpretations and findings in a 21-page document sent to the Gradebook on Tuesday. They suggest that TNTP failed to identify critical context, made inaccurate policy implications and relied on "factual errors and misleading misstatements." Moreover, the group noted that TNTP did not mention it is a competitor that could benefit from its recommendations.

(We did ask TNTP project managers about that potential conflict of interest at the time of the report. They acknowledged doing such work but said that was not the intent of their review.)

Overall, the Marzano group called the TNTP paper "highly imbalanced" and insufficient to support its "high-stakes claims":

Recommendations based on incomplete reports can cause harm in such high-stakes situations. Educational researchers should hold themselves to the highest standards—making sure that data reported are accurate, without flaws, and able to be replicated. Scientific researchers are under an obligation to provide readers with sufficient information to make informed decisions. These are ethical obligations scientists share with their colleagues in the scientific community, even when findings may contradict the ultimate aim of the organization. Researchers should operate under circumstances where it is their duty to report negative findings, even when doing so does not benefit the organization responsible for implementing the study. 

District officials said they had not yet read the report, having just received it. 

Superintendent Kurt Browning said he was not surprised by the Marzano response, "or that the response focuses on the part of the review that relates to their product."

"Pasco Schools views the TNTP report more broadly," Browning said. "We see it as a welcome review of what we are doing well and where we need to focus on improvement in teaching the standards and our collaborative professional learning communities; the alignment of our curriculum and assessments to the Florida Standards; and how we hire, evaluate, retain, and release teachers." 

Read the full rebuttal here.Marzano group takes issue with TNTP report criticizing Pasco schools | Tampa Bay Times:

There's more to be said about TNTP's Pasco schools study

There's a mini ed reform storm swirling in the Pasco County school district, as two prominent groups pushing differing teacher evaluation models take shots at one another.

Briefly, TNTP (founded by Michelle Rhee) issued a report (funded by the Gates Foundation)blasting Pasco's teacher hiring, training and evaluation system, created by the Marzano Center.

Next, Marzano (one of two state-approved evaluation providers) fired back, calling the TNTP review inaccurate and imbalanced.

Go figure, but TNTP didn't let that stand as the last word. Partner Andy Jacob took issue with Marzano's characterization of its work, and with the insinuation that TNTP might be seeking business as an offshoot of its time in the district. 

“Our analysis is intended to provide a snapshot of how well Pasco County Schools are transitioning to the new Florida Standards, not a study of any particular company’s products," Jacob  said in an email to the Gradebook. That’s why our report is rooted in the experiences and voices of thousands of educators from across the district.

"We stand by our assessment of the challenges teachers and principals are facing as they adjust to the new standards, and we’re glad it has started a conversation about how to better support them. As a non-profit, mission-driven organization, our sole interest is to help the district understand what it’s doing well—and how it can improve—so that every student in Pasco County graduates ready for success in college and life."

The dispute has amused some teachers and union leaders, who mused on Facebook that it looked like the reformers were about to start devouring each other. 

United School Employees of Pasco president Kenny Blankenship, meanwhile, sent a letter to superintendent Kurt Browning suggesting there was some good in the TNTP review, but adding that he had concerns similar to Marzano's. (That email came before he saw the Marzano rebuttal.)

"USEP has raised, during negotiations with the District, many of the same concerns that TNTP presented," Blankenship wrote to the superintendent. "In particular, we have brought up the impact of PLC meetings on teacher planning and the lack of resources and Florida standards aligned teaching materials. USEP has also raised concerns with Employee Relations about TNTP’s ties to Michelle Rhee which may color the resulting opinions and remedies that they would bring to the district."

He continued: 

We have questioned in the past, the Discovery Education program, which is out of line with the current Florida Standards, emphasizing rote memorization over critical analysis.

One major flaw that I find in the report is that TNTP only looked at a few grades and two subject areas; therefore the blanket statement about rigor is too broad a conclusion.

With only six schools and 100 classrooms studied, the usefulness of the report and subsequent conclusions is very limited. Much more thorough analysis is warranted before drawing such a broad conclusion about the totality of school district’s teaching practices.  

USEP has continuously advocated for better training, stronger curriculum, and more time to 

There's more to be said about TNTP's Pasco schools study

As Deal signs school takeover bill, signs from Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson that APS cluster may be target | Get Schooled

As Deal signs school takeover bill, signs from Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson that APS cluster may be target | Get Schooled:

As Deal signs school takeover bill, signs from Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson that APS cluster may be target

Gov. Nathan Deal should have signed his Opportunity School District legislation at a Morehouse College education forum this morning headlined by former NBA star and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and his wife and former Washington, D.C., Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

“This legislation is groundbreaking. It’s unheard of,’’ said Johnson, who acted as master of ceremonies while his more controversial wife limited her role to panelist.

Deal signed the legislation this afternoon at the Gold Dome, a more sedate setting than the Morehouse forum where fiery speeches and biblical references by Atlanta’s Rev. Gerald Durley and former CNN pundit Roland Martin lent a revival feel to the day.

In blasting critics of the black leaders in Georgia who backed Deal’s plan, Martin said, “Too many of us are apologizing for standing up for kids…We’re putting unions and civil rights groups in front of kids…We believe there is only one way to educate kids. I don’t care what way a child gets educated as long as they get educated.”

The program was sponsored by Johnson’s education advocacy group Stand Up and Rhee’s StudentsFirst. Morehouse President John S. Wilson introduced the pair by saying, “This is a power couple if I have ever seen one or known one.”

Rhee’s comments followed a pragmatic path, telling the 100 people in the audience they need to identify the failing schools in their communities eligible for takeover, study successful reform models including the charter schools her husband founded in Sacramento, St. Hope Public Schools, and then present a plan for their school.

“It is doable,” she told the crowd. “You don’t need more to do this than who is in here right now.”

In what ought to be considered a warning shot for APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, Rhee and Johnson cited the five elementary schools, two middle and one high school in Atlanta’s Carver cluster as ideal candidates for state takeover.

Flashing slides of the schools’ failing grades from the state Department of Education and the enrollment, Johnson said a takeover would help 4,690 APS students. “This is manageable,” he said, “Eight principals, 15 teachers at each school. This is not an unattainable goal and the Opportunity School District gives up an opportunity to do that.”

No one mentioned the extensive reforms already under way in the Carver cluster under Carstarphen, and whether ditching those to start anew with another plan would help or hurt, although I have to assume that question crossed the minds of APS school board chair Courtney English and board member Matt Westmoreland, both of whom were at the forum.

When Deal signed his bill, he issued this statement:

By signing the Opportunity School District bill, we are promising better days ahead for students trapped in failing schools. The power of positive change now rests in the hands of Georgia’s voters, and I know they share my belief that every child can learn and should have access to a high-quality education that prepares them for the workforce or for college.

There are currently 139 schools across Georgia that have received a failing grade from the state accountability system for at least three consecutive years. Too few of these students go on to higher education, too few attain job skills and too few get a high school diploma. Too often this leads to a life that never fulfills its potential. With this new system, we can and will do better.As Deal signs school takeover bill, signs from Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson that APS cluster may be target | Get Schooled:

The Money Pit: Charter schools event a $9M success | Page Six

Charter schools event a $9M success | Page Six:

Charter schools event a $9M success

Wall Street leaders and political power players gathered at Cipriani 42nd Street to raise over $9 million for New York’s Success Academy Charter Schools.

Hedge funders Dan Loeb, John Scully and Joel Greenblatt mingled Monday night with CongressmenKevin McCarthy, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries, former city schools chancellor and current Amplify CEO Joel Klein and Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson.

The event, hosted by Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz and honoring Edythe and Eli Broad who gave the first investment to SA, celebrated the academic success of scholars at the city’s largest network of charter schools.

But much of the talk was also about boldly standing up to opposition the charter school movement has faced from teachers unions, Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

SA Network board chair Loeb told the crowd of nearly 800, “The politicians and union leaders seem to rationalize that in their fight to maintain centralized power and monopoly control, there is collateral damage to actual children.”

Talking about Harlem Central Middle School, recently ranked second in math in New York State: “It was this school, and several others that the mayor and the chancellor tried to shut down last year. The schools chancellor — whose primary mission is educating children — has dismissed results like these as a statistical aberration, using excuses that are at best uneducated falsehoods.”

Loeb added to laughs, “We hope Chancellor Fariña will hop on the train to make her first [Success Academy] visit soon — hell, I will even call her an Uber.”

Addressing a recent New York Times story that discussed SA’s so-called “polarizing tactics,” co-chair Campbell Brown told staff and supporters, “What is so amazing about the Success community is that you never stop trying and you have found a better way . . . And that is why you are a threat to a lot of people, to politicians and teachers-union bosses who have shamefully protected a broken system for decades now . . . You are a threat because you are demonstrating an alternative model, you are in their face every day showing everyone what public education can look like.”

The $9.3 million raised will fund six new schools serving 3,000 children.Charter schools event a $9M success | Page Six:

Nonprofit hopes $25,000 prize lures L.A. schools' District 5 voters - LA Times

Nonprofit hopes $25,000 prize lures L.A. schools' District 5 voters - LA Times:

Nonprofit hopes $25,000 prize lures L.A. schools' District 5 voters

Comment

"I just sent Antonio Gonzalez of the Southwest Voter Education Project the following email; 

Dear Mr. Gonzalez, 

District 7 also has a high percentage of Chicano voters and a Chicana, Lydia Gutierrez running for school board. Why no prize here? I'm going to vote and I can use $25,000 especially since I don't have a job. I used to be a school teacher in this district. 

According to the LA Times; 

"If overall turnout is higher, it's hard to say what the effect would be," said Dan Chang, (Broad "Academy" graduate) who directs a political action committee that has endorsed Rodriguez. "If there is higher turnout among Latinos, the conventional wisdom is that Ref Rodriguez will do better — a Latino candidate with a Latino surname." 

Chang, Rodriguez and Richard Vadovic, candidate for re-election in district 7, are supported by the same charter school cabal so why doesn't your organization put up an equivalent prize here? 

Sincerely, 

Michael Dominguez"

Nonprofit voter group has a plan to turn around traditionally abysmal turnout for a key election to the Los Angeles Board of Education: It's going to pay one lucky voter $25,000.

Those who cast ballots in the race for District 5 in the May 19 election will be entered in a drawing.

The idea is the brainchild of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

"This is an experiment, a nontraditional out-of-the-box strategy" because "participation has gotten so bad," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the organization, which focuses on increasing voter turnout, especially within the Latino community.

The March primary for the school board drew marginal voter interest in a citywide election that also failed to attract much interest.

Three board races are going to a May runoff. Southwest Voter Registration is especially interested in District 5, because about 57% of registered voters there are Latino.

Challenger Ref Rodriguez finished first against incumbent Bennett Kayser, who is seeking a second term.

Voter turnout was just under 12% in the area, which includes Los Feliz and Silver Lake as well as an economically diverse range of Latino neighborhoods, including the cities of southeastern L.A. County.

The most notable dividing point between Kayser and Rodriguez is over independently managed charter schools, which are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses.

Kayser has tried to limit their growth; Rodriguez co-founded one of the largest charter organizations, People Uplifting Communities.

"If overall turnout is higher, it's hard to say what the effect would be," said Dan Chang, who directs a political action committee that has endorsed Rodriguez. "If there is higher turnout among Latinos, the conventional wisdom is that Ref Rodriguez will do better — a Latino candidate with a Latino surname."

Both campaigns pushed hard to win the Latino vote in the bitter, high-cost primary and said they are doing so again.

Gonzalez's nonpartisan group hasn't endorsed either candidate. And his lottery strategy could increase turnout among all ethnicities.

He calls the idea "voteria," a play on the Spanish term "lotería," for lottery.

I just sent Antonio Gonzalez of the Southwest Voter Education Project the following email; Dear Mr. Gonzalez, District 7 also has a high percentage of Chicano voters and a Chicana, Lydia Gutierrez running for school board. Why no prize here? I'm going to vote and I can use In its current form, the area's voting boundaries were carved out with the idea of increasing Latino representation in a school system that is more than 70% Latino.

That hasn't happened.

Kayser is white, and that seat has had white board members for 16 of the last 20 years.

The nonprofit has never before given out money but has tried other incentives. To increase turnout in the 2004 presidential race, it held drawings to give away a new car in each of four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. To enter, a voter had to recruit four others.

Gonzalez said his group has concluded that handing out a $25,000 cash prize is legal in California but would violate federal law. The plan is to publicize the contest through traditional media and social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

Other recent projects have included phone banking to turn out Latinas in the 14th City Council District who voted rarely or inconsistently, and regional training sessions for Latinos considering a run for office.

The nonprofit has teamed with Earth Day Network and the NAACP to launch a nationwide effort to mobilize a million voters over the issue of climate change.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblume

 Nonprofit hopes $25,000 prize lures L.A. schools' District 5 voters - LA Times:

Will San Francisco cancel TFA?: Alum letter to Board details threats, depression, and debt | Cloaking Inequity

Will San Francisco cancel TFA?: Alum letter to Board details threats, depression, and debt | Cloaking Inequity:

Will San Francisco cancel TFA?: Alum letter to Board details threats, depression, and debt

Teach For America is facing headwind. Several states have cut back funding and they have reported they are short of their lofty recruiting goals that they set when they received $50 million from Arne Duncan a few years ago. (See all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America here). Today I was contacted by two different individuals from the Bay Area about Teach For America. Jose Luis Pavon contacted me to relay that the San Francisco school board is reconsidering Teach For America. I will begin the post with his letter. Later in the day, I received a phone call from a TFA corp member who relayed a tell-all. I will conclude with her letter. (See also Tell-All From A TFA and KIPP Teacher: Unprepared, Isolation, Shame, and Burnout and “I felt Strange and Guilty”: Annie Tan @TeachForAmerica alum speaks) Jose Luis Pavon’s letter:

Dear Parents, Educators and Allies,

I am writing to inform you about a very important decision being made by the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) school board that will impact Everett Middle School. On April 14, 2015 the SFUSD school board made a motion to terminate the school district contract with Teach for America and a final decision will be made soon.

Administrators at Everett have failed to inform parents and the public about the detrimental activities of Teach for America at Everett and SFUSD. Teach for America (TFA) is a large scale corporate non-profit (www.teachforamerica.org). TFA is national non-traditional teacher training program that claims to support education equity. They offer college students with a bachelor’s degree money to pay off loans, a five week training program and a full time teaching intern position for two years at a public school where they are given permission to teach a class room, without attaining a credential or doing a student teaching internship. After two years the TFA teaching interns have the option to pursue a teaching credential or quit teaching and pursue a separate career. The individual teaching interns and credentialed TFA alumni put their hearts and hard labor into their work as educators with good intentions, the teachers are not the problem. It is the TFA leadership, management methods, policy agenda, and corporate funders such as Walmart that must be scrutinized because of the damage they can do potentially to SFUSD. TFA has a track record nationally of scapegoating teachers, supporting high stakes testing, attacking teachers unions, and privatizing public schools by dismantling them into corporate charter schools. TFA is funded by corporations like Walmart and Monsanto, consequently TFA supports running schools like a business (https://www.teachforamerica.org/sites/default/files/150217_annualletter_financialsfinal.pdf).

Public Schools are not private for profit businesses, they are publicly owned institutions with an essential mission to provide high quality education to the public and insure a strong democracy. We must support and defend high quality public education. There is a national movement of parents, educators, scholars, public officials and labor leaders opposing TFA and defending public education. a. (A Force for Real Education Reform Emerges. October 9th, 2013. By Jeff Bryant, Education Opportunity Network. http://www.otlcampaign.org/node/3274) b. (http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/)

There is a growing list of serious concerns among teachers, parents, administrators, public officials and community members regarding the activities of TFA at Everett and other SFUSD schools. 

• Sending novice teachers to teach classrooms of high need students such as low performing students of color, low income students, students with IEPs, English language learners and high risk students. Allowing teaching interns to train on the job managing a classroom instead of apprenticing under a credentialed teacher lowers the quality of education for high need students and sets up TFA teaching interns as well as students to fail.
• TFA is practicing unconventional education reform policy experiments on students with out informing parents or public officials.
• Everett administrators have a high rate of suspensions and police contact with high risk students and is not efficiently utilizing its resources to implement racially equitable restorative practices.
• Enlgish Langauge Learners are being assigned TFA intern teachers or teachers with minimal Will San Francisco cancel TFA?: Alum letter to Board details threats, depression, and debt | Cloaking Inequity: