Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/22/15 #SaveDyett

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures - Living in Dialogue

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures - Living in Dialogue: Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures By Anthony Cody.This week we have seen a renewed attempt to rehabilitate the beleaguered Common Core standards, just as the scores arrive in many states, largely meeting projections that they would yield increased failure rates and a wider “achievement gap

by mike simpson / 2min 

NEWSLETTER: Teacher Shortage: NY Times Got it Wrong – The Network For Public Education

NEWSLETTER: Teacher Shortage: NY Times Got it Wrong – The Network For Public Education: When it Comes to the Teacher Shortage, The New York Times Got it WrongNew Mexico’s Rio Rancho School District lies just north of Albuquerque. When school opened, the district was still in desperate need of teachers. Students in 33 classrooms were met by a permanent substitute who in some cases had a bachelor’s

by mike simpson / 7min 

One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everything : Wsj

One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everything : Wsj: One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everythingWhen asked on Wednesday who is influential and to whom he listens when it comes to education policy, Gov. Scott Walker named a well-known advocate for improving schools for disadvantaged students in Milwaukee.Former Milwaukee Sc

by mike simpson / 12min 

Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations - Living in Dialogue

Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations - Living in Dialogue: Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between GenerationsBy John Thompson.The famed novelist, Toni Morrison, writes:I’ve been wondering who might fill in the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates. The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates’s journey is vis

by mike simpson / 2h 

Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing - The Washington Post

Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing - The Washington Post: Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothingEight of the District’s 60 public charter schools raised nearly 75 percent of all charitable funds that went to such schools in the city between 2012 and 2014, highlighting a serious inequity between schools that raised millions of doll

by mike simpson / 3h 

Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out. | deutsch29

Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out. | deutsch29: Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out.In July 2015, both House and Senate passed versions of the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The current version of ESEA– eight years overdue for reauthorization– is the defunct No Child Left Behind of 2001 (NCLB). The propos

by mike simpson / 4h 

The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover - The New York Times

The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover - The New York Times: The Myth of the New Orleans School MakeoverWAS Hurricane Katrina “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans,” as Education Secretary Arne Duncan once said? Nearly 10 years after the disaster, this has become a dominant narrative among a number of school reformers and education scholars.Before the storm, the

by mike simpson / 5h 

Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago - Living in Dialogue

Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago - Living in Dialogue: Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago By Michelle Gunderson.Twelve people sit in a circle under the trees outside Dyett High School in Chicago on a hunger strike. They share stories of their experience with Chicago schools – teachers they have loved, principals they have battled, the times they have

by mike simpson / 5h 

Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice

Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice: Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests?Is the 95 percent participation in yearly testing, of all students, in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) justified? We need to know.Currently a conference committee is putting together a replacement for NCLB ( ESEA reauthorization) but, as it stands, it will continue to mandat

by mike simpson / 5h 

Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system | The Salt Lake Tribune

Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system | The Salt Lake Tribune: Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning systemCharter schools are where the public school system meets startup culture. While regular public schools go on forever, charter schools sometimes do not.Like startups, the charters challenge the existing paradigms, and they ofte

by mike simpson / 6h 

Teach Your Children | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Teach Your Children | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn: Teach Your ChildrenThe opening of Graham Nash's 1970 song, "Teach Your Children" reminds the listener of the critical role of character development in K-12 education programs and the importance of acquiring a moral compass that will support and guide every learner during their self-directed academic, social, and emotional journey to adult

by mike simpson / 7h 

American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice : News

American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice : News: American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justiceST. LOUIS • The American Federation of Teachers — one of the nation’s largest unions — has broadened its agenda beyond teacher pay and standardized testing, to racial justice issues affecting students and communities across the country.About 40 members of AFT’s Racial Equity Task

by mike simpson / 7h 

N.Y. schools commissioner: It’s ‘unethical’ for educators to support testing opt-out movement - The Washington Post

N.Y. schools commissioner: It’s ‘unethical’ for educators to support testing opt-out movement - The Washington Post: N.Y. schools commissioner: It’s ‘unethical’ for educators to support testing opt-out movementIn New York state this past spring, some 20 percent of students refused to take the 2015 state-mandated Common Core standardized tests in math and English language arts, highlighting the gro

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: CAP--*^Y(FLJVKICukvkctjy!!

CURMUDGUCATION: CAP--*^Y(FLJVKICukvkctjy!!: CAP--*^Y(FLJVKICukvkctjy!!It was just last week that I warned that I was running out of headline variations on "CAP tries to promote a stupid Common Core idea that nobody has seriously tried to sell for years." But the Center for American Progress just keeps driving that baloney truck around the block again and again.And last Thursday, there th

by mike simpson / 7h 

‪#‎fightfordyett‬ ‪#‎wearedyett‬- The Dyett Hunger Strikers Stand On The Shoulders Of These Forgotten Heroes

The Beachwood Reporter - The Dyett Hunger Strikers Stand On The Shoulders Of These Forgotten Heroes: The Dyett Hunger Strikers Stand On The Shoulders Of These Forgotten Heroes‪#‎fightfordyett‬ ‪#‎wearedyett‬ HUNGER STRIKE DAY 6! We are at Rainbow Push to appear on the broadcast. Then we head over to the youth organized Karl Jackson Back to School Jam to show support and hold a 1pm teach in; the At

by mike simpson / 7h 

Why edTPA is a really bad idea. Stop the Pearson takeover of Illinois student teacher certification. | Fred Klonsky

Why edTPA is a really bad idea. Stop the Pearson takeover of Illinois student teacher certification. | Fred Klonsky: Why edTPA is a really bad idea. Stop the Pearson takeover of Illinois student teacher certification.Share and repost.edTPA is an onerous and un-tested teacher performance assessment, marketed by Pearson (of PARCC test fame). The ISBE has voted to use it as the sole instrument for de

by mike simpson / 8h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Nyland on SEA Talks

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Nyland on SEA Talks: Nyland on SEA Talks Parents and Community, The Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and Seattle Education Association (SEA) began negotiations May 20 to achieve a new collective bargaining contract. SEA represents educators, substitutes, paraprofessionals, instructional assistants and office professionals. The current contract with SEA expires August 3

by mike simpson / 8h 

Schools Matter: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs

Schools Matter: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs Mayor Karl Dean, who has been a private and public patron of KIPP, Inc. over the years.  In 2012, Dean committed almost 25 percent of Metro's 4-year school improvement budget to one KIPP school.  Today Dean has an op-ed in the Tennessean decrying the courageous

by mike simpson / 8h 

School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!

School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!: School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!Republican Presidential candidates claim to be for choice, including vouchers, charters and opportunity scholarships, and they also claim to be for local control of schools.But school choice and local control are like oil and water. You must choose one or the other.For example, Brandon Wright, in “Donald Tr

by mike simpson / 9h 

Schools Matter: A book on our side?

Schools Matter: A book on our side?: A book on our side?This morning I stared at the NY Times Book Review section, as I do most weekends and asked myself, “Should I or shouldn’t I browse through it.” Most of the time I don't find anything of interest but today I decided, “What the hell, I might as well.”I am glad I did. My eyes did a “what the?” when I hit page 9 and saw this headline: Getting Sch

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Intention of Unintended Consequences | Live Long and Prosper

The Intention of Unintended Consequences | Live Long and Prosper: The Intention of Unintended ConsequencesUNINTENDED?Are the unintended consequences of the overuse and misuse of standardized tests really unintended? The misuse of standardized tests seems designed specifically to “prove” that public schools are “failing” so that “reformers,” both corporate and religious, can continue with the busin

by mike simpson / 9h 

Standardized Testing vs. Opt-Outs: A Lesson on School Reform and the Future of No Child Left Behind - The Atlantic

Standardized Testing vs. Opt-Outs: A Lesson on School Reform and the Future of No Child Left Behind - The Atlantic: Timeout for Opt-Outs?A new poll suggests that a majority of adults think annual standardized testing is a good thing. They’re not as fond of the opt-out movement.Americans aren’t as pissed off about standardized testing as headlines often make it seem. In fact, it looks like most of

by mike simpson / 9h 

What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended - Bloomberg View

What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended - Bloomberg View: What Students Post Online Can Get Them SuspendedFREE-SPEECH STATUS: IT'S COMPLICATED. PHOTOGRAPHER: TED ALJIBE/AFP/GETTY IMAGESWhen I was a student in a private religious school, I looked with envy on the First Amendment rights of public school children, who couldn’t, I imagined, be disciplined for what they said off campus. Now a

by mike simpson / 9h 

A teacher pipeline in need of repair | The Sacramento Bee

A teacher pipeline in need of repair | The Sacramento Bee: A teacher pipeline in need of repairBY THE EDITORIAL BOARDWe should have seen it coming. The numbers warned us. But like a bright and promising kid who forgot the summer reading assignment, California is scrambling as the school year opens, scurrying in this case to get qualified teachers to helm its classrooms.Thanks to a perfect storm of

by mike simpson / 9h 

Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents | gadflyonthewallblog

Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents | gadflyonthewallblog: Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its ContentsFor more than 80 days, about 35 parents and children have been camping out in front of their neighborhood school in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico.The Commonwealth governmen

by mike simpson / 10h 

The Washington Teacher: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score

The Washington Teacher: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation ScoreBy Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice PresidentGreat teachers are not born, they're made. It takes time to become a great teacher.We are more than just the sum of our teacher evaluation (IMPACT) scores. But let's face it, IMPACT scores determine whether te

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - #SaveDyett

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - Douglas - DNAinfo.com Chicago: Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days InActivists said they were becoming more emotional but thinking clearer now that they hadn't eaten for five days in a campaign to force a decision on Dyett High School by CPS.DOUGLAS — The 12 Dyett activists looked weake

by mike simpson / 22h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/21/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORM‘LaPolitics’: Various groups poised to play in BESE races - Baton Rouge Business Report‘LaPolitics’: Various groups poised to play in BESE races - Baton Rouge Business Report: ‘LaPolitics’: Various groups poised to play in BESE racesClick Here to Follow Flip BESE on Facebook LEE P.BARRIOS FOR BESE 1 Web SiteJASON FRANCE FOR BESE 6 Web SiteMIKE KREAMER FOR BESE 7

by mike simpson / 23h 

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures - Living in Dialogue

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures - Living in Dialogue:

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures 

By Anthony Cody.

This week we have seen a renewed attempt to rehabilitate the beleaguered Common Core standards, just as the scores arrive in many states, largely meeting projections that they would yield increased failure rates and a wider “achievement gap.” These results are the most basic problem that the Common Core has. These standards were designed to deliver massive failure, and the tests are delivering as promised. But rather than question these results, some advocates are trying to shift the focus onto a brighter view.

The headline from Think Progress is beyond belief. “People Like Common Core Better Once They Know What It Is.” But when you read the article, you discover that support for Common Core is actually continuing to drop. One would think that teachers are in a position to know far more than the general public about the Common Core, but Quinlan notes that:

Teacher support of Common Core has slipped from 76 percent in 2013 to 40 percent this year, according to the Education Next and Harvard Kennedy School poll.

How does this jibe with the headline stating that people like Common Core better the more they know about it? I would think teachers know more about the Common Core than anyone.

Drawing on polling done by the Gates-funded Center for American Progress, (see poll results here) Think Progress spinmeister Casey Quinlan states:

… the majority of voters polled believe that the U.S. Department of Education created the standards and almost half of voters thought the standards were a specific curriculum. Only 4 percent of those polled knew that teachers were involved in the creation of Common Core and 14 percent knew that governors were involved in its development.

The public should be forgiven for the mistaken belief that the US Department of Education created the Common Core. After all, “career and college-ready standards” (largely interpreted to mean Common Core) were required by the DoEd for Race to the Top funds and for NCLB waivers that states needed to continue receiving federal funds. Law prevented the Department of Education from creating the Common Core, but Arne Duncan and Bill Gates created a workaround. Gates provided the funding, directed to nonprofit organizations, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and Chief Council of State School Officers Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History to Ignore Failures - Living in Dialogue:

NEWSLETTER: Teacher Shortage: NY Times Got it Wrong – The Network For Public Education

NEWSLETTER: Teacher Shortage: NY Times Got it Wrong – The Network For Public Education:

When it Comes to the Teacher Shortage, The New York Times Got it Wrong

New Mexico’s Rio Rancho School District lies just north of Albuquerque. When school opened, the district was still in desperate need of teachers. Students in 33 classrooms were met by a permanent substitute who in some cases had a bachelor’s degree, but no teaching certification of any kind.

Shortly before schools opened in Arizona, at least 1000 teaching positions had yet to be filled. Some positions did not have even one applicant—choosing among the best candidates was not an option.

Nevada does not have enough teachers. If every graduate from Nevada’s teacher preparation programs were hired on the spot, the state still expected to be short. Clarke County alone anticipated having fewer than the whopping 2,600 teachers it needed to open school.

In Oklahoma, the shortage has reached emergency proportions as teachers flee like refugees across state lines to get jobs in better paying states. School officials have traveled to Puerto Ricoand Spain to fill slots, especially in bi-lingual education.

The state of California has not been spared. Students in the Bay Area of San Francisco may find their teacher is a central office staffer, as schools scramble to put an adult in the classroom. Although the California shortage is most acute in the northern part of the state, some lawmakers are concerned that it is spreading from north to south.

These are a few of the recent stories that have appeared in local newspapers across the country. There are many more. Too many of our nation’s children do not have the qualified permanent teacher they deserve. There is no indication that the problem will be solved anytime soon, and every indication that it will get worse.

A recent story in The New York Times by Motoko Rich brought national attention to the problem. Rich described the extraordinary efforts districts are taking to put someone in the front of the classroom—ready and credentialed or not. She attributes the shortage to an improving economy—teachers were laid off during the recession and now when new positions are opening, there are job opportunities that are just more attractive to college graduates. There is some truth to the argument she makes.

But the economic upturn is only a part of the story.

Earlier this year, NPR also reported on the national teacher shortage. Correspondent Eric Westervelt’s identification of the cause went beyond the usual suspect—the economy. Noting the dramatic drop in enrollment in teacher education programs (a 74% drop in less than 10 years in NEWSLETTER: Teacher Shortage: NY Times Got it Wrong – The Network For Public Education:

One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everything : Wsj

One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everything : Wsj:

One of Scott Walker's educational role models doesn't agree with him on everything

When asked on Wednesday who is influential and to whom he listens when it comes to education policy, Gov. Scott Walker named a well-known advocate for improving schools for disadvantaged students in Milwaukee.

Former Milwaukee School District superintendent and Marquette University education professor Howard Fuller, Walker said at the New Hampshire Education Summit, is someone he admires and is the kind of person he would look for when naming a Secretary of Education if elected president.

But Fuller said in an interview with the State Journal on Wednesday that he hasn’t spoken to Walker, whom he calls a friend, in a couple of years, and wouldn’t accept the Cabinet position if it were offered. Fuller also took to Twitter after Walker’s comments to make it clear he doesn’t agree with Walker on some education issues, as well as other measures Walker has supported and pushed as governor that have become key to Walker’s campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Fuller supports the Common Core academic standards, which Walker opposes, and opposes expanding school vouchers to students who aren’t from low-income households, which Walker supports and has pushed in two budgets during his tenure as governor.

“Scott Walker & I have fought together for parent choice over the years, but I do not support universal vouchers,” Fuller tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “I am against voter ID, I support raising minimum wage. I do not support drug testing for people on welfare. I support Obamacare, I support the common core, I support #BlackLivesMatter. I am neither a republican or democrat.

“I don’t want any of my friends trying to stand up for me. I speak for myself. Always have and always will,” Fuller tweeted.

A spokeswoman for Walker’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions about which education issues the two agreed on and discussed.

Fuller said he wouldn’t comment on Walker’s education record or on issues on which they agree.

“I don’t know, because I haven’t talked to him in a long time,” Fuller said in the interview.

Fuller said Walker’s comments set off a “mini firestorm” of tweets and text messages, and that he used Twitter to make sure his positions on important issues to him were known.

“It’s kind of a weird position because I’m not trying to be negative toward Scott Walker,” Fuller said in the interview. “I’m just making sure that everybody’s clear what my position is (on those issues) … it’s clearly not the position that the governor has.”

At the summit, during which Walker and five other GOP presidential candidates answered questions about education policy, Walker was asked if he had anyone in mind for secretary of education, who he listens to, who influences his thinking on education policy and who has “inspired” him “to take on some of these fights.”

Walker said he couldn’t say whom he would likely name to the Cabinet position, but “You can tell people the kind of people you’d be looking at. I’ll do that for all different Cabinet positions just as I did for governor years ago closer to the election, but it’s a long list of folks,” he said. “There are folks I’ve looked at even in my own state.”

Walker then said he admired Fuller and American Federation for Children chairwoman Betsy DeVos, a voucher supporter who has been a top donor toWalker.

Fuller was a champion of the Milwaukee voucher program when it was created in 1990, and said he and Walker agreed on school vouchers until Walker moved to raise the household income limits for the program after becoming governor.

Fuller was a public opponent of that move in 2011, which Walker touted at the New Hampshire summit as a way to make the middle class more “vibrant.”

Walker also spoke at length Wednesday about his signature Act 10 law to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees, including teachers.

Fuller declined to offer an opinion about whether he supported that measure — saying he was torn.

“It’s very difficult for me because I come from a family where (public sector) unions were a critical part for my mother and her friends ... but when it comes to teachers unions ... I’m sort of split,” he said.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/one-of-scott-walker-s-educational-role-models-doesn-t/article_44177210-09ab-5b10-9a6c-0b5226508c4d.html#ixzz3jaowvJc8

Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations - Living in Dialogue

Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations - Living in Dialogue:

Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations

By John Thompson.

The famed novelist, Toni Morrison, writes:

I’ve been wondering who might fill in the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates. The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates’s journey is visceral, eloquent, and beautifully redemptive. And its examination of the hazards and hopes of black male life is as profound as it is revelatory. This is required reading.

Morrison is right. Coates is also correct in observing that it is still too difficult for most Americans to face up to the brutality he endured as a child in Baltimore during the 1980s. Coates grew up in a world that “no one survives unscathed.” Although it could be thrilling, it was also “a lifestyle of near-death experience.”  Those streets left the black child with the permanent reminder that “any claim to ourselves … was contestable.”

It will be a jolt for many white people when we reach many of the book’s passages with the words “they,” “them,” and “your,” but we all must heed Coates’s wisdom and turn away from “the brightly rendered version of your country” and toward “something murkier and unknown.”

It is outrageous that a child such as Coates, growing up in a democracy which takes pride in the promise that we all can share in “the American Dream,” would come of age with the belief that the universe has a “moral arc bent toward chaos and then concluded in a box.” It is tragic that Coates was so forced to inveigh against his own humanity, and thus be “powerless before the great crime of history that brought the ghettos to be.” But, it is inspiring that he ultimately became such an articulate and “conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”

Being a former inner city teacher who has seen how my students enthusiastically responded to challenging Ta-Nehisi Coates Opens a Conversation Between Generations - Living in Dialogue:

From the Web: Testing’s War on… Computers?

Last spring, when my son was denied admittance to the computer lab during high stakes testing time (we had opted him out), I raised a stink, writing an editorial in our local paper protesting not only that he was denied a resource he needed to complete a report he was writing, but also the way he was denied: a curriculum specialist told his teacher that “he can’t be in here.” Not only does standardized testing limit accessibility to school computers (which is even more unfair to students who don’t have computers/internet at home), but as this Huff Post video explores, it prevents students, especially girls and children of color, from learning an essential 21st century skill: how to code.http://www.livingindialogue.com/from-the-web-testings-war-on-computers-2/

Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing - The Washington Post

Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing - The Washington Post:

Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing

Eight of the District’s 60 public charter schools raised nearly 75 percent of all charitable funds that went to such schools in the city between 2012 and 2014, highlighting a serious inequity between schools that raised millions of dollars and many that raised little or none.

Just three public charter schools — KIPP DC, Maya Angelou and E.L. Haynes — reported nearly half of all fundraising dollars that went to the city’s charter schools over the three-year period, according to the D.C. Public Charter Board’s most recent financial audit. In total, those three schools combined averaged $14.5 million in donations each year from 2012 to 2014; the average annual donations for all 60 charter schools over that time frame was $29 million.

Many charter school leaders see fundraising as an important way to advance their missions. Charitable dollars are seen as a key way to bolster their budgets as they work to build adequate school facilities and offer competitive teacher salaries. But records show a significant inequity in how much money the city’s charters receive from donors.

Although seven schools reported at least $1 million in donations in fiscal 2014, at least 20 schools reported less than $100,000. The charter schools reporting income range from small, individual schools to large networks serving thousands of students. Some charter organizations have senior leadership positions or entire teams dedicated to fundraising.

Ramona Edelin, executive director of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools, said there is a limited number of national funders investing in charter schools, and they tend to prefer a certain kind of school with a strong focus on college preparation.

“It’s ironic that the rallying cry is that one size doesn’t fit all and that’s why we need charter schools, but funders are interested in one kind of school,” Edelin said.

A University of Arkansas study found a “highly skewed distribution” of charter school funding more broadly, with 95 percent of all recorded charter school philanthropy in 15 states going to schools that enrolled just one-third of all charter students. At the same time, more than a third of charter schools reported no philanthropic support of any kind.

Charter schools, which serve 44 percent of public school students in the Some charter schools get millions in donations; others, almost nothing - The Washington Post:

Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out. | deutsch29

Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out. | deutsch29:

Noteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out.

In July 2015, both House and Senate passed versions of the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The current version of ESEA– eight years overdue for reauthorization– is the defunct No Child Left Behind of 2001 (NCLB). The proposed ESEA revision from the House, the Student Success Act (SSA), includes a blanket provision for parents to opt their children out of the annual tests that remain a part of SSA.

The proposed ESEA revision from the Senate, the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (ECAA), includes language that allows for states to set their own opt-out policies regarding the annual testing that remains a part of ECAA.

In reporting on SSA, ECAA, and opting out of federally-mandated annual testing, I have heard from individuals who are concerned that if it were up to the state, there would be no opt-out provision for the federal tests. Their concern is centered on the ECAA opt-out language and what might happen regarding federal sanctions if the state “guarantees” the federal government a 95 percent participation rate in federally-mandated annual testing without any conditions to account for opt-outs.

I have noted that the state officials who try to force the public into not opting out by not providing for the possibility only set themselves up for federal sanctions that might have been avoided if the states included an opt-out provision as part of their future ESEA application for Title I funding. (Annual testing is part of Title I, which is the big money of ESEA.)

However, I now think thatNoteworthy: No Federal Sanctions for New York Opt-out. | deutsch29:

The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover - The New York Times

The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover - The New York Times:

The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover

WAS Hurricane Katrina “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans,” as Education Secretary Arne Duncan once said? Nearly 10 years after the disaster, this has become a dominant narrative among a number of school reformers and education scholars.

Before the storm, the New Orleans public school system had suffered from white flight, neglect, mismanagement and corruption, which left the schools in a state of disrepair. The hurricane almost literally wiped out the schools: Only 16 of 128 buildings were relatively unscathed. As of 2013 the student population was still under 45,000, compared with 65,000 students before the storm. Following the storm, some 7,500 unionized teachers and other school employees were put on unpaid leave, and eventually dismissed.

Two years before the storm, the State of Louisiana had set up a so-calledRecovery School District to take over individual failing schools. After Katrina, the district eventually took over about 60 local schools; about 20 well-performing schools remained in the Orleans Parish School Board, creating, in essence, a two-tier system. Nearly all the schools in both parts of the system have since been converted to charters.

Last year, 63 percent of children in local elementary and middle schools were proficient on state tests, up from 37 percent in 2005. New research by Tulane University’s Education Research Alliance shows that the gains were largely because of the charter-school reforms, according to Douglas N. Harris, the alliance’s director. Graduation and college entry rates also increased over pre-Katrina levels.

But the New Orleans miracle is not all it seems. Louisiana state standards are among the lowest in the nation. The new research also says little about high school performance. And the average composite ACT score for the Recovery School District was just 16.4 in 2014, well below the minimum score required for admission to a four-year public university in Louisiana.

There is also growing evidence that the reforms have come at the expense of the city’s most disadvantaged children, who often disappear from school entirely and, thus, are no longer included in the data.

“We don’t want to replicate a lot of the things that took place to get here,” said Andre Perry, who was one of the few black charter-school leaders in the city. “There were some pretty nefarious things done in the pursuit of academic gain,” Mr. Perry acknowledged, including “suspensions, pushouts, skimming, counseling out, and not handling special needs kids well.”

At a time when states and municipalities nationwide are looking to New Orleans, the first virtually all-charter urban district, as a model, it is more important than ever to accurately assess the results, the costs and the continuing challenges.

New Orleans has been trying to make the system more fair. It replaced its confusing and decentralized school application process with one in which most schools accept a single application. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of special education students, the courts recently tightened oversight of charter schools.

But stark problems remain. A recent report by the Education Research Alliance confirmed that principals engage in widespread “creaming” — selecting, or counseling out, students based on their expected performance on standardized tests. In a forthcoming study, the alliance expects to show that lowest-scoring students are less likely to move to higher-performing The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover - The New York Times:

Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago - Living in Dialogue

Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago - Living in Dialogue:

Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago 

By Michelle Gunderson.

Twelve people sit in a circle under the trees outside Dyett High School in Chicago on a hunger strike. They share stories of their experience with Chicago schools – teachers they have loved, principals they have battled, the times they have been arrested fighting for equity in our schools. Those of us who support this courageous act sit to the outside of the circle offering our support through our presence and willingness to listen.

The twelve people have committed to withholding food – parents, grandparents, teachers, a minister, and community members – forming a hunger strike to keep the only open enrollment high school in the Bronzeville community of Chicago.

The demand is simple – the hunger strikers want a public high school designed by the community to re-open at Dyett, not a contract school from a failed supplier or a charter operation. The proposal for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology School comes from extensive outreach in focus groups and town hall meetings with the community. Over a four year period a coalition of community members and education experts built the plan.1 It is a vision for a high school that would build a center of learning and justice for our city’s children.

This is the point where we need to stop and ask ourselves – how far would we be willing to go to ensure we had an open enrollment high school in our own communities? Why would community members be driven to such a drastic action as to risk their health and well-being?

Slow and Intentional Destruction of a School

There has been a long history of ignoring community needs and input in the Bronzeville neighborhood. In 2012 Chicago’s appointed school board voted to “phase out” Dyett High School, but the path of intentional destruction was over a decade in the making.

Rhoda Rae Gutierrez and Pauline Lipman consider Dyett High School a victim of the 3Ds of education reform – destabilization, disinvestment, and disenfranchisement. Dyett experienced destabilizing upheaval in its student population when the Chicago Public Schools decided to “turn around”, convert to charter, or create selective enrollment in the 20 area schools near Dyett. Students were sent from school to school with very little cohesion to community, teachers, or curriculum. There was Hunger Strike: The Fight for Dyett High School in Chicago - Living in Dialogue:

Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice

Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice:

Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests?

Is the 95 percent participation in yearly testing, of all students, in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) justified? We need to know.

Currently a conference committee is putting together a replacement for NCLB ( ESEA reauthorization) but, as it stands, it will continue to mandate yearly standardized testing of all students with the 95 percent participation rate unmistakably emphasized.

Clearly, I have an opinion aboutstandardized testing but I have been willing to explore other points of view while considering that I could be wrong. So in looking to find official information on the topic, I ran across an article titled “Why We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests.”

As I read it, I became confused.

Were parents ever…

“begging for their kids to be tested”

…as Stephenie Johnson wrote?

After 13 years of data collection under NCLB, does the public know how the data was used and what value it had in school improvement? Maybe the public no longer realizes that the original ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) intended to help provide a level playing field for children from low-income families.

My schools are schools with a high concentration of such children. I know what I saw in my own district.

Have I…

“forgotten what happened before participation was required”?

I have not. Before participation in yearly externally developed standardized testing was required by federal law for all children, we were making progress in my schools by focusing on correcting the mistakes that were made with reading and math instruction…for the students, based on those students, and based on individual school differences.

We already knew we had problems and which schools were having the most problems.Do We Need 95% of Students to Take Tests? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice:

Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system | The Salt Lake Tribune

Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system | The Salt Lake Tribune:

Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system

Charter schools are where the public school system meets startup culture. While regular public schools go on forever, charter schools sometimes do not.

Like startups, the charters challenge the existing paradigms, and they often fill niches the larger system may underserve. They receive public tax money, but they are free from many of the hiring and operating constraints of traditional public schools. The intent is to encourage alternatives, and there is research indicating that their presence can even raise success in the public schools they operate parallel to.

And when they fail, they fail like the free-market creatures they are. Such was the case this week when the Alianza Academy closed three days into the school year, leaving the parents of 270 students scrambling for a school and the Granite School District scrambling to find them one.

The four-year-old school had in the last year been put on probation by the state's Charter School Board for problems with budgets, low test scores and special-education services. Then last week, days before it was scheduled to open for the year, the board proposed it be terminated. The school's operators tried to open anyway. In a scenario the school's executive director likened to a bank run, too many parents heard the news about its problems and the school didn't get enough returning students to operate. Parents said that news was their first indication of trouble.

Granite District has more than 65,000 students. Absorbing 270 is not insurmountable, but odds are the burden will fall hardest on schools nearest Alianza. It's likely some of them will need to hire new teachers in a hurry. Some parents may even find other charters but, unlike the regular public schools, the charters don't have to accept them if they don't have the staff or the room.

That means more than the charter students are affected by this. It will interfere with those public schools' efforts to educate the students they already have, and that will be no fault of the schools.

The charters point out that public schools fail, too, but they just keep operating. That's true, and that's because they can't close. That's an undeniable fact for charter proponents. The charter system simply couldn't operate without the public school system there as a backup. The Alianza experience makes that obvious.

The charters' entrepreneurship may still be worth continuing, but these are schoolchildren. They cannot absorb losses like venture capitalists. We need a system that prevents the kind of chaos that Alianza Academy is producing at this late stage, and that means requiring schools to inform the parents at the first sign of trouble, bank run or not. It also means not waiting until a week before school starts to propose terminating one. If they can't figure that out, the people promoting charters aren't as inventive as they think they are.Editorial: Charter schools may fail, and they need a better warning system | The Salt Lake Tribune:

Teach Your Children | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Teach Your Children | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Teach Your Children

The opening of Graham Nash's 1970 song, "Teach Your Children" reminds the listener of the critical role of character development in K-12 education programs and the importance of acquiring a moral compass that will support and guide every learner during their self-directed academic, social, and emotional journey to adulthood.

You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.

Education programs should provide countless opportunities for students to discover their talents and pursue their passions, instead of being an obligation and competition to be “ready” for college and careers.

Schooling should be about students learning to love, being loved, and cultivating a love of learning, rather than students learning primarily for assessment.

"We always find time for what we truly love, one way or another.

Suppose further that love, being an inclusive spirit, refused to choose between Shakespeare and Toni Morrison (or Tony Bennett, for that matter), and we located our bliss in the unstable relationship between the two, rattling from book to book, looking for connections and grandly unconcerned about whether we’ve read “enough,” as long as we read what we read with love…

The whole world’s a classroom, and to really make it one, the first thing is to believe it is.

We need to take seriously the proposition that reflection and knowledge born Teach Your Children | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn: