I can certainly understand the desire to say I told you so. — Schoolhouse Voices — Medium

I can certainly understand the desire to say I told you so. — Schoolhouse Voices — Medium:

I can certainly understand the desire to say I told you so.

I’ve said many of the same things Randi has before, too.

There’s no doubt that we could have avoided our current situation regarding standardized tests with a different stance by the USDOE. Yet, as I tell my own children, and used to say when I was superintendent, we’re in the situation we’re in, so what are we going to do about it?

The 47th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools provides valuable information for policy makers to consider as we rethink policies and practices intended to improve public education for all students. As Randi points out, the PDK/Gallup poll found that the American public feels there’s too much emphasis on standardized tests. We have to ask, who’s emphasizing? Certainly, no one can escape federal accountability provisions, but schools and local districts — and even states (see Connecticut) — can choose the value they place on them, and they can design comprehensive accountability systems that include measures beyond state standardized tests. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/ssif/They also can engage their communities by sharing other evidence of student achievement http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/framework/

Thirty-seven percent of public school parents say examples of student work provide the most accurate picture of a student’s academic progress, and 25% say written observations do so, while only 16% say standardized achievement tests fill this need. So how is AFT encouraging local chapters to ensure that contracts support this kind of communication from the teacher to parents? Moreover, are local districts giving teachers the time and support to share progress with parents beyond standardized tests? Local leaders and educators have to work hard to follow their community’s values when sharing reports about student progress and achievement. If the school, district, and community value standardized test scores beyond all else, so be it. If they believe otherwise, educators have an obligation to be proactive about sharing student progress beyond test scores.

Other findings in this year’s poll regarding standardized tests require further conversation and analysis, especially those concerning demographic differences. Clearly, black and Hispanic respondents place more value than whites do on using standardized test scores for comparing and evaluating schools. Moreover, 28% of black and 23% of Hispanic respondents say standardized tests are “very important” for measuring the quality of local schools, compared to just 11% of white respondents. Union leaders, superintendents, policy makers, and school leaders must recognize that I can certainly understand the desire to say I told you so. — Schoolhouse Voices — Medium:

Two sides to the Katrina recovery: one black, one white — separate and unequal | The Lens

Two sides to the Katrina recovery: one black, one white — separate and unequal | The Lens:

Two sides to the Katrina recovery: one black, one white — separate and unequal

New Orleans and the regional economy are “embarking on a new path, benefitting from new infrastructure, investments, a more diverse set of [employment] clusters, and an entrepreneurship boom,” says a 10th anniversary report by The Data Center, which, in alliance with the Brookings Institution, has been keeping comprehensive records of the Katrina recovery since Day One.

ARE WE BETTER OFF THAN WE WERE BEFORE HURRICANE KATRINA?

C.W. Cannon: Old problems persist, but it’s absurd to deny improvements since Katrina

Eugene Thomas: Two sides to the Katrina recovery: one black, one white — separate and unequal

That there are more restaurants here than before the disaster — despite a shrunken city population — has become a meme popular with recovery pundits. Tax incentives have created Hollywood South, with New Orleans now rivaling Hollywood itself in TV, film and ad production. A billion-dollar medical center and research facilities have just opened. And the list goes on: revitalized and expanded business corridors along Magazine Street, Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, St. Claude Avenue; the Whole Foods branch on a resurgent Broad Street, an upsurge in entrepreneurial ventures, dog parks and an abundance of bike lanes all over town.

Property values have rebounded to pre-Katrina levels — and higher still in some areas, as residents rebuild and newcomers compete for space in trendy neighborhoods. The chartering of almost all New Orleans public schools — including those run by the Orleans Parish School Board and the ones that were taken over by the Recovery School District, is being hailed as a national model worthy of emulation in other cities. High school graduation rates are up as are college entry rates, notably so among black males. Despite troubling levels of murder and rape, overall crime is down.

In sum, 10 years post-Katrina, New Orleans is a great place to live and raise a family.

Or is it?

Because beneath the froth of genuinely dynamic improvements, Data Center numbers also reveal the lurking hulk of the “City That Care Forgot,” to use one of our famous nicknames. I speak, of course, of the Chocolate City, to use a moniker of more recent vintage that was revived after the storm by our former mayor, Ray Nagin, now doing time for public corruption. Nagin was trying to offer reassurance to black New Orleans that the world many of us remembered so fondly would never be taken away.

In ways that the mayor would not have encouraged, that has proven to be true. With middle-class blacks figuring prominently in the exodus that has reduced the city’s population by about one quarter, New Orleans has a poverty rate (27 percent) well above the national average. Fully 67 percent of black New Orleans households are considered low-income, while 44 percent earn less than $20,900 annually.

And small wonder. Over half of black men are unemployed in New Orleans and the spike in rents and associated costs makes housing more and more difficult to come by. It comes as no surprise then that the incidence of murder and other forms of violence is concentrated among these same people, both as perpetrators and victims. Nearly 30 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds are considered “disconnected youths.” More than half of the children live in poverty, according to a report put out this week by the Urban League of New Orleans. An anniversary report by the New Orleans Tribune quantifies many of these persistent problems.

What the numbers show are two distinct post-Katrina experiences, “one black, one white – separate and unequal.”

For all the buzz about recent academic gains, for too many students the public school system remains, as it was before Katrina, a place where hope and dreams die a slow death. Too many students graduate unprepared for the colleges that now admit them and, given the economy’s continued dependence on tourism and the convention business, a high school diploma is often nothing more than a ticket to a low-wage job Two sides to the Katrina recovery: one black, one white — separate and unequal | The Lens:

Teacher wellness center at city school has goal to promote fitness, ease stress - Baltimore Sun

Teacher wellness center at city school has goal to promote fitness, ease stress - Baltimore Sun:

Teacher wellness center at city school has goal to promote fitness, ease stress

Chech Out Video Here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-teacher-wellness-center-opened-20150827-premiumvideo.html

Left, Heather Hatfield, a FX Well personal trainer, watches as Matt Mutolo of Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School, demonstrates bench jumps at the grand opening of the Teacher Wellness Center at Francis Scott Key. Scott Plank, founder of War Horse, and his wife, Dana DiCarlo, funded the center.

 An exhausted Morgen Piper used to roll past her workout studio just down the street from Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School at the end of the day, thinking "I just can't do it."

Beginning this year, the special education teacher will have to muster only enough energy to walk down the hall.

The first wellness center for teachers in Baltimore opened Thursday at Francis Scott Key, part of a public-private partnership spearheaded by Scott Plank, founder of the real estate and philanthropy company War Horse.

Left, Heather Hatfield, a FX Well personal trainer, watches as Matt Mutolo of Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School, demonstrates bench jumps at the grand opening of the Teacher Wellness Center at Francis Scott Key. Scott Plank, founder of War Horse, and his wife, Dana DiCarlo, funded the center. (Kim Hairston)

Officials say the effort is designed to foster health and fitness among teachers, who are relied upon as role models for students.

"A lot of the lion's share of the resources go to the kids, as it should be," said Plank. "But we thought we could deliver the same kinds of resources to teachers."

Plank said he created the 1,574-square-foot wellness center — equipped with treadmills, an Arc exercise machine, bikes, a rowing machine and more — with the goal of bringing a private-sector attraction to public school teachers.

Plank said people sometimes forget that teachers make a choice to go into a classroom instead of into corporations. He quipped that he didn't know much about being a teacher, but he does know about running a business.

"Everything is about retaining and attracting good people," Plank said.

For Piper, the wellness center signals recognition and appreciation for her job.

"It's like we work for this entity, where we're only seen as teachers," Piper said. "This acknowledges that we're people."Teacher wellness center at city school has goal to promote fitness, ease stress - Baltimore Sun:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ask About Videotaping in the Classroom

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ask About Videotaping in the Classroom:

Ask About Videotaping in the Classroom

Via my student data privacy network of colleagues (via Student Privacy Matters), I have learned that there are teachers doing edTPA teacher certification training who are videotaping their work with students.  Some of the issues noted from my colleagues like Leonie Haimson:

Molly, a NYC parent, tweeted and emailed me this AM about the many videos exploding all over YouTube that were originally submitted through the edTPA teacher certification process showing students being taught by teachers in training. One in particular shows a student who the teacher is trying to train him not to hum during reading. 

The video link provided has been taken down at YouTube.

From reader, Josh Hayes, at this blog in Feb. 2014:

It's worth pointing out that new grads, starting this year, wishing to obtain certification as a teacher in WA state, must submit a great big package called the "edTPA", or "Teacher Performance Assessment", and pass it, much like experienced teachers passing national boards. 

From edTPA:
Secure appropriate permission from the parents/guardians of your students and from adults who appear in the video recording.

Teachers cannot: 


Display the video publicly (i.e., personal websites, YouTube, Facebook) without expressed permission for this purpose from all those featured in the video.

Sample Release form. 

Continuing with Haimson's e-mail:  

I assume that the usual parent consent forms for edTPA do NOT include Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ask About Videotaping in the Classroom:

A Perfect Storm: The Takeover of New Orleans Public Schools

New Orleans Education Equity Roundtable | Issues around equity in education in New Orleans:

A Perfect Storm Part 1: 17 Days in November

A Perfect Storm: The Takeover of New Orleans Public Schools is the first in a series of short videos, that reveals the real story behind the creation of the nation’s first all charter school district. These videos are made possible with the support of  The Schott Foundation and The New Orleans Education Equity Roundtable. They are produced in partnership with Bayou and Me Productions.

For the past seven years, state education officials and corporate school reformers have touted the dramatic turnaround of New Orleans public schools. National media outlets have published numerous articles and TV news stories of the miracle in New Orleans citing unprecedented academic achievement where parents finally had School Choice.

This first Perfect Storm video focuses on the illegal takeover and the academic failure of the Recovery School District. The film features interviews with leaders in the New Orleans education community who were faced with the daunting task of reopening schools immediately following Hurricane Katrina.New Orleans Education Equity Roundtable | Issues around equity in education in New Orleans:

A Perfect Storm Part 2: The Illusion of Choice

Latest Videos on Educational Equity

New Orleans Education Equity Roundtable | Issues around equity in education in New Orleans:

NEWS FLASH on SBAC: Beware the cozy relationship between Malloy and the Education Reform Industry. - Wait What?

NEWS FLASH on SBAC:  Beware the cozy relationship between Malloy and the Education Reform Industry. - Wait What?:

NEWS FLASH on SBAC:  Beware the cozy relationship between Malloy and the Education Reform Industry.

Prior to the Malloy administration even announcing that they would be releasing the 2015 SBAC results today, the state’s two major corporate funded education reform lobby groups, ConnCAN and the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER), invited reporters to join a “media call” in which the groups would discuss the SBAC results.  Then, just as quickly, the call was cancelled.

As we learned this morning – Friday, August 28, 2015 – Governor Malloy’s administration is finally releasing the 2015 SBAC results this afternoon, but the super-secret nature of the information didn’t stop ConnCAN and CCER from announcing on Wednesday that they were holding a “press call” this morning so that the two pro-Common Core, pro-Common Core testing, pro-charter school, anti-teacher advocacy groups could discuss the SBAC results with the media — prior to those results actually being released.

And then, when questions arose about what communication had taken place between the Malloy administration and the two lobbing groups, ConnCAN and CCER quickly cancelled the media call, leaving one wondering whether the Malloy administration broke the law by refusing to give information about the SBAC results to the media and Connecticut citizens while actually providing the information to the two private lobbying entities.

Here is what ConnCAN and CCER sent out:

ConnCAN and CCER to Host Press Call and Outline Expectations for the Smarter Balance Assessment Results

***Media Press Call on Friday, August 28, 2015 at 10:00 AM EST***
Please Click Here to Register for the Call
–Call-in number will be made available upon registration–
Media Participants Should Dial-In 5-10 Minutes Prior to Call Start Time

New Haven, CT — The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) has teamed up with the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) to host a press briefing call, which will walk reporters through their 

NEWS FLASH on SBAC:  Beware the cozy relationship between Malloy and the Education Reform Industry. - Wait What?:

CT SBAC Results – It’s a Friday afternoon in August – Good time to release the results – Today at noon!

 Governor Dannel Malloy’s administration is finally ready to release the 2015 SBAC results!



Two months after parents in Washington State and Oregon were informed about how their state’s children did on the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core SBAC tests, Connecticut will finally get the news today about how our children “performed” on the absurd testing fiasco.

The first rule of modern government and politics is that when you don’t want people to know something, release the information on a Friday.  If possible, a Friday in August is best time to make something “public” if the goal is to make sure the public doesn’t actually hear about it.  The technique is an “art form” and strategy that the Malloy administration has used repeatedly over the past five years.

So now, after the spending more than $50 million dollars in state funds over the post two years on the new Common Core standardized testing scheme, and local school districts spending millions more, the Connecticut State Department will be revealing the test results this afternoon… A Friday afternoon in August.

In addition, apparently the wait for the CMT/CAPT Science test is finally over as well.  While the Common Core and Common Core testing scheme has obliterated the usefulness of the Math and English Language tests, the traditional testing process is still being used to measure whether students are learning the state’s science curriculum.

Unfortunately, the education reform industry’s definition for being “college and career” ready http://jonathanpelto.com/

Students in New Orleans Speak Out | EduShyster

Students in New Orleans Speak Out | EduShyster:

Students in New Orleans Speak Out

Students in New Orleans speak out, and ask some hard questions…

Early Friday morning students arrived at their schools only to find that it was no regular morning. Pasted on the walls all around the schools were large black & white posters. But these were not your typical posters. These posters had facts, questions, and statisticsregarding New Orleans public charter schools and their inhabitants — former students, teachers, principals, and CEOs. Some posters had questions on them that referenced the firing of over 7,000 teachers post-Katrina: *The black math teacher from 2004 who lived in your neighborhood, where are they?* And some questioned the salaries of school principals and administrators compared to the quality of the schools they run: *Your principal makes $100,000 a year, but why is your school only a ‘D’ school?* These are only a few of the many posters that were found at several high schools across the New Orleans area, including Lake Area, Sci Academy, Warren Easton, and Landry Walker.

Students at these schools and others had a lot to say about the posters and the questions they posed.  Responding to the question, *Your homie from the class of 2013…where are they now?* one high school student answered, *Most of the people I knew in the class of 2013 are currently in college, or didn’t finish and plan to go back this year. That makes me anxious and worry about if I can finish college when I’m ‘supposed’ to and wonder what happened to throw them off track. It makes me feel sad that people go into college unsure of their main drive and because of being rushed into it, they lose track of what they really want.*

Another student nearby answered as well saying, *Most of them are still in college but a few are struggling to have somewhere to stay and are still trying to get into college. Students in New Orleans Speak Out | EduShyster:

CURMUDGUCATION: No, NYT, Common Core Is Not About Knowledge

CURMUDGUCATION: No, NYT, Common Core Is Not About Knowledge:

No, NYT, Common Core Is Not About Knowledge

In today's New York Times, Natalie Wexler offers an op-ed from some parallel universe in which Common Core and reformsterism are-- well, maybe Opposites Day is today and I missed the memo.

She opens by arguing that the Big Standardized Test is not narrowing the curriculum, claiming that it's narrow anyway, and right off the bat she establishes herself as someone who doesn't understand how schools work. Heck, back in 1977 elementary teachers only spent 50 minutes per day on science and social studies, and that has only dropped by ten minutes. Some quick math tells us that over 180 days, that's a loss of 30 hours of instruction. I know in the private sector, ten minutes is nothing, but in a classroom, ten minutes is plenty of time to Get Some Stuff Done-- and it adds up quickly.

But that's just the overture. Wexler then launches into a full-blown opera about the romance between Common Core and Rich Content, the kind of knowledge-heavy education championed by guys like E. D. Hirsch. This shows a profound mis-understanding of the Common Core.

While critics blame the Common Core for further narrowing curriculums, the authors of the standards actually saw them as a tool to counteract that trend. They even included languagestressing the importance of “building knowledge systematically.”

... Most educators, guided by the standards alone, have continued to focus on skills.

So Wexler's theory is that we're supposed to close read the standards and see, buried somewhere between a gerund phrase and optional appendices, a mandate to include rich content.

Like the rest of the rich content crowd, Wexler is so sure that rich content knowledge has to be there, she has convinced herself that it is.

She is wrong.

The standards are clearly focused on "skills" (whether the "skills" are really skills or not is another debate). David Coleman, the writer of the ELA standards, has given plenty of detailed and hugely CURMUDGUCATION: No, NYT, Common Core Is Not About Knowledge:

PA: Teachers Agree To Work For Free

Its financial recovery plan rejected by the state, Chester Uplands School District now faces the grim reality that it cannot meet its payroll. The cause is simple-- obscenely profitable charter schools are bleeding the public system dry.

And (fun fact) the three charters in question--  Chester Community Charter School, Widener Partnership Charter School, and the Chester Charter School for the Arts-- none of the three enroll high school students (though CCSA is "growing" a high school program year by year).

The Chester Uplands District, long financially strapped, already has a state receiver (it was the state that proposed the financial rescue plan that the court rejected). There aren't many options left, and so the teachers have taken the ultimate hit for the team-- they have agreed to work without pay.Otherwise the public school system will not open. The district has been pushed to the wall before (here's news from 2012 that seems familiar).

That's over 300 employees. Teachers and support staff met Thursday and after hearing from the state-appointed receiver about just how dire things are, resolved that they “will work as long as 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm to both Dyett hunger strikers and Little Black Pearl: "We don't need no stink'n public school in Bronzeville."

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm to both Dyett hunger strikers and Little Black Pearl: "We don't need no stink'n public school in Bronzeville.":

Rahm to both Dyett hunger strikers and Little Black Pearl: "We don't need no stink'n public school in Bronzeville."

Rahm, Clark, Claypool & Jackson

Rahm Emanuel, cynical bastard that he is, never intended to put a school back in Dyett. From the time he closed this, the last public open-enrollment high school in Bronzeville, his plan was always to sell the building to the real estate developers -- like he's done recently with Von Humboldt in Humboldt Park and Trumbull (to Svigos Real Estate Group) in Andersonville. The awarding of the Obama Library in Washington Park has only made the incentive greater.

Like his predecessor Daley, Rahm would sell of every foot of this city's public space that wasn't nailed down, if he could. And maybe he can. The erosion of public space and public decision-making has been a hallmark of the regime's strategy of gentrifying and whitenizing the city. It's New Orleans without the flood. A quarter-million African-American citizens have left Chicago in the past decades.

Now it appears that the board's RFP for a new school at Dyett was a ruse. After 11 days of surviving on liquids and with several of the hunger strikers needing medical treatment (see the warning from local health professionals) , they've been told by Board Pres. Frank Clark (former ComEd C.E.O), that game is up. Rahm, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm to both Dyett hunger strikers and Little Black Pearl: "We don't need no stink'n public school in Bronzeville.":

Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger

Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark

Of all the lies, half-truths, canards and other deceptions the new state boss of Newark schools dumped on the people of Newark at his first public appearance Tuesday, to me, this was the most repugnant: He said that, to comply with seniority rules, he had to lay off some of the most “beloved” teachers who worked for the city.

With those few words, Christopher Cerf, a failed entrepreneur who lives in Montclair, clearly showed just how poisonous he intends to be as the man who finishes the job Gov. Chris Christie set out to do–destroy Newark as a united, cohesive community politically strong enough to play a role in state politics.

First let’s start with this: There is no measure of “belovedness” on any teacher evaluation form I have run across in more than 50 years of writing about education. Who knows which teachers are “beloved” and which are not?

Sure, we all have memories of teachers we loved, but that’s a far cry from the superintendent of schools–a former state education commissioner–declaring with the assuredness of fact that the Newark school district was forced by nasty old union rules to lay off “beloved” teachers.

Cerf admitted he knew very little of Newark and couldn’t get the names of his subordinates right–and yet he pretends he knows, for a fact, that teachers who were “beloved” were laid off while teachers who were not, or were somewhat or Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Jersey Jazzman: Karen Lewis on Carly Fiorina: "That's a Lie"

Jersey Jazzman: Karen Lewis on Carly Fiorina: "That's a Lie":

Karen Lewis on Carly Fiorina: "That's a Lie"

Carly Fiorina was one of the six Republicans to participate in Campbell Brown's education summit (which was really nothing more than a teachers union-bashing fest). As I pointed out, Fiorina was stunningly ill-informed and incoherent on education policy.

But that flies in the face of the conventional wisdom about her recent surge in the polls. Ostensibly, she showed she was a serious candidate in the first Republican debate, demonstrating a command of policy that impressed voters. But her appearance with Brown actually displayed the opposite: Fiorina doesn't much care if she can back up her facts of not, so long as they help her score political points.

For example:

"It’s why the head of the teachers union in Chicago, when they struck, against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, it’s why she could say: 'We can’t be held accountable for the performance of students in our classrooms because too many of them are poor and come from broken families.' So what was she saying? If you’re poor and come from a broken family we can’t teach you because you can’t learn. That is not the American way."

That's from her interview with Brown; Karen Lewis is the union leader Fiorina is referring to. It's a damning accusation, especially considering Lewis is a teacher herself, with many years of experience in the Chicago Public Schools chemistry labs.

I thought it was worth asking Lewis what she thought of this attack. As usual, she minced no words:

"It's a lie. I never said that, but Fiorina has

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/08/karen-lewis-on-carly-fiorina-thats-lie.html#sthash.Lt3TDu6a.dpuf

Stay Positive and Pace Yourself: A Survival Guide for First-Year Teachers - NEA Today

Stay Positive and Pace Yourself: A Survival Guide for First-Year Teachers - NEA Today:

Stay Positive and Pace Yourself: A Survival Guide for First-Year Teachers

The 2015-16 school year will be my second year in the classroom. I am looking forward to the start of school with far less trepidation than I did a year ago. My first year in the classroom was hard – there’s no way around it. But I survived. For better or worse, the struggles of are fresh in my mind and I’d like to pay it forward and hopefully support some new first-year teachers in our important profession.

To be clear, the first year is going to be enormously challenging no matter what. It is educator boot camp. However, understanding how to navigate it can make a big difference. Here I’ve identified some of the most important advice that I followed (or wish I had followed), and even though my experiences are from a high school English classroom, I think they translate into all grades and contexts.

Don’t Add to the Pressure

Although it is important to have an appropriate and positive mindset about what you can do, many new teachers forget to bring this same mindset to the things that theycannot do. Your job is to be the best first-year teacher you can be.  Give yourself permission to take  a few short cuts that are in no way reflective of the educator you will be years down the road. Even though you have already learned so much in student teaching, you still face an enormous learning curve that happens as you jump to full-time teaching. You will absorb so many things every day, but may have trouble articulating and applying what you have learned. And because you’re trying to apply numerous subtle layers to everything you do (planning, grading, seating charts, anything!), it will initially slow you down. As a morale booster, constantly remind yourself that school work will take you much longer now, but that won’t always be the case.

For example, before starting full time, it took me 30 minutes to grade one essay – which is an impossibly slow speed once you have 100+ students. Know that you will adjust and you need to cut corners as you do so. Also, keep in mind that you cannot nor should not grade every piece of work each student completes. In fact, for your students to gain the skills you want to teach them, they need to practice them so Stay Positive and Pace Yourself: A Survival Guide for First-Year Teachers - NEA Today:

Watch Poverty in School Districts Escalate Before Your Very Eyes - CityLab

This Map From EdBuild Shows Increasing Rates of School District Poverty Since the Recession - CityLab:

Watch Poverty in School Districts Escalate Before Your Very Eyes

Since the recession, more children than ever are living in impoverished school districts.

For parents with multiple kids under one roof, being poor has a compounding effect. That’s why in America, children make up 23 percent of the population but 33 percent of all people in poverty.

If that isn’t staggering enough, those children are concentrated together at school. 25 percent of the nation’s school districts contain 82 percent of children living in poverty. And the communities defined by those districts have swollen since the Great Recession. In 2006, there were 15.9 million studentsliving within school districts where the overall child poverty rate was 20 percent or higher. In 2013, there were 26.3 million—a stunning 60 percent increase over just seven years.

Now, that doesn’t meant that all 26.3 million of them are living in poverty, or even attending public school. But it does mean that about half of all U.S. children live in places where a significant number of families are just scraping by.

EdBuild, a nonprofit that advocates for public school funding, has released an interactive map (shown above, courtesy of the Huffington Post) that shows all the U.S. school districts where the student poverty rate exceeded 20 percent, 30 percent, and 40 percent, time-lapsed from 2006 to 2013. It’s based on Census SAIPE data, which measures poverty in small units, such as school districts and counties. You can zoom in and search to see how your local district or region has fared.

Southern states have seen population expanding overall, with poverty levels rising in tandem. In the Midwest, it’s more of a deepening of poverty, as high-income families flee and low-income residents are left in concentration. Florida, ground-zero of the foreclosure crisis and among the slowest states to recover from the recession, is probably the most jaw-dropping example of poverty concentrating in school districts: In 2013, 76.3 percent of Florida children lived in districts where the student poverty rate was more than 20 percent. In 2006, those districts contained only 6 percent.

If those numbers (or the maps below) are so dramatic that they’re hard to believe, note that there may be some caveats to EdBuild’s data. Kye Lippold, a research associate at the Urban Institute, points out that the Census changed their methodology for computing school district poverty levels in 2010, which might explain at least part of the jump between 2009 and 2010. So it’s hard to say whether EdBuild’s exact numbers are completely accurate; it would take a more complex analysis to figure that out.

In the Midwest, poverty is deepening as high-income families flee and low-income residents are left in concentration.

But, Lippold adds via email, “It is very likely true that the number of students in high-poverty districts has increased… the Great Recession could be expected to have this effect.”

That seems indisputable. And it’s certainly true that when your community is poor, your school district suffers in turn. In many states and localities, per-student spending is dramatically lower in poor school districts than it is in This Map From EdBuild Shows Increasing Rates of School District Poverty Since the Recession - CityLab:

Poll: California voters back Prop. 30 extension in support of public schools | USC News

Poll: California voters back Prop. 30 extension in support of public schools | USC News:

Poll: California voters back Prop. 30 extension in support of public schools

 As optimism about the state of California’s public schools continues to rise, a strong majority of California voters would back the reauthorization of Proposition 30 to channel additional money to public campuses, according to a new poll released today.

The PACE/USC Rossier School of Education Poll shows 63 percent of voters are in favor of extending at least one provision of Prop. 30 — the tax increase on high incomes or the sales tax hike or both — that is set to expire at the end of 2016. Only 28 percent of voters said both fiscal provisions should be allowed to expire, the poll showed.

Approved by the voters in 2012, Prop. 30 temporarily increased the state sales tax by a quarter cent and the personal income tax rate on people earning more than $250,000 a year to fund public education and other government programs.

Six in 10 voters said California should be spending more on schools, as opposed to 26 percent who said the state’s public schools have enough money, the poll showed.

“Since the inception of this poll in 2012, we have identified valuable trends that not only reflect the opinions of the state’s voters but also influence policymakers in Sacramento,” said USC Rossier School Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. “The latest results indicate a growing confidence in our public school system as voters are clearly willing to provide greater financial support to education.”

Less enthusiasm for Prop. 13

Voters were comparatively less enthusiastic about proposed changes to Proposition 13, which sets limits on property taxes. Changing the rules on the taxation of business and commercial property would raise an estimated $6 billion to $10 billion per year, of which 40 percent would go to public schools. A slight majority of voters — 51 percent — said they would support changes to Prop. 13, as compared to 39 percent who would oppose it.

“Although voters want more invested in education, we don’t see an underlying appetite for more extreme measures, such as making changes to Prop. 13,” said Jeff Harrelson, chief operating officer of the Republican polling firm MFour Mobile Research, part of the bipartisan team with the Democratic polling firm Tulchin Research that conducted the PACE/USC Rossier Poll. “Policymakers should be prepared to engage in an extended voter education effort on this issue.”

Said Ben Tulchin, president of Tulchin Research: “Voters believe California’s public schools have made some progress over the last few years. As a result, a large majority of California voters wants to extend Proposition 30, particularly its tax on the wealthy, in order to continue this progress.”

California voters have become less pessimistic about the state of their public schools. Between 2012, when the question was first asked, and 2015, the percentage of voters who say the state’s public schools have gotten better more than doubled, from 7 percent to 17 percent. During that same time period, the percentage of voters who said public schools were getting worse declined, from 57 percent to 39 percent. Thirty-six percent of voters said public schools had stayed the same.

When asked about their neighborhood public schools, 17 percent of California voters said they had gotten better, up from 11 percent in 2012. Thirty-four percent of voters said their local public schools had gotten worse, down from 45 percent in 2012. Thirty-eight percent of voters said local public schools had stayed the same.

“Voters are clearly not satisfied with the state of California’s public education system, but they are beginning to see their schools moving in the right direction,” said David Plank, executive director of PACE. “They still see a lot of room for improvement, but this is a very encouraging trend.”

What is the Local Control Funding Formula?

Sixty-five percent of California voters said they have never heard or read about the Local Control Funding Formula(LCFF), Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2013 reform under which billions of dollars have been funneled to school districts to directly help English learners, foster children and students from low-income families, and an additional 21 percent said they had not heard or read much about it, the poll showed. Only 14 percent of voters said they had heard or Poll: California voters back Prop. 30 extension in support of public schools | USC News:

#FightForDyett -- What Real Organizing Looks Like: Parents Stage Hunger Strike at Dyett High School | Black Agenda Report

#FightForDyett -- What Real Organizing Looks Like: South Side Chicago Parents Stage Hunger Strike at Dyett High School | Black Agenda Report:

#FightForDyett -- What Real Organizing Looks Like: South Side Chicago Parents Stage Hunger Strike at Dyett High School

by the Real News Network

Call Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel's office at 312-744-3300. Tell him the whole world is watching, he can give the parents their high school back RIGHT NOW. Call Alderman Will Burns at 773-536-8103 with the same message."
JAISAL NOOR, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.

In education news from Chicago, a dozen parents and activists have entered the fifth day of a hunger strike to demand officials adopt a community-developed plan for the future of Dyett High School.

SPEAKER: We know this is political. We know this is about ignoring black parents, because that's what this is about. This is racist, and Stevie Wonder can see that.

NOOR: The city is currently considering several proposals, and has scheduled a public hearing for September. Chicago Public Schools says their process is community-driven, and will select the best educational option. Located in the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Bronzeville on Chicago's South Side Dyett has long been a center of community struggle, especially since it was slated for closure in 2012.

Now joining us to discuss this are two guests. We're joined by Jitu Brown. He's a longtime Chicago education activist. He was with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. We're also joined by Pauline Lipman, professor of educational policy studies and the director of the Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Thank you both for joining us.

JITU BROWN: Thank you.

NOOR: So Jitu, we know you're joining us from outdoors, #FightForDyett -- What Real Organizing Looks Like: South Side Chicago Parents Stage Hunger Strike at Dyett High School | Black Agenda Report: