Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/22/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart: FEDS ADMIT U.S. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ‘FORCED’ STATES TO ACCEPT COMMON CORE FROM ITS STARTIn a remarkable admission, the former director of the Race to the Top (RttT) competitive grant program and chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the federal government “forced” full supp

by mike simpson / 57min 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter HereSPS put out a press release about Advanced Learning and testing.  The Board is due to vote on acceptance of the latest AL plan to OSPI at the Board meeting tomorrow night (and it's not even being discussed - it's on the Consent Agenda).After you read this thr

by mike simpson / 2h 

This is How We Win on Vimeo

This is How We Win on Vimeo: This is How We Win from Tracey Noelle Luz on Vimeo.This is How We Winfrom Tracey Noelle Luz PRO 4 days ago / via Adobe Media Encoder CC / Creative Commons License: by ALL AUDIENCESPublic education is a right. The move to Charter Schools in Newark and elsewhere -- whether intended or not -- is destroying public school systems.This story needs to be told -- especially t

by mike simpson / 2h 

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!: New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day TwoFollowing up on my most recent post, about the “Lawsuit in New Mexico Challenging [the] State’s Teacher Evaluation System,” I testified yesterday for four hours regarding the state’s new teacher evaluation model. As noted in both articles linked to below, I positioned t

by mike simpson / 4h 

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive: Progressive Education Fellows Introducing the 2015 “Progressive Education Fellows,” an online gathering of prominent advocates, activists, thinkers, and writers in the progressive education movement.The Fellows come together at a critical time for public education in the United States. Not since the Civil-Rights-era battles over school desegregation

by mike simpson / 4h 

Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark | John Thompson

Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark | John Thompson: Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in NewarkDale Russakoff's The Prize is a wonderful account of the way that Cory Booker, Chris Christie, Christopher Cerf, Cami Anderson and other corporate reformers largely squandered the $200 million opportunity created by Facebook's Mark

by mike simpson / 4h 

School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer | The Lens

School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer | The Lens: School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyerThe Orleans Parish School Board’s property lawyers are at odds with a charter school’s lawyers regarding a legal memo given to the charter two weeks before it bought a School Board building.In the April 21 legal memo, which The Lens

by mike simpson / 5h 

Mission Accomplished – Dem Party's Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor - Wait What?

Mission Accomplished – Dem Party's Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor - Wait What?: Mission Accomplished – Dem Party’s Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican MayorDemocrat Governor Dannel Malloy, Malloy’s entourage of neoliberals and Connecticut’s Democratic Establishment are doing the Happy Dance today with the news that their plan to install Gr

by mike simpson / 5h 

Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to 'bring down' LAUSD - LA School Report

Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to 'bring down' LAUSD - LA School Report: Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to ‘bring down’ LAUSDSteve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vuln

by mike simpson / 5h 

The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice | I AM AN EDUCATOR

The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice | I AM AN EDUCATOR:The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social JusticeOn Sunday evening, thousands of Seattle Education Association members gathered in a general membership meeting and voted to approve a new contract with the Seattle Public Schools. This vote officially ended the strike by Seattle educators, which began on September 10, 2015, and inter

by mike simpson / 5h 

The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive

The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive: The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education FellowsANNOUNCING OUR 2015 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION FELLOWS!A fundamental struggle for democracy is going on behind the scenes in statehouses around the country, as a handful of wealthy individuals and

by mike simpson / 8h 

Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’ - The Washington Post

Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’ - The Washington Post: Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’Shavar Jeffries took over last week as president of Democrats for Education Reform, the national group that represents the wing of the Democratic Party that has embraced public charter schools, merit pay, mayoral control of urban school districts and other measures at odds

by mike simpson / 8h 

CURMUDGUCATION: OH: 200 Failed Charters

CURMUDGUCATION: OH: 200 Failed Charters: OH: 200 Failed ChartersWhen the Washington State supreme court ruled charters unconstitutional just before the school year started, charter fans were outraged. "How can you just toss those charter students into the street? How can you destabilize their educational life?" That's a legitimate complaint. But if charter boosters feel that way about th

by mike simpson / 8h 

Where Are All the Black Male Teachers? - NEA Today

Where Are All the Black Male Teachers? - NEA Today: Where Are All the Black Male Teachers?As minority children have become a majority in public schools, districts struggle to build a diverse educator workforce.These days, the teaching profession can be a hard sell. It’s a fact made even more apparent as districts nationwide struggle to fill vacancies, and as some look to place Black male and other

by mike simpson / 8h 

What Is 'Public' Education? - Bridging Differences - Education Week

What Is 'Public' Education? - Bridging Differences - Education Week: What Is 'Public' Education? Dear Harry and friends,It's good to get back to a schedule with deadlines.  After a lifetime of deadlines this retirement life is sometimes harder to enjoy than it ought to be. Harry Boyte is a very old friend, although not as old as I am.  We've always been sort of on the same page but coming to it fr

by mike simpson / 9h 

Schools must teach that black lives matter - The Hechinger Report

Schools must teach that black lives matter - The Hechinger Report: Schools must teach that black lives matterThere is nothing wrong with black folk that ending racism can’t solveKhalilah Harris, Deputy Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for African Americans (right) with Anita Sewell, 19, creator of the Souls of Black Girls.NeW ORLEANS — Let’s get something straight;

by mike simpson / 9h 

NYC Educator: There are No Oversized Apples for Oversized Classes

NYC Educator: There are No Oversized Apples for Oversized Classes: There are No Oversized Apples for Oversized ClassesThis Apple Will Probably Never Make it to a Teacher's Desk...Ed. "reformers" believe that branding teachers as "ineffective" is the single most important way to improve educational outcomes.  Although driving away experienced teachers with seniority and burgeoni

by mike simpson / 9h 

Has America Decided to Educate Promising Children and Leave the Rest Behind? | janresseger

Has America Decided to Educate Promising Children and Leave the Rest Behind? | janresseger: Has America Decided to Educate Promising Children and Leave the Rest Behind?In what seems to me the most chilling moment in The Prize, Dale Russakoff’s new book (discussed in yesterday’s post here) about the catastrophic five-year school reform experiment imposed by Mayor Cory Booker, Governor Chris Christi

by mike simpson / 9h 

Dismantling an Unstable Discipline: Education without Foundation | the becoming radical

Dismantling an Unstable Discipline: Education without Foundation | the becoming radical: Dismantling an Unstable Discipline: Education without Foundation“Whether we are willing to admit the role or not,” Lou LaBrant wrote in 1943, “schools cannot escape responsibility for some share in determining whether the peace which comes will last” (p. 225).As the U.S. approached the mid-twentieth century—af

by mike simpson / 9h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Behind Rauner's call to 'end unfunded mandates'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Behind Rauner's call to 'end unfunded mandates': Behind Rauner's call to 'end unfunded mandates'Rauner and SmithUnfunded mandates. I hate 'em. Schools and school districts hate 'em.It didn't take our demagogic, education-know-nothing governor, with help from his much-smarter State Supt. Tony Smith, very long to figure that out and issue a call to end all unfunded man

by mike simpson / 9h 

In Chicago, Students From Low-Income Neighborhoods Commute to Local School More Than Wealthier Peers - CityLab

In Chicago, Students From Low-Income Neighborhoods Commute to Local School More Than Wealthier Peers - CityLab: When It Comes to School Choices, It's a Privilege to Have FewerWhile a range of options might seem like a plus, there are costs.It’s no secret that public school funding comes largely from local property taxes —a model that has produced, in the words of the social-justice writer Jonathan

by mike simpson / 9h 

I asked if Obama, Duncan know the impact of their teacher evaluation policies. This is their answer. - The Washington Post

I asked if Obama, Duncan know the impact of their teacher evaluation policies. This is their answer. - The Washington Post: I asked if Obama, Duncan know the impact of their teacher evaluation policies. This is their answer.President Obama delivers remarks next to Secretary of Education in 2013. (YURI GRIPAS/REUTERS )A focus of the Obama administration’s education reform effort has been the remaki

by mike simpson / 9h 

5 years after Facebook pledge, Newark schools struggle - Yahoo News

5 years after Facebook pledge, Newark schools struggle - Yahoo News: 5 years after Facebook pledge, Newark schools struggleNEWARK, N.J. (AP) — When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show five years ago this week to announce a $100 million donation to remake education in Newark, it was presented as an effort to make a struggling city a national model for turning around ur

by mike simpson / 9h 

The fight for Dyett will go on #FightForDyett

The fight for Dyett will go on | SocialistWorker.org: The fight for Dyett will go onCoalition to Revitalize Dyett spokesperson Jitu Brown speaks at Operation PUSH (Bob Simpson)After 34 days, a group of parents, teachers and community activists who had been on hunger strike to demand the establishment of a new neighborhood school in a former Chicago high school closed down by the city announced an

by mike simpson / 10h 

$490-million plan would put half of LAUSD students in charter schools - LA Times

$490-million plan would put half of LAUSD students in charter schools - LA Times: $490-million plan would put half of LAUSD students in charter schoolsitics of Los Angeles public schools have outlined an ambitious $490-million plan to place half of the city's students into charter schools over the next eight years, a controversial gambit that backers hope will serve as a catalyst for the rest of t

by mike simpson / 10h 

After debate, Regents pass teacher-evaluation rules

After debate, Regents pass teacher-evaluation rules:After debate, Regents pass teacher-evaluation rulesThe state Board of Regents passed a revamped set of rules Wednesday for New York's new system of evaluating teachers, but promised to pen a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers outlining their many concerns.The Regents, the state's education policymakers, voted 10-6 in favor of the new

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

How we got the Common Core Standards: Federal Manipulation Through Race to the Top | Seattle Education

How we got the Common Core Standards: Federal Manipulation Through Race to the Top | Seattle Education: How we got the Common Core Standards: Federal Manipulation Through Race to the TopFrom the Truth in American Education, An admission of Federal manipulation through Race to the Top:Arne Duncan’s former chief of staff pulls back the curtain on Race to the TopWe couldn’t keep up with the enormous

by mike simpson / 19h 

Ed Notes Online: Eva Moskowitz Sept. 30 Rally Prelude to her Mayoral Campaign: Using Kids, Parents and Teachers Paid With Public Funds

Ed Notes Online: Eva Moskowitz Sept. 30 Rally Prelude to her Mayoral Campaign: Using Kids, Parents and Teachers Paid With Public Funds: Eva Moskowitz Sept. 30 Rally Prelude to her Mayoral Campaign: Using Kids, Parents and Teachers Paid With Public FundsLeaked Success Academy memo: tell parents rally is not political... Upcoming charter Sept. 30 anti-de Blasio rally is blatant misuse - theft of pub

by mike simpson / 20h 

Systems Thinking: Seeing How Everything is Connected | Creative by Nature

Systems Thinking: Seeing How Everything is Connected | Creative by Nature: Systems Thinking: Seeing How Everything is Connected“People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one’s perception of reality.” ~Thich Nhat HanhNowadays, most people seem to b

by mike simpson / 20h 

It doesn’t look good for Newark’s neighborhood schools | Bob Braun's Ledger

It doesn’t look good for Newark’s neighborhood schools | Bob Braun's Ledger: It doesn’t look good for Newark’s neighborhood schoolsThe committee that is supposed to figure out how the state will give up control of the Newark schools after 20 years has scheduled its first public meeting Wednesday night (Sept. 23).  The  “Newark Educational Success Board” (NESB)– established in a deal between Gov. C

by mike simpson / 20h 

Raw Scores, Scaled Scores, and Louisiana’s PARCC-ish Tests | deutsch29

Raw Scores, Scaled Scores, and Louisiana’s PARCC-ish Tests | deutsch29: Raw Scores, Scaled Scores, and Louisiana’s PARCC-ish TestsA number of Louisiana parents are insisting that the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) release raw score information on the PARCC-sort-of test that it administered in spring 2015 to students in grades 3 through 8.I agree that parents have the right to know their

by mike simpson / 20h 

Another Opt Out Message Being Hijacked - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform

Another Opt Out Message Being Hijacked - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: Another Opt Out Message Being HijackedIn August 2015 the National Association of State Boards of Educators (NASBE) created a handy dandy chart entitled “Opt Out Guidance” for all fifty states. How wonderful of them. Their chart was highlighted in a recent Washington Post article and seems to be

by mike simpson / 20h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/21/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMCURMUDGUCATION: Time To BreatheCURMUDGUCATION: Time To Breathe: Time To BreatheI looked over the brink today. For a moment, I wanted to throw stones at a teachable moment.Context. Not an excuse, but context.My building has been in a state of flux for the last few years. This is not all bad news-- we have made some moves that have removed toxic elements from the life of the schoo

by mike simpson / 23h 

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart:

FEDS ADMIT U.S. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ‘FORCED’ STATES TO ACCEPT COMMON CORE FROM ITS START

In a remarkable admission, the former director of the Race to the Top (RttT) competitive grant program and chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the federal government “forced” full support for adoption of the Common Core standards from each state by requiring its governor, chief state school officer, and head of the state board of education to sign off on the grant application.

Joanne Weiss, who is now an “independent education consultant,” writes at the Stanford Social Innovation Review that the RttT grant program, funded through President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill in the name of helping low-income, poor-performing schools, “offers lessons in high-impact grantmaking that are applicable not only in education but also in other fields.”

She states:

The Department of Education runs about 150 competitions every year. But among those programs, Race to the Top stands out. It had more than $4 billion to allocate to competition winners, and it attracted the participation of nearly every state in the union. It arguably drove more change in education at the state, district, and school levels than any federal competition had previously been able to achieve.

Weiss, who led RttT from its start, explains the federal government took advantage of the fact that states were strapped for cash due to the recession.

“[S]o the large pot of funding that we had to offer was a significant inducement for states to compete,” she writes, adding the surprise number of 46 states willing to sign onto the Common Core standards initiative was due to “our decision to leverage the spirit of competition.”

Though Weiss apparently believes she and the U.S. Department of Education (USED) fostered “competition,” her essay essentially admits to remarkable amounts of manipulation of states, as well as non-transparency, at the hands of a puppeteer federal government:

To help each state bring all parties to the reform table, we deployed four tools.

First, we forced alignment among the top three education leaders in each participating state—the governor, the chief state school officer, and the president of the state board of education—by requiring each of them to sign their state’s Race to the Top application. In doing so, they attested that their office fully supported the state’s reform proposal.

Second, we requested (but did not require) the inclusion of signatures by three district officials—the superintendent, the school board president, and the leader of the relevant teachers’ union or teachers’ association—on each district-level MOU. This approach, among other benefits, gave unions standing in the application process without giving them veto power over it.

Third, we created tangible incentives for states to gain a wide base of community support for their plans. Securing buy-in from multiple stakeholders—business groups, parents’ groups, community organizations, and foundations, for example—earned points for a state’s application. Having the support of a state’s teachers’ union earned additional points.

Fourth, as part of the judging process, we required officials from each state that 

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here:

Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

SPS put out a press release about Advanced Learning and testing.  The Board is due to vote on acceptance of the latest AL plan to OSPI at the Board meeting tomorrow night (and it's not even being discussed - it's on the Consent Agenda).

After you read this thread, my recommendation if you are an AL parent or prospective parent, is to send an e-mail to your own director (or all of them or really just Director Peters who seems to listen on a regular basis) and ask that this item be REMOVED from the Consent Agenda.  That will put it on the path to being actively discussed.

Write to: SPSdirectors@seattleschools.org 

Reader Lynn has been reading and asking questions and it seems that Advanced Learning will be changing policy almost at will (and without much notification to parents).  From AL:

Now that we have formal Superintendent Procedures it will be necessary to update them periodically as do most other programs and services. The current 2190SP was presented to C&I last fall and was made available for public comment prior to being signed in January 2015. The same process will be followed with any revisions to the procedures.

The most recent Advanced Learning Task Force (2013-14) made its recommendations through the equity lens, and these recommendations found their way into 2190SP. Any subsequent adjustments will be made through that same lens, that is, increasing the number of historically Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here:

This is How We Win Newark - on Vimeo

This is How We Win on Vimeo:

This is How We Win Newark

This is How We Win

Public education is a right. The move to Charter Schools in Newark and elsewhere -- whether intended or not -- is destroying public school systems.

This story needs to be told -- especially the story of students, parents and teachers fighting to save their community schools.

Help be part of documenting this story!

We need 

- teachers, parents, and students to share your stories.

- media students and professionals (sound techs, colorists, social media, camera person, editors)

To get involved, contact us at newarkwins@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Tracey Noelle Luz

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!:

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two

Following up on my most recent post, about the “Lawsuit in New Mexico Challenging [the] State’s Teacher Evaluation System,” I testified yesterday for four hours regarding the state’s new teacher evaluation model. As noted in both articles linked to below, I positioned this state’s model as one of the most “arbitrary and capricious” systems I’ve seen across all states currently working with or implementing such systems, again, as incentivized via President Obama’s Race to the Top program and as required if states were to receive (and are to keep) the waivers excusing them from not meeting the previous requirement written into President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2011, that all children would be academically proficient by the year 2014.

I positioned this teacher evaluation model as one of the most “arbitrary and capricious” systems I’ve seen across all states in that this state, unlike no other I have ever seen, has worked very hard to make 100% of its teachers value-added eligible, while essentially pulling off-the-shelf, criterion- and norm-referenced tests and developing (yet not, in my opinion, satisfactorily vetting or validating) a series of end-of-course exams (EoCs) to do this. This also includes early childhood teachers using, for example, the norm-referencedDIBELS. Let us just say, for purposes of brevity, this (and many other of the state’s educational measurement actions) defy the Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing.

Nonetheless, the day’s testimony also included testimony from one high school science teacher who expressed his concerns about his evaluation outcomes, as well as the evaluation outcomes of his high school, science colleagues. And the day ended with two hours of testimony given by the state’s model developer – Pete Goldschmidt – who is now an Associate Professor at California State University Northridge. Time ran out, however, before cross-examination.

For more information, though, I will direct you all to two articles that capture the main events or highlights of the day.

The author of the first article titled, “Experts differ on test-based evaluations at NM hearing,” fairly captures the events of the day, as well as the professional and collegial New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!:

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive:

Progressive Education Fellows 

Introducing the 2015 “Progressive Education Fellows,” an online gathering of prominent advocates, activists, thinkers, and writers in the progressive education movement.

The Fellows come together at a critical time for public education in the United States. Not since the Civil-Rights-era battles over school desegregation has the debate about public education been so intense and polarized. The Fellows come from every region of the country, and from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of expertise. They are teachers, administrators, journalists, parent activists, and leaders of the movement to defend public schools. You can find their writing here at The Progressive website, and also follow them on Twitter. Read what Lead Fellow Jeff Bryant has to say onwhy we need the Fellows project.

 

Jeff Bryant, Lead Fellow and Southeast Regional Fellow 

Jeff is director of the Education Opportunity Network and associate fellow at Campaign for America's Future. He owns a marketing and communications consultancy in Chapel Hill, NC, and has written extensively about public education policy. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffbcdm.

Xian Barrett, Chicago Fellow

 Xian is a founding member of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators and former political director of the Chicago Teachers Union. He previously taught Law, History, and Japanese Language and Cultures in the Chicago Public Schools, and received numerous teaching awards, including being selected as a 2009-2010 U.S. Department of Education Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellow. Xian founded a citywide youth-led social justice organization and believes that if you ask students what they are passionate about and work with that—their learning will belong to them.

 

Jennifer Berkshire, Northeast Regional Fellow

Jennifer is a freelance journalist who writes about the intersections of race, education reform and the remaking of the urban landscape.  She is the creator and editor of EduShyster, where she chronicles the end of public education with a wry eye. Follow her on twitter.

Ashana Bigard, Southcentral Regional Fellow

Ashana is a life long resident of New Orleans, mother of three, social justice organizer, and advocate for children and families in Louisiana. She currently advocates with the Education Justice Project of New Orleans, and the United Students of New Orleans.  Ashana also organizes with the Woman’s Health & Justice Initiative and for expended housing affordability opportunities for low-income families. 

Peter Greene, Midwest Regional Fellow

Peter has been a classroom secondary English teacher for over thirty-five years. He lives and works in a small town in Northwest Pennsylvania, and blogs at Curmudgucation.

Jesse Hagopian, Seattle Fellow

Jesse teaches history and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School–the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013.Jesse is the editor of, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, a founding member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), a recipient of the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” won the 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of Year” award, and the Special Achievement “Courageous Leadership” award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.  

 

Sarah Lahm, Northcentral Regional Fellow

Sarah is a Minneapolis-based writer and former English instructor. She is the winner of a 2014 Nation Institute Investigate Fund grant, and blogs about education at brightlightsmallcity.com

Cynthia Liu, Los Angeles Fellow

Cynthia launched her people-powered, national public education news and civic engagement platform, K-12 News Network, in 2011 with a grant from the Ford Foundation. Most recently, K12NN organized citizen media makers to watchdog former Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified John Deasy’s iPad deal, leading to his resignation and ongoing investigations of his apparent bid-rigging. K12NN is a model for community engagement Cynthia hopes will spread across the country.

Sabrina Stevens, Midatlantic Regional Fellow

Sabrina is a mother, writer, education advocate, and former teacher based in Washington, DC. She is a founding member of EduColor, a collective that works to elevate the voices of people of color in the education policy dialogue. Her insight on various educational and progressive issues has been featured in various media outlets, including MSNBC, TIME.com, The Hill, GOOD Magazine, Education Week, The American Prospect, and The Answer Sheet at The Washington Post, among others.

Dora Taylor, Northwest Regional Fellow

Dora established the blog Seattle Education in response to the growing visibility of the corporate and billionaire financed influence on public education.  Along with being a mother and advocate for public education, she is a Founding Member and the first President of Parents Across America, and has co-authored two books, Digital Networking for School Reform and Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of Education Reform

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Westcoast Regional Fellow

Julian is currently a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and the Director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University Sacramento. He blogs about education and social justice at Cloaking Inequity.

 

 

Jose Vilson, New York City Fellow

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist in New York City, NY. He is the author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, and has spoken about education, math, and race for The New York Times, Education Week, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Huffington Post, Edutopia, GOOD, and El Diario / La Prensa, NY. 

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive: