L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times

L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times:

Seeking a superhero? L.A. school board gets advice on next superintendent

 people have spoken about what they want in a new superintendent for theLos Angeles Unified School District, and the hunt for Superman or Superwoman is on.

The official verdict is that Los Angeles' students, parents, district staff, clergy and others, want a “politically savvy and experienced educational leader,” according to the search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. A look at the details, however, suggests that even Kryptonite could not stop the particular paragon being sought.

The executive search firm was scheduled to present its findings at a school board meeting Tuesday, based on input gathered from surveys filled out by more than 8,000 respondents and notes compiled from more than 100 public meetings held during the last two weeks of October. About 1,200 people participated in those meetings. The nation’s second-largest school system enrolls about 650,000 students.

Superpowers would come in handy in a district facing a troubled financial outlook, threats to dismantle it and pressure to improve lagging academic performance.

“Many participants believe the position is one of the most important jobs in American educational leadership and comes at a critical point in the history of the district,” the consultants wrote in one of their reports, which are available on the district website.

Can L.A. Unified get people to care about its next leader?

The Board of Education is looking to replace Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83, who has said he would like to retire by the end of the year. Cortines agreed to return after John Deasy resigned under pressure a year ago.

Looming deficits could push L.A. Unified into bankruptcy, panel says

Although board members have promised to seriously consider the community input, they and the consultants already had been thinking about who they want. And the consultants have been speaking with potential candidates for several weeks.

Nonetheless, to the extent that the feedback matters, there are some defining characteristics that could be used to frame the board’s choice. The consultants, for example, reported that an educator is favored, someone with “experience as a teacher and a principal working in an urban environment,” preferably with a doctorate from a fully accredited institution of higher learning.

This preference alone would disqualify two of the last four superintendents.

And recent holders of the office also might have trouble with L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times:

Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools

Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools:

Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools

Hillary supporters who, at least, are not explicitly hostile to public schools have coughed and groaned for a long time when confronted with evidence the Clintons' unyielding support for Common Core, TFA, standardized tests, continued school resegregation, and corporate reform "no excuses" schools for the poor.  Hillary's full embrace of her husband's new paternalism and "broken windows" social theory applied to schools, along with her lucrative support for the education industry and charter proliferation, have been the impetus for Hillary lovers to harrumph and change the political subject on many occasion.

So it is, then, that many of these supporters have taken Hillary's latest remarks on charter schools as a chance to spin a story that Hillary is hostile to charters and entirely supportive of the publicly controlled schools that are dying out at the same rate that the charter blight spreads across America.   Sorry, spinners.

If we look at what Hillary said, however, during her Roland Martin interview in South Carolina last week, it is easy to see a politician with a mastery of having-it-both-ways obfuscating rhetoric that underscores her unwillingness to stand up for any principle that is likely to alienate any potential donor to her campaign.  Here is part of what she said when asked if she supports the expansion of charter schools and vouchers:

CLINTON: I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have worked on through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as first Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools:

Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American Institution | The Progressive

Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American Institution | The Progressive:

Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American Institution

• José Luis Vilson

A couple of weeks ago, I watched in horror as a school resource officer flung a teenager halfway across a room in the name of school discipline. The horrific event sparked a plethora of conversations that were already at peak levels since Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a press conference on reducing what we have dubbed the effects of the school to prison pipeline. Yet, I was keenly aware of the special privileges charter schools have gotten across the country to instill zero tolerance policies in the name of a good education. From the students arrested in Mississippi for having the wrong uniform to the student arrested for a clock that the authorities knew wasn’t a bomb, our schools have increasingly used harsh discipline measures to silence children of color into obedience. After reading the report on a Success Academy school that creates lists of students who they need to not so secretly expel in the form of “Got To Go” lists, I saw what so many before me had seen.

American society generally applauds independence and creativity, and tolerates disruption in the name of speaking truth to power. But, apparently, it depends on who is doing the disrupting.

The report poked another hole in the rhetoric of Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz, who, as I’ve reported here and here, already has questionable practices in the name of educating children of color. Her repudiation of the principal in question and the ensuing press releases and conferences emphasize the point that she’s less interested in educating children than creating a wedge between the framework she’s created for her network and the reality that is education within New York City schools. The circus distracts from the militaristic pedagogy placed on students in tandem with the threatening of charter school parents. With Moskowitz winning so many public relations battles until recently, she’s had an unparalleled legislative red carpet rolled out for her.

In that sense, the “Got to Go” list comes across to the general public as a special privilege that Moskowitz gets away with that traditional public schools can’t.

I’m curious about the acrimony surrounding the Got To Go lists, though. Are we angry about them because Moskowitz hypocritically positions herself as a savior for black kids? Or is it because she can get away with it?

While the former speaks to the need to assure that all students, regardless of background, should have a chance to succeed academically and socio-emotionally, the latter speaks to an American problem of schooling children of color. Moskowitz’ vision for schooling children, specifically of color, is akin to one dominant narrative about educating children of color: obedience is at a premium.

For many, public education is one of the last safety nets America has left. The idea that we

- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/11/188405/singling-out-students-who-%E2%80%9Cgot-go%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94-american-institution#sthash.CObJEyUU.dpuf

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx:

Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx

Gentrification is nothing new. There have always been urban development initiatives which have displaced poor and working class people, sometimes associated with urban renewal, sometimes shaped by market forces

But what makes gentrification so toxic and dangerous today, not only locally but globally, is that the immense concentration of wealth in a small number of hands, coupled with declining incomes for working class and middle class people. This gives large developers unprecedented economic and political power. The wealth of a single developer can exceed the combined wealth of an entire neighborhood! This gives them the power, not only to buy off politicians, but to get local business leaders and non profit organizations to support their plans, even if such plans may in the long run, damage their standing.because they will displace so many of their long time clients and customers.

This is why I worry when big developers With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx:

Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report

Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report:

Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs?

Dilapidated schools are about neglected communities, not poor construction

Federal official visits dilapidated Gary school buildings

Building a school just for academic security is like building a home just to keep dry from rainstorms. Such thinking on school construction minimizes the opportunities to ameliorate the conditions that make life hard.

In places like New Orleans, schooling isn’t the only inequality leaving students and their families out in the rain. The lack of quality jobs, transportation, recreational facilities and safe neighborhoods keeps families and their children in poverty.

The construction of a school presents opportunities that extend beyond what eventually is taught in a classroom. How and where a school is built matters.

Related: Opinion Why are we sending children to pre-K programs in converted salons, bars and turkey coops?

Last month I spoke at two separate architecture conferences. TheNational Organization of Minority Architects Annual Conference and The Education Market Association’s EdSpaces Conference, which focuses on sustainable design on environmental impact on learning. To be sustainable, schools must look at the here and now; we throw the phrase “21^st century schools” around like a football, and we look beyond the people calling for the ball. Students and families need school construction projects to respond to their neighborhoods in the immediate and distant futures.

Yes, schools should prepare students for the unforeseen world that’s ahead of them. But if learners aren’t prepared for what’s in front of their faces, then we’re missing the point. What does a Common Core curriculum mean to students at risk of being shot? In cities like New Orleans, in which one in seven black men are in prison or on parole, Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report:

LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com

LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com:

"SPOTLIGHT" ON LAUSD AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

While the recently released movieSpotlight is supposed to be a film about the long ignored Boston child molestation scandal that was allowed to run rampant for far too long because of the power of the Catholic Church, it actually has a much more insightful message. This message is about how power functions in the absence of any accountability. And this seems to be a lesson that has not been learned yet when one sees how the Los Angeles Times and other commercial and public media nationwide still continue to systematically ignore, twist, or downright censor the relevant facts necessary for the citizens of this country to meaningfully understand the stories in the news. In order words, 1st Amendment be damned, if telling a complete and controversial true piece of news would lead to real public accountability for those running mega-corrupt organizations, it will not be told. So, the only problem I have with an incredibly well done movie like Spotlight is that it still maintains the illusion that truth will out, which is clearly no longer the case in this country.

The most recent example of distorted news comes from Los Angeles Times reporters Teresa Watanabe and Howard Blum's Sunday, November 8th front page article entitled"Disorder In The Classroom," where they write a whole article about an increasingly serious epidemic of willful student increased violence and defiance of school authority in light of a counterintuitive LAUSD decision to eliminate student suspensions or pretty much anything else as a consequence.

While something referred to in the article as "restorative justice" is mentioned as the panacea replacing suspension and any other forms of consequences for what is becoming more and more outrageous student defiant behavior, other than saying restorative justice "seeks to resolve conflicts through talking circles and other methods to build trust," the article in no way goes into any depth as to how this is actually going to work and succeed.

In fact, the article even attempts to unjustifiably tout LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com:

Hillary’s Charter School Problem

Hillary Clinton Charter Schools:

Hillary’s Charter School Problem

Good news! Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just admitted there are significant problems with the nation’s charter schools!

Bad news! She has no interest in solving them! In fact, she thinks charters are just great.

Here’s Clinton criticizing charter schools:

Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.

Clinton’s solution to the charter school crisis is what exactly? She seems to be saying that charter schools have major problems, but the best way to fix them is to redouble our belief in this flawed and failing system.

And all over the country, teachers, parents and students rejoice. Someone actually notices our problem!

Charter school scandals seem to hit the paper with the regularity of a grandfather clock. Charters cut student services and boost overhead to produce profit. Charters rack up debt and then sell it for a profit. Charters fudge the paperwork so they get paid for students who don’t actually attend. And just as Clinton said, they push out the children who are most in need and hardest to teach.

In short, most charter schools stink. Clinton admits we have a problem. But how do we solve it?

Clinton:

I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have worked on through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as first lady and senator is to continue to say charter schools can have a purpose, but you know there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools, just like there are good public schools and bad public schools.

So I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system — not outside of it — but within it because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy and it is a path for opportunity. …the original idea… behind charter schools was to learn what worked and then apply them in the public schools…

So Clinton’s solution to the charter school crisis is what exactly? She seems to be saying that Hillary Clinton Charter Schools:

Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times

Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times:

Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country

Instances of racism and bigotry have ignited protests at colleges across the United States, and social media has amplified students’ messages far beyond campus. Here are some examples.

University of Missouri

 

NEWS CLIPS: U.S.  2:19

Tackling Racial Tensions on Campus

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Tackling Racial Tensions on Campus

After the resignation of President Timothy M. Wolfe, students and faculty agreed that a new approach is needed to combat the rising number of racist incidents at the University of Missouri.

 Publish DateNovember 9, 2015. Watch in Times Video »

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The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Nov. 9 after weeks of protests over racial tensions that had nearly paralyzed the campus — including a threat by dozens of black football players to boycott games. The president, Timothy M. Wolfe, urged everyone involved to “use my resignation to heal and start talking again.” Later that day, the chancellor of the Columbia campus, R. Bowen Loftin, also resigned.

Yale

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Yale University Students Protest Halloween Costume Email (VIDEO 1) Video by TheFIREorg

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

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  University of Missouri Protests Spur a Day of ChangeNOV. 9, 2015

• 

  Yale’s Halloween Advice Stokes a Racially Charged DebateNOV. 8, 2015

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  As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider InquiryMARCH 10, 2015

Weeks of simmering racial tension boiled over this month in a debate over whether the administration was sensitive enough to concerns aboutHalloween costumes seen as culturally offensive. Many of the students who met with Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, said they did not believe the university was attuned to the needs of minority students. The campus has been engaged in a long-running debate over a residential college named in honor of John C. Calhoun, a 19th-century South Carolina politician, outspoken white supremacist and member of the Yale class of 1804.

U.C.L.A.Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times:

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools - Lily's Blackboard

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools - Lily's Blackboard:

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools

Lily spoke with NPR State Impact to discuss the importance of ensuring opportunity for every student, regardless of ZIP code.

An editorial on NPR State Impact:

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools - Lily's Blackboard:

Opportunity for All: Collective Action for Collective Excellence

Watch Lily’s powerful speech at The City Club of Cleveland where she argues we need to make the promise of public education a reality.

An editorial written on The City Club of Cleveland:

DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates | PopularResistance.Org

DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates | PopularResistance.Org:

DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates

Apparently DHS’s “If You See Something Say Something” spying program isn’t enough. Now DHS/Police want to turn school kids into spies.

The “Project Safe Campus” (PSC) program is an anonymous CASH rewards program that pays students $100.00 to spy on fellow classmates!

According to a statement from Detroit public schools…

“The goal of PSC is to increase the number of anonymous tips coming from the schools. Students who give tips that result in disciplinary action can earn $100 cash rewards.”

This program incentivizes schools and universities to spy on students. 

Schools and campuses will RECEIVE $3,000 for EVERY actionable tip DHS/Police receive:

“Now the Crime Stoppers program is awarding tip matching donations up to $3,000 per individual student council for supporting and promoting Project Safe Campus in their schools“.

This is an incredibly dangerous program, A school or university that has budgetary issues will now receive $3,000 for every student they report to DHS/ Police.

Watch ex- NBA player and PSC spokesman Willie Burton describe their plans to expand to colleges on “Street Beat” a local Detroit television show. (interview starts at approx. 6:30). Fyi, Burton went to high school in Detroit.

The PSC program is funded by “Crime Stoppers” which is run by DHS. A ‘Crime Stoppers and Homeland Security’ search returned 108,000 hits. Crime Stoppers is in EVERY police department in the country and will soon be in every school.

DHS is using a clueless ex-NBA player and former Michigan resident to start a new nationwide student spying program, all in the name of SAFETY.

The DHS student spying program goes by a few of different names:

1.) The Louisiana Safe Schools program pays students $2,500 to spy on their classmates.
2.) The Laredo, Texas’s Campus Crime Stoppers program which pays students $1,000 to spy on their classmates. 
3.) Michigan’s “Fast Fifty” pays students $50.00 to spy on their classmates.

Isn’t it interesting these spy programs, got their start in areas where unemployment is high and  incomes are low? Why would DHS/Police target low-income areas like Louisiana, Michigan andLaredo,Texas?  Unemployed students eager to make some quick cash, now have an incentive to turn in their friends and family for a “fast fifty” or more.

Who in their right mind, thinks it’s a good idea to pay kids and schools to spy on students?  Where does it stop? The ‘Greatest Generation’ fought to stop Nazi Germany which turned their school kids into spies.  After WW2 Americans fought against the USSR which also turned their school kids into spies.

Have we learned nothing?

Who stands to profit from this brazen spy for-profit scheme? If you guessed DHS and private stakeholders (companies) give yourself a gold star:

“We know that we cannot do this work alone. That’s why we have expanded our collaboration with key stakeholders not only within the DPS family – including our own police officers, citizenpatrollers, academic team, principals, staff, parents, students and our contracted security officers – but among outside partners and police agencies,” said Police Chief Stacy Brackens.

The U.S. Dept. of Education (USDOE) and the Michigan DOE are also using a Restorative Practices program which claims to reduce crime, improve student behavior, restore relationships etc.

Students everywhere will soon be indoctrinated by our governments’ Office of Special Educationprogram called “Positive Behavior Intervention.”

“The purpose of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Implementation  DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates | PopularResistance.Org:

The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education in Schools - The Atlantic

The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education in Schools - The Atlantic:

The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education

States including Utah and Montana are aggressively pushing for programs that give native English speakers a competitive edge.

Garland Independent School District, a fast-growing suburb northeast of Dallas, has undergone a dramatic demographic shift. Like districts across Texas, Garland schools are blacker, browner, and more racially diverse than a generation ago. The multicultural panorama in Garland schools is reflected in its academic offerings. Still, in a school district with a Hispanic majority, and a state where more than a third of residents are Spanish speakers, Garland chose Mandarin Chinese as the focus of its newly launched language-immersion program at Weaver Elementary School. Increasing Garland students’ marketability in a global economy was the rationale. “It’s preparing students for the future and hopefully, lots of possibilities as they get older,” the school’s principal, Jennifer Miley, told the Dallas Morning News.

In a break with tradition, more schools are adopting language-immersion programs, in which English and another language are integrated into the curriculum and instruction. The Center for Applied Linguistics, a D.C.-based nonprofit, found an exponential growth in foreign-language immersion in a comprehensive survey of public schools and some private schools. Over a 40-year span language-immersion schools grew steadily, with the largest increase in the decade that started in 2001. Spanish remains the most popular for immersion programs at 45 percent, followed by French (22 percent) and Mandarin (13 percent), with a wide array of languages rounding out the list of 22 selections—from Hawaiian and Cantonese to Japanese and Arabic.

As two-way immersion grows, the variety of language options now available marks a turning point in the evolution of bilingual education. Once the mainstay of immigrant children, bilingual instruction has a new band of converts: English-speaking parents, lawmakers, and advocacy groups. Research shows that students gain cognitive and academic benefits from bilingualism. Yet an The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education in Schools - The Atlantic: