Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson

Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson:

Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail

Oklahoma imprisons women at double the national rate. About 80 percent of them are locked up for nonviolent offenses. We don't just incarcerate a higher percentage of women than any other state. We're number one in the entire country.

The time is right for Oklahoma and rest of the nation to listen to the women we imprison. A great starting point is Poetic Justice: Poems by Women at David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center. Compiled and edited by Ellen Stackable, Claire Collins, Hanna Al-Jibouri, Maggie Lane and Jenna Jones, the best poetry authored by 400 women yields insights into the full diversity of the human experience. It is merely the lack of space that prompts this post to focus on their themes of motherhood and sexuality.

The collection begins with "Noninstitutionalized," by O.J. She writes:

This morning when I woke
I was perfectly flawed and beautifully scarred

Seeking wisdom from fleeting sages
Sublime and transcending
Though held by man's cages
O.J. ventures into both motherhood and sexuality in "Dearest Olympia." She advises her daughter:

Make all your mistakes loudly. Drink more SoCo. Stay that extra week in London, kiss your girlfriend before they send her away. Take no one's advice but your own. Keep listening to your mother. Bleach that Mohawk platinum. Go to the Police about rape ...

Learn to curse quickly, to walk on your hands, to slow it down some.

Love,
An Incarcerated You
L.J.H. also voices ambiguous feeling about maturity and needing to acknowledge that, "Boy, I'm Old," but her "Ode to Music" emphasizes energy and humor:

I'm shakin my ass, not too much
I'm a lady, not a slut.
M.G.'s "Things I Learned at David L. Moss" previews a world of complexity and Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson:

Fred T. Korematsu was a national civil rights hero - Curriculum | Fred T. Korematsu Institute

Curriculum | Fred T. Korematsu Institute:

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Fred T. Korematsu was a national civil rights hero. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.

In 1983, Prof. Peter Irons, a legal historian, together with researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, discovered key documents that government intelligence agencies had hidden from the Supreme Court in 1944. The documents consistently showed that Japanese Americans had committed no acts of treason to justify mass incarceration. With this new evidence, a pro-bono legal team that included the Asian Law Caucus re-opened Korematsu’s 40-year-old case on the basis of government misconduct. On November 10, 1983, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in a federal court in San Francisco. It was a pivotal moment in civil rights history.

Korematsu remained an activist throughout his life. In 1998, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton. In 2010, the state of California passed the Fred Korematsu Day bill, making January 30 the first day in the US named after an Asian American. Korematsu’s growing legacy continues to inspire people of all backgrounds and demonstrates the importance of speaking up to fight injustice.

FULL BIOGRAPHY: About Fred Korematsu

 ONLINE CURRICULUM: Click here  to access

• Download our FREE K-12 Korematsu Teacher’s Guide
• Download lesson plans and Powerpoint presentations
• Stream online films
• Read online books
• Download a Fred Korematsu Day poster for your classroom
• Browse additional lesson plans, books and films
• Browse academic & legal resources
• Browse additional Asian American and Pacific Islander curriculum
• Browse additional Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian American curriculum
• Browse additional Japanese American curriculum

KOREMATSU TEACHING KIT: Click here to order

• Kits are FREE. We raise funds in order to provide our curriculum to teachers like you free of charge.
• Kits include our K-12 Korematsu Teacher’s Guide, videos and accompanying lesson plans, and posters.

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• We would LOVE to hear feedback from teachers! Please email us at info@korematsuinstitute.org!

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Help us reach more classrooms! For more information about donating to the Korematsu Institute’s curriculum program, please click here.Curriculum | Fred T. Korematsu Institute:

Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower. | EduBloggers

Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower. | EduBloggers:

Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower.

Joe Bowed died yesterday. His Blog – For the Love of Learning 

From CBC-Canada comes, Popular Red Deer teacher Joe Bower mourned on social media

Condolences are pouring in on social media for a popular Red Deer teacher who died over the weekend, with one provincial party leader saying “Alberta is a lesser place” without him.

Joe Bower died Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack Friday, according to a social media post from a sibling.

Bower was a tireless advocate for making the public school system more progressive and student-centred, writing a popular blog called For the Love of Learning on issues close to him.

“Today we lost a great man, a husband, father, son, brother, cousin, nephew, friend, and educator,” his sister Jennifer Bower-Hannotte wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.

[…]

An article Bower wrote in 2009 seemed to capture his teaching philosophy.

“Trying to define good teaching and good learning is no easy task,” Bower wrote.

“But if we always keep our ultimate objective in mind — the love of learning — and we allow nothing to sabotage us, our children will be afforded the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning in a safe and caring learning environment.”

Our own Diane Ravitch wrote R.I.P. Joe Bower.

 Joe was a wonderful teacher, father, and husband. He taught in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. His blogs were always inspiring. I reposted a number of them here. He was one of those educators that you wish were in charge of an entire state or nation. He was kind, caring, compassionate, and loved children.

While David Weiss at Cooperative Catalyst published the post, Good-bye Joe

Tonight, my friend Joe Bower passed away after a massive heart attack a few days ago. He died with his family all around him.

Joe was one of the first educators I interacted with via social media. During many late night chat sessions he taught me to question many of my basic assumptions about education.

Why do we give grades to students anyway? Does this help them learn? What about homework? Does this practice help students learn? If not, why are we still doing it? What about school discipline? Do our current practices help students? If not, why not change them?

I’m going to miss my thought-provoking conversations with Joe. His students are going to miss their compassionate teacher. Progressive educators are going to miss one of their champions. His children are going to miss their father.

Good-bye Joe.

Valerie Strauss also used Joe’s powerful pieces including one in 2013 entitled Let them eat grit.

Let us hope that Joe knows that we will keep fighting and speaking out on behalf of teachers, students, parents and public education.Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower. | EduBloggers:

Save Our Schools March – It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!

Save Our Schools March – It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!:

It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!

Save Our Schools: Coalition for ActionMarch & Rally
Save the Date: July 8-10, 2016

Many thousands of us gathered on July of 2011 for the Save Our Schools March and Call to Action. We assembled to state our grievances about the state of public education and to share our visions for the future. In that moment, we were the canaries in the coalmine – sickened by an unresponsive political process and its dehumanizing policies. We became the impetus for change, and we took to the streets in solidarity to make it clear:

We who believe in freedom cannot rest,
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. ~ Ella Baker

In 2011 we nurtured, supported, and committed to each other and to our children. We have not rested since. We have organized demonstrations, sit-ins, and strikes. We have resisted, written, called, tweeted, blogged, posted and re-posted, sang, spoken, and opted out of high-stakes testing all in our collective struggle for humane public schools and policies.

Coalitions are building and the movement is growing. We are parents and teachers, students and seniors, scholars and community organizers, urban and rural, immigrants and native-born, gay and straight, black, brown, and white realizing that more than ever, we have a common narrative based on democracy, the human right to education and economic and social justice that goes beyond our organizational silos, as important as those silos may be…

It is time to celebrate five years of common struggle and the growth that we have wrought. It is time to march again!!!

SOS, BATs, UOO, NPE, NCUEA, CELT, NEA BAT Caucus, and The Opt Out Florida Network are working with numerous organizations to build a broad coalition of like-minded people – from all walks of life and with diverse causes – to speak and march in solidarity July 8-10 in Washington D.C. We envision actions and festivities for children and adults, which foster awareness and to celebrate democracy by living it. It is an election year, and there can be no better time to show our government and our fellow citizens, “This is what democracy looks like!”

Details are developing each day on this massive event, so join us, support us, and sign up for email updates!

In solidarity,

The Save Our Schools: Coalition for Action CommitteeSave Our Schools March – It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!:

Meet John King, Acting Secretary of Education | ED.gov Blog #AskJohnKing

Meet John King, Acting Secretary of Education | ED.gov Blog:

Meet John King, Acting Secretary of Education

Every New Year offers the chance for each of us to set new personal goals to make us healthier, happier, or more productive. In 2016, I hope you’ll join me as I recommit myself to ensuring that every child in America—regardless of background or circumstance—has access to an excellent education.

I’m honored and humbled by the opportunity President Obama has given me to build on the many accomplishments he and my friend Arne Duncan have achieved over the past seven years.

Education always has been a focal point in my life—both my parents were New York City public school educators. My father was a teacher and a principal. My mother was a teacher and guidance counselor. When I was 8, my mother passed away.  I then lived with my father who was suffering from undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease and passed away when I was 12.

After that, I moved around between family members and schools. Home was an unpredictable and often scary place. But school, and the remarkable teachers who believed in my potential, offered me a safe haven. Because of them, I went on to become a high school social studies teacher, a middle school principal, and a state education commissioner—and now I have the tremendous privilege to serve you in this new role.

Watch a short video introduction from John King (Español)

Over the past seven years, we’ve made a lot of progress. More students than ever are being taught to college- and career-ready standards; dropout rates are at historic lows and graduation rates at all-time highs; and high quality preschool and higher education are within reach for more families.

But there is a lot more work to do. Our efforts in 2016 must be measured by the progress we make toward educational opportunity for all—so that no child’s fate is left to luck, no student’s destiny defined by circumstances.

In the weeks to come, I’ll be traveling across the country to visit with folks like you—students, parents, teachers, principals and community leaders—to highlight what’s working and hear about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

I’ll also be asking you to help us accelerate progress in more classrooms.

In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter @JohnKingatED and ask me a question anytime using #AskJohnKing. Here’s wishing you a wonderful New Year!

John KingMeet John King, Acting Secretary of Education | ED.gov Blog:

SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes – Missouri Education Watchdog

SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes – Missouri Education Watchdog:

SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes

The endless data gathering on up-and-coming American voters continues with very little to slow it down. I think it is important to use that term rather than students, because that is part of the end game. We have a monster trying to recreate its master, a government trying to form the future voters who will select and supply it.

Yesterday we wrote about the federal government’s plan to collect data on families to “guide” child rearing in America. (Reminder that today 1-4-16 is the last day to provide comments on that pending regulation.) Some people have commented to us that they aren’t worried about that because they don’t provide the data themselves, as if that will stop the government’s collection. They will find other ways to get that data without your informed participation (e.g. your obstetrician, dentist, guidance counselor, DHS gun permits, FAFSA forms, local library, ADHD prescription provider etc.)  There’s more than one way to enter the data mine and private companies know that too.

The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) went into affect January 1, 2016. The law prohibits an educational service provider such as Google Apps For Education (GAFE) from engaging in targeted advertising on its own website or any other website “when the targeting of the advertising is based upon any information, including covered information and persistent unique identifiers, that the operator has acquired” from a student’s use of the website. Thus when your child logs in with their student ID at school, none of the data gathered from his/her use of GAFE may be used to create a profile of your child in order to target advertising to him/her.

Lest you think SOPIPA has your privacy concerns addressed, you should understand the rather large loophole contained in the law that lets SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools | VAMboozled!

Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools | VAMboozled!:

Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools

Recall that the peer-reviewed journal Educational Researcher (ER) – published a “Special Issue” including nine articles examining value-added measures (VAMs). I have reviewed the next of nine articles (#6 of 9), which is actually an essay here, titled “Will VAMS Reinforce the Walls of the Egg-Crate School?” This essay is authored by Susan Moore Johnson – Professor of Education at Harvard and somebody who I in the past I had the privilege of interviewing as an esteemed member of the National Academy of Education(see interviews here and here).

In this article, Moore Johnson argues that when policymakers use VAMs to evaluate, reward, or dismiss teachers, they may be perpetuating an egg-crate model, which is (referencing Tyack (1974) and Lortie (1975)) a metaphor for the compartmentalized school structure in which teachers (and students) work, most often in isolation. This model ultimately undermines the efforts of all involved in the work of schools to build capacity school wide, and to excel as a school given educators’ individual and collective efforts.

Contrary to the primary logic supporting VAM use, however, “teachers are not inherently effective or ineffective” on their own. Rather, their collective effectiveness is related to their professional development that may be stunted when they work alone, “without the benefit of ongoing collegial influence” (p. 119). VAMs then, and unfortunately, can cause teachers and administrators to (hyper)focus “on identifying, assigning, and rewarding or penalizing individual [emphasis added] teachers for their effectiveness in raising students’ Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools | VAMboozled!:

4LAKids - Arne in the rear view mirror DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN ED &. MADE ENEMIES

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAY:

Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAY

by Perry Bacon Jr, NBC News' Meet The Press | http://nbcnews.to/1JTfLgT

 U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visits with 9-year-old Nadia Garcia in a third grade classroom at McGlone Elementary School in Denver on Feb. 24, 2015. Brennan Linsley / AP file

Jan 2 2016, 2:25 pm ET  ""  Early in his tenure as U.S. education secretary, Arne Duncan was one of the most popular members of the president's cabinet, praised by Republicans likeJeb Bush, invited to play in the celebrity basketball game during the NBA's All-Star weekend and embraced by education experts on the left and right.
 
But Duncan, who officially stepped down this week, leaves Washington as a deeply divisive figure. Over the last seven years, the Chicago native has aggressively implemented his vision for American education, in a more comprehensive way than perhaps any cabinet officer in the Obama administration has changed policy in his issue area. The rise of the Common Core education standards, a huge growth in the use of data in education and a strong push for accountability on colleges are among Duncan's signature projects.

Valerie Strauss, an education columnist at the Washington Post and strong critic of Duncan, recently called him "the most powerful federal education chief in the department's history."

"He definitely expanded the role of the Department of Education," said Tom Loveless, an education policy expert at the non-partisan Brookings Institution.

By wielding that power, Duncan has become the rare figure in an era of deep partisan polarization to be hated by many on the left and right simultaneously. The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union and a powerful force in Democratic politics, called for Duncan's resignation last year, arguing he was too supportive of standardized testing.

Earlier this month, Congress passed the "Every Student Succeeds Act," a replacement to the Bush-era "No Child Left Behind" law. Included in the ESSA, at the behest of congressional Republicans, are several provisions that explicitly bar the federal Department of Education from setting policy for all of America's schools. Republicans wanted to ensure there are no more Arne Duncans. 

Mission accomplished?

Duncan is one of only two members of Obama's cabinet (Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is the other) to have served in his post since the start of the administration. And he will leave office having accomplished many of his goals.

Duncan helped convince 42 states to adopt education goals based on the Common Core, and 21 of them to use tests that directly align with those standards, which were created by a bi-partisan group and attempt to both make U.S. schools more challenging and the curriculum more similar from state-to-state.


While some liberals dislike charter schools, Duncan has been a strong supporter of them and presided over a huge growth in students attending charters in cities like Washington, D.C. and New Orleans. 
He pushed through, over the objections of some university administrators, a comprehensive "College Scorecard" that creates a database that makes it much easier to figure out which schools don't do well in terms of making sure their students graduate and get jobs after college. Duncan quietly but dramatically changed America's college loan program, putting millions of students into a federally-funded program that caps loan payments at 10 percent of a person's income and forgives most loans after 20 years.

Duncan and his department have successfully urged school districts across the country to stop suspending students in kindergarten or elementary school, arguing such punishments are excessive and tend to disproportionately hit black and Hispanic students. He and his department also forced some colleges to overhaul their systems for preventing and investigating rapes on college campuses.
  
A move by both Duncan and Obama to highlight the importance of community colleges has created a growing movement, even in some Republican areas, to make tuition at those schools free. Amid the rise of for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix, Duncan has been one of their strongest critics and used the power of his office to impose new restrictions on them.

"I came here very hopeful, also sometimes not sure what the federal government could do and be productive," Duncan told NBC News in an interview last month as he prepared to leave office. "It so exceeded my wildest hopes."

It's too soon to tell if these changes have made lasting impacts on improving college graduation rates, reducing the gap in performance between minority and white students, or getting test scores for the U.S. students closer to those of high-performing countries abroad, some of Duncan's primary goals

The early evidence is mixed. The number of high schools where more than 40 percent of kids don't graduate, dubbed "dropout factories," has declined sharply under Duncan's tenure, and 82 percent of American students now graduate from high school, a record-high.

But national exams given recently to students in 4th and 8th grade across the country showed declines in student scores in math. And scores for black and Hispanic students remained much lower, compared to their white peers.

A fast start

Taking over the Education Department in 2009, Duncan had unusually free rein to set policy. He had the strong backing of Obama, who had befriended Duncan when the two were leading figures in Chicago politics, and both the administration and Republicans in Congress were more focused on the economy and Obamacare than education.

And states had two problems that Duncan could help them fix. There was agreement on the left and right that No Child Left Behind was flawed. And in the midst of the recession, school districts were struggling to pay their bills.

Duncan offered states waivers to get out of the requirements of No Child Left Behind, as well as extra federal funding through a program called "Race to the Top" that was part of 2009 stimulus bill. But the conditions Duncan set for Race to the Top funding and an NCLB waiver were that states agreed to a group of reforms that the education secretary favored, such as creating Common Core-like standards and not limiting the expansion of charter schools.

By 2010, with little fanfare, Duncan had turned the Department of Education, traditionally a backwater cabinet post since the federal government provides only about 10 percent of the 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAY:

School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency | The Star-Telegram

School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency | The Star-Telegram:

School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency

Mark Hoffer Star-Telegram/Mark Hoffer

Data about students, parents and education is a hot commodity, raising privacy questions about how much information is too much.

Tens of thousands of Tarrant County parents, students, teachers, and community members use school district mobile phone apps to find out what is happening in their districts and on their campuses.

In the Fort Worth school district, 51,000 people use the district’s mobile app. Arlington’s app has 32,000 users. About 10,000 people are using the app for the Northwest district.

How much data is gleaned from people using the mobile apps? Experts say the information can fall into the hands of data brokers, marketers and others, despite efforts to keep it private. They also say there is a lack of transparency surrounding how the technology works.

“The average consumer would want to understand exactly what a particular company is doing,” said Sophia Cope, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a national nonprofit organization for digital civil liberties. “The expectations are even greater for parents with children in school.”

“It’s a transparency problem,” Cope said. “The companies are not, we believe, being totally upfront in explaining the technology. Districts don’t know what questions to ask before they sign these contracts, and they’re not informing the parents of what they’re doing.”

But school officials said they are confident the app developers they hired are neither gathering nor sharing information from users.

“They don’t have access to the data …,” said Clint Bond, a spokesman for the Fort Worth school district. “Basically, we can push information out, but there’s not a two-way exchange of information.”

School administrators said app developers they contracted with do not have permission to sell any data gleaned from the apps.

Randy Sumrall, executive director of technology for the Birdville district, said the district’s app contractor, Schoolwires, does not have permission to distribute or sell student information.

“If we found out they were doing it, we would stop using them,” Sumrall said.

Permission granted

Phone apps for the Arlington, Fort Worth, Birdville, Northwest and Mansfield school districts — like most apps — require users to submit to a variety of “permissions,” though just exactly what you’re permitting the app to do is unclear.

The permissions vary by district.

Upon downloading Birdville’s app, for example, permissions are requested for the device identity, the calendar, location, photos, media, files and the camera. Fort Worth’s app requests permissions for modifying or reading the contents of the SD (memory) card. Permissions for the Northwest district app include accessing identity, the calendar, phone call logs, and photos, media and files.

Some of the permissions are required for users to access all features of an app. But it’s not clear what else could be done with the permissions.

“Outside of these generic permissions, it’s hard to tell,” said Grayson Milbourne, director of security intelligence at the Colorado headquarters for Webroot, an international Internet security firm. “You’d have to do an analysis of an app at a code level.”

That requires an advanced knowledge of programming language that most people simply do not have, Milbourne said.

Apps that ask for access to areas such as phone storage or photos are concerning, especially if those permissions have nothing to do with the app’s stated purpose, he added.

“If you don’t need it, don’t put it in there,” Milbourne said.

How private are policies?

But even if information is not being accessed and shared now, wording in a privacy policy within Birdville’s app leaves the possibility open.

A Schoolwires privacy policy on the app states: “One instance in which personal information in educational records may be disclosed to third parties under FERPA is if the information is classified as ‘directory’ information by your educational institution.”

A privacy policy within Northwest’s app states: “By entering your username and password to access HAC (Home Access Center) or MSB (MySchoolBucks) you consent to the sharing ofSchool district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency | The Star-Telegram:

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/education/article52728555.html#storylink=cpy

Today is the deadline: effective family engagement practices - The Washington Post

Today is the deadline - The Washington Post:

Today is the deadline: effective family engagement practices 

 If you are interested in submitting comments to the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on a draft policy statement on the implementation of “effective family engagement practices from the early years to the early grades,” today is the deadline. Following is the draft policy statement, and you can e-mail comments to ECD@acf.hhs.gov. You can learn more here.

This is from the Education Department website about the draft policy:

It is the Departments’ position that strong family engagement is central in promoting children’s healthy development and wellness, including:
•social-emotional and behavioral development;
•preparing children for school;
•seamlessly transitioning them to kindergarten; and
•supporting academic achievement in elementary school and beyond.

The draft policy statement:

Draft Hhs Ed Family Engagement[1]

Valerie Strauss covers education and runs The Answer Sheet blog.Today is the deadline - The Washington Post:

This Week In Education: Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder"

This Week In Education: Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder":

Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder"

Back in the day, there used to be an advocacy organization called Broader, Bolder that was a counterpoint to some of the education reform ideas being promoted by EEP, DFER, and others.

In 2008, I named it one of the year's big winners in education. Arne Duncan signed onto the agenda for the group -- and also signed onto the agenda for EEP. It was funded by Nellie Mae, Annie Casey, and Atlantic Philanthropies, among others. EPI housed the original effort and Elaine Weiss staffed it. In 2009, I suggested "broader bolder" as an umbrella phrase for critics of reform (which didn't catch on, obviously). 

Officially named the Broader, Bolder Approach, the project seemed less active for a while, replaced in part by outfits like Parents Across America, the National Public Education Network, and others. Take a look at its history in my Twitter feed to get a sense. 

But I'm told now that @BroaderBolder is making a comeback -- relaunching within the next month or two According to Josh Starr, the co-chairs will be himself, Pedro Noguera, Paul Reville, and Helen Ladd.  No word yet on the agenda specifics, staffing, and the funding sources.

Related posts: Who You Calling "Status Quo"? (2008); Broader Bolder Accountability Meeting (2009); More Ways To Measure Advocacy's Impact (2013)

 This Week In Education: Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder":

Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages? | EduShyster

Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages? | EduShyster:

Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages?

A new study warns that we may be headed towards a charter school *bubble*…

EduShyster: It’s unusual to see the words *hair-raising* and *academic study* in tandem, but your new study merits that marriage. You and your co-authors make the case that, just as with subprime mortgages, the federal government is encouraging the expansion of charter schools with little oversight, and the result could be a charter school *bubble* that blows up in urban communities. Do I have it right?

Preston Green: The problem of subprime mortgages began in part because the government tried to increase homeownership for poor people and minorities by enabling private entities to offer more mortgages without assuming the risk. Under the old system, the mortgage originator was still at risk if the mortgage went into default. With subprime, they were able to spread that risk by selling the mortgages on the secondary market. You had all these mortgage originators that could issue more mortgages without careful screening because they no longer had skin in the game.Now how are charter schools similar to subprime? In the charter school context, charter school authorizers are like mortgage originators.

EduShyster: There’s a great moment in the new movie The Big Short when Selena Gomez turns to the camera and explains to the world what collateralized debt obligations are. Here’s your opportunity to do the same, but for the convoluted world of charter school authorizing.

Green: Promoters of charter school expansion are calling for an increase in independent authorizers, such as nonprofits and universities. Supporters of charter school expansion believe that multiple authorizers will issue more charters, in part, because they are less hostile to charter schools than school districts. However, our research suggests another reason that multiple authorizers result in more charter schools: multiple authorizers are like mortgage originators with no skin in the game. In other words, these authorizers don’t assume the risk of charter school failure. That means that if something happens with the charter school, the authorizers don’t have to clean up the mess. Multiple authorizers may also weaken screening by giving charter schools the chance to find authorizers who *won’t ask questions.* In fact, CREDO has Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages? | EduShyster: