Well, It's Tuesday Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Well, It's Tuesday Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Phyllis Bush Reports on Her Trip to the Cubs Game

6by dianeravitch / 1h

As readers of the blog know, our friend Phyllis Bush is fighting cancer with humor and determination. In this post , she brings us up to date on her activities, her treatment, and the kindness of friends and strangers.

Maybe the Funniest Thread of Comments Ever on Amazon

2by dianeravitch / 17min

I heard about a product called the Amazon Alexa. I wanted to learn more, went to Amazon, and found this fabulous thread about two electronic devices, the Alexa and the Echo. “Question: I have 2 children, one named Alexa and the other named Amazon. Will this present any problems? A: My kids do not respond to voice commands, do yours?!? I am selling my kids on eBay and buying the Echo. tomh A: My d

New York: Allowing Non-Certified Teachers in Charter Schools Is Not a Done Deal!

1by dianeravitch / 31min

Correction: I posted this morning that New York would allow charter “teachers” to be ncertified. Not yet a done deal. Stay tuned.

Meet Priscilla Chan, Who Will Give Away Billions of Facebook Dollars

by dianeravitch / 3min

Dr. Priscilla Chan sounds like a lovely young woman. She is married to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and seems to be running the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which will dispense billions of dollars. She is a graduate of Quincy 

Are These the Schools Southerners Want? Are These the Schools Americans Want?

1by dianeravitch / 17min

This is a soul-searching article about the resegregation of schools in the South. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, racial discrimination was prohibited in any federally funded program. But in 1964, there was very limited federal aid to schools. However, in 1965, Congress passed the Elementary and Zsecondary Education Act, and there was quite a lot of federal money for schools th

A Nashville School Board Member Warns Kentucky and Mississippi about the Charter Scams

15by dianeravitch / 1h

Amy Frogge ran for the Metro Nashville School Board in 2012 as a concerned mom who was also a lawyer. She was unaware of the pitched battle about charters and privatization. She had the simple goal of improving public schools, which made her an enemy of the privatizers. She ran again last year and was re-elected. Both times, she faced candidates who outspent her by vast sums with out-of-state ref

New York: Charter Schools Win Power to Hire Non-Professional “Teachers”

22by dianeravitch / 2h

Blogger Peter Goodman reports that a last-minute deal was struck in the closing hours of the legislative session in New York State. Charter schools authorized by the State University of New York (which includes Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy schools) will not be required to hire professional, certified teachers. This is yet more evidence that charter schools are not public schools. Teachers in p

YESTERDAY

Michael Gerson: How to Handle an Unhinged President

4by dianeravitch / 11h

Michael Gerson was a speechwriter for President zgeorge W. Bush. He does not admire Trump, to say the least. Here, he offers advice on dealing with a president who is out of touch with reality, impulsive, uninformed, has no ability to steady or unite the nation, and is unfit to lead.

Koch Brothers Target Colorado for ESA Vouchers

38by dianeravitch / 22h

Wherever there is a bipartisan consensus for charter schools, the Koch brothers see the state as ripe for expanding vouchers. Now they are targeting Colorado, where they have developed a strategic plan for the state. Leading Democrats, such as wealthy Congressman Jared Polis and former State Senator Michael Johnston, have led the charge for charters and schiool choice (both have announced they ar

A Republican Staffer Who Blew the Whistle on the Cult Worship of the Rich

27by dianeravitch / 22h

As you know, I was for many years involved in the rightwing corporate reform made cement. As I realized that the real end game was not to “reform” public schools but to privatize them, I became a skeptic. Then as I saw that all of their strategies were failing, I jumped ship. I am often asked why I changed my mind, and I try to explain that I realized that the reform movement was a hoax, with no

Roy Turrentine: What Testing Destroys

12by dianeravitch / 23h

Roy Turrentine, a teacher who frequently comments on the blog, wrote this commentary on how testing warps teaching: “When I first started teaching, I would occasionally get off the subject for days. One geometry problem sidelined us for three days. Children would offer solutions and I would publicly follow their logic until it obviously failed, then we would take another suggestion. “It has been

Kentucky: CBS News Reports that the DeVos Agenda Would Destroy Rural Public Schools

30by dianeravitch / 1d

CBS News aired a great segment on the importance of rural public schools. They are the heart of the community. CBS News went to an impoverished community in Appalachia and interviewed students and the principal, who is also the school bus driver. The small rural public school in Letcher County doesn’t need competition. Most of its students live below the poverty line, yet the school is one of the

Ed Berger: The Stealth Coup to Destroy the American Dream

16by dianeravitch / 1d

Ed Berger, a retired teacher who lives in Arizona and is active in the struggle to save public schools, has written a powerful post about the billionaire-funded movement to destroy our democracy. It begins like this. I urge you to read it all: “Within the core of our freedoms, lie the avenues powerful individuals use to take away the rights of citizens and the controls of government designed and

Washington State: 13 Lucky Billionaires Pay No Taxes!

22by dianeravitch / 1d

In Washington State, the highest state court ordered the legislature to establish a new and equitable funding program for public schools. The legislature has not acted. The court is fining fining the legislature $1 million a day. The legislature 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Discrimination Against LGBT Youth in US Schools | HRW

Discrimination Against LGBT Youth in US Schools | HRW:

“Like Walking Through a Hailstorm”

Discrimination Against LGBT Youth in US Schools

Summary

It’s like walking through a hailstorm...

—Polly R. (pseudonym), parent of gender non-conforming son, describing the hostile environment that LGBT children face in schools, Utah, December 2015

Outside the home, schools are the primary vehicles for educating, socializing, and providing services to young people in the United States. Schools can be difficult environments for students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but they are often especially unwelcoming for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. A lack of policies and practices that affirm and support LGBT youth—and a failure to implement protections that do exist—means that LGBT students nationwide continue to face bullying, exclusion, and discrimination in school, putting them at physical and psychological risk and limiting their education.

In 2001, Human Rights Watch published Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students in US Schools. The report documented rampant bullying and discrimination against LGBT students in schools across the country, and urged policymakers and school officials to take concrete steps to respect and protect the rights of LGBT youth.

Over the last 15 years, lawmakers and school administrators have increasingly recognized that LGBT youth are a vulnerable population in school settings, and many have implemented policies designed to ensure all students feel safe and welcome at school.

Yet progress is uneven. In many states and school districts, LGBT students and teachers lack protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In others, protections that do exist are inadequate or unenforced. As transgender and gender non-conforming students have become more visible, too, many states and school districts have ignored their needs and failed to ensure they enjoy the same academic and extracurricular benefits as their non-transgender peers.

This undermines a number of fundamental human rights, including LGBT students’ rights to education, personal security, freedom from discrimination, access to information, free expression, association and privacy.

Based on interviews with over 500 students, teachers, administrators, parents, service providers, and advocates in Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah, this report focuses on four main issues that LGBT people continue to experience in school environments in the United States.

Areas of concern include bullying and harassment, exclusion from school curricula and resources, restrictions on LGBT student groups, and other forms of discrimination and bigotry against students and staff based on sexual orientation and gender identity. While not exhaustive, these broad issues offer a starting point for policymakers and administrators to ensure that LGBT people’s rights are respected and protected in schools.

LGBT Experiences in School

Social pressures are part of the school experience of many students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. But the experience can be particularly difficult for LGBT students, who often struggle to make sense of their identities, lack support from family and friends, and encounter negative messaging about LGBT people at school and in their community.

As a result of these factors, LGBT students are more likely than heterosexual peers to suffer abuse. “I’ve been shoved into lockers, and sometimes people will just push up on me to check if I have boobs,” said Kevin I., a 17-year-old transgender boy in Utah. He added that school administrators dismissed his complaints of verbal and physical abuse, blaming him for being “so open about it.”

In some instances, teachers themselves mocked LGBT youth or joined the bullying. Lynette G., the mother of a young girl with a gay father in South Dakota, recalled that when her daughter was eight, “she ran home because they were teasing her. Like, ‘Oh, your dad is a cocksucker, a faggot, he sucks dick.’ … She saw a teacher laughing and that traumatized her even worse.”

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Discrimination and bigotry against transgender students took various forms, including restricting bathroom and locker room access, limiting participation in extracurricular activities, and curtailing other forms of expression—for example, dressing for the school day or special events like homecoming. “They didn’t let me in and I didn’t get my money back,” said Willow K., a 14-year-old transgender girl in Texas who attempted to wear a dress to her homecoming.

LGBT students also described persistent patterns of isolation, exclusion, and marginalization that made them feel unsafe or unwelcome at school. Students described how hearing slurs, lacking resources relevant to their experience, being discouraged from having same-sex relationships, and being regularly misgendered made the school a hostile environment, which in turn can impact health and well-being.

Acanthus R., a 17-year-old pansexual, non-binary transgender student in Utah, said it was “like a little mental pinch” when teachers used the wrong pronouns.  “It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but eventually you bruise.”

Comprehensive approaches are urgently needed to make school environments welcoming for LGBT students and staff, and to allow students to learn and socialize with peers without fearing exclusion, humiliation, or violence. Above all:

• States should repeal outdated and stigmatizing laws that deter and arguably prohibit discussion of LGBT issues in schools, and enact laws protecting students and staff from bullying and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Schools should ensure that policies, curricula, and resources explicitly include LGBT people, and that the school environment is responsive to the specific needs of LGBT youth.
• Teachers and administrators should work to make existing policies meaningful by enforcing protections and intervening when bullying or discrimination occurs.

Discrimination Against LGBT Youth in US Schools | HRW: