Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/20/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World | The Jose Vilson

Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World | The Jose Vilson: Mission High and the Full Beauty of the WorldLet me first recommend everyone read Kristina Rizga’s Mission High: One School, How Experts Tried To Fail It, and the Students and Teachers Who Made It Triumph (Nation Books, 2015). I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how many education books I’ve read in the last few years that namedro

by mike simpson / 4min 

Questions linger about who has control of the independent charter school and its public funds.

Old Town Academy agreement with Tri-Valley Learning Corporation raises questions | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com: Charter to open school year amid concerns over governanceOld Town Academy has agreement with Livermore corporationOld Town Academy will welcome students back for a fifth year next month, even as questions linger about who has control of the independent charter school and its public funds.Th

by mike simpson / 5min 

Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools - LA Times

Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools - LA Times: Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schoolsCompton Unified student Kimberly Cervantes is part of a class action lawsuit seeking academic and counseling services from the Compton Unified School District. Attorney Annie Hudson-Price looks on.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles

by mike simpson / 25min 

CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II

CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II: CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II You may recall that back at the beginning of the summer, a group calling themselves America's Teachers cropped up as a PAC supporting Hillary Clinton. I did a little websurfing to see what I could find and wrote about the results.The brain behind the PAC is a young man named Naveed Amalfard, who is the P

by mike simpson / 38min 

solidaridad: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion

solidaridad: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter ExpansionThe Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is leading an effort to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD. The Broads are being joined by the Walton Family and the Keck Foundations, among others. The expansion of charter schools is supposed to decrease the

by mike simpson / 45min 

TEA Finally Takes a Look at Kids Left Hanging After Charter Goes Belly-Up | Houston Press

TEA Finally Takes a Look at Kids Left Hanging After Charter Goes Belly-Up | Houston Press: TEA FINALLY TAKES A LOOK AT KIDS LEFT HANGING AFTER CHARTER GOES BELLY-UPWhen the Girls and Boys Preparatory Academy closed at the end of last school year, the charter school on Bissonnet left behind a mess of extraordinary proportions – the extent of which is only now beginning to come to light.Transcripts

by mike simpson / 1h 

Jersey Jazzman: Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racle

Jersey Jazzman: Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racle: Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racleAfter watching Jeb! Bush talk about his Florida education "miracle" at Campbell's Brown's little union-bashing festival, I thought it would be instructive to make a quick graph:I've standardized Florida's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress over time as a way of comparing the state

by mike simpson / 1h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strikeFor Immediate Release: August 20, 2015Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220Education Advocates Condemn Discussion Around Public Education in Campbell Brown’s New Hampshire Ed

by mike simpson / 1h 

Pedro Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD

Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD: Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSDThe Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District can tout the talents, accomplishments and college placements of its most successful students.But, as Pedro Noguera is quick to point out, the district’s mission goes beyond that.“The real challenge for a school system is, ‘How good are we with those who need us more?’” Nogu

by mike simpson / 2h 

Baby Got Class -- A back to school parody

Baby Got Class -- A back to school parodyThis one goes out to all the teachers, bus drivers, administrators, and support staff who teach and love our children. THANK YOU for all you do!CONTACT info@VisitTheGreenroom.com for permissions and to learn about our day jobs

by mike simpson / 2h 

Badass Teachers Association: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2

Badass Teachers Association: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2Rebecca Friedrichs, the main plaintiff behind Friedrichs v California Teachers Association et al has not been working alone. She has been a strong proponent of National Employee Freedom Week (NEFW).While the list behind the coalition of NEFW does not sound like the

by mike simpson / 4h 

New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students - The Onion

New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students - The Onion - America's Finest News Source: New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of StudentsSPRINGFIELD, IL—In an effort to hold classroom instructors more accountable, the Illinois State Board of Education unveiled new statewide education standards Friday that

by mike simpson / 5h 

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel? | John Thompson

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel? | John Thompson: Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel?Are we seeing light at the end of the resegregation tunnel? The work of Nikole Hannah-Jones, Chana Joffe-Walt, Alana Semuels, and the scholars who help inform their journalism provides hope, as does the first episodes of David Simon's and Paul Haggis's new HBO m

by mike simpson / 5h 

Hunger Strikers Fight for Chicago’s Dyett High School | Education Town Hall Forum: Weekly Broadcast Archives, Extended Discussion, plus Monthly BUS Ride

Hunger Strikers Fight for Chicago’s Dyett High School | Education Town Hall Forum: Weekly Broadcast Archives, Extended Discussion, plus Monthly BUS Ride: Hunger Strikers Fight for Chicago’s Dyett High SchoolJeannette Taylor and Anna Jones of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School in Chicago are in the fourth day of their hunger strike demanding re-opening of a neighborhood high school in th

by mike simpson / 5h 

There he goes again: Gov. Scott Walker keeps talking about a teacher who asked him to stop - The Washington Post

There he goes again: Gov. Scott Walker keeps talking about a teacher who asked him to stop - The Washington Post: There he goes again: Gov. Scott Walker keeps talking about a teacher who asked him to stopThere he goes again.For years now, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has been telling a story about a young award-winning teacher who lost her job in a school district layoff under a last-hired, fir

by mike simpson / 6h 

Fixing Teachers » Missouri Education Watchdog

Fixing Teachers » Missouri Education Watchdog: Fixing TeachersDr. Sandra Stotsky published a book in March of this year titled, “An Empty Curriculum: The Need to Reform Teacher Licensing Regulations and Tests”which both explains how we got to a place where our teachers can barely pass a certification exam, and provides a pathway out of the mess. Michael Poliakoff wrote a great review of her book o

by mike simpson / 7h 

Excitement and Anxiety: The First Day of School — Schoolhouse Voices — Medium

Excitement and Anxiety: The First Day of School — Schoolhouse Voices — Medium: Excitement and Anxiety: The First Day of SchoolOver the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing teachers posting pictures of their classrooms on Facebook, saying, “My classroom’s ready!” That takes me right back to my childhood, helping my mom prepare her classroom for the students in the waning days of August.My mom taught se

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: The GOP's Education Problem

CURMUDGUCATION: The GOP's Education Problem: The GOP's Education ProblemDamn you, internet.I had no intention of watching Campbell Brown's Edfest stream yesterday, but as it turns out, I mostly did. I missed a big chunk of Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker, so I did not follow up my AM postwith a PM one. But the day did crystallize for me some of the huge gaping problems with the narrative that Presid

by mike simpson / 7h 

How Bill and Melinda Gates Want to Transform Teaching

How Bill and Melinda Gates Want to Transform Teaching: How Bill and Melinda Gates Want to Transform TeachingYou know how Bill Gates helped change the way people all over the world work, play, and communicate? Now he and his wife, Melinda, are talking about changing the way we teach and learn.This week, to mark the return to school for millions of American students, Bill and Melinda are posting a s

by mike simpson / 7h 

Charter Schools: The original vision and the morphed reality «Education Talk New Orleans Education Talk New Orleans

Charter Schools: The original vision and the morphed reality «Education Talk New Orleans Education Talk New Orleans: Charter Schools: The original vision and the morphed realityedutalknola:When I was in New Zealand in 2012 and 2013 I often asked people why would New Zealand need charter schools? New Zealand already had a system that included community voices in their local schools. I was able to s

by mike simpson / 7h 

Obama came through with billions to rebuild New Orleans schools after Katrina | The Lens

Obama came through with billions to rebuild New Orleans schools after Katrina | The Lens: Obama came through with billions to rebuild New Orleans schools after KatrinaThe Lens has partnered with PolitiFact for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to see if President Barack Obama has followed through on his campaign promises about the storm and the city of New Orleans. Pledge: Rebuild schools

by mike simpson / 8h 

Renowned researcher: ‘Why I am no longer comfortable’ in the field of educational measurement - The Washington Post

Renowned researcher: ‘Why I am no longer comfortable’ in the field of educational measurement - The Washington Post: Renowned researcher: ‘Why I am no longer comfortable’ in the field of educational measurementGene V. Glass is a renowned statistician and researcher who has worked for decades in educational psychology and the social sciences. He created the term “meta-analysis” — a statistical proc

by mike simpson / 8h 

Getting to the ‘why’ of discipline disparities | EdSource

Getting to the ‘why’ of discipline disparities | EdSource: Getting to the ‘why’ of discipline disparitiesIn the process of changing the uneven application of school discipline, school staff move from lack of awareness to full acceptance of the fact that some groups of students are disciplined more harshly than others, according to a U.S. Department of Education action guide for educators.What happ

by mike simpson / 8h 

Are traumatized students disabled? A debate straight outta Compton | 89.3 KPCC

Are traumatized students disabled? A debate straight outta Compton | 89.3 KPCC: Are traumatized students disabled? A debate straight outta ComptonThe defendants may be one Southern California school district and its top officials, but an unprecedented, class action lawsuit could have a big impact on schools across the country.Thursday in Los Angeles, a U.S. District Court judge will preside over t

by mike simpson / 8h 

School choice on steroids - The Hechinger Report

School choice on steroids - The Hechinger Report: School choice on steroidsNew state programs allow students to opt out of their local public schools part time, taking classes online insteadChatfield High School in Minnesota doesn’t offer sociology (or German, or criminology, for that matter), but when senior Keagan Clarke, 18, finished a fall semester class in psychology, his teacher suggested he

by mike simpson / 8h 

Child Trauma and Schools | Education Town Hall Forum: Weekly Broadcast Archives, Extended Discussion, plus Monthly BUS Ride

Child Trauma and Schools | Education Town Hall Forum: Weekly Broadcast Archives, Extended Discussion, plus Monthly BUS Ride: Child Trauma and SchoolsNearly half of all children in the United States have experienced trauma, according to recent research. Children in underserved communities face trauma at a higher rate and are more likely to experience repeated trauma or more than one type.Gun violen

by mike simpson / 8h 

The stench of death in New Orleans and school reform. | Fred Klonsky

The stench of death in New Orleans and school reform. | Fred Klonsky: The stench of death in New Orleans and school reform..– By Corey Mitchell in EdWeek.Billie Dolce’s memories of her final day as a teacher at Colton Middle School haunt her.With Hurricane Katrina headed toward New Orleans, Dolce pleaded with her classroom aide, Gertrude Hackett, to flee the city and seek refuge with out-of-town r

by mike simpson / 8h 

Kasich: ‘If I were king in America, I would abolish all teachers lounges where they sit together and worry about how woe is us’ - The Washington Post

Kasich: ‘If I were king in America, I would abolish all teachers lounges where they sit together and worry about how woe is us’ - The Washington Post: Kasich: ‘If I were king in America, I would abolish all teachers lounges where they sit together and worry about how woe is us’Ohio Gov. John Kasich said a number of interesting things Wednesday during an interview at an “education summit” where six

by mike simpson / 9h 

Report: States Lack Consistent Standards for Literacy Teacher Preparation -- THE Journal

Report: States Lack Consistent Standards for Literacy Teacher Preparation -- THE Journal: Report: States Lack Consistent Standards for Literacy Teacher PreparationOnly 18 states require elementary teacher candidates to complete specific courses in literacy education, according to a report from the International Literacy Association.The report, "Preliminary Report on Teacher Preparation for Li

by mike simpson / 9h 

Nashville schools finance team puts price on charters

Nashville schools finance team puts price on charters: Nashville schools finance team puts price on chartersMetro Nashville Public Schools' finance department has created a formula placing an expense on opening a charter school.The idea is akin to how the state assesses the financial impact of a bill on the state's coffers. At the district level, the process explains as closely as possible the cos

by mike simpson / 9h 

Racism in the classroom: the "soft bigotry of low expectations" is just regular bigotry - Vox

Racism in the classroom: the "soft bigotry of low expectations" is just regular bigotry - Vox: Racism in the classroom: the "soft bigotry of low expectations" is just regular bigotryWhen black teachers and white teachers are asked to sum up black high school students' potential, white teachers are much less likely to see black students as college material.And that's true even w

by mike simpson / 9h 

Does Cheats For Change Have A Turnover Problem | WPRI 12 Eyewitness News

RI Mayoral Academies leader tapped for national school reform gig | WPRI 12 Eyewitness News: RI Mayoral Academies leader tapped for national school reform gigPROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The co-founder of Rhode Island Mayoral Academies (RIMA) is leaving his job to join one of the country’s most well-known school reform advocacy organizations.Dr. Michael Magee, who helped launch RIMA with lieutenant g

by mike simpson / 10h 

Good Soil: The overlooked aspect of school reform By Rod Paige | The Mississippi Link

Good Soil: The overlooked aspect of school reform | The Mississippi Link: Good Soil: The overlooked aspect of school reform“And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and  increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” – Mark 4:8, Holy Bible, English Standard VersionThe importance of the home and community role in student learning has for years been sh

by mike simpson / 10h 

GOP education summit: Six candidates meet with Campbell Brown in New Hampshire.

GOP education summit: Six candidates meet with Campbell Brown in New Hampshire.: The Republican Primary Candidates’ Daylong School-Choice LovefestOn Wednesday six GOP candidates for president—Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, and Chris Christie—sat on a stage in a Londonderry, New Hampshire, high school to talk K–12 education policy with former CNN anchor-turned-“ed

by mike simpson / 10h 

The Bright Students Left Behind - WSJ

The Bright Students Left Behind - WSJ: The Bright Students Left BehindWhile everyone focuses on boosting the weakest students, America’s smartest children are no longer being pushed to do their bestA great problem in U.S. education is that gifted students are rarely pushed to achieve their full potential. It is no secret that American students overall lag their international peers. Among the 34 co

by mike simpson / 10h 

What's behind the AFT's rush to endorse? | SocialistWorker.org

What's behind the AFT's rush to endorse? | SocialistWorker.org: What's behind the AFT's rush to endorse?New York City teacher Bill Linville, a UFT member and chapter leader at his Bronx high school, explains how the AFT's early presidential endorsement is stirring discontent.LAST MONTH, with nearly 16 months to go until the 2016 presidential election and almost seven months before the start of par

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

AFT’s Weingarten on the Republican Education Forum | American Federation of Teachers

AFT’s Weingarten on the Republican Education Forum | American Federation of Teachers: AFT’s Weingarten on the Republican Education ForumWASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on the Republican education forum:"At an event where the big public education ideas are test, blame, punish and privatize, it's sad but no surprise that our union was the piñata. That just

by mike simpson / 22h hide  //  save

At N.H. forum, Christie again trains fire on teachers unions

At N.H. forum, Christie again trains fire on teachers unions: At N.H. forum, Christie again trains fire on teachers unionsGov. Christie continued to wage verbal war against teachers unions at an education forum in New Hampshire Wednesday, saying the unions deserved a "political punch in the face."The word political was a qualification to the sentiment Christie expressed in an interview e

by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/19/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORM“If I were King in America” attends a private/public NH EdSummit that refuses attendance to a pre-approved teacher | Reclaim Reform“If I were King in America” attends a private/public NH Education Summit that refuses attendance to a pre-approved teacher | Reclaim Reform: “If I were King in America” attends a private/public NH Education Summit that refuses attend

by mike simpson / 1d 

Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World | The Jose Vilson

Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World | The Jose Vilson:

Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World

Let me first recommend everyone read Kristina Rizga’s Mission High: One School, How Experts Tried To Fail It, and the Students and Teachers Who Made It Triumph (Nation Books, 2015). I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how many education books I’ve read in the last few years that namedrop the infamous A Nation At Risk report at the catalyst for the current status quo of public schooling, and how the mere mention of T.H. Bell or David Gardner usually knocks me out.

What sets this book apart from those books is its fascination and attention to the voices of the students, teachers, and principal. The reader is pulled into the lives of the inhabitants of Mission High School in San Francisco, CA, rooting for their uplift, drowning in their frustrations. At some points, the reader forgets that Rizga’s narrating the book, letting the understandings of the people she interviews take over her writing. She also comes from a sect of white education journalists who can deftly write about race with a three-dimensional nuance, sans platitude, stereotype, or self-indulgence.

But I don’t really do book reviews. I write essays.

As such, I’d like to key in on one of the students she interviewed, George, and the spark he left in my mind here:

George used to think that people who think slowly are not smart, but close work with his classmates made him realize that rushing to answers is not always the best way to solve problems. It was often the slower thinkers who forced everyone to deliberate on the relative advantages of various ways to get to the answer. ‘Human brains are too weak to appreciate the full beauty of the world, and rushing through any process makes you miss out on important parts,” he says.

Even without context, you can tell this student keyed in on something that few policy wonks tap into, and that’s the idea of what an education is.

The more we attempt to formulate and extrapolate the milieu of a good classroom, we get these nuggets of evidence that perhaps we’re focused on all the wrong things. It’s not enough to simply critique the standardized testing element because, even without that, pundits can standardize everything else, from the number of books our students must read to the lesson plans educators use in classrooms. So when I ask us to opt out of the whole status quo, I’m asking everyone to reconsider what deserves standardization and why.

Take George’s reasoning as an example. Would we rather demand that all students think exactly the way the teacher does about the math problem in front of them or would we want to have a larger Mission High and the Full Beauty of the World | The Jose Vilson:

Questions linger about who has control of the independent charter school and its public funds.

Old Town Academy agreement with Tri-Valley Learning Corporation raises questions | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Charter to open school year amid concerns over governance

Old Town Academy has agreement with Livermore corporation

Old Town Academy will welcome students back for a fifth year next month, even as questions linger about who has control of the independent charter school and its public funds.

The academy has replaced its executive director, two members of its governing board, and other staffers following a rough end to last school year after the administration entered into an unusual agreement with a Northern California charter organization.

The Tri-Valley Learning Corporation, based in Livermore, lists Old Town Academy as one of its six schools on its website. But the San Diego Unified School District, which authorized the charter, said the corporation has no authority or decision-making power over the local campus.

San Diego Unified gave the school the green light to open this year after the charter’s board passed a resolution July 27 assuring the district that the corporation does not control the school. However, the resolution is clear that the charter “desires to ultimately become a school of Tri-Valley.”

San Diego Unified hopes to resolve its concerns over the agreement during proceedings this fall that will determine if the school’s charter is renewed beyond the 2015-16 school year. The district was so troubled by the corporate agreement that it withdrew $23 million in Proposition Z bond funds that the campus had been eligible to use last year for facility upgrades.

“The money is off the table because we couldn’t encumber public funds for a school that has significant governance and operational issues,” said Susan Park, who oversees charter schools for San Diego Unified. “We do not recognize Tri-Valley as the charter operator. The school needs to demonstrate a level of being operationally sound.”

The school’s new executive director, Jon Centofranchi, said the campus is moving forward under a new collaborative approach that will give parents and educators a strong voice. Before taking the academy’s top post, he worked as principal at Mission Middle School in Escondido until December 2014, when he was put on administrative leave without explanation.

Centofranchi declined to discuss the past.

“It doesn’t serve any positive purpose to rehash things that happened in the past,” he said. “We need to focus on making this the best possible school.”

Centofranchi said he is unclear on the full extent of Tri-Valley’s role with the school, except that it would handle the “business side.”

Officials from Tri-Valley were unavailable for comment. 

Under California law, charters are publicly funded and independently run schools that may operate outside Old Town Academy agreement with Tri-Valley Learning Corporation raises questions | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools - LA Times

Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools - LA Times:

Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools

Compton Unified student Kimberly Cervantes is part of a class action lawsuit seeking academic and counseling services from the Compton Unified School District. Attorney Annie Hudson-Price looks on.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Attorneys representing students who have suffered from violence and other trauma in a lawsuit against the Compton Unified School District asked a federal judge Thursday to immediately require teachers, administrators and staff to undergo training to recognize and understand the effect of such incidents on students.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of eight Compton Unified School District students, alleges that the school system has failed to properly educate students who have suffered from repeated violence and other trauma.

The litigation alleges that the district has failed to address the underlying obstacles these students face and have inadequately trained teachers and others to provide these students an appropriate education.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald is expected to decide in coming weeks on whether to grant the injunction, which would require the training. He is also considering a request by the school district to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.

The litigation could test whether “complex trauma” qualifies as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If the lawsuit is successful, school districts would be required to provide special academic and mental health services to students who have suffered from violence and other trauma.

The lawsuit describes in detail some of the traumatic episodes of several students, who were frequently disciplined and kicked out of schools and not given appropriate help and services to address their problems.

One student at the age of 8 first witnessed someone being shot to death. Since then, he has witnessed another 20 shootings, including the killing of a friend.

Another student, a Dominguez High junior, struggled academically after suffering physical violence from the boyfriends of his mother, a drug addict. He was kicked out of foster care and resorted to sleeping on the roof of the high school, the lawsuit said. After he was found by school officials, they offered no help to him, the lawsuit alleges.

The boy said he often grew enraged, sometimes believing a "demon" was within him.

Another student, Kimberly Cervantes, 18, a senior at Cesar Chavez Continuation School, stopped attending school for weeks at a time after several traumatic episodes, including being told by teachers that her bisexuality was "wrong,"  the suit said.

Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel, a Los Angeles-based pro bono law firm that filed the lawsuit along with Irell & Manella LLP, urged the court to force the district to immediately provide the training.

"These students cannot wait for deliberations,” he said. “They are being stopped at the school house door. They come to school not even knowing they suffer from complex trauma but then they are treated differently Training in dealing with trauma-affected students is sought for Compton schools - LA Times:

CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II

CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II:

CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II

 You may recall that back at the beginning of the summer, a group calling themselves America's Teachers cropped up as a PAC supporting Hillary Clinton. I did a little websurfing to see what I could find and wrote about the results.


The brain behind the PAC is a young man named Naveed Amalfard, who is the PAC's national chairman, a 2014 graduate of Emory University, and a Teach for America guy about to start his second year as a math teacher in DC. My piece about America's Teachers did not makes his day, and the drubbing some folks tried to give him on twitter made his day even less, and so he reached out to me, and this afternoon, we both took a break from beginning-of-year preparations to have a phone chat.

And so I'm prepared to answer the question-- is America's Teachers more nefarious dark money political shenanigans, or something else?

Amalfard seems like a pleasant guy, and I opened by giving him the chance to respond to the piece I wrote. He said that they (he used the word "we" throughout) were surprised to see an attack on their organization, and were particularly unhappy to find themselves linked to DFER and CAP and other Naught Persons and generally marked as negative for reasons they don't feel are merited. This prompted them to want to start a dialogue, and I readily admit that their impulse seems healthier than, say, an impulse to simply assassinate my character in their own space.

Amalfard has fine-tuned his message and mission. From the five points originally listed, AT now stands heavily for universal pre-school, college affordability, and post-secondary schooling for Dreamers. Amalfard circled back around to these three points many times. This is what they want.

I allowed as how since their original appearance, I had had trouble deciding whether they were a skullduggerous front for More Big Money or just one guy with a dream. Amalfard allowed as how CURMUDGUCATION: Hillary's Teacher PAC, Part II:

solidaridad: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion

solidaridad: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion:

AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is leading an effort to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD. The Broads are being joined by the Walton Family and the Keck Foundations, among others. The expansion of charter schools is supposed to decrease the number of children attending what the charter industry calls failing schools or those with lower test scores. The aim is to get at least 50% of these children in the privately-run charter schools which could potentially be located on District sites. LAUSD already has about 100,000 students attending charter schools, more than any other school district in the country. In an email to LA School Report, the officials from the Broad Foundation wrote, “Too many of our school children still aren’t getting the quality of education they deserve, which is why tens of thousands of students are currently on public charter school waiting lists. We are in the early stages of exploring a variety of ideas about how to help give all families—especially in low-income communities of color—access to high- quality public schools and what we and others in the philanthropic community can do to increase access to a great public school for every child in Los Angeles.”

Officials from charter organizations, such as ICEF and Green Dot, are, understandably ecstatic about the proposal as it will generate more dollars for their programs. The foundations could provide funding for early administrative costs of new charters and for teacher training. Board Member Mónica Garcia said she is open to the foundations’ plans and says that her district could benefit from additional charter schools. However, not everyone is happy about this expansion. Because charter school teachers are not unionized, UTLA is not supportive of these independent schools and feels that input of teachers is disregarded. In a call to members, Alex Caputo-Pearl, UTLA President, vowed to fight the plans of the foundations, saying they are “out to destroy collective bargaining.” Board President Steve Zimmer is concerned that the charter schools will continue to be selective about who they enroll, leaving those students who require more specialized services and resources at the District schools. A mass exodus of students to charters will also severely decrease state and federal funding for the traditional schools.

As has been noted before, Eli Broad, the Waltons and other billionaires have been active in LAUSD politics for many years and have supported controversial efforts for reform. Financial resources have been provided candidates for the Board of Education that AALA has not supported and who have been strongly procharter. It should also be noted that Dr. John Deasy, former LAUSD Superintendent, was a graduate of the Broad Superintendent Academy and is now the Superintendent-in-Residence for the Broad Center. In fact, it has been reported that Eli Broad said that John Deasy was the best Los Angeles superintendent in memory. That, in and of itself, should give us all a reason to pause and look at this expansion plan with a critical eye.solidaridad: AALA: Eli Broad and Charter Expansion:

TEA Finally Takes a Look at Kids Left Hanging After Charter Goes Belly-Up | Houston Press

TEA Finally Takes a Look at Kids Left Hanging After Charter Goes Belly-Up | Houston Press:

TEA FINALLY TAKES A LOOK AT KIDS LEFT HANGING AFTER CHARTER GOES BELLY-UP

When the Girls and Boys Preparatory Academy closed at the end of last school year, the charter school on Bissonnet left behind a mess of extraordinary proportions – the extent of which is only now beginning to come to light.

Transcripts and attendance records are missing. Grades and report cards aren't there. Students can't prove they deserve course credit for classes they took and passed. And without these records, parents and grandparents say they're being told they don't have the necessary paperwork to register their children anywhere for this coming school year, which starts Monday. Or for students to go on to college.

“My granddaughter is sitting at home. I can't get her enrolled,” said A.J. Felix, who said he was a single parent taking care of his five grandchildren. His 17-year-old granddaughter is a special ed student, he said, adding that he thought the school would be good for her needs. Instead, he said, even though she studied for the state STAAR test, she was never given it and he was constantly given excuses by the school's director, Fred Taylor, that things would be sorted out.

“We have no transcripts, no final report card,” he said. 

Felix was just one of the relatives who came to the former home of the small charter school – one of the original 19 charter schools to open in Texas when it began in 1995 – in the hopes of talking to two investigators sent there by the Texas Education Agency (“a bit late,” critics charge).

However well-intentioned and effective the school known as the Girls and Boys Preparatory Academy on the southwest side of Houston might have once been, there was scant evidence of glory days in its former home Wednesday. It was allowed to stay open last year after the state announced it would be losing its charter because it continuously failed to meet financial or academic standards.

The TEA did send a conservator to manage the school last April after countless complaints about the operation of the pre-K to 12th grade school from parents and others, we're told, but there's little evidence that person straightened anything out during the remainder of the school year that ended in June.

TEA investigators Jaime H. Reyes and Park Brigtsen would not comment Wednesday. “We can't make any comment while a complaint is ongoing,” said Reyes.

Parent Margo Woods said she is trying to get her nine-year-old daughter into school anywhere but has been unsuccessful so far. She said her family stuck with the school “even though they lost our daughter on the second day she went to school here.”

Woods said they were attracted to the school thinking it was going to have a family atmosphere, but found there was little stability with constant teacher turnover.

“Fast-forward to the school shutting down without warning. They left us out to dry without any enrollment records,” she said.

Woods also had a 16-year-old daughter at the school, a special ed student who after being happy enough there began to get written up for offenses. “They told us we had to find someplace else to put her.” Another person close to the school says it began trying to phase out its special education students after releasing a special ed director the year before.

One bit of bright news: Holly Huffman, spokeswoman with the Houston ISD, said the district will work this out if any of the former charter students find their way there.

“We want transcripts, but if they have anything — report cards, progress reports — anything that shows what grade level they might have been in in that school, they need to bring that and registrars may be telling parents to bring that.

“If they don't have any of that, then on the first day of school – we can't turn kids away – we can do a temporary placement. We don't have to have records,” Huffman said. “We want to make sure kids have a place to go to school and get educated.” TEA Finally Takes a Look at Kids Left Hanging After Charter Goes Belly-Up | Houston Press:

Jersey Jazzman: Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racle

Jersey Jazzman: Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racle:

Jeb!'s Florida Education Meh-racle



After watching Jeb! Bush talk about his Florida education "miracle" at Campbell's Brown's little union-bashing festival, I thought it would be instructive to make a quick graph:

I've standardized Florida's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress over time as a way of comparing the state to the other 49 plus DC. The NAEP tests reading and math in Grades 4 and 8. Upward bars are above average scores; downward bars are below average.

You'll notice that Jeb! is always bragging on Florida's Grade 4 Reading scores. What he rarely mentions, however, is how his state does on Grade 8 tests, or on math tests. This graph makes clear why: Florida has been either at or below the (weighted) average on Grade 4 math and on Grade 8 reading and math for the last two administrations of the test. Yes, there was a bit of a bump on Grade 4 math in the 2000s, but the scores came back to Earth.

Does this look like a miracle to you?

Normally, I think any politician who gets up in front of people and brags on how his policies turned around his state's schools practically overnight is being ridiculous. There are just too many factors other than policy changes involved in affecting test scores: economic changes, demographic changes, cohort effects of other sorts, measurement - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/08/jebs-florida-education-meh-racle.html#sthash.xy2Am12c.dpuf

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike:

RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike

For Immediate Release: August 20, 2015
Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220

Education Advocates Condemn Discussion Around Public Education in Campbell Brown’s New Hampshire Education Summit

Yesterday, former CNN anchor Campbell Brown held an education summit in New Hampshire, where she interviewed six Republican presidential candidates about their stances on K-12 public education.

Keron Blair, Director at The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS), a coalition of parents, students, educators and community members, issued the following statement in response:

“While parents, teachers and students of an AROS member organization in Chicago are hunger-striking to keep their only neighborhood high school open--and to keep it open as a high quality sustainable community school--the Republican candidates are dodging questions and promoting corporate interests in public schools that are at the root of school closures and underinvestment in public Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: RELEASE: Alliance hits Campbell Brown's 'Summit' on 4th day of Dyett hunger strike:

Pedro Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD

Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD:

Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District can tout the talents, accomplishments and college placements of its most successful students.

But, as Pedro Noguera is quick to point out, the district’s mission goes beyond that.

“The real challenge for a school system is, ‘How good are we with those who need us more?’” Noguera said.

It’s a challenge the district has asked Noguera to address. The educator and sociologist has been hired to help SMMUSD officials close the longstanding achievement gap that exists between African American and Hispanic students and their peers at local campuses.

Noguera’s initial contract, which is for up to $110,000, starts this month and goes through the end of 2015, according to a district report.

The well-spoken, charismatic scholar delivered the keynote speech at the district’s convocation Tuesday morning at Barnum Hall on the campus of Santa Monica High School, and he’ll be hosting follow-up workshops with district administrators and Board of Education members in the coming months.

The hiring of Noguera is among several actions being taken by the district as it seeks to improve race relations.

The district is also planning to train Samohi staff on restorative justice and community building with the help of the California Conference for Equality and Justice.

The Long Beach-based human relations group will receive up to $80,000 to address issues of bias, bigotry and racism in education. The contract goes through the end of the 2015-2016 school year.

Noguera, who was recently appointed to join UCLA’s education faculty after a stint at New York University, has worked with schools and districts across the country in advisory roles.

He said teacher collaboration, professional development, strong community ties and student-centered learning are among the keys to improving schools.

“We know … that education should be the strategy, the institution we rely on to create a more equitable and just society,” he said. “But we also know it can’t just do it by itself. It takes a deliberate focus to make it happen.”

During a speech that was received with loud applause, Noguera offered a broad outline of methods for reducing the achievement gaps in SMMUSD schools.

Parental engagement, he said, is crucial. He said staff must be trained to communicate with parents across racial and socioeconomic lines and that there should be events to promote parental interaction. He added that the district should provide guidance for parents on how they can support their children.

At the student level, Noguera said, block scheduling, peer study groups, literacy assistance, extracurricular activities and community partnerships have proven to be beneficial. He Noguera to confront inequity in SMMUSD:

Baby Got Class -- A back to school parody

Baby Got Class -- A back to school parody

This one goes out to all the teachers, bus drivers, administrators, and support staff who teach and love our children. THANK YOU for all you do!

CONTACT info@VisitTheGreenroom.com for permissions and to learn about our day jobs

Badass Teachers Association: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2

Badass Teachers Association: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2:

The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2

Rebecca Friedrichs, the main plaintiff behind Friedrichs v California Teachers Association et al has not been working alone. She has been a strong proponent of National Employee Freedom Week (NEFW).

While the list behind the coalition of NEFW does not sound like the “who's who” of corporate educational reform, the size of this organization is disconcerting. All but eight states have organizations that support this cause which advocates for privatization of public education and destruction of unions. It is important to know who the players are. The two national founding partners behind this endeavor are theNevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI) and the Association of American Educators (AAE). A person may question why NPRI is involved with such an endeavor, but keep in mind that this endeavor will not only hurt education, it will influence other unions. Las Vegas Casinos are a huge union industry. The devastation of unions for this city would be very beneficial to casino investors while being very harmful to the workers. This is evidenced in Atlantic City by Carl Icahn's recent replacement of pensions and benefits with 401K plans and insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

When you look at the Board of Directors for NPRI it is glaringly evident that this organization is stacked heavily with people that would seem to have a heavy personal interest in any union Badass Teachers Association: The Deception Goes Deeper: Friedrichs vs. CTA Part 2:

New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students - The Onion

New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students - The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students

SPRINGFIELD, IL—In an effort to hold classroom instructors more accountable, the Illinois State Board of Education unveiled new statewide education standards Friday that require public school teachers to forever change the lives of at least 30 percent of their students. “Under our updated educator evaluation policy, teachers must make an unforgettable, lifelong impact on at least three of every 10 students and instill a love of learning in them that lasts the rest of their lives,” said chairman James Meeks, adding that based on the annual assessments, if 30 percent of students don’t recall a particular teacher’s name when asked to identify the most influential and inspiring person in their lives, that instructor would be promptly dismissed. “We are imposing these standards to make certain that a significant proportion of students in any given classroom can someday look back and say, ‘That teacher changed the course of my life, making me who I am today, and there’s no way I could ever repay them.’ Anything less is failure.” Meeks also confirmed the implementation of another rule aimed at ensuring that no more than 40 percent of a teacher’s students end up in prison.New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students - The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel? | John Thompson

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel? | John Thompson:

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel?

Are we seeing light at the end of the resegregation tunnel? The work of Nikole Hannah-Jones, Chana Joffe-Walt, Alana Semuels, and the scholars who help inform their journalism provides hope, as does the first episodes of David Simon's and Paul Haggis's new HBO miniseries, Show Me a Hero.

The genius of This American Life, for instance, is similar to that of Simon and Haggis, and together their work may contribute to a critical mass of Americans rethinking our benign neglect attitude toward segregation. Like HBO, NPR portrays individuals in a way that makes children's and parents' emotions and voices come alive.

As we study a wave of carefully-honed analyses of integration's potential to improve schools and our entire lives, we should pay special attention to the beginning of The Problem We All Live With Part Two. High School freshman Kiana Jackson "is a kid who frequently scans the room for a more exciting option than what is right in front of her," Joffe-Walt reports. So, "of course," this is how Kiana reacted when she saw a bunch of white kids who she knew for sure did not go to her school:

And we're like, there's no white kids in our school. And then like, I'm a really social person. So I see these kids and I was like, OK, they do not go here. What are they doing here? I want to find out.

Similarly, the Atlantic Magazine's Alana Semuels, in The City That Believed in Desegregation, adds to the work of Sarah Garland, who documented what went right with integration in Louisville, Kentucky. At first, white resistance was intense, but as Gary Orfield of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA reminds us, "Many of the residents' fears failed to materialize, and after a few years the protests ceased." He describes the driver of success, "people are amazed to discover that people from another race or ethnic group are actually pretty similar to them."

Orfield further explains why Louisville was right to stay the course, "One of the reasons white people leave central cities is because schools become segregated before neighborhoods do. ... White families stop buying in certain areas where the schools become all poor and non-white."

On the other hand, Failure Factories, by Cara Fitzpatrick, Lisa Gartner, and Michael LaForgia of the Tampa Bay Times, documents the tragedy of resegregation in Pinellas County, Fl. Fitzpatrick, Gartner, and LaForgia explain that desegregation efforts Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Re-Segregation Tunnel? | John Thompson: