Schools Matter: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs

Schools Matter: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs:

Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs

 Mayor Karl Dean, who has been a private and public patron of KIPP, Inc. over the years.  In 2012, Dean committed almost 25 percent of Metro's 4-year school improvement budget to one KIPP school.  


Today Dean has an op-ed in the Tennessean decrying the courageous vote by Metro school board to say NO to more KIPPs in Nashville.

My comments following Dean's angry op-ed:

Jim Horn · 

KIPP, Inc.'s Mr Dowell is part of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to show only the high test scores and smiling faces at KIPP. Obviously, Mr. Dean is a part of that campaign. 

What the KIPP Foundation or the media never present are the dehumanized segregated children, Amazonian working conditions, and the marginalized parents whose voices are squelched beneath the PR wheel.

The public never hears about 100 children packed into classrooms for a week sitting on the floor until they are KIPPnotized, and the Mr. Dean probably never heard about problem students who are sent to the basement of the school when VIPs are in the building. Links here:
http://www.alternet.org/.../kipp-forces-5th-graders-earn...

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/.../kipp-puts-up-to-30...

And parents have never heard, I am sure, about KIPP principals sitting on children to restrain them, as a former KIPP teacher recounted to me two nights ago. A clip from her audio transcript:

"Q: . . . who are the people who are doing the restraining, and what did it look like? 

A: It happened any time a child was so out of control behaviorally. Um, I don't actually know what their measure was for restraining a child because sometimes they would let a child destroy a classroom and just walk around, and other times, in my mind, [restraint was used] for a Schools Matter: Nashville Mayor Comes Out Swinging for More Segregated KIPPs:

KIPP Administrators Sitting Atop Kindergarten and 1st Grade Children

I talked with a 28th former KIPP teacher last evening to hear her story, and she was as eloquent and upset as any of the rest.  

Mandy spent a year in a West Coast KIPP, which was in its first year of applying KIPP's punishing penal-style pedagogy to segregated kindergarteners and first graders (60 percent Latino and 40 percent African-American). 

Until a month ago, Mandy thought she would be returning to this KIPP school that she had learned to dread, but she landed a teaching job in a public school in July.  

Mandy is now dealing with what she describes as PTSD-like symptoms, and she is re-learning what it is like to have rights and choices and that precious commodity, time--time to take care of herself and to have relationships with family, her boyfriend, and friends.  Time once more to enjoy life and work.

Over half the KIPP teachers and support staff that began the year with Mandy left, too.  Mandy described a micro-managing, demanding, and ruthless school leader who was inflexible, out of touch, manipulative, and without empathy.

Like many other former KIPP teachers, Mandy's health suffered while she was there, and she became an alien to herself--willing to go along with ways of teaching and treating children and parents that ran counter to her deepest values.

Mandy's story will be shared in depth at a later date, but for now I wanted to share another element of "No Excuses" charter school teaching that no one hears about in the media.  

We have heard about KIPP's isolation chambers for children, but we have not heard about adult 

KIPP Administrators Sitting Atop Kindergarten and 1st Grade Children

School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!

School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!:

School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!

Republican Presidential candidates claim to be for choice, including vouchers, charters and opportunity scholarships, and they also claim to be for local control of schools.

But school choice and local control are like oil and water. You must choose one or the other.

For example, Brandon Wright, in “Donald Trump Quotes about Education” from The Thomas B. Fordham Institute quotes Donald Trump as saying:

And we’ve got to bring on the competition—open the schoolhouse doors and let parents choose the best school for their children. Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition—the American way….

And then Trump says:

Education has to be local.

Likewise, Jeb Bush, in a Washington Post Op Ed from March, praises choice by saying:

In 1991, Minnesota led the way on creating charter schools. When I was governor, Florida began grading schools on an A-to-F scale in 1999 and offered dramatic school-choice options to parents. Now, 16 states grade their schools, 19 have choice programs and all but eight have charter school laws.

But he also starts out in the same Op Ed:

Given all the challenges facing education reform, we need to remember who really should make the decisions about what happens in our schools: state and local authorities and, most important, parents.

But choice and local control do not mix.

Local control

Local control means citizens own their schools. They pay taxes for them and they can individually, or collectively, question what is taught. They can hash out problematic School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!:

Schools Matter: A book on our side?

Schools Matter: A book on our side?:

A book on our side?

This morning I stared at the NY Times Book Review section, as I do most weekends and asked myself, “Should I or shouldn’t I browse through it.” Most of the time I don't find anything of interest but today I decided, “What the hell, I might as well.”

I am glad I did. My eyes did a “what the?” when I hit page 9 and saw this headline: Getting Schooled: What happened when two politicians and a tech billionaire set out to reform a city’s schools. It was a full-page review of THE PRIZE: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools by Dale Russakoff.

Now my interest began to peak as that title looked to me as if the book might be a critique of the corporate/foundation/political top down attempts to take over public education. So I started to read the review.

After reading the first couple of paragraphs that set the stage for the book’s content, I thought, hmmm, this might actually be critical of the attempt of the three (Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg) powerful men who wanted to use Zuckerberg’s “gift” of $100,000,000 to “not to repair education in Newark but to develop a model for saving it in all of urban America.”

My next clue about why I want to read this book followed shortly thereafter.

“Russakoff, a longtime Washington Post reporter, had the good sense to recognize the potential power and import of this story early on, and so embedded herself in Newark, winning access not only to the key players — Booker, Christie and Zuckerberg — but also to some remarkable teachers and students whose stories serve as a reality check to the maneuverings of those commanding the reform efforts. A lesser reporter might have succumbed to the seduction of such intimate access to the rich and powerful, but Russakoff maintains a clear eyed distance, her observations penetratingly honest and incisive to what she sees and what she hears. I suspect some may have regretted letting Russakoff in.”

The writer of the review, Alex Kotlowitz, subtly pointed out how the book exposed Booker's and Christie's pro charter and anti teacher positions and Zuckerberg's naivety. He points out the significance of the hiring of “Cami Anderson, from the New York City schools, whose unbending management style only Schools Matter: A book on our side?:

The Intention of Unintended Consequences | Live Long and Prosper

The Intention of Unintended Consequences | Live Long and Prosper:

The Intention of Unintended Consequences

UNINTENDED?

Are the unintended consequences of the overuse and misuse of standardized tests really unintended? The misuse of standardized tests seems designed specifically to “prove” that public schools are “failing” so that “reformers,” both corporate and religious, can continue with the business of privatization.

We know that standardized test scores correlate to the economic level of a school population rather than the quality of their teachers, but “reformers” say that “poverty is just an excuse” (unless of course their favorite charter school discovers that students from high poverty homes score lower on tests. Then it becomes a real factor). “Reformers” demand that education be the driving force behind the fight against poverty. Unfortunately for this approach, we know that the effects of poverty make learning more difficult, and poverty must be eliminated first.

We know that standardized tests, scored by temps with no experience in teaching children, are not a true or complete reflection of a child’s learning.

We know that children learn at different rates and the rigid requirements of “standards” are developmentally inappropriate for many children. The standardized tests based on those standards are misused when they are the basis for teacher evaluations, student promotions, and other high-stakes decisions.

The point of the tests, however, seems to be not the evaluation of student learning, but rather to show that public schools are somehow “failing.”Privatizers seem intent on closing public schools (see here and here), in order to divert public tax dollars to corporate and religious pocketbooks. Apparently “choice” isn’t an option for parents who want to keep their public schools open.

Linda Darling-Hammond said in Rise Above the Mark,

The problem we have with testing in this country today is that…we’re using the wrong kinds of tests, and…we’re using the tests in the wrong kinds of ways.

The use of the “wrong kinds of tests” in “the wrong kinds of ways” have consequences damaging to public education, the teaching profession, and worst The Intention of Unintended Consequences | Live Long and Prosper:

Standardized Testing vs. Opt-Outs: A Lesson on School Reform and the Future of No Child Left Behind - The Atlantic

Standardized Testing vs. Opt-Outs: A Lesson on School Reform and the Future of No Child Left Behind - The Atlantic:

Timeout for Opt-Outs?

A new poll suggests that a majority of adults think annual standardized testing is a good thing. They’re not as fond of the opt-out movement.

Americans aren’t as pissed off about standardized testing as headlines often make it seem. In fact, it looks like most of the country’s adults support it. What the public isn’t so fond of are the people who are pissed off—the ones who are so pissed off they’re boycotting the assessments as part of a growing “opt-out movement.”

These are some of the conclusions of a new poll of roughly 4,100 adults, administered by Education Next, a journal out of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and analyzed by researchers at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Louisiana State’s Public Policy Research Lab. The survey results contain important and often counterintuitive insight into what Americans really think about all the brouhaha surrounding education policy.

As indicated by the public-policy researchers—Louisiana State’s Michael Henderson and Harvard’s Paul Peterson and Martin West—these findings are likely to help shape forthcoming education debates on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. The Senate and House will soon come together to deliberate rewrites to the long-standing federal education law that was most recently rewritten as No Child Left Behind. Since its creation half a century ago, this law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), has largely widened the gaps it was designed to “bridge.”

The national backlash against testing has been pervasive and hard to ignore. It’s even gotten teacher’s unions and Tea Party Republicans to join forces. In New York, which is said to be the boycott’s epicenter, 20 percent of students in tested grades opted out of the state’s Common Core-aligned exams this past school year. That’s more than 200,000 kids.

Only one in four Americans supports the opt-out movement.

Highly polarized debates over the use of test scores as part of school-reform efforts have stymied efforts to overhaul the ESEA, which was supposed to be reauthorized years ago. Now, Congress is closer than ever to finally doing away with George W. Bush’s version and replacing it with something that gives states more control. But the Senate’s leading proposal—the Every Child Achieves Act—doesn’t reduce the emphasis on testing. And that’s causing major consternation among some Republicans who reason that the federal government’s reliance on test scores for accountability is both counterproductive and universally unpopular. After all, isn’t overtesting a key reason why so many American people believe No Child Left Behind actually worsened education?

For many, exercising the parental right to opt out of testing isn’t only understandable—it’s respectable. The prominent education-policy analyst Diane Ravitch indicated in a blog post earlier this year that if Congress members—and the president and governors and legislators—were to support the opt-out movement, they would be “[hearing] the voice of the people.”

But based on the new poll results, it seems that’s the voice of a relatively small group of people. Only about 25 percent of the general public supports the opt-out movement, while roughly 60 percent opposes it.

---

The survey findings—which reflect a nationally representative cross-section of American adults—raise questions about the merits of the opt-out movement and its clout in policy talks. Some Senators and Representatives have insisted on rewriting the ESEA in a way that bolsters parents’ opt-out rights. (Under current regulations, schools need to test at least 95 percent of their students.) “The parents know what the system is doing and have a right to inquire,” stated the Republican Senator Johnny Isakson last month, touting the passage of his Standardized Testing vs. Opt-Outs: A Lesson on School Reform and the Future of No Child Left Behind - The Atlantic:

What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended - Bloomberg View

What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended - Bloomberg View:

What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended

FREE-SPEECH STATUS: IT'S COMPLICATED. PHOTOGRAPHER: TED ALJIBE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

When I was a student in a private religious school, I looked with envy on the First Amendment rights of public school children, who couldn’t, I imagined, be disciplined for what they said off campus. Now a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has held that I was wrong. According to the appeals court, a student can be suspended for posting rap lyrics on Facebook and YouTube that threatened a teacher at the school, because the speech was predictably disruptive. Depending on how Thursday's decision is interpreted, it could be used to limit students’ off-campus political speech in cases where no threat existed at all.

The facts of the case provide ample ammunition for both opponents and supporters of unfettered student speech. Taylor Bell, a student at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Itawamba County, Mississippi, wrote, recorded and posted online a rap criticizing two coaches at the school. The song alleged that they were harassing the female track and field athletes they coached. Race was an issue in the rap (not that the court of appeals acknowledged it). The coaches are white; the female athletes are black; and the student-rapper, who’s black, used charged racial language while accusing the coaches of attraction to black women.

If the rap had only accused the teachers, the case would still have been interesting. But what makes it so tricky is that the rap went further. It said that if anyone -- by implication a teacher -- challenged the rapper, he’d get hit “with my Ruger” or “get a pistol down your mouth.” Bell claimed that these phrases were generic rap bragging: tropes, not threats. The majority of the court thought, plausibly enough, that these were threats against the coaches.

To decide whether the school was permitted to discipline Bell, the court used a 1969 precedent, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. That landmark case, which created the doctrine of school free speech, involved public school students who wore black armbands on campus to protest the Vietnam War. The court held that the students were protected by the First Amendment, and that their speech could be restricted only if it could reasonably be predicted to “materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.” Mere “discomfort and unpleasantness” weren’t enough.

The Tinker case involved conduct that took place in school. The 5th Circuit said that the precedent applied to Bell’s rap, even though it was posted online. The court gave two major reasons: that the ubiquity of the Internet and social media makes it absurd to draw a line between in-school and out-of-school speech, and that, although Bell’s speech didn’t “portend” a Columbine-style shooting, nevertheless school violence has become a major current concern.

That left the question of whether Bell’s speech was disruptive to the school operation. The court said it was, because threats are disruptive.

The decision may sound like common sense. Nevertheless, a glaring problem with the court’s opinion is the idea that off-campus speech What Students Post Online Can Get Them Suspended - Bloomberg View:

A teacher pipeline in need of repair | The Sacramento Bee

A teacher pipeline in need of repair | The Sacramento Bee:

A teacher pipeline in need of repair

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

We should have seen it coming. The numbers warned us. But like a bright and promising kid who forgot the summer reading assignment, California is scrambling as the school year opens, scurrying in this case to get qualified teachers to helm its classrooms.

Thanks to a perfect storm of demographics, economics and regrettable cutbacks, baby boom era educators are retiring in waves just as school districts are trying urgently to backfillteaching jobs they slashed during the recession.

Meanwhile, the college students who might otherwise replace them are being greeted by a rebounding economy and a tech sector that can make them a far better offer than a schoolteacher’s paycheck. All this as higher Common Core standards are being rolled out, leaving less margin for teacher error than ever before.

According to the Labor Department, 82,000 school jobs disappeared in California between 2008 and 2012 as the recession hit bottom. In that same time frame, according to theCalifornia Commission on Teacher Credentialing, enrollment in teacher preparation programs plummeted from more than 42,000 in the 2008-09 school year to fewer than 20,000 by 2012-13.

Even before the recession, teaching was ebbing as a career choice. The number of newly issued teaching credentials has fallen every year for a decade. Last year, the state issued fewer than 15,000. State education officials estimate districts will have to fill nearly 21,500 open teaching slots this school year.

ONE ANSWER TO THE SHORTAGE IS TO MAKE TEACHING MORE ATTRACTIVE, SOMETHING PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE STRUGGLED WITH FOR A GENERATION. BUT PAYING TEACHERS LIKE ENGINEERS ISN’T THE ONLY SOLUTION.

So the pipeline is broken. And last week, with school set to start on Monday in Oakland, for instance, the Oakland Unified School District was still down 30 teachers. Administrators or substitutes are expected to end up covering about a dozen classrooms.

The Fresno Unified School District started school with substitutes filling in for more than 40 open positions. And Edjoin.org, a national education jobs website, had more than 550 teaching job openings listed in California public schools.

The situation isn’t critical yet in Sacramento area districts, but the trend is national. So what’s to be done?

One answer is to make teaching more attractive, something public schools have struggled with for a generation. But paying teachers like engineers isn’t the only solution.

Once, for example, California offered all sorts of financial aid for education majors, plus teacher mentoring programs to make sure they stayed with the profession. But over the years, popular recruitment programs such as the Governor’s Teacher Fellowship and Cal Grant T programs have gone by the wayside.

In 2012, the one remaining state incentive for college students to go into teaching, a program that forgave student loans for new teachers who agreed to a stint in an area of high need, was zeroed out of the state’s recession-wracked budget.

Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, has been trying to restore it. Her Senate Bill 62 would forgive student loans for 1,000 teachers in impacted areas at an extremely reasonable cost of about $3.75 million a year for four years. But the bill has stalled.

State lawmakers should, at the very least, bring back that pot sweetener, known as the Assumption Program of Loans for Education (APLE), and consider restoring other incentives, especially for math, science and special education teachers. Meanwhile school districts should devote some of their professional development dollars to mentoring beginning teachers, a third of whom typically quit within the first five years.

Finally, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to dial down on the teacher bashing. Some may resent the teachers’ unions, or simply feel that standards have fallen. But no one with talent wants to work for an employer who disrespects them, no matter how bright and promising the boss’s kids.A teacher pipeline in need of repair | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article31815189.html#storylink=cpy

Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents | gadflyonthewallblog

Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents | gadflyonthewallblog:

Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents

For more than 80 days, about 35 parents and children have been camping out in front of their neighborhood school in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico.

The Commonwealth government closed the Jose Melendez de Manati school along with more than 150 others over the last 5 years.

But the community is refusing to let them loot it.

They hope to force lawmakers to reopen the facility.

Department of Education officials have been repeatedly turned away by protesters holding placards with slogans like “This is my school and I want to defend it,” and “There is no triumph without struggle, there is no struggle without sacrifice!”

Officials haven’t even been able to shut off the water or electricity or even set foot inside the building.

The teachers union – the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) – has called for a mass demonstration of parents, students and teachers on Sunday, Aug. 23. Protesters in the capital of San Juan will begin a march at 1 p.m. from Plaza Colón to La Fortaleza (the Governor’s residence).

The schools being closed are all in low income areas, said union president Mercedes Martinez. “This is detrimental to education, because the necessities of the community, the investment in infrastructure in recent years, the technology, have Parents and Children Occupy Puerto Rican School Refusing to Let Corporate Vultures Raid Its Contents | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Washington Teacher: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score

The Washington Teacher: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score:

Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score

By Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

Great teachers are not born, they're made. It takes time to become a great teacher.

We are more than just the sum of our teacher evaluation (IMPACT) scores. But let's face it, IMPACT scores determine whether teachers remain in our school system or get fired. I've seen great teachers get forced out of DC Public Schools because they didn't really have a good grasp of the Teach standards by which teachers are judged. Not to mention the training that has been provided in recent years by DCPS has been less than adequate.

It seems like a 'no-brainer' to me that professional development is one of the main ingredients to turning around teachers' effectiveness. Not just any professional development but specific training on the Teaching and Learning Framework (TLF), Common Core state standards and job-embedded professional development.

When I learned of the Masted Educator led professional development series on IMPACT last year, I began encouraging many of the teachers I knew to sign up for a workshop after school. After all, getting training on strategies to improve your teaching practice from the very people that evaluate you- couldn't hurt, in my opinion.

I hope all new DCPS teachers and any teacher who has received a Developing or Minimally Effective IMPACT evaluation score last school year will sign up for one of the Master Educator Led professional development sessions, - Setting Up For Success.

This year, Master educators will host Teach Sessions to introduce and deepen understanding of the Teaching & Learning Framework. Four series (General Education, Special Education, Language Acquisition and Early Childhood) will be provided starting on August 24.

All participants must register for each session they will attend on PD Planner at dcps.schoolnet.com or complete the Google Survey at https://goo.gl/5dfsKP. Participants will receive 2 PLUs for each session. For more information, please see the  “Setting Up For Success PD Sessions" flyer below or reach out toimpact.dcps@dc.gov or contact them on 202-719-6553.

Hope you will share the flyer with your colleagues and encourage them to sign up as well. Use the scroll bar on the right of the flyer to see the entire flyer. Here’s to a successful year and Rockin' your Impact evaluation! 

TEACH Session Flyer Fall 2015 - 2016 by thewashteacher

The Washington Teacher: Rockin' IMPACT: How to Improve Your Teacher Evaluation Score:

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - #SaveDyett

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - Douglas - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In

Activists said they were becoming more emotional but thinking clearer now that they hadn't eaten for five days in a campaign to force a decision on Dyett High School by CPS.

DOUGLAS — The 12 Dyett activists looked weakened on the fifth day of their hunger strike on Friday, but still rallied to hold a prayer vigil in front of Ald. Will Burns’ 4th Ward office.

The group has not eaten since Monday in an attempt to get Chicago Public Schools to make a final decision on reopening Dyett High School, 555 E. 51st St.

“It feels like someone has taken a piece of my soul,” said Jeanette Taylor, one of the 12 activists surviving on liquids.

There were no bombastic speeches or vigorous sign waving on Friday in front of Burns’ office, 435 E. 35th St.

Chicago Organizers Lead Hunger Strike for Dyett High School 
  Tweet your support to #SaveDyett, #WeAreDyett & #FightForDyett

Go to Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Website

“We don’t have the energy to protest,” Jitu Brown, another of the activists, told two police officers when they showed up in response to a complaint by the alderman’s staff.

Sam Cholke · DNAinfo Reporter

What's the longest you've gone without eating?

VOICE YOUR OPINION ON NHSQ! 

A fight with police never seemed to be in the cards though, with the officers saying they supported the activists'’ demands, but had to ask them to move to the sidewalk.

One officer even took a moment to comfort Irene Robinson, who had suddenly burst into tears.

Several of the group said they had cried every day and were finding it increasingly difficult to control their emotions.

Brown said he felt like his thinking was becoming clearer the further into the fast he got, though his energy now only came in brief spurts.

The group was demanding a meeting with Burns, again asking him to support a proposal by the activists that Dyett remain a CPS-run school.

CPS is also considering a contract school proposal for an arts-based high school run by Little Black Pearl and a sports and business school proposed by former Dyett Principal Charles Campbell.

The hunger strike started after CPS delayed hearings on Dyett by a month, now set to be considered Sept. 15, with a vote by the Chicago Board of Education later in September.

"Chicago Public Schools is carrying out a community-driven process to select a new high-quality school for the former Dyett site," Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for CPS, said when the hunger strike started. "Identifying a high-quality education option for the former Dyett site is a priority for the district, and CPS is reviewing school proposals to determine the best open enrollment, neighborhood education option for the site."

Burns declined to comment, but in the past has said he will not publicly endorse any of the three options.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition also joined the hunger strike on Tuesday and is still fasting.

Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, has also reportedly joined the hunger strike, but a representative from the union could not be immediately reached to confirm.

“I respect these brave people who are willing to put their bodies on the line for education for their children in this year of resistance,” union President Karen Lewis said Wednesday. “I’m calling on the board and the mayor to call a special hearing so this hunger strike can end before someone becomes seriously ill. I also stand in solidarity with them as they continue to fight to save Bronzeville’s only neighborhood high school.”

A nurse continues to check daily on the health of all those participating in the hunger strike.

The group planned to go back to Dyett to join other supporters until 3 p.m.Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - Douglas - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:

Have something to say about this story? Voice your opinion on Neighborhood Square!

Dyett Hunger Strikers Weakened and Emotional, But Still Fighting 5 Days In - Douglas - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice : News

American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice : News:

American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice

ST. LOUIS • The American Federation of Teachers — one of the nation’s largest unions — has broadened its agenda beyond teacher pay and standardized testing, to racial justice issues affecting students and communities across the country.

About 40 members of AFT’s Racial Equity Task Force gathered in conference rooms at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Friday to dissect how racism is institutionalized in the nation’s public schools.

For black children, it results in lower achievement, disproportionately high suspension rates and lower graduation rates. This makes it harder to find a job. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate for black men — 10 percent — is double that of white men.

“Our job, as important as it is, is not to simply to put together a set of policy solutions,” Randi Weingarten, AFT president, said before the group embarked on its work. “That is important. But we have to figure out how to elevate it, move it and make it real. That’s going to be really hard.”

With about a million members, the AFT is the second largest teachers union in the country. In Missouri, its members include teachers and other employees in St. Louis Public Schools.

Mary Armstrong, president of AFT St. Louis Local 420, was at the task force meeting, as were representatives and leaders from several dozen local unions from across the country.

Armstrong was part of discussions on how to better educate black students, particularly boys, by providing better professional development and cultural training for teachers.

“We want to break that pipeline from school to prison,” Armstrong said.

They will continue meeting in small groups throughout the weekend about how to address education, economic and criminal justice equity issues. They’re developing strategies on reforming the criminal justice system, and creating more equity in education and in the workforce.

Matthew Fogg, a retired chief deputy U.S. Marshal, and John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, are among the experts working with them.

“What I admire about this union — they’ve been ahead of the curve on some of these policy issues,” said Julianne Malveaux, an economist, educator and political commentator, who’s helping the group put together an action plan. “But in terms of action I’m not sure they’ve been ahead of the curve.”

In December, Weingarten visited St. Louis with U.S. Sec. Arne Duncan. They met with students in Ferguson and in St. Louis about their experiences in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting. After that visit, Weingarten was visibly moved by the stories of trauma and healing.

“On a personal level, I think about, ‘What’s my personal responsibility?’” she said Friday, in an interview. “What can I do individually? And what can I do as president of this great union?”

Weingarten spoke repeatedly about school discipline. Schools must move away from “zero tolerance” policies and towards an approach that addresses the root cause of behavior problems, she said.

“You have to deal with the disruption, but let’s get kids the help they need,” she added. “Let’s come up with different kinds of strategies — peer intervention and restorative justice programs. At the end of the day it has to be about how do we keep kids in school, ready to learn.”

Weingarten told the group that she expects resistance from teachers and members whose practices and assumptions will be directly challenged.

“In order to face racism, we have to internalize it and understand it,” she said. “Those of us that are white we have to internalize and understand our own racism. Not just our own privilege, but our own racism and our own biases.”American Federation of Teachers takes on racial justice : News: