From Zero Tolerance to Restorative Justice: How School Districts Such as Los Angeles and New York Are Reforming Student Discipline - The Atlantic

From Zero Tolerance to Restorative Justice: How School Districts Such as Los Angeles and New York Are Reforming Student Discipline - The Atlantic:

Will School-Discipline Reform Actually Change Anything

Districts from Los Angeles to New York City are experimenting with new policies designed to eliminate zero-tolerance discipline. But the reality is often a lot different than the idea.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Christine Rodriguez vividly recalls her early school years. A native of Brooklyn’sBushwick neighborhood, a working-class predominantly black and Latino section of New York City, her most vivid memories of elementary school consist of crammed classrooms with inadequate books, insufficient chairs, and the constant presence of the school-safety agent. (School Safety Agents, or SSAs, are New York Police Department officers assigned to K-12 campuses and charged with protecting students, campus staff, and visitors.) Now a college freshman at The New School studying education, Rodriguez rattles off with ease how school discipline shaped her K-12 education. 

“We go to schools where there are more SSAs than guidance counselors. For us, it makes us feel that they expect us to end up in jail rather than in college,” said Rodriguez, 17. “I’ve been to public school my whole life. I’ve experienced the school-to-prison pipeline”—a term commonly used to describe the trend in which largely disadvantaged students are funneled into the criminal-justice system—“and criminalization (of students). And I’ve questioned why all of these things happen to our communities.”

“I’ve been to public school my whole life. I’ve experienced the school-to-prison pipeline and criminalization (of students). And I’ve questioned why all of these things happen to our communities.”

Policymakers and educators, among others, are beginning to question the harsh discipline policies and practices that have in recent decades became popular in certain districts, too. Research shows that the reliance on punitive school discipline like suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests—“school pushout”—deprives students of learning time and takes the greatest toll on nonwhite students, students with disabilities, LGBT youth and other vulnerable student groups. Suspensions can even harm the education of non-misbehaving students, according to some research.

The data on the shortcomings of zero-tolerance discipline is clear and overwhelming, and with increasing regularity and in increasing numbers school districts and states are responding to calls for reform. A wide range of approaches to address discipline concerns with new policies and laws are being tested across the country—including in New York City—with varying degrees of success and enthusiasm. Many of these efforts are spurred by grassroots activists, as well as a growing research base suggesting that suspensions—particularly for minor infractions—are a flawed discipline strategy. A 2011 analysis by the advocacy group and think tank Child Trends found that majority of school suspensions are for nonviolent offenses. The analysis cites a study on one large, unnamed urban school district in Florida showing that attendance violations and disrespect were the most common reason for suspensions in the jurisdiction, while another study, this one included in a DOE report, found 95 percent of out-of-school suspensionswere for slight infractions and misbehavior. 

The impetus for the emphasis on suspensions—which is still used in many districts and charter-school networks such as KIPP—didn’t have a strong research basis, explained Dan Losen, the director of the Center for Civil Rights Remediesat UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. Instead, schools took a cue from the 1970s War From Zero Tolerance to Restorative Justice: How School Districts Such as Los Angeles and New York Are Reforming Student Discipline - The Atlantic:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Want to Know More About SPS Teacher Pay?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Want to Know More About SPS Teacher Pay?:

Want to Know More About SPS Teacher Pay?

A former teacher has compiled so much data, she created a blog for called:

SPS Salary Info for Contract Negotiations 

Unfortunately, I don't know who this person is (see bio at end) but the material (and tone) is such that I believe this is another Meg Diaz-type person who likes being in the weeds. 

I present it for public information purposes but ask that if you see flaws/enhancements, etc. that you add them.  The first sentence below is indicative of the issue before us in how BOTH the district and the SEA have not clearly stated their salary issues. 

ALL of this is publicly available information, but it's not presented in an understandable form anywhere.

There are some additional minor "quirks" of calculating the salary tables, but I do not currently have the information to add those (TRI actually breaks down further into time (per diem) and responsibility). Based on the accuracy of the results I got from using these formulas to re-calculate the 2014-2015 Seattle Schools Community Forum: Want to Know More About SPS Teacher Pay?:

What’s up with Illinois’ opt-out bill. | Fred Klonsky

What’s up with Illinois’ opt-out bill. | Fred Klonsky:

What’s up with Illinois’ opt-out bill.

State Representatives Will Guzzardi (left) and Laura Fine (right).

We invited State Representatives Will Guzzardi and Laura Fine to our Skokie Organization of Retired Educators luncheon at Zhivago’s restaurant last Wednesday.

Laura represents a north suburban district where many of our retirees live.

Will represents me and those who live in Logan Square and the north side of Chicago.

State reps run every two years and so Will is collecting signatures to run again.

Nobody has announced that they will run against him. But those opposed to the progressive electoral movement in the city have spent thousands of dollars on glossy mailers in the last few weeks targeting Will

When Will beat the Democratic Machine two years ago it gave a major shot in the arm to the progressive electoral movement in the City. 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Rosa built on the electoral base that supported Will to beat the pro-Rahm incumbent, even as the Mayor himself defeated progressive Chuy Garcia.

Rosa is now collecting signatures to run for Democratic Ward Committeeman.

Guzzardi impressed many when among his first acts in Springfield was to introduce and sponsor HB 306, a bill that strengthened the rights of parents to have their children opt out of PARCC and other state standardized tests.

The Bill passed the House but is now stalled in the Senate. Pretty much What’s up with Illinois’ opt-out bill. | Fred Klonsky:

When “school choice” leads families to trade one bad school for another - The Hechinger Report

When “school choice” leads families to trade one bad school for another - The Hechinger Report:

When “school choice” leads families to trade one bad school for another

Chicago study documents that fewer than 5 percent of students who transfer move to a high performing school

 In a perfect world, school choice is supposed work by allowing families to leave bad schools and enroll their children in better ones. The failing schools either close, or improve to attract students again.

But for such a system to operate smoothly, parents need information to figure out which schools are good and which are bad.

In Chicago, researchers had an unusual opportunity to study, over several years, how publicizing information about school quality influenced where families enrolled their children.  And they found that many families did pull their children out of failing schools. But they usually ended up in ones that were just as bad, or only slightly better. Astonishingly, more than 25 percent of the transfer students moved to another school that was also on the city’s probation list of failing schools.

“The reason is geography,” said Peter M. Rich, one of the study’s coauthors and a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at New York University. “The low-performing schools are clustered in high-poverty neighborhoods in the South and West Side of Chicago. They have fewer nearby options to choose from.”

Given the choice of commuting a long way to a high-performing school on the other side of town and transferring to a school in the neighborhood, low-income parents tend to choose the latter. Time-consuming travel is impractical for students with working parents. And no one wants to send elementary school children on public transportation by themselves through crime-ridden neighborhoods. But the choices closer to home are often little, if at all, better than poor students’ current schools.

While certain aspects of public transportation infrastructure, geographic segregation and neighborhood safety are unique to Chicago, Rich believes the lessons from his study, “Choice, Information, Constrained Options: School Transfers in a Stratified Education System,” published online in the American Sociological Review on Sept. 9, 2015, and slated to be printed in its October 2015 journal, are widely applicable.

“The overall lesson is that school choice policies that don’t provide transportation or, perhaps, housing subsidies for families to move to higher-income neighborhoods aren’t going to equalize educational opportunities,” Rich concluded.

Rich found that the low-performing schools were overwhelmingly When “school choice” leads families to trade one bad school for another - The Hechinger Report:

Washington State Court Rejects Charters, Affirms Democratically Governed Public Schools | janresseger

Washington State Court Rejects Charters, Affirms Democratically Governed Public Schools | janresseger:

Washington State Court Rejects Charters, Affirms Democratically Governed Public Schools

For many years now, there have been serious questions about whether charter schools are operating in the public interest.  The state laws that establish charter schools are designed to reduce what proponents of privatization call the straitjacket of bureaucracy.  Charters are free from many of the requirements, rules, and regulations that are said by proponents of privatization to constrain innovation in the public schools.

As the charter sector expands, however, serious questions continue to arise about exactly whose interests charter schools serve. Should tax dollars be spent on schools that are permitted to set enrollment caps when the schools’ operators decide when they are full and then turn children away?  Should we be spending tax dollars on schools that fail to provide services for blind or autistic children or children with severe behavior problems, despite that federal law prescribes that well-designed services for all children will be provided by qualified experts? (Such policies too often turn the surrounding public school districts into school districts of last resort for the children who remain in traditional public schools because charters choose not to provide the very expensive services.) Should tax dollars be flowing to schools that forward over 90 percent of revenues to for-profit, nationwide parent Charter Management Organizations, CMOs that, through real estate affiliates, charge the schools themselves outrageous rent—producing added profits for the owners?  If a particular charter school is shut down, should the big for-profit Charter Management Organization get to keep all the books and equipment purchased originally with tax dollars?  And what about the Charter Management Organizations that essentially select their students by locating their schools in particular neighborhoods or by neglecting to offer transportation or federally subsidized lunch?

School choice through charters is also pretty much limited to the children whose parents are equipped to fill out the applications.  Traditional public schools, by contrast, are required by law to serve every child—wherever that child lives and whoever the child’s parents.  A democratically elected local school board has traditionally been seen as most able to ensure that each child’s needs are served and rights are protected, but charter schools are Washington State Court Rejects Charters, Affirms Democratically Governed Public Schools | janresseger:

Discrimination begins early and immigrant preschoolers notice, report says | 89.3 KPCC

Discrimination begins early and immigrant preschoolers notice, report says | 89.3 KPCC:

Discrimination begins early and immigrant preschoolers notice, report says

Preschoolers from immigrant families can face discrimination from teachers, administrators, even other children who are not immigrants, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute. 

"Personal discrimination may be direct like racist comments or drawing attention to a child’s personal appearance," said report author, Jennifer Adair, a professor at the University of Texas.

Indirect discrimination also occurs, she said, "like questions about why their parents don’t speak English or being asked to be the janitor or cleaner in a game instead of the princess or policeman."

Adair has been studying issues in preschool, kindergarten and first-grade classrooms in Texas and California. She has researched discriminatory attitudes toward young children from immigrant families in classrooms.

"Young children often have to deal with hurtful comments singling out certain aspects of their identities on their own," Adair said. They are not yet able to articulate or describe subtle forms of discrimination that have hurt them, she said.

"How young children are treated in early schooling affects later behavior and academic performance," Adair said. "If young children hear negative messages from school, they may be less able to achieve academic success and economic mobility."

Witnesses to discrimination

It's not just what children themselves experience, the report points out. Many children can also witness discriminatory treatment of their parents by teachers or school administrators, according to the study.

She said teachers may make derogatory comments or act in ways that are patronizing to immigrant parents. Examples that Adair gives include teachers commenting about a parent's accent or home-language. A child may watch as their parent is repeatedly ignored by a teacher or in the school office, she said.

"Unfortunately, some teachers and administrators mistakenly believe that when parents are not fluent in English or do not understand the U.S. school system, then they have nothing to offer their child in terms of education or schooling," Adair said.

The consequence of such experiences in the school system can lead to parents who are less involved in their child's learning.

"This is particularly unfortunate for immigrant parents of young children because it is precisely in the early grades of school that parents are usually the most involved and thought of as a partner with the teacher," Adair said.

Culture of Low Expectations

The report also highlights another form of discrimination that Adair said she has witnessed in California classrooms: a culture of low expectations.  She said this Discrimination begins early and immigrant preschoolers notice, report says | 89.3 KPCC:

What We Lose When A Neighborhood School Goes Away : Code Switch : NPR

What We Lose When A Neighborhood School Goes Away : Code Switch : NPR:

What We Lose When A Neighborhood School Goes Away

It's no accident that neighborhood schools are battlegrounds for so many of the pitched battles over race and place in America.

LA Johnson/NPR

A few years ago, a good friend and I were walking near downtown Philadelphia, not far from my old elementary school, Thomas C. Durham, on 16th and Lombard. The school was built on the edge of a black neighborhood in South Philly in the early 1900s, and its design earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places when I was in the third grade. I nudged my friend to take a quick detour with me.

Standing before the old, brown brick building, I had that vaguely bewildering feeling of considering one's elementary school through adult eyes. This place that loomed large in my memory, where I learned to love reading in Ms. Curtis's class and where I sent my first email in computer lab on a white Apple IIGS with a blue screen, seemed really damn small.

But memory was the only place that Durham — my Durham — still existed. The school had closed its doors in the late 1990s because of the city's crushing budget problems, and was later swept up in a wave of charter-ization that took over Philly after I graduated. The old Durham building now housed something called the Independence Charter School. My middle school, George C. Thomas in deeper South Philly, has undergone a similar conversion. They were part of a larger trend: In the last three years alone, Philadelphia has shuttered over 30 of its public schools. And because of the makeup of Philly's public school system, most of the students affected by all this upheaval have been less-resourced children of color.

So what happens to these places? Some became charters like Durham and Thomas; others were abandoned altogether. And then there are cases like Edward W. Bok High School in South Philly, a once well-known vocational-technical school that closed two years ago, found new life as the digs of a trendy hipster bar, and has become an inevitable flashpoint in the fight between the neighborhood's gentrifiers and the folks with older roots.

It's no accident that local schools are battlegrounds for so many of our most heated, pitched battles over race and place in America; schools are the reasons many of our cities and suburbs (and the neighborhoods therein) have the borders they do. There are big structural and pedagogical questions embedded in how we decide to educate (or not educate), how we prioritize and allocate our public resources. Who gets to go to the best of them? Where are they located? Do we have to share?

But as I realized when I visited the ghost of Durham, local schools also fulfill a smaller, human-scale function: they orient us to our own histories, anchors of continuity in the What We Lose When A Neighborhood School Goes Away : Code Switch : NPR:

Charter schools: Prefer building booms to classrooms?

Charter schools: Prefer building booms to classrooms?:

Charter schools: Prefer building booms to classrooms?

THREE FRANKLIN Plaza, a bow-shaped eight-story building at 16th and Vine streets, once hummed with 1,700 GlaxoSmithKline white-collar workers.

Today, it is empty more than three months out of the year, a lone security guard watching over the corporate art still hanging in the lobby.

From September to June, a charter school called String Theory occupies half the floors. The school acquired and began renovating this premier office tower in 2013 as part of a $55 million tax-exempt bond deal, arranged with help from the city's biggest economic-development agency. It was the largest bond deal of its kind in city history.

It is also the most conspicuous example yet of a risky, expensive and fast-growing financial scheme underpinning the rapid expansion of Philadelphia charters - a bond market now worth nearly $500 million. But the bond financing behind the mountain of money gets little scrutiny as to whether the debt is a smart use of Pennsylvania's limited education dollars.

The lack of transparency can translate into deals that may be unsustainable. Shortly after moving into its flashy high-rise, String Theory posted its first operating deficit. After revealing it was $500,000 in the red from paying out millions annually to bondholders, administrators told parents that they were cutting certain classes and suspending bus service as cost-saving measures.

On the plus side, if the String Theory board members who indirectly own the Center City high-rise sell it, there could be a big profit. But is this the way charters should operate?

String Theory, whose officials did not return calls for comment, is hardly alone. As the number of privately administered public schools has grown from 55 to 83 over the past decade, more schools have pursued high-stakes bond deals.

Charter schools used to inhabit repurposed supermarkets or old storefronts, but a Philly.com analysis of bond documents showed that an increasing number - one out of three charters today - have bought or constructed newer and larger school buildings with tax-exempt bonds, paying millions in debt and fees to consultants along the way.

Bonds - school debt sold to investors who are gradually paid back with interest - have become popular among charters because they allow lower borrowing costs than standard commercial loans. Bonds are commonly floated by governments and school districts to get up-front money for infrastructure projects, but charters were long considered too risky an investment because they can be abruptly shut down.

As charter schools became more established, investment prospects improved. But the bonds that charter schools have tapped are still riskier and come with "junk" ratings, carrying high interest rates.

"They're getting bond ratings that have an 8 or 8 1/2 percent interest rate, whereas a school district getting [government] bonds to finance a project can get much lower interest rates," said Bruce Baker, a Rutgers education professor.

This leaves charters spending more education dollars on interest payments - $78 million over 30 years on top of String Theory's $55 million bond, for instance - at rates that are double or triple what the district pays.

The financing process and real-estate transactions themselves also entail millions in consulting and legal fees. Schools like String Theory can become enmeshed in complex and costly deals for marquee buildings that are difficult to sustain.

"There's no real scrutiny of these deals, and charters end up saddled with big fixed costs," said Michael Masch, former chief financial officer for the School District of Philadelphia.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150914_Charter_schools__Prefer_building_booms_to_classrooms_.html#pTOmiUzzTDGSUBpA.99

Web of Secrecy Surrounding Federal Half-a-Billion Handout to Charter Schools | Alternet

Web of Secrecy Surrounding Federal Half-a-Billion Handout to Charter Schools | Alternet:

Web of Secrecy Surrounding Federal Half-a-Billion Handout to Charter Schools

More than $200 million in fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the charter school industry have been documented.

The U.S. Department of Education is poised to spend half a billion dollars to help create new charter schools, while the public is being kept in the dark about which states have applied for the lucrative grants, and what their actual track records are when it comes to preventing fraud and misuse.

Already the federal government has spent $3.3 billion in American tax dollars under the Charter Schools Program (CSP), as tallied by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

But the government has done so without requiring any accountability from the states and schools that receive the money, as CMD revealed earlier this year.

Throwing good money after bad, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for a 48 percent increase in federal charter funding earlier this year, and the House and Senate budget proposals also call for an increase—albeit a more modest one—while at the same time slashing education programs for immigrants and language learners.

The clamor for charter expansion comes despite the fact that there are federal probes underway into suspected waste and mismanagement within the program, not to mention ongoing and recently completed state audits of fraud perpetrated by charter school operators.

Earlier this year, the Center for Popular Democracy documented more than$200 million in fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the charter school industry in 15 states alone, a number that is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Is now really the right time to plow more tax money into charters?

Insiders Deliberate Far from the Public Eye

The Department of Education is currently deciding what states to award $116 million this year, and more than half a billion during the five-year grant cycle.

So who is in the running and what are their track records?

Which states have applied for a grant designed to eviscerate the public school system in the name of “flexibility?” (CMD's review of state applications and Web of Secrecy Surrounding Federal Half-a-Billion Handout to Charter Schools | Alternet:

Strike by Seattle Teachers Enters Fourth Day | Al Jazeera America

Strike by Seattle Teachers Enters Fourth Day | Al Jazeera America:

Strike by Seattle teachers enters fourth day

The strike, over issues that include pay raises, is the first labor-related disruption of classes in 30 years

There's no school in Seattle for a fourth day Monday as a strike by teachers enters its second week.

The strike, over issues that include pay raises and the length of the school day, has delayed the start of the public school year for about 53,000 students.

The strike marked the first labor-related disruption of classes in three decades for the largest public education system in the Pacific Northwest. The action follows a series of strikes this spring, when thousands of Washington teachers in more than 60 school districts demanded better pay and benefits as well as reductions in class sizes. Unlike most of the other districts, teachers in Seattle and Pasco did not reach contract deals and went on strike. 

Representatives for both sides in the Seattle dispute met separately with state mediators during the first three days of the strike, which began on Sept. 9, but face-to-face talks between the parties did not resume until Saturday.

The two negotiating teams returned to the bargaining table on Sunday.

Seattle's teachers went six years without a cost-of-living raise after the Washington Legislature failed to come up with money for them, but the district said it provided raises totaling 8 percent out of local levy money. The paltry raises have made it tough to live in Seattle, where the cost of living has been rising due in part to the influx of highly paid tech workers, many teachers say.

Teacher salaries in Seattle range from about $44,000 to more than $86,000 for more experienced educators with advanced degrees.

The tech boom means the median price of King County single-family homes sold in June climbed to $500,000, up 10.3 percent from a year ago, according to figures released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service and reported by the Seattle Times.

The district says it has offered raises totaling 14 percent over three years, but it also wants to extend the school day by 20 minutes, arguing that Seattle has one of the shortest instructional days of any district in the state, at 6 hours and 10 minutes.

The Seattle Education Association faulted the district for waiting until mid-August to introduce the proposal and said it would essentially have forced the teachers to work that extra time for free.

Over the weekend, the district offered to pay teachers for the added instructional minutes, Seattle Public Schools Strike by Seattle Teachers Enters Fourth Day | Al Jazeera America:

A letter in support of Seattle Public School teachers by Parents Across America, Puget Sound | Seattle Education

A letter in support of Seattle Public School teachers by Parents Across America, Puget Sound | Seattle Education:

A letter in support of Seattle Public School teachers by Parents Across America, Puget Sound

A letter  in support of Seattle Public School teachers

To the teachers and staff who work tirelessly everyday in our schools, teaching our children, the next generation of citizens in our country, many times in physical  conditions that are not optimum for teachers or students, whose classes are many times beyond what a teacher can manage by themselves, with little to no money for adequate materials, who sometimes, because of a lack of classroom space, must take their lessons with them on a cart from room to room, who sometimes must take on the role of counselor or nurse because there is no money for trained staff and yet are evaluated by student’s standardized test scores which have little or no relationship to curriculum students are taught, we stand with you.

You have gone six years without a cost of living increase and no increase in educator health care as healthcare costs continue to rise.

You’ve been assaulted by high stakes standardized testing, which narrows and dumbs-down the curriculum and robs students of essential instructional time.

You have been asked to work additional hours without pay by the district.

You have bargained in good faith and now are striking for your members, for your students and the broader community.

Your requests are reasonable:

• A pay raise after six years with no cost of living increase.

• Guaranteed student recess for all students: Recess time varies wildly across the district, and we believe all students benefit from a guaranteed amount of time for play and exercise.

• Fair teacher and staff evaluations: Educators should be evaluated fairly and consistently, and the focus should be on providing the support all educators need to be successful.

• Reasonable testing: Too much standardized testing is stealing time away from classroom learning.

• Office professional workload relief: Office professionals do crucial work and play many roles – and they should be compensated for the extra work they do.

• Student equity around discipline and the opportunity gap.

If millions of dollars can be spent on buying yearly contracts for a battery of useless standardized tests along with the costs of buying computers and paying IT staff to install costly systems and hiring data experts for each school, the Seattle School District can find the financial resources to support all of the educators’ proposals;

Parents Across America  Puget Sound stands in support of the teachers and the Seattle Education Association contract proposals and also acknowledges appreciation of both School Board Director Sue Peters’ opposition and the opposition of City Councilmembers Licata, Okamoto and Sawant  to Superintendent Nyland’s legal threat against Seattle educators;

Parents Across America Puget Sound appreciates your vision and your sacrifice.

Issused by Parents Across America Puget Sound Steering CommitteeA letter in support of Seattle Public School teachers by Parents Across America, Puget Sound | Seattle Education:

California charter school scores dive - ContraCostaTimes.com

California charter school scores dive - ContraCostaTimes.com:
California charter school scores dive

Like paragliders caught in a downdraft, test scores of many once high-flying charter schools plummeted on state results released last week.

Even more so than their public-school counterparts' tests, a number of charter schools' scores took a nosedive. Now schools are scrambling to examine why.

Among them is Rocketship Education, which has attracted generous high-tech funding and national attention for its success with the hardest-to-educate students, but now is grappling with some test scores no better than those of surrounding schools. Just-released scores from tests taken last spring show Rocketship's nine elementary schools in San Jose generally performed from poor to middling in both English and math. At its flagship Mateo Sheedy school, once the third-highest performing in the state among elementary schools serving low-income children, just 36 percent of students met or exceeded English standards, and 44 percent met or exceeded math standards.

"We are all still trying to understand the numbers," spokesman David Kuizenga said. The charter organization's own analysis, he said, showed that last school year, students averaged 1½ years of academic growth, consistent with its pattern over several years. But, Kuizenga added, "we certainly have a lot of work to do."

Likewise, English proficiency scores at Aspire Public Schools, which also targets poor children, were 48 percent at its California College Preparatory Academy, which moved this year from Berkeley to Richmond, and 38 percent at Lionel Wilson Academy in Oakland -- and those were the highest in Aspire's Bay Area network. At the bottom, Aspire's Triumph California charter school scores dive - ContraCostaTimes.com:

EDUCATION: Should ethnic studies be high school requirement? - Press Enterprise

EDUCATION: Should ethnic studies be high school requirement? - Press Enterprise:

EDUCATION: Should ethnic studies be high school requirement?

A group of Inland professors, students, and community organizers says yes, and is beginning a campaign in local districts.

A group of Inland professors, students, and community organizers want school districts in the area to offer ethnic studies classes as a high school graduation requirement.

They’re beginning their campaign with San Bernardino City Unified and will then make their proposal to districts in Colton, Rialto, Fontana, Riverside, and Moreno Valley.

Ethnic studies could encompass a range in curriculum from Asian American and Chicano studies to African-American and gender issues.

The push for ethnic studies in the Inland Empire follows legislation passed by the state Assembly on Wednesday, Sept. 9, that would develop a model ethnic studies curriculum for optional use statewide. The bill now heads to the governor.

Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, and senators Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, have voted against the bill.

“I’m a strong advocate of local control and don’t believe Sacramento should be dictating what school districts teach,” Morrell said in a statement Friday, Sept. 11. “Ethnic studies classes are already offered at schools throughout the state. It’s a decision best left in their hands.”

One Inland advocate, though, said ethnic studies could help address issues affecting Inland Chicano youth such as gang violence and low graduation rates by helping students become more aware of their identity.

“One of the things ethnic studies programs do is help students reconnect with their identity, particularly Chicano students with their indigenous identity and their heritage,” said Mary Valdemar, co-founder of the Chicano Indigenous Community for Culturally Conscious Advocacy and Action in Colton.

“We believe recreating that connection benefits the entire community and certainly benefits the most EDUCATION: Should ethnic studies be high school requirement? - Press Enterprise:

Cerf whacks the Newark schools, boosts the bureaucrats loyal to Cami | Bob Braun's Ledger

Cerf whacks the Newark schools, boosts the bureaucrats loyal to Cami | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Cerf whacks the Newark schools, boosts the bureaucrats loyal to Cami

Christopher Cerf: Destroying the public schools, building the bureaucracy, defending the charters from loss, aiding the consultant warriors and entrepreneurs

Christopher Cerf, the state-imposed superintendent of the Newark district, may be stripping public schools of teachers, programs, services and support staff—but he is building up the bureaucratic hierarchy to reward loyal supporters of the now discredited Cami Anderson, Cerf’s appointee and predecessor.

The state administration of the cash-strapped Newark schools now two new deputy superintendents, a new “director of operations,” and a dozen or more special assistants whose positions duplicate those of existing administrators. Cerf also has brought back a close friend and aide (and apparent landlord) to Anderson—De’Shawn Wright—to an unspecified position apparently paid for by private funds so it doesn’t appear in the public record.

Of course, Brittany Chord Parmley, the chief spokeswoman for the Cerf administration, won’t provide any details on the bureaucratic build-up but the new positions have been confirmed by sources at 2 Cedar Street.

The appointments not only demonstrate the state’s indifference to the children of the city who must now suffer the consequences of a $15 million budget cut imposed by Cerf, but they also show the new superintendent, a private business entrepreneur and charter promoter who served as state education commissioner, has no intention of relinquishing state control any time soon.

Members of the Newark school board, who have no power to block the Cerf whacks the Newark schools, boosts the bureaucrats loyal to Cami | Bob Braun's Ledger:

“Cancel your subscription to the Seattle Times” parent campaign is on | Seattle Education

“Cancel your subscription to the Seattle Times” parent campaign is on | Seattle Education:

“Cancel your subscription to the Seattle Times” parent campaign is on

The majority of people I speak to are thoroughly disgusted with the Times and its biased editorials and selection  of topics headlined that seem to reflect the opinion of the moneyed few rather than providing real information.

Bill Gates bought a section of the Seattle Times and titled it the Education Lab. It seemed it wasn’t enough that the Seattle Times was already a shill for charter schools and merit pay for teachers based on test scores, Gates now had his own pull-out section of the newspaper.

Now parents of students in Seattle Public Schools are fighting mad about the one-sided reporting and editorializing of the teachers’ strike and they are taking action.

Several parents I have come across in the first week of the Seattle teachers’ strike on various Facebook pages have stated they have cancelled their subscriptions to the Seattle Times and are urging others to do so as well.

There is a Facebook page “Cancel your Seattle Times subscription” that popped up over the weekend asking subscribers to cancel their subscriptions on Monday, September “Cancel your subscription to the Seattle Times” parent campaign is on | Seattle Education:

Op-Ed: SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools | The CT Mirror

Op-Ed: SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools | The CT Mirror:

Op-Ed: SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools

Our founders recognized that the fundamental purpose of government is to protect the rights of the people. The Declaration of Independence reads in pertinent part “…A]ll men are created equal… they are endowed…with certain unalienable rights…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…”

How, then, does the State of Connecticut justify the obstacles and roadblocks it has erected to prevent parents from exercising the right to opt their children out of corporate-backed standardized testing?

Easy. It doesn’t. It puts them in place and arrogantly dares anyone to defy them. And it doesn’t expect many parents to challenge the test anyway.

Why aren’t more parents alarmed by these for-profit corporate-sponsored tests? Largely because they trust their public schools and local elected officials to notify them of threats to their children’s welfare.

Sadly, most superintendents, boards of education and even the teachers’ unions are letting parents and schoolchildren down by not informing them of the pernicious nature of the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) test.

For example, most parents don’t realize that the FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) was amended to allow the corporations behind SBAC to use the test for data mining. Children’s data is no longer protected by federal law.

Additionally, the cut scores which determine passing rates have been arbitrarily set to ensure that about 60 percent of those taking the language arts test will fail and the failure rate for the math portion will be about 70 percent.

Not content with labeling schools and teachers as failures in order to advance its agenda, the corporate reform movement (actively abetted by Gov. Dannel Malloy and the State Board of Education) callously plans to attach the label to children.

Mastery test results should be used to measure progress and show teachers where support is needed to promote student success, not to brand children as failures.

In New York, and other states, test results have caused outrage after the fact and resulted in strong coalitions of parents and teachers opposed to toxic testing. Superintendents, administrators and teacher unions know this. Why are they silent? Why are so many of them willing tools in the state’s plan to thwart the right of parents to opt out? They should be challenged on that point until a satisfactory answer is provided.

The real purpose of the SBAC test is to buttress the corporate mantra of “failed public schools” in order to advance their case for the privatization of education. Rupert Murdoch put it bluntly in 2010 when he said “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone…”

That figure comes in part from test support materials, software and new textbooks aligned with the Common Core, but much of it will come from the expansion of charter schools.

Today, Connecticut is dumping $100 million dollars of taxpayer money into charter schools every year with little to no oversight and the governor’s proposed budget contains funding for an additional four. At the same time, magnet schools have gone unfunded and the state is doing everything in its power to dismiss or delay the CCJEF (Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding) vs. Rell case which would require the state to honor its obligation to adequately fund public schools, an obligation which it has never met.

The SBAC is one aspect of a larger scheme which, at its core, is about corporate greed, not the welfare of children. I urge parents to investigate this issue for themselves and to opt their children out of the SBAC if they have concerns. A sample opt-out letter can be downloaded from this website: Walshminnick2015.org.

Martin Walsh, a teacher in Glastonbury and resident of Wethersfield, is a candidate for president of the Connecticut Education Association.Op-Ed: SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools | The CT Mirror:

Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, and the Game of Inches | The Jose Vilson

Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, and the Game of Inches | The Jose Vilson:

Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, and the Game of Inches

The change we seek in education too often seems like a game of inches.

If we truly believe in two sides of education reform (I don’t, but let’s go with that for now), one side seems to get most of the big players, complex plays, the largest stadiums, and folks to fix the rules for them. The other side relies mainly on running plays and, when united, can get a few points here and there. The common person (that’s us) is that latter team. Sadly, every inch towards progress seems to detonate another mass offensive against us. Want to close the funding gap between poor and rich districts? Create private schools so rich folks can pay for only rich kids to go and keep the funding gap disparate. Want to desegregate schools? Undercut funding for those programs and create false narratives through the media. Want to opt out of over-standardized testing? Pretend to care and launch bills that assure only the more wealthy districts can opt out of those tests.

Divide. Conquer. Win-win-win, except only the winning team keeps winning.

Which reminds me. Chris Lehmann and Zac Chase, friends to the program, came out with a book recently that I’ve endorsed entitled Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need. You should know how long this stew took to brew, and you should also know how much I admire their thinking, even when we disagree. And we disagree like 2% of the time. Zac is more a bow tie Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, and the Game of Inches | The Jose Vilson:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Teachers Strike Activities

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Teachers Strike Activities:

Seattle Teachers Strike Activities

Monday, September 14th, Rally at JSCEE at 8:30 am

Seattle Public School families, please join Special Ed teachers, ESAs, students and families to tell the district we won't allow them to divide us against one another. Wear red and bring signs that speak to our need for lower caseloads for our ESAs and better staffing ratios for our ACCESS students! Let them know we care about educating ALL our students and want to set our teachers up to succeed.

Also tomorrow, Monday, September 14th at JSCEE from 8 am to noon:

Join us for this district wide time of community as we gather to show Dr. Nyland and the School Board that we will not be subject to their familiar tactics of divide and conquer. We are a team with our teachers and SEA. We demand nothing less from Dr. Nyland and the board. We want him at the table, negotiating as a professional, not threatening and game playing, no more bait and switch, come to the table and settle the issues from MAY. A fair and equitable contract, nothing else will do.

We will gather PEACEFULLY. Bring food, chalk, bubbles, musical instruments, crafts, books, paper, markers etc. School is IN. Wear your red! Come be in community and solidarity with other families as we send Dr. Nyland a message. Let's show him that we are fierce and that we will not back down. Our teachers have given us a huge gift. OPPORTUNITY. We can't let them down, we can't let our children down. 

Stay all day, stay for an hour. But please come. Consider using Metro if you have transit friendly kiddos! Or light rail, or car pool. Otherwise give yourself time to park. There is a slight chance of rain. Bring rain gear, tarps, canopies, tents if you have them. Questions? Message me or email rsbookwriter@gmail.com.

Editor's note: You will not be allowed into JSCEE so you will be outside on the lawn area.  Also, parking can sometimes be tough in the front but there is a back parking lot that the public can use.

There is to be some kind of rally (I think by SEA) on Tuesday, September 15th but I have no details.Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Teachers Strike Activities: