America is wrong to think reducing kids’ playtime will improve academic performance - Quartz

America is wrong to think reducing kids’ playtime will improve academic performance - Quartz:

America is wrong to think reducing kids’ playtime will improve academic performance

You would think that students from Shanghai, who routinely trounceAmericans (and everyone else) in tests of proficiency in math, reading, and science, are tethered to their desks all day, deprived of the freedom to frolic and play.

You would be wrong.

In Shanghai, 40% of the day in elementary school is spent playing, some of it structured but more of it unstructured. That’s nearly double the US, where 22% of the day for elementary school kids is spent on recess. At every grade level, students in Shanghai spend almost twice as much of the school day at play than their American counterparts:

Rong Chang and Fanni Liu Coward of Texas Tech University compared six schools in China and three in the US for their research in Phi Delta Kappan magazine.

They list the numerous benefits of recess, underpinned by science: physical activity can help kids to learn; teachers can better manage their classrooms because children are more focused; play fosters social development; and being active promotes physical well-being, which is helpful in battling childhood obesity.

In 2010, the US Centers for Disease Control reviewed 50 studies on the connection between physical activity and academic performance. It found positive associations in more than half of the studies and concluded that increasing physical activity in school would not detract from academic performance.

But the average recess in the US is 26 minutes per day, with schools that teach poorer children and have higher minority enrollments providing significantly less time for play.

Shanghai is not the only high-achieving system that sees the benefit of kids having playtime. In Finland, kids get 75 minutes of recess a day and a 15-minute break after every class (go here for more on Finland’s utopian education system).

In 2012, students in Shanghai topped every single category of PISA, the OECD’s global test of 15-year olds, by ridiculous margins—Chang and Coward note that kids in Shanghai were up to two years ahead in math compared with students in Massachusetts, the highest ranking US state. Finland did pretty well, too, while the US ranked 36th in math and not much better in reading and science.

To be sure, by middle school students in Shanghai spend a lot more time in the classroom than their US counterparts:

And as they get older, Chinese kids also spend a few hours every night in “self-study courses,” leaving the school day for teaching and instruction (and recess).

But Chang and Coward point outs that as kids in Shanghai get older and spend more time at school, they are also given more time for recess. In the US, it is the opposite. Chinese students also get more time for lunch—an hour in elementary school and half an hour in upper grades. And there is a 30-minute noon break at noon, in which some kids catch up on sleep.

The US seems to think that reducing recess will help to increase academic performance. Evidence from Shanghai’s playful brainiacs suggests otherwise.America is wrong to think reducing kids’ playtime will improve academic performance - Quartz:

State Supreme Court says no — again — to Washington charter schools | The News Tribune

State Supreme Court says no — again — to Washington charter schools | The News Tribune:

State Supreme Court says no — again — to Washington charter schools

The Washington State Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will not reconsider its September decision declaring the state’s voter-approved law establishing charter schools was unconstitutional.

The high court had been asked to reconsider its decision by several parties, including the state charter school association, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a bipartisan group of 10 legislators and four former state attorneys general.

A slim majority — five of the nine justices — said the court should deny the request for reconsideration. Three justices dissented, saying they would have revisited the decision in full.

Additionally, Justice Mary Yu said she would have been willing to reconsider the portion of the decision invalidating charter school funding.

The court ruled Sept. 4 that the state’s voter-approved charter school law is unconstitutional, mainly because the schools are overseen by boards that are appointed rather than elected.

The state’s nine charter schools — all but one newly opened in August — have continued to stay open as they waited to see whether the court would reconsider its ruling.

Three of the charter schools are in Tacoma.

The ruling came on a day when buses from Tacoma and elsewhere in the state ferried more than 400 students and parents from charter schools to Olympia, where they rallied at the Capitol, testified before a joint Senate committee meeting and met with legislators.

Sen. Mark Mullet, a Democrat from Issaquah who met with charter school families at the Capitol, called the timing of the decision “horrible.”

“There are 300 students here who were really happy with their schools,” Mullet said. “What a bad day for the court to tell them that they’re not going to reconsider.”

Katie Wilton, a ninth-grade student at Summit Olympus in Tacoma, called the ruling unfair and asked lawmakers to be courageous and do whatever they can to save her school.

“This goes against the will of Washington state voters,” Wilton said. “This is not how democracy is supposed to work.”

A change in state law now appears to be the last hope charter supporters have for maintaining public funding for the privately managed schools. The schools had been receiving public funds while the court reconsideration loomed.

What will happen on the funding front is still to be determined, said Cynara Lilly, spokeswoman for the newly formed Act Now for Washington Students, which backs charters.

NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE LEGISLATURE TO FOCUS ON ITS PARAMOUNT DUTY... AND FULLY FUND K-12 SCHOOLS FOR ALL OF OUR STATE'S KIDS.

Rich Wood, Washington Education Association spokesman

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled in favor of our families who are crying out for these great public schools,” said Maggie Myers, spokeswoman for the Washington State Charter Schools Association. “What this means is that we will shift our attention to the Legislature.”

“This adds a sense of urgency to what kids and parents were asking for today,” Lilly added.

Sen. Bruce Dammeier, a Puyallup Republican who is one of the Senate Republicans’ leaders on education issues, said the court’s decision was disappointing, especially considering how many stories lawmakers heard Thursday about how charter schools were benefiting students.

“Many students of poverty and color, who have felt disenfranchised and disconnected by our traditional schools, are seeing tremendous results at these schools,” Dammeier said. “Why the Supreme Court would be using arcane legal arguments and technicalities to deny these 1,200 students the education that they choose and is successful for them is beyond comprehension.”

Others said the Supreme Court was correct to stand by its September ruling. State Rep. Chris Reykdal, D-Tumwater, said charter schools — like traditional public schools — need to be accountable to local voters and taxpayers.

THIS ADDS A SENSE OF URGENCY TO WHAT KIDS AND PARENTS WERE ASKING FOR TODAY.

Cynara Lilly, charter school spokeswoman

The court’s announcement Thursday should help refocus the Legislature’s attention on boosting funding for K-12 public schools, said Rich Wood, a spokesman for the statewide teacher’s union that challenged the charter law.

In the case known as McCleary, the Supreme Court has held the Legislature in contempt for its failure to come up with a plan to fully fund basic education by 2018.

“Now it’s time for the Legislature to focus on its paramount duty ... and fully fund K-12 schools for all of our state’s kids,” said Wood, of the Washington Education Association. “That's what we expect lawmakers to do when they return in January.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635, @DebbieCafazzo

State Supreme Court says no — again — to Washington charter schools | The News Tribune:

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/education/article45547353.html#storylink=cpy

Teachers union allies demand Kevin Johnson resign over sex allegations | The Sacramento Bee

Teachers union allies demand Kevin Johnson resign over sex allegations | The Sacramento Bee:

Teachers union allies demand Kevin Johnson resign over sex allegations

A Los Angeles-based organization and local activists want Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to resign in light of resurfaced allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

The Courage Campaign, a group tied to teachers unions that uses an online mailing list to advocate for liberal causes, released a video Thursday featuring television news reports and police recordings on the allegations against Johnson. The video does not include new allegations and as of Thursday afternoon had been viewed 1,600 times on Facebook. Another 122 had seen it on YouTube.

Phoenix police recorded this telephone call between Amanda Koba, then 16, and Kevin Johnson, at the time a 30-year-old basketball player for the Phoenix Suns. The Sacramento Bee in November 2015 obtained the audio after filing a public records request with the Phoenix Police Department. Police redacted the audio file, recorded the evening of July 23, 1996, to exclude portions in which Koba and Johnson discussed specific allegations of sexual acts, though those parts of the conversation appear on a transcript obtained earlier by The Bee. The call came four days after Koba, in an interview with a Phoenix police detective, accused Johnson of molesting her. Johnson was never charged and has denied the allegations. This is the first time the audio file has been made public.The Sacramento Bee

The Courage Campaign launched the video with a new group called the Sacramento Collective for Women’s Rights. The group of about a dozen women formed last month after a 1996 police video surfaced showing a teenage Phoenix girl accusing Johnson of molestation, said Michelle Pariset, a coalition member.

The video’s release was coordinated with an online petition seeking Johnson’s resignation. Laura Leavitt, a campaign manager for the Courage Campaign, said more than 9,000 people had signed the petition nationwide since the group launched it last month. It’s unclear how many of those signers live in Sacramento.

Johnson last month said he will not seek a third term next year. He has said past allegations against him of sexual misconduct did not play a role in his decision.

Ben Sosenko, the mayor’s spokesman, said Johnson will not resign before the end of his term and that the Courage Campaign’s effort “hasn’t gained any traction.”

“The mayor is focused on creating jobs and moving the city forward,” Sosenko said. “Piling on by an extreme, Santa Monica-based group desperately trying to build its email list with a low-budget video based on old allegations … will not change that.”

Leavitt said the Courage Campaign had launched the campaign because it is “especially interested in California politics and holding California politicians accountable.”

“It’s unacceptable for people in power with a long history of allegations to stay in power,” she said.

Courage Campaign’s political issues committee has raised just over $100,000 since 2013, according to the secretary of state’s website. Of that, $51,000 came from the California Federation of Teachers. The California Teachers Association is listed as a partner on the Courage Campaign’s website, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Nurses Association and Planned Parenthood, among other groups.

Teachers unions in Sacramento and in California have battled Johnson, an advocate for charter schools. Johnson’s St. Hope organization operates Sacramento High School as a charter employing nonunion teachers.

Last month, the website Deadspin posted the 1996 police video. Last week, The Sacramento Bee obtained an audio recording of Johnson and his accuser in a conversation recorded by police. Johnson was not charged in the case.

Snippets of the video and audio recordings were included in the Courage Campaign video.

Johnson was accused by a Sacramento City Hall staffer of sexual harassment earlier this year. The allegations were not substantiated by the city attorney or an outside law firm.

He was also the subject of harassment claims that became public during his first run for mayor in 2008. In 2007, Sacramento police investigated a Sacramento High School teacher’s report that a 17-year-old girl told him Johnson had fondled her, but police found “no merit” in the case. The teacher also alleged that Johnson tried to engage inTeachers union allies demand Kevin Johnson resign over sex allegations | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article45572865.html#storylink=cpy

Is an upcoming Supreme Court case a strike for individual rights or a deceptive attack on teachers unions? - The Washington Post

Is an upcoming Supreme Court case a strike for individual rights or a deceptive attack on teachers unions? - The Washington Post:

Is an upcoming Supreme Court case a strike for individual rights or a deceptive attack on teachers unions?

Sometime in the next few months, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA), a lawsuit with major implications for the future of organized labor. Those pushing the lawsuit say it is about individual rights. In this post, the author argues that both Friedrichs and a related case, Bain v. California Teachers Association, are deceptive attacks on unions.  In the article below, Ben Spielberg — a Teach For America alum and former member of the Executive Board of the San Jose Teachers Association (a CTA affiliate) — explains how union dues and spending work in California and why he thinks both lawsuits are misleading.  Spielberg blogs about a variety of social justice issues at34justice.com and has contributed previous articles about teacher evaluationand Vergara v. California to The Answer Sheet.

By Ben Spielberg

California public school teachers working in traditional school districts are by default members of their local teachers associations, which may be affiliates of either the California Teachers Association (CTA), which is the state branch of the National Education Association (NEA), or the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the state branch of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). While teachers unions, like all other organizations, certainly aren’t perfect, they fulfill several roles that benefit students and teachers alike and are important, powerful advocates for low- and middle-income populations in general.

Despite these facts (or, perhaps, because of them), teachers unions have been under attack for quite some time. And the anti-labor movement, fueled by wealthy individuals and groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been alarmingly successful. Union membership reached a historic low of 11.1 percent in 2014 (6.6 percent in the private sector and 35.7 percent in the public sector), 25 states have adopted inappropriately-named “right to work” laws that deprive workers of bargaining power, and an inaccurate, misleading anti-union narrative has permeated public discourse.

Unions won a major victory in California in 2012 when we (I was a CTA election campaign lead at the time) beat back Proposition 32, but the news has been less stellar since, particularly for teachers unions. In 2014, Judge Rolf Treu sided in favor of the plaintiffs in Vergara v. California, amisleading lawsuit that attacked various aspects of teacher employment law. Though the weakness of both the plaintiffs’ argument and the decision suggests that the case may be overturned on appeal, it still represents a dangerous threat to important employee protections that could reverberate beyond education. Two more recent California cases, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association and Bain v. California Teachers Association, present related dangers for labor more generally, especially because the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Friedrichs early next year.

As was the case with Vergara, there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about both Friedrichs and Bain. The discussion below thus sets the record Is an upcoming Supreme Court case a strike for individual rights or a deceptive attack on teachers unions? - The Washington Post:

The Plan is Coming Together...Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

The Plan is Coming Together...

By:  Dr. Mitchell Robinson

Originally posted on his blog  http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/11/18/the-plan-is-coming-together/

Careful readers have noticed a flurry of reformster activity over the past week or so, highlighted by two big announcements. First was the rollout of #TeachStrong, an education improvement scheme allegedly dedicated "to modernizing and elevating the teaching profession," and involving a murderer's row of reformer groups, like Teach for America, the Relay Graduate School of Education and the National Center for Teacher Quality. Never mind that none of these groups are actually interested in either modernizing or elevating anything, and are instead working to hasten the privatization of public education, and turning P-12 schools and college teacher education programs into profit centers. [As an aside, why is it that when the reformers name a new group they simply throw a bunch of words together that sound like they are good, but infuse them with the exact opposite of what those words mean (i.e., TFA is not about teaching for the good of America in any way; the RGS bears absolutely no resemblance to a real graduate school; and, the NCTQ wouldn't recognize a quality teacher preparation program if it actually set foot on a college campus--which it doesn't actually do in its attempts to evaluate teacher prep programs. So there's that...).]

Announcement #2 came today with the unveiling of a massive, $34 million grant bonanza from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is designed to...stop me if you've heard this one before..."improve teacher-preparation programs’ overall effectiveness." This one looks for all the world like a college-targeted follow up to Mr. Gates' failed efforts to improve teacher quality, which has taken over a decade and billions of dollars. You've got to hand it to Bill and Melinda--they are persistent. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that their reforms have not moved the needle on teacher quality, test scores, class size, small schools or student learning, they just don't give up.

This new project involves a rather motley crew of organizations, including TeacherSquared (which includes a slew of what are charitably referred to as "nontraditional preparation programs," such as our old friends from the Relay Graduate School of Education), a consortium of 6 Southern universities, the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the National Center for Teacher Residencies.

But perhaps the most curious partner in the Gates-funded consortium is TeachingWorks, a think-tank out of the University of Michigan, led by Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Dean of Badass Teachers Association:

ESEA Reauthorization Update: Conference Committee Is Already a Done Deal | deutsch29

ESEA Reauthorization Update: Conference Committee Is Already a Done Deal | deutsch29:

ESEA Reauthorization Update: Conference Committee Is Already a Done Deal

Well, the House and Senate conference committee met for 90 minutes on the morning of November 19, 2015, and they’re already done. The full text of what is now being called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is still not available to the public and will not be until November 30, 2015. However, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) idea of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and its federally-derived, punitive list of “interventions” ( which included firing faculty, turning school over to the state, or converting to a charter school) are out. Still, with ESSA, states are required to intervene (not sure how this “intervention”is qualified in the language of the bill) in the bottom five percent of schools (likely defined by test scores and/or graduation rates), in schools with high dropout rates (not sure of the definition of “high”), and in schools with some group of students consistently underperform (likely on standardized tests).

ESSA also retains language banning the federal government from mandating Common Core. ESSA also apparently includes funding for afterschool programs, STEM (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) education, and pre-K,

Here are details regarding the amendments that were approved in the lightening-round conference committee meeting:

• an amendment by Rep. Thompson (R-PA) requiring the Institute of Education Sciences to study on the effectiveness of the four Title I funding formulas;
• an amendment by Sen. Enzi (R-WY) requiring the Department of Health 
ESEA Reauthorization Update: Conference Committee Is Already a Done Deal | deutsch29:

How I Got Over [College Activism Is A Must] | The Jose Vilson

How I Got Over [College Activism Is A Must] | The Jose Vilson:

How I Got Over [College Activism Is A Must]

My first real foray into real college activism was on Syracuse University’s campus. It started with visiting a few tables at a college activities fair, picking up a few pamphlets and hoping to get acquainted with the Orange culture. I already predicted that my Dominican mother would say that I wasn’t there to start problems, but college activism spoke to me in ways I didn’t know that, in a couple of years, a good hundred of us would be occupying the student center during Homecoming weekend, putting racism in the front and center of the mostly-white parents, students, and other passersby. While they shared stories of the ‘Cuse of yore and contemplated the fortunes of the middling football team, this set of students, while fortunate to get into this institution of higher learning, set its sights of reminding everyone that there was more than one side of this story to tell.

Indeed, the campus had been plagued with racial incidents that rarely got addressed. On the same campus that prided racial, geographical and gender diversity and had three black student association presidents during my time on campus, we could also see rampant blackface before, during, and after Halloween, and only slightly off-campus fraternities terrorize international students who walked within five feet of their houses. The old adage was that many of our white classmates could spend most, if not all, of their formative years not interacting with black people, but the converse wasn’t true for black people. This adage manifested in ways that, if left unspoken, would have made us complicit in our own second-class scholarship.

Thus, we set up meetings, engaged in dialogue, voted people into committees and student government. And when that didn’t work (and when it did), we disrupted homecoming. We barely blinked.

What conservative folks don’t understand about the idea of “safe spaces” isn’t that people of color, specifically black people, have their feelings in a bunch, or that we’ve become tender from too much media consumption. [These critiques never seem to float for folks who were able to afford these technologies first, mind you.] It’s that, from the minute we step on campus, we’re already not How I Got Over [College Activism Is A Must] | The Jose Vilson:

KCRA investigates: Is state teacher database accurate?

KCRA investigates: Is state teacher database accurate? | KCRA 3 Investigates - KCRA Home:

KCRA investigates: Is state teacher database accurate?

KCRA finds some teachers don't appear on website

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —It looks simple: A big button sits at the top of the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing website that says “Search for an Educator.”

After a few more steps, the user can look up information on any credentialed teacher in California. But, is the information accurate? 

KCRA 3 Investigates put the names of every teacher in the Sacramento City Unified School District into that state database to see if there were teachers who had disciplinary records.

However, dozens of teachers didn't show up in the database.

The six-page list of missing teachers was sent to Gabe Ross, communications director for the Sacramento City Unified School District. 

“We started with our employee system, which may have more updated information,” Ross said. 

It turns out, the teachers KCRA 3 couldn’t find on the list are licensed. 

“Every person that you sent us either has an active credential, or in some cases they are not necessarily a teacher or don't need a teaching credential," Ross said.

The district used the teachers’ personnel files to verify the credentials. 

“Social security number, employee number, etc.,” Ross said. “Because we know that people might get married, change their name or use a nickname or might have put a typo in how they identified themselves.” 

The credentialing commission said it is confident in the accuracy of the database but acknowledges some names may be difficult to find.

The credentialing commission sent KCRA an email that said it is the teacher’s responsibility to KCRA investigates: Is state teacher database accurate? | KCRA 3 Investigates - KCRA Home:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Supreme Court Uphold Its Charter Law Ruling

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Supreme Court Uphold Its Charter Law Ruling:

Washington State Supreme Court Uphold Its Charter Law Ruling

The Court released its ruling today and upheld its decision to strike down the charter school law.   The ruling was 6-3.  The decision in the original ruling becomes final on December 14th.

The majority did strike out one footnote (page 11, footnote 10) about the use of School District No. 20 v. Bryan.  A bit interesting as this does revolve around Article IX on funding but they were likely addressing the issue of funding for other education programs.  
The dissenters said: (partial)

"various amici have raised legitimate questions regarding the use of unrestricted funds and the power of the legislature to act. These questions touch upon the impact of our decision on other public, non-common school programs. Granting reconsideration would provide an opportunity for appellants to respond to the motions for this court to clarify our decision and to expressly limit our ruling to the case before us so that the legislature can chose to act, or not, without fear of another constitutional challenge and additional litigation."

Again, two wrongs don't make a right.  If there are education programs being wrongly funded, the legislature can figure that out.  It still won't make this law constitutional if other programs' funding gets changed.

This presents an tough problem for the charters.

• When is their funding cut off? November or December?  
• What about the Charter Commission - it cannot exist without state funding so even if charters get their own funding to go on, who oversees the ones that are not overseen by a school district?

The Legislature starts up on January 11, 2016 and it's a short session and full 

Louisiana Educator: Public Education Haters Churn Out Lies and Attack Ads

Louisiana Educator: Public Education Haters Churn Out Lies and Attack Ads:

Public Education Haters Churn Out Lies and Attack Ads

The Broads and the Gates; they are using their immense wealth to appoint themselves as the dictators of public education. On a whim, they have decided to choose Louisiana public education as a laboratory in which to demonstrate their theories of privatization and their new test oriented curriculum. To accomplish this they  are determined to do whatever it takes to buy Louisiana's State Board of Education. Somehow they think they know better how to run education than the real educators. See this excellent expose' by the blog Block the Agenda.

Michael Bloombeg, former New York mayor and owner of a media empire capitalizing on privatization and online courses who would never bother to set foot in Louisiana, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase candidates for BESE. Bloomberg, LABI and the Walton family heirs are financing candidates that have never even spoken to a real public school teacher about how to improve education.

One of the PACs they support: "Empower Louisiana" is running an ad telling us that 6th district BESE Candidate, Jason Engen is opposed to Common Core and believes that teachers should be listened to. That is impossible to believe since the founder of the PAC, Lane Grigsby, is one of the most committed Common Core supporters in the state and his out-of-state funders described above are also Common Core boosters.  These power brokers believe that teachers should be just small cogs in their education reform machine. To them teacher concerns mean absolutely nothing. The strategy seems to be to say whatever the voters want to hear to get their candidate elected, then have him serve the real puppet masters who want to privatize public education and turn teaching into a mechanical exercise in test prepping.

A Department of Education controlled committee is now in the process of renaming the Common Core as the Louisiana Standards. Jason Engen has stated he supports Louisiana standards instead of Common Core. So just by making minor changes and then changing the name of the Common Core, Engen can go to work doing his puppet master's bidding. 

Common Core is an untested experiment that was financed and sold to us by Bill Gates Bloomberg and the Broads before it was even written, because the assumption was that the testing Louisiana Educator: Public Education Haters Churn Out Lies and Attack Ads: