2016 Green Ribbon Schools - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

2016 Green Ribbon Schools - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Honors California 
Green Ribbon Schools Award Winners

ALAMEDA—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today nominated three California school districts and two individual schools to compete in the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) recognition program, which honors schools that conserve resources while promoting health and environmental literacy.

The nominees are:

• Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles County
• Manhattan Beach Unified School District, Los Angeles County
• San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco County
• Bay Farm School, Alameda, Alameda County
• Bishop O'Dowd High School (private), Oakland, Alameda County

The schools and districts were also named "Green Achievers," the highest honor in the California Green Ribbon Schools recognition program.

"I commend these schools and districts for reducing their environmental footprints and engaging students using sustainability and the environment as the context for learning," Torlakson said. "Their efforts are helping to build healthier, more resilient communities and a more prosperous California."

Today's announcement came at a news conference at Bay Farm School in the Alameda Unified School District. Torlakson was joined by Dr. Ron Reynolds, Executive Director of the California Association of Private School Organizations (CAPSO).

Green Ribbon Schools demonstrate exemplary achievement in three "pillars." Pillar I: reduce environmental impact and costs; Pillar II: improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff; and Pillar III: provide effective environmental education that teaches many disciplines and is especially good at effectively incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, civic skills, and green career pathways.

The California Green Ribbon Schools recognition award uses the applications submitted for nomination to ED-GRS to recognize schools and school districts for environmental excellence. Private school awards are conferred by CAPSO.

California is one of 25 states as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity that are expected to nominate schools and districts for federal recognition this year. Continued participation and leadership in the program is a recommendation of Torlakson's Environmental Literacy Task Force.

The U.S. Department of Education will confirm state nominees on Earth Day, April 22, 2016.

Details on each California nominee are below. For more information, please visit the California Department of Education'sGreen Ribbon Schools Award Program Web page and download A Blueprint for Environmental Literacy: Educating Every Student In, About, and For the Environment (PDF; 1.4 MB).

California's ED-GRS Nominees

Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles County

LAUSD is the largest school district in California and the second largest in the nation, serving approximately 650,000 students in grades K–12. In 2003, LAUSD became the first school district in California to adopt the sustainability standards of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) for all new schools and modernization projects. To date, 78 LAUSD schools have receive CHPS certification. LAUSD has installed 21 megawatts of solar capacity, supported more than 375 school gardens, and built more than 180 outdoor classrooms. The District's sustainability Web site, Learning Green, provides information and resources for all schools. LAUSD's Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High School was recognized as a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School in 2015.

Manhattan Beach Unified School District, Los Angeles County

MBUSD has documented a 33 percent reduction in non-transportation energy use and a 44 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from a 2009 baseline. All MBUSD schools are ENERGY STAR certified. MBUSD diverts 100 percent of food waste by combining on-site composting with a municipal program that converts food waste into Engineered Bioslurry used to generate energy. MBUSD was the first district to pilot and implement the parent-initiated programs Grades of Green  and Growing Great]  . MBUSD earned a CA-GRS Silver Level Award in 2015, and Grand View Elementary School was recognized as a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School in 2012.

San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco County

SFUSD utilizes a Shared Savings Program that rewards schools for reducing their use by giving them 50 percent of the savings generated through conservation as discretionary funding. Every school in SFUSD has an Environmental Liaison, and SFUSD's Environmental Science Center has been providing standards-based environmental education in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1976. SFUSD has installed nearly 60 green schoolyards since 2005 and will expand schoolyard "greening" to every site using a local modernization bond authorized in 2011. The District's Green the Next Gen Web site features teacher resources; student programs; and utility, commute, and waste diversion data from SFUSD schools. SFUSD earned a CA-GRS Silver Level Award in 2015.

Bay Farm School, Alameda, Alameda County

Bay Farm School has implemented an efficient three-stream waste diversion program that diverts 85 percent of solid waste from the landfill. Students are critical to these efforts, monitoring lunchtime sorting and conducting multiple waste audits to keep recyclables out of classroom and playground trash. Bay Farm's Outdoor Learning Center (OLC) is managed by a full-time garden teacher. All students regularly learn outdoors in part by working in the OLC and eating the food they grow there. Read more about Bay Farm's efforts on their Go Green  Web page.

Bishop O'Dowd High School, Oakland, Alameda County

O'Dowd's Center for Environmental Studies, completed in 2014, is a LEED Platinum certified building. The campus also supports a four-acre "Living Lab" that has undergone ecological restoration annually since 2000 and received Bay Friendly certification and Wildlife Habitat certification. The Living Lab features four different local ecosystems, beehives, chickens and rabbits, edibles, and water catchment systems. It is used for field research, experiential learning, and spiritual meditation. Green Gloves, a 2015 partnership with the ReThink Disposable project, replaced disposable plates and bowls in the cafeteria with reusable baskets, reducing solid waste by 3,376 pounds per year. O'Dowd was recognized by CAPSO as a CA-GRS Gold School in 2015 and a Silver School in 2014.

California Green Ribbon School Additional Awardees

Public Schools

• George K. Porter Middle School, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Nick G. Parras Middle School, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Redondo Union High School, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Yosemite High School (Continuation), Merced County (Gold)
• Juliet Morris Elementary School, Orange County (Silver)
• Monterey Road Elementary School, San Luis Obispo County (Silver)
• Santa Barbara Senior High School, Santa Barbara County (Silver)
• Washington Elementary School, Los Angeles County (Silver)
• Will Rogers Elementary School, Ventura County (Silver)

Districts

• Montecito Union Elementary, Santa Barbara County (Gold)
• Pittsburg Unified, Contra Costa County (Gold)
• Redondo Beach Unified, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Sacramento City Unified, Sacramento County (Gold)
• Hope Elementary, Santa Barbara County (Silver)
• Woodside Elementary, San Mateo County (Bronze).

Private Schools

• Maple Village Waldorf School, Los Angeles County (Gold)
• Pacific Ridge School, San Diego County (Gold)
• The Thacher School, Ventura County (Gold)
• Woodside Priory School, San Mateo County (Gold)
• The Grauer School, San Diego County (Silver)
• MUSE School, Los Angeles County (Silver)
• The Turning Point School, Los Angeles County (Bronze)

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Finding Teachers of Color: What the Gates Foundation Thinks

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Finding Teachers of Color: What the Gates Foundation Thinks:

Finding Teachers of Color: What the Gates Foundation Thinks

Public disclosure requests can sometimes yield the oddest things (seemingly not related to your request, no matter how narrowly you tailor it.)  Such is the case with my public disclosure request from OSPI around charter schools. 

One e-mail in one batch was from sent in late Nov to various people in education from several districts including SPS about a meeting to discuss how to get attract more people of color to  teaching.  The e-mail was from the Gates Foundation's Edie Harding, Senior Program Officer, Pacific NW Initiative about their "DEW" work (Diversify the Educator Workforce.) 

The one SPS invitee was Karen Harris who is an assistant principal at Beacon Hill Elementary.  (Ms Harris appears to have worked for the Martinez Foundation whose principal mission is to support teachers of color.  The Martinez Foundation has been moved to the Technology Access Foundation.)  I did ask the district if they knew about this effort but no one has answered back.

From the e-mail:

Because we just want to DEW it now!


Unfortunately, the documents attached to the e-mail did not come to me but I made a request and OSPI sent them. 

There were four documents;
- General Questions - asking for reactions from participants on Gates' "theory of change" in the presentation

- graphic - Washington State Diversifying the Educator Workforce Theory of Change with final goal:
By 2030 30 % of teachers are teachers of color who stay for more than five Seattle Schools Community Forum: Finding Teachers of Color: What the Gates Foundation Thinks:

Charter school king pleads guilty to felony | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

Charter school king pleads guilty to felony | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:
Charter school king pleads guilty to felony
Former Mountain Empire superintendent Van Zant must return stipend, serve 30 days under house arrest

 SAN DIEGO — Steve Van Zant, a key figure in the expansion of charter schools in San Diego County and elsewhere in California, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony violation of the Political Reform Act.

Van Zant’s financial interests in growing independent charters, and his efforts getting them into school districts without notification, have raised questions about widely perceived shortcomings in state law that now even advocates say allow for exploitation.

While superintendent of the rural Mountain Empire Unified School District, Van Zant received a stipend through his contract for each charter school the district authorized. The arrangement was in violation of conflict-of-interest laws, said Deputy District Attorney Leon Schorr, who heads the public integrity unit.

“This plea shows that they have to be cognizant of how government funds are spent,” Schorr said. “This felony has a huge impact on Mr. Van Zant — professionally, personally and financially.”

Under the terms of his plea agreement, Van Zant must reimburse Mountain Empire for the charter stipends that amounted to an estimated $50,000 to $60,000. The agreement also calls for him to serve 30 days of home confinement with an electronic monitor, five years probation, and 300 hours of community service.

Van Zant and his attorney Garland Peed declined to comment after a Superior Court hearing Thursday. However, Van Zant said “There will come a day” when he’s willing to discuss the matter.

RELATED

• Superintendent got portion of charter school revenue
• Charter school growth spurs division among educators
• Charter school growth questioned
• Charter school king hit with felony

Under Van Zant’s leadership, Mountain Empire authorized 13 charters that were located in other districts, in some cases without notifying those districts in advance. The arrangements have stirred costly legal fights and animosity among districts that have lingered since Van Zant resigned from Mountain Empire in 2013.

By approving charters for other districts, Mountain Empire earned a percentage of revenue (up to $500,000 a year under Van Zant) from the charters without losing its own students to those schools — or the average daily attendance money they generate from the state. Meanwhile, Van Zant received the equivalent of 5 percent of the revenue brought in from each charter under his stipends.

Some of the charters went on to hire Van Zant’s consulting firm, EdHive, which charged as much as $100,000 to provide back-office services among other billable offerings. According to the business website, “We can find an authorizing district for your charter and cut a deal that provides the financial incentive for the district and still save your school money.”

Van Zant continued to run EdHive since he took office in 2013 as superintendent at the Sausalito Marin City School District, a three-day-a-week job that paid $172,000 in 2014. The terms of Van Zant’s plea agreement required his resignation from the district, which he submitted earlier this month.

Before Van Zant was hired in Mountain Empire in 2008, he ushered in charters while superintendent of the Charter school king pleads guilty to felony | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Rebellion in New Orleans | EduShyster

Rebellion in New Orleans | EduShyster:

Rebellion in New Orleans

Is it time for a second installment of my new podcast, Have You Heard, already? Indeed it is, and in this episode, we head to New Orleans, where there’s a rebellion brewing against the city’s decade-long experiment with urban education reform. We speak to the unlikely leader of the revolt to find out why residents of the Big Easy say that changes are being made “to them, not with them” and how this uprising could be heading to a city near you.

I can’t wait to hear what you think! Send comments, criticism, cheery greetings and suggested topics for future episodes to jennifer@edushyster.com.Rebellion in New Orleans | EduShyster:

IMPORTANT - 11th Graders and their parents – Why my daughter will not be taking the CT State Mandated NEW SAT next week. - Wait What?

IMPORTANT - 11th Graders and their parents – Why my daughter will not be taking the CT State Mandated NEW SAT next week. - Wait What?:

IMPORTANT – 11th Graders and their parents – Why my daughter will not be taking the CT State Mandated NEW SAT next week.

 (The following is an expanded re-post of the article what appeared in the Washington Post, on Diane Ravitch’s blog and here at Wait, What?)

PART 1 – “My daughter will not be taking the “state mandated” NEW SAT on March 2nd 2016.”

In an effort to win market share, the College Board, along with the standardized testing industry and the corporate education reform advocates are pushing states are mandate that high school juniors MUST take the SAT.  Connecticut, Colorado, Michigan and New Hampshire are among the states throwing their students under the bus.

In Connecticut, thanks to a new “state mandate,” approximately 40,000 Connecticut high school juniors will not be attending their classes on March, 2, 2016.  Instead they will be taking another “Common Core aligned” standardized test – this time the NEW SAT.

The attempt to force the state’s 11^th graders to take the NEW SAT is not about helping students, improving graduating rates or expanding the number of people who go to college.

This new “mandate” is part of the broader corporate education reform agenda that is crippling public education in Connecticut and across the nation.

In this case, it is about trying to force children to take a test that will then be used to label those students and provide the state with faulty information to evaluate Connecticut’s teachers.

Parents should be aware of what is taking place and step up to ensure that our children areIMPORTANT - 11th Graders and their parents – Why my daughter will not be taking the CT State Mandated NEW SAT next week. - Wait What?: 

North Carolina Latino Students Skipping School to Avoid ICE Agents : US News : Latin Post

North Carolina Latino Students Skipping School to Avoid ICE Agents : US News : Latin Post:

North Carolina Latino Students Skipping School to Avoid ICE Agents

Rodrigo Hernandez, whose family is originally from Guatemala, attends a vigil with his family to protest against the deportation of undocumented immigrants on January 6, 2016 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo : Joe Raedle/Getty Images )

 Confused and frightened Latino students in North Carolina have started skipping school in hopes of avoiding roving immigration agents.

The deportation of Riverside High School senior Wilden Guillen-Acosta has left many of his classmates paralyzed with fear and several of his teachers worried about the general welfare of their students, ABC 11 reports.

Soon after the new year, 19-year-old Guillen-Acosta was taken into custody near his home by Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents and now is in the process of being deported to his native Honduras.

Fears Only Worsening 

In the wake of the incident and the chaos it has created within Riverside's walls, the Durham School Board quickly passed a resolution condemning ICE's actions. The board argues that responsible students like Guillen-Acosta should be off-limits from growing deportation raids and free to pursue their education.

As well-intended as the gesture may have been, the measure has not been enough to allay the fears of students who feel targeted. ACLU North Carolina policy council representative Susanna Birdsong doesn't see that changing anytime soon.

"One Spanish teacher shared she recently had eight of her 23 students absent from class," she told Latin Post. "Absent a stop to the raids altogether and assurances from ICE that such sensitive locations will remain safe for them, I don't see anything calming their fears."

According to Birdsong, even students who are not undocumented themselves are reacting to the situation with fear.

"Some of them are staying away from school and remaining at home because they have family members or friends who are undocumented and they fear returning home to find loved ones gone, taken away by agents," she added.

Guillen-Acosta's parents insist their son escaped to the U.S. to avoid the deadly gang violence that now grips his homeland. They fear he will be killed if forced to return.

Still, WRAL reports Hector Guillen was forced to look on in stunned silence as his son was taken away, paralyzed by the thought his other children might also be apprehended if he overly reacted in any way. The grief-stricken family is now keeping all of their other children at home and not allowing them to attend school for fear of another incident.

American Progress Managing Director Philip Wolgin explained attendance at some local schools could be down by as much as 20 percent since Guillen-Acosta was taken into custody.

"It's not just that," he told Latin Post. "There are reports of people not showing up for health clinic related services and other appointments that have to do with social services. Right now, there is just so much fear people are afraid to leave their homes for anything North Carolina Latino Students Skipping School to Avoid ICE Agents : US News : Latin Post:

Former US bankruptcy judge to be new emergency manager of Detroit schools - World Socialist Web Site

Former US bankruptcy judge to be new emergency manager of Detroit schools - World Socialist Web Site:

Former US bankruptcy judge to be new emergency manager of Detroit schools

 Retired US bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes told a meeting of teachers and other school employees Wednesday that he was assuming emergency manager powers over the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and would complete the restructuring of the school district by midsummer.

Rhodes was brought in as the honored guest of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, which arranged the meeting after discussions with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Monday. The meeting was the latest effort by the DFT, backed by the national American Federation of Teachers, to contain opposition by teachers, including a wave of sickout protests that sparked student walkouts, against state-appointed emergency managers who have attacked teachers’ jobs and living standards while funneling more money to for-profit charter schools.

During the 2013-2014 Detroit bankruptcy, Rhodes established his reputation as a highly political judge capable of posturing as an even-handed arbiter and employing the services of the trade unions while ruthlessly imposing the dictates of the Wall Street bondholders. In a ruling that set a national precedent, the judge approved the gutting of city worker pensions in direct violation of the state constitution.

On Wednesday, Rhodes told the meeting that he “was not the dictatorial type” and was “immensely concerned” with overcrowded classes and the lack of school supplies that prohibited teachers from doing their jobs. While it was true he was an emergency manager—who would be paid $12,000 a month, like the previous emergency manager—he would be the school district’s “last emergency manager.” This was because “it is time to return local control over the Detroit public schools,” he said.

Under the bipartisan plan being debated in state legislature, a restructured school district will in fact be overseen by an unelected Financial Review Commission, similar if not the same as the one that Rhodes installed over the city of Detroit. The commission will have veto power over all spending decisions even after an elected school board is restored.

Rhodes made a pitch for the legislation, under which the current school district will be dissolved into an “old DPS”—tasked with liquidating debt—and Former US bankruptcy judge to be new emergency manager of Detroit schools - World Socialist Web Site:

Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time - Living in Dialogue

Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time - Living in Dialogue:

Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time

By Anthony Cody.

Hillary Clinton gave some idea of where she would take education policy last night at a South Carolina town hall, where she spoke of extended learning time as a key education strategy.

She said this:

There’s a lot of research which shows that, for most middle-class or well-off kids, they get out of school in the spring or early summer … and then they do things over the summer that keep them learning, A lot of disadvantaged kids get out and they actually lose some of the learning that they’ve gained during the year. So I want very much to expand the school day and the school year, and provide more structure. Starting with kids who would be most benefited from it, but I am in favor of states looking at how they might do that for every student.

As an educator, I am skeptical about this idea. In my experience, the capacity to learn diminishes as the day wears on. My afternoon classes often got less accomplished than my morning classes. As students grow weary, learning diminishes. High quality summer programs that give low income students access to some of the great learning experiences wealthier students enjoy would be great – but I would argue for programs Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time - Living in Dialogue:

CURMUDGUCATION: Stockman: Starve the Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Stockman: Starve the Teachers:

Stockman: Starve the Teachers

Writer Farah Stockman took to the pages of the Boston Globe yesterday to give professional educators a big fat punch in the face.

There's a great deal of battling over education going on in Massachusetts, with the grass roots and professional educators lined up against the various grifters and privatizers who have captured state offices. State Secretary of Education Jim Peyser worked previously for reformsters New Venture Fund, where he explained how to gut public schools for fun and profit. State Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester was the head of the governing board of PARCC, the test manufacturers profiting heavily from reformy testing programs.  Paul Grogan, head of the Boston Foundation, one of those cool foundations that allows civic minded rich guys a way to impose political pressure onserve their community, is a regular agitator for charters.

And then there's Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who pulled a bait-and-switch to get elected and now shills hard for cutting public schools off at the knees. Privatizers have launched legal attacks on the public schools, and profiteers have had vulture conventions in town to contemplate how they can get their hands on all that sweet, sweet public tax money.

The Boston Globe has long since abandoned any pretense of objectivity; they are reliably and regularly the sort-of-journalistic voice of privatization, of gutting the public school system in order CURMUDGUCATION: Stockman: Starve the Teachers:

Goodnight, and Good Luck | Al Jazeera America

Goodnight, and Good Luck | Al Jazeera America:

Goodnight, and good luck

A valedictory note from Al Jazeera America on what we tried to bring to the online news landscape

 The core principle driving the journalism that distinguished Al Jazeera America online as a unique voice in a cluttered news landscape was the simple — yet radical — proposition that no single human life is worth less than any other.

Whether it was Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown, teenage African-Americans killed in their prime; Syrian refugee child Alan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach or Palestinian baby Ali Dawabshe, who died in the flames of his firebombed home in a village under Israeli occupation; Nicaraguan peasant farmer Carlos Wilson Bilis contemplating the destruction of his livelihood by an epic canal project or LeeAnne Walters raising the alarm over the poisoned water pouring from the taps in Flint, Michigan, their stories deserved to be told. Their names needed to be known and their voices to be heard; their plight, like so many hundreds featured in our coverage, revealed the human impact of decisions made — or evaded — in the corridors of power. 

And when ordinary people stood up and took action to transform their fates, we paid attention. Whether it was Priestess Bearstop and her struggle to evade Minneapolis gang life or Pamela Domingez and her Dreamer compañeros fighting for the dignity of citizenship;  St. Louis fast-food worker Olivia Roffle organizing for a living wage or Mexican student Salvador Castro Fernandez and his friends searching for justice for the 43 of their Ayozintapa classmates who went missing during a protest, we believed our readers needed to hear their voices.

Our passion for telling their stories and setting them in context renewed our sense of purpose each day. When buildings teeter and collapse as the ground beneath them is shaken by sudden violent spasms, we call that an earthquake — signaling that the sound and fury experienced at the scene could only be understood by reference to the unseen movement of tectonic plates. Our goal, whenever possible, was to provide the context, noting the tectonic shifts driving the dramas of the everyday news cycle. 

For Al Jazeera America online, no human tragedy could be reduced to a statistic or dismissed as the collateral damage of another’s “self-defense” or an inevitable consequence of geography, politics, class, race, sect or ethnicity. Poverty, violence and environmental degradation are not immutable forces of nature; they are the product of choices made by those in power. The media’s function in a democracy is to enable the public to make informed choices, which in turn requires laying bare the human consequences of policy decisions. That was a challenge we accepted with relish. Freed of commercial pressure to serve up clickbait, we could focus on stories that needed telling. 

Resonating through our stories are the cadences of ordinary Americans engaged in an urgent national conversation. And, mindful of the idea that journalists write history’s first draft, we constantly reminded ourselves that America’s social progress is, first and foremost, a story of the courage and sacrifice of ordinary women and men willing to put their bodies on the line to face down injustice. From slave revolts to suffragettes, Selma to Stonewall, from the epic mining and railroad strikes of the late 19th century to the Delano farmworkers strike of the 1960s and more, it was the courage of ordinary Americans willing to defy injustice that earned us the rights and dignity we take for granted today.

Black Lives Matter mattered to Al Jazeera America online, not only because it highlighted the intolerable epidemic of police shooting of young people of color, but also because it tapped into that tradition of active citizenship. So did the immigration reform campaign of the Dreamers. Our approach to politics was always centered far beyond the Beltway. 

Our award-winning opinion page consistently punched above its weight, leading and shaping national conversations by going beyond the banal polarities of political partisanship. Our international coverage was guided by a belief in global citizenship, equality and shared responsibility for a connected world rather than narrated from the perspective of any one country’s foreign policy establishment. Awards also came in recognition for our documentary-photography storytelling and our exceptional use of multimedia devices — even a comic book on privacy and digital surveillance. And, of course, day in and day out, our news desk weighed in on the breaking news dramas of the moment with rare depth, breadth and perspective.

We set ourselves high standards on question of race, class and gender biases in our reporting, always questioning from whose reality and experience a story was told; thinking not only about what was being said, but also about who was saying it. Much of the time, we knew we could do better. But the AJAM difference, for many of us, was that we sought to measure ourselves by those standards in the first place, trying amid the turbulence of an everyday American newsroom to question inherited assumptions about power and privilege in how stories are reported. 

AJAM online’s legacy, some of it captured on these pages, is a journalism of value and of values, not tied to any ideology or political entity, but morally committed when confronted by racism and bigotry, violence against the innocent, injustice and inequality, sexism and homophobia.

We tried in our brief tenure to uphold the fine tradition of an American journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. That tradition long predates AJAM and will hopefully long outlive it. But AJAM offered us a brief, inspirational taste of a world where talented journalists are unleashed to pursue the profession’s best traditions without commercial pressure. 

We are proud and honored to have been a part of it.Goodnight, and Good Luck | Al Jazeera America:

Activists Will Discuss Future of Opt-Out Movement at Sold-Out Conference - K-12 Parents and the Public - Education Week

Activists Will Discuss Future of Opt-Out Movement at Sold-Out Conference - K-12 Parents and the Public - Education Week:

Activists Will Discuss Future of Opt-Out Movement at Sold-Out Conference

 Last year was a "game changer" for opt-out activists.

Thousands of parents pulled their children out of standardized tests, often based on the Common Core State Standards, pressuring state and federal policymakers to pay attention and, sometimes, to change their approaches.

This year, the United Opt Out National conference, which runs Friday through Sunday in Philadelphia, is looking beyond its namesake cause to issues such as changes to teacher credentials and opposition to charter schools. 

"Opt out is child's play compared to where we are headed," said Peggy Robertson, president of United Opt Out National and one of the group's founders.

The conference, now in its fifth year, is sold out. The venue holds 160 people, but at least 50 more people have asked Robertson if they can come, she said.

Discussions, of course, will continue on how activists can get more parents to opt their students out of end-of-the-year standardized tests. But the group is pushing for more—such as opting out of "online daily testing" as part of the regular curriculum.

The group also will discuss "fighting the destruction of the teaching profession," as well as "corporate greed" in education and the "charter takeover."

United Opt Out started about five years ago through social media and now has leaders in just about every state, Robertson said. Across the country, opt-out activists in states are trying to figure out how they can build on their momentum to push for education change on a national level, according to a recent Education Week article.

While the opt-out movement has grown, not everyone supports policies that allow parents to exempt their children from testing. For example, the National Association of Secondary School Principals announced this week that it opposes opt-out policies.

At the time of the January 2015 United Opt Out conference, the discussions about updates to the federal education law were just beginning in Congress. Education Week extensively covered last year's conference where opt-out proponents discussed their strategies to get more parents to exempt their children from testing. Here is what some parents said about why they support opting out of testing.

  

Now that federal Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, has passed, the law will be a major focus of conference talks, Robertson said.

"When opt out became mainstream, we accomplished our goal. Our goal was to get the word out in the mainstream media," Robertson said. "With that, came the passage of the ESSA. We are posed with an even greater challenge than before."

The full agenda for the conference can be found at United Opt Out National's website. If you want to see the discussions, you can watch a livestream of the conference. Activists Will Discuss Future of Opt-Out Movement at Sold-Out Conference - K-12 Parents and the Public - Education Week:

ESSA: Teacher evaluations and Pay for Success. | Fred Klonsky

ESSA: Teacher evaluations and Pay for Success. | Fred Klonsky:

ESSA: Teacher evaluations and Pay for Success.

 President Obama signs ESSA last December.

-From a report by Springfield NPR education reporter Dusty Rhodes. The entire report from Illinois Issues can be found here

Another reason Illinois teachers may not feel much difference under ESSA is that —barring a transformation in the General Assembly — the new law’s teacher evaluation guidelines won’t apply here. Unlike the NCLB waiver system, ESSA does not require state teacher evaluation systems to hinge on students’ standardized test scores. But when Illinois applied for a federal Race To The Top grant in 2010, it had to prove that it was ready to implement exactly that kind of evaluation. It did so by enacting the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, which was rolled into a broader Education Reform Act in 2011.

Fred Klonsky, a retired Park Ridge art teacher and education blogger, can’t envision state lawmakers undoing that measure.

“Now that they’ve passed ESSA, that law doesn’t go away,” he says. “Teachers are still going to be evaluated exactly in the way that they were being evaluated before the bill was passed.”

There’s a reason NCLB was passed in the first place: States weren’t doing a great job of educating all children. But after 13 years of NCLB, the federal government hasn’t proven to be much better at it, as it failed to close the achievement gap. And while ESSA basically throws the ball back into the states’ court, it bring in one other player: the private sector.

For example, ESSA contains a provision allowing “pay for success,” also known as “social impact bonds.”

One example of the bonds in action comes from Utah. Goldman Sachs and ESSA: Teacher evaluations and Pay for Success. | Fred Klonsky:

New Study: In Education Money Matters, Helps Poor Districts, Raises Achievement | janresseger

New Study: In Education Money Matters, Helps Poor Districts, Raises Achievement | janresseger:

New Study: In Education Money Matters, Helps Poor Districts, Raises Achievement

Jesse Rothstein of the University of California at Berkeley and the National Bureau of Economic Research and his colleagues have just posted a working paper on the importance of statewide school finance reform.  Infusions of state money, whether as the result of court decisions or legislative action, significantly improve the finances of the poorest school districts and, over time, raise test scores.

From the study’s abstract: “Using an event study design, we find that reform events—court orders and legislative reforms—lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases in absolute and relative spending in low-income school districts. Using representative samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, we also find that reforms cause gradual increases in the relative achievement of students in low-income school districts…”

Rothstein and his colleagues explain: “American public schools have traditionally been locally managed and financed largely out of local property tax revenue.  As jurisdictions vary widely in their tax bases and inclinations to fund schools, this has meant that the resources available to a child’s school depended importantly on where he or she lives.”  Some earlier studies have seemed to show that an infusion of state funding makes little difference, but Rothstein and his colleagues note that earlier school finance lawsuits emphasized equity and sometimes resulted in leveling down—distributing a relatively small pot of money more equally.  The New Study: In Education Money Matters, Helps Poor Districts, Raises Achievement | janresseger:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Pasi Sahlberg

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Pasi Sahlberg:

Pasi Sahlberg

At Harvard's Graduate School of Education, I got a handshake and a "keep up your great work" from renown Finnish educator, scholar, author and activist Pasi Sahlberg. 

Made my day.

Pasi is a former Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) at  Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki and currently a visiting Professor of Practice at HGSE. I've used his best-selling book Finnish Lessons 2.0 in my own courses.

I've been a fan of his ever since I saw this interview with Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Pasi Sahlberg: