Is Funding Transparency Enough to Prevent Billionaire Influence in Education Journalism? - Living in Dialogue

Is Funding Transparency Enough to Prevent Billionaire Influence in Education Journalism? - Living in Dialogue:

Is Funding Transparency Enough to Prevent Billionaire Influence in Education Journalism?

By Anthony Cody.

Here is where we stand with the revived controversy over the Los Angeles Times’ 2010 “investigation” into teacher effectiveness.

In 2009, Teachers College, which sponsors The Hechinger Report, received a grant from the Gates Foundation in the amount of $652,493 in order “to support the development of high quality education coverage in the nation’s leading newspapers and magazines.”

In 2010, The Hechinger Report paid a researcher by the name of Richard Buddin $15,000 to develop the VAM system that was used to rank thousands of teachers in Los Angeles according to their ability to raise test scores. It is not clear if this money was from the Gates Foundation grant, but it well could be.

Los Angeles Times reporters Jason Felch and Jason Song published a series of articles extensively quoting “experts” from the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching project as they justified the use of Value Added systems for purposes of determining teacher effectiveness.

The Education Writers Association, which also receives significant funding from the Gates Foundation,awarded Felch and Song a second prize in the Investigative Reporting category for the series.

In response to my latest writing on this subject, Greg Toppo, Vice President of the Education Writers Association, tweeted: “No. Journos, LAT included, go where evidence sends them, sometimes badly but always independently.

In the conversation that ensued, Caroline Grannan responded: “Always independently? With Broad now funding LAT education coverage?” and “*Appearance of conflict of interest* violates ethics, both LAT and EWA.”

To this, Toppo replied: “Lots of journalism outfits take foundation $. None of them independent?”

To which I replied: “Lots of politicians take lobbyist $. None of them independent?”

Toppo replied: “We’re getting off topic. If news orgs r transparent about $, they can totally be independent. Am I outlier on this??”

First of all, we do have an issue with transparency. While I can make a case that it is possible that Gates Is Funding Transparency Enough to Prevent Billionaire Influence in Education Journalism? - Living in Dialogue:

 

The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation's Schools | Southern Poverty Law Center

The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation's Schools | Southern Poverty Law Center:

The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation's Schools

Our report found that the campaign is producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.

If you would like a .pdf version of this report, please click here. If you would like to read the full comments from the survey, please click here.

Every four years, teachers in the United States use the presidential election to impart valuable lessons to students about the electoral process, democracy, government and the responsibilities of citizenship.

But, for students and teachers alike, this year’s primary season is starkly different from any in recent memory. The results of an online survey conducted by Teaching Tolerancesuggest that the campaign is having a profoundly negative effect on children and classrooms.

It’s producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.

Other students have been emboldened by the divisive, often juvenile rhetoric in the campaign. Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail.

Educators are perplexed and conflicted about what to do. They report being stymied by the need to remain nonpartisan but disturbed by the anxiety in their classrooms and the lessons that children may be absorbing from this campaign.

Two responses from teachers illustrate their dilemma. A teacher in Arlington, Virginia, says, “I try to not bring it up since it is so stressful for my students.” Another, in Indianapolis, Indiana, says, “I am at a point where I’m going to take a stand even if it costs me my position.”

Our survey of approximately 2,000 K-12 teachers was not scientific. Our email subscribers and those who visit our website are not a random sample of teachers nationally, and those who chose to respond to our survey are likely to be those who are most concerned about the impact of the presidential campaign on their students and schools.

But the data we collected is the richest source of information that we know of about the effect of the presidential campaign on education in our country. And there is nothing counterintuitive about the results. They show a disturbing nationwide problem, one that is particularly acute in schools with high concentrations of minority children.

Here are the highlights:

• More than two-thirds of the teachers reported that students—mainly immigrants, children of immigrants and Muslims—have expressed concerns or fears about what might happen to them or their families after the election.
• More than half have seen an increase in uncivil political discourse.
• More than one-third have observed an increase in anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant sentiment.
• More than 40 percent are hesitant to teach about the election.

The comments are particularly revealing.

The survey did not identify any candidates. But out of 5,000 total comments, more than 1,000 mentioned Donald Trump. In contrast, a total of fewer than 200 contained the names Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. During the campaign, Trump has spoken of deporting millions of Latino immigrants, building a wall between the United States and Mexico, banning Muslim immigrants and even killing the families of Islamist terrorists. He has also called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug dealers.

“My students are terrified of Donald Trump,” says one teacher from a middle school The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation's Schools | Southern Poverty Law Center:

Teachers Define Personalized Learning! The Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

Teachers Define Personalized Learning!

 The Badass Teachers Association

As we have seen over the last few years the corporate reform industry has hijacked the term "personalized learning" from education.  Corporate Reform Industrialists will sell off their version of personalized learning as fancy computer games that are fun for kids, or learning that is tailored to your child.  What they don't share is that this is the way your child will spend their day.....



To be clear, this is certainly NOT the way that teachers, parents, and students visualize "personalized learning."  Teachers on the Facebook page The Badass Teachers Association were asked how they would define personalized learning.  Here is what they said:

Personalized learning is about students choosing the topic of study, based on their individual interest, rather than the entire class studying the exact same subject.

Personalized learning comes from the heart of the teacher to the heart of the student ...it is filled with wonderment... human to human ...relationship of connecting to a student in way that you provide them with whatever it is they need to unlock their potential.. this usually starts with with getting them to believe in themselves... no technology can do that but a highly trained teacher a human being; no technology opens a child's mind! technology can help take kids on journey to other places virtually but technology does not provide that human touch the OMG you did it! High Five! Those are the moments true educators live for..

 It means conversations. Today I pointed out a student's strengths after he didn't listen. I explained how he will mature even more next year and people will think of him as responsible when he does listen. He really listened and smiled a lot. It was a great conversation. They are children. They are not robots.

It means you have KNOWLEDGE, personal knowledge, of who that individual is......not aBadass Teachers Association:

How 2U, Pearson, and Other Companies Are Profiting Off of Online Learning at Top Colleges - The Atlantic

How 2U, Pearson, and Other Companies Are Profiting Off of Online Learning at Top Colleges - The Atlantic:

How Companies Profit Off Education at Nonprofit Schools

Online program managers earn millions by designing and marketing virtual learning options at big-time colleges.

 Selling the dream of a college education is big, profitable business. In 2014, four companies that own and run for-profit colleges collected in excess of $1 billion each. To boost their enrollments and profits, many for-profit schools pioneered modern marketing tactics such as websites that collect information to generate marketing leads, text message follow-ups to inquiries, and phone banks with ambitious “career counselors” ready to help students complete financial-aid requirements and enroll. As a 2011 Senate report found, “[for-profit college] recruiting managers at some companies created a boiler-room atmosphere, in which hitting an enrollment quota was the recruiters’ highest priority … [and] recruiters’ salaries at many for-profit colleges were tightly tied to enrolling a certain number of new students.”

“We all have the impression that commission-paid sales people will say anything to make a sale, and that has certainly been true in higher ed,” Robert Shireman, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, told me. Shireman is a former Department of Education deputy undersecretary in the Obama administration and is known for organizing the federal response to emerging signs of predatory for-profit education and career training in 2009.

Even though Shireman and the department moved to block paying salaries or bonuses based on how many students are signed up, they could do little to stop for-profit companies from making money based on how many students they enroll. More students equals more profit, and as long as there are for-profit schools, the link between getting more students and earning more money will incentivize creative and assertive marketing and recruitment. That’s part of what you get with for-profit schools; it’s expected.

But the practice of aggressive recruiting of college students isn’t limited to for-profit colleges: Students who study online at many public and private non-profit schools are being recruited in similar ways and are handing over large percentages of their tuition—hundreds of millions of dollars total a year—to companies that profit based on the number of students who enroll. The result is a very lucrative but nearly invisible education market in which students pay, companies profit, costs escalate, and the prospect of scandal lingers.

“There are companies literally taking 80 percent or more of tuition.”

In this marketplace, various reports suggest that students studying online at public and non-profit colleges give an average of about half of their tuition to for-profit companies known as online program managers (OPMs)—companies that design, run, and market the virtual programs for colleges. Because an online bachelor’s degree can easily cost $60,000, those for-profit companies, by taking 50 percent of student tuition, can make as much as $30,000 per student per awarded degree. And it’s often more. According to John Katzman, who founded How 2U, Pearson, and Other Companies Are Profiting Off of Online Learning at Top Colleges - The Atlantic:

Gates' Common-Core Mea Culpa and the School Reform Divide - Rick Hess Straight Up - Education Week

Gates' Common-Core Mea Culpa and the School Reform Divide - Rick Hess Straight Up - Education Week:
Gates' Common-Core Mea Culpa and the School Reform Divide

Over the past few weeks, the world of "school reform" has been consumed by a heated back-and-forth over whether the left-leaning majority is trying to shove right-leaning types out of the tent. The debate has swirled mostly around questions of race, but those can distract from more fundamental philosophical differences. After all, progressives tend to assume that ambitious programs and policies are the engine of social progress. Conservatives tend to be more concerned about the limits of social engineering, unanticipated consequences, and the unintended damage that well-intended efforts can do. Conservatives believe meaningful social progress tends to be incremental and gradual, the product of local communities, private associations, dynamic markets, and individual initiative. This is why folks on the right get irate when progressives launch a passionate crusade, sow conflict and division, trample on communities, expand bureaucracies, and then, when things don't work out, plead unforeseeable complications.

A nice illustration has been unfolding in real time. Just days before the left-right imbroglio blew up, Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann used her annual letter to issue a much-discussed mea culpa regarding the Foundation's efforts on behalf of the Common Core. Desmond-Hellmann explained that the Common Core's rocky path had been a surprise to the Gates team and "a challenging lesson for us to absorb, but we take it to heart." Kudos to Desmond-Hellmann for her honesty.

Missing, however, was an acknowledgment that some observers were not, in fact, blindsided. Conservatives expect these problems, look for them, and anticipate them. In fact, my AEI colleague Mike McShane and I were among those who publicly and repeatedly tried to call attention to these issues early on, only to be dismissed or ignored by Team Common Core. I'll offer a few examples of what I have in mind because the easiest way to demonstrate that something was foreseeable is to show that people foresaw it (recall that the Common Core standards were introduced in 2010 and most states started implementation in 2011). Some of the stumbles and miscalculations, Desmond-Hellmann writes, have included:

A lack of engagement. Desmond-Hellmann relates that the Foundation has learned that "deep and deliberate engagement is essential to success." In 2011, I observed, "[Common Core] success in all the miles ahead will depend crucially on the breadth, depth, and stability of public support." In 2012, I noted, "The early success of the Common Core was remarkable, but proponents failed to recognize that this quick success meant few voters or legislators really understood what was involved."

Failing to support teachers. Desmond-Hellmann explains that Gates has realized that "rigorous Gates' Common-Core Mea Culpa and the School Reform Divide - Rick Hess Straight Up - Education Week:

School suspensions drop, but black students still disciplined at higher rate - CSMonitor.com

School suspensions drop, but black students still disciplined at higher rate - CSMonitor.com:

School suspensions drop, but black students still disciplined at higher rate

Student suspensions decreased 20 percent between 2014 and 2012, but many students lack access to advanced classes, early education, federal data released Tuesday shows.

 Public schools across the country suspended nearly 20 percent fewer students in 2014 than they did in 2012, according to new federal data released Tuesday, a positive sign amid a mixed picture on how the nation’s school serve students of color.

Some 2.8 million students were suspended from public schools nationwide during the 2013-14 school year, a sign that efforts by the Obama administration to curb the use of suspensions, which activists say are linked to higher dropout rates and a greater likelihood of entering the criminal justice system, are working.

But there are also significant racial disparities, both in the use of discipline and in students’ access to experienced teachers and advanced math and science classes, according to the Civil Rights Data Collection, released every two years by the US Education Department.

Recommended: 1912 eighth grade exam: Could you make it to high school in 1912?

Black students were nearly four times as likely to be suspended as white students, and twice as likely to be expelled. The same pattern was apparent in preschools, where black children represent 19 percent of all preschoolers, but 47 percent of pre-schoolers receiving an out of school suspension.School suspensions drop, but black students still disciplined at higher rate - CSMonitor.com:

Massive charter school theft sounds warning for Georgia’s charter schools | Get Schooled

Massive charter school theft sounds warning for Georgia’s charter schools | Get Schooled:

Massive charter school theft sounds warning for Georgia’s charter schools

By Molly Bloom

How do you not notice $600,000 is missing?

That’s what parents and staff at Atlanta’s Latin Academy Charter School asked as the extent of the theft from their school — the largest theft in Georgia charter school history — was revealed.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

A $12,000 charge at a strip club. Thousands of dollars spent at Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead. ATM withdrawals of hundreds of dollars at a time.

The charges to Atlanta’s Latin Academy Charter School should have raised eyebrows. For the top state education officials and corporate executives on the school’s board, they should have set off earsplitting sirens.

Instead, the charges continued for years, siphoning more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars that should have been spent on students.

Christopher Clemons, the school’s founder, has been charged with fraud and theft in connection with the missing money.

Academically, Latin Academy was one of the top-performing middle schools in Atlanta. But the AJC found little evidence that the school’s all-star board scrutinized the school’s finances with the same attention they devoted to tracking its academic performance.

The result is “a cautionary tale for Georgia’s growing charter school movement:”

Latin Academy, with its all-star board and experienced leader, seemed on track to thrive. But behind that facade of apparent success, the school spent millions of tax dollars with little public scrutiny and 

Massive charter school theft sounds warning for Georgia’s charter schools | Get Schooled:

 

Gates Foundation: Bob Hughes Just Started the Toughest Job in K-12 Philanthropy. What's On His Plate? - Inside Philanthropy - Inside Philanthropy

Bob Hughes Just Started the Toughest Job in K-12 Philanthropy. What's On His Plate? - Inside Philanthropy - Inside Philanthropy:

Bob Hughes Just Started the Toughest Job in K-12 Philanthropy. What's On His Plate?

Robert "Bob" Hughes recently took the helm of the K-12 funding program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — at a time when the world's largest funder looks to be in some rough waters.

Costly missteps in the foundation's education reform agenda and a growing backlash against what some see as excessive influence by wealthy philanthropists over the nation's K-12 system will mean a series of challenges for Hughes, who comes to Gates from New Visions for Public Schools, the NYC-based nonprofit where he served as president. New Visions manages dozens of NYC schools, including seven charter schools. Here are some issues and subjects that are sure to keep Hughes busy as he begins his tenure at Gates.

Course Correction

Gates strives to be a "learning organization," one that course corrects and transforms itself in response to empirical evidence. As Hughes adapts to his work at Gates, it will be important for him to fully understand the funder's well-publicized missteps in the K-12 arena, what factors caused those failures, and how he can steer the work in a better direction.

In a recent annual letter, Gates CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann acknowledged some hard lessons learned from the implementation of the Common Core Standards, admitting that the foundation underestimated the level of resources that would be required for successful implementation of the standards. She further admitted that Gates did not do enough to engage educators, families, and communities to generate buy-in for the standards. This lack of engagement allowed critics to take Bob Hughes Just Started the Toughest Job in K-12 Philanthropy. What's On His Plate? - Inside Philanthropy - Inside Philanthropy:

Democratic Party Should Separate Itself from Likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kevin Johnson

Democratic Party Should Separate Itself from Likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kevin Johnson:

These Democrats Need to Stop Behaving Like Old School Republicans

Get with the program, people.

A couple of fairly prominent Democratic politicians have been hanging out in questionable company in recent days. Nothing too serious, I don't believe, but as Political Advisor Without Portfolio Or Perceptible Influence, I feel compelled to warn them that no good can come of these associations, and that both of them should run the next time they see these people coming.

First, at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami, according to TBOTP, the president threw his full-throated support behind Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the curiously still-employed chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, and very much requited legislative love interest of the payday loan industry.

"She's had my back, I want to make sure we have her back… [DWS is] somebody who I don't know how she does it, because she's everywhere all the time, non-stop, and she's a mom and a wife and has been just incredibly supportive of my agenda."

OK, she was his pick, and he's a loyal guy, and that's admirable. But if he can point to one concrete thing she's done to build the party, he's got better eyes than I have. In a political era in which the Democratic Party is energized by populist fervor, DWS is the tool of almost every special interest in Florida. She once took a dive to protect Republican congressional incumbents from challenges by decent Democratic candidates because the Republicans were her pals.

(It's also important to note that the GOP incumbents she refused to help defeat, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the two brothers Diaz-Balart, were all involved in enabling asylum for anti-Castro Cuban terrorists, including Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch, a pair of murderous bombersimplicated in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines jet that killed 73 people, including the entire Cuban fencing team. As we've been saying, nice company.)

But that's nothing compared to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had herself a rally over the weekend. One of the guest speakers was embattled Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and some advance guy in the HRC camp should be fired for letting this cluck within 15 miles of the candidate. Johnson will not be running for re-election. This is because his political career is buried under so much slime and corruption that you'd need a diamond-tipped drill bit just to get through the first layer. 

The Baffler has a good rundown of the various scams, grifts, and rackets that old KJ used to line his pockets and those of his various cronies. It appears that Johnson found various neoliberal "public-private partnership" schemes to be a target-rich environment.

There's another striking difference between KJ's charitable network and the nonprofit funds that other mayors control. Whereas the LA mayor's fund is run by a board of prominent citizens, many with backgrounds in philanthropy, Johnson's nonprofits are run entirely by his friends and political consultants. The flagship nonprofit of KJ Inc. is, of course, St. Hope. As mayor, Johnson has been able to leverage, from real estate and other local interests, about $3 million in donations to support the family business. The biggest donors include Sacramento's biggest sprawl developer, Angelo Tsakopoulos; arena developer Mark Friedman and his family; and Kevin Nagle, part owner of the Sacramento Kings and majority owner of the Sacramento Republic soccer team. Nagle is also on the St. Hope board of directors. All these men have been big donors to Johnson's election campaigns and to his strong-mayor ballot measure. But while they are limited by strict political campaign contribution limits, they can give unlimited amounts to Johnson's nonprofits.

And that's not even to get into the various sexual harassment (and worse) charges lodged against Johnson that, among other outlets, Deadspin has been dogging for a couple of years now thanks Democratic Party Should Separate Itself from Likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kevin Johnson:

Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing | 89.3 KPCC

Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing | 89.3 KPCC:

Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing

Did Los Angeles' largest chain of charter schools attempt to bust its teachers' efforts to unionize? Yes and no, a judge has ruled.

On one hand, Administrative Law Judge Kent Morizawa found administrators at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools acted unlawfully when they blocked teachers union organizers from two campuses and redirected the union's emails to teachers' spam folders for a time.

But in his decision last Friday, he also ruled that three written communications Alliance leaders sent to the charter networks' teachers and parents — all of which criticized the union in the midst of the organizing effort — were in-bounds.

Both the union and the charter network's leaders found something to like in Morizawa's ruling for the state's Public Employment Relations Board.

Representatives of the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, cheered Morizawa's ruling that Alliance's central office, which oversees a network of 27 schools, is subject to state labor laws just like its individual schools — a point the charter network's leaders had disputed.

That portion of the ruling is "absolutely precedent-setting," said attorney Jesús Quiñonez, who represents UTLA. "It’s a major issue with respect to charter schools and labor relations in California."

But while Morizawa ordered the charter network to "cease and desist" from violating those labor laws, Alliance spokesperson Catherine Suitor said Tuesday Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing | 89.3 KPCC:

Is this part of Teach for America’s rejuvenation effort — or a PR stunt? - The Washington Post

Is this part of Teach for America’s rejuvenation effort — or a PR stunt? - The Washington Post:

Is this part of Teach for America’s rejuvenation effort — or a PR stunt?

Things aren’t going all that well for Teach for America, what with recruitment significantly down and the bloom off of its rosy cachet, so it is now trying to rejuvenate, so to speak.

This story by my Post colleague Emma Brown spells it out, noting that applications have fallen 35 percent during the past three years and that the organization is working to find new ways to attract recruits and putting a broader mission front and center.

What’s that broader mission? Social justice, apparently. How is it getting out the word? Any way it can, including on social media with some rather unusual advertising. In fact, one former TFA member calls its a “PR stunt.”

Formed 25 years ago by Wendy Kopp from an idea she developed in a thesis at Princeton University, TFA is famous for recruiting new college graduates, giving them five or so weeks of training in the summer, and then placing them in high-needs schools, all on the theory that smart young people can, presto, be great teachers with little training and that such a program could help end teaching shortages and student achievement gaps.

TFA became the darling of the pro-market school reform crowd, taking in millions of dollars from wealthy education philanthropists and the Obama administration. What drove critics crazy, along with the minimal training, was that TFA asked its corps members to commit to only two years in a classroom, building in a revolving door that many educators say was unhealthy for students with high needs who need consistency. The two-year commitment was part of TFA’s overall goal, as Kopp said, to create an army of educated people who would take powerful jobs in American society and advocate for public education. As education historianJack Schneider wrote:

TFA’s message about promoting national political and economic aims was equally clear. The organization’s early recruiting letters, for instance, noted that “our nation faces a number of internal threats that call for the help of our brightest young minds.” Implicitly referencing the decline of American manufacturing and the increasing importance of a college education for maintaining economic competitiveness, they asserted that “one thing on which business and government leaders from different industries and political parties agree is that the state of the educational system is threatening America’s future.” As the organization’s first recruiter at Harvard University noted, TFA’s effort to “make America stronger” was “clearly patriotic.”

[How Teach for America became powerful]

It also was a great way for corps members to beef up their résumés. In her story, Brown wrote Is this part of Teach for America’s rejuvenation effort — or a PR stunt? - The Washington Post:

I Wish I Could be Saying "Happy Graduation Day" - Lily's Blackboard

I Wish I Could be Saying "Happy Graduation Day" - Lily's Blackboard:

I Wish I Could be Saying “Happy Graduation Day”

This is a letter from Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association to Wildin Acosta and other youth detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who live in fear of deportation. You can add yourown letter here.

Querido Wildin, 

How I wish I could be saying “Happy Graduation Day” to you today.  I know that your heart is heavy that instead of putting on a cap and gown today, as your friends are doing, you are sitting in a deportation center waiting to hear if you can return to your grieving family in North Carolina.

I want you to know that you are an inspiration to so many of us, Wildin.  You left the violence and danger of your home country seeking legal asylum here.  You made your case to the authorities and worked hard in school while you were waiting for their decision.  You were on your way to school when you were whisked away by those authorities, separated from your mom who is still out of her mind with fear for your safety.  I’m a mom, so I can imagine how she feels.

But it is not fear you inspire, Wildin.  It is courage and hope and determination you inspire.  It took courage to come.  You came because of hope.  You showed determination in not wasting one second of the time you were here demonstrating to the world how much you had to give by studying hard, respecting the community and making friends, including winning the friendship of your teachers and the school support professionals who have organized to help free you.

We believe in you, Wildin.  You have a strong case.  You deserve to be free.  You deserve the graduation day you worked so hard for.  I know this is not a happy graduation day for you.  But it is an important day because it inspires us, as you inspire us, to stand up for you, for Yefri, for Pedro, and all of the other detained youth and for all our students who are fighting to make something of their lives. 

We love you, Wildin.  Stay strong.  We will stay strong for you.

Lily

·       Send your own letter of support and hope to Wildin and the other detained students      

National Call in Day to DHS:  Stop the Raids!

JUNE 8th, 2016

9am -5pm

Tell DHS Secretary Johnson to release detained youth now and to halt the raids that are separating families. Call 202-282-8000

I Wish I Could be Saying "Happy Graduation Day" - Lily's Blackboard:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: If school reform is the 'civil rights issue of our time', it's been a dismal flop.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: If school reform is the 'civil rights issue of our time', it's been a dismal flop.:

If school reform is the 'civil rights issue of our time', it's been a dismal flop.

During Arne Duncan's seven-year hitch as Obama's Ed. Sec., while he was using federal funds to punish mostly black and Latino, inner-city schools for their low test scores under Race To The Top, he was fond of calling school reform, "the civil rights issue of our time".  It's a claim being repeated by his successor John King.

Well if corporate-style reform, ie. testing madness, turnarounds, school closings, mass teacher firings and charters, is aimed at promoting equity and civil rights, it's been a dismal failure by all measures.

For example, there been a strong link established between "school choice" programs and an increase in student segregation by race, ethnicity, and income. Studies in a number of different states and school districts show that charter schools also contribute to increased school segregation

A review of the today's release from the Civil Rights Data Collection, also confirms the point. It shows the damage left in the wake of RTTT.

According to this report, Nationwide, 2.8 million students were suspended from public schools during the 2013-2014 school year. But black students were nearly four times as likely to be suspended as white students, and nearly twice as likely to be expelled. The same pattern showed up in preschool: Black children represented 19% of all preschoolers but accounted for 47% of those who received suspensions.

I know what you're thinking: "preschoolers suspended?" Yes, especially black preschoolers.

The latest data show that even as the nation's high school graduation rate has risen, many Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: If school reform is the 'civil rights issue of our time', it's been a dismal flop.:

Was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 a Civil Rights Law? – Federal Education Policy History

Was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 a Civil Rights Law? – Federal Education Policy History:

Was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 a Civil Rights Law?

Newly arrived Education Secretary John B. King, Jr., is in hot water with Congress, state governors and various school reformers. The Department of Education is moving forward with rules that would turn the Every Student Succeeds Act’s “supplement not supplant” provision into a cudgel to force states to equalize school spending.

It’s easy to see why folks are ticked. Not least, there is the fact that the ESSA took years to negotiate and a ton of time was spent building a bipartisan coalition to support the legislation. President Barack Obama signed it in December, and a mere three months later, the department jammed a finger in Congress’ eye with its rulemaking, which splits supporters of the ESSA.

There also is the small matter of the law: the department’s proposed new take on “supplement not supplant” goes way beyond the plain language of the law and is contrary to its legislative history and spirit:

“A State educational agency or local educational agency shall use Federal funds received under this part only to supplement the funds that would, in the absence of such Federal funds, be made available from State and local sources for the education of students participating in programs assisted under this part, and not to supplant such funds.”

Plainly, the provision aims to ensure that states do not treat incoming federal dollars as an excuse to reduce their own spending on schools. This sort of requirement is common to federal grant programs. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who knows the ESSA better than anyone, called King out. “I will use every power of Congress to see that this law is implemented the way Congress wrote it.” (Alexander, it is worth recalling, has been working on education reform since the 1980s, when King was a kid, and Alexander himself has served as secretary of the Department of Education.)

King has made matters worse by trying to justify the department’s overreach as keeping with the legislation’s history – going back to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 – as a civil-rights measure.

“Six decades after Brown v. Board, we have failed to close opportunity and achievement gaps for our African-American and Latino students at every level of education. And in far too many schools, we continue to offer them less—less access to the best teachers and the most challenging courses; less access to the services and supports that affluent students often take for granted, and less access to what it takes to succeed academically.

“So we have urgent work to do as a country to truly provide equitable educational opportunities for all students. But we believe we stand better positioned to move forward, because of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As you know, ESSA reauthorized the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) signed by President Johnson in 1965. It was a civil rights law then, as it is now.”

Perhaps King was echoing President Obama, who also has contended the original ESEA was a civil-rights law. Regardless, this rhetoric is inherently nasty—if you disagree with the new regulations, the logic goes, then you’re against civil rights. Additionally, it’s a mischaracterization. The ESEA was an anti-poverty policy, a key part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, comprising Was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 a Civil Rights Law? – Federal Education Policy History:

Will Teachers Be Replaced by A1 (Artificial Intelligence)? – Missouri Education Watchdog

Will Teachers Be Replaced by A1 (Artificial Intelligence)? – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Will Teachers Be Replaced by A1 (Artificial Intelligence)?

A1 (aka Watson) and Jeopardy’s ‘Guides on the Side’

The question of the day: Will A1 ‘Watsons’ replace teachers?

With robots (otherwise known as A1: Artificial Intelligence) being able to teach special needs children, speak several languages, and now being able to understand context and relationships and derive meaning through reasoning with evidence, why are human teachers needed?  From Watson learns to understand Korean life and language:

Learning a language goes far beyond translation. Watson is trained to understand the cultural context of a word, sentence and nuances of unique idiomatic expression. With experienced gained from learning Japanese in partnership with Softbank last year, Watson is now learning languages at a faster rate. As Watson’s capability continues to grow, the system’s utility will also increase across industry domains.

For Watson, the process of learning a language is similar to learning about domains like medicine, engineering, law or marketing, for example. More than words, Watson needs to understand context and relationships and derive meaning through reasoning with evidence. Watson’s intelligence is very much determined by the quality of education or data received.  Like humans, the Watson system starts to learn by reading.

Watson will learn Korean by consuming roughly 10,000 sentences and deconstruct them in the form of diagrams that indicate syntax and semantic structure. This information will then be tested to fix errors and feed corrections back into the system so Watson can learn from its mistakes. And Watson never forgets, which is a skill that we humans do not posses.

Watson is also learning to master Japanese and is a data miner’s dream:

Luckily, Watson comes to this challenge armed with a tool that we humans do not possess, namely a solid state memory, which is a huge plus when it comes to the type of pattern recognition necessary when 

Will Teachers Be Replaced by A1 (Artificial Intelligence)? – Missouri Education Watchdog: