The K-12 Records of Some Mentioned as Donald Trump Running Mates - Politics K-12 - Education Week

The K-12 Records of Some Mentioned as Donald Trump Running Mates - Politics K-12 - Education Week:
The K-12 Records of Some Mentioned as Donald Trump Running Mates

Real estate executive Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nomination for president, has done not a heck of a lot to flesh out his views and positions on K-12 education—trust us, we've looked andasked around a fair amount.

But at some point relatively soon, he's going to announce his pick for vice president, and a few names are consistently mentioned as top candidates to be Trump's running mate. Let's take a look a some of them and their statements and records on K-12.

Newt Gingrich 

Here's one thing you might not remember or know about: Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and 2012 GOP presidential candidate, was actually pretty chummy with President Barack Obama's administration on K-12 issues, at least during the president's first term. Back in 2009,Gingrich offered to help the Obama's administration reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act by helping the House and Senate find common policy ground. 

Earlier that same year, Gingrich made a show of how he agreed with the Rev. Al Sharpton on a number of education issues, such as being strong on accountability and supporting charter schools. And none other than former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hopped on board the Gingrich-Sharpton edu-collaboration tour. Gingrich also praised one of Duncan's signature initiatives, the Race to the Top program, in 2011.

But let's return to Gingrich's most recent run for the presidency in 2012: Gingrich said he would sign a modified version of the DREAM Act, which would create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and seek entrance to college or the military. But Gingrich said his preference would be for only those young people seeking to enter the military to qualify for something like the DREAM Act.

In addition, during the 2012 campaign, Gingrich said he'd like to expand school choice and shrink the U.S. Department of Education. That view about the role of the Education Department was more consistent with his positions during his time in Congress than the love he sent the Obama administration's way during the president's first term. 

As speaker, for example, Gingrich backed a plan merging the federal education and labor departments, an idea its creators said would save $21 billion. And he backed efforts in the mid-1990s to create a school voucher program for the District of Columbia. Gingrich also made the pages of Education Week in 1995 for his support for (non-federal) programs that paid students to read. "We are trying to teach [students] that being a pimp or a drug dealer is not the only way to make money," Gingrich said at the time.

Ben Carson

Earlier this year, Trump said Carson, the retired pediatric neuroseurgon, would play some sort of important role with respect to education in his administration. (This was after Carson ended his own presidential bid. But what if Trump picks Carson as his vice presidential nominee, and not his education secretary?

As we've reported before, Carson, like Trump, has singled out American students' test scores as a prime example of how the country's public schools are falling flat on their faces. His solution? More school choice, block grants to make it easier for states to reward good teachers, and an easier-to-handle process for student loans, among other things. 

He has also questioned, at least briefly, the fairness of how property taxes are distributed to schools across the country.

And here's an interesting education anecdote about Carson that isn't about policy: In Gifted Hands, his autobiography, Carson describes getting a certificate at the end of 8th grade recognizing his academic achievement. The teacher at his predominantly white high school handed him his certificate, but what she did next hurt and angered Carson:

Then, to my embarrassment, she bawled out the White kids because they had allowed me to be number one. "You're not trying hard enough," she told them.

While she never quite said it in words, she let them know that a Black person shouldn't be number one in a class where everyone else was White.

... Of course, I was hurt. I had worked hard to be the top of the class—probably harder than anyone else in the schools—and she was putting me down because I wasn't the same color. On the one hand I thought, What a turkey this woman is! Then an angry determination welled up inside. I'll show you and all the others too.

Chris Christie

The New Jersey GOP governor has been a Trump backer for some time now after his own 2016 presidential bid fell flat. And it doesn't take too much digging to figure out Christie's education record.

At one time he was an ardent backer of the Common Core State Standards in the face of vigorous attacks from fellow Republicans. But as his own presidential bid began 
getting into gear, Christie backtracked, and he eventually expressed opposition to them—not very long after the New Jersey state school board re-adopted the standards. (Earlier this year, the board renamed the standards and made relatively minor alterations to them.)

There's been no such ambiguity when it comes to Garden State teachers' unions: Christie just flat-out dislikes them. In fact, he said last year that teachers' unions deserve a punch in the face. 

Christie altered the state's teacher-tenure laws in 2012, making tenure harder to obtain than before. Last year, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the state's decision to skip payments to the state pension system for two straight years, a big retreat from a high-profile pledge Christie made a few years ago to shore up the state's retirement fund. And his attempts to get a handle on the Newark school district have proven to be controversial. 

More recently, Christie has said he'll require school districts to test the drinking water for lead in New Jersey's public schools, and that the state will pick up the tab. And he also wants to require districts to lease vacant space to charters, and to speed up the renewal process for high-performing charters in New Jersey.

Mary Fallin  

Like Christie, the GOP governor of Oklahoma has made some headlines because of the common core, and for pretty much the same reason. Fallin made a big speech at a National Governors Association confab at the start of 2014 in which she defended the standards against charges that they were a "federal program" or a curriculum being imposed on states from Washington.

Roughly five months later, Fallin signed a bill into law that immediately repealed the common core.

This year, Fallin was hoping to get a state-backed pay raise for teachers and shore up sources of K-12 funding, among other big education-related budget goals. Part of the idea was to help ease the state's teacher shortage. Instead, she walked away with not very much.

Although Fallin succeeded in shielding state school aid from getting slashed, her plan to broaden a sales tax to help pay for those pay raises fell flat. And her school district consolidation plan also ran into fierce opposition. 

In fact, opposition to Oklahoma's education policy under Fallin has gotten strong enough thatdozens of fed-up teachers (at least in part due to that failed attempt to raise their pay) are seeking seats in the state legislature this year. It's part of a broader trend in which Oklahoma Democrats say this year it's been pretty easy to get Democrats to run in elections. 

Bob Corker

The U.S. senator from Tennessee, also a Republican, doesn't have the long K-12 resume of his fellow Volunteer State lawmaker Sen. Lamar Alexander, the GOP chairman of the Senate education committee. But Corker's gotten some attention as a possible Trump VP pick—and he does have a plan for "improving education in America." 

What's in this plan? There are three main elements:

"Increased Teacher Pay." The one-time mayor of Chattanooga, Corker cited a bonus-pay program that helped attract high-performing teachers to struggling schools. And he also noted that he helped secure philanthropic aid to support not only free graduate school tuitions, but forgiveness on home loans.

"Advancing Math and Science Education." He cited his vote in favor of federal legislation fordoubling the amount of money spent on basic scientific research. Corker doesn't say so, but it's an apparent reference to a bill to increase research funding up to $43 billion—the legislation would have also created summer academies for math and science and new scholarship opportunities, among other things. One of the prime movers behind this bill was ... you guessed it, Alexander. 

"Reduced Student Loan Interest Rates." Corker has supported efforts to expand the Pell Grant program that provides student loans to students from low-income backgrounds and additional aid to certain students seeking a career in teaching.The K-12 Records of Some Mentioned as Donald Trump Running Mates - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

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Teachers Unions Are Pushing Back Against Draconian Student Discipline Policies - Working In These Times

Teachers Unions Are Pushing Back Against Draconian Student Discipline Policies - Working In These Times:

Teachers Unions Are Pushing Back Against Draconian Student Discipline Policies

San Francisco teachers rallied at their school board for Safe, Stable, and Supportive Schools. Photo: United Educators of San Francisco  

This post first appeared at Labor Notes.

Two kindergarteners are poking each other with their pencils. What starts as a game soon gets out of hand. With one child bleeding, the teacher brings them to the principal’s office. Later, she finds out both kids were suspended and sent home.

It’s not an uncommon scenario in today’s public schools. But as activists draw attention to high rates of suspensions, racial disparities, and the “school-to-prison pipeline,” the political winds are shifting. Policymakers at the federal and district levels have begun to demand fewer suspensions, especially for minor rule-breaking.

It’s an issue where not all teachers see eye to eye. But a growing number of teachers and unions are rising to the challenge, pushing their school districts to back up suspension bans with the resources to make alternatives really work.

A better way 

Elana Eisen-Markowitz, a 10-year teacher in New York City, is active in a campaign to introduce “restorative practices,” an alternative approach to solving student behavior problems.

The idea is that teachers and students meet to discuss the behavior and the root problems that might cause students to act out—such as stress, anxiety, or problems at home.

For instance, suppose a student yells and curses at a teacher in the hallway. Instead of removing the student from his next class or sending him home, the teacher would sit down with him. Both would explain their experiences of the incident. Often a parent or even a peer student joins the meeting, too.

This new approach requires a culture change. But in her experience, Eisen-Markowitz says, it’s more effective than punitive discipline.

“So rarely I’ve seen a suspension work, where a student returns feeling ready to learn,” she said. “I personally feel safer knowing I’ve had a face-to-face conversation, rather than [just] seeing them in the hall again and again.”

Eisen-Markowitz is pleased that New York has moved to limit suspensions for behavior issues and explore restorative practices—though she’s already questioning the city’s rollout. She stresses that teachers must have a say in planning and implementing a restorative practices program. It can’t be outsourced or dropped from headquarters.

Besides being a building rep (shop steward) for her union, Eisen-Markowitz organizes with the activist group Teachers Unite, a network of educators who are using and promoting restorative practices. Teachers Unite discourages outsourcing the topic to Teachers Unions Are Pushing Back Against Draconian Student Discipline Policies - Working In These Times:

House votes to stop IRS from collecting info of nonprofit donors - Washington Times

House votes to stop IRS from collecting info of nonprofit donors - Washington Times:

House votes to stop IRS from collecting info of nonprofit donors

The House took a concrete step Tuesday to neuter the IRS in the wake of the tea party-targeting scandal, approving legislation that would stop the tax agency from being able to request the names of major donors to nonprofit organizations.

IRS officials have signaled they don’t regularly use the information anyway, and it’s sometimes supposed to be shielded from public view — though the agency did leak donor data in one high-profile cases several years ago involving contributors to a pro-traditional marriage group.

After that, and in the wake of the tea party-targeting scandal, in which the IRS asked intrusive questions, including names of donors, Republicans said it’s time to change the law and keep out the hands of an overbearing IRS.

“The IRS has demonstrated an inability to hold this information in the past, they’ve demonstrated an inability to hold it in the future, and they don’t need it. So if they don’t need it, let’s not give it to them,” said Rep. Peter J. Roskam, the Illinois Republican who wrote the bill.

His legislation passed on a 240-182 vote, split almost entirely along party lines.

Democrats balked at the bill, fearing that if the information isn’t being collected, it would open the door to a host of nefarious schemes to influence politics. Rep. Xavier Becerra even warned that if the donors aren’t being collected, the Islamic State might try to siphon money to the U.S. to sway the outcome of races.

“This bill becomes a license to secretly influence our elections,” the California Democrat said.

Republicans ridiculed that, with Mr. Roskam saying the terrorist organization was more intent on “cutting people’s heads off” instead of writing backdoor campaign checks.

The IRS has been a target for Republican ire for years, but that intensified after the agency was caught subjecting conservative groups’ nonprofit status applications to intrusive — and, at times, illegal — scrutiny. Some applications were delayed beyond the point set in law, while other groups were asked inappropriate questions about their members’ families, personal political activities and donors.

Donor information is reported on something dubbed “Schedule B” — though top IRS officials have since said they don’t regularly review that information, and they’re not supposed to release it anyway, so it’s unclear what purpose it House votes to stop IRS from collecting info of nonprofit donors - Washington Times:

Mother Crusader: NJ Charter Expansion Once Again On The Rise

Mother Crusader: NJ Charter Expansion Once Again On The Rise:

NJ Charter Expansion Once Again On The Rise
It would appear that Chris Christie's NJDOE is up to their old tricks again. 

NJCSA's Nicole Cole with Christie at 
Bergen Arts and Science Charter School

Governor Christie has been prancing around the state, meeting with charter parents (see here, here, here andhere), and New Jersey Charter Schools Association staff (see photo), boldly proclaiming that before he leaves office he will all but completely deregulate charter schools. He even delivered the keynote address at the New Jersey Charter Schools Association conference where he took more than a couple of predictable swipes at the NJEA.

In a speech Thursday at the New Jersey Charter School's Conference in Atlantic City, Christie said teachers unions are stealing from children and taxpayers while charter schools are doing "God's work." 

"Their philosophy is that every one of their jobs, every one of their perks is more important than changing the system that they know is failing," Christie said of teachers unions.

Charter schools, where teachers are not unionized and last-in-first-out policies do not apply, are more focused on students, Christie told a crowd of hundreds of charter school teacher (sic) and administrators. 

As Christie travels the state cozying up to the charter sector, and bashing traditional public schools, I've noticed that the charter application process has once again become a three ring circus.  

Yesterday it was announced that nine out of twenty four charter applications were advanced to Phase 2 of the state's March 2016 charter application round. That announcement came over Mother Crusader: NJ Charter Expansion Once Again On The Rise:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Definitions

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Definitions:

Definitions

Jane Addams, American radical

From Merriam Webster

adjective rad·i·cal \ˈra-di-kəl\

of, relating to, or proceeding from a root: as
a (1) : of or growing from the root of a plant <radical tubers> (2) : growing from the base of a stem, from a rootlike stem, or from a stem that does not rise above the ground <radical leaves>
b : of, relating to, or constituting a linguistic root
c : of or relating to a mathematical root
d : designed to remove the root of a disease or all diseased and potentially diseased tissue <radical surgery> <radical mastectomy>

From the Guardian... "FBI and Obama confirm Omar Mateen was radicalized on the internet."

I still don't see anything radical about a homophobic psychopath with an AR-15. Seems pretty retrograde to me. It's certainly not in the tradition of American radicalism, ie. Radical Republicans who opposed slavery and the Confederacy, socialists like Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, labor organizers like I.W.W. and civil rights heroes in S.N.C.C.

Rendition 

From Merriam Webster

noun ren·di·tion \ren-ˈdi-shən\
: a performance of something

From the Daily Mail..."Under the rendition program, terror suspects were kidnapped on foreign soil and transferred to centers also outside the U.S., where they were interrogated and tortured." 

In CIA-speak, using U.S. embassies abroad to kidnap and torture people is now called "extraordinary rendition".

From CPS website:
Wanted: Executive Director of PerMike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Definitions:

MUST READ! Call for Manuscripts: Strangers in Academia: Teaching and Scholarship at the Margins – the becoming radical

Call for Manuscripts: Strangers in Academia: Teaching and Scholarship at the Margins – the becoming radical:

Call for Manuscripts: Strangers in Academia: Teaching and Scholarship at the Margins

Call for Manuscripts

Strangers in Academia: Teaching and Scholarship at the Margins

Christian Z. Goering, University of Arkansas; Angela Dye, PBS Development, LLC; and P.L. Thomas, Furman University, editors

This volume seeks to collect contributions from authors across the spectrum of academe who, for one reason or another, feel as if they are strangers at their own universities and/or in K-12 education.

In the background of this project, we are confronting the mainstream idea that formal education is somehow revolutionary, for both individuals and the larger society. Therefore, this volume is a testament to how all levels of academia are too often reflect and perpetuate the society the schools/universities serve.

Specifically, we are seeking to include the experience, thinking, and scholarly perspective of those who feel othered, ostracized, pushed out, relegated, or marginalized because of your status (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) or your professional and/or ideological stances through experiences working in higher education or K-12. While it’s the ideal of the academy to consider all warranted perspectives perhaps there are elements of your status, practice, or philosophy that is being undermined by your administrators and/or colleagues. Insidious attacks, comments in the hall, or cultural norms have left you and/or your work feeling less than welcome.

Contributions should range between 3000 and 4000 words and explore the complex nature of working in K-12 or higher education and feeling less-than-welcome. What was the experience like? How did you address it? What were the consequences? Two-page chapter proposals are due on September 30, 2016, with complete chapters due December 1, 2016.

Submit all proposals as Word attachments to paul.thomas@furman.edu

The blog post below serves as an invitation to begin considering contributing to this volume.

No, there was no way out, and no one can imagine what nights in prison are like.

Meursault, The Stranger, Albert Camus

I left public education after an 18-year career as a high school English teacher and coach. The exit had its symbolism because at that time I was wearing a wrist brace on my right hand from overuse after almost two decades of responding to about 4000 essays and 6000 journal entries per year; in other words, I left public education broken.

A former student of mine on the cusp of becoming a first-year English teacher asked me recently what my first years were like, and I had to confess that from day one, my career as an educator has always been at the margins, a stranger at all levels of formal schooling and academia.

Yes, my hand was exhausted from marking essays, but I was broken as a public school teacher by administrators and in a bit of not so hyperbolic science fiction, The System.

Every single day of my life as a public school teacher, I worked against the system—but I did so with my door open because I believed (and still believe) my defiance was for The Cause.

I was never defiant for my own benefit, but Call for Manuscripts: Strangers in Academia: Teaching and Scholarship at the Margins – the becoming radical:

Reject Terror. Accept Love - Lily's Blackboard

Reject Terror. Accept Love - Lily's Blackboard:

Reject Terror. Accept Love 

Rhonda Rodeffer, left, and her daughter Kennedy, 4, visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

My son is gay.  Happily gay.  Confidently gay with a sweet sense of humor; a strength in his kindness and an exasperating need to argue his point (whatever point) until you give up yours from pure exhaustion.

I called him Sunday after the shootings.  We cried.  I saw his face in that club the same way I saw his face in Matthew Shepherd.  These were not random acts of violence.  They were acts of hatred against people like my son.  I told him what I wanted to write on my blog.  He told me what he wanted to write on his Facebook.  By the next day, he was telling me how upset he was to see friends and family members blaming Muslims in general for the Orlando attack.   

He wrote to them, “Do not spread more hate.  Many in the Muslim community mourn with us.  There are fringe branches of many faiths that approve of the shootings in Orlando, but they are few and shrinking.  We are many and we are growing.  Let’s band together and resolve to love more.  Let us never group people together and hate them because of who they are; where they were born; or where they find God.  Change comes when we reject the terror and continue to love.”

I was thinking of my boy when I sat down this morning to write this.  He is a strong man who learned long ago to stand up for himself with pride, and even to have compassion for those who did not accept him.  But he and other LGBTQ adults will tell you the fears they faced in high school.  It’s children I want to write about today.

Acts of hatred affect children in many ways. Parents and educators must be aware of what’s happeningemotionally with their little ones, whether they’re preschoolers or teenagers.  

in their little ones, whether or not they’re preschoolers or teenagers.  This act of massive hatred will cause fear in some children while others may feel emboldened to act as bullies.

There is a reason that there are laws that designate some violent attacks as hate crimes.  It’s because the victim is not only the person who was physically attacked.  The victim was meant to be the entire group that is hated: Latinos, African Americans, LGBTQ, Muslims, immigrants, the homeless… the list has no end.  And so for our children, a hate crime like Orlando’s may have varying impacts, depending on whether or not that child belongs to the group that was targeted.

If a child is an LGBTQ adolescent, he or she may fear for their immediate safety; they may question whether they can trust others.  As the names of the victims in Orlando are released, one can’t help but notice that so many of them have Hispanic surnames: Almodovar, Martínez, Fernández, Flores.  The attack came on “Latino Flavor” night. Latino children, may fear that they and their families are in danger, especially as they hear a heated debate about building walls to keep out Mexicans who have been casually characterized as drug dealers and rapists.

But it’s also likely that Muslim children will fear that they will be targets.  They are hearing news reports that the shooter was a Muslim with sympathies to terrorist organizations.  They will fear that wearing a hijab or their Muslim name may make people who are angry about the attack, angry with them by connection. 

There is fear on so many levels.  But some children who are neither gay nor Muslim nor black nor Latino may be receiving a different type of message – that anyone who belongs to one of those groups is the enemy.  Some of my colleagues have already told me that this year, they’ve witnessed bullying events involving very young students who have threatened Latino or Muslim students for being Latino or Muslim. 

Transgender students are now in the news and the focus can bring out new allies but also new bullies.  This is extremely dangerous.  What children hear from adults has a profound impact on them.  When they hear adults targeting groups, saying hateful things, they believe it’s acceptable for them to do the same.

It’s not, of course. But we can’t assume that our children will know that.  It’s up to the adults to speak directly to the children in their care.  It’s up to us to explain that belonging to a religious or racial group doesn’t make you good or bad.  Your sexual orientation or gender identity doesn’t make you good or bad.  We need to explain that humanity is made up of many people with different cultures and beliefs – that even within groups there are huge differences.  We need to explain that diversity is not something to be feared.  It’s something that’s simply human.  And we are all part of that human family.

But we need to explain that there is bad in the world.  Hate is bad.  Violence is bad.  Bigotry is bad.  Bullying is bad. 

Parents, educators, religious leaders, political leaders, Scout leaders, adult leaders… if you have influence on a child, you have a responsibility. 

Talk to them about the bad in the world that brings fear and violence; but talk about the good in us. 

Talk about the good we do when we refuse to group people together and hate them because of who they are; where they were born; or where they find God. 

Tell them that it is good to reject terror.  Tell them to continue to love.

NEA has posted resources to help students, educators, and families have meaningful conversations about the mass shooting in Orlando and other national tragedies at “United Orlando.” Reject Terror. Accept Love - Lily's Blackboard:

 

Mourners attend a candlelight vigil in front of the Dr. P. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando, Fla., on Monday, June 13, 2016, the day after an attack on a gay nightclub left dozens dead. (Loren Elliott/The Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Is the nation’s third-largest school district in danger of collapse? - The Washington Post

Is the nation’s third-largest school district in danger of collapse? - The Washington Post:

Is the nation’s third-largest school district in danger of collapse?

In September 2015, the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial that wondered whether the Chicago Public School District would collapse under the weight of its mind-numbing financial problems. It hasn’t yet, but money mismanagement, inadequate funding and failed education policy are combining with a host of other factors to raise the issue of whether the nation’s third-largest school district is in existential danger.

The governor of Illinois is fighting with the mayor of Chicago over funding; the mayor is in a long-term fight with teachers over a controversial pension system, charter schools and other issues, and many parents remain furious with the mayor for closing dozens of traditional public schools three years ago while promoting the expansion of charter schools. Teachers are working under an expired contract and may soon stage their second strike since 2012, when their week-long walkout had public support.

Dozens of principals, including some from the district’s best schools, have decided to leave, but those who are staying were warned recently that they could see 39 percent cuts in funding. That goes for teachers, after-school programs and enrichment programs. Chicago public schools, long in dire financial straits, face a budget deficit of more than $1 billion and must contribute $676 million to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund by June 30, which, the Chicago Sun Times says, would leave only $24 million in the district’s coffers.

Long accustomed to borrowing its way out of financial ruin, the district has seen its credit ratings drop to “junk.” Earlier this year, the district cut the size of one of its bond offers and, asReuters said, agreed “to pay interest costs rivaling Puerto Rico’s in order to lure investors into the deal.”

Everyone agrees the state’s funding formula needs to be updated, especially since a 2015 reportby the nonprofit advocacy group the Education Trust, found that Illinois’s funding gap between poor and wealthy districts “stands out for its unfairness,” with the highest-poverty districts receiving nearly 20 percent less in state funds than the lowest-poverty districts.

Meanwhile, there is a budget impasse in the state capital between Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, and the Democratic-controlled legislature. District officials — who say that the Chicago district has 20 percent of the state’s students but only gets 15 percent of its funding — just warned that the public schools won’t open in the fall if the budget for the next fiscal year isn’t passed soon. While several hundred students skipped class — risking detention — last Friday to protest the budget fiasco, Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel keep exchanging insults. WGN.TV reported recently:

Governor Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were back at it, trading nasty barbs. The war of words escalated when the governor said this:

“When you look objectively at the status of Chicago Public Schools, many of them are inadequate. Many of them are woeful and some are just tragic. Many of them are basically just crumbling prisons.”

Not long after Governor Rauner spoke, Mayor Emanuel hit back.

“Now it sounds like he’s auditioning to be Donald Trump’s running mate.”

 Outraged CPS parents chimed in, tweeting images of children with the hashtag,“#Notaprison.”

Cuts are being made at schools and in the central office during the school year, and even the Is the nation’s third-largest school district in danger of collapse? - The Washington Post:

Far too many teachers aren’t fully qualified | The Sacramento Bee

Far too many teachers aren’t fully qualified | The Sacramento Bee:

Far too many teachers aren’t fully qualified 

Teacher Larry Ferlazzo works with a student in January at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, which pairs student teachers with veteran teachers. Randall Benton rbenton@sacbee.com

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article83516302.html#storylink=cpy

My friend was amazed at her son’s new teaching job. Me, too, unfortunately.

This 25-year-old man was offered a spot at an Arizona charter school as an elementary-school music teacher and director of the school’s string ensemble. He majored in music and certainly knows it inside out, though he doesn’t play strings. He’s been a working musician for the past four years.

Karin Klein

But he has no teaching credential, no experience teaching, no experience with kids, period. He was interviewed and hired over the phone. Maybe he’ll do fine. But teacher shortage or not, this isn’t how schools should be hiring educators.

OK, that’s Arizona, where rules to make sure charters provide a quality education are considered a quaint notion. Unlike in California, they can hire teachers without any credentials. It’s one of several reasons why studies find that charter schools in our neighboring state perform worse than traditional public schools.

California doesn’t stoop that low – but it doesn’t stretch all that high, either.

Our public schools, charter and traditional, are hiring less-than-fully-qualified teachers in increasing numbers.

A recent report by the Learning Policy Institute examined the situation in the 2014-15 school year and compared it to two years earlier. The results make it clear that the teaching shortage isn’t a demographic forecast. It’s very real and promising to worsen. Schools have to compete with better-paying careers – and certainly ones that get more respect from our society.

The number of short-term and provisional teaching permits has tripled – permits that, the report says, are allowed only when schools can’t find enough fully credentialed teachers. In fact, it said, a third of all hires were teachers holding sub-standard credentials.

The supply of new teachers is at a 12-year low. Last year, according to the Bakersfield Californian, the Bakersfield City School District hired more teachers with emergency credentials than those with full qualifications.

The best of the proposals to do something about this is Senate Bill 933, which would create a three-year residency program for students in graduate school to get a teaching credential.

The first year, they would get $30,000 to help defray expenses; they would work in the classroom of a mentor teacher, who would get a stipend of a few thousand dollars for the extra work.

The next two years, the student would teach in a classroom, receiving wages from the school district, but be closely monitored by the mentor. That kind of training has been found to keep new teachers in the profession longer. It’s a waste of a lot of education when new instructors leave after a couple of years.

There are other, potentially useful ideas: a loan forgiveness program, and a smart but underfunded proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown encouraging colleges to provide teaching credentials as part of a bachelor’s degree instead of requiring graduate school.

California is the only state where an undergraduate teaching credential is nearly unheard of, and the fifth year of required college could be enough to turn some people away from teaching.

But at $10 million – $250,000 for each college that sets up a program – the tight-fisted governor is barely providing enough for start-up. Four-year credential programs aren’t cheap to run; how would colleges afford to keep them?

Of course, none of this will fix the problem if California doesn’t invest in improving working conditions for teachers by shrinking class sizes, fixing buildings and providing adequateFar too many teachers aren’t fully qualified | The Sacramento Bee:

Education Research Report: HOMELESS STUDENTS IN AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Education Research Report: HOMELESS STUDENTS IN AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

HOMELESS STUDENTS IN AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

While student homelessness is on the rise, with more than 1.3 million homeless students identified during the 2013-14 school year,  student homelessness remains an invisible and extremely disruptive problem, compounded by the lack of awareness of the issue in many communities.

Students experiencing homelessness struggle to stay in school, to perform well, and to form meaningful connections with peers and adults. Ultimately, they are much more likely to fall off track and eventually drop out of school than their non-homeless peers. Until this year, states and schools were not even accountable for tracking and making progress on their rates of graduation for homeless students.

Schools are a central touch point for students and their families, with deep roots and connections to the communities they serve. These institutions can function as a hub for quickly identifying homeless students, and connecting them and their families to the organizations and agencies that have the capacity and resources to provide housing, transportation, mental health care, and other tangible and emotional supports that will help students persist in school during these difficult times. Students spend a significant portion of their day in school – and as a result, schools can offer these students a safe and consistent place to study and access to caring adults who can help them navigate some of the challenges they face. In an otherwise chaotic time of homelessness, schools can be pillars of stability.

This study:

• provides an overview of existing research on homeless students,
• sheds light on the challenges homeless students face and the supports they say they need to succeed,
• reports on the challenges adults – local liaisons and state coordinators – face in trying to help homeless students, and
• recommends changes in policy and practice at the school, community, state and national level to help homeless students get on a path to adult success.

The Trauma and Disruption of Student Homelessness

Youth interviewed and surveyed for this report overwhelmingly report that homelessness is taking or has taken a significant toll on their lives, their health, their relationships, and their education. 

• n Greater than 8 in 10 (82 percent) of formerly homeless youth say that being homeless had a big impact on their life overall. Majorities of homeless youth cite specific impacts, such as:
• ||72 percent on their ability to feel safe and secure;
  ||71 percent on their mental and emotional health and 62
• percent on their physical health; and ||69 percent on their self-confidence.
• n More than two-thirds (68 percent) cite how homelessness made it difficult to maintain relationships with their own families, and 57 percent cite the same challenge with friends.
• n Sixty-seven percent say homelessness had a big impact on their education, with:
• ||Six in 10 formerly homeless youth saying it was hard to stay in school while they were homeless; and
• ||68 percent saying it was hard to succeed and do well in school during their homelessness.
• n Reflecting the impacts of homelessness on a student’s education, 42 percent of youth surveyed told us they had at one or more points dropped out of school.
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These findings bolster existing research showing homeless students are more likely to be held back from grade to grade, be chronically absent, fail courses, have more disciplinary issues, and Education Research Report: HOMELESS STUDENTS IN AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS: