Family Affair – EduShyster

Family Affair – EduShyster:

Family Affair

Political scientist Maurice Cunningham says the campaign to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts is driven by GOP operatives and a handful of wealthy Republican families…

EduShyster: Ads in support of Question 2, the ballot initiative that will dramatically expand the number of charter schools in the Bay State, arerunning during the Olympics, and come with the tagline: *more money for public education.* I was prepared to give them a gold medal for, um, dexterity, but since the ads are being produced by the team that made the infamous Swift Boat ads that cost John Kerry the 2012 presidential election, I suspect there’s plenty more where that came from.

Maurice Cunningham: I think we can expect some rough stuff. This is a Republican effort, it’s a big money effort, and it’s a conservative effort. That’s where they tend to go.

EduShyster: There’s a well-funded effort underway to paint the campaign to lift the charter cap in Massachusetts as a progressive cause. But what you’ve found in yourresearch is that this is basically a Republican production from top to bottom.

Cunningham: That’s right. There are a handful of wealthy families that are funding this. They largely give to Republicans and they represent the financial industry, basically. They’re out of Bain, they’re out of Baupost, they’re out of High Fields Capital Management. Billionaire Seth Klarman, for example, has been described as the largest GOP donor in New England, and he gives a lot of money to free market, anti-Family Affair – EduShyster:

Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools - The Washington Post

Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools - The Washington Post:

Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools

What will it take for U.S. schools to improve — not incrementally, but dramatically?

That’s the question that a bipartisan group of state lawmakers from around the country set out to answer two years ago, when they embarked on a study of the world’s highest-performing school systems. They compiled their answers in a report released Tuesday at the annual summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“The bad news is most state education systems are falling dangerously behind the world in a number of international comparisons,” says the report. “The good news is, by studying these other high-performing systems, we are discovering what seems to work.”

The group examined 10 nations that fare well on international comparisons, including China, Canada, Singapore, Estonia, Japan, Poland and Korea, and discovered common elements: strong early childhood education, especially for disadvantaged children; more selective teacher preparation programs; better pay and professional working conditions for teachers; and time to help build curriculum linked to high standards.

[Read the report, “No Time to Lose"]

It also says that high-performing countries tend not to administer standardized tests annually, as the United States does, but instead at key transition points in a student’s career. The assessments emphasize essays over multiple-choice in an effort to gauge students’ complex thinking skills, according to the report. And the tests cost more than states are used to paying for standardized tests, but “these countries prioritize this investment as a small fraction of the total cost of their education system, knowing that cheaper, less effective, less rigorous assessments will not lead to world-class teaching or high student achievement.”

The report — which comes as a new federal education law returns considerable power to shape public education to the states — urges state lawmakers to build a coherent vision for better schools instead of adopting piecemeal reforms.

“Education is first and foremost a state responsibility. Each state can develop its own strategies for building a modern education system that is globally competitive, similar to the approach taken by other high-performing countries,” the report says. “But we must begin now. There’s no time to lose.”

The report does not address some of the more controversial and partisan issues that state legislatures face, such as the role of charter schools, vouchers and other school-choice initiatives.

The report’s findings echo many of the ideas that teachers unions support. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised the bipartisan committee, saying it had “set aside political ideologies to work together for what’s best for students and educators.”

The new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, “creates an educational reset, with the states now being the movers and shakers,” Weingarten said. “This is a rare opportunity in the United States to look at some of the best international practices and apply them here.”

Here are the members of the committee that worked on the report:

State legislators
Rep. Robert Behning, Ind.
Rep. Harry Brooks, Tenn.
Rep. Tom Dickson, Ga.
Rep. Ken Dunkin, Ill.
Sen.  Joyce Elliot, Ark.
Sen. John Ford, Okla.
Rep. Eric Fresen, Fla.
Rep. Lynn Gattis, Alaska
Rep. Mary Stuart Gile, N.H.
Rep. Wendy Horman, Idaho
Rep. Betty Komp, Ore.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, Ohio
Sen. Rich Madaleno, Md.
Sen. Luther Olsen, Wis.
Rep. Alice Peisch, Mass.
Sen. Robert Plymale, W.Va.
Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, Wash.
Rep. Jacqueline Sly, S.D.
Sen. David Sokola, Del.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, Utah
Rep. Roy Takumi, Hawaii
Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, Nev.

State legislative staff
Ben Boggs, legislative analyst, Ky. legislature
Todd Butterworth, senior research analyst, Nev. legislature
Rachel Hise, lead principal analyst, Md. legislature
Julie Pelegrin, assistant director of the office of legislative legal services, Colo. legislature
Phil McCarthy, senior analyst, Maine legislature
Anita Thomas, legal counsel, N.D. legislature

NCSL education staff
Julie Davis Bell, group director
Michelle Exstrom, program director
Lee Posey, federal affairs counsel
Madeleine Webster, policy associate
Barbara Houlik, staff coordinator

Project partners
Daaiyah Bilal-Threats, National Education Association
Dane Linn, Business Roundtable
Scott S. Montgomery, ACT
Chris Runge, American Federation of Teachers
Adrian Wilson, Microsoft Corp.

National Center on Education and the Economy
and Center on International Education Benchmarking Staff:
Marc Tucker, president
Betsy Brown Ruzzi, vice president and director of CIEB
Nathan Driskell, policy analyst

Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools - The Washington Post:

NCSL No Time to Lose Report (3) by emma brown on Scribd

 Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools - The Washington Post:

The NAACP’s Increasing Concerns with Publicly-funded Charter Schools | deutsch29

The NAACP’s Increasing Concerns with Publicly-funded Charter Schools | deutsch29:

The NAACP’s Increasing Concerns with Publicly-funded Charter Schools

On July 29, 2016, Julian Heilig of the blog, Cloaking Inequity, published a postabout the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)2016 position on charter schools. Heilig serves as education chair of the California Hawaii NAACP.

In short, the NAACP has formally called for a moratorium on charter schools. But the resolution does more than just strongly advocate putting the brakes on charter school expansion; it also details the reason for the NAACP’s resistance against charter school proliferation, a resistance that the NAACP began formally voicing in 2010 and more strongly in 2014. (Archives of NAACP resolutions can be found here.)

NAACP concern over the ill effects of charter school expansion is increasing as years pass, as is evident in the language of its three resolutions on the issue. To begin with, here is the NAACP’s 2010 resolution:

CHARTER SCHOOLS

WHEREAS, charter schools are public schools which were originally designed to explore new approaches to educate students; and

WHEREAS, in some cases, charter schools have become a school model that is used to segregate students; and

WHEREAS, charter schools have too seldom informed the education community regarding innovative instructional strategies that accelerate academic achievement in the general population of students; and

WHEREAS, the Center for Research in Educational Outcomes (CREDO) which examined charter school data in fifteen (15) states and the District of Columbia confirmed that only 17% of the charter school students in the study outperformed their peers, while 46% performed no better and 37% performed worse; and

WHEREAS, charter schools operate more autonomously than traditional public schools in the use of funds, adherence to state laws and school policies, selection and removal of students, and the selection and removal of 

The NAACP’s Increasing Concerns with Publicly-funded Charter Schools | deutsch29:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charters: the News Across the Nation

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charters: the News Across the Nation:

Charters: the News Across the Nation

The news is not good.  In fact, there's quite a lot of rumbling across charterland.   Get a cup of coffee because there are many stories to read.  These stories create quite the crazy quilt of the landscape of charter schools.

Let's start with the NAACP and the resolution brought forth at their national convention recently.  When you see the NAACP saying things like:

- charters are rapidly growing and "targeting" communities of color
- some charters are privately managed and do not include parents in any decision-making nor have parents on their boards
- that charters are contributing to the re-segregation of American schools
- that some charters use punitive discipline
- that co-locations in some districts with a traditional public school are leading to clashes and fights over turf and resources
- and that the NAACP, along with the Journey for Justice Alliance, a coalition of 38 groups of color in 23 states, are calling for a moratorium on federal funds for charter schools, "many of which have closed or failed the students drawn to them on the illusive promise of quality"

You must know that there is alarm out there for communities of color to seem to believe they may have been sold a bill of goods, a least for privately managed charter schools.  The outcome of this vote could ripple throughout the country.  (And kudos to the King County NAACP for coming out way sooner on this issue.)

The next ripple could come from a vote on the ballot in Massachusettswhich The 74 calls:

"..a relatively simple question that will appear on the Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charters: the News Across the Nation:

NYC Educator: Newsday Asks Opt-Out to Please Crawl Away and Die

NYC Educator: Newsday Asks Opt-Out to Please Crawl Away and Die:

Newsday Asks Opt-Out to Please Crawl Away and Die

When I was 12 years old, I think, my first job ever was delivering newspapers. I delivered Newsday for several years. I also sold a hell of a lot of subscriptions. Whenever anyone moved in, whenever a new house was built, and whenever anyone wasn't on my route I'd knock on the door and sell new subscriptions. It was easy. There was nothing like it and it was pretty much the best source of local news. I read it every day.

Now Newsday is a piece of drek owned by the would-be monopolists at Cablevision. It's writtenone of the stupidest editorials I've ever seen.  Newsday thinks the opt-out movement has done its job, and that now it's time to sit down and shut up. You see, the tests were "fine" because they were "vetted" by "at least 22 New York public school teachers."

It’s unfortunate that 20 percent of students statewide and more than 50 percent of those on Long Island opted out of those exams this past spring. So while the tests were fine, the broad results released by the state on July 29 are practically useless for evaluating classes, schools and districts on Long Island.

You see what they did there? Not only did they understate the percentage of students statewide who opted out, but they also failed to note that the tests were fundamentally different from those the year before. Even the state itself acknowledges that, sometimes. Newsday then attributes these changes to the "parent and teacher revolt against Common Core standards in recent years," the same revolt that it opposed tooth and nail, each and every step of the way. Newsday says opt-out has now achieved its goals and should therefore go away and leave it alone.

Newsday loves standardized tests:

Results of standardized tests are just about the only measure that equally compares student skills across classes, schools, districts and NYC Educator: Newsday Asks Opt-Out to Please Crawl Away and Die:

 

New Book Gathers Research Proving False the Myths and Promises of NCLB and RTTT | janresseger

New Book Gathers Research Proving False the Myths and Promises of NCLB and RTTT | janresseger:

New Book Gathers Research Proving False the Myths and Promises of NCLB and RTTT

What if it became fashionable to reform social work by ignoring the Schools of Social Work in our major research universities?  Or to run hospitals according to the theories of the Business Schools instead of Colleges of Medicine?

Essentially that is what the past two decades have done to education. Generations of learning theory, educational philosophy, and child psychology out the window. Revert to Gradgrind’s idea, satirized in Charles Dickens’ 1854, Hard Times—classrooms made of, “little vessels… there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.” Bring in Teach for America with its Ivy Leaguers—posting high SATs and spilling over with knowledge—to pour in facts. Consult the Business Schools to make schools efficient; talk to tech wizard entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley; listen to gurus promoting competition in Departments of Social Entrepreneurship.

In Learning from the Federal Market-Based Reforms the education research professors and philosophers and psychologists and the people who teach teachers how to teach strike back. The National Education Policy Center has gathered two decades’ of thinking by academic educators about accountability-based, test-and-punish school reform. If you were to undertake a research paper on the impact of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, here collected in this new volume is much of the scholarship you’d need. These studies and articles are organized in several sections—foundations of market-based reform, the evidence about sanctions-based school policy, false promises and myths that underpin recent “reforms,” effective and equitable policies needed for operation of our public schools, and a conclusion—lessons (for federal and state policy makers) that, research says, should be part of implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, last December’s update of the federal education law.

The editors introduce the book’s contents: “This volume presents a comprehensive collection of the most rigorous research evidence about both the test-based reforms and policies that have become the new normal, and the less common, most promising strategies for the future.  In many cases, the chapters reproduce previously published solid research that has existed for some time, but that has been ignored by decision-makers when designing successive iterations of federal and local education policy. Other chapters provide new analysis of some of the most recent reforms.” “In its entirety, the scholarship in this volume points overwhelmingly to one unambiguous conclusion—heavy-handed accountability policies do not produce the kinds of schools envisioned under the original ESEA (passed in 1965 as the centerpiece of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty). By punishing, rather than nurturing, our most fragile schools and children, the policies steer us further away from ESEA’s initial goals to foster a more democratic, equitable system of schooling for all students. They do so by diverting attention away from the conditions in which our most challenged schools are embedded.” (pp. xix-xx)

The book includes David Berliner’s profound paper, “Our Impoverished View of Education Reform,” published in the Teachers College Record in 2006. For the new volume, Berliner has New Book Gathers Research Proving False the Myths and Promises of NCLB and RTTT | janresseger: 

Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) vs Malloy (and Rell) - Wait What?

Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) vs Malloy (and Rell) - Wait What?:

Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) vs Malloy (and Rell)

Eleven years ago, the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) brought a suit against the state of Connecticut charging that the state’s school funding formula had been so corrupted that it violated Connecticut’s Constitution by failing to provide cities and towns with sufficient state aid to ensure that every child received a proper public education.

At the time, Dannel Malloy was the Mayor of Stamford and signed onto to lawsuit as a plaintiff, correctly pointing out that students in his community and across the state could not get a proper education as a result of Connecticut’s warped school funding program.

As a candidate for governor Malloy supported the suit and recognized that it was the single most important mechanism for transforming Connecticut’s school funding formula into something that adequately funded schools and treated local property taxpayers more fairly.

But upon being elected governor, Malloy switched his position 180 degrees and has spent the last seven years trying to prevent the critically important lawsuit from coming to trial.  When that strategy failed, he wasted precious public dollars, as has Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, working to convince the judicial system that Connecticut’s unfair school funding system is just fine.

For the last five months, a Connecticut judge has been taking testimony on the case.  Yesterday the legal team representing students, parents, teachers and public schools gave their closing arguments.  Today, the state will make their pitch about why the courts should Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) vs Malloy (and Rell) - Wait What?:

Community Schools Bridging the Gap Between School and Home

Community Schools Bridging the Gap Between School and Home:

Community Schools Bridging the Gap Between School and Home

For many students living in poverty, the community school model provides a network of support that makes life - and learning - a little easier.

Saige, a 10-year-old fifth grader at Roosevelt Elementary School in Allentown, Penn. has glasses, dimples and dark curly hair she wears in a long ponytail down her back. She also has long limbs and is a little on the tall side. It’s the perfect frame for a young girl who plays the cello, which she does for two hours, five days a week with an orchestra of other school kids.

Saige is a member of El Sistema, a social action music program for underserved and special needs students who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to participate in intensive daily music instruction and large ensemble performances. The program is sponsored by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, a community partner of Roosevelt Elementary. Roosevelt is one of 14 United Way Community Schools in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, about 40 miles west of Philadelphia, where community partnerships like the one with El Sistema offer an array of programming for students and families.

Supporting community schools goes hand in hand with the United Way’s mission to identify and resolve needs within American communities by leveraging the power of local organizations. As any educator knows, schools and students always have needs—now more than ever. With state and local budgets cut to the quick, community support may be the only way to address those needs.

Poverty Presents Challenges That Extend Beyond the Classroom

Here’s the reality: More than half of public school students live in poverty, and these kids have challenges that make learning difficult if not impossible. When these students come to school, educators often take on the role of social worker. There’s no one else to step in and help.Community Schools Bridging the Gap Between School and Home:

Guest Blog: Voting My Profession (and For My Students) - Lily's Blackboard

Guest Blog: Voting My Profession (and For My Students) - Lily's Blackboard:

Voting My Profession (and For My Students)

I am a retired educator and political activist and I’ve been involved in every election for the past 20 years.  I’ve learned to “vote my profession, not my politics,” and my profession has led me to the Democratic Party every time.

I retired in 2015, but for 16 years of my 22-year teaching career I taught American Government with an emphasis on the U.S. Constitution. My students were taught the values of civility, enlightened self-interest, responsibility and all about their right to vote. The absolute measure of a democratic society is the ability to vote freely, unencumbered by fear or retaliation.

My students learned and discussed equality, civil rights, women’s rights, the Bill of Rights, the 14th amendment and respect for all regardless of race, color, creed, gender or who one loves.  In addition, we concentrated on the Due Process and Rule of Law.

Voter registration drives were an annual event in my building and we even had students work the polls on Election Day. When students left my class, they had more than a basic understanding and appreciation for the principles of the Constitution. And unlike Donald Trump, they knew that there is no “Article 12.” 

I watched the Republican National Convention and attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate.  I live in Eastlake, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland, and volunteered to be on a host committee to welcome the Republicans to town as an “Ambassador for Cleveland” because I’m a proud Ohioan and I enjoy being part of the political process. I welcomed members of the Tennessee delegation to Cleveland and directed them to the wonderful sights and sounds of the area. They were a fun and friendly group and I looked forward to an upbeat convention.

But there was nothing upbeat about it. The Republican message was “Lock Her Up!”—and worse. The doom and gloom words of speaker after speaker were shocking to me. Each day Trump and his surrogates spewed a message of cynicism, fear and sarcasm. The demeaning comments and bullying insults have no place in this process. The convention concluded with the pessimistic and dark address by nominee Donald Trump. The United States that Trump described is not the nation I live in and love.

What a sharp contrast with the Democrats’ message of hope and optimism. They acknowledged our challenges but did not despair about them. The atmosphere was electric, and the chants—“Love Trumps Hate” and “Stronger Together”—are reflections of what we are all about. We take care of each other regardless of who we are, what we look like, where we have come from or who we love!

NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia brought honor to our association by speaking passionately about immigration reform and the need to keep families together. She sent a powerful message that our children will be valued and Guest Blog: Voting My Profession (and For My Students) - Lily's Blackboard:

CURMUDGUCATION: Effect and Effect + Summative School Ratings: Not So Great

CURMUDGUCATION: Effect and Effect:

Effect and Effect

One of the linchpinny foundational keystones of education reform is a confusion between correlation and causation.

Sometimes correlations are random and freakishly mysterious. For examples, check out the collected and recollected Spurious Correlations, by which we learn, among other things, that the divorce rate in Maine correlates with the amount of margarine consumed.

But often the correlation-related confusion has to do with mistaking effect and effect for cause and effect.

Take the classic correlation month-by-month between death by drowning and amount of ice cream consumed. At first it seems sort of random, like the divorce and margarine correlation. But with a little inspection, we see that both the rate of deaths by drowning and ice cream consumption are effects of a separate cause-- the weather. In the snow and cold of winter, fewer people eat ice cream, and fewer people go swimming.

Someone might look at pro basketball players and conclude, "Hey, they almost all have huge shoe sizes. That must have something to do with making them successful NBA players!"

When we confuse effect and effect for cause and effect, we start trying to implement ideas. Some politician says, "Well, clearly ice cream causes drowning, so let's heavily regulate ice cream sales so that we can reduce the number of deaths by drowning."

Or a parent says, "Clearly, if I start my child wearing really big shoes from an early age, he will CURMUDGUCATION: Effect and Effect:





Summative School Ratings: Not So Great

Chad Aldeman took to the Bellwether blog to make his case for summative school ratings (grades) under the loaded headline "Summative Ratings Are All Around Us. Why Are We Afraid of Them in K-12 Education?"

Of course, plenty of us, maybe even most of us, are not "afraid" of slapping a grade on schools. There just don't appear to be many benefits, and plenty of harm done. Aldeman provides a list of his positives. Let's see how they stack up.


1. Summative ratings are all around us. 

Perhaps Aldeman somehow skipped that part of childhood where some adult authority figure said, "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" He correctly notes that ratings are all the rage, from Amazon to Rotten Tomatoes. But he also notes that customers who are interested in purchases will read the reviews, and reading through all the reviews on Amazon or Yelp is pretty much the opposite of a summative rating.

Of course, this sort of system doesn't always work out well. TripAdvisor, an app and service that collects reviews (and makes summative ratings) of hotels and motels, ironically itself gets a one star rating from Consumer Affairs, backed up by hundreds of tales of the rating service being skewed in any number of ways, often because of one sort of relationship or another with those being rated.

Aldeman might also have noted the long-standing summative rating used in the investment world, where investments are rated A or AAA or some lesser letter. If you think back to 2008 and all the Summative School Ratings: Not So Great

BATs Stand in Solidarity with the NAACP Resolution for a Moratorium on Privately Managed Charters Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

BATs Stand in Solidarity with the NAACP Resolution for a Moratorium on Privately Managed Charters

The Badass Teachers Association, a national education activist organization,  stands in strong solidarity with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of privately managed charters.  To read the full resolution please go here https://cloakinginequity.com/2016/07/29/breaking-news-naacp-calls-for-national-moratorium-on-charters/   The NAACP states, “Charter schools have contributed to the increased segregation rather than diverse integration of our public school system.”  Last week, as well, the ACLU  issued a report detailing the many illegal practices of charters, one of them being exclusionary practices.  Read here for more on that  https://cloakinginequity.com/2016/08/01/breaking-news-aclu-finds-many-illegal-policies-in-charter-schools/

“I support the NAACP for recognizing the dangers that for profit charter schools pose to black and brown and low-income communities. The denial of quality education has long been used to oppress people of color and we shall not be fooled into believing that privately run corporations will use tax payer money to provide all with a quality education when it goes against their bottom line. The NAACP shall not be swayed by those in the black community that have been bought by charter corporations to peddle their toxic brand of school choice. Education is not a business. It is a human right that must be protected from the dangers of privatization.” ~ Dr. Denisha Jones, BAT Board of Director Member  and Professor of Education Trinity Washington University. 

“BATs is so grateful to NAACP for recognizing that charters have increased segregation and inequity for public school students. We will fight side by side to get equity of resources, class size, and opportunities for a well-rounded PUBLIC education for all students. We will work together for educational and racial justice. We believe school closures are a hate crime against our most marginalized communities.” ~Terry Kalb, BATs Board of Director Member, retired special education teacher, and advocate for special needs students.  

“We are in support of the conclusion reached by the NAACP. Furthermore, we are hopeful that this is just the beginning of Civil Rights organizations across the United States joining in the fight for Public Education for all students of color. A two-tiered education system runs in stark contrast to the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision.” ~Gus Morales, BATs Board of Director Member and Massachusetts Teacher.

“It is important to remember the history of the NAACP in fighting racial, economic, and social injustice-- its recognition that Charter Schools represent an invasive incursion upon the existence and influence of the Public Education System in the United States is both necessary and appreciated by those educators, parents, and students who know the intrinsic value of a Free, Appropriate Public School education.” ~ Roberta Reid, Co-Director of BATs Social Justice Steering Committee and Retired NYC Public School Educator.

The NAACP resolution is a powerful statement that is about our children and their communities, not about politics and policies. The NAACP is taking a principled position based on the long and counterproductive record of charters schools in this country.  Please go here to read about national fraud and waste in the charter school sectorhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/28/report-millions-of-dollars-in-fraud-waste-found-in-charter-school-sector/       We want to thank the NAACP  for always taking a leadership role in doing what is right for children, equality, and equity.   Please join The Network for Public Education in sending the NAACP a Thank You email – go here https://actionnetwork.org/letters/say-thank-you-to-the-naacp?source=direct_link& 



 Badass Teachers Association:

Ban school suspensions!

Ban school suspensions!:

Ban school suspensions!

Robert Adrian Hillman / Alamy Stock Photo

One day this spring, my 6-year-old came home from school with deep scratches on his arm. After several meandering stories involving fictional characters, he divulged that a friend had used his fingernails to get attention. I suggested my son ask his friend not to do this again. Matter closed.

In another family, at another school district, the story might have ended very differently for one or both boys. They could have been suspended for causing minor injury. But in July, the New York City Department of Education told its elementary school principals that — barring outstanding circumstances — they could no longer suspend students in kindergarten through second grade. Instead, they would have to use other methods to help young children learn to play nice.

Nearly three million American schoolchildren are suspended — or made to stay home due to misbehavior — in any given school year. About 20 percent of the 2013 graduating class had been suspended in high school for offenses ranging from dress code violations to fighting or drug use. The most serious offenses — like guns in school — involve police and expulsions and are regulated by federal law. But more often, suspensions target smaller and often more subjective crimes like "defiance," physical contact, or bad language.

New York City is one of a handful of places where educators are starting to rethink the usefulness of this archaic practice. California, Connecticut, andOregon already passed similar restrictions on suspensions, while bills are pending in New York state and New Jersey. Other states and districts have asked schools to try a host of alternative options called "restorative practices" or "positive behavioral interventions and supports."

Why? Well, because suspensions don't work.

That's not just my opinion. The American Psychological Association says suspensions for students who "defy" a teacher don't help the suspended student and don't provide greater order or safety for those left behind, and there's academic research to back that up. Yes, there should be a consequence for actions that hurt others. But out-of-school suspension doesn't prevent bad choices, and worse, it leads to lost learning for those who may need it most.

Suspension is also a lazy option for correcting behavioral problems. As a fellow parent told me once, removing a kid from school "is just kicking the can down the road. It's not helping the child, the parent, educators. It's not even a short-term solution. It's just nothing." Instead of helping a student learn to do the right thing, a suspension often ignites a cascade of future failures, including more suspensions and entry into the juvenile justice system.

Not only are suspensions counter-productive, they are discriminatory in their application: Black students are suspended at nearly four times the rate as white students, even in preschool. The higher suspension rates for black students (particularly black boys) has little to do with them committing Ban school suspensions!:

CNS - Parents Call Washington Charter Schools Illegal

CNS - Parents Call Washington Charter Schools Illegal:

Parents Call Washington Charter Schools Illegal

  SEATTLE (CN) — In a renewed battle over charter schools, a coalition of parents, teachers, administrators and labor groups sued Washington state, claiming its Charter School Act is still unconstitutional, despite a legislative fix.
     Plaintiffs in the Aug. 3 complaint in King County Court include the state's largest teachers' union, Washington Education Association and the League of Women Voters.
     The state's original Charter School Act was passed by voter referendum in 2012.
     Many of the same plaintiffs sued the state in 2103, and the Washington Supreme Court ruled in September 2015 that publicly funded private charter schools areunconstitutional.
     The supreme court found that charter schools are not "common schools" as identified in the Washington Constitution because they do not have elected boards that are accountable to taxpayers, and so are not entitled to public funding.
     The Legislature changed the funding process in March, making charters supported by lottery proceeds.
     In the new lawsuit, the coalition says the Charter School Act still authorizes improper transfer of public money.
     "Under the Act, charter schools continue to be run by and responsible to nonprofit companies and nonelected boards and, thus, are not accountable to taxpayers who provide funding for charter schools. Likewise, the Act continues the unconstitutional diversion of public funds to charter schools," the complaint states.
     The coalition wants the Charter School Act declared unconstitutional and publicly funded Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) schools also prohibited, as they are the same as charter schools, according to the complaint.
     The Washington State Charter Schools Association condemned the lawsuit in a statement.
     "Our state's new charter public school law is the product of the Legislature's bipartisan effort to save our state's charter public schools — schools designed to address equity and opportunity gaps for students of color and from low-income backgrounds whose families are seeking better public education options. We are confident that the bipartisan law passed by the Legislature meets the constitutional threshold laid out by the courts. We are disappointed that any organization would be interested in blindly closing public school doors on students who are finally thriving."
     The plaintiffs are represented by Paul Lawrence with the Pacifica Law Group.
     They are El Centro De La Raza, the League of Women Voters of Washington, the Washington Association of School Administrators, the Washington Education Association, the International Union of Operating Engineers 609, Aerospace Machinists Union IAM & AW DL 751, Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO, United Food and Commercial Workers Union 21, Washington Federation of State Employees, American Federation of Teachers Washington, Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, and parents Wayne Au, Pat Braman and Donna Boyer.CNS - Parents Call Washington Charter Schools Illegal:

America’s Mayors: Put Us in Charge—Now - POLITICO Magazine

America’s Mayors: Put Us in Charge—Now - POLITICO Magazine:
America’s Mayors: Put Us in Charge—Now

In the midst of a presidential election with two historically divisive and unlikable candidates, America’s mayors—accustomed to fighting through gridlock to get things done—have voted themselves most likely to succeed.

Borrowing a page from the old high school yearbook, Politico asked the cities' chief executives to have a little summer fun and rate each other in a variety of categories: most innovative, best rookie, most impressive turnaround, coolest performance in crisis, long-term presidential prospects and who should be running for the Oval Office—right now.

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On that last category, the overwhelmingly Democratic mayors achieved some consensus, naming Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti on 27 percent of the ballots, followed by Mike Rawlings of Dallas with 15 percent, and Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City with 11 percent. The three mayors' cities are chasms apart in political culture, but their leadership styles share a few similarities—willingness to lead bipartisan initiatives, leading fast-growing cities and enjoying high popularity—that have earned them national accolades. Also getting attention for their executive function were Baltimore’s Stephanie Rawlings-Blake with 10 percent, narrowly outplacing New York’s Bill de Blasio, who was named on 8 percent of ballots.

The lighter-hearted questions were part of a larger survey that also addressed contentious issues of race and policing. This was Politico Magazine’s sixth quarterly Mayors Survey, part of the award-winning “What Works” series. Seventy-one mayors across the country participated, from Burlington to Dallas, San Francisco to Boulder and Tampa to Maui. Reflecting the generally blue-hue of the city halls, respondents were largely Democratic—over 80 percent.

Asked to imagine which mayor would become president by 2020 or 2024 (a variant on the question of who should be running “right now,” above) almost a quarter of mayors again gave first prize to—no surprise—Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles. In distant second was former Newark mayor and current New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (who was on a shortlist for Hillary Clinton’s running mate) at 6 percent. Several other former mayors—Tim Kaine (who is suddenly busy) and Michael Bloomberg received nods, as well as current mayors Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, Greg Fischer of Louisville and Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/cities-urban-policy-mayors-survey-revitalization-us-214151#ixzz4GqYD3oSH 
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