Schools boost engagement with ELL classes for parents :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Schools boost engagement with ELL classes for parents :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Schools boost engagement with ELL classes for parents

(Calif.) English language courses for parents have become more popular as districts report increased family engagement among Spanish-speaking households. Advocates for English learners say the trend is likely to improve student outcomes too.

Escalon Unified School District, located in San Joaquin County, included providing English as a second language courses to parents on their 2014-15 Local Control Accountability Plans as a way to help them become more involved in their children’s’ educations. Administrators found the courses were so successful that they included additional supplemental funding in their following two LCAPS and now offer more advanced classes as well.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea because it makes parents more comfortable and confident when going to the school, and it gives them some language skills to be able to look at what the students are bringing home and help them with homework–especially in lower grades,” Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, executive director of the English learner advocacy organization Californians Together, said in an interview. “And those parents who stick with it for a few years can help their students thrive in their own acquisition of English by practicing it with them.”

Nearly a quarter of the students in public schools across the state are English Learners, 85 percent of whom are Spanish-speakers, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Often times, these students are far behind their peers academically, and score substantially lower on statewide tests.

On the 2016 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress exams, only 13 percent of English learners met or exceeded grade-level standards in English language arts, and only 12 percent did so in math–compared to 56 percent of those fluent in the language who met or exceeded language arts standards and 43 percent who met or exceed standards in math.

The Local Control Funding Formula was ushered in nearly 3 years ago by legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown in an effort to expand educational services to low-income students, English learners and foster youth through targeted spending.

In Escalon Unified, schools used funds to transition from traditional English for Spanish-speaker classes taught by non-credentialed bilingual instructors to immersion style courses that, in order to Schools boost engagement with ELL classes for parents :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool: Hundreds of professors across the country support Seattle educators in their day of action | I AM AN EDUCATOR

Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool: Hundreds of professors across the country support Seattle educators in their day of action | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool: Hundreds of professors across the country support Seattle educators in their day of action

Over 200 scholars and professors nationwide sign statement in support of the Seattle teachers’ October 19,^, 2016 action to make Black Students’ Lives Matter in the district. The support for making Black Lives Matter in our classrooms has been widespread, yet some around the nation have also responded with messages of hate and fear.  Dr. Wayne Au, Associate Professor in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell and an editor for the social justice teaching publication, Rethinking Schools, put out a call to professors and scholars to publicly tell the Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle School Board that many experts in the field of education and beyond support Seattle teachers. Below is the statement and the list of 212 names and affiliations as of October 17, 2016.

We, the undersigned professors and scholars, publicly express our support for and solidarity with teachers of Seattle Public Schools and their October 19, 2016 action in recognition of making Black Student Lives Matter in our schools. We hope that these teachers are continually supported by the district, the school board, their union, and parents in their struggle for racial justice in Seattle schools.

Name & Affiliation (for informational purposes only)

1. Curtis Acosta, Education for Liberation Network & University of Arizona South
2. Alma Flor Ada, Ph. D., Professor Emerita, School of Education, University of San Francisco
3. Annie Adamian, Assistant Professor, California State University, Chico
4. Jennifer D. Adams, Associate Professor Science Ed and Earth and Environmental Sciences, CUNY
5. Tara L. Affolter, Assistant Professor, Middlebury College
6. Jean Aguilar-Valdez, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Portland State University
7. Lauren Anderson, Associate Professor of Education, Connecticut College
8. SubiniSolidarity with #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool: Hundreds of professors across the country support Seattle educators in their day of action | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

High court to reconsider Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE):: SI&A Cabinet Report

High court to reconsider definition of FAPE :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

High court to reconsider definition of FAPE

(District of Columbia) A case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court may answer the 40 year old question: what, specifically, constitutes a “free appropriate public education.”

States have been required to provide to students with disabilities a free appropriate public education–or FAPE–for more than four decades, but for much of that time, there’s been broad disagreement over the parameters of that right.

The parents of a teenage boy in Colorado diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism have challenged the Douglas County School District over the services provided to their son. The central legal question–one that has divided courts on the appellate level for years–is what level of service satisfies the concept of an “appropriate” education.

Attorneys for the parents, along with counsel representing the U.S. Department of Education, have argued that under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, schools are required to establish education plans for students with disabilities–or SWD–that provide a “meaningful educational benefit.”

Officials from Douglas County schools, located just outside of Colorado Springs, say Congress provided no specific test as to the level of education SWD are to be provided. They point to a 1982 Supreme Court precedent that required individual education plans–IEPs–only need to give “some educational benefit,” or a “basic floor of opportunity.”

Late last month, the justices agreed to hear the case although it is unclear when arguments might be scheduled given the backlog of issues since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

 “The high court’s decision could have major impact on the way schools draft IEPs for special needs students,” said Sarah Garcia, partner at the education law firm of Lozano Smith, in a news brief released last week.

Generally, FAPE as defined by IDEA means a specially designed education that meets the unique needs of the student and comes at no cost to the parents.

But in the 1982 case, the Supreme Court conditioned the right by saying that an EIP must be “reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits.” The court declined to provide any test to determine the adequacy of the educational benefit because of the “infinite variations” in the capabilities of each child.

Based on that ruling, school officials have prevailed in a series of rulings including a 2015 decision from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In an amicus brief filed in the Douglas case in August, attorneys representing the Obama administration have asked the Supreme Court to reverse the 10th District ruling and clarify that the IDEA requires a far more robust level of service. They point to the standard definition of “appropriate,” which in most dictionaries is defined as specially suitable, fit or proper.

“No parent or educator in America would say that a child has received an ‘appropriate’ or a ‘specially suitable’ or ‘proper’ education ‘in the circumstances’ when all the child has received are benefits that are barely more than trivial,” federal attorneys argued. “That is particularly true when a child is capable of achieving much more. Taken to its logical conclusion, the ‘merely … more than de minimis’ test could lead to results that Congress plainly did not intend when it required an ‘appropriate’ education.”

Attorneys representing the school say that the Obama administration is begging the question.

“To the extent that (IDEA) subjects the states to any substantive standard, it calls for no more than a rational-basis-type review to ensure that the education to which access is provided is reasonably calculated to confer more than a de minimis educational benefit,” they wrote.

IDEA, they argue, seeks primarily to make public education available to SWD. “Thus, for over thirty years, this Court has held that if a state provides a program reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits, then it has complied with the obligations imposed by Congress.High court to reconsider definition of FAPE :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Should New Orleans have closed so many schools? Study explores charter trend | NOLA.com

Should New Orleans have closed so many schools? Study explores charter trend | NOLA.com:

Should New Orleans have closed so many schools? Study explores charter trend 

If you're going to close a school, you had better have a better place for students to go. That's the takeaway from a new report from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans that addresses one of education's most controversial issues and endorses extensive school closures and the move to charters in New Orleans -- but not in Baton Rouge.

Tulane University released the report Monday (Oct. 17).

It's a deeply relevant question in New Orleans, where more than 50 public schools have been closed, chartered or re-chartered by new management since Hurricane Katrina, according to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune research. Almost all of the city's 83 public schools are now charters: publicly funded schools run by private nonprofits that receive broad autonomy in exchange for meeting certain academic targets.

Advocates of the charter school revolution say the new system won't work unless elected school boards are willing to close failing charters. But it's upsetting for families, who may think cities should fix troubled schools instead of closing them -- as parents said when the state shut down Lagniappe Academies in Tremé in 2015. Often it's the most disadvantaged students whose lives are disrupted, and it can leave neighborhoods without their anchor.

The Tulane researchers asked the $64 million question: Is the disruption worth it? After examining state test scores, graduation rates and college entry, they concluded sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Lagniappe parents: 'We're fighting to keep the school open'

Parents at Lagniappe Academies don't believe a state report alleging special education violations and are angry at the Recovery School District for recommending that the school close.

"The key to making closures and takeovers work is to ensure that directly affected students end up in better schools after the intervention," they write. "These interventions can offer promising strategies for improving student achievement when well implemented."

Indeed, the authors say closure policies caused 25 percent to 40 percent of the improvement in New Orleans students' academic results from 2006 to 2012. Along with eliminating some failing schools, the threat of closure motivated schools to improve test scores.

But Baton Rouge students suffered -- a lot. High school graduation rates fell by 11 percentage points, "apparently because the average affected student ended up in a worse school than where he or she started," the researchers write.

Sometimes schools were closed even though they weren't doing that badly. In Should New Orleans have closed so many schools? Study explores charter trend | NOLA.com:

The “Value-Added” of Teacher Preparation Programs: New Research | VAMboozled!

The “Value-Added” of Teacher Preparation Programs: New Research | VAMboozled!:

The “Value-Added” of Teacher Preparation Programs: New Research

The journal Education of Economics Review recently published a study titled “Teacher Quality Differences Between Teacher Preparation Programs: How Big? How Reliable? Which Programs Are Different?” The study was authored by researchers at the University of Texas – Austin, Duke University, and Tulane. The pre-publication version of this piece can be found here.

As the title implies, the purpose of the study was to “evaluate statistical methods for estimating teacher quality differences between TPPs [teacher preparation programs].” Needless to say, this research is particularly relevant, here, given “Sixteen US states have begun to hold teacher preparation programs (TPPs) accountable for teacher quality, where quality is estimated by teacher value-added to student test scores.” The federal government continues to support and advance these initiatives, as well (see, for example,here).

But this research study is also particularly important because while researchers found that “[t]he most convincing estimates [of TPP quality] [came] from a value-added model where confidence intervals [were] widened;” that is, the extent to which measurement errors were permitted was dramatically increased, and also widened further using statistical corrections. But even when using these statistical techniques and accomodations, they found that it was still “rarely possible to tell which TPPs, if any, [were] better or worse than average.”

They therefore concluded that “[t]he potential benefits of TPP accountability may be too The “Value-Added” of Teacher Preparation Programs: New Research | VAMboozled!:

Andre Agassi Making Big Money Building and Selling Charter schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andre Agassi Making Big Money Building and Selling Charter schools | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Andre Agassi Making Big Money Building and Selling Charter schools

Former tennis star Andre Agassi opened a charter school in Las Vegas a few years back. He collected millions of dollars from adoring fans. He promised that his school would prepare every student for college. It was supposed to be easy. But there were many problems. Principals came and went. Teachers came and went. The school was a disaster. An article written in 2012 said:

More than 10 years after it opened, Agassi Prep, one of the first charter schools in Nevada, and arguably the most high-profile, is still finding its way. The school serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade (it’s arranged into elementary, middle and high schools), and graduated its first class in 2009. Like all public schools, it receives more than $6,000 per student from the state and county, and supplements that with private funding. During the last school year, Agassi Prep spent $11,069 to educate each of its 600 students.

“My impressions were that everyone wanted the school to be one of the best schools in the nation,” Piscal said. “It hasn’t all come together, and there is some frustration about that. But people still wanted to make it happen.”

Piscal has been on the job for more than a year. He is the sixth person to lead the school since it opened in 2001. But high turnover is not restricted to the chancellor’s office. Teachers, principals and staff come and go like visiting teams. Former teachers said the constant turnover creates a chaotic learning environment. Although the school has a high graduation rate and sends most of its graduates to college, it has had little success getting students into top-tier institutions, and many of its graduates attend community college.

Piscal wants to change that. The charter school veteran came to Agassi in January 2011. Not only is he trying to increase academic rigor, especially at the high-school level, he’s also supervising an increase in enrollment that will almost double the student body.

He’s already had some success staunching turnover at the high school and middle school. When he arrived, many positions were held by long-term substitutes. Some students had four or five teachers over the school year. Most of those subs have since been replaced by teachers who survived a rigorous interview process, Piscal said.

(The interesting thing about this article–which is unique in describing the struggles of the school– is that I quoted it in my 2013 book “Reign of Error.” At the time, it was easily discovered through googling by the school’s name. However, when I searched for it to link for this post, the article had disappeared. It took repeated efforts to find it, and it is filed under the name of a state assemblyman. I can’t help but suspect that an Internet mechanism was used to bury this piece.)

Agassi, bear in mind, is a high-school dropout.

But he saw a good money-making deal and he went for more, leaning on the alleged success of his Las Vegas charter school. He teamed up with an equity investor named Bobby Turner, and they raised nearly a billion dollars for charter investment deals. The first one they built was sold to KIPP in Philadelphia, and the Agassi team made a profit of $1 million.

The team recently opened its fifth charter school and its first charter in Washington, D.C., called the Rocketship Rise Academy. On the day it opened, it declared itself a high-performing school.Andre Agassi Making Big Money Building and Selling Charter schools | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Traditional Assessment Isolates Learning, Devalues Community and Collaboration | the becoming radical

Traditional Assessment Isolates Learning, Devalues Community and Collaboration | the becoming radical:

Traditional Assessment Isolates Learning, Devalues Community and Collaboration

I attended junior high well before the rise of the middle school; therefore, I did not enter high school until 10th grade.

But the greatest shift for me as a student was my sophomore English class taught by Lynn Harrill. Throughout junior high, English class has been a never-ending Sisyphean hell of grammar textbook exercises and a sentence-diagramming marathon throughout 9th grade.

I entered high school a devoted math and science student—but more importantly, I had written essentially nothing of consequence as a student, ever.

Until Mr. Harrill’s class, in which we wrote two essays that sophomore year.

My close friends were a somewhat smaller subset of the so-called “top” students who were tracked in the honors classes. We were both socially and academically close.

By my senior year, we had begun to peer-edit our essays—which we feared was cheating because the workshop approach to teaching writing was not in practice yet and we had as “good students” learned all the unspoken lessons of schooling.

From “Cover your papers” during tests to “Don’t copy your friend’s homework,” we knew that collaboration was cheating—but my close circle of friends also knew something very important: when we were collaborative, we learned, and we learned in ways that surpassed traditional teacher-centered learning.

We were each other’s spell checkers, grammar editors, and unofficial peer-teachers.

Despite the rise of the National Writing Project and the mostly widespread awareness of process writing (although it remains too often misunderstood and mischaracterized), students throughout K-12 and university education experience traditional assessment in isolation—significantly one of the least authentic aspects of traditional assessment.

Throughout my 30-plus-year career, I have advocated for and practiced de-testing and de-grading, but during the more recent 14-plus years at the university level, I have been able to experiment more fully with how this looks in the classroom.

One element of authentic assessment and feedback for students that I have explored is moving away from assessment that isolates and toward collaborative assessment, assessment opportunities that require and emphasize community.

While university professors benefit from much greater professional autonomy than K-12 teachers, university’s still require grades and mid-term/final exams; notably, these exam sessions are pretty strictly regulated in that professors need to show some use of the exam times/days for assessment.

Since I give no tests (a practice I started while a public school English teacher), I have developed mid-term sessions that are collaborative and discussion-based.

For example, each fall my first-year writing seminars and foundations of education class have assignments that build toward spending the actual mid-term exam time in small and whole group discussions.

Class discussions as mid-term exams pose several significant problems in the context of traditionalTraditional Assessment Isolates Learning, Devalues Community and Collaboration | the becoming radical: 

NYC Educator: Campaign 2016--the Choice for Educators

NYC Educator: Campaign 2016--the Choice for Educators:

Campaign 2016--the Choice for Educators

he Washington Post interviewed both major candidates about education, and I'm not jumping up and down about either. Trump simply offered a statement about school choice, meaning charters, vouchers, and pretty much anything that doubles down against unionized public schools. Hillary is more nuanced, but not precisely encouraging. For one thing, it's disappointing she isn't still shunningspawn of Satan Rahm Emanuel. But let's look at the issues.

Testing:

A lot of us don't believe in high-stakes testing, particularly since they tend to shed light on nothing but which zip code students come from. Here's what Hillary says:

To me, the solution is better, fewer, and fairer tests.  The bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act was a step in the right direction. By providing funding to states and school districts to audit their testing systems and reduce unnecessary and duplicative tests, the legislation can help us find the right balance on testing.

It's not a bad answer, but it's not a strong one either. This is the same rhetoric we always get from testing apologists, and it really rules out nothing whatsoever. We're always hearing about how there's less testing, about how tests take less time, even when they're untimed. It really makes no difference what the truth of the matter is. That's not a strong statement, but rather a middle-of-the-road thing that makes it hard to disagree. But where's the beef?

Common Core:

When states came together on Common Core, I thought that was a laudable effort. But, like many Americans, I have concerns about how the Common Core has been implemented.

This is sorely disappointing. This is the same boilerplate excuse we get from virtually every CCSS supporter. It's like an executioner stating the process would work much better if only the guillotine were better oiled. Hillary sent Chelsea to the same elite school Obama sent his girls to. It utilizes none of the nonsense that CCSS inflicts on our children. Close reading is discredited nonsense, and if it isn't good enough for Hillary's kid, it's not good enough for yours either.

Charter schools:

Quality public charter schools can provide parents with real choices for their children. In fact, many of the country’s best public charter schools are opening doors to opportunity for disadvantaged students. That’s why I have long been a strong supporter of public charter schools and an unflinching advocate for traditional public schools.

She supports them, in case that is not clear. And she uses the ridiculous term "public" charter schools even though the only actual part of them that's public is the funding. You won't see Hillary making a fuss when Eva Moskowitz decides rules that dictate funding are too inconvenient for her. And the distinction between non-profit and for-profit charters, while it may mean something somewhere, doesn't prevent the likes of Moskowitz from paying herself half a million per annum.

Teacher evaluation:NYC Educator: Campaign 2016--the Choice for Educators:

Half of the world's school-age children with disabilities don't go to school: Report

Half of the world's school-age children with disabilities don't go to school: Report:

Half of the world's school-age children with disabilities don't go to school: Report

Stigma and misinformation, along with lack of data on number of disabled children are contributing to the problem

A new study by a disability rights group suggests that at least half the world's school-age children with disabilities are kept out of school due to lack of investment in their needs.

 Stigma and misinformation, along with lack of data on number of disabled children are contributing to the problem according to Light for the World, a charity that supported the research.

"People don't see them (children with disabilities) as a worthy investment…Many think for example that there's no point investing in their education as people with disabilities can't work," Nafisa Baboo, adviser for inclusive education at Light for the World was quoted saying to Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Furthermore, billions of dollars of potential income from the world's poorest countries are being lost due to lack of schooling and employment opportunities for those with disabilities. Around 15% of the world's population, estimated around 1 billion, are living with disability.

The new report urges governments to provide facilities for the education of disabled children within a mainstream system.

India faces the same sort of problems. The rates of disability are vastly under-reported. The last census in 2011 reported around 21 million people, just 2.21 percent of the population has a form of disability, compared to the global average for that year estimated at 15 percent.

The disability population is difficult to enumerate in India since people often hide their disabilities because of social stigma.

The following graphs gives an idea of the disabilities prevalent across India:

Following are a few data points worth highlighting;

* Arunachal Pradesh has the highest prevalence of visually impaired people with 693 per 1,000 people with disability while Goa has the lowest with 279.

* Maharashtra has the highest locomotor disability with 363 people per 1,000 disabled people while Arunachal is the lowest with 104.

* Goa tops in mental disability with 227 people per 1,000 disabled people while Arunachal is the lowest with 38.

* Nagaland has the highest number of people with speech disability with 166 per 1,000 disabled people while Rajasthan is the lowest with 52.

* Nagaland also has the highest hearing disabled people with 198 people per 1,000 disabled people while Delhi has the lowest with 37.

 Without adequate data, the Indian government cannot effectively allocate resources for accessibility of public infrastructure, funding for inclusive education, or medical support.

"Inclusive education can drastically reduce out-of-school populations, it can tackle discrimination in society, and it is considerably cheaper than segregated education...It's not just morally right, it's also a smart investment," said Baboo, while explaining the way to tackle the problem. Half of the world's school-age children with disabilities don't go to school: Report:

Undergraduates’ research exposes institutional racism of standardized testing | The Daily Cardinal

Undergraduates’ research exposes institutional racism of standardized testing | The Daily Cardinal:

Undergraduates’ research exposes institutional racism of standardized testing

UW-Madison undergraduates research shows that institutions limit the number of qualified black students that can attend their schools by requiring high test scores from underfunded schools. Image By: Photo courtesy of Marquise Mays

Three UW-Madison undergraduates have attempted to uncover through research that standardized testing exemplifies systematic racism and makes it challenging for young black students to attend college.

UW-Madison juniors Tyriek Mack and Marquise Mays, along with sophomore Tashiana Lipscomb, presented their research on this topic through their project titled “Standardized Testing: The Social Warfare Against Black Men.” They traveled to Bermuda and shared their findings with other researchers, including numerous Ph.D. holders, at the International Colloquium on Black Males in Education in early October.

The group joined UW-Madison’s Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims to speak about black students and faculty as leaders on campus in a panel discussion called “Setting the Table for Sustained Engagement: Student Movements, Backlash Experiences and Interventions.” They explained their findings on the correlation of standardized testing and academic performance among black individuals in college.

The group compiled research to create a narrative for how standardized testing came to be and found that the tests corroborated white supremacist tendencies of the creators. They sent a survey to students which asked participants to report their high school and college GPAs, list scholarships they have, among other questions.

“We found from our data that there was no correlation between how well someone does in college compared to their standardized test score,” Mack said. “For us, that was very showing and telling of how these institutions give access to certain groups of people. I'd say that the biggest goal of our research is to challenge that.”

The group’s research, which is in the preliminary stages, aims to prove that high schools with predominantly black student students do not receive the same preparation for standardized tests as their private, mostly white counterparts. They found that economic class of the schools and individuals plays a role in this as well; schools that are not well funded are commonly attended by black students. These students receive low test scores, which inhibits them from attending institutions such as UW-Madison.

Mack and Mays said they wanted to bring this topic to the attention of individuals at the colloquium to make academic institutions aware of the issue and hold them accountable.

“I feel like when people think of racism they think of it as discriminatory action and things that happen, like feelings and actual prejudice, more than an actual system,” Mays said. “At the end of the day, with standardized testing you are limiting the number of black people that can actually come to this school, that can benefit from these research opportunities.”

The group wants students to take action, educate themselves and speak up about this issue, especially those that are more privileged. They want people, particularly academic institutions, to acknowledge that standardized testing is racist.

“Our role on this campus is to be able to use this, standardized testing, as a way to challenge those people who are saying they aren’t racist to act,” Mack said. “And when they don’t I think it's clear that they are actually racist, because they continue to benefit from this institutional structure.”Undergraduates’ research exposes institutional racism of standardized testing | The Daily Cardinal:

NAACP Board of Directors Affirms Call for Charter School Moratorium | Huffington Post

NAACP Board of Directors Affirms Call for Charter School Moratorium | Huffington Post:

NAACP Board of Directors Affirms Call for Charter School Moratorium

On Saturday, the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ratified a resolution adopted by delegates at its 2016 National Convention calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion and for increased oversight over existing charter schools.

In an editorial last week the New York Times criticized the NAACP convention call for a moratorium accusing the organization of being “out of touch” with younger African-Americans. It wanted the Board of Directors to override the convention vote. Apparently New York Times editors think they have a better sense of what African-American parents want and need for their children.
 
The NAACP’s call for a moratorium charged that the recruitment of academically higher performing students by charter schools helped undermined support and funding for public schools and education for the majority of children who remain in traditional schools. Cornell Brooks, President of the NAACP, described charter schools as one step in the “preschool to prison pipeline.”
 
The Times especially praised New York City charter schools, ignoring a long history of problems with the city program. Success Academy Charter School Network is New York City’s largest charter school network. About 11,000 children attend its thirty-six schools. The network receives federal and state funding and free space from New York City for all of its schools. Currently it is accused of discriminating against students with disabilities, at least according to a filed by parents and New York City Public Advocate Letitia James with the State University of New York, which licenses charter school in the state.
 
The Success Network is also accused of repeatedly suspending young children who have been difficult in an effort to push their families to transfer them out of the charter schools. In October 2015 the New York Times reported that at least one of the Success Academy Charter Network’s schools maintained a “got to go“ list that NAACP Board of Directors Affirms Call for Charter School Moratorium | Huffington Post:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: FAQs On Upcoming Black Lives Matter Event

Seattle Schools Community Forum: FAQs On Upcoming Black Lives Matter Event:

FAQs On Upcoming Black Lives Matter Event

On October 19th, 2016 hundreds of Seattle teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, nurses, instructional assistants, librarians, and other educators will be wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to school in an unprecedented action, “Black Lives Matter At School.” 

That's how the Seattle Equality Educators' FAQ document starts.  I have previously only seen the day called "day of solidarity" but now it seems it is officially "Black Lives Matter at School." 

There are a couple of confusing things. 
- The group that has put forth this day - SEE - has no information available, at all, at their website. Why that is if they are the organizing group, I don't know.  Instead, the FAQs are at the website for Garfield teacher and public education advocate, Jesse Hagopian.

- Then there is this statement:

In support of this focus, members are choosing to wear Black Lives Matter t- shirts, stickers or other symbols of their commitment to students in a coordinated effort. SEA is leading this effort and working to promote transformational conversations with staff, families and students on this issue.

I'm a little confused because I'm not sure when the conversations with families would happen. I have only heard that some parents will be wearing a BLM t-shirt/sticker/button on that day.

FAQs (partial):

Q: Who has endorsed this Black Lives Matter At School event? Seattle Schools Community Forum: FAQs On Upcoming Black Lives Matter Event:

A Few Questions With Marylin Zuniga (An Interview) | The Jose Vilson

A Few Questions With Marylin Zuniga (An Interview) | The Jose Vilson:

A Few Questions With Marylin Zuniga (An Interview) 

For the better part of a decade, I’ve been exploring the idea of social justice education. While not a new idea, it’s picked up steam over the last couple of years with the Black Lives Matter movements, ethnic studies initiatives, and the need for diversifying the teaching profession. In the crossroads of these different movements stand a subset of educators who identify as social justice educators, thinking through their pedagogy and curriculum in the hopes of pointing their content towards making students into change agents for a better world.

Even though most people push social justice curricula in the middle and high school grades, not much has been said in the way of early childhood education (ECE). Whereas most assume that children won’t get concepts about social change in their pre-teen years, there’s been evidence from a plethora of teachers who’ve undertaken this work that this is possible and necessary. Rather than waiting for children to get activated in their teenage years, social justice ECE do masterful work with our youth through inquiry and passion.

Recently, I asked good friend and social justice educator Marylin Zuniga her thoughts on what social justice A Few Questions With Marylin Zuniga (An Interview) | The Jose Vilson:

EdTech webinar recording and slides | Parents Across America

EdTech webinar recording and slides | Parents Across America:

EdTech webinar recording and slides

We had a great webinar, “Our Children @ Risk: Challenging the EdTech Juggernaut,” earlier this evening. There was so much important information and a very useful discussion.

The slides, which include many helpful links, can be accessedhere.

The webinar recording is here – the audio is a bit garbled at times but mostly pretty good.

Please also make sure you look at the reports and fact sheetsPAA has prepared for parents and others to share.

Many thanks to our excellent panel:

• Jean Rogers from Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood,
• Rachael Stickland: Co-Chair, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy
• Cheri Kiesecker and Emily Talmage: Nationally-known bloggers on digital learning (Missouri Education Watchdog and Save Maine Schools)
• PAA leaders Heather Hicks and Laura Bowman

And don’t forget to tune in to our next webinar on November 20, a book club in our Impact of Poverty and Race on Educational Opportunity project featuring Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian, editor of More Than a Score.EdTech webinar recording and slides | Parents Across America:

Regarding the NAACP Charter School Moratorium, the New York Times Misguides Itself | deutsch29

Regarding the NAACP Charter School Moratorium, the New York Times Misguides Itself | deutsch29:

Regarding the NAACP Charter School Moratorium, the New York Times Misguides Itself

On October 15, 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ratified a resolution for a moratorium on charter schools.

Below is the text of that resolution, which was voted on by the NAACP membership at its July 2016 convention:

CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION AND STRENGTHENING OF OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNANCE AND PRACTICE 

WHEREAS, charter schools have been a rapidly growing sector of the education system, increasingly targeting low-income areas and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, charter schools with privately appointed boards do not represent the public yet make decisions about how public funds are spent; and

WHEREAS, charter schools have contributed to the increased segregation rather than diverse integration of our public school system; and

WHEREAS, research and reports have documented disproportionately high use of punitive and exclusionary discipline in addition to differential enrollment practices that violate protections of student rights for public schooling; and

WHEREAS, research and civil rights organizations have documented violations of parent and children’s rights, conflicts of interest, fiscal mismanagement, and psychologically harmful environments within several rapidly proliferating charter management organizations; and

WHEREAS, analyses on annual missing charter funds have been estimated at nearly half a billion dollars nationally; and

WHEREAS, researchers have warned that charter school expansions in low-income communities mirror predatory lending practices that led to the sub-

Regarding the NAACP Charter School Moratorium, the New York Times Misguides Itself | deutsch29: