Big Education Ape

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Sunday in Brooklyn. | Fred Klonsky

Sunday in Brooklyn. | Fred Klonsky:

Sunday in Brooklyn.

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The footage shows Mr. Brown entering the store, Ferguson Market and Liquor, shortly after 1 a.m. on the day he died. He approaches the counter, hands over an item that appears to be a small bag and takes a shopping sack filled with cigarillos. Mr. Brown is shown walking toward the door with the sack, then turning around and handing the cigarillos back across the counter before exiting.

Jason Pollock, a documentary filmmaker who acquired the new tape, says the footage challenges the police narrative that Mr. Brown committed a strong-armed robbery when he returned to the store around noon that day. New York Times.

Governor Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are now trading insults over their inability to adequately fund schools. It’s not like the old days, when they were shoulder-to-shoulder against the Chicago Teachers Union, with charter school expansion as their prime weapon.

While Rauner can’t pass a budget and Emanuel presides over wave after wave of fiscal Sunday in Brooklyn. | Fred Klonsky:

Ed Notes Online: Shaun King: Using 'working-class voters' as shorthand for white people is insulting and rooted in racism

Ed Notes Online: Shaun King: Using 'working-class voters' as shorthand for white people is insulting and rooted in racism:

Shaun King: Using 'working-class voters' as shorthand for white people is insulting and rooted in racism

Something ugly happens when "working class" becomes shorthand for white. It projects the very distinct impression that working people are white. ...

Please stop saying that the Democratic Party has lost "working-class voters." It hasn't. It's an insult to the tens of millions of working-class voters of color who have voted faithfully for decades for each and every Democratic candidate thrown their way....

while I agree with the basic philosophy of Bernie Sanders that if the Democratic Party would do better by all working-class people, it could possibly begin to win back working-class white people in the process, we must not erase the fact that tens of millions of working-class voters simply are not white. Period.

Shaun King, Daily News

The false face of the working class

In my FB battles with some pro-Trump NYC teachers who are clearly immersed in racist attitudes -- like branding medicaid people as too lazy to work and ignoring the massive working poor population - many people of color -- we clearly see that kind of branding King exposes. I wonder how some of these teachers can face students who they believe don't deserve health care because their parents are poor.

I'm posting this Shaun King column as a follow-up to his recent column that I wrote about the other day: Bernie Sanders and Shaun King Savage the Dems As Matt Taibbi Questions Depth of Russia Story.

King pointed out that the Democratic Party was more unpopular than Trump. Arthur writes about that column today: Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?

My answer is NO. But more of that another time.

I am posting this as a preface to a follow-up for later in the day where I will explore the connections between the Dems, ed deform, the destruction of Vocational ed - here in NYC particularly as the Dems pushed the line that if you don't go to college you are nothing - a direct attack on the working class. And of course the fundamental support the AFT/UFT gave to ed deform Ed Notes Online: Shaun King: Using 'working-class voters' as shorthand for white people is insulting and rooted in racism:

Teacher Quality: A Reader in 2017 | radical eyes for equity

Teacher Quality: A Reader in 2017 | radical eyes for equity:

Teacher Quality: A Reader in 2017

Let me start with a full disclosure: Lawrence Baines is a colleague and friend with whom I have collaborated on several book projects and presentations. So I want to offer some friendly concerns about his thoughtful When ‘Highly Qualified’ Teachers Aren’t in Education Week.

Baines open with: “Recent research confirms that America’s most vulnerable children are being taught by the least-qualified teachers.”

This is incredibly important, but let’s clarify a few points. Vulnerable students include black and brown students, high-poverty students, English language learners, and special needs students. And Baines is highlighting a truly ugly fact about unwritten policies in education: these vulnerable populations of students are assigned disproportionately new and early-career teachers as well as un-/under-certified teachers.

Dozens of studies for many years have confirmed that administrations commonly “reward” veteran teachers by assigning them “good” students and advanced courses such as AP and IB.

Add to that dynamic that the rise of charter schools linked strongly with TFA has increased the likelihood that vulnerable students will be assured a continual stream of uncertified and new teachers.

Confronting the increased bureaucratization of teacher preparation and alternative certification programs, Baines makes his central case: “The continual dumbing-down of the preparation of teachers is not without Teacher Quality: A Reader in 2017 | radical eyes for equity:

Right-wing billionaires want to rewrite our Constitution — and they’re frighteningly close to pulling it off

Right-wing billionaires want to rewrite our Constitution — and they’re frighteningly close to pulling it off:

Right-wing billionaires want to rewrite our Constitution — and they’re frighteningly close to pulling it off

Imagine if the U.S. Constitution barred the EPA and Department of Education from existing. All union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with a national minimum wage.

Imagine that the Constitution makes it illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters, big banks and even big food and pharma—all are free to rip you off or poison you all they want, and your only remedy is in state courts and legislatures, because the Constitution prevents Congress from doing anything about any of it. The federal government can’t even enforce voting or civil rights laws.

To add injury to insult, the federal government has to shut down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because all of these programs (along with food stamps, housing supports and any programs that help the middle class, the less fortunate or disabled) are “beyond the reach” of what the federal government can do.

A few years ago, it would have been a thought experiment; now it’s nearly reality. Billionaires and the groups they fund are working to rewrite our Constitution to provide corprations and the rich with more and more protections and benefits, and chop away at anything smelling of “socialism” like Social Security or child labor laws.

The fact is that they’re just a few states away from meeting their goal, and have already held dress rehearsals in Washington D.C.—with representatives from all 50 states—for a Constitional Convention that would change America forever.

The Constitution (arguably) provides for three ways to change or amend itself. The first is that Congress can propose a constitutional amendment, pass it with a supermajorityRight-wing billionaires want to rewrite our Constitution — and they’re frighteningly close to pulling it off:

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Endless Winter Edition + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Endless Winter Edition (3/12):

ICYMI: Endless Winter Edition

As always, I encourage you to share and boost the signal of anything you read here.

It's Testing Season. Ethics, Anyone?

Sarah Lahm highlights just two of the jaw-dropping abuses done in the name of the Big Standardized Test this year (so far).

Out There

Annie Tan with a short, simple, powerful meditation on putting yourself out there.

Dismantling Public Education: Turning Ideology into Gold

Alex Molnar at the Institute for New Economics takes a look at the big picture in the school privatization movement.

Charter Schools Do Not Equal Education Reform

Guest op-ed from David Hornbeck, who was the head of Philly schools when they first got themselves in deep trouble. The lede tells you why you want to read this:

As Philadelphia's Superintendent of Schools, I recommended the approval of more than 30 charter schools because I thought it would improve educational opportunity for our 215,000 students. The last 20 years make it clear I was wrong.

White Choice

Well, this is kind of depressing. Jennifer Berkshire looks at how segregation academies (private schools started so that white children wouldn't have to go to school with black classmates) are still alive and thriving in the South.

Betsy DeVos' Holy War

So this is where we are now-- Rolling Stone decides to go ahead and cover the Secretary of Education. Much of this will be familiar to those of us who have been studying up on DeVos, but Janet Reitman's piece connects all the dots and lays out the bigger, scarier picture.

A Tale of Two Betsy DeVoses

Between the Stone piece and this one in the Atlantic, it seems that journalists are finally ready to wrestle with he big questions-- how do you make "DeVos" plural or possessive? This profile focuses on the odd discontinuity between Betsy, the sweet-as-pie hometown girl making West Michigan a better place, and DeVos, the hard-knuckle, ball-busting political operative.

Inconceivable Conversations

Blue Cereal Education with a great piece about testing, and why not.

Why Can't Teachers Make Decisions on Their Own

And now for something else entirely-- Peter DeWitt provides a more formal framework for discussing how schools are set up to make sure that teachers can't make decisions.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Endless Winter Edition (3/12):

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/03/catch-up-with-curmudgucation_11.html

Massachusetts Paraeducator Named 2017 NEA ESP of the Year - NEA Today

Massachusetts Paraeducator Named 2017 NEA ESP of the Year - NEA Today:

Massachusetts Paraeducator Named 2017 NEA ESP of the Year

2017 NEA ESP of the Year Saul Ramos

Like many multi-skilled people with a wide range of interests, Saul Ramos is hard to peg. While Ramos has demonstrated his ability as a paraeducator and union leader within Worcester Public Schools in Massachusetts and nationally through NEA, he has had an equal impact directing local art projects and adapting Shakespeare for theaters in various New England communities.

Yet, for all his talents, those who know Ramos best say his greatest accomplishment to date may be the life-changing effect he had on a single child, a visually impaired student he worked with from kindergarten starting in 1999 until the student graduated from high school in 2011.

“To give his student every chance to succeed, Saul taught himself braille,” says Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA).

After 18 years, the self-taught braillist currently serves at Burncoat High School transcribing school materials and classwork of visually impaired students into print or braille, a writing system in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

“He helps students become independent, both academically and personally,” says Madeloni, who was one of the first people to hug Ramos when he was named the 2017 National Education Association (NEA) ESP of the Year during the awards banquet March 11 at the NEA Education Support Professionals Conference in Dallas, Texas. The annual award is NEA’s highest for an ESP.

At the event, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García presented Ramos with a trophy, bouquet of roses, and $10,000 check.

“NEA applauds Saul and his commitment to helping students succeed in the Massachusetts Paraeducator Named 2017 NEA ESP of the Year - NEA Today:

NYC Educator: Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?

NYC Educator: Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?:

Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?

Shaun King has a lucid and chilling column on the future of the Democratic Party--or lack thereof. At a time when Donald Trump is the least popular starting President, the Democrats and Hillary Clinton have managed to make themselves even less popular. That's a remarkable achievement. King explains it very clearly--the Democrats fail to stand for anything. They oppose Trump, but take the same corporate cash as the GOP and fail to put forth a much-needed alternative.

No one knows this better than teachers, having lived eight years under an Obama administration that treated us, incredibly, even worse than GW did. in fact, Diane Ravitch wrote that Obama gave Bush a third term in education. The Democrats, in their zeal to "triangulate" and get donations from anti-labor causes, embraced Bill Gates and so-called Democrats for Educational Reform. When teachers are rated by junk science test scores, they have Barack Obama to thank for it.

Then there are, of course, those of us who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries. Bernie spoke of universal health care for all Americans, as opposed to the compromises of Obamacare, which it appears we are likely to soon lose anyway. He spoke of a living wage for Americans. He spoke of free college for all.

Hillary and her supporters told us that was pie in the sky. You can't have that. You are "Bernie Bros." In fact, just recently a UFT employee attacked me for being a Bernie Bro, and went so far as to say he should not have been allowed to run. Of course, this person misses the point entirely. I had no problem voting for Hillary when the alternative was Donald Trump, but a lot of Americans felt, with a choice like that, they'd just sit it out. I voted. I got everyone I knew to vote. Of course, in our twisted and preposterous electoral system no votes from NY State mattered anyway.

The question then becomes where the Democrats go from here. They just failed an important test by selecting a Hillary supporter rather than a NYC Educator: Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?:

Congress Frees Public Schools From Federal Test & Punish – Where’s the Catch? | gadflyonthewallblog

Congress Frees Public Schools From Federal Test & Punish – Where’s the Catch? | gadflyonthewallblog:

Congress Frees Public Schools From Federal Test & Punish – Where’s the Catch?

Let’s say you were kidnapped and kept in a small basement room where you were routinely beaten and starved.

Then after years of this treatment, your captors brought in a massage table and offered you a filet mignon after your spa treatment.

You’d be more than a little bit confused.

That’s the position of parents, students and teachers today.

After almost two decades of punishing public schools and their students for low test scores, Congress suddenly decides to step back and leave it to the states!?

Until now the federal government had mandated increasing high stakes standardized tests and forcing schools that don’t meet a certain threshold to be stripped of their school boards, turned into charters or simply closed. Until now, the federal government coerced states to enact every fly-by-night corporate education reform from Common Core to Teach for America to evaluating teachers based on student test scores.

But now the feds are just walking away!?

First, in 2015 lawmakers passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a reauthorization of federal K-12 education policy that (depending on how you interpret it) limited federal power over public schools. However, the Obama administration offered guidelines that put much of that federal power back in place.

Now both the House and Senate have voted to repeal those Obama administration guidelines in favor of… well… some other interpretation.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Congress Frees Public Schools From Federal Test & Punish – Where’s the Catch? | gadflyonthewallblog:

Is Louisiana’s NAEP Miracle ‘Significant’? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Is Louisiana’s NAEP Miracle ‘Significant’? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Is Louisiana’s NAEP Miracle ‘Significant’?

In a recent Washington Post editorial, Mitchell Chester and John White, wrote about their successes in turning around low performing schools. Chester and White are both members of the organization Jeb Bush founded called Chiefs For Change. Most of the members are actually former chiefs who have left for one reason or another, but Chester and White are currently in leadership roles, Chester in Massachusetts and White in Louisiana.

This Washington Post piece, was, of course, hailed by ‘reform’ zealots like Joel Klein and TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva-Beard

When I think of states that give evidence in any way about the possible positive impact of modern education ‘reform’ (closing down schools, replacing them with charters, evaluating and firing teachers based on a poor measure of ‘student achievement’, etc.), Massachusetts and Louisiana are not two of the states that come to mind. Massachusetts has always been at or near the top of the rankings. Based on the PISA scores, Massachusetts, if it were a country, would be one of the top performing countries in the world. And for Louisiana, except for the statistics that they invent, their test scores on NAEP, the AP, the ACT, and any other sort of standardized test have been very low and continue to be.

So why are we listening to John White, who came to Louisiana from New York where he was mentored by Joel Klein, about how to improve low performing schools? Well of Is Louisiana’s NAEP Miracle ‘Significant’? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Texas Ed Commissioner Abruptly Suspends Operations of SASIC Charter Schools Due to Apparent Criminal Background Check and Health Violations | deutsch29

Texas Ed Commissioner Abruptly Suspends Operations of SASIC Charter Schools Due to Apparent Criminal Background Check and Health Violations | deutsch29:

Texas Ed Commissioner Abruptly Suspends Operations of SASIC Charter Schools Due to Apparent Criminal Background Check and Health Violations

On March 08, 2017, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath suspended the operations of San Antonio-based charter school district, San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity (SASIC). Furthermore, SASIC authorities were required to attend a hearing on March 10, 2017, regarding a number of reported violations that Morath believed had not been properly addressed prior to March 08th.

Many concerns about SASIC operations were detailed in a letter sent from Texas State Representative and Chair of Vice Chair of the Texas House Committee on Education, Diego Bernal, on February 10, 2017. Bernal writes:

Recently, alarming reports of misconduct, outlined below, have been brought to my attention directly by [SASIC] faculty, staff, and parents…:

These complaints include:

Improper conduct and contact between staff and students

Improper, unsanitary storage of food

Serving expired, rotten food to students which resulted in student illness and absences

Falsification of employee records and timesheets

Failure to pay employee salaries, hourly wages, and overtime pay

Threatening teacher and staff employment and certifications for raising concerns about the school environment and management

Falsification of student transcripts, attendance records, and other State accountability documents

Nepotism within the District Office

As such, I ask that you receive this letter as both a formal complaint and a request for a full investigation.

As News4Antonio reports, on February 16, 2017, Morath contacted SASIC Superintendent Sonja Nelson warning of possible funding and operations suspension and requesting evidence demonstrating that SASIC is in compliance with criminal Texas Ed Commissioner Abruptly Suspends Operations of SASIC Charter Schools Due to Apparent Criminal Background Check and Health Violations | deutsch29:

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