‘Go Public’, Trauma Informed Education and EnCorps

‘Go Public’, Trauma Informed Education and EnCorps:

‘Go Public’, Trauma Informed Education and EnCorps

 Go Public Project - http://gopublicproject.org/

 By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

A story of intrigue, real education reform and wealthy ignorance.

Photo from gopublicproject.org

A film maker, Rita Grant, called asking me to join an expert education panel at San Diego State University (SDSU). She said she found me when reading Diane Ravitch’s blog and thought I would be a good fit. The event was a screening of the film “Go Public” at EnCorps’ Summer Residential Institute, followed by question and answers with the panel. I was not familiar with EnCorps, “Go Public” or Rita but nothing ventured nothing gained. So, I went.

I arrived at the Aztec Student Center in time to see about 150 people in matching EnCorps tee-shirts posing for pictures. Apparently, all of them had worked in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field and were recruited by EnCorps to enter the teaching profession. I was pleased to learn that it wasn’t another fraudulent path to becoming a teacher. Encorps recruits STEM professionals to become teachers or tutors. If they choose to teach, they must complete an accredited teacher certification course.

EnCorps

I met a wonderful group of people, but their organization’s reason for being is misinformed. It’s another education reform organization created by a well-connected misinformed rich person with little relevant training or experience in education, Sherry Lansing.

To be fair unlike many wealthy education philanthropists, Lansing does have some experience. Her foundation web site says, she “spent four years after college teaching high school English and math at public schools ‘Go Public’, Trauma Informed Education and EnCorps:

All Things Education: When social media meets the academy

All Things Education: When social media meets the academy:

When social media meets the academy

After I started my PhD program, I gave up much of my social media and blogging activity (though not all). This was for reasons of time, energy, but also voice and skills. I read and write so much for school that it's not exactly what I feel like doing when I have free time. In addition, the skills and voice I use for blogging and education writing are different from those needed for scholarly education writing. And, I needed to take some time to learn the later. I have started writing more again recently--more on this here.

This dichotomy came up during a seminar (David L. Clark seminar) for doctoral students I was a participant in at the Annual AERA Meeting this past spring in San Antonio, during a panel discussion entitled "The Role of Education Research Outside of the Academy." On the panel was Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education policy at University of Southern California, who happens to be one of my pre-PhD program #edutwitter pals.

Morgan addressed the confluence of social media and academia. In a nutshell, he said that while it's important to still hold your work to high standards and to make certain stipulations before agreeing to work on non-academic enterprises, activity on social media and doing non-academic writing strengthens, and doesn't supplant, academic writing. It can also help academics to share, articulate, and get feedback/push back on their work and ideas, especially from those in education but outside of academia. 

I was glad to see Morgan advocate for academics having a place and presence on social media. I agree: Activity on social media and informal writing can be part of being a public intellectual and is a way for scholars to communicate with other academics and with non-academics in the same field.

But for me, I had a reverse path in that I was active and had a presence on social media before going into academia. While, as afore-mentioned, I took a break, there was no way I was going to walk that back or dismantle the web of connections and relationships I had made via social media and blogging, nor did I want to just discount all of the work and non-academic education writing I had done.

What's been especially tricky is the clashing of diminished power hierarchies on social media (not eliminated, mind you, All Things Education: When social media meets the academy:

DOE civil rights head apologizes for claiming most campus sexual assaults are just drunken hookups

DOE civil rights head apologizes for claiming most campus sexual assaults are just drunken hookups:

DOE civil rights head apologizes for claiming most campus sexual assaults are just drunken hookups

Candice Jackson, who heads the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, apologized on Thursday for her “flippant” remarks about campus sexual assault, writing in a statement, “I’m so sorry.”

“As a survivor of rape myself, I would never seek to diminish anyone’s experience,” Jackson said in a written apology sent to Politico. “My words in the New York Timespoorly characterized the conversations I’ve had with countless groups of advocates.”

“All sexual harassment and sexual assault must be taken seriously—which has always been my position and will always be the position of this Department,” she added.

In an article published Wednesday by the Times, Jackson indicated the Office for Civil Rights—which is responsible for enforcing Title IX, the education amendment which DOE civil rights head apologizes for claiming most campus sexual assaults are just drunken hookups:

Schools Matter: Getting Personal with Michael Horn in Indy

Schools Matter: Getting Personal with Michael Horn in Indy:

Getting Personal with Michael Horn in Indy

By Doug Martin 

 “In 15 years from now, half of US universities may be in bankruptcy. In the end I’m excited to see that happen. So pray for Harvard Business School if you wouldn’t mind.”  Clayton Christensen (2013)

“Thank God for Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn.” Jeb Bush

(NOTE: Michael Horn also is helping Mitch Daniels, but that topic goes beyond the scope of this blogpost)

When Michael Horn keynotes the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township’s Blended Learning Forum in Indianapolis at Creston Intermediate/ Middle School on July 20, 2017, the Harvard Business School graduate will be welcomed by the school reform crowd, since it won’t be the first time his Christensen Institute has mingled in Indiana. 

Horn and his mentor Clayton Christensen* specialize in convincing educators and politicians that personalized learning, through technology, can save a so-called failing and outdated school system.  The two co-founded the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation (formerly known as the Innosight Institute*), now a San Francisco Bay area think tank. Although he has shuffled into a new job with Entangled Solutions, Horn is still listed as a distinguished fellow at the Christensen Institute. 

Clayton Christensen, a Harvard business professor, is glorified in the business community for his theories supposedly explaining how disruption “takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.” In the case of education, the “established competitors” to be displaced by “personalized” computer-based learning are public school teachers, since blended learning and online educational environments allow for a reduced labor force and will eventually lead to the elimination of brick-and-mortar schools altogether, edtech leaders hope.  

Besides pocketing over $3.4 million in Gates Foundation money over the years, the Christensen Institute has received high Schools Matter: Getting Personal with Michael Horn in Indy:

Can International Schools Help Immigrant Students? - The Atlantic

Can International Schools Help Immigrant Students? - The Atlantic:

The Schools Transforming Immigrant Education
Schools for newcomers are trying to better meet their unique needs, but some worry they’re perpetuating segregation practices of old.

Katherine Zelaya sits in the front of her math class, leading her table of classmates in a word problem that’s asking them to determine the median and mean for a set of numbers.

“¿Por qué?” she chimes in, asking Maria Alejandra to tell her why she came to a certain conclusion.

“Jesús, termínalo,” the 19-year-old says a little later, encouraging the classmate on her left to finish his work.

The scene in Michael Krell’s probability and statistics class at the International Academy at Cardozo Education Campus in Washington, D.C. is a far cry from what Zelaya remembers of her first year in the U.S. after moving from El Salvador almost four years ago. Back then, she was in the minority of students at her former high school who were learning English.

 “I knew some things that they were doing in the class, for example, in math class,” said Zelaya, who has big brown eyes, an ombre hairstyle that fades from brown to blonde, and pink braces that sometimes cause a slight lisp. “Like, I know the process and I know everything about it … just the problem was the language to communicate with the teacher and with the classmates.”

Now a senior, Zelaya is an inaugural member of Cardozo’s International Academy, a school within a school designed specifically around the needs of recently arrived immigrant students like her. She feels confident in her classes now, she said, and enjoys being able to support her classmates in their learning.

“Sometimes I know little things that probably the other students didn’t know, so I Can International Schools Help Immigrant Students? - The Atlantic:

OPINION: Has new public funding for a church playground emboldened parochial schools seeking vouchers? - The Hechinger Report

OPINION: Has new public funding for a church playground emboldened parochial schools seeking vouchers? - The Hechinger Report:

OPINION: Has new public funding for a church playground emboldened parochial schools seeking vouchers?

What may buoy Catholic schools plagued by declining enrollments could pose concerns for our larger democracy

On the heels of a significant late June Supreme Court ruling that seemingly opens the doors for increased funneling of public taxpayer dollars to religious schools, parochial school leaders are urging leaders of the Trump administration as well as state lawmakers across the country to expand school voucher programs.

“School choice,” an umbrella term used to cover private school vouchers as well as other alternatives to traditionally designated public schools, seems to be a new slogan for our land of freedom.

Within each proposal, advocates of school choice emphasize the ability of individuals to use the market to exercise their personal liberty in unrestrained ways. On the face of it, “choice,” the “freedom to choose,” and “religious freedom” are welcomed in democracy.  But let’s take a closer look at what we might risk by invoking such freedom when it comes to education: public goods, concern for the well-being of all students, and democratic decision making.

Related: Is school choice helping or hurting Catholic schools in New Orleans?

What may buoy Catholic schools plagued by declining enrollments and rising costs in their schools, may pose significant concerns for our larger democracy.

Freedom, as celebrated by many school choice proponents and their neoclassical economic influencers, is mostly aligned with Friedrich Hayek’s definition in The Constitution of Liberty as freedom in a negative sense—the absence of coercion. Hayek adds that freedom should be a value celebrated unto itself, without taking into consideration whether the results of an individual’s pursuit of freedom will be harmful or beneficial to others. The freedom invoked is sought independently of the public good, including the political and social purposes that compose it. Indeed, the public sector is seen as necessarily restrictive of private liberty and the marketplace is OPINION: Has new public funding for a church playground emboldened parochial schools seeking vouchers? - The Hechinger Report:

 

High-Achieving, Low-Income Students Excluded From Gifted Classes, Investigation Finds

High-Achieving, Low-Income Students Excluded From Gifted Classes, Investigation Finds:

High-Achieving, Low-Income Students Excluded From Gifted Classes, Investigation Finds

Are smart students from poor families more likely to be overlooked for gifted or high-level math classes? The answer is a resounding yes, a team of North Carolina investigative journalists has found.

Last month, led by reporter Joseph Neff, the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., unveiled a three-part series, called “Counted Out,” that showed convincingly how high-achieving, low-income North Carolina students are very often excluded from the classes that would challenge their abilities and help them attend college and climb out of poverty, while equally achieving, wealthier students are counted in.

Using anonymized state records involving tens of thousands of students and zeroing in on end-of-grade achievement tests, Neff found that just one out of three low-income students with superior math scores was labeled gifted by educators, compared to one out of two students—with equal achievement—from wealthier homes. These high-potential, low-income students also were found much less likely to take high school math in middle school, “an important step toward the type of transcript that will open college doors,” notes Neff, with his colleagues Ann Doss Helms and David Raynor.

Neff and his colleagues identified a “web of barriers” that work against low-income students, including some districts’ complicated measures of giftedness that favor students from English-speaking homes with high exposure to sophisticated language. They also found low-income parents who were less likely to ask the right questions, or know how to advocate for their children. Bottom line: “The unequal treatment during the six years ending in 2015 resulted in 9,000 low-income children in North Carolina being counted out of classes that could have opened a new academic world to them.”

Recently, Neff spoke with NEA Today about their work.

Q: How did the series develop? Was it generated by reader feedback, or some other impetus?

A: One of our top editors asked us to do something about education, and so the first thing I did was to go to the Department of Education and request a list of databases. We found an ocean of data from every school district, every school, every classroom, every student…We don’t know who the students are, because it’s anonymized data, but we know quite a lot about them—their race, their family’s income, the classes they’ve taken.

There’s been a lot of reporting on the achievement gap, but most of it has focused on kids who are below grade level and what’s done to bring them up. We thought we’d look at kids above grade level, the highest achieving kids, and how they’re sorted and tracked, as early as fourth grade. What we found is that socioeconomic status is the most significant, predictive factor in the data.

Source: “Counted Out,” The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC. (Click to Enlarge)

Q: NEA formally turned its attention last year to eradicating institutional or structural High-Achieving, Low-Income Students Excluded From Gifted Classes, Investigation Finds:

Here’s how New Orleans elementary schools did on standardized tests this spring | The Lens

Here’s how New Orleans elementary schools did on standardized tests this spring | The Lens:

Here’s how New Orleans elementary schools did on standardized tests this spring

The Louisiana Department of Education released English, math and science standardized test results for elementary schools throughout the state on Wednesday.

Nearly half of the 64 Orleans Parish public elementary schools recorded a higher percentage of LEAP tests at mastery level or higher than in 2015. That’s in line with statewide growth.

State schools Superintendent John White said scores generally held steady across Louisiana.

The figures are based on tests taken rather than students because most students are tested in English, math and science, but some may miss one test or another.

In 2015, the state implemented new standards for English and math and raised its benchmark of proficiency from a score of basic, the middle of five levels, to mastery, the second-highest.

The states uses the percentage of students at basic level to give each school a letter grade. In 2025, schools will be evaluated based on what percentage of students have reached mastery.

How Orleans Parish public schools fared in 2017:

• 29 schools increased the percentage of tests at mastery and advanced, the two highest levels, since 2015. (That’s the furthest back a comparison can be made.)
• 23 schools had a lower percentage of tests at mastery or advanced than in 2015.
• 7 schools had the same percentage of tests at mastery or advanced as in 2015.
• 5 schools changed operators or don’t have previous scores to compare.

Two schools saw double-digit growth in the percentage of tests at mastery or above since 2015:

• James Singleton Charter School increased from 9 percent to 23 percent.
• McDonogh No. 35 Academy grew from 7 percent to 18.

Mahalia Jackson Elementary School, Mary D. Coghill Charter School and ReNEW SciTech Academy recorded the largest drops:

• Mahalia Jackson went from 28 to 16 percent of tests at mastery or above.
• Coghill dropped from 27 to 16.
• SciTech dropped from 27 to 18.

SciTech’s principals resigned in the spring of 2015 after ReNEW leaders discovered they had allowed students to take non-state tests multiple times. A state investigation later revealed school leaders had encouraged teachers to look at LEAP tests after testing, aHere’s how New Orleans elementary schools did on standardized tests this spring | The Lens: 

Smart Cities & Social Impact Bonds: Public Education’s Hostile Takeover Part II – Wrench in the Gears

Smart Cities & Social Impact Bonds: Public Education’s Hostile Takeover Part II – Wrench in the Gears:

Smart Cities & Social Impact Bonds: Public Education’s Hostile Takeover Part II

Ed Reform 2.0 is a different variety of privatization from the one to which we’ve become accustomed. End-of-year high-stakes testing, imposition of value-added measures, alignment to Common Core State Standards, and destabilization of districts through charter school expansion, closures, and turnarounds were actually setting the stage for the final act that is now on our doorstep. Educators and parents can see the harm being done by 1:1 devices, Big Data’s domination of classrooms and the relentless deprofessionalization of teaching, but may have difficulty making sense of it, because it takes deep background knowledge to put all the pieces together. Hoping to make it more accessible, I’ve prepared a series of slide presentations called “Education in the Cloud.”

My goal is to introduce concepts I believe people need to become more familiar with as we navigate the post-ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) landscape. It begins with an overview followed by six sets of slides, each telling a part of the story:

Big Data vs. Teachers: Slideshare Link

Digital Classrooms as Data Factories: Slideshare Link

What is a “Smart” City? Slideshare Link

Tracking Children Via the Internet of Things: Slideshare Link

Blockchain and “The Ledger”: Slideshare Link

How Austerity Generates Data: Slideshare Link

Reinventing Education for Impact Investing: Slideshare Link

I’ll post the introduction at the end of this piece, and share the rest Smart Cities & Social Impact Bonds: Public Education’s Hostile Takeover Part II – Wrench in the Gears:

NEA President: educators remain alarmed by proposed education budget cuts | KRWG

NEA President: educators remain alarmed by proposed education budget cuts | KRWG:

NEA President: educators remain alarmed by proposed education budget cuts

Commentary: WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. House appropriations subcommittee took the first step towards funding the federal department of education by publicly releasing its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. On Thursday, the subcommittee will vote on a bill that contains draconian cuts to Title II programs for professional development, class-size reduction and after-school programs. NEA President Lily Eskelsen García issued the following statement.

“The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. notably stated that budgets are not just financial documents; they are moral documents. He went on to say that, a nation that spends more on its military than on social programs is approaching spiritual death. Sadly, the House appropriations budget reflects the misguided priorities of some in Washington.

“This budget is terrible for students and neighborhood public schools across the country. If enacted, it will deprive millions of students of opportunities by eliminating funding that will result in nearly 8,500 educators losing their jobs, slashing funding for class-size reduction programs, cutting funding for after-school programs that serve the students most in need, and limiting or eliminating professional development opportunities for nearly 2.5 million educators.

“As a result, parents can expect larger class sizes and students can expect to see fewer opportunities to connect one-on-one with qualified, caring teachers.

“We urge Congress to reverse these cuts and, instead, invest in what parents and educators know works for students. Classes small enough for one-on-one attention, modern and inviting classrooms, support services like nutrition, health, and after school programs, and a well-rounded curriculum, This is what every student deserves and what every parents wants for her or his child.

“This is exactly why Congress needs to reach a bipartisan agreement to raise the unrealistic budget caps that are preventing much-needed investments in our students and public schools.”NEA President: educators remain alarmed by proposed education budget cuts | KRWG:

On Education, The States Ask: Now What? : NPR Ed : NPR

On Education, The States Ask: Now What? : NPR Ed : NPR:

On Education, The States Ask: Now What?

The new federal education law is supposed to return to the states greater control over their public schools.

But judging from the mood recently at the annual conference of the Education Commission of the States, the states are anything but optimistic about the future, or about the new law.

The apprehension reminded me of the 1989 education summit convened by President George H.W. Bush. Back then the goal was to persuade governors to adopt a set of national education goals. All but a couple of states bought into the idea of "systemic change" with support from the federal government.

The prevailing view was that state and local control of schools wasn't working. What was needed was a national vision for educating every child, regardless of geography, race, ethnicity, sex, ability or disability across social and economic classes. That vision would drive U.S. education policy for a quarter century, and it was a big part of the No Child Left Behind Act signed by George W. Bush in 2002.

Now, with the new education law, the pendulum has swung back to the states. The Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, ostensibly puts them in the driver's seat.

So why aren't they happy? I heard lots of reasons at the ECS meeting in San Diego.

• For state superintendents Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Kirsten Baesler of North Dakota, for example, it's that their states are unprepared to meet ESSA's new requirements for English Language Learners.
• Other educators said they're worried about glaring disparities in the quality of teachers. According to Jeremy Anderson, president of the Education Commission of the States, more and more states are trying to close that gap. "Seventeen states are talking a lot more about teacher compensation, retention and recruitment," Anderson says. But some people at this year's conference predicted that, if this issue is left to the states, districts will abandon the goal of putting an effective teacher in every classroom.
• In states and school districts with large minority populations, civil rights groups fear that with less federal oversight, states will offer only a veneer of civil rights protections for low income, racial, ethnic and language minorities.

Looming over all this discussion was the budget crisis in many states. "Revenue volatility" has become the euphemism for budget cuts and uncertainty. Many educators worried that the most promising, innovative reforms will inevitably lose support because they're too costly.

In many states, the system of paying for schools leaves wide gaps between rich and On Education, The States Ask: Now What? : NPR Ed : NPR:

GOP House members seek to cut education budget — but not nearly as deeply as Trump proposed - The Washington Post

GOP House members seek to cut education budget — but not nearly as deeply as Trump proposed - The Washington Post:

GOP House members seek to cut education budget — but not nearly as deeply as Trump proposed

House Republicans are seeking to cut the Education Department’s budget by $2.4 billion, or 3.5 percent — a substantial reduction, although far smaller than the $9.2 billion in cuts that President Trump proposed.

The House GOP also appears to have largely rejected Trump’s proposals to expand private- and public-school choice, according to education advocates who have studied an Appropriations Committee bill released Wednesday afternoon. Expanding school choice is a key priority for the White House and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“One big takeaway is that people know that what the president pushed for is not at all feasible,” said Kelly McManus, director of government affairs for the Education Trust, an advocacy organization that has been critical of Trump’s education agenda.

Trump had sought $1 billion to encourage public school districts to adopt choice-friendly policies, and another $250 million to expand private school voucher programs. The GOP budget bill appears to leave out both.

Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for the Appropriations Committee’s Republican majority, declined to confirm that the two programs would not be funded, saying that would become clear next week when the committee publishes its bill report.

House Republicans would increase funding for charter schools by $28 million, to $370 million. Trump had proposed a far larger bump to $500 million.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for GOP House members seek to cut education budget — but not nearly as deeply as Trump proposed - The Washington Post: