Education Reformers Keep Pushing the Same Old Stuff | Teacher in a strange land

Education Reformers Keep Pushing the Same Old Stuff | Teacher in a strange land

Education Reformers Keep Pushing the Same Old Stuff

One of the people I respect most, in edu-journalism, is Joan Richardson. Mostly, this is because I used to read her fine pieces in the Detroit Free Press, and later, her work as editor of Kappan magazine, and she always seemed like the epitome of a concept that gets lots of lip service but is rarely achieved: fair and balanced.  Plus—she once met me for coffee, and afterward, sent lots of questions and even some writing assignments my way, looking for the perspective of an actual teacher.

So when I saw her applauding Mike Petrilli’s overblown puff piece about what education reformers believe, I was surprised:

This piece is written by a conservative with whom I rarely find common ground. But he’s done a stunning job of capturing the key issues in education reform today. While I remain fervently opposed to charter schools, I agree with virtually everything else in this essay, and would love to hear others talk about this.

You asked for it, Joan.

Petrilli starts strong, with a list of universal beliefs about education: Education is key to a truly democratic nation, every child deserves a good school, teachers are important and worthy of gratitude, and post-secondary education does not necessarily need to involve a college degree for success in life.

Bravo. But in the very next paragraph he goes directly to the Reformers’ Motto: There are only two perspectives around educational change—the (noble, innovative) ed reformers’ and the (recalcitrant, bottom of the barrel) status quo.

The counter-principle has been expressed ad nauseum, in books, articles and panel discussions for two decades, but I guess it must be said again: Most current educators—the ones who want to see their schools change, improve and thrive—cannot be included in that ‘status quo’ bucket. Andrea Gabor just wrote a book with multiple examples of how teachers and school leaders did just that—innovated with positive, CONTINUE READING: Education Reformers Keep Pushing the Same Old Stuff | Teacher in a strange land

Teachers union votes to authorize strike against Sacramento City Unified #Unite4SACKids #WeAreSCTA #WeAreCTA #strikeready #REDFORED #SCTA #CTA

Teachers union votes to authorize strike against Sacramento City Unified

Teachers union votes to authorize strike against Sacramento City Unified

The teachers union at Sacramento City Unified School District announced Friday that its members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association spent three weeks collecting votes, and said turnout was 70 percent. According to the union, 92 percent of its 2,500 members voted to approve the strike.

The move adds to the challenges faced by the district, which is under the threat of state takeoveras it wrestles with a $35 million budget gap.

The teachers union said it will call for a strike if Sacramento City Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, board President Jessie Ryan and the district “persist in their unlawful behavior and avoid taking measure to correct their unlawful behavior,” according to a statement.

The union accuses the district of refusing to honor their collective bargaining agreement, making unilateral changes, failing to send representatives to the bargaining table and meeting at unreasonable times and places.

The union also called the district’s recent decision to potentially lay off hundreds of employeesunlawful and in violation of California’s open-meeting law, the Brown Act. The union says many of its decisions happened in closed sessions and the Brown Act guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.

The district in a statement to The Sacramento Bee called the grounds for the strike “unfounded.” CONTINUE READING: Teachers union votes to authorize strike against Sacramento City Unified

Southwest Key, Known for Migrant Shelters, Cashes In on Charter Schools - The New York Times

Southwest Key, Known for Migrant Shelters, Cashes In on Charter Schools - The New York Times

Southwest Key, Known for Migrant Shelters, Cashes In on Charter Schools
The schools are struggling with debt even as the charity sits on tens of millions.

At East Austin College Prep in Texas, raccoons and rats invade offices and classrooms. When it rains, the roof of the main building leaks. Room 106 was so rickety a chair leg fell through the floor. Yet for all this, the secondary school pays almost $900,000 in annual rent.

It has little choice: Its landlord is also its founder, Southwest Key Programs, a charity that is the nation’s largest provider of shelters for migrant children. The nonprofit says it formed the charter school and three others to help disadvantaged students get to college, but Southwest Key has financially benefited from the schools. Not only does it collect rent, but it has forced them to hire its for-profit companies, which have charged high fees for everything from maintenance to school lunches.

“We don’t even have a cafeteria — we eat in our gym,” said Yamilet Perez, 18, the student council president at the Austin secondary school. “You’re sitting there eating your lunch, and you can still smell the sweat of the class before.”

The operations of the charter schools, serving about 1,000 students, show how Southwest Key profits off public money, boosting compensation for charity leaders and stockpiling tens of millions of dollars.

The charity has been awarded almost $1.8 billion to run migrant shelters over the last decade, but is now under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties, prompted by an article last December in The New York Times. Two top officials, including the founder, Juan Sanchez, have stepped down. And a complaint about mismanagement at the schools, which have received more than $65 million in government money over the last decade, is under review by the Texas Education Agency. CONTINUE READING: Southwest Key, Known for Migrant Shelters, Cashes In on Charter Schools - The New York Times

Testimony at California SBOE about Gülen charter school | Cloaking Inequity

Testimony at California SBOE about Gülen charter school | Cloaking Inequity

TESTIMONY AT CALIFORNIA SBOE ABOUT GÜLEN CHARTER SCHOOL

On Thursday I went to the California Board of Education to offer public testimony about the California SBOE approval of Magnolia Science Academy Santa Ana. Here is my testimony:

I am Julian Vasquez Heilig, Professor and Education Chair for the California NAACP.

Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos have become the nation’s most prominent supporters of privately-managed charter schools and have proposed billions to open more.

The Gülen Organization runs the second largest network of charters— more than 200 schools, teaching over 80,000 students.

Last week, when Melania Trump visited Dove School of Discovery, a Gülen Organization school in Tulsa, a headline read: First Lady Visits a Gülen School Which Prefers to Hire Alien Teachers.

Why? Because all 200 Gülen schools have recruited H1-B visa teachers from Turkey thereby replacing fully qualified American teachers. Pay to play accusations have been made regarding these teachers.

In 2017, the California NAACP passed a resolution concerning Gülen charter schools. We call for federal, state and local authorities to conduct independent financial investigations of California Gülen Organization schools, because prior audits in other states have shown a pattern of accounting irregularities.

In fact, a former principal of Gülen Oakland’s BayTech school accused the Gülen Organization of using the school as a piggy bank. The principal is also accused of financial impropriety and fled to Australia.

After our resolution, by invitation, I visited Magnolia Science Academy-3 in Southern California. I was specifically disappointed by the class sizes and curriculum.

Considering our resolution, and the fact the California State Board of Education (SBOE) authorized charters have a nearly 40% failure rate over time (through 2018, 18 of 48 SBOE authorized charters had failed or closed), we concur with the local district and urge denial of the Magnolia Science Academy Santa Ana charter.

.

The SBOE voted 7-1 to reapprove the Gülen charter in Santa Ana.

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Testimony at California SBOE about Gülen charter school | Cloaking Inequity

CURMUDGUCATION: Micro-Credentials 101: Do We Need Badges?

CURMUDGUCATION: Micro-Credentials 101: Do We Need Badges?

Micro-Credentials 101: Do We Need Badges?

Micro-credentials are one of the hot rising ideas in the education space. To understand the basics, go look at your child's Xbox or PlayStation.

For most of the major games, there is an accompanying set of achievements, or badges. Every time a player achieves a particular task (kill 50 zombies without reloading, drive over every tree in the enchanted forest, smash every Lego fire hydrant, etc.) they get a small digital badge on their big page of achievements.

Micro-credentials take a similar approach to education. The root of the idea is simple--you demonstrate a very specific skill, and a badge certifying that micro-credential becomes part of your personal digital file. Some of the earliest micro-credentialing involved computer programming skills, but it has grown far beyond that. To see just how many types of micro-credentials are out there, take a look at Digital Promise.

Digital Promise was authorized by Congress in 2008 as the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. It offers micro-credentials of its own, but it also provides a platform for other entities to offer their own sets of micro-credentials. Right now over thirty-five other organizations offer micro-credentials through Digital Promise, including Arizona State University, Teaching Matters, and National Geographic. In 2017, Digital Promise hosted a Symposium on the Currency of Micro-credentials that attracted over 100 people, representing school systems, state departments of education, and the Institute for Personalized CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Micro-Credentials 101: Do We Need Badges?

Judge Tells DeVos She Can’t Delay “Significant Disproportionality Rule” in Special Education | janresseger

Judge Tells DeVos She Can’t Delay “Significant Disproportionality Rule” in Special Education | janresseger

Judge Tells DeVos She Can’t Delay “Significant Disproportionality Rule” in Special Education

The goal at school ought to be providing appropriate curricula and support to enable each child to realize her or his promise. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, special education programs address the needs of children with disabilities. Over the years, however, it has become apparent that children of color have too often been assigned to special education. President Obama’s administration created a rule to address this situation, but Betsy DeVos delayed the rule’s implementation.  Now a federal judge says DeVos’s department must enforce the rule and investigate whether children of color are being disproportionately misdiagnosed.

The “significant disproportionality rule” was supposed to go into effect last summer, but Betsy DeVos delayed implementation of the law for two years—until 2020.  Last week, however,  a federal court ruled that Betsy DeVos cannot elect to delay the rule’s implementation. The NY Times’ Erica Green reports: “In a decision on Thursday, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia called the Education Department’s delay of the special education rule, ‘arbitrary and capricious.’… The rule, passed in the final weeks of the Obama administration, required districts to examine policies and practices that contributed to the disparities and fund remedies. The judge’s ruling vacates Ms. DeVos’s decision to put off the regulation by two years.  Instead it will take effect immediately.”

Green explains how the rule will now be implemented: “Under the Obama-era rule, states must apply a standardized methodology, and establish a formula called a ‘risk ratio,’ to identify districts with high levels of disparities. Those found to have wide disparities would be required to set aside 15 percent of their federal funding to examine their policies and take corrective measures.”

Education law expert, Derek Black disdains Betsy DeVos’s arrogant attitude about enforcing rules to protect students’ rights: “For the second time this school year, Betsy DeVos got a CONTINUE READING: Judge Tells DeVos She Can’t Delay “Significant Disproportionality Rule” in Special Education | janresseger

Teacher Tom: The Promise Of Democracy

Teacher Tom: The Promise Of Democracy

The Promise Of Democracy

A cooperative is an enterprise that is owned and operated by its customers. It's a model for organizing people toward common ends that's been around for centuries and over that time it has been successfully applied to both non-profit and for-profit ventures alike. I've spent the better part of the past two decades, more than half of my working life, in cooperative preschools, and because of that I often think that I must be, by now, one of the world's leading experts on how a small-scale cooperative works.

Our political candidates are being asked these days if they are "capitalists" or "socialists." They've scrambled to figure out a palatable answer, but when I put myself in their shoes, I think I'd be inclined to answer that I'm "none of the above." If I had to put a label on it (and I'd rather not), I reckon I'd say that I'm a "cooperative-ist." Unlike with capitalism, which requires an impossibly level playing field in order to operate as the sort of meritocratic utopia envisioned by its supporters, and socialism, which requires an impossibly benevolent and uncorrupted bureaucratic apparatus to fairly distribute prosperity, cooperatives have the advantage of actually having been tested successfully in the real world. In other words, the world has never experienced a pure enough capitalistic system, nor a pure enough socialistic system, while purely cooperative systems not only exist, but thrive.

The strength of the model is that individuals have voluntarily come together toward a common end, in our case to educate our own young children. Our school is owned by some eighty CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Promise Of Democracy

About That College Admissions Scandal: Use of a Fake Nonprofit Was Critical | deutsch29

About That College Admissions Scandal: Use of a Fake Nonprofit Was Critical | deutsch29

About That College Admissions Scandal: Use of a Fake Nonprofit Was Critical

On March 12, 2019, I happened to be discussing with a few of my students the extent to which some individuals will go in order to benefit from academic fraud because college admission is a high-stakes issue.

Little did we know, that very day, the story broke about numerous individuals– among them the famous and moneyed– who have been implicated in a massive self-serving, deceptive, fraudulent network of college admission scamming known to date, as CNN reports:

Fifty people — from Hollywood stars and top industry CEOs to college coaches and standardized test administrators — stand accused of participating in a scheme to cheat on admissions tests and admit students to leading institutions as athletes regardless of their abilities, prosecutors revealed Tuesday in a federal indictment. The scandal is being called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted.

As the alleged culprits, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, position their defenses, the fallout continues for players across this wide-ranging case, which spans six states and raises seminal questions about how level the postsecondary playing field really is. …

Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on “Full House,” faces felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Her husband, Giannulli has been charged with the same offense.

At the center of the scheme is a fake nonprofit, California-based The Key Worldwide Foundation, operated by William Rick Singer, as CNN continues:

Huffman, who is best known for her role on TV’s “Desperate Housewives,” is accused of paying $15,000 to Singer’s fake charity, the Key Worldwide Foundation, to facilitate cheating for her daughter on the SATs, the complaint says. …

Much of the indictment revolves around William Rick Singer, the founder of a for-profit college counseling and preparation business known as The Key. …

Singer was paid roughly $25 million by parents to help their children get CONTINUE READING: About That College Admissions Scandal: Use of a Fake Nonprofit Was Critical | deutsch29

California: Charter Advocates Rally to Fight Accountability and Regulation | Diane Ravitch's blog

California: Charter Advocates Rally to Fight Accountability and Regulation | Diane Ravitch's blog

California: Charter Advocates Rally to Fight Accountability and Regulation

While the State Board of Education was deliberating the fate of the low-performing Thrive Charter Schools, which they voted to close down,  the charter lobby rallied thousands of allies in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento to fight any new laws. 

One of the speakers was Margaret Fortune, who is president of the powerful California Charter Schools Association and also a member of the state’s task force that is supposed to decide whether to reform the state’s weak charter law and whether charter schools have a negative fiscal impact on public schools.

The charter industry sees any effort to restrict its actions or regulate its policies as a mortal threat to its existence.

“Dubbed the “Stand for All Students Rally,” it was hosted by the California Charter Schools Association and was a highlight of the organization’s annual four-day conference that ends in Sacramento on Thursday. Speakers included Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education during the Obama administration.

“At the rally were charter school administrators, teachers, parents and students, many of whom came by bus from schools across the state. They held signs that said “#kidsnotpolitics” and “Defend Great Schools” and were led in chants by adults on a stage flanked by giant screens projecting their images across the park.”

Since charters enroll about 10% of the students in the state, they should have had a slogan “Stand for 10% of Students,” since they have no concern for non-charter students, who are the vast majority of students in the state.

In addition to Arne Duncan, the CCSA had Steve Perry as a keynote speaker. Perry, who has one or two charter schools, is noted for his vehement hatred of teachers’ unions, whom he has likened to cockroaches.

The rally was a response to four proposed bills that would CONTINUE READING: California: Charter Advocates Rally to Fight Accountability and Regulation | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Truth For America podcast episode: How TFA network to make $$ | Cloaking Inequity

New Truth For America podcast episode: How TFA network to make $$ | Cloaking Inequity

NEW TRUTH FOR AMERICA PODCAST EPISODE: HOW TFA NETWORK TO MAKE $$

Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents, students, and other key stakeholders. Truth For America is co-hosted by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Dr. T. Jameson Brewer.

Episode 18 featured Lynn Davenport, a Dallas public school parent. She discusses her research on no-bid contracts, social impact bonds, and how Teach For America corps members use networks to make $$ after they leave the classroom.

Truth For America is sponsored by the Network for Public Education Action.

Copyright permission from REM for use of song “World Leader Pretend” in Truth For America podcast worldwide: www.dropbox.com/s/80jynkybgpz5r29…rmission.pdf?dl=0

See all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts about Teach For America here.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

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Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

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Jersey Jazzman: Only You Can Prevent Bad Tax Policy Discussions

Jersey Jazzman: Only You Can Prevent Bad Tax Policy Discussions

Only You Can Prevent Bad Tax Policy Discussions

When I started this blog up again earlier this year, I told myself I wasn't going to waste a lot of time debunking nonsense in the local media. Life is short and there's a lot to write about.

But some stuff I come across is so bad, I just can't let it go:

Q. Gov. Phil Murphy wants to raise the tax on incomes over $1 million, but Legislative leaders say they oppose that. Polls show overwhelming support among voters, so what gives on the politics? 

DuHaime: New Jersey families are overtaxed, and everyone knows if Trenton is talking about higher taxes, they’re eventually coming for you, too. Our elected leaders are supposed to do what’s right, not just what works in class warfare polling. From a policy perspective, New Jersey is too heavily reliant on our top earners. 1% of the taxpayers pay nearly 40% of the income taxes; 10% of the taxpayers pay nearly 70% of the income taxes. Look what happened when the financial markets nosedived a decade ago. The treasury of New Jersey took a huge hit because we rely so heavily on the highest earners. Finally, those with means can and do move to states, and they take their jobs, their spending, their philanthropy and their families with them. [emphasis mine]

We'll leave aside the myth of wealth migration and focus instead on the claim that the state is too reliant on the wealthy for tax revenue. There are at least three major problems with the statement above:

1) You must account for local taxes as well as state taxes in any meaningful analysis of tax burdens.

States vary significantly in what revenues for governmental services are provided by the state or by localities. That's why nearly every credible analysis of tax burdens by state combines local and state taxes.

2) Income taxes are only one source of revenue for the state.

States and localities have a variety of ways to collect revenues: income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, fees, tolls, etc. Isolating income taxes, which tend to be less CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Only You Can Prevent Bad Tax Policy Discussions

Marie Corfield: @NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

Marie Corfield: @NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

@NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

Expert analysis and witnesses are essential to the successful outcome of a trial, but in the court of public opinion, politicians often fail to enlist experts who may raise red flags about the policies they're trying to sell to the general public. In my little corner of the universe—education—it happens too frequently. Analysis is done by study groups and commissions that often lack any real, working K-12 educators.

The latest example is Senate President Steve Sweeney's 'Path to Progress', which touts, among other things, regionalizing many of the state's school districts and slashing (yet again) retired public employees' deferred compensation.

Here is the complete list of the commission's members:

MEMBERSHIP

Co-chairs:

• Senator Paul Sarlo – Chairman, Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee
• Senator Steven Oroho – Senate Republican Conference Chair
• Assemblyman Louis Greenwald – Assembly Majority Leader

Legislative Members:

• Senator Steve Sweeney – Senate President
• Senator Dawn Addiego – State Senator
• Senator Anthony Bucco – Senate Minority Budget Officer
• Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin – Chairwoman, Assembly Budget
• Senator Troy Singleton – Chairman, Senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs

Subcommittee Chairs:

• Dr. Ray Caprio – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center
• Frank Chin – Managing Director, American Public Infrastructure
• Richard Keevey – Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
• Dr. Michael Lahr – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Rutgers Economic Advisory Service
• Marc Pfeiffer – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center

Non-Legislative Members:

• Dr. Henry Coleman – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy
• Lucille Davy – Of Counsel, Mason, Griffin & Pierson
• Feather O’Connor Houstoun – Adviser for Public media and journalism at Wyncote Foundation
• Ray Kljajic – American Public Infrastructure Inc.
• Robert Landolfi – Business Administrator, Woodbridge Township (retired)
• Senator Raymond Lesniak – Chair, Lesniak Institute for American Leadership
• Jerry Maginnis – Rowan University, William G. Rohrer College of Business
• Dr. Donald Moliver – Monmouth University, Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Dr. Joel Naroff – President, Naroff Economic Advisers Inc.
• Peter Reinhart – Monmouth University Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Kurt Stroemel – President, HR&S Financial Services
• Ralph Thomas – CEO/Executive Director, New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants

While this list reads like a Who's Who of New Jersey public policy experts, notice the one highlighted name: Robert Landolfi. He is the only K-12 representative on the commission—and he's retired. There are no real K-12 voices here, and none from South Hunterdon Regional School District, the only district in the past 25 years to successfully consolidate.

While Sen. Sweeney exults in the plan's proposed successes at town hall meetings across the state, he and his cohorts fail to address the three 800 lb gorillas in the room:

1. Public schools are not businesses:

While consolidation may bring about some savings in certain situations, we must not forget that school districts are not convenience store chains. We don't sell soda and lottery tickets; we teach children, each of whom comes with different needs, and each district strives to meet those needs. Before we go down this road, the study commission CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: @NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Public Education Funding MUST become a National Priority!

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Public Education Funding MUST become a National Priority!

Public Education Funding MUST become a National Priority!

It is clear that President Trump has an agenda that does not support public education. His recent budget proposal is evidence of this. This year’s 2019 budget proposal includes the following cuts: - $2 billion from the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grant Program - $1.2 billion from Afterschool programs - $1.2 billion from Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant - $29 million from Arts in Education - $17.6 million from the Special Olympic - $840 million from Supplemental Opportunity Grants - $630 million from the Federal Work Study Program Additionally, Trump is proposing $5 billion for the expansion and creation of new private school voucher programs in the form of tax credit scholarships. It is a fact that our public school system can not sustain budgetary cuts of this size. The truth is, the Federal Government actually owes our states and our schools millions, if not billions, of dollars in IDEA funding. We need our Federal Legislators to speak out against this budget proposal and demand a shift in the prioritization of spending that puts the focus on our future. Our BATs Board of Directors had a few comments about the recent budget proposal. Cutting education funding is a symbol of how much disdain this administration has for public education. It is clear that with Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, this administration will continue to push neoliberal privatization policies that weaken the ability of states to provide high-quality public education for all. If we truly want to see America be a great country, we must invest in a democratic free public education system that provides equity to the most marginalized children and their families. Denisha Jones, Assistant Executive Director, BATS Why would Trump make radical cuts to public education in his proposed budget? Trump’s cuts to public education are a direct attack on democracy, freedom, and equality. Public education creates a well-educated civil society, a society engaged and informed in our democracy, and America’s best hope for equality. A well educated society is an existential threat to Trump’s authoritarian world view. DeVos plans to remove the separation between church and State by any means necessary. These draconian budget cuts, along with the Trump and DeVos’ policies, are further steps that would deliver America deeper into authoritarianism. We must protect our public schools by refusing Trump’s budget and their policies. Susan DuFresne, Director, BATs If budgets are moral documents, this budget is evidence of the moral bankruptcy of this CONTINUE READING: Badass Teachers Association Blog: Public Education Funding MUST become a National Priority!