4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-11-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

Duncan: “Achievement gaps among ethnic groups have not narrowed.”: NATIONAL REPORT CARD FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS SHOWS STAGNATION IN MATH+READING + smf’s 2¢

Commenting on the 2013 NAEP 'report card' for US hi12th graders, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said,''achievement gaps among ethnic groups have not narrowed.' By Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor Staff writer | http://bit.ly/1kZRNUY May 7, 2014  ::  American high school seniors showed no improvement in their math and reading abilities in four years, according to the latest

by smf / 2h 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-10-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT  Lausd District 1 Election And Big Money PoliticsWritten by Larry Aubry, Opinion in the LA Sentinel |http://bit.ly/RxuxoS Published on Wednesday, 07 May 2014 12:00  ::  The special election for LAUSD School Board District 1 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte is less than a mo

by mike simpson / 1h 

What Kind of Education Do Mothers Want for Their Children? | Reclaim Reform

What Kind of Education Do Mothers Want for Their Children? | Reclaim Reform:

What Kind of Education Do Mothers Want for Their Children?

Posted on May 11, 2014by Ken Previti

What kind of education do mothers want for their children?

A) A well rounded education that meets the needs of all of their children – including reading, science, math, nutrition/health, music and all of the arts.

“The arts challenge and console us, lift our standards and deepen our thinking, enliven our days and inspire our lives.”
Kate Farrell in Art & Love published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

-OR-

B) Charter Schools dedicated to preparing today’s children for today’s job market. High stakes testing determines the proof of success for deserving children.

The Walton Foundation is a tax-free institution which invests, for its own profit, large sums of money for the billionaire heirs of the WalMart retail/wholesale multinational corporation.

The Walton Family alone has more wealth than the combined wealth of 42% of American families. (This one family pays much, much less in taxes than the 42% of all American families – combined. The Waltons make their profits from the education taxes paid by those other families. Private profit from public taxes.)

WalMart pays most of its full-time employees minimum wage, thus requiring that they require government supplied food stamps to feed themselves and their families. Their workers in today’s jobs are the working poor. Walton investments fund “Charter Schools dedicated to preparing today’s children for today’s job market.” Read The New York Times article HERE and Diane Ravitch’s commentary HERE.

The National Association for Music Education, NAfME, has this wonderful tee shirt that pretty much answers the question, “What kind of education do mothers want for their children?”

DECONSTRUCTING THE RENAISSANCE - Perdaily.com

DECONSTRUCTING THE RENAISSANCE - Perdaily.com:



DECONSTRUCTING THE RENAISSANCE

 (Mensaje se repite en Español)

In looking at the long term failure to achieve a viable public education system in the United States by those charged with its efficient implementation, it seems clear that this lack of success has a great deal to do with leadership at all levels of public education that is more concerned with politically correct slogans than a pragmatically driven system of public education that sets its priorities based on the objective needs of our society. To illustrate this point, one need only take note of recent unemployment figures here in California that point out a rather disturbing piece of information: While there is a significant increase in the number of jobs being offered, there remains a dearth of well-trained and qualified applicants for these positions. 

While the aggregate cost of public education has reached an annualized figure of close to $1.2 trillion a year and student debt has also reached the trillion dollar level, the actual level of employable skills achieved at both the K-12 and college levels remains abysmal. More than half of college graduate, who now graduate with a mortgage-sized student debt- but without the house to go with it- are working at relatively low-paying jobs that do not require a college degree.

It is also worth pointing out that while our national rhetoric exclusively continues to unquestioningly define educational success as going to college, the total capacity of all colleges and universities in the United States is somewhere between 30-40% of high school graduates. So what is everybody else supposed to do to be gainfully employed as productive members of society, so they can stay out of expensive privatized jails that now warehouse 2.4 million of our population incarcerated at an annual average cost of $50,000 per person?

When I went to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in the 1950s and 60s, in addition to a college track for students, all students were required to take a shop class or home economics classes that gave them skills in wood, metal, electrical, automotive, and other practical and employable skills like drafting. Education was not seen as an either/or election, but rather as giving students more education options, so that ultimate professional choices could be made from a position with many acquired areas of skill and DECONSTRUCTING THE RENAISSANCE - Perdaily.com:

Federal Funding a Gravy Train for Charter Schools | Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence (TREE)

Federal Funding a Gravy Train for Charter Schools | Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence (TREE):

FEDERAL FUNDING A GRAVY TRAIN FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS

posted on May 11, 2014

TREE has a rare ask. We are typically very focused on state-level issues around education reform; but, today we are asking you to look at legislation being pushed at the federal level. The federal government is pushing through The Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 10) which will promote charter school proliferation by providing federal grant dollars, on top of current state and local tax dollars, to charter schools.  The grant money can be used for administrative costs and to garner private investments for charter schools.

Our public schools are charged with educating ALL students regardless of disability, economic status, or language proficiency. Charter schools typically serve a lower percentage of English Language Learners and those with disabilities than traditional schools. Instead of holding the charters accountable for this discrepancy, some in the federal government now want to give charter schools extra cash! The bill also requires the grant-receiving state to establish a “charter school facilities funding” program, which will have to be funded with state tax dollars after the grant money is gone. This bill, a tax-dollar funding stream for charter schools, lacks any requirements for accountability or oversight since all amendments asking for transparency and fraud abuse regulation were shot down.

This legislation, that has already passed in the US House, will also allow a parallel private-school system funded with public dollars to be built across the country. Many lawmakers seemingly have no interest in helping us improve our current public school system. H.R. 10 gives the “charter school industry” more financial help by allowing them to pad their locally funded BEP money with federal dollars, while also providing them increased access to private funding. Rather than serving our children’s needs, these lawmakers are giving up on funding the current system in favor of pouring federal dollars into a private corporate-led, taxpayer-funded education system.  These funding choices will manipulate the current system into funding chaos–like a hostile take over–that forces public school failure due to lack of resources.

With little federal regulation and no elected body to oversee them, charter schools have moved from experimental schools trying to overcome public education challenges to tax shelters for the rich and powerful. This bill exempts charters from accountability with our tax dollars, thereby cloaking the investors of the funding system. The real cost of educating a child in the public system will never be known without transparency.

We are very concerned because some supporters of this bill, like education analyst Don Soifer, feel that Title I–a federal program that provides extra money to schools with a majority of students receiving free & reduced lunch–is not working and should be removed. Soifer stated that, “other programs could use some more controversy…The effectiveness of Title I overall is widely pointed to as an expensive program with an important goal that has not produced the sorts of academic results and outcomes it was created for.” Statements like this make us wonder if the life line for our neediest students and schools–Title 1–is next in line to be cut. Like punishment though starvation, money that could help our public system is being siphoned off, leaving our neediest children to suffer with inadequate services. H.R. 10 will proudly write the checks to charters without question, even in the face of face of rampant charter school fraud.

This bill  has passed the US House and is headed for the Senate–and we need your help to stop it. Please write your US Senator in Washington as soon as possible. 

Find your US Senator and let them know your opinion. If you need a starting point, copy and paste the text below into your email.  By participating in the legislative process you can make sure our current public education system is not left behind. Thank you.

Dear Senator ___,  
Please vote no on HR 10. Instead of giving our tax dollars to private entities who are unaccountable to the public, please support legislation that will increase charter school oversight. Please support our children’s traditional zoned schools, rather than defunding them to the point of extinction. We need reform that strengthens our overall system of public education–not reform that destroys the system in exchange for tax shelters and corporate spending abuse. Please vote no on HR 10. 

Who Betrayed The Legacy Of Brown V. Board?:

Who Betrayed The Legacy Of Brown V. Board?

So this one’s personal for me.

The day they bused the poor kids to my school was the first time I’d ever come face to face with children my age who were so poor they weren’t properly clothed. It was the first time – in a society where I saw separate water fountains for blacks and whites, and the black maid who helped my mom around the house explained to us she wasn’t allowed to use the dressing rooms at the local department store – that I was taught to – yes,taught to – sit across the aisle from a kid whose skin color was different from mine and treat him as my peer.

It was the first time the real public was allowed to show up at my “public” school. And although I was only seven years old, I’ve never forgotten it.

Perhaps that’s why – as I join the rest of the nation in commemorating the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that led to desegregating America’s public schools – I found this news item especially ironic:

The headline was not so surprising: “New Chicago High School To Be Named For Obama.” The president, after all, is a monumentally historic figure for breaking the nation’s color barrier in its highest elected office. And he is an adopted son of Chicago.

But then you get into the fine print, and you learn the Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett are building the Barack Obama College Preparatory High School on the North Side, and it’s going to be “a selective-enrollment high school,” with $60 million in tax funds financing it.

Then recall, if you will, Emanuel and Byrd-Bennett are the officials who oversaw last year’s mass closure of 50 schools – the worst such event in American history – in the neighborhoods of black and brown Chicago school children. Then go a little deeper.

As Chicago school teacher Fred Klonsky explained on his personal blog, the sparking new Barack Obama high will be constructed “on the land where public housing once stood. The public housing was torn down to make way for high-end town houses and towering condo buildings.”

Further, “Obama High would be just a few blocks from an existing selective admission high school … Contrast that with parts of the west side which now have neighborhood school deserts, entire neighborhoods where no neighborhood public school exists.”

And the announcement of the new Obama academy virtually coincided with a decision by Emanuel’s “hand-picked school board” to “fire every administrator, teacher, paraprofessional and lunch lady from three neighborhood schools … on the south and west side,”  – i.e., where poor children of color live.

So 60 years after Brown v. Board, here’s what passes for advancements in civil rights: grand gestures of “progress” – honoring a mixed race president – that amount to empty symbolism, while more direct harm is done to minority school children every day.

It’s indeed a “tale of two cities,” to use Klonsky’s words. And it’s a tale of two nations.

The Shame Of The Nation

The dynamics of racial inequality in public education practiced in Chicago is at work in schools in the Deep South too. In an outstanding report“Segregation Now,” ProPublica journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones took us to a high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that “was one of the South’s 

5/7/2014 – Charter Schools Fail

May 7, 2014 Subscribe THIS WEEK: US Teachers Lack Diversity … Scary Common Core Cut Scores… Common Core vs. Real Issues … Funding For Higher Ed Not Recovering … Young Workers Face Tough Climb TOP STORY Charter Schools Fail: New Reports Call Their ‘Magic’ Into Question By Jeff Bryant “In today’s climate of trumped up political truisms … the supposed necessity of charter schools is just the lates

10 by Jeff Bryant / 4d hide  //  save

Charter Schools Fail: New Reports Call Their ‘Magic’ Into Question

When members of the U.S. House of Representatives consider, beginning today, a bill to incentivize the expansion of charter schools, you can expect there to be a lot of heat but not very much light in their discussion of the need for more of these institutions. The bipartisan bill, HR 10, is “likely to pass,” according to the experienced observers at Education Week. And “amid lots of cross-aisle f

200+ by Jeff Bryant / 4d 

 

5-10-14 National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: Building High Quality Early Childhood Education Support Systems for Children and FamiliesPublication Date:  Mon, 2014-05-05 Organization:  Opportunity to Learn Campaign and Broader Bolder Approach to Education Type:  Policy Category:  Early Care and Education ECE-guide-final.pdf This guide gives state policymaker

by mike simpson / 14min 

5-11-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week: Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy

Jersey Jazzman: Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy:

Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy

If you believe that America is a democracy, you must also believe, a priori, that Newark, NJ, is not part of America.For the last couple of weeks, it has become painfully, disturbingly clear that Newark -- like many other communities populated by working-poor and working-class people of color -- operates under a set of circumstances that simply wouldn't be tolerated in a free, democratic society:-

by Duke / 21min  

 

5-10-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekWhat's Happening With B4K?So, at the first glance, it looks like B4K is up to their old tricks again: putting money from billionaires David Tepper and Alan Fournier into local politics under the guise of education reform. They've done it before in Jersey City and Perth Amboy; now it's Trenton.But hang on -- something seems different...TRENTON — A nonpr

by mike simpson / 29min 

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer - NY Daily News

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer - NY Daily News:

Charter schools paying millions in taxpayer money to middlemen while students suffer

Brooklyn Dreams pays $2.3 million to for-profit firm National Heritage Academies to lease space from the Catholic Church — at a price much higher than what the city would normally pay. Dozens of for-profit vendors such as NHA are collecting millions from charter schools, but can't always account for how it's spent. Parents say for all the funding, charter school students are still being shortchanged.

On a quiet Ditmas Park side street, taxpayers shell out $2.3 million a year to lease space from the Catholic Church for a charter school called Brooklyn Dreams.

What’s shrouded in a cloak of secrecy is whether the arrangement is a good deal for the taxpayer.

That’s because a for-profit firm called National Heritage Academies acts as a middleman, renting space from the church at rates it calls “private.” Then NHA sublets the space to Brooklyn Dreams.

The firm charges the school $46.99 per square foot — much more than the $14.25 to $25.50 per square foot the city typically pays to lease school space from the church.

In effect, the for-profit company is charging the taxpayers at a far higher rate— in some cases more than double — than what the city would normally pay to rent space for public schools.

The operation of charter schools should not be immune to a healthy dose of sunshine.

If Brooklyn Dreams paid the church directly at the city’s top rate, the city would still save another $1 million a year — money that could go to aid students. Neither NHA nor the church would say how much NHA was paying the diocese.

“We are not releasing terms of these private contracts,” said Matt Maguire, an NHA spokesman, also declining to discuss a nearly identical sublet deal they have with another charter school, Brooklyn Scholars. NHA charges that school $37.15 per square foot.

Maguire justified the “private” deal by saying the buildings were “empty and fallow” and NHA “invested millions of dollars to make them a suitable environment for teaching and learning.”

What troubles fiscal watchdogs is that while NHA dubs this arrangement “private,” every penny involved is taxpayer money.

JOE MARINO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSBrooklyn Dreams is paying National Heritage Academies $46.99 per square foot — much more than the $14.25 to $25.50 per square foot the city typically pays to the church.

In fact, the public foots the bill for 70 charter schools leasing space at non-DOE entities across the city, and the rent varies widely. Last week the City Council’s education committee held a hearing raising questions about how charter schools spend tax dollars. Daniel Dromm, the committee chairman, made clear he wants more transparency.

“The operation of charter schools should not be immune to a healthy dose of

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/charter-schools-pay-millions-tax-dollars-middlemen-article-1.1787582#ixzz31QWSnyRh

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy:

Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools

Comments (1)

| hannah nguyen, ipad, john deasy, l.a. schools, LAUSD, Los Angeles, los ángeles public schools, march, Pearson, protest, rally, schools l.a. students deserve, students, trojan 18

Nearly 100 students, teachers and parents marched toward a busy intersection of Koreatown yesterday to advocate for better school funding and more community control of L.A. public schools.

The coalition of activists briefly disrupted traffic at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, but the peaceful demonstration earned the car-horn admiration of rush hour commuters and the cooperation of local law enforcement.

The rally, organized by Schools L.A. Students Deserve, was a hotbed of Los Angeles public school discontent, with protestors decrying everything from over-testing to misallocation of district funds. The controversial iPad purchasing program was popular fodder for protestors, with one high school senior, Michelangelo Diaz, calling the severely restricted and pre-loaded tablets, "a waste of money." 

SEE ALSO: LAUSD's iPad Problem Is Not Going Away

Wearing red shirts, carrying handcrafted signs and chanting slogans, the group blasted Superintendent John Deasy for being tone deaf and accused the administrator of catering to corporate interests. Not an audacious claim considering the large amount of districts funds sunk into educational iPad software provided by multinational corporate juggernaut, andCommon Core beneficiary, Pearson. The company also coincidentally supplies the school system's eTextbooks and testing material. All for a nominal fee, of course.

Oh, and you want to see Pearson's digital curriculum, you nosy public school teachers? Good luck with that.

It's also worth noting that one of the participants was USC's own Hannah Nguyen, one of the Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy:

5-11-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

UFT Contract: MORE Sponsors Discussion (Unlike Unity) - Long Island City - Thurs May 15, 4:30PM

Open and honest debate. While Unity hides behind official visits to schools, MORE will hold open discussions. Come whether you are for or against the contract and talk about it. Download and print copies for your school if you are teaching in the area - or even if you're not.UFT Contract Information Session Come hear a detailed breakdown of the proposed contract by John Giambalvo followed by disc

by ed notes online / 24min 

Newark Teacher to Southern Poverty Law Center

Totalitarianism is never content to rule by external means, namely, through the state and a machinery of violence; thanks to its peculiar ideology and the role assigned to it in this apparatus of coercion, totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within. .... Hannah Arendt 1951Dear Southern Poverty Law Center,I am neither a right wing Christian, nor a

by ed notes online / 26min 

UFT Contract: NYC Educator Puts Out Challenge to Unity on Contract

If it's such a great deal, why wouldn't they jump at the opportunity? If we bloggers and opponents are spouting myths, as UFT President Mike Mulgrew repeatedly told the DA last Wednesday, why doesn't he grab this, a golden opportunity to demonstrate it? ... Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator blog. I'm ready to tape this one but as I said in previous posts, I'm predicting the Unity people will never

by ed notes online / 7min

UFT Contract: Secretaries Ask MORE for Help After Mulgrew Ignores Pleas

Mulgrew being handed requestsDear Mr. Scott,The secretaries of the UFT have been working under a 1979 contract. Some of the secretaries put together an outline of requests to up date our duties, title and protections against out of license employees being put in our positions. They have not opened up the test or upgraded it for yes ads. We handed these outlined requests to Mr. Mulgrew personally.

by ed notes online / 38min hide  //  save

Southern Poverty Law Center Sells Out on Common Core - Brands Opponents as Extremists, While Salon Declares They’re lying about Louis C.K.: He’s right about Common Core — and not a Tea Partyer

Give the SPLC a call and ask them to talk to Louis C.K.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMay 7, 2014Contact: Rebecca Sturtevant (334) 956-8372Rebecca.sturtevant@splcenter.orgSouthern Poverty Law Center Report: Extremist Propaganda is Distorting the Debate Over the Common Core State Standards MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The fierce grassroots campaign threatening to derail the Common Core State Standards is being fueled

by ed notes online / 1h 

5-10-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Ed Notes OnlineMORE Contract Meeting TodayOrganize the No Vote Against this Contractby morecaucusnyc Saturday, May 1012:00 - 3:00pmYa-Ya Network224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl.Come to a meeting with UFT Chapter Leaders and Contract Committee members to hear a breakdown of the proposal, ask questions, and organize against the proposed contract in our schools. Join us in fighting for The C

by mike simpson / 1h