We Don’t Have Time To Wait For Schools to Improve. But Real Change Happens Slowly. And There Are No Cookie-Cutter Solutions. | Gatsby In L.A.

We Don’t Have Time To Wait For Schools to Improve. But Real Change Happens Slowly. And There Are No Cookie-Cutter Solutions. | Gatsby In L.A.:

We Don’t Have Time To Wait For Schools to Improve. But Real Change Happens Slowly. And There Are No Cookie-Cutter Solutions.

 “There’s no harder thing than being a teacher in South L.A.,” Robert Vidaña says bluntly as we squeeze interviews into his packed schedule, sitting in his tiny cubicle in what used to be the counseling office of Fremont High School, where he is LAEP’s community school coordinator (for a post about LAEP’s work, click here; for a description of an LAEP community school coordinator’s job, click here.) Robert’s father, who attended Fremont himself, is surprised that his son chooses to work there, but Robert believes in the school, loves South L.A. for all of its challenges, and has no interest in an easier job.

He grew up in West Covina but found suburban life dull. After graduating from Pomona, Robert got a degree in urban planning from UCLA but found himself working first with the LAUSD to build interdisciplinary after-school programs, then in his current job at Fremont working to build a community infrastructure. “I know it’s the unsexy thing to do. The fruits of your labor are not going to be seen in two or three years.” But the work is deeply meaningful to him.

Like English teacher Jordan Gonzales (profiled here), Robert has seen enormous changes at Fremont in his time there since the school’s radical restructuring in 2010. “My first year, we had 5500 students. Now we’re down to 2300.” Like several of the students I interviewed, he believes that when the LAUSD built another high school a mile or so away, that school drew away some of Fremont’s most troubled students, the ones who came from Charles Drew Middle School, a notoriously chaotic school with insufficient resources to meet the needs of a high-poverty population.

But Robert believes that significant cultural shifts were the key reason for the school’s improvement, starting with the new principal’s decision to put the school’s discipline in the hands of the counselors, instead of the dean—a major shift toward We Don’t Have Time To Wait For Schools to Improve. But Real Change Happens Slowly. And There Are No Cookie-Cutter Solutions. | Gatsby In L.A.:

Jindal Already Fell Off the Common Core Tightrope | Truth in American Education

Jindal Already Fell Off the Common Core Tightrope | Truth in American Education:

Jindal Already Fell Off the Common Core Tightrope

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on June 6, 2014 • 0 Comments

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Jeff Sadow has a piece up at The Hayridethat discusses the tightrope that Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has taken on the Common Core State Standards.  At first he gave tacit support, and now he is an outspoken critic.  This morning he said that he wants the state out of the Common Core and the tests that go with it saying, “It is time for the Department of Education to come up with a Plan B… I am committed to getting us out of PARCC, out of Common Core.”

But other than talk what has he done?

Sadow points out that he missed his opportunity to use the Administrative Procedures act which gave Jindal the ability to veto the regulations developed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education early in May.  He had until the end of the month and he failed to do so.

But the Administrative Procedures Act clearly gave Jindal the ability to veto the regulationswhich, for whatever reason, were issued only in early May. This meant that Jindal had until the end of that month essentially to reject them, which would restart the process. Theoretically, this loop could continue indefinitely and presumably CCSS/PARCC opponents could use the time to induce the state’s withdrawal from them.

However, it also would throw the state’s educational delivery into chaos, not knowing what would be assessed and therefore not knowing what to teach, and could lead to a legal violation that requires the state to use nationally-standardized exams in its assessment by a 

Jindal Already Fell Off the Common Core Tightrope | Truth in American Education:

Shanker Blog » A Moral Panic Over Real Accountabilty?

Shanker Blog » A Moral Panic Over Real Accountabilty?:

A Moral Panic Over Real Accountability?

Posted by Leo Casey on June 6, 2014

The late conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was famous for declaring “there is no alternative” as she executed her laissez-faire economic policies of austerity and privatization, redistributing wealth and helping to concentrate power into the hands of that nation’s rich and powerful. The notion that current ideas and policies are inescapable, that there can be no feasible or desirable alternatives, became a staple of apologies for the status quo long before Thatcher’s declaration. Unfortunately, it has also become a common trope in discussions of U.S. education policy in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

A few weeks ago, noted education scholar Linda Darling-Hammond and AFT President Randi Weingarten[i] appeared in the pages of the Huffington Post with an essay declaring that the current accountability regime in American education was badly broken, and that there was indeed an alternative, a system of real accountability, that should be adopted in its stead. What is needed, they reasoned, is nothing less than a paradigm shift from the current fixation on “test and punish” to a “support and improve” model.

Darling-Hammond and Weingarten argued that, after more than a decade of proliferating standardized exams, our curricula had narrowed and too many of our schools had been transformed into ‘test prep’ factories. The linking of these tests to high-stakes decisions about the future of students, educators and schools has created a culture of fear and anxiety that saps student and teacher morale, drains the joy out of teaching and learning and diminishes the quality of education. The mass closure of schools has negatively impacted communities that can least afford to lose their very few public institutions, without meaningfully improving the education of students living in poverty, students of color and immigrant students.

American schools need richer, more robust assessments that capture critical thinking and problem solving skills and ask students to apply their knowledge, they argued. High-stakes decisions about the future of students, educators and schools must to be delinked from these assessments. And the supports and resources necessary to improve schools and enhance teaching and learning must be provided. Indeed, they explained, real accountability requires a new social compact in which all stakeholders in American education are responsible for their contribution to the Shanker Blog » A Moral Panic Over Real Accountabilty?:

6-6-14 Jersey Jazzman : : So Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?

Jersey Jazzman: So Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?:

So Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?

Remember the "amusing" story of how Michelle Rhee, in her first year of teaching in Baltimore, taped her students' mouths shut? How she tried to find the "humor" in making her second graders bleed? Remember when Alex Russo told us, when he heard about the story: "I'm not so sure I'm all that worried."I wonder what might have happened had Rhee been a teacher in Elizabe

9 by Duke / 36min 

6-5-14 Jersey Jazzman : : Reformy Billionaires and the Money They Waste

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Billionaires and the Money They Waste: Reformy Billionaires and the Money They WastePerhaps my favorite bad reformy argument -- one favored by Tom Moran, among others -- goes something like this:We should listen to billionaires when they opine about education because: 1) Well, they're billionaires, so they must know what they're talking about. 2) They don't have a direct st

by mike simpson / 11h

Celebrating parent voice! Parents: We believe in public schools | Parents United for Public Education

Celebrating parent voice! Parents: We believe in public schools | Parents United for Public Education:

Celebrating parent voice! Parents: We believe in public schools

Posted on June 6, 2014 by PARENTSUNITEDPHILALeave a comment

Yesterday parent at the Luis Muñoz Marìn School voted last night 223-70 to remain a District public school. The vote mirrored a similar blow-out vote by parents at the Edward T. Steel Elementary last month. Parents United released the following statement.

Parents: We believe in public schools

Parents United for Public Education celebrates the voices of parents who spoke loudly and clearly at Luis Muñoz Marìn School last night and earlier last month at Edward T. Steel School: Parents believe in public schools.

The vote for public education was a resounding statement by an overwhelming majority of parents to reinvest in our neighborhood public schools. Their vote shut down attempts to shame and divide stable and established school communities. Instead parents talked about strong teacher & staff relationships, stable leadership, a culture of respect, and meaningful parent voice – not just pretenses at parent “choice.”

Both the Steel and Muñoz Marìn votes are a huge referendum on the District’s signature reform initiative: Parents reject Renaissance charters. Steel and Muñoz Marìn parents raised significant concerns about management, narrowly-defined academic gains, and millions of dollars in costs lost to this effort. These were not votes based on ignorance. Both Mastery Schools Inc. and ASPIRA, Inc are charter operators that are well known within the communities they targeted. Many families had experiences with each charter operator. As fellow parents we have to ask, how many of the other two dozen-some Renaissance charter school communities would have voted to remain a District public school if given the opportunity? We urge the District to review the Renaissance program and particularly the voices and desires of school communities who are organized and organizing Celebrating parent voice! Parents: We believe in public schools | Parents United for Public Education:

New Orleans nearing a ‘privatized’ public school system | New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly

New Orleans nearing a ‘privatized’ public school system | New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly:

New Orleans nearing a ‘privatized’ public school system

2nd June 2014   ·   0 Comments

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By Kari Dequine Harden
Contributing Writer

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional comments and reporting that does not appear in the print edition.

As the Recovery School District (RSD) shuts the doors on its remaining handful of traditional public schools, the start of the 2014 school year will usher in the nation’s first completely privatized public school district.

Every school the RSD took over following Hurricane Katrina and the passage of Act 35 — with the stated intent of “turning around,” was either closed or will be turned over—into the hands of private charter operators, creating the first all-charter district in the history of the United States.

For nearly nine years it has been on the backs of New Orleans’ children and communities that the “reformers” have conducted this grand experiment, the majority of whom have come from other parts of the country.

Now, as the “reform” train, (fueled by billionaire philanthropists and Wall Street investors), plows across the land, the nation looks to the New Orleans test site. Anyone and everyone concerned about the education of American children and the future of the country must ask: Did it work?

The grandiose public relations campaign put forth by the Louisi­ana Department of Education and the RSD suggests a resounding “Yes!” But lawsuits alleging the wrongful termination of teachers and the discrimination against children with special needs, civil rights complaints alleging prison-like conditions and racial discrimination, and disenfranchised communities full of devastated and angry alumni who have watched neighborhood schools ripped away – schools that were at the core of their identity for generations – all suggest otherwise.

And while the local mainstream media seems all too happy to gobble up and regurgitate the state’s academic achievement data as truth, the blogosphere is abounding with carefully documented details of the state’s systemic and persistent manipulation – and illegal withholding – of public data.

Even by the state’s own haphazard standards, the now all-charter RSD New Orleans continues to remain at the bottom of state rankings. In 2012, the RSD was given a “D” letter grade.” In 2013, the RSD was given a “C” – still within the state’s own definition as failing in terms of voucher eligibility.

However the “C” also must include the following footnote: By changing the formula and scale from 2012 to 2013, the state essentially changed the standards and, in what public school teacher and blogger Mercedes Schneider calls “charter churn,” artificially inflated the scores.

Upon a painstaking examination of the state’s data, Schneider, who also authored the whistle blower book “A Chronicle of Echoes,” wrote that “Of the 37 RSD-NO schools with complete 2012 and 2013 SPS/letter grade New Orleans nearing a ‘privatized’ public school system | New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly:

Ed Roundup for 6-6-14 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Ed Roundup for 6-6-14 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

Education Roundup for the Week Ending June 6, 2014

SACRAMENTO—The California Department of Education (CDE) today issued this week's roundup of education-related announcements of public interest.

California Schools Awarded Health Science Pathway Grants

To help California to address the critical shortage of workers in the healthcare industry, the CDE is awarding 19 schools across California more than $1 million in California Health Science Capacity Building Project grants, which will prepare students for these jobs.

The grants may be used to establish a new Health Science Pathway Program or to enhance an existing one. Such health careers education programs must be based on California standards that define what a student should know in each grade, provide a sequence of courses, and instruct students in grades seven through twelve in health science.

A path way program connects challenging academics to real-world applications, so students can transition directly into meaningful careers after graduating from high school or to pursue further education in college. Pathway programs add relevancy to students' education, which help them make career decisions based on their interests, aptitudes, and academic achievement so they will be better prepared for the future that awaits them.

The 19 grantees are listed on CDE's Funding Results – California Health Science Capacity Building Project Web page.

Career Technical Education to be Showcased at State Fair

California public high school students this summer will showcase the real-world skills they learned in their career technical education (CTE) courses at school, during the 161st Annual State Fair at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

During the eight-day event July 15–22, students will demonstrate their skills and highlight courses that show how much CTE has evolved in the past several years—from a purely vocational program to a modern career-relevant approach covering 59 contemporary industry pathways. Demonstrations will cover forensic biology used in crime detection, television and film video production, welding through computer simulation, public safety and emergency preparedness, culinary arts food preparation, agriculture careers, and building leadership skills. The showcase will be in the Industrial & Technology Education Building.

The goal is to let all students know about the world of possible career options so they can pursue CTE courses in school. Also, local school boards and parents can find out how to support CTE courses when considering how to use funding under the new Local Control Funding Formula. Students will hand out fact sheets and other materials.

Today's CTE courses provide students with challenging academics, which teach them real-world skills so they will be prepared for meaningful jobs right after graduating from high school or for further training in college or certification programs.

The student showcase complements State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson's Career Readiness Initiative, aimed at boosting the graduation rate in California and providing high school graduates with the knowledge and skills they need to be ready for college and careers.

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Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

6-6-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Data-Driven Discrimination

If you needed any more reason to be wary of the massive upsuck of student data from the education system, The Weekly Wonk offers more reason to fear our Data Overlords.  Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Samuel Woolley, a pair of data wonks, have written "Decoding Discrimination in the Digital Age," a brief overview of some of the concerns raised by the massive data mining going on all around

4 by Peter Greene / 2h 

Louisiana Showcases Utter Failure of School "Reform"

The New Orleans Recovery School District has proven (again) that Reformsters cannot deliver on a single one of their promises.What I'm reporting today has been reported elsewhere-- in particular I recommend Michael Deshotels' report on his blog Louisiana Educator-- but there are some pieces of news that need to be repeated over and over and over again, and this is one of those. The grand experimen

by Peter Greene / 4min 

6-5-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION: FEE: A Floridian Trip through the Reformster SwampIn twenty-one short paragraphs, Patricia Levesque of FEE (Foundation for Excellence in Education)  manages to set a new record for sheer Density of Wrong. This seems to be FEE's specialty; in the vast coal mine of Common Core Carbonized Crap, FEE demonstrates the Supermaniacal ability to squeeze the raw materials of wrong into a shi

by mike simpson / 18min 

Russ on Reading: I Blog; therefore, I Am

Russ on Reading: I Blog; therefore, I Am:

I Blog; therefore, I Am

       Descartes said, “I think; therefore, I am.” I want our students to say, “I read and write; therefore, I can think.”

Rene Descartes

Yesterday I managed to get myself in the middle of a heated discussion with several of my colleagues over how learning takes place. It was a seminar provided by my university for teachers who frequently teach freshmen. The idea is to develop instructional strategies to meet the needs of these first year students who have widely varying backgrounds and academic preparedness. At one point I found myself positioned between a French language instructor, who also happened to be French, and a philosophy instructor.

The philosophy teacher discussed some ways that he got his students to read and think about philosophers like Plato and Kant. The French instructor animatedly argued that the problem with American students is that they cannot think critically about complex text because they have not been drilled in the basics. The gist of the argument was that American teachers and parents coddle their students too much, do not insist that they learn basic things in language, reading and other topics through drill and therefore, cannot think critically.

The philosophy instructor, looking for common ground, brought up the name of the great French philosopher, Rene Descartes, and offered how he was trying to get his students to read and understand the man who famously said, “I think; therefore, I am.” Our French colleague would have none of it, Russ on Reading: I Blog; therefore, I Am:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: QUICK REVIEW: “EXIT STRATEGY” LOOKS AT A DOOMED SCHOOL

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: QUICK REVIEW: “EXIT STRATEGY” LOOKS AT A DOOMED SCHOOL:

QUICK REVIEW: “EXIT STRATEGY” LOOKS AT A DOOMED SCHOOL

Guest blogger Susan Klonsky reviews Exit Strategy 

If there has been another theater piece about the impact of school closings,  I haven’t heard about it. Ike Holter’s “Exit Strategy” at Jackalope Theater takes place entirely in the teachers’ lounge of a dilapidated Chicago school slated for closing.

There are dazzling moments in this play but I won’t be the spiller of plot twists. The intensity and passion of the small cast is impressive. Each character is a composite of archetypal school personalities which play, for better or for worse, to certain stereotypes, with what one hopes is satirical intent. There’s  Feisty Black Woman,  Closeted Gay Administrator, Fiery Latina,  Angry Old Burnt-out White guy. The politics of school closings are not the focus of the drama; nor are the inequities of school closings. This drama turns upon the human toll on the teachers, students and even an administrator, as they learn that their school will close at the end of the year. Time is running out. Can they fight? Should they fight? How to fight? As the reality becomes clear, each reacts differently.

Donnie, an outstanding student, a senior,  militant and intellectually dazzling, gets into trouble for his efforts to save his beloved school. He’s trying to raise $5000 to demonstrate to the public that the school is valued. Should he be suspended for trespassing on the official website? The discussion among the adults of what to do about Donnie reveals a menu of Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: QUICK REVIEW: “EXIT STRATEGY” LOOKS AT A DOOMED SCHOOL: