The Art of Deception: Friedrich vs. CTA - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

The Art of Deception:  Friedrich vs. CTA

History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.   ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

History will remember.
Let Dr. King's words lift our spirits in a time when unions are under attack.

Friedrichs vs. CTA will be heard in the Supreme Court this coming year.  As research  into this case is done, a disturbing sense of unease grows.

Here are the Plaintiffs

REBECCA FRIEDRICHS

SCOTT WILFORD

JELENA FIGUEROA

GEORGE W. WHITE, JR.

KEVIN ROUGHTON

 PEGGY SEARCY

 JOSE MANSO

HARLAN ELRICH

 KAREN CUEN

 IRENE ZAVALA

All of these folks are represented by The Center for Individual Rights.  (More on them later)

 Also listed in the lawsuit is the CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL, more on them later as well.

Here is the screen shot of the cover sheet of the petition:

The issue at hand from the SCOTUS blog  is whether Abood v. Detroit Board  should be over turned and public-sector “agency shop” arrangements (a.k.a. mandatory union dues) should be invalidated under the First Amendment; and (2) whether it violates the First Amendment to require that public employees affirmatively object to subsidizing nonchargeable speech by public-sector unions, rather than requiring that employees affirmatively consent to subsidizing such speech.”

In plain English, the case will challenge whether Abood, which, according to Cornell Law, was established  by a “Michigan statute authorizing union representation of local governmental employees permits an "agency shop" arrangement, whereby every employee represented by a union, even though not a union member, must pay to the union, as a condition of employment, a service charge equal in amount to union dues.”
Keep in mind that the plaintiffs in this case can, and Friedrichs did,  opt out of paying full dues (non Badass Teachers Association:

New Research: Vouchers— schools do the choosing | Cloaking Inequity

New Research: Vouchers— schools do the choosing | Cloaking Inequity:

New Research: Vouchers— schools do the choosing

The racist history of vouchers is very clear and apparent. What was the origin of the school voucher movement? The Daily Kos wrote in the piece Jim Crow and school vouchers

The Richmond News-Leader wrote at the time: “To acknowledge the Court’s authority [in Brown v Board] does not mean the South is helpless. It is not to abandon hope. Rather, it is to enter into a long course of lawful resistance … let us pledge ourselves to litigate this thing for fifty years. If one remedial law is ruled invalid, then let us try another; and if the second is ruled invalid, then let us enact a third.”

The voucher ethos was thus born. Public school funding must now be privatized. If we submit a bill calling such a scheme “vouchers,” and that bill fails, re-submit the same bill and call the scheme “taxpayer savings grant programs.”

Tom P. Brady, Circuit Judge of the 14th Judicial District from 1950 to 1963, and later a member of the Mississippi Supreme Court, wrote, “We have already, by Constitutional amendment, authorized our legislature as other Southern states will do, to abolish the public schools if the Negro and white children are ever integrated therein. Make no mistake about it, we will abolish our public school system and establish private schools for our white children…” (“Segregation and the South” [1957])

Herman Talmadge, Georgia governor from 1948 to 1955 and Senator from 1957 to 1981, had this to say: “Lawyers thought (the Brown decision) was a judicial rape of the Constitution, and I concur … they couldn’t send enough bayonets down to compel the people to send their children to school with Nigras.

“I sponsored a constitutional amendment to enable the General Assembly to close the schools at its discretion and to pay a subsidy to children, both white and Negro, out of state funds to enable them to go to private schools … there is no requirement for a public school system — we changed that in November, 1954. Furthermore, if a court ordered a Georgia county to integrate, the state would withhold funds from that entity. Then we would be required to proceed with the private school system.” (as quoted in John Barlow Martin, The Deep South Says Never (1957)]

So, yeah. Vouchers are a direct product of the Old Confederacy’s reaction to Brown. That’s pretty 

New Research: Vouchers— schools do the choosing | Cloaking Inequity:

Beutner unveils grant-funded education push at LA Times - LA Observed

Beutner unveils grant-funded education push at LA Times - LA Observed:

Beutner unveils grant-funded education push at LA Times

The Los Angeles Times today took the wraps off Education Matters, an initiative to cover K-12 education more aggressively. The effort is timed to today's start of the fall semester for most LA Unified students. The Times is "rededicating itself to coverage of teaching and learning," publisher Austin Beutner said in theannouncement in the paper. "Our goal is to provide an ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation."

With an expanded team of reporters, we will take a fresh approach to our news and analysis starting with today’s stories about the unique challenges facing LAUSD and the last year-round school in Los Angeles. Our editorial pages feature a guest column by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the need for more investment in math and science education. You will find our reports at latimes.com/schools in English and Spanish.

In the coming months, we will convene public forums to address topics such as educational education policy, saving for college and talking to your child’s teacher. We intend these conversations to be both thoughtful and practical.

A team has been rushing to get this "vertical" done by today and, per a source in the newsroom, included at least one weekend gathering for staffers at the home of managing editor for editorial strategy S. Mitra Kalita. The announcement was low-key in this morning's print paper, just Beutner's note tucked on page two, but has a higher profile on the website and in the LAT's morning newsletters. An internal memo from Beutner, Kalita and editor Davan Maharaj announces some hires.

Today the Los Angeles Times launches a new initiative in education journalism. This marks the first of several planned verticals to better organize our work around communities of interest. We will write, photograph, film and tweet accessibly and authoritatively, from locker-lined hallways of schools to the corridors of Sacramento to parent forums in coffee shops.

Education Matters lives at latimes.com/schools and, in coming days, will roll out interactive features and databases on topics including test scores and vaccination rates. Much of our work will be translated into Spanish, posted on our site and printed in our sister publication, Hoy.

Over the years, education editor Beth Shuster and our team of schools reporters have broken news, held teachers and elected officials accountable, and told stories in creative ways. Now they will work in collaboration with new and existing Times journalists to strengthen our efforts online and bolster coverage.

Among the new faces is editor/reporter Joy Resmovits, formerly a senior education writer for the Huffington Post. Joy has broken news on charter schools, former Washington, D.C., chancellor Michelle Rhee, teachers unions, special education and school segregation. She just completed the Spencer Fellowship at Columbia University and has worked at the Jewish Daily Forward and the Wall Street Journal. She graduated from Barnard.

Sonali Kohli also joins us as an education reporter. She previously worked at Quartz covering education and diversity, and is known for her data-driven reporting and creativity on topics such as AP scores, the achievement gap and coloring books. She was raised in Diamond Bar and graduated from UCLA.

Daniela Gerson is our new community engagement manager, with primary responsibility for HS Insider and the user-generated content opportunities it represents for the vertical and across The Times. Daniela previously directed the civic engagement and journalism initiative at USC’s Annenberg. She has partnered with youth across the region from Alhambra to Watts to tell their stories, and also worked at the New York Sun. She graduated from Brown University and lives in Echo Park.

Please join us in celebrating this new chapter and welcoming our new colleagues.

Best,

Austin, Davan and Mitra

Kalita was a senior editor at Quartz before coming to the Times earlier this year. Kohli also was recently a reporter trainee at the Orange County Register.

The Times has rededicated itself to education coverage and good deeds before, most notably with the Reading By Nine program in the 1990s. But this time looks different in a couple of key ways. First, Beutner has been involved as a community leader in education reform since well before he became publisher and it's a personal focus for him — and now for the paper he runs with a more active hand than most previous publishers. (See below his Facebook note bringing longtime Democratic Party figure Mickey Kantor into one of his philanthropic projects.) And second, this LA Times news effort is funded at least in part by grants from a bunch of outside non-profits — all community players the Times also covers or should be covering, by the way.

From Beutner's announcement:

A child’s success in the classroom depends on the participation and support of everyone in the community, a view shared by the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation, which are providing funds to support Education Matters. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles have also supported this effort with grants from the The Broad Foundation. These institutions, like The Times, are dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.

The Times has used grants from non-profits to fund some reporting slots in recent years, as have some other big news media outlets, most notably locally KPCC.

Earlier this week on his Facebook page, Beutner announced a new role for Mickey Kantor, the veteran Los Angeles lawyer, City Hall advocate and Democratic Party macher. Beutner is behind Vision to Learn, a program that helps low-income youngsters with vision problems and is apparently a big success.

Vision To Learn started three short years ago with little more than an old, rehabilitated mobile clinic and the desire to help children in low-income communities. We have come far in a short time. Vision To Learn is now operating in three states, with more on the horizon. We have helped almost 40,000 kids at more than 1,500 schools and community organizations, and given each child a better chance to succeed in school and in life. We have shown there is an unmet need not only in Los Angeles but across California and the nation, and that glasses have a significant and positive impact on a child’s academic performance and life.

As Vision To Learn continues to work to give children across the nation a chance to succeed, we are expanding our leadership team to help fulfill this goal. Thankfully, Mickey Kantor has agreed to serve with me as Co-Chair of Vision To Learn. Mickey’s vast experience, keen insights, and fierce focus on getting the job done have been put to work on behalf of the U.S. Government, his clients around the world, 

Beutner unveils grant-funded education push at LA Times - LA Observed:

Head of Walton Family Foundation to Step Down - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Head of Walton Family Foundation to Step Down - The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Head of Walton Family Foundation to Step Down

Buddy Philpot will step down as executive director of the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropy started by Sam Walton, the Walmart founder, and his wife, Helen.

Mr. Philpot has served in that post for 15 years. In a letter, board members and family heirs Alice, Jim, and Rob Walton said Mr. Philpot "has committed to stay on at the foundation as long as necessary to help ensure a smooth transition as we conduct a national search for a new executive director."

Under Mr. Philpot’s watch, the foundation grew from making about $40 million in grants annually to $374 million in 2014. This year, it expects to make about $400 million in grants to improve schools, to mitigate environmental damage, and to raise the quality of life in the Arkansas Ozarks and Mississippi Delta region.

The foundation is a leader in the charter-school movement and has pursued environmental strategies that seek to find common ground among conservation and business interests.

The organization has built more than 300 miles of trails in its Northwest Arkansas backyard and has helped draw more than 2 million visitors to the area to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which was started with an $800 million endowment from the Walton family.

Mr. Philpot is a longtime business associate of the Walton family, having previously served as president of Arvest Bank, which is led by Jim Walton. He plans to continue working at Walton Enterprises, a holding company, after he leaves the foundation.

The foundation has assets of about $2.5 billion, ranking it 24th in the nation, according data compiled by The Chronicle.Head of Walton Family Foundation to Step Down - The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

The Common Core English Language Arts standards emphasize text-based instruction and call for "shifts" that state;

"...The reading standards focus on students’ ability to read carefullyand grasp information, arguments, ideas, and details based on evidence in the text... Students should be able to answer a range of text-dependent questions, whose answers require inferences based on careful attention to the text...Further, it is vital for students to have extensive opportunities to build knowledge through texts so they can learn independently."

The Common Core's focus on independent mastery of text does not establish fair conditions or standards of learning that will provide equal opportunities for all students to be successful.

Learners who are delayed and disabled should have the same possibility to develop and demonstrate their diverse talents and abilities, rather than being continually tested, sorted, and rated according to their weaker reading skills.

Successful entrepreneur, Donny Zanger recently described his school experiences as a student with dyslexia.

"Growing up with dyslexia is no walk in the park, and it's an open secret that schools are built to cater to one specific type of student. For the rest of the world--the creative thinkers, the talented artists, the energetic athletes--sitting at a desk for hours on end, memorizing lists and analyzing information in a test-taking format, doesn't necessarily compute with our skill set...

But here's the catch, the covert information that no one tells you as you suffer through years of feeling second class: succeeding in business requires completely different areas of proficiency than succeeding in school...

To those out there who think success in school is a measure of future accomplishment, I am here to say, it is NOT. Don't look at your grades, your test Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Austin Beutner: A renewed emphasis on education at The Times - LA Times

Austin Beutner: A renewed emphasis on education at The Times - LA Times:

Austin Beutner: A renewed emphasis on education at The Times

Dear Reader,



Today is the first day of school for hundreds of thousands of children throughout Los Angeles, and for students, teachers and parents, the occasion is cause for both excitement and trepidation.

Education, it has been said, is the soul of society, and few institutions embody our hopes and dreams as much as our public schools. They are the cornerstones of our communities and the foundation for our future, where children from all backgrounds are given the tools to shape their lives and their world.

With the start of a new school year, the Los Angeles Times is rededicating itself to coverage of teaching and learning. Our goal is to provide an ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation.

We are calling our initiative Education Matters, and I encourage you to join us as we explore the issues that matter most to you and your child. If you want to understand the latest debate on curriculum or testing, find out about the role of student health in learning, study how charter schools are changing public education or experience a classroom from the perspective of a teacher, then Education Matters will be an essential destination.

With an expanded team of reporters, we will take a fresh approach to our news and analysis starting with today’s stories about the unique challenges facing LAUSD and the last year-round school in Los Angeles. Our editorial pages feature a guest column by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the need for more investment in math and science education. You will find our reports at latimes.com/schools in English and Spanish.

In the coming months, we will convene public forums to address topics such as educational education policy, saving for college and talking to your child’s teacher. We intend these conversations to be both thoughtful and practical.

The Times continues to draw more high school students to journalism with HS Insider, available at highschool.latimes.com. And as the school year begins, more college students will receive free access to The Times through our College Connection program, which brings them news and information relevant to their studies and their communities.

A child’s success in the classroom depends on the participation and support of everyone in the community, a view shared by the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation, which are providing funds to support Education Matters. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles have also supported this effort with grants from the The Broad Foundation. These institutions, like The Times, are dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.

Your first assignment is to become involved. Read and share our stories. Attend a discussion in your neighborhood. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, “Education Matters.” Follow us on Twitter at @LATEducation.

As we launch Education Matters, I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know how we’re doing and how we can best serve your needs.

Austin Beutner,

Publisher and CEO, Los Angeles TimesAustin Beutner: A renewed emphasis on education at The Times - LA Times:

Billionaires Fund Education News at LA Times | Diane Ravitch's blog 

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, you read a story like this.

It is a letter from the publisher of the KA Times informing readers that a group of wealthy foundations are underwriting expanded coverage of education. Not surprising to see the Eli Broad Foundation in the mix. Former Mayor Richard Riordan is not listed but you can be sure he is involved.

These control freaks–er, philanthropists–worry that the LAT has not provided enough space to cover this vital topic.

Publisher Austin Beutner writes:

“We are calling our initiative Education Matters, and I encourage you to join us as we explore the issues that matter most to you and your child. If you want to understand the latest debate on curriculum or testing, find out about the role of student health in learning, study how charter schools are changing public education or experience a classroom from the perspective of a teacher, then Education Matters will be an essential destination.

“With an expanded team of reporters, we will take a fresh approach to our news and analysis starting with today’s stories about the unique challenges facing LAUSD and the last year-round school in Los Angeles. Our editorial pages feature a guest column by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the need for more investment in math and science education. You will find our reports at latimes.com/schools in English and Spanish.

“In the coming months, we will convene public forums to address topics such as educational education policy, saving for college and talking to your child’s teacher. We intend these conversations to be both thoughtful and practical.”

A guest column by Arne Duncan! Now there’s a fresh perspective!

I wonder if I will ever be invited to write for the LA Times again?Billionaires Fund Education News at LA Times | Diane Ravitch's blog 

CURMUDGUCATION: What Failing Schools?

CURMUDGUCATION: What Failing Schools?:

What Failing Schools?

Education Next is trotting out its Big Fat Survey of Educational Stuff for 2015, and for eduwonks it's twenty-three pages of interesting stuff. I'm sure many of us will be parsing, mining and massaging the results, as well as discussing how much the reform-loving sponsors of the survey can be trusted. But as I poked through it, two results jumped out at me immediately.

So, where are the failing schools?

The whole premise of our ongoing onslaught of reformy forces against public education is that we are awash in a sea of terrible schools. So where are they? Where are all the people saying, "Yes, my school is failing."

Even the folks grading Other People's Schools-- it's a regular thing in these surveys that folks think their own schools are better than the national picture, but the difference here is a blip (the only interesting blip is that more African-Americans think their local schools are failing than think the nation's are).

I mean, we can expect a certain percentage of people to think schools are failing for the usual cranky reasons-- school doesn't teach cursive, or it let's pregnant ladies teach, or it didn't play Chris enough on first string, or school officials kept fining them for truancy, or teachers kept flunking Chris just cause Chris never did assigned work and flunked all the tests. Add to that the constant barrage over the last fifteen years that US public schools are terrible, that they must be reformed, that students must be rescued from these deep pits of failing failure.

So why aren't more people convinced? Why aren't more people giving schools a failing grade?

What about teachers?

This, unfortunately, is a less clear data set. Note that the question is different, so I'm not sure how CURMUDGUCATION: What Failing Schools?:

CAP Flubs Again

I'm pretty sure that CAP has lost its collective mind. This months has been marked by a pair of CAP offerings (here and here) that seem to indicate the august allegedly lefty thinky tank is running its PR wing out of a time machine parked in 2013.

Now they are touting the result of a poll they commissioned from Public Policy Polling under the Lesley Knope-ish press release headline:

New PPP Poll Shows that the Development and Aims of the Common Core Are More Popular Than Baseball, Kittens, and Bacon—But Misinformation About the Common Core Pervades

It is hard to know how to take the last part of that header, since the press release that follows it champions a brace of undead misinformation that apparently did not die the last sixty gazillion times it was put to rest. No, here it is, still searching for brains. Let's go shambling down memory lane, shall we?

It's Just the Brand

Remember this one? People totes love the ideas behind Common Core-- they've just been turned off to the branding. Why, 90% (of the 675 people we asked) love the idea of higher standards that would make us competitive in the world, 82% think we should develop standards with teachers and states, 79% think we should have high quality English and math standards while letting local schools 

CAP Flubs Again

Doctor VAM

Periodically you will hear teachers complain about VAM and similar test-and-punish versions of evaluation by saying, "Imagine how ridiculous it would be if they did this to doctors. That would be so stupid they'd never even consider it." These are teachers who don't have friends and family in the medical field. Because (bad news alert) the Powers That Be have totally been doing the same crap to doctors that they've been doing to us.

The idea has been kicking around since the eighties, but one backbone of the Affordable Care Act (and many other proposed health care reforms) is an informed customer base that is able to choose physicians based on solid ratings. This would also, not coincidentally, allow the behemoths whomanage the highly-profitable non-profit health care providers to have a data-based means of deciding which doctors to keep and which to boot.

Of course, the key here is coming up with a metric-- or metrics-- to determine which doctors are effective and which are not effective. And that turns out to be hard.

You know the arguments-- you've already made them. Can we judge a doctor on how effective he is with a patient who is high risk and who insists on engaging in risky behavior? Is it fair to give a 

Doctor VAM

Is New Orleans a Success?

With the release of the latest bundle of number crunching, Doug Harris and the Education Research Alliance have once again launched the Debate of the Decade-- is the New Orleans privatization experiment a success or a failure?

The Argument for Success

The ERA is a project of Tulane University where Harris is a professor of economics, and I want not to hold that against him, but the number of economists who have declared themselves educational experts over the past couple of decades is staggering and worthy of its own study.

Harris's argument for success is fairly simple. Before Katrina, test scores in NOLA were really low. Now they are performing at the level they "ought to be" performing as compared to models of imaginary similar students.

So. Test scores were low. Now they're not. Success!

What else?

No, that's it. That's the whole argument. Students in NOLA are getting better scores on standardized math and reading tests. That's the whole thing.

So. Any reasons we shouldn't be excited about this news?

Glad you asked. We could get into a long and involved discussion of ERA's data and the crunching thereof. But if that's your cup of tea, I recommend the work of Mercedes Schneider and Crazy Crawfish, just for starters.

But for the sake or argument, let's go ahead and accept Harris's numbers as accurate and move on. Can we still call the Great NOLA Privatization Experiment a success?

Yes, even if we accept that the numbers are correct, Harris acknowledges that the pursuit of test scores has led to some dicey practices, and NOLA does seem rife with tales of push-outs and creaming, as school principals strive to make their data points.

But there's a bigger question (though no less important) than whether or the numbers are legit. The bigger question is, even if the numbers are legit, are they worth the cost?

Disenfranchised public

Journalist Jennifer Berkshire's recent trip to New Orleans provides a vivid picture of how thoroughly NOLA reformsters have pushed locals aside-- even locals who agree with the 

Is New Orleans a Success?

Arne Duncan: Where California schools need to put their money - LA Times

Arne Duncan: Where California schools need to put their money - LA Times:

Arne Duncan: Where California schools need to put their money

 On the Westside of Los Angeles, there's a school where eighth-graders code and build websites, develop entrepreneurial ventures and use gaming software to design solutions for saving local endangered species. At the Incubator School, teachers leverage technology to individually tailor student learning and track progress toward challenging academic standards. And students regularly participate in a design laboratory in which they study sciences and complete projects based on their personal interests and passions.

High-quality instruction in science, technology, engineering and math — subjects collectively known as STEM — can provide students with a lens to approach and view the world. When students — like those at the Incubator School — engage in hands-on STEM learning, they aren't just gaining subject matter knowledge. They're developing a mind-set that affirms they can use inquiry and their own logic to reach new conclusions and tackle tough problems.

If we want our children to grow into the scientists, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs who will address our most pressing challenges, and if we want our nation to remain a global leader in innovation, we must ensure that all students have access to deep learning in STEM subjects and are taught by talented teachers knowledgeable in these fields.

Yet, across the country, there are disparities in students' access to the full range of math and science courses, including such subjects as algebra, geometry, biology and physics. Nationwide, while 71% of white high school students have access to the complete range of these courses — often required for college admittance — only two-thirds of Latino students and a little more than half of black students do.

This situation is compounded by shortages of qualified math and science teachers, which disproportionately affect schools serving low-income and minority students. In California, teacher shortages in math, science and computer education have persisted for more than a decade. This school year, California districts will need to fill more than 21,000 teaching positions, many in hard-to-staff STEM subjects.



All of this comes at a time when the United States must ramp up to keep up with international competitors — ranking 29th in math and 22nd in science among industrialized nations.

Despite these challenges, I'm optimistic about the future of STEM teaching and learning, in California and throughout the country.

The Galt Joint Union Elementary School District in Sacramento County represents one encouraging example. Through a federal Race to the Top district grant, Galt Joint Union is increasing access to STEM with after-school clubs that offer virtual courses in subjects such as mechanical engineering. At River Oaks Elementary School, it's not uncommon to see children working together to design and program robots. These efforts have led to increased student engagement in STEM, and have prepared Galt Joint Union to be one of eight school districts in California working toward early implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.

To inspire and prepare more students to excel in STEM and build a strong pipeline of teachers in these disciplines, we need new ways of approaching STEM education, and our efforts must involve everyone: States, districts, schools, tech developers, teacher prep programs and our best scientists, mathematicians and engineers all have roles to play.



At the federal level, President Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign has resulted in more than $1 billion in financial and in-kind support for STEM programs from corporations, philanthropists, colleges and a host of stakeholders. And more than 230 organizations have come together through 100Kin10, answering the president's call to recruit and develop 100,000 excellent STEM teachers over the Arne Duncan: Where California schools need to put their money - LA Times:

Big Education Ape: SES IS A MESS: State’s ESEA waiver request related to tutoring requirement denied | EdSource http://bit.ly/1L714f6

How Whiteness tells the Story of Katrina 10 Years Later | Decolonizing educational research

How Whiteness tells the Story of Katrina 10 Years Later | Decolonizing educational research:

How Whiteness tells the Story of Katrina 10 Years Later

Malcolm Gladwell’s essay on New Orleans ten years after Hurricane Katrina is but one of the many narratives that center whiteness as the protagonist of the city during and after Katrina. The purchase this essay has by virtue of its publication in a nationally renowned news, politics and culture magazine holds lessons not just about how whiteness craves and tells the story of black vulnerability but the fertile reception there is still for this mythic rendition. Whiteness is a default for white people as the referent for intelligence, beauty and objective truth. It operates by naming these explicitly. But it also works, arguably far more impactfully, by implicitly communicating white ideals not as specific but simply the norm, barely uttering it. Gladwell’s essay, “Starting Over,” is an abject lesson in this overt naming and whispering.

Gladwell begins his essay through the perspective of a phenotypically white sociologist, an outsider to the city. Gladwell names this person, qualifies him as an expert sociologist through his pedigreed institution, and includes quotes from this man about his take on being a newcomer to the city after Katrina. Why would the first move to discussing New Orleans be to position a white transplant first? Answer: whiteness. By framing this essay on the effects of Katrina on what is widely known as the Blackest city in the United States, Gladwell basically pulls the same whiteness move that launched Orange is the New Black, and countless other works of fiction and nonfiction. The sociologist here is parallel to white upper class Piper in the TV series; we have to know her first to then know racially minoritized characters. It must have seemed impossible to tell the story of the city through the eyes and perspectives of the city’s thousands of current and former Black residents, residents who emphatically do not use the words “random” and “natural” to describe the breaking of the levees, as Gladwell does. In fact, the only instances in which readers hear from Black New Orleanians, they are filtered through Gladwell’s sampling of research done by social scientists that he takes the time first label as social scientists. It is an egregious erasure through layered annotating.

Gladwell samples from published studies and available data while making sweeping statements about social science that work to erroneously delimit what social science is and benefit inquiries that play fast and loose with how context operates on large and small scales. Several of Gladwell’s statements stand out in this way:

“If a group of poor Americans are stuck in a bad place, then either the place they are stuck in needs to be improved or they need to move to a better place.”

In this statement, Gladwell, purportedly works from the premise of the social science he’s chosen to represent as Science with a capital S. It starts its analysis of generational poverty by erasing the generational, policy-created and durable nature of poverty. While that is itself reason enough to dismiss this statement, which acts as the basic thesis of the essay, it is deeply troubling to continue reading the details of this thesis exploration with the slimmest grasp of U.S. history and its ongoing investment in the investment in attempting to contain and limit Black life. This superficial analysis relies on a claim made early in the essay that it’s not so much national policies (e.g., minimum wage laws, housing policies, healthcare) but just the specific neighborhood you might find yourself in that determines “how you turn out.”

Pardon the blinding flash of the obvious here, but neighborhoods do not spontaneously form themselves. Particularly in an era of unprecedented housing inequality, gentrification, and 2nd and 3rd generations of white flight, such a simplistic claim erases systemic structures of policy, culture, and ideology. It also woefully misses the complex relationship between municipal policies, national policies, and cultural practices. Gladwell facilitates this by consistently using Social Science in big pronouncements. This is the view of systemic vulnerabilization through the lens of whiteness: it begins the story in the current moment, whittles away the structures that have shaped that moment and then poses irresponsible research questions about choice, preference, and better offness. And yet, Gladwell surreptitiously bolsters this as science by noting the scholars he represents through their institutional affiliations and making absolutely false statements such all social scientists seeing “a major move” as a “good thing.” All while ignoring the tradition of equally impactful sociologists, such as W.E.B. duBois, who insisted on reversing the gaze of social science from pathology to structural analysis.

Echoing the choice Gladwell makes to introduce New Orleans after Katrina through the eyes of a white man who is an outsider to the community, Gladwell then introduces the complexity of the education system through experiences of charter personnel. The nation’s first successful private erasure of public schooling is again erased as Gladwell tells the tale of the ways that the adults and children involved in this private charter school worked to reform the school. Gladwell tells the story of education in NOLA through the subtle moves of whiteness. He notes that following Katrina, “all the How Whiteness tells the Story of Katrina 10 Years Later | Decolonizing educational research:

Teachers For Social Justice: Support the Hunger Strike for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School

Teachers For Social Justice: Support the Hunger Strike for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School:

Support the Hunger Strike for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School

12 Parents, grandparents, community members and supporters from around the city started a hunger strike on August, 17th. 

Their demand is simple. Rahm Emanuel and his appointed school board needs to follow the community's wishes and use the now shuttered Dyett High School Building at 555E 51st St. for the innovative, academically excellent and culturally connected Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School. 

There are many ways you can help. 

Come out and support these heroes. They'll be at the Dyett HS location unless there is rain when they'll be at the Rainbow Push Coalition's office at 930 E. 50th St. 

Bring water, ice, fruit juice and your statements of solidarity to help sustain the strikers. 

Spread the word in the real world and on social media. Hashtags: #FightForDyett and #WeAreDyett  

Read and share these stories about the Hunger Strike in the media

http://empathyeducates.org/Journeys-to-and-through/eleven-parents-launch-hunger-strike/ 

http://hpherald.com/2015/08/17/community-goes-on-hunger-strike-for-dyett-high/

http://wgntv.com/2015/08/17/parents-hold-hunger-strike-outside-bronzeville-high-school/

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150817/grand-boulevard/dyett-activists-launch-hunger-strike-demanding-decision-on-reopening-school

http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2015/08/17/education-activists-go-hunger-strike-over-dyett-high-schools-future 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/08/17/dyett-high-school-parents-plan-hunger-strike/

Donate funds to help the hunger strikers at the location or by clicking "Donate" here. 

Call Mayor Emanuel at (312) 744 - 3300 and tell him that you support the Dyett hunger strikers and demand that he support community's wishes for the Dyett Global Leadership & Green Technology HS. 

Search the hashtags and follow TSJ on Twitter for updates @TeachForJustice.