Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said that Congress ended Common Core when they passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Seriously, she said this.
DeVos told Frank Beckmann on Detroit’s WJR News Talk 760 AM on Wednesday that ESSA “essentially does away with the notion of a Common Core.” She also said that ESSA “encourages states to set forth their own levels of achievement expectation.”
Here’s the kicker… she said the approval of state plans is a “good and important role for the federal government.”
Somebody tell me where that is at in the Constitution. DeVos is in error, and if President Trump is serious about dealing with Common Core will set her straight. This is a 180 from the agenda he set forth and what she said she planned to do.
As a requirement of the ESSA, states must “demonstrate” to the Secretary that they have adopted standards that are aligned to the same definition of “college and career” standards used to force states into adopting Common Core under NCLB waivers.
Also, “The state accountability system must be structured as per the federal bill.”
DeVos softens stance on protesters at higher ed event
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos softened her view Thursday on the objections to her appointment to President Trump’s Cabinet, a day after she criticized protesters who she said want to keep new thinking out of schools.
“While some have characterized the flurry of attention around my confirmation in negative terms, I view it as expressions of passion, passionate parents and passionate advocates who care deeply about their kids and about education,” Devos said in remarks to a conference of community college leaders in Washington. “I applaud it and I know the same kind of passion drives all of you.”
In her first appearance at a public higher education event, DeVos lauded the work of community colleges, but offered no details on how the department she leads will support their efforts. DeVos, who has no professional experience in education and narrowly won Senate confirmation, has not said much about her vision for higher education. As a result, policy analysts and college leaders have been eager for signs of where she and the Trump administration stand on student aid, regulations and other higher ed issues.
On Thursday, DeVos praised two-year public schools as “essential engines of workforce and economic development.” Though she named legislative priorities that are top of mind for community colleges, including an expansion of Pell Grants for low-income students, DeVos did not take a position on any of them. Congress has authority to affect higher ed policy through legislation, but the secretary can advocate policies she deems important. It was unclear from Thursday’s event whether DeVos plans to use her bully pulpit to that end, and the audience had no chance to ask because the secretary was whisked off stage following her remarks.
DeVos spent much of her brief remarks on the role of community colleges in workforce development, noting Trump’s plans to expand vocational and technical education that she said two-year institutions “excel” at providing. She said she shares the president’s vision of making multiple paths for postsecondary education a priority, without elaborating on how the department will accomplish that.DeVos softens stance on protesters at higher ed event - The Washington Post:
The national study of 11,998 high school students and 726 teachers – the sixth such survey the Foundation has conducted since 2005 – found that 91 percent of students said it was important to be able to “express unpopular opinions,” up from 83 percent who felt that way in 2004. First Amendment support is highest among students who had a class that dealt with the First Amendment and used digital media on a regular basis.
“This year’s study paints a very favorable picture of the future of the First Amendment,” said Kenneth Dautrich, author of the report and president of The Stats Group. “Today’s high school students are more supportive of free expression rights than any we’ve surveyed in the past.”
This enthusiasm is not without its limits, however. Students backed away a bit in their support when it comes to offensive words and bullying. Only 45 percent believe speech intended to offend people should be protected and even fewer students (36 percent) support speech that could be considered bullying.
Breaking down by demographics yields some interesting, if not particularly surprising, results. Male students were 10 percent more likely than female students to support protections for offensive speech. By the same margin, White students were more supportive than Hispanic and Asian students of these protections. This discrepancy increased to 20 percent with Black students.
The gap between student support and adult support has narrowed over the past decade. (See graph below)
Source: Future of the First Amendment, Knight Foundation 2017
BHM Series #6: Alfre Woodard Gives Life to Sojourner Truth
In honor of Black History Month, I’m reposting a previous series. A few years ago, (2015 to be exact!) I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American History. This year I finally reached my goal!!! Check out my original post below which appeared on February 3, 2015. To see more posts in this series, click here.
Actress Alfre Woodard performs a very moving piece from black abolitionist, and former slave, Sojourner Truth who delivered an impromptu speech before a gathering of feminists in Akron Ohio in 1851. (Click here to view this video directly on YouTube.)
Related Reads: Click here to view more posts in this series.
Who inspires you? Help me reach my goal of 28 posts and email me or post your great resources in the comments below.
Celebrating Black History isn’t about cut and paste activities, or eating sweet-potatoes and calling it a day. How do you ensure you are celebrating Black History in a way that values the cultural contributions of a people within a wider social and historical context?
This book list from Lee & Low is organized under 7 Key Values: Perseverance, Determination, & Grit, Leadership & Courage, Teamwork & Collaboration, Responsibility & Commitment, Optimism & Hope, Compassion & Love, Passion & Pride
There are also suggested discussion questions:
How does/do the character(s) show (core value)?
What positive effects are associated with having/showing (core value)?
How do you show (core value)?
How can you work towards having/showing (core value)?
What core values do you think are important to apply in our classroom? Why?
Included as well are helpful links to other resources including an 8-step checklist for building an inclusive book collection that reflects the diversity of the human experience and “dos and don’ts” for teaching Black History from Teaching Tolerance.
How are you actively exposing yourself and your children to positive African-American role-models? Please share your ideas, resources and comments below!
Is it true there are LAUSD board candidates “supported by” Betsy DeVos?
Recently this very central, very arresting question was posted to a neighborhood social media website, highlighting the core themes of today’s political perplexity: culpability, association and formal logic.
The thread claimed that those who opposed DeVos should be aware that two carbon copy candidates running in tandem for the LAUSD fourth board district are “supported by” DeVos; today’s mail insisted the same.
“Not True” howled the pair’s supporters and indeed I have found no trace that DeVos has funded either candidate directly.
And yet these underlying claims of equivalency are, I believe, spot on.
Why?
Well first, the term “DeVos” has become iconic, representing an attitude, a political ideology and stance. As well, she has become symbolic of Trump’s predilection for appointing cabinet members who are patently antagonistic to that department which they are tapped to lead.
As unpleasant as the second characteristic is, DeVos’ symbolism is only a secondary characteristic of LAUSD’s board race for the fourth district (BD4). There is little question that incumbent Steve Zimmer is eminently – and the most – qualified candidate for this position. He has done the job for two terms already and arguably has been extremely effective at it, having climbed a very steep learning curve of mind-boggling complexity. Governing Los Angeles Unified is a gigantic job, so (i) working within a splinter school district just a very small fraction of its size, or (ii) tilting ineffectively against its entrenched bureaucracy (the twinned challenger’s qualifications respectively), does not constitute robust qualification for the post. This district is vast and its issues tremendously difficult to master; job familiarity is a strong asset.
Additionally his opponents champion the charter school ethos underwritten by Eli Broad in “a bold plan to expand the charter sector to serve 50% of Los Angeles public school students.” If such a plan cannabilizes the very system that spawned it, then these candidates could be said to be akin to the DeVos paradigm of anti-leadership because their ascension will destroy that which they Getting What You Pay For – redqueeninla:
The Network for Public Education Joins Journey for Justice’s Campaign to Support Public Schools
On February 15th, Jitu Brown, the Executive Director of Journey for Justice (J4J) led a media briefing for the #WeChoose (public schools) Campaign launch at the Chicago City Hall. The Network for Public Education was represented by Phyllis Bush (second from left), one of the founding board members of NPE, who serves on its Executive Board.
Mr. Brown (center) also serves on the Board of NPEAction. Also in attendance was NPE Action board member, Tina Andres (right of Phyllis), who was at the press conference representing the BATS.
The #WeChoose (public schools) campaign focuses on the following:
A moratorium on school privatization. Federal funding for 10,000 sustainable community schools. Ending zero tolerance policies. Assessing gaps in equitable funding. Supporting black teachers. Ending state takeovers, appointed school boards and mayoral control. Eliminating the over-reliance on standardized tests in public schools.
Tennessee politicians enjoy a long, sordid history of underfunding public schools, crying about poor education quality, making outrageous demands of students and teachers, and complaining about federal interference while begging for federal grant stashes to keep state school doors open.
One of those big stashes of federal cash is about to run out in 2019 unless state politicians can gin up a good reason for extending the Gear Up TN, a 7-year grant awarded in 2012 "that aims to expand the college-going culture in Tennessee and empower students to succeed."
This program, which focuses largely on counseling high school students into college and career fields that fit the needs of corporations receiving huge public incentives to locate in Tennessee, is worth $29,590,281 to state politicians, who, by the way, are unwilling to ask TN's wealthy elites or said corporations to pay a fair share to educate Tennessee children.
And so recently the TN Department of Education (TDOE) manufactured a report that claimed that 30 percent of TN's high school graduates had skirted high school requirements, as established in 2010 by Business Roundtable honchos with the U. S. Diploma Project. Could this be the reason why so many kids drop out of college, the State asks. How could this happen!
According to TDOE, it would seem that quite overnight the State realized that Tennessee school counselor corps falling down on the job, along with administrators and teachers who should act as counselors when counselors can't keep up. And thank goodness, too, for Gear Up TN. Where would the state be without it!!
The reason I want to bring this bill to the attention of the public is that this piece of proposed legislation has the appearance of being the beginning of a concept that needs further study.
Public school education continually, by way of the whims of politicians and their donors and the whimsy of philanthropists, goes through upheavals on a regular basis and most of the time, common sense and lessons learned are left behind in the race to the next new bright and shiny silver bullet. Remember Bill Gates’ idea of galvanic wrist band monitors for students? Or the data walls in classrooms showing each student’s performance on tests in elementary school or remember IQ tests back in the day? The most recent big fails have been the No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top.
Parents – Just say NO to the 2017 SBAC Testing Scheme
SBAC testing will begin soon in Connecticut’s schools.
FACT: Parents have a fundamental and inalienable right to REFUSE to have their children take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test – Period, End of Story.
Do not be bullied into believing that you have lost your right to protect your children from the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory “test and punish” SBAC testing system.
When considering the refusal (opt-out) issue it is critically important that parents understand that there is no federal or state law that eliminates a parent’s right to refuse to allow their children to take the SBAC test.
While there are federal and state laws that direct states and school districts to try and achieve a 95 percent participation rate for the standardized tests, the State Department of Education’s own instruction on the matter makes the truth clear.
There are no penalties for students and families for not participating, however, there may be unintended consequences that have an effect on students and families in the school district
Investigation: Charter school leaders, founders linked to controversial Turkish cleric
A group of charter schools that arose from North Jersey’s Turkish community is rapidly growing in the state, with seven schools collecting more than $60 million in taxpayer money last year alone to fund their growth.
Now, an investigation by The Record and NorthJersey.com shows that some founders and leaders of the schools have close ties to the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the controversial Islamic cleric accused of working to overthrow the government in his native Turkey last summer. Gulen is fighting extradition demands as he lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, about 10 miles from the New Jersey border.
The 75-year-old Gulen, in his writings and public comments, espouses a modern Islamic society that embraces education, interfaith dialogue and tolerance. Sympathy for the movement is strong among key figures who pioneered the North Jersey charter schools.
Some belong to Turkish รฉmigrรฉ groups that tout the cleric's teachings. There are also political donors who collectively have furnished hundreds of thousands in donations to U.S. office holders while the North Jersey charter schools in general have been adept at wooing state and local government officials with trips to Turkey and, in some cases, jobs.
Records show the charter schools in North Jersey also have been a channel for state taxpayer money to private entities that serve the schools as landlords or vendors — in one case, a Wayne boarding school that is openly Gulen inspired.
In Turkey’s capital of Ankara, President Recep Erdogan has purged thousands of suspected "Gulenists" from the government and is pressing the Trump administration to break with former President Barack Obama and immediately dislodge the cleric and send him home to stand trial as a domestic terrorist who they claim was behind the July 2016 coup attempt.
Officials in the turbulent Turkish republic have maintained Gulen is leveraging a network of more than 100 charter schools nationwide and U.S. tax dollars to support revolution back home that would put his followers in power.
“It’s clear these schools were being used both to raise funds for Gulen and employ Gulen followers and teachers and basically have them tie a percent of their income back to Gulen,” said Robert Amsterdam, a London-based lawyer hired by the Turkish government who is investigating charter schools in the U.S. that he alleges are linked to Gulen.
The United States has not classified Gulen or his followers as a terrorist group, and some have characterized the cleric as an antidote to Islamic extremism. The Trump administration has not made an official policy statement about Gulen.
Gulen disavows any role in the Turkish coup or terror attacks there, and he has long denied a connection to the Turkish-led charter schools in the United States.
Leaders of the New Jersey schools interviewed for this story say their charters, spread across a dozen locations stretching from Hackensack to Somerset County, have no formal link to the reclusive preacher. They exist solely to provide good secular education for the large numbers of public school families seeking better outcomes for their children, they say.
As the international controversy around Gulen swirls, the Turkish-led schools in New Jersey continue to collect tens of millions of dollars in state financing and local tax support, public records show.
The Record's review raises key questions about state oversight of the schools even as Governor Christie – who visited three of the North Jersey locations last year – pushes to rapidly expand the charter movement across the state:
The investigation found:
A state-financed property deal involving the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology also benefited its landlord, a private group with close ties to the Gulen movement:
That group sold the property and used the proceeds to help open a new campus in Wayne for its private boarding school that hews closely to Gulen's teachings and caters largely to students from Turkey.
Public money, in fees and rent that could amount to millions of dollars over time, continues to flow to the charter school's new landlord, a firm with multiple ties to Turkish charter schools in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Connections run deep among people involved with the schools, Gulenist groups and Turkish charter schools elsewhere in the U.S:
Two of the New Jersey schools, for example, have a founder who has served as a director at the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, considered the voice of the Gulen movement in this country.
The CEO of iLearn Schools Inc. – an Elmwood Park-based non-profit that manages four of the local charter schools – comes from a charter network in Texas that the Turkish government claims is linked to the Gulen movement.
The schools and their vendors have successfully courted prominent public-school educators and political figures.
The state’s top charter school regulator, Harold Lee, left his post last summer for a job at iLearn.
Security consulting contracts at four of the schools worth more than $90,000 a year are held by ex-Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire, who took a 10-day trip to Turkey before he left office in 2010 with his family and local Turkish nationals tied to the schools. It was paid for in part by a Gulenist group.
More than $30 million in long-term, low-interest loans have been granted by the state to benefit the Paterson charter school despite its continuing financial and academic troubles:
In 2014, a Wall Street ratings agency downgraded the bonds issued for its expansion to junk status because the school’s revenues had fallen. Last year, Wall Street lowered its overall outlook on the bonds to “negative.”
Tracking tax dollars spent by the schools can be difficult because of loopholes in state law:
ILearn, which is set to add a fifth charter to its chain this year, declined to answer routine requests for information about its payroll, saying that as a private contractor it is not subject to the state Open Public Records law.
State officials said it is unclear if such charter-management organizations fall under the law, even though charters draw their funding directly from the tax-funded budgets of regular public schools.
Gulen’s followers maintain the campaign against the American charters by the Turkish government – which claims the schools are being used to further Gulen's political agenda – is part of an attempt to smear and harass Gulen supporters wherever they live.
They dismiss the idea of a political or religious conspiracy operating through them and say Gulen’s movement is about hard work, peace and leading an ethical life. The movement’s Alliance for Shared Values maintains his devotees have simply been inspired to “promote education, particularly in math and science, by starting schools to serve disadvantaged communities.”
It is clear, also, that local Turks sympathetic to Gulen have influence well beyond the charter schools and are skilled at building political capital. Civic and cultural organizations linked to Gulen are active in the community at large, holding academic competitions for students and interfaith and outreach events with politicians, law enforcement and the public.
Members of the organizations are vocal about issues that affect Turkey and have provided U.S. lawmakers and others like McGuire with trips to their homeland, including two Bergen County legislators, Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, financial disclosure forms show. Census figures show that Bergen and Passaic counties have the nation’s highest percentage of residents with Turkish ancestry among America's 3,000-plus counties. There are 5,200 in Bergen County alone.
Johnson said he visited a Gulen university and met with a group of Gulenist educators. Weinberg recalled learning about the Gulen philosophy when she traveled to the republic with Johnson in 2011. Like the former sheriff, both legislators said they paid for airfare and the Peace Islands Institute, a U.S.-based group that considers Gulen its honorary president, picked up the costs for the 2011 trip. Johnson visited again in 2014 on a trip that was paid for, in part, by the Turkic American Association, which promotes Turkish culture.
