The War On Teachers

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:40 am

Can Arne Duncan be more evil?


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opini ... nted=print

The New York Times

October 9, 2012

Long Live Paper

By JUSTIN B. HOLLANDER

Medford, Mass.

LAST week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan declared a war on paper textbooks. “Over the next few years,” he said in a speech at the National Press Club, “textbooks should be obsolete.” In their place would come a variety of digital-learning technologies, like e-readers and multimedia Web sites.

Such technologies certainly have their place. But Secretary Duncan is threatening to light a bonfire to a tried-and-true technology — good old paper — that has been the foundation for one of the great educational systems on the planet. And while e-readers and multimedia may seem appealing, the idea of replacing an effective learning platform with a widely hyped but still unproven one is extremely dangerous.

A renowned expert on reading, Maryanne Wolf, has recently begun studying the effects of digital reading on learning, and so far the results are mixed. She worries that Internet reading, in particular, could be such a source of distractions for the student that they may cancel out most other potential benefits of a Web-linked, e-learning environment. And while it’s true that the high-tech industry has sponsored substantial amounts of research on the potential benefits of Web-based learning, not enough time has passed for longitudinal studies to demonstrate the full effects.

In addition, digital-reading advocates claim that lightweight e-books benefit students’ backs and save schools money. But the rolling backpack seems to have solved the weight problem, and the astounding costs to outfit every student with an e-reader, provide technical support and pay for regular software updates promise to make the e-textbook a very pricey option.

As both a teacher who uses paper textbooks and a student of urban history, I can’t help but wonder what parallels exist between my own field and this sudden, wholesale abandonment of the technology of paper.

For example, when cars began to fill America’s driveways, and new highways were laid across the land, the first thing cities did was encourage the dismantling of our train systems. Streetcar lines were torn up. A result, for many cities, was to rip apart the urban core and run highways through it, which only accelerated the flow of residents, commerce and investment to the suburbs.

But in recent years, new streetcar lines have been built or old systems extended in places like Pittsburgh, Jersey City and Phoenix. They are casting aside a newer technology in favor of an older one.

This lesson of technology-inspired extinction can be retold in many other domains of life: the way phonographs nearly disappeared when the music CD was invented; the rejection of bicycles in the middle of the 20th century; the shuttering of Polaroid factories with the advent of digital cameras.

My point is not that these are all pernicious or reversible developments. On the contrary, we have all benefited from new advances in medicine, communications and computing, even those that displaced familiar technologies.

The Polaroid is a wonderful device for what it is, but it will and should remain a technological novelty. On the other hand, few higher-tech formats deliver the lush sound quality of the vinyl record, and younger generations have recently returned to the format.

In other words, we shouldn’t jump at a new technology simply because it has advantages; only time and study will reveal its disadvantages and show the value of what we’ve left behind.

Which brings us back to paper. With strength and durability that could last thousands of years, paper can preserve information without the troubles we find when our most cherished knowledge is stuck on an unreadable floppy disk or lost deep in the “cloud.”

Paper textbooks can be stored and easily referenced on a shelf. Data are as easy to retrieve from paper as reaching across your desk for a textbook. They are easy to read and don’t require a battery or plug. Though the iPad and e-readers have increasingly better screen clarity, the idea that every time a person reads a book, newspaper or magazine in the near future they will require an energy source is frightening.

The digitization of information offers important benefits, including instant transmission, easy searchability and broad distribution. But before we shred the last of the paper textbooks, let us pause and remember those old streetcars, and how great it would be if we still had them around.


Justin B. Hollander is an assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University and the author of “Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, Depopulation and Urban Planning in the American Sunbelt.”

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:55 pm


http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/four ... ces-marked

Fourth-graders who flunk reading have faces marked

Nov. 16 6:09 PM EST

DECLO, Idaho (AP) — A fourth-grade teacher in southern Idaho is being criticized after having her students use permanent markers to draw on the faces of classmates who failed to meet reading goals.

Some parents and administrators say the punishments given to nine students in Summer Larsen's class were inappropriate and left the children feeling shamed.

Cindy Hurst said recently her 10-year-old son came home from school Nov. 5 with his entire face — including his eyelids — scribbled on with green, red and purple markers.

"He was humiliated, he hung his head and wanted to go wash his face," Hurst told The Times-News of Twin Falls (http://bit.ly/QMwMTJ). "He knows he's a slow reader. Now he thinks he should be punished for it."

Larsen, who has taught at the school for six years, didn't respond to requests for comment. But Cassia County School District Superintendent Gaylen Smyer confirmed what took place in her classroom, though he didn't name Larsen.

The students were allowed to choose their own incentive to meet the reading goal, but instead of a reward, the class chose a punishment: Students who failed to meet the goal could either stay inside at recess until it was met, or have their faces written on by classmates who met the goals.

Nine students didn't meet the goals, the paper reported Friday. Three chose to forgo recess, and the other six chose to have their faces marked on.

"Although all the students in the class agreed to the incentive, once it occurred it was not so well received. Nor should it have been," Smyer said.

LeRoy Robinson, who has two grandchildren who had their faces marked for failing to meet the goals, said the punishment was bullying. The children had their faces marked in the morning, and were told to leave it on all day but to wash it off before they went home, Robinson said.

"Other kids were asking them about it and laughing at them," he said.

Robinson's wife, Karla Robinson, said the ink was hard to wash away and most kids couldn't get it off their faces, leaving them embarrassed — especially when they had to ride the bus home with junior high and high school students.

Some parents were supportive, however. Karla Christensen, whose daughter met Larsen's reading goals, said the teacher was just trying to motivate students.

Smyer wouldn't confirm whether the teacher faced any disciplinary action, but parents said she was absent from school for the next few days, returning to the classroom Nov. 12.

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:29 pm


http://dianeravitch.net/2012/11/18/abou ... education/


Diane Ravitch's blog
A site to discuss better education for all
« Michigan Is On Its Way to Ending Public Education
Are Teachers Unions Bad for Education? »

About That Bipartisan Consensus to Privatize Public Education
November 18, 2012


If ever evidence was needed about the bizarre mind meld between the Obama administration and the far-right of the Republican party, here it is.

Secretary Arne Duncan is giving the keynote to Jeb Bush’s Excellence in Education summit in Washington, D.C. on November 28. Another keynote will be delivered to the same gathering of the leaders of the privatization movement by John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, who headed the Obama transition team in 2008. This is sickening.

Jeb Bush’s organization supports vouchers, charters, online virtual charters, and for-profit organizations that run schools. It also supports evaluating teachers by student test scores and eliminating collective bargaining. Jeb Bush believes in grading schools, grading teachers, grading students, closing schools, and letting everyone “escape” from public schools to privately-run establishments. The free market is his ideal of excellence, not public responsibility, not the public school as the anchor of the community, but privatization.

Here is the press release (Podesta’s keynote was announced earlier):

Arne Duncan to Give Keynote at the
2012 National Summit on Education Reform

WASHINGTON – The Foundation for Excellence in Education today announced U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will deliver a breakfast keynote address for the fifth annual Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform. This keynote will take place at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC, Nov. 28.

Prior to becoming the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan served as the chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country. Among his most significant accomplishments during his tenure as CEO, an all-time high of the district’s elementary school students met or exceeded state reading standards, and their math scores also reached a record high. At high schools, Chicago Public Schools students posted gains on the ACT at three times the rate of national gains and nearly twice that of the state’s. Also, the number of CPS high school students taking Advanced Placement courses tripled, and the number of students passing AP classes more than doubled.
Unfortunately, we have reached maximum capacity for the Summit, and registration is closed. However, you can enjoy this exciting event from the comfort of your own computer. All keynote speeches and general sessions will be streamed live at www.ExcelinEd.org/Everywhere, and all strategy sessions will be filmed and available after the event. Click here to view this year’s agenda.

Members of the press are welcome to cover the conference, including keynote and strategy sessions, however, participation in Q & A times are reserved for attendees. For more details and to apply for credentials for this event, please click here.

The Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform annually immerses lawmakers and policymakers in two days of in-depth discussions on proven policies and innovative strategies to improve student achievement. For all things related to the Summit, check out the #EIA12 app at http://bit.ly/W6wubM. This mobile app puts the event agenda and information about speakers, strategy sessions and our partners at your fingertips.



1.
Bella Rosenberg says:
November 18, 2012 at 11:52 am

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/edu ... ml?hpid=z3

The Washington Post is a “bit” late on the depredations of vouchers, but better late than never.
Reply
2.
Ed Harris says:
November 18, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Nov 28th?
I think most teachers will be teaching in their classrooms. (I wonder if EdinExcellence would have allowed a teacher to bring his class to attend.)
Reply

3.
Linda says:
November 18, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Maybe he will make his asinine milk analogy and then can all laugh and pat each other on the back…..and Jeb was supposed to be the smart, sensible one..HA!

He will now start parading his son around, another George.
Reply
*

Paddlingirl Chris says:
November 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm

they have to stay with the same first name otherwise they get confused
Reply

4.
Sean Crowley says:
November 18, 2012 at 12:40 pm

I really hope all of these Educators for Obama idiots are wallowing in their victory glow.
Reply
*
Linda says:
November 18, 2012 at 12:45 pm

Many public school teachers did not vote for him nor did they vote for Romney.
Reply

5.
jcgrim says:
November 18, 2012 at 1:05 pm

The politics of deceit. Bush & Duncan have 0 interest in improving education.

The Bush family has a long history of trading their influence for personal gain. Read Kevin Phillips book “American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush” and a book review in Salon here: http://www.salon.com/2004/01/27/phillips_7/. Phillips reveals the dark aspects of the family’s wealth and influence over international and domestic policies to their benefit.

We can now add Duncan, Podesta & Obama to that list of influence peddlers.
Reply

6.
jcgrim says:
November 18, 2012 at 1:09 pm

One more prediction. Jeb Bush is positioning for a run for president in 2016.
Reply
*
Lehrer says:
November 18, 2012 at 1:36 pm

I’m thinking Hillary for the Dems. Dynasty vs. dynasty? This could be interesting, in a plutocratic sort of way.
Reply
o
jcgrim says:
November 18, 2012 at 6:30 pm

Agreed.
Reply

7.
philalisa says:
November 18, 2012 at 1:35 pm

Don’t mourn, organize.
Reply

8.
reality-based educator says:
November 18, 2012 at 2:36 pm

There is a solution.

Do not endorse candidates who support the privatization and corporatization of public education.

Do not vote for candidates who support the privatization and corporatization of public education.

If you endorse and vote for a candidate who supports the privatization and corporatization of public education, do not be surprised when his chief lackey at the USDOE heads off to shill for the privatization and corporatization of public education.

Sorry to be shrill here, but this story is getting old – progressives who voted for Obama who are outraged by the Obama administration’s privatization and corporatization of public education agenda.

In 12 step programs, they say the mark of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The way to break the cycle is to STOP doing the same thing over and over again.

This lesson can be applied to politics.

Many progressives, teachers, and supporters of public education need to learn it.

If you endorse and/or vote for a politicians who supports the privatization and corporatization of public education, then you are going to get a privatization and corporatization of public education agenda.

And you are, in part, responsible for those policies.

After all, you voted for them.
Reply

9.
Azmom says:
November 18, 2012 at 6:11 pm

Is a list of policy making attendees available? Sometimes I think that those who don’t follow education policy issues, including elected officials, get sucked into the notion that we all want “reform” and they just buy into the privatizers’ notion of reform. They go to conferences like this for a quick education so they can sound like they k ow what they are talking about. We need to reach out to them and say this is NOT universally agreed upon – and in fact there are plenty who think that this “reform” path will be (and perhaps already has been) catastrophic. The Arizona Democratic Party recently had Kevin Johnson speak at their annual dinner. I wrote them and urged them to rescind the invitation, pointing out that Kevin Johnson’s positions are antithetical to Democratic principles. Of course they did not bother replying to me (and of course they did not rescind his invitation), but honestly I am not even sure that they understand how divisive and controversial he is. We need to be reaching out to policy makers, community leaders and the media, letting them know that this “reform” thing is awful. Am I giving them too little credit? Sadly, I doubt it.

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:05 pm


http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/ ... -like.html

Sunday, November 25, 2012
Leonie Haimson: Educate All Kids Like Sasha and Malia
Obama’s education policies are failing children, except for his own.


BY Leonie Haimson

Rather than follow blindly in the path of privatization and unleashed free-market competition that led to the collapse of our economy, it’s time for Obama to start listening to parents and teachers. Cramming kids into classes of 30 or more and putting them on laptops while supervised by novices will never enhance their creativity or critical thinking skills.

Now that Barack Obama has been re-elected president, it’s time that he start making good on the education issues he emphasized during his campaign. While in speeches and in ads the president seized on Romney’s statement that class size doesn’t matter, the truth is that Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan has dismissed the importance of class size nearly as strongly. Worse yet, Duncan proposes cutting federal funds that districts can use to hire teachers at a time of sharp increases in class size.

While Obama inveighed against “teaching to the test,” his administration has injected even more test prep into our schools by mandating that teachers and schools be evaluated by means of unreliable algorithms based on test scores. His wrong-headed Race to the Top program and No Child Left Behind “waivers” forced districts to adopt punitive policies like school closings and mass teacher firings that further undermine the opportunities of our most at-risk students. His Department of Education has wasted billions by financing the expansion of merit pay, high-stakes testing, online learning, charter schools and Teach for America, none of which has a positive record. The latter program puts earnest young college grads in classrooms with the most at-risk students after only five weeks of training.
Rather than follow blindly in the path of privatization and unleashed free-market competition that led to the collapse of our economy, it’s time for Obama to start listening to the priorities of parents and treating teachers as professionals. Cramming kids into classes of 30 or more and putting them on laptops while supervised by novices will never enhance their creativity or critical thinking skills.

On November 6, voters throughout the country, including in Connecticut, Indiana and Idaho, rejected corporate-style education measures and candidates. In only two states did these policies prevail: Georgia, which approved an appointed state board that can authorize charter schools over the objections of local school boards; and Washington, which will allow charter schools to be instituted for the first time, but where the margin of victory was paper-thin and might still be reversed. In both cases, these pro-charter campaigns were financed primarily by wealthy billionaires like Bill Gates and Alice Walton (of Walmart fame), who outspent their opponents by more than 10 to one. In both cases, their measures were opposed by a coalition of local school boards, state PTAs, teachers unions, civil rights and good government groups, which are becoming increasingly vehement in their resistance to the damaging tide of budget cuts, class-size increases, privatization and high-stakes testing that is overtaking our schools.

Instead of pauperizing, standardizing, digitizing and privatizing education, we know what works to increase opportunities for children. Just witness the sort of education Obama’s own daughters receive: small classes with plenty of personal attention from experienced teachers, a well-rounded education with art, science and music, and little or no standardized testing. By instituting these reforms in the 1970s, Finland was able to turn around its school system and now outranks nearly all other nations in student achievement. If it’s good enough for Malia and Sasha, it should be good enough for inner-city public school students in New York City or Chicago.

Across the country, resistance to corporate-style education is growing in intensity and breadth. The grassroots coalition of parent, teacher and civil rights groups that worked together to win critical battles on November 6 must double down and make our voices heard, so that Obama will understand that he is on the wrong track. It’s not too late to for him to reject the favored policies of billionaires, corporate consultants, testing companies and privateers. These policies defy common sense and research, destroy the morale of teachers, treat our children as data points, and threaten to run our public schools into the ground.


ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Leonie Haimson is a parent advocate and executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Class Size Matters. She is also the editor of the NYC Public School Parent blog and a founder of Parents Across America.

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby MacCruiskeen » Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:06 pm

News Release

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org *ipa@accuracy.org
_______________________________________________________

Monday, December 17, 2012

"The Corporate War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times"

Interviews Available

HENRY GIROUX, henry.giroux@gmail.com
Giroux holds a chair professorship at McMaster University in Canada at the English and Cultural Studies Department. His books include "Education and the Crisis of Public Values."

He said today: "America is obsessed with violence and death, and this fixation not only provides profits for Hollywood, the defense industries, and the weapons industries, it also reproduces a culture of war and cruelty that has become central to America’s national identity -- one that is as shameful as it is deadly to its children and others. The war on public school teachers and children has reached its tragic apogee with the brutal and incomprehensible killing of the young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School."

Giroux just wrote the piece: "The Corporate War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times" for Truthout.org, which states:

Henry Giroux wrote:It is indeed ironic, in the unfolding nightmare in Newtown, that only in the midst of such a shocking tragedy are teachers celebrated in ways that justly acknowledge -- albeit briefly and inadequately -- the vital role they play every day in both protecting and educating our children. What is repressed in these jarring historical moments is that teachers have been under vicious and sustained attack by right-wing conservatives, religious fundamentalists and centrist Democrats since the beginning of the 1980s. ...

"If the United States is to prevent its slide into a deeply violent and anti-democratic state, it will, among other things, be required fundamentally to rethink not merely the relationship between education and democracy, but also the very nature of teaching, the role of teachers as engaged citizens and public intellectuals, and the relationship between teaching and social responsibility."

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13367 ... dark-times


For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

http://www.accuracy.org/release/the-cor ... ark-times/
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby The Consul » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:50 pm

Not sure I would refer to the Newtown assault as the apogee of said assault, if his mother had been a cosmetician at Macy's he might have gone there. Killed a many people and a couple of santas.

Still, Union busting ALWAYS involves sophisticated demonization of labor while denying any value that labor brings to society. Winning the war on teachers is essential. If they can be broken, it is not just a matter of depleting funding for the democratic party, but it removes the biggest obstacles to the privitization of public education into a for profit scam that will ultimately benefit the paler class. Education would be redefined in which several glass ceilings would be set that no one would ever talk about or at least be heard if they did outside the hermetically sealed social drum they have been assigned (occasionally a sample will be taken for advancement to prove the system is still fair and balanced).

That great flushing sound we hear is everything we once thought everything was, everything that could be, everything that we took for granted...swirling down the crapper of capitalism.
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby NeonLX » Tue Dec 18, 2012 4:49 pm

^^^^^
That's a mighty fine summary of where we is at, Mr. The Consul.
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby MacCruiskeen » Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:10 pm

TheConsul wrote: if his mother had been a cosmetician at Macy's he might have gone there.


Consul, just FYI, and not to derail the thread: The alleged killer's mother was NOT a teacher at that school. The rumour that she did work there (trumpeted worldwide as solid fact) is only one of the many pieces of bullshit that entered the newsstream in the aftermath of the massacre and served to buttress the official pseudo-explanation.
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby The Consul » Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:05 pm

Right, it is panning out somewhat Ft. Hood-like.
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:38 pm

Schadenfreude alert!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/edu ... ml?hpid=z2

Image

‘Frontline’ raises questions about test-score tampering under Rhee

By Emma Brown


Student standardized-test scores at an award-winning D.C. school dropped dramatically in 2011 after the principal tightened security out of concern about possible cheating, according to a new “Frontline” television documentary to be broadcast Tuesday.

The hour-long program raises questions about whether District officials have adequately investigated persistent suspicions that public school employees may have tampered with tests during the tenure of former Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

Adell Cothorne was principal of the District’s Noyes Education Campus for one year, in 2010-11. She told “Frontline” that just after students took a midyear practice version of the city’s annual standardized test, she stumbled upon three staff members sitting late at night in a room strewn with more than 200 test booklets.

One of the adults was at a desk, holding an eraser. The other two sat at a table, booklets open before them.

“One staff member said to me, in a lighthearted sort of way, ‘Oh, Principal, I can’t believe this kid drew a spider on the test and I have to erase it,’ ” Cothorne told filmmakers, offering the first such direct testimony about potential tampering with answer sheets in D.C. schools.

Cothorne told “Frontline’ that she reported the incident to the central office, but to her knowledge nothing was done. School system officials said Friday that without having seen the documentary, they could not comment on Cothorne’s allegations.

“Broadly speaking, reports about testing impropriety are taken very seriously,” D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz wrote in an e-mail. “We have investigated and taken appropriate action for every instance reported to us.”

The “Frontline” film by veteran education reporter John Merrow examines Rhee’s record in Washington, where her aggressive reforms between 2007 and 2010 turned her from a relative unknown into a polarizing edu-celebrity, both applauded and criticized for her unapologetic approach to fixing the District’s long-troubled schools.

Much of the film, “The Education of Michelle Rhee,” draws on footage previously broadcast in a dozen of Merrow’s “PBS NewsHour” reports. It chronicles the failings of the school system and the chancellor’s efforts to turn it around by closing schools with low enrollment and firing ineffective teachers, principals and central office workers.

In one well-known scene, Rhee fires a principal on tape, telling him in front of the film crew that his leadership had been “completely unimpressive.”

“This is not about giving people jobs, or ensuring that people can maintain their jobs. This is about educating children,” Rhee told Merrow, voicing the no-excuses approach to school reform — and the impatience with the city’s dismal academic results — that won her admiration around the country.

One of Rhee’s signature moves was turning the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the city’s annual standardized test, into a high-stakes event for teachers and principals. For the first time, their jobs and their pay depended upon raising student scores.

The District’s test scores did rise during Rhee’s tenure, including a particularly dramatic jump after her first year in office.

Rhee left office in 2010 after then-Mayor Adrian Fenty, who had hired her, lost his bid for reelection. She then launched Students First, a national lobbying organization to spread the reforms she championed in Washington.

But in 2011, USA Today published an investigation that raised questions about the validity of the District’s test scores — and, by proxy, about the effectiveness of Rhee’s reforms.

The newspaper’s report revealed an unusually high number of wrong-to-right erasures on students’ answer sheets at more than 100 D.C. schools between 2008 and 2010. Such erasure rates aren’t proof of cheating, but they are signals of potential tampering.

Current Chancellor Kaya Henderson asked the District’s inspector general, Charles J. Willoughby, to investigate further. Willoughby reported in August that he’d found no evidence of answer-sheet tampering, a conclusion that Henderson said should finally put cheating allegations to rest.

“Frontline’s” documentary, however, suggests the inspector general’s investigation may have been incomplete.

The 17-month probe focused on just one school: Noyes, which was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2009 after students made impressive gains on reading and math tests. It also twice won an award from Rhee that brought cash bonuses for staff, and it had some of the highest erasure rates in the city.

Investigators found some test-security problems at Noyes but no evidence of answer-sheeting tampering. Based on those findings, they decided not to examine other schools.

But Cothorne, the former principal who alleges that she saw staff members after hours with erasers and test booklets, said investigators never interviewed her.

“My speculation, they didn’t want to hear what I had to say,” she told “Frontline.”

The inspector general’s office declined “Frontline’s” request for an interview about its investigation, saying the report speaks for itself. The IG’s office also declined The Post’s request for comment on Friday.

DCPS spokeswoman Salmanowitz said school officials remain confident in the inspector general’s work.

Salmanowitz also said records show that Cothorne did not mention the incident when she was interviewed in March 2011 by Caveon, a company retained by the school system to examine potential cheating over several years.

Cothorne denied that she was interviewed by Caveon, but said as a new principal in D.C. schools, she was scared about speaking up.

Cothorne told the “Frontline” filmmakers that when she arrived at Noyes in 2010, she noticed that students’ academic abilities didn’t match their test scores.

Then she said she found the three staff members with test booklets from the midyear D.C. Benchmark Assessment System, a standardized exam that tracks students’ progress toward the end-of-year test — the one that matters for teachers’ and principals’ jobs.

Why would a teacher be motivated to inflate practice-test scores? Perhaps to make high end-of-year scores more believable, Cothorne said in an interview Friday.

Cothorne told “Frontline” that she tightened test security. On the end-of-the-year test, math and reading scores dropped more than 25 percentage points from the year before. The principal left Noyes at the end of that school year and opened a cupcake shop in Ellicott City.

Several other D.C. schools that made impressive test-score gains under Rhee saw double-digit declines after test security was tightened.

Asked for her reaction, Rhee told Merrow that such large swings should be investigated. There may have been some problems, she allowed — but they were isolated.

“I can point to ... dozens and dozens of schools where, you know, they saw very steady gains,” Rhee said, “or even saw some dramatic gains that were maintained.”

She told Merrow that she was sorry to leave the District. [Note: i.e., to get run out by voters who switched mayors mainly to get rid of her.]

“I lost the job that I loved,” she said. “The work that we’re doing right now with Students First is important. Would I rather be in D.C. as the chancellor? Absolutely.”


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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby justdrew » Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:27 pm

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:29 pm


http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/29/s ... ol_faculty

Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Seattle’s Teacher Uprising: High School Faculty Faces Censure for Boycotting Standardized MAP Tests

Earlier this month, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, voted unanimously to stop administering a widely used standardized test, calling them wasteful and unfairly used to grade their performance. They are now facing threats of 10-day suspension without pay if they continue their boycott. We go to Seattle to speak with two guests: Jesse Hagopian, a high school history teacher and union representative at Garfield High School who has refused to administer the MAP standardized test, and Wayne Au, a former high school teacher, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and author of "Unequal By Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality." [includes rush transcript]

Jesse Hagopian, high school history teacher and union representative at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington.

Wayne Au, former high school teacher, editor of Rethinking Schools and assistant professor at the University of Washington, Bothell Campus. He is the author of Unequal By Design: High-stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality and the co-editor of Pencils Down: Rethinking High Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools.

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: Jimi Hendrix. Yes, Jimi Hendrix attended Garfield High School in Seattle. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Aaron Maté.

AARON MATÉ: Well, teachers at a Seattle-area high school are winning support locally and nationwide for their boycott of a standardized test used in teacher evaluations. Earlier this month, teachers at Garfield High School voted to stop administering MAP tests, calling them wasteful and unfairly used to grade their performance. Teachers at several other Seattle schools have pledged their support for the boycott, and both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have also given their endorsement.

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, Seattle school officials sent a letter asking principals to inform all their teachers that they could face a 10-day unpaid suspension for refusing to administer the test. However, at a rally held that same afternoon at Seattle Public Schools headquarters, teachers said they will not back down. This is Mallory Clarke, who teaches reading at Garfield High.

MALLORY CLARKE: I don’t want to be away from my students for that length of time. I don’t want to lose that kind of money on a teacher’s salary. But I’m willing to do it because that’s the right thing to do. And it’s also educational for my students to see me standing up for things that are right.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go now to Seattle, Washington, where we’re joined by two guests.

Jesse Hagopian is a high school history teacher, union rep at Garfield High School, who has refused to administer the MAP standardized test. He’s a founding member of Social Equality Educators.

We’re also joined by Wayne Au. He’s a former high school teacher, editor of Rethinking Schools, went to Garfield and is now assistant professor at the University of Washington, Bothell Campus. He is the author of Unequal By Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality and co-editor of Pencils Down: Rethinking High Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools.

Jesse Hagopian and Professor Wayne Au, we welcome you both to Democracy Now! Jesse, if you could start off by explaining what is happening. This protest of teachers, unanimous, is unprecedented.

JESSE HAGOPIAN: Well, thank you, Amy, so much for having me on the show today.

And it’s really an incredible moment at Garfield High School. But Garfield High School has a proud tradition of teaching the arts. We have one of the greatest jazz bands in the country. As you said, Jimi Hendrix went to Garfield, and Quincy Jones went to Garfield. We have a long tradition of teaching our kids to think creatively. And, you know, Quincy Jones ended up producing the album Thriller, so I’m so glad that he didn’t have to be subjected to this MAP test and have his confidence killed and not produce one of the greatest albums of all time.

And I think it’s that tradition of creativity and teaching kids to think critically that has led our school to take his bold stand. The teachers at Garfield High School voted unanimously, with only three abstentions, to refuse to give this district-required test, because we feel this is a civil rights issue.

This is a test that was brought to Seattle under complete scandal. The former superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, sat on the board of the company that produced the test and didn’t disclose that when the Seattle Public Schools purchased the MAP test for over $4 million. Now, it’s not me who has a problem with that; it is the state auditor of Washington state that came and found that that was, quote, "an ethics violation" and, quote, "a conflict of interest." But really, that’s the best part of the MAP test.

This test is a test that is not aligned to our curriculum. So our kids in ninth grade algebra are getting geometry questions that are not being taught to them in that grade. And so, what that means is it’s setting them up for failure. And we didn’t get into this job as teachers to set our kids up for failure. And what’s worse, this evaluation is tied to our evaluation. The MAP test is part of rating teachers. And so, when you have kids taking a test that isn’t tied to what we’re teaching in the classroom and then they can tie that to our evaluations, it’s terribly unfair.

And finally, I think one of the main reasons why this was a unanimous vote of teachers was really an equity issue. One, you have special education students don’t have their IEPs, or Individual Education Plans, respected, so that there aren’t proper accommodations for our special ed students on this test. And then, me, as a history teacher, when I assign research projects, we often find that the computer labs are booked for weeks, because the MAP test is administered on a computer. And so, our children aren’t allowed to use the library and the computer labs for research for way too long because of this MAP test that’s administered three times a year. And so, the students that have computers at home can still continue the research, but those primarily low-income and students of color who don’t have as much Internet connectivity at home, they lose out. And so, this was a civil rights issue. And we’ve learned from the past that when you’re dealing with a civil rights issue, a boycott can be a very powerful tool. And that’s what we’ve done at Garfield High School is boycotted the MAP test.

AARON MATÉ: Well, Jesse, Superintendent José Banda told King5 News that he’s received emails from teachers who support the MAP test and see value in it, that it helps identify areas of weakness and strength among students. He insists that canceling the test is not in the interests of students.

SUPERINTENDENT JOSÉ BANDA: I don’t think it’s fair to students. You know, what we’re forgetting about in this whole equation is that this really is about students. Not everyone has or shares the same sentiment that some of these teachers do, meaning the teachers from Garfield and some of these other schools.

AARON MATÉ: Let’s bring in Professor Wayne Au. If you could respond to Superintendent José Banda?

WAYNE AU: Yeah, you know, to me, it’s ironic. You know, I respect Superintendent Banda. I know he came into the Seattle Public Schools recently, and he sort of inherited the MAP test from the former superintendent. So, I sort of feel for his position of being sort of forced into having to deal with something that he didn’t bring in. So I want to say that up front. But it’s ironic to me that he’s saying this is about students, when, you know, several of the concerns that Jesse just raised—for instance, you know, access to resources, testing being a civil rights issue—are also about students. And so, you know, it just strikes me as odd that he would frame it that way, when a lot of the concerns that the teachers are raising clearly are about students and student learning. You know, they want their instructional time back for students.

They want a test—they want a test—they want an assessment that is going to be useful for them. And particularly at the high school level, we’re seeing that the MAP test is not—is not useful for their instruction. It’s not clear that it’s a valid and sort of reliable measure for high school-level teaching. There’s also been recent studies coming—that have come out that have said, for instance, that at the fourth- and fifth-grade level even, the MAP is not accurately—is not accurately—is not showing any improvement—the MAP test isn’t showing an improvement for reading instruction at the fourth- and fifth-grade level. So, you know, I think the test boycott is actually about students and doing what’s best for students and taking an ethical stance, you know, that shows that teachers are professionals and caring and they want to do what’s best for their students. And so, you know, I’m disappointed.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to turn then to school principal, author and TV host, Steve Perry, who’s the founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School. Perry says teachers who object to standardized tests are trying to avoid accountability.

STEVE PERRY: What they are trying to do is they’re trying to skirt the responsibility of accountability. This examination, like so many others, probably has some flaws, as most examinations do, as the examinations that they give in their own classrooms do. In fact, if we look at some of the real data, we find that American students are at the bottom third in virtually every international comparison. Why? Because all we do is depend on the opinion of one teacher, as opposed to a standardized examination which tells us what children can do.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Wayne Au, your response?

WAYNE AU: Yeah, it makes me laugh. For one, the international comparison, he actually doesn’t understand or isn’t actually portraying that correctly. There was a very recent study by Carnoy and Rothstein that showed that if you compare international test scores and you account for poverty, you can actually find that U.S. students compare quite well to the highest-performing countries around the world. And so, making that—like, his perspective on that actually doesn’t read that test data correctly.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me—

JESSE HAGOPIAN: And if I could add one thing, I—

AMY GOODMAN: Before we end, yeah, Jesse Hagopian, let me just say something. Let me ask you. You’re threatened with 10-day pay suspension. What are your and the other teachers’ plans at Garfield right now? Really, the whole nation is watching this unanimous protest.

JESSE HAGOPIAN: Yeah. The teachers at Garfield High School are not worried at all about this 10-day suspension. They’ve told me that they are willing to take this 10-day suspension without pay because this is a civil rights issue. They’ll just go into the classroom and volunteer their time, if they need be.

And this really has touched something around the nation. You know, at Garfield High School, we received pizza from a school in Florida during lunch, flowers from a school in New Jersey. You know, I received thousands of emails from people all over the country. And one of them was from a teacher in a Native American reservation who said, "I am supposed to give 14 standardized tests a year, and education is becoming far more about testing than actually learning."

And we face big problems in the world today. We face climate change threatening humanity. We face endless wars, and we’re facing economic stagnation. And these types of problems cannot be solved by bubbling in A, B, C or D. We need to teach our kids critical thinking skills. We need to teach them civic courage and leadership skills to solve these big types of problems that we face in our society. And that is the direction that Garfield High School teachers are pointing.

Now, some Garfield High School teachers—

AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.

JESSE HAGOPIAN: —may want to replace the MAP test with a better test, but many of us think we need far more accurate forms of assessment. We’re not against accountability. We want to show student growth, but we can’t do it with a flawed test. We want to move towards things like portfolios. And I think Seattle could be at the forefront—

AMY GOODMAN: Jesse Hagopian, we’re going to have to leave it there. We want to thank you, high school history teacher, and Professor Wayne Au, editor of Rethinking Schools, for joining us.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.



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http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/16/d ... in_schools

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Debate on Armed Police in Schools: Needed for Kid Safety or Part of the Student-to-Prison Pipeline?

As the National Rifle Association pushes for armed guards in every school, we host a debate over what type of security measures should be taken in schools to prevent future tragedies. On Monday, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools proposed forming the school system’s own police force. We’re joined by Sean Burke, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council; and Damon Hewitt, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and co-author of "The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform." [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Gun Control, Education, Police, Sean Burke, Damon Hewitt

Guests:

Sean Burke, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council. He was formerly director of public safety for the Lawrence Public School’s Police/Safety Department, where he coordinated all safety efforts, including the creation of the school’s crisis plan, which now serves as a model throughout the country.

Damon Hewitt, director of the Education Practice Group at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he has become known as one of the nation’s leading experts on the civil rights implications of school discipline policies. In 2002, he launched LDF’s Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Initiative, which challenges racial disparities that criminalize students and push them out of schools. He is co-author of The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform.

Transcript

NERMEEN SHAIKH: One month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, we turn now to a growing debate over what types of security measures should be taken in schools to prevent future tragedies. The NRA has just launched a new campaign called "Stand Up and Fight" as part of its push to place armed officers in every school. The NRA issued this new ad criticizing President Obama on Tuesday.

NRA AD: Are the president’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools, when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security—protection for their kids, and gun-free zones for ours.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre first made the call for armed guards in U.S. schools last month during a press conference.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation, and to do it now, to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in January.

AMY GOODMAN: The call for armed guards is gaining momentum. On Monday, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools proposed forming the school system’s own police force.

For more, we turn now to a debate between two guests. In Boston, Sean Burke is with us, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council. He was formerly director of public safety for the Lawrence Public School’s Police/Safety Department, where he coordinated all safety efforts, including the creation of the school’s crisis plan, which now serves as a model throughout the country. His organization does not support the NRA call for armed volunteers, but it does support more efforts to place more police officers in schools.

And here in New York, Damon Hewitt is with us, director of the Education Practice Group at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In 2002, he launched the group’s Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Initiative, which challenges racial disparities that criminalize students and push them out of schools. The Legal Defense Fund is one of the groups that submitted recommendations to Vice President Biden’s task force on guns.

Before we talk about the issue of guns in schools, I wanted to get your response, Damon Hewitt, to the ad that the NRA has just put out targeting President Obama’s daughters.

DAMON HEWITT: Thanks for having me, Amy.

You know, I think that ad is a perfect example of how the public debate is so polarized and so driven by a culture of fear instead of a culture of solutions. We really have to move beyond rhetoric and beyond fear and really start to talk about how do we meaningfully keep schools safe, how do we develop not just school environments, but also environments in our communities where we won’t have these kinds of fears, where we won’t be afraid of mass shootings and all of these assault weapons, which are just so rampant in this country today.

AMY GOODMAN: Sean Burke, would you like to respond to the ad that says, "Are the president’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards?" Do you think this is appropriate?

SEAN BURKE: Good morning, Amy.

And I also don’t like anything that—that is bent out of fear. I don’t think that fear is going to be good for school safety. I don’t think fear is good for the United States. And I don’t think it’s going to produce anything that’s going to be positive in the way of changes in school safety. So, I don’t think it’s an appropriate ad to be running in the United States, no.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sean Burke, can you elaborate your responses to the Newtown shooting and what you think ought to be done to increase safety in schools?

SEAN BURKE: Well, first of all, we promote reasonableness. I don’t think there is—there is call to go off on wild tangents or go out of the norm with a lot of ideas that are coming up nowadays. I think that we should be going back and putting an emphasis on things that we were doing, somewhat limited, before the shooting, but take advantage of this now, this public outcry that things have to be done in school.

I think that, ultimately, the only good thing the NRA does say is that there should be a police officer in every school, a well-trained police officer in every school. But we know that’s not a reasonable request in today’s budgetary area. So, what we proposed is a program called LEEP, Law Enforcement Enhancement Procedures, where patrol officers, while they’re doing their routine duties, or officers that are reserves promoting other duties, would stop by schools, have satellite offices in schools, get to know the administration, get to know the children that attend there, forge relationships. And, by that, it will be a deterrent for violence in the school. It will serve as police officers becoming more knowledgeable of the layout in case there is an emergency, and really promote safer schools by just that regular visiting on your daily patrol.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Damon Hewitt, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund co-authored a report called "Police in Schools Are Not the Answer to the Newtown Shooting." So can you respond to what Sean Burke said and what your report recommends?

DAMON HEWITT: Sure. Well, we think—we think we have to learn from the past, and not-so-distant past, in particular the tragedy at Columbine High School and the reactions thereto. We know that in—with the best of intentions, police officers were placed in many schools throughout Colorado, throughout the United States. We also know that in Denver public schools, for example, in the five years after the Columbine tragedy, we saw a 71 percent increase in referrals of students to law enforcement by schools, and the vast majority, over 90 percent of those referrals, were not for anything that was remotely dangerous at all.

What we started to see was that the line between matters of school safety and matters of school discipline have become completely blurred. In essence, throughout the country now, school resource officers, some of which are paid for at times by federal dollars, are actually becoming—or functioning, rather, as the disciplinary arm of schools. They’re actually enforcing discipline codes and criminalizing students for behavior that most of us wouldn’t consider criminal, things like using profanity, running in the classroom, talking back to teachers—behavior that should be disciplined, and students shouldn’t do those things, but they certainly shouldn’t get a citation, summons or arrest for those kinds of activities.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of police officers—the idea that Sean Burke is putting forward, of police officers casually being in the schools so they can get to know them more easily, but in so doing, they’re in the schools?

DAMON HEWITT: Well, what we understand is this: You know, the call for a police officer in every school, in some communities that may give the appearance of safety, but it’s just that, the appearance. What we know is that this won’t keep us safer. There was a guard on duty at Columbine High School when that tragedy happened. At Virginia Tech, where Colin Goddard—when that tragedy happened, we know that there was an entire police force. So this isn’t going to keep us safe. What actually keeps us safe is the root cause solutions that the administration is working on. And also what keeps us safe is having a safe, functioning, healthy school environment, where children aren’t afraid of police officers, but children actually can engage their school leaders, they can engage their teachers, on matters of instruction or matters of a healthy climate, instead of feeling like their school is being treated like a prison.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sean Burke, can you respond to what Damon Hewitt said and address specifically whether you have any concerns about a large number of police officers in schools playing a role—a disciplinary role, not just a security one?

SEAN BURKE: Well, the first point is that, of course, people are going to feel safer with a police officer in your school. I think any citizen that is doing nothing wrong feels much safer with a police officer nearby. You’re going to have a decreased fear of crime. Once you get to know that officer and develop a relationship with him, you’re going to feel comfortable with him. So I think the notion or any idea put forward that you’re not going to feel safer with a police offer in school, I don’t agree with that at all.

Secondly, to address the issue of the Columbine shooting, there was an SRO on duty, and the SRO exchanged fire with the gunmen before they entered the school, delaying their entrance into the school, thus cutting back—

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sorry, Sean Burke, can you explain what an SRO is?

SEAN BURKE: A school resource officer is a certified police officer, and they’re usually from a sheriff’s department or a police department. And they work cooperatively with the education, with the school district, and they work full time in the school. They’re part of the administration team. They are highly trained to deal with issues such as special education, emergency response, even providing educational classes to schools.

So, what you have is a school resource officer, better known as an SRO, for short, he was working at Columbine. And as I said, he exchanged fire with the gunmen on the outside. Now, the failure at Columbine was the response after that. The SRO did his job, exchanged fire, delayed the entrance. The problem was the police response after that. Since then, tactics have changed. And now, instead of waiting for the SWAT team to gather and going into a school, now we know that police officers, even alone, are going to risk their lives and go into a school.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me get a response—

SEAN BURKE: So, the idea that—

AMY GOODMAN: Let me get a response from Damon Hewitt on the point that Sean Burke has made that anyone feels safer with a police officer nearby.

DAMON HEWITT: Well, we think that’s absolutely false. I mean, first of all, from a civil rights perspective, for many years, communities of color have actually felt under threat. They don’t have equal protection of the laws. They feel like they’re under assault. Students of color throughout—students of color throughout the country feel the same way in their schools. We know that what may appear to be a safe environment in some communities, in other communities it actually feels like danger.

And the racial disparities in the school-to-prison pipeline actually bear this out. We know that the U.S. Department of Education only recently began collecting data on school-based arrests. And although African-American students only comprise about 18 percent of public school students nationwide, they represent 35 and 42 percent of those students who are referred to law enforcement and arrested by law enforcement on school campuses. And so, unless you believe that African-American youth are somehow, in and of themselves, out on some rampage of crime, which is actually ridiculous, then you have to believe that there’s some type of cultural disconnect between what police are doing in schools, what SROs are doing in schools. And there’s a cultural disconnect, frankly, with your other guest’s statements, which just seem completely out of step with the reality that young people face and communities face throughout the country.

AMY GOODMAN: Sean Burke, your response, that not all people feel safe when a police officer is right there?

SEAN BURKE: Well, I think—I think you can take a reality and change it to fit your political agenda. And I believe that SROs do make schools safe. I believe that when you talk about prison-to pipeline, and you throw out all these stats to really scare, that maybe imply that police are racist, I think that’s a problem. And I think that doesn’t take into account, number one, victims’ rights. You talk about misdemeanors and people being arrested and summons for misdemeanors. Well, assault and battery isn’t a misdemeanor. So, what is a police officer to do if another student is assaulted or a teacher is assaulted? Is he to go to them and say, "I can’t help you because you’re in a school, and I can’t press charges, I can’t protect you"? I agree, there are instances—and we can name instances—where there are acts that may not have been correctly decided as far as actions against younger students and bringing them into the court system, but it’s hard to Monday-morning-quarterback an incident. And it’s also [inaudible]—

AMY GOODMAN: Let me get a quick comment from Damon Hewitt.

DAMON HEWITT: Well, you know, you don’t need to Monday-morning-quarterback when a student is given a criminal citation for cursing on a school campus. That’s absolutely ridiculous.

When we talk about agendas, let’s talk about the agenda of an industry. Look, I’ve worked very closely with law enforcement throughout my career. You know, I actually ran a task force for the former governor of New York regarding police-on-police shootings, where police shot other officers when they mistook them for criminal suspects. And they were black and Latino officers, primarily. So, the police community knows that there’s an issue here.

And it’s actually unfair not just to students, communities and teachers in schools; it’s also unfair to law enforcement, just to simply throw them into schools and say, "Police these school hallways." You know, you can’t bring that kind of mindset into a school, because you completely alter and disrupt the entire school environment. And what happens is, you don’t make schools safer. All the research shows, from the American Psychological Association, from the American Bar Association, none of the leading experts actually believe that simply placing cops in schools makes them safer.

Now, we can talk about training and have an honest conversation about that. And the current leadership of NASRO, the organization that your guest once headed, does talk somewhat about training. But we also have to just say, first things first, don’t use this strategy—this tragedy, rather, as an excuse, as a reason to advance an agenda to simply propagate and populate schools with more and more police officers. Let’s actually address the root causes.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: I want to go back to the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. He appeared on Meet the Press last month.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our school to protect our children, then call me crazy. I’ll tell you what the American people—I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe. And the NRA is going to try to do that.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. Sean Burke, your response to what he had to say?

SEAN BURKE: Well, as I said before, one of the few statements from the NRA that I do suggest—that I do agree with. The bad thing is, we don’t have the money in this country to do it. And the bad part is also that we have these people now that have opinions on what happens in school, strictly by looking at numbers, never look at instances individually, you know, and when you have these people that criticize law enforcement in schools, my question to them: Have you ever worked in a school?

I was an SRO, and SRO commander, and I was there for 15 years. And I have numerous and countless stories of how I’ve helped people. And I know SROs all around the country that work hard every day and that it takes a certain kind of individual. You know, you can’t just have this idea of this macho cop walking in the school halls and arresting people for swearing or for horsing around with their friends. That’s just not the reality. The reality is, incidents happen in schools, police are called for one reason or another by the school administrator, and sometimes action is taken. And that’s the way it is. Schools are safer with cops in there. With a well-trained police officer, they are going to be safer. And it does take a special kind of police officer to work in schools. And I personally have worked in schools, and I know the response from the administrators. I know the response from the kids. I’ve never had a problem getting relationships started with kids. And I think it carries over to the street. I think when you have a good relationship with an SRO, or a school resource officer, I think it carries over to police, in general, where children and students are not afraid to come up and talk to them. If we look at school shootings—

AMY GOODMAN: Sean Burke, a quick question, as we wrap up: Do you also support the assault weapons ban?

SEAN BURKE: I support meaningful gun changes. I think that there has to be some changes in our gun laws in this country, and I think it’s imperative.

AMY GOODMAN: Just very directly, an assault weapons ban and a high-capacity magazine ban that’s being proposed today, that the NRA opposes?

SEAN BURKE: I haven’t seen the full ban, but I really don’t think that anyone needs a 100-round drum. I don’t think anyone needs a machine gun to go hunting. So, if you’re talking about bans on that, I do agree on that.

AMY GOODMAN: And final comment, Damon Hewitt?

DAMON HEWITT: Sure. You know, we have to really think about the perspective that communities have throughout this country, especially communities of color. They are being policed, and they feel under assault. Children, when they leave their homes, as they walk to school or catch a bus to school, when they’re in school and on their way back, it’s like they’re under constant assault. We really have to keep and understand that perspective. The notion that we have an Officer Friendly in every school who smiles and shakes hands, that’s a great aspiration, but it’s actually pollyannaish, and it doesn’t comport with reality. Until we have a bright line between officers’ involvement in matters of school safety, in matters of school discipline, then it will be irresponsible to just ad hoc say, "Let’s bring officers into schools en masse." Unless we deal with the unintended consequences, we’re actually doing more harm than good.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, and I thank you both for being with us, Damon Hewitt, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Sean Burke, School Safety Advocacy Council, speaking to us from Boston.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we look at the NRA’s links to weapons manufacturers. Stay with us.

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:54 pm


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ans ... officials/

E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials

By Valerie Strauss , Updated: January 30, 2013


A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.

A call to the foundation has not been returned.

The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change, whose members are current and former state education commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school choice, online education, retention of third-graders who can’t read and school accountability systems based on standardized tests. That includes evaluating teachers based on student test scores and grading schools A-F based on test scores. John White of Louisiana is a current member, as is Tony Bennett, the new commissioner of Florida who got the job after Indiana voters rejected his Bush-style reforms last November and tossed him out of office.

Donald Cohen, chair of the nonprofit In the Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and responsible for contracting in the public sector, said the e-mails show how education companies that have been known to contribute to the foundation are using the organization “to move an education agenda that may or not be in our interests but are in theirs.”

He said companies ask the foundation to help state officials pass laws and regulations that make it easier to expand charter schools, require students to take online education courses, and do other things that could result in business and profits for them. The e-mails show, Cohen said, that Bush’s foundation would often do this with the help of Chiefs for Change and other affiliated groups.

The e-mails were obtained by Cohen’s group through public record requests and are available here, complete with a search function. They reveal — conclusively, he said — that foundation staff members worked to promote the interests of some of their funders in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Louisiana.

The Web site of the Foundation for Excellence in Education used to list some of their donors but no longer does and is not required to list all of its donors to the public under tax rules for 5013C organizations. However, it is known that the foundation has received support from for-profit companies K12 and Pearson and Amplify, as well as the nonprofit College Board.

There are strong connections between FEE and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy:

Aptly named FEE, Bush’s group is backed by many of the same for-profit school corporations that have funded ALEC and vote as equals with its legislators on templates to change laws governing America’s public schools. FEE is also bankrolled by many of the same hard-right foundations bent on privatizing public schools that have funded ALEC. And, they have pushed many of the same changes to the law, which benefit their corporate benefactors and satisfy the free market fundamentalism of the billionaires whose tax-deductible charities underwrite the agenda of these two groups.

FEE and ALEC also have had some of the same “experts” as members or staff, part of the revolving door between right-wing groups. They have also collaborated on the annual ALEC education “report card” that grades states’ allegiance to their policy agenda higher than actual student performance. That distorted report card also rewards states that push ALEC’s beloved union-busting measures while giving low grades to states with students who actually perform best on standardized knowledge tests.

Here is some of what the e-mails released today by Clark’s group say, taken from the Web site of In the Public Interest:

* In New Mexico, FEE acted as a broker to organize meetings between their corporate donors and individual Chiefs.

*Maine moved the FEE policy agenda through legislation and executive order that would remove barriers to online education and in some cases would require online classes – including eliminating class size caps and student-teacher ratios, allowing public dollars to flow to online schools and classes, eliminate ability of local school districts to limit access to virtual schools.

*In Florida, FEE helped write legislation that would increase the use of a proprietary test (FCAT) under contract to Pearson, an FEE donor.

* Foundation for Excellence in Education CEO Patricia Levesque urged state officials to introduce SendHub, a communications tool, into their state’s schools. News reports indicate that Levesque’s boss, Jeb Bush, is an investor in SendHub.

Florida

• FEE staff sought legislation that would count the state test, known as FCAT, as more than 50% of the state’s school accountability measure. FEE staffer Patricia Levesque wrote to a state official that she had negotiated the related language with state legislators, who were now “asking for the following, which the Foundation completely supports: FCAT shall be ‘at least 50%, but no more than 60%’ of a high school’s grade.” Pearson, the company that holds the $250 million FCAT contract and sponsors FEE through its foundation, has an obvious financial stake in ensuring that FCAT continues to be at the center of Florida’s education system.

• Levesque writes, “I think we need to add a sec onto this bill to give you/the department authority to set a state‐approved list of charter operators or private providers so districts can’t pick poor performers to implement turnaround.” At least one FEE donor, the for-profit Florida-based Charter Schools USA, could benefit from being placed on such a state-approved list.

• Charter Schools USA also could benefit from a “parent trigger” law, the passage of which, as Nadia Hagberg of FEE wrote, was the goal of a partnership between Bush’s Florida-based organization (the Foundation for Florida’s Future) and Parent Revolution: “The Foundation for Florida’s Future worked closely with [Parent Revolution] throughout the process in Florida and they proved to be an invaluable asset.” Parent trigger, which failed to pass during Florida’s last legislative session, is a mechanism to convert neighborhood schools to charter schools.

Louisiana

• An April 26, 2011, e-mail indicates that Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, through its Chiefs for Change project, had engaged John Bailey, a director of Dutko Grayling. CEO Patricia Levesque wrote to State Schools Superintendent Paul Pastorek:

“John Bailey, whom you met over the phone, will be on the call to provide an update on reauthorization discussions on the Hill. He is going to be on contract with the Foundation to assist with the Chiefs’ DC activities in light of Angie’s departure.

“Dutko has been accused of working with industry front groups in the past. For example, Dutko worked with AIDS Responsibility Project (ARP), an industry-supported effort described by an HIV/AIDS policy activist as a ‘drug industry-funded front group. ‘”

• There are records of the Foundation for Excellence in Education reimbursing Paul Pastorek and John White, the two men who led the state’s education department, for their travel to Orlando and Washington, D.C., for events sponsored by FEE and the Chiefs for Change.

Maine

• As the Portland Press-Herald has reported, the e-mails were evidence of “a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.”

• FEE Deputy Director Deirdre Finn wrote, “We can definitely help develop an executive order,” referring to what became a February 2012 executive order by Gov. LePage directing his education commissioner to develop a plan to open the door to more cyber-schooling in Maine. The elements of the order originated with the Digital Learning Council, a group co-chaired by Bush and funded by FEE donors K12 Inc, the Pearson Foundation and McGraw-Hill.

• The Foundation for Educational Excellence also acted as a conduit for ALEC model legislation and policies. LePage’s order originated at ALEC, was tailored for Maine by the FEE and sent to Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen, who subsequently forwarded it to LePage to release unchanged. “Resolution adopting the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning” is a model bill introduced by Arizona Sen. Rich Crandall at the 2011 ALEC Annual Conference.

New Mexico

• FEE provides its donors — including for-profit digital education companies — access to the chiefs. A draft agenda for the Excellence in Action 2011 Summit blocked off two hours for “Chiefs for Change donor meetings.” Another draft agenda for the meeting allocated nearly three hours to “Chiefs for Change donor meetings.” The donors for the summit were the Walton Family Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Carnegie Corp., Susan and Bill Oberndorf, GlobalScholar, Target, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Microsoft, State Farm, IQity, McGraw-Hill Education, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Intel, Pearson Foundation, Apex Learning, ETS, Electronic Arts, Koret Foundation, SMART Technologies, K12, Morgridge Family Foundation, Charter Schools USA and Connections Academy. Demand for donor time was so high that Patricia Levesque wrote that she had to turn down opportunities for the chiefs to meet other representatives from companies.

• FEE staff served as advisers to acting education commissioner Hanna Skandera. FEE, and, by extension, its donors, had great influence over New Mexico legislation. In a Jan., 2011, e-mail, Skandera directs a staffer from the legislature to forward all education bills to FEE’s Christy Hovanetz for edits: “Can you send all Governor’s office ed bill language to Christy, including social promotion?” Another FEE staffer, Mary Laura Bragg, wrote to Skandera, “I’m at your beck and call.”

• The foundation sought to make connections between Skandera (as well as the other Chiefs for Change) and the Hume Foundation for funds for digital learning projects from Hume that “must flow through the Foundation for Excellence in Education as a project-restricted grant.” The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Oct. 21 that Skandera had indeed applied for such a grant, which ultimately could lead to digital learning legislation favorable to FEE funders Connections Academy and K-12 Inc.

• The e-mails indicate that FEE paid for Skandera’s travel, reimbursing New Mexico $3382.91 for her expenses, including trip to Washington, D.C., to testify before Congress.

Oklahoma

• An Oct. 7, 2011, e-mail indicates that State Superintendent Janet Barresi was a guest of Louis A. Piconi — founder and SVP of Strategic Activities, Apangea Learning Inc., a distance learning company — at an event Piconi hosted for Jeb Bush and Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett. Apangea is not a known funder of FEE, but Apangea and Barresi contributed to Bennett’s campaign.

• As in other states, FEE staff had great control over state education policies, writing and editing regulations for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

*For unknown reasons, Barresi’s response to an e-mail from Patricia Levesque about SendHub was not included in Oklahoma’s response to the public records request. Instead, that was found in the documents from Louisiana. A Louisiana official was cc’d on the e-mail. A description of Barresi’s response is in the Rhode Island section of this document.

Rhode Island

• In February 2012, Patricia Levesque, using her Foundation for Excellence in Education e-mail address, urged state officials to introduce SendHub, a communications tool, into their state’s schools. News reports indicate that Levesque’s boss, Jeb Bush, was an investor in the start-up by the fall of 2012.

• An e-mail chain between RI Ed Commissioner Deborah Gist and FEE’s Patricia Levesque shows Gist trying to obtain a funding grant from the Kern Foundation, which was denied because of the “political environment” in RI.

• Gist also sought funding from the Hume Foundation for a digital learning initiative. FEE staff made it a point to connect Gist, as well as other state education commissioners, with Hume to launch digital learning projects.

© The Washington Post Company

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:25 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/educa ... .html?_r=0

Texas: School Financing System Is Ruled Unconstitutional
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 4, 2013

The system Texas uses to finance public schools violates the state’s Constitution by not providing enough money to districts and failing to distribute the money fairly, a judge ruled Monday in a decision that could force the Legislature to overhaul school financing. The state is expected to appeal the ruling by Judge John Dietz to the Texas Supreme Court. In 2005, Judge Dietz found the previous funding system unconstitutional and directed the Legislature to devise a new one. At issue are $5.4 billion in cuts to education the Legislature imposed in 2011. Texas does not have a state income tax, meaning it relies on local property taxes to finance schools. But lawyers for about 600 public school districts said the bottom 15 percent of the state’s poorest districts tax average 8 cents more than the wealthiest 15 percent of districts but receive about $43,000 less per classroom.
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Re: The War On Teachers

Postby justdrew » Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:58 am

By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
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