Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, May 11, 2015

Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle School | What's Happening Black Oakland?

Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle School | What's Happening Black Oakland?:

Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle School



d833a8a38ddd576d76_pnm6bn3ks


Claremont Middle School is nestled in the affluent and predominantly white neighborhood known as Rockridge, Oakland. It is an open enrollment public institution consisting of a diverse socioeconomic population of students from all over the East Bay. Many parents send their children to Claremont in hopes of a better education, but something is amiss behind its school walls. There are talks of Claremont becoming a neighborhood school-welcome only to students found in the school’s backyard. To achieve this vision, the current administration is actively working to push out black students and teachers. In this year alone, the school has instituted inequitable student tracking, transferred and fired several black teachers, and eliminated a popular  Ethnic Studies program. “The school will be all white in 3-4 years,” states History and former Ethnic Studies teacher Kurt Kaakuahiuu.
It’s becoming increasingly evident that the school administration is feasting off of a culture of exclusion and intimidation to achieve its end goal. Claremont has had a troubled history for many years due to a massive amount of administrative turnover. However this began to change when Reggie and Ronnie Richardson were hired in 2011. The Richardsons were co-principals who were turning the school around; so much so, they received local and nationwide press. However the Richardsons did not return for the 2014-2015 school year, accepting a position instead with a neighboring school district. Once again, Claremont was left in a state of transition. The staff at Claremont prepared to collaborate with new principal Jonathan Mayer and Vice Principal Tonia Coleman. Former Afterschool Site Coordinator Aries Jordan noted, “It was unfortunate when (the Richardsons) left but I stayed because I’m committed to the children… I wanted to support the students through this transition.”
Racially-Based Student Tracking
“This is all about race.”
When asked about the leadership style of the current administration, the consensus is it’s an epic failure, and openly hostile to minority staff and students. Eighth grade History teacher Mirishae McDonald asserts that the current curriculum ”negatively impacts learning outcomes for students of color.” When asked to elaborate, she discussed an eighth grade program called the “Leadership Academy,” in which the lowest performing students are pulled out of the general school population and put into a class for the entire school day. The vast majority of these students are black and they are taught by a white teacher. It’s known among many students as “the dumb class.” The Leadership Academy is a controversial and inequitable practice in the field of education. While the black students are in the “Leadership Academy,” the remaining youth (primarily white) are getting a more enriching education. Mirishae McDonald harshly criticizes it, “It’s another way of tracking, and it’s not good for the development of the students.” Student tracking is a way to fuel institutional racism and there seems to be other ways that racism surfaces in the administration’s practices.
Kurt Kaaekuahiuu witnessed this firsthand during  a teacher meeting in which Principal Mayer stated, “This is all about race. We know that the white kids will go to places like Stanford or Berkeley with or without our help. We would be lucky if black students at best graduated from high school and went to a junior college.” Another tracking program-“Math Intensive”- is happening concurrently in 7th grade. It’s a class designed for the more advanced students. Math teacher Alonna Haulcy teaches both Math Intensive as well as the traditional math class and notes, “I do think there are some (black) kids who are capable of being in Math Intensive. I’ve expressed that to the principal. He said he would have the department head look at their test scores and I never heard back from him.”
Demoralizing Teachers of Color
“They’re not giving me my own voice.”
Another major problem is Principal Mayer’s top-down approach along with an outward hostility towards any staff member who attempts to question his methods. Kaaekuahiuu states, “From the beginning, Claremont was framed from a complete deficit model. They looked at everything that was wrong with the school without prior knowledge or asking teachers.That says a lot about who you are as a manager.” Kurt used to be the Ethnic Studies teacher until he received an email that the school would no longer support the class. A 7th grader at Claremont reflects on the cancelled Ethnic Studies program: “All the students were engaged because he went outside of the book. His whole class was decorated with Ethnic Studies quotes and pictures. They were torn down by the end of the year and I wondered why.” Alonna Haulcy also feels constricted, “They’re not giving me my own voice. She noted that she is the only veteran teacher who is getting five classroom evaluations; something that is only required for new teachers. When she inquired about it Mayor gave no explanation; but she’s the only black teacher on the list.
Aries Jordan also discusses her struggles working with the administration while coordinating the afterschool program which is “99.9 percent black.” Ms. Jordan had a difficult time running the program this year since the cafeteria burned down in February. Instead of the Claremont administration accommodating the program with unused classrooms in the school, they forced students to have their after school program outside despite cold weather conditions. Moreover,  Principal Mayer claimed that he wanted to make technology a priority in the afterschool program however, Jordan’s students weren’t allowed to use the computer lab or the 60 Macbooks and laptops owned by the school. “They recommended this technology program to us and then turned around and denied us access to the abundant resources available.” states Jordan. Finally, the administration conceded by loaning 4 outdated MacBooks to the entire program. Apparently the Claremont administration wants to institute a tuition policy at the after school program next year; yet another barrier to access students will be up against.

'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education

'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education:

'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education



'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education


 Seth Alter was a teacher for all of six months before quitting his job and going indie to make video games full-time. No Pineapple Left Behind, his second PC title, is more or less the story of why he left his students at a Boston charter school. As a special educationmath teacher, his sixth graders were expected to meet the same behavioral standards and educational expectations as their mainstreamed counterparts thanks to 2001's controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which ties school funding to standardized test scores. Alter says that teacher evaluations are drawn from those scores as well. And because most charter schools are non-union, they can fire teachers for almost any reason, including low test scores from special-needs students who should have been held to modified standards in the first place. It doesn't take a genius to realize just how flawed that logic is: It's a system built to fail.

"A month before I quit, I was talking to a friend about my job and how it was getting me down," Alter says. "I said that the main problem is that the school assumes that all of my [special education] kids are statistics. If I treat them as statistics, everything's fine. But as soon as I start thinking about them as people, all of a sudden there's a problem and I don't have sufficient resources."
By dehumanizing kids and turning them into pineapples, higher test scores are easier because pineapples excel at testing and nothing else.
In Pineapple, you play the role of a principal in charge of a school and your ultimate goal is to earn as much funding as possible. To do that, you need to ensure it produces the highest standardized test scores throughout a dozen different scenarios. By dehumanizing kids and turning them into pineapples (read: statistics) that makes it easier because "pineapples," as they exist here, excel at testing and nothing else. Children are a bit more complicated: They each have their own individual learning styles and interests.
"There's just no management sims I'm aware of that consider the human implications of treating the workers as moneymaking tools," he says.
Alter says that the biggest message he wants to send is that what he's showing isn't exaggerated or that it isn't how the education system might be in a few years -- it's how it is right now. Each of the game's scenarios draw from situations he's witnessed either firsthand or through stories he's heard from friends and colleagues. The busses are always late; classes are overcrowded -- those sorts of things.
Or consider this scenario that's going to ship with the open alpha this summer: A student named David is wearing makeup, but he can't be bullied for an entire week. Your options as the school administrator are as follows: Establish a comprehensive anti-bullying policy (which Alter describes as doable, but finicky and annoying) or turn him into a pineapple. "Pineapples don't wear makeup and they don't get bullied," Alter reasons.
A video showing off the teachers' spell-casting ability.
If this all sounds very serious, well, it really isn't; Alter's tongue is firmly planted in his cheek. Those aforementioned tardy busses? They travel via hyperspace gates and the local bus drivers union installed hyperspace inhibitor fields to ensure the kid-carriers would be late and so everyone in a class would fail.
Remember, these "statistics" are one of the most delicious fruits available, too. Alter's original plan was to have a much more realistic and allegorical school, but to have one 'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/11/15



Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM







The Politics of Reform - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice
The Politics of Reform - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice: The Politics of ReformThe politics of education reform has taken us on a roller-coaster ride for so long that it really behooves us to pause a moment and think about what all the political labels mean.Look at what a purely conservative view would be.People sharing a true conservative political philosophy —to preserve what is established
Action Alert: @TeachForAmerica wants to Blow into Santa Ana Tomorrow | Cloaking Inequity
Action Alert: @TeachForAmerica wants to Blow into Santa Ana Tomorrow | Cloaking Inequity: Action Alert: @TeachForAmerica wants to Blow into Santa Ana TomorrowAre the Santa Ana winds going to blow in Teach For America tomorrow? Teach For America wants to gust into Santa Ana at a SAUSD Board meeting on 5.12.15. They want to teach special education, one of our most vulnerable exceptional populations.
High number of expulsions at Western New York Maritime Charter School draw questions - City & Region - The Buffalo News
High number of expulsions at Western New York Maritime Charter School draw questions - City & Region - The Buffalo News: High number of expulsions at Western New York Maritime Charter School draw questionsHigh attrition rate draws criticism in some quartersThe charter school located in a former warehouse on Genesee Street isn’t like other Buffalo charter schools.That’s obvious from the uniform
Public School Takeovers – When Local Control is Marked ‘White Only’ | gadflyonthewallblog
Public School Takeovers – When Local Control is Marked ‘White Only’ | gadflyonthewallblog: Public School Takeovers – When Local Control is Marked ‘White Only’Do you like Democracy?Then you’d better not be poor or have brown skin.Because in America today we only allow self-government to rich white folks.Sad but true.American public schools serving large populations of impoverished and minority chil
What's Up With That Big Grant to the Atlantic Monthly From the Walton Family Foundation? - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy
What's Up With That Big Grant to the Atlantic Monthly From the Walton Family Foundation? - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy: What's Up With That Big Grant to the Atlantic Monthly From the Walton Family Foundation?Paul M.J. Suchecki & David CallahanWe've been saying for a while that the tight new embrace between journalism and philanthropy is tricky, and for s
Thompson: Did Fordham Accidentally Offer Support for Socio-Economic Integration, Not School Closures?
This Week In Education: Thompson: Did Fordham Accidentally Offer Support for Socio-Economic Integration, Not School Closures?: This Week In Education: Thompson: Did Fordham Accidentally Offer Support for Socio-Economic Integration, Not School Closures?It would be easy to read the Forward to School Closures and Student Achievement, by Fordham’s Aaron Churchill and Mike Petrilli, and prejudge the pa
Why kids who aren’t poor are now getting free and reduced-price school lunches - The Washington Post
Why kids who aren’t poor are now getting free and reduced-price school lunches - The Washington Post: Why kids who aren’t poor are now getting free and reduced-price school lunches It used to be that students from families with low incomes qualified for lunches that were either free or available at a reduced price. That’s still true — but now, new federal rules allow kids who aren’t poor at many s
Common Core critics allege conflicts, seek ethics changes
Common Core critics allege conflicts, seek ethics changes: Common Core critics allege conflicts, seek ethics changesBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The bitter feud over the Common Core education standards has grown increasingly personal, with critics of the standards raising conflict-of-interest allegations against state education leaders and seeking new ethics restrictions for them.Unable so far to force
Review of Dramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement | National Education Policy Center
Review of Dramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement | National Education Policy Center: Review of Dramatic Action, Dramatic ImprovementDramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement: The Research on School TurnaroundTiffany D. Miller and Catherine BrownCenter for American ProgressMarch 31, 2015Tina TrujilloMay 11, 2015Press Release →Dramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement: The Research on School Turnaround advoc
“Freddie Gray was about education.” | educationalchemy
The Push to Close Langston Hughes Elementary School in Park Heights Baltimore Leaves Community Skeptical of the Motives | educationalchemy: The Push to Close Langston Hughes Elementary School in Park Heights Baltimore Leaves Community Skeptical of the Motives “Freddie Gray was about education.”“We teach our kids how to add, but they need to learn social skills…and life skills”“They want to close o
Louisiana RSD Charters Victim of a “Legislative Raid”? | deutsch29
Louisiana RSD Charters Victim of a “Legislative Raid”? | deutsch29: Louisiana RSD Charters Victim of a “Legislative Raid”?We have an interesting situation in Louisiana regarding the now-permanent Recovery School District (RSD):On May 6, 2015, the Louisiana House education committee passed a bill requiring schools that are no longer “failing” to return to the local districts from whence they came, 
Local Accountability: Community Input in Education Funding | Cloaking Inequity
Local Accountability: Community Input in Education Funding | Cloaking Inequity: Local Accountability: Community Input in Education FundingWill a community-based approach to accountability and school funding work? This piece will contain a lot of acronyms and include some of my insights on the implementation of Local Accountability.I’m a classroom teacher in Sacramento City Unified School District,
L.A. Unified needs to do its homework on college-prep standards - LA Times
L.A. Unified needs to do its homework on college-prep standards - LA Times:  L.A. Unified needs to do its homework on college-prep standardsIt’s much easier for members of the L.A. Unified school board sitting on the dais to pass stringent and unrealistic new standards than it is for teachers on the ground to carry them out. Case in point: the district’s requirement that all students take the full
What Exactly Are Charter Schools Accomplishing for the Educational System? - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly
What Exactly Are Charter Schools Accomplishing for the Educational System? - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: What Exactly Are Charter Schools Accomplishing for the Educational System?  Last week was National Charter School Week, and endorsing this celebration of charter schools was President Barack Obama, who issued a presidential proclamation. The president was unabashed in his praise of high performi
Teachers unions battle court ruling on tenure laws - SFGate
Teachers unions battle court ruling on tenure laws - SFGate: Teachers unions battle court ruling on tenure laws The fate of nearly a century of job-security protections for California teachers is in the hands of a state appellate court, which is preparing to review a judge’s bombshell ruling that found tenure and seniority laws protect incompetent instructors, serve no educational purpose and, in
How To Transform Education With Video Games
How To Transform Education With Video Games: How To Transform Education With Video GamesVideo games are essentially complex systems that very young children can learn to navigate very quickly.What if we could leverage the skill with which games teach players to play? Consider the ease with which you learn the physics in Angry Birds, how quickly you came to understand Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom. What
With A Brooklyn Accent: When Veteran Teachers are Called "Developing"- The Orwellian Language of School Reform
With A Brooklyn Accent: When Veteran Teachers are Called "Developing"- The Orwellian Language of School Reform: When Veteran Teachers are Called "Developing"- The Orwellian Language of School ReformAll around the country, the story is the same. Numbers crunching administrators and evaluators, some who have never taught or only taught a few years, go into the classrooms of teach
Report: Growth in state-run preschool programs moving at snail’s pace - The Washington Post
Report: Growth in state-run preschool programs moving at snail’s pace - The Washington Post: Report: Growth in state-run preschool programs moving at snail’s paceA new report on state-funded pre-kindergarten programs says that funding, enrollment and quality was up somewhat in 2014 but that the pace of progress was way too slow and that wide disparities exist in states across the country. Just how
Death of a Salesman - Russo Leaves Chicago
Time To Say Goodbye | District 299: The Inside Scoop on CPS: Death of a Salesman - Russo Leaves Chicago  As some of you may have already noticed, I'm shutting down District 299.I created the blog way back in the day (2005) when when I realized that Chicago educators didn't care much about national news and national educators didn't care much about Chicago.At the time, I was running a weekly email
It’s Not Nothing: Why I Support the ‘Every Child Achieves Act’ | gadflyonthewallblog
It’s Not Nothing: Why I Support the ‘Every Child Achieves Act’ | gadflyonthewallblog: It’s Not Nothing: Why I Support the ‘Every Child Achieves Act’No more federal intervention.No more reducing schools to a number.That’s the promise of the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA).Sure, it’s not perfect. But this Senate proposed rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) could do a lot of
Lauderhill plans tighter regulation of charter schools - Sun Sentinel
Lauderhill plans tighter regulation of charter schools - Sun Sentinel: Troubled charter schools getting new scrutiny from citiesNew charter schools will have to show they have the resources to last a full school year before Lauderhill officials will let them open for business, under proposed rules city commissioners will consider Monday.Officials say they've learned a lesson from financially unsta
Why the Common Core won’t do what supporters say it will — principal - The Washington Post
Why the Common Core won’t do what supporters say it will — principal - The Washington Post: Why the Common Core won’t do what supporters say it will — principalA school bus passes a sign encouraging parents to refuse that their children take state tests on Monday, April 13, 2015, in Rotterdam, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)This is the seventh in a continuing series of letters between two award-winning
The ESEA: A Pivotal Civil Rights Milestone - Education Week
The ESEA: A Pivotal Civil Rights Milestone - Education Week: The ESEA: A Pivotal Civil Rights MilestoneBy Sherrilyn IfillThis year, we are commemorating significant milestones in our civil rights history, including the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the 61st anniversary of theBrown v. Board of Educati

YESTERDAY

Just when you thought you had enough, the Seattle Public School district bought another standardized test, Amplify | Seattle Education
Just when you thought you had enough, the Seattle Public School district bought another standardized test, Amplify | Seattle Education: Just when you thought you had enough, the Seattle Public School district bought another standardized test, AmplifyCreated and funded by the Gates and Carnegie Foundations with $100 million, inBloom Inc. was designed to collect a maximum amount of confidential and
The CPS No-Bid Investigation Spreads to CPEF, Once Chaired By Bruce Rauner | Chicago magazine | Felsenthal Files April 2015
The CPS No-Bid Investigation Spreads to CPEF, Once Chaired By Bruce Rauner | Chicago magazine | Felsenthal Files April 2015: The CPS No-Bid Investigation Spreads to CPEF, Once Chaired By Bruce RaunerThe principal-training consultants who received the $20 million contract, the focus of a federal investigation, got seed funding from the Chicago Public Education Fund—whose board is a who’s-who of Chi
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/10/15
Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMCURMUDGUCATION: Is the Right Splintering on Testing?CURMUDGUCATION: Is the Right Splintering on Testing?: Is the Right Splintering on Testing?Last week both Rick Hess (American Enterprise Institute) and Robert Pondiscio (Fordham) turned up in the pages of US News, each to post his own response to the opt out movement. Since both of these guys come from the Fordh