A Satanist group asked permission from the Orange County school board in Florida to distribute coloring books in the public schools. The cartoon books would show children performing Satanic rituals and drawing pentagrams. Up until now, the school board had allowed Christian groups to distribute Bibles in school and gave atheists to distribute their materials. Now the Orange County school board may ban the distribution of any religious materials in the schools. This seemed to be a settled principle in our schools since school prayer was banned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962. But with the recent resurgence of vouchers, most of which are used in religious schools, the question of separation of church and state has become relevant again.
Archives for the year of: 2014
Contact your member of the Néw York Board of Regents and urge them not to make field testing of Oearson tests mandatory.
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/members/Membersterms0412.html
CURRENT MEMBER TERMS AND AREAS REPRESENTED
2016* Tisch, Merryl H.; B.A., M.A., Ed.D.
Chancellor; At Large
Regents Office, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234
Phone: (518) 474-5889 Email: Regent.Tisch@nysed.gov
2016* Bottar, Anthony S.; B.A., J.D.
Vice Chancellor; Judicial District V — Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego
120 Madison Street, Suite 1600, AXA Tower II, Syracuse, NY 13202
Phone: (315) 422-3466 Email: Regent.Bottar@nysed.gov
2015* Bennett, Robert M.; B.A., M.S.
Chancellor Emeritus; Judicial District VIII — Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming
201 Millwood Lane, Tonawanda, NY 14150
Phone: (518) 474-5889 Email: Regent.Bennett@nysed.gov
2015* Dawson, James C.; A.A, B.A., M.S., Ph.D.
Judicial District IV — Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington
166 U.S. Oval, Plattsburgh, NY 12903
Phone: (518) 324-2401 Email: Regent.Dawson@nysed.gov
Vacant
Judicial District XI — Queens
2015* Phillips 3rd, Harry; B.A., M.S.F.S.
Judicial District IX — Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester
71 Hawthorne Way, Hartsdale, NY 10530
Phone: (914) 948-2228 Email: Regent.Phillips@nysed.gov
2017* Tallon, Jr., James R. ; B.A., M.A.
Judicial District VI – Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga, Tompkins
United Hospital Fund, 1411 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018
Phone (212) 494-0777 Email: Regent.Tallon@nysed.gov
2015* Tilles, Roger; B.A., J.D.
Judicial District X – Nassau, Suffolk
100 Crossways Park West, Suite 107, Woodbury, N.Y. 11797
Phone (516) 364-2533 Email: Regent.Tilles@nysed.gov
2017* Bendit, Charles R.; B.A.
Judicial District I – New York
111 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1500, New York, N.Y. 10011
Phone (212) 220-9945 Email: Regent.Bendit@nysed.gov
2018* Rosa, Betty A.; B.A., M.S. in Ed., M.S. in Ed., M.Ed., Ed.D.
Judicial District XII – Bronx
State Education Building, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234
Phone (718) 664-8052 Email: Regent.Rosa@nysed.gov
2015* Young, Jr., Lester W.; B.S., M.S., Ed.D.
At Large
55 Hanson Place, Suite 400, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217
Phone (718) 722-2796 Email: Regent.Young@nysed.gov
2019* Cea, Christine D.; B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Judicial District XIII – Richmond
NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities
1050 Forest Hill Road, Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone (718) 494-5306 Email: Regent.Cea@nysed.gov
2019* Norwood, Wade S.; B.A.
At Large
74 Appleton Street, Rochester, NY 14611
Phone (585) 436-2944 Email: Regent.Norwood@nysed.gov
2015* Cashin, Kathleen M.; B.S., M.S., Ed.D.
Judicial District II – Kings
Regents Office, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234
Phone (518) 474-5889 Email: Regent.Cashin@nysed.gov
2019*Cottrell, James E.; B.S., M.D.
At Large
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 6, Brooklyn, NY 11203-2098
Phone (718) 270-2331 Email: Regent.Cottrell@nysed.gov
2017*Brown, T. Andrew; B.A., J.D.
Judicial District VII – Cayuga, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Yates
925 Crossroads Building, Two State Street, Rochester, NY 14614
Phone (585) 454-3667 Email: Regent.Brown@nysed.gov
2019* Finn, Josephine Victoria; B.A., J.D.
Judicial District III – Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster
Regents Office, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234
Phone (518) 474-5889 Email: Regent.Finn@nysed.gov
* Year When Present Term Ends
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My friend Deborah Meier tells me she loves this school in Long Beach, California. It is a charter school that fulfills the original vision of what charters were supposed to be: innovative, risk-taking, open to all kinds of kids. That’s what this school is and does, but its test scores are low. The Long Beach school board wants to close it; they should not.
To the members of the Long Beach school board: Save the Néw City School. Let innovation thrive. Let this functioning community live.
This is the letter that Deb Meier forwarded to me:
Dear Dr. Ravitch:
Several hundred low-income kids in Long Beach, CA need your immediate help. Their teachers and parents are desperate.
I have been following your work over many years, in particular the series of letters between you and Debbie Meier – she is a friend of mine whom I met through the North Dakota Study Group. It is for this reason that I dare to write a request, will the full knowledge that I might come off as a bit crazy.
15 years ago, I co-founded the New City School in the center of our city. Long before most had heard of charter schools, we rescued an abandoned hospital building [and later a warehouse] and turned them into learning oases in a blighted community that had long been without a small, loving neighborhood school. Consistent with the original intent of charter school legislation, our school would innovate in a district that has a single-minded focus on Broad-funded test-prep. Our school is fully bilingual – Spanish speakers learn English AND English speaking students of many backgrounds learn to read and write in Spanish too. We feature lots of art, great literature with read-alouds every day in every grade, 2 huge libraries, and music instruction for all students, grades TK-8. Members of our community built the area’s biggest playground AND a 1/3-acre working organic farm, growing fresh fruits and vegetables with our students and their families.
Scholars, including Deborah Meier, Stephen Krashen, and Constance Kamii have visited and worked with our teachers to help them be the best they can be. Students share their accomplishments via quarterly public exhibitions in two languages. We are a neighborhood school that does not prequalify students for enrollment. Parents love the school and would do anything to help it survive.
The problem is that The Long Beach Unified School District cannot stand us because we don’t get high test scores and we won’t stop our teaching and learning practices in order to simply prepare students for exams day in and day out. For years, the LBUSD has threatened our school with closure for refusing to comply with their dystopian view of education as standardized test preparation. Two years ago they nearly closed us down, but we closed our high school and combined our 2 small elementary campuses into one, and kept moving forward. In addition to ideological blindness, LBUSD seems hell-bent on reclaiming the meager per pupil allocation our school manages to live on. We have no corporate sponsors or celebrities hosting galas on our behalf, just working-class parents and highly professional constructivist teachers sacrificing to save a school they love.
As you might imagine, the constant threat of closure distracts us from our mission of educating young people.
This Tuesday, November 18th, the LBUSD is holding ANOTHER hearing to discuss whether or not to renew our charter or close our school. When this happened a few years ago, the school district police ended up dragging parents out of the meeting and turned off their cameras! One parent was hospitalized in the melee.
You have an enormous platform to generate assistance for us. Would you please consider writing a letter of support? I would appreciate it so immensely if you could ask your colleagues and readers to do one of the following:
Send a message of solidarity and support for The New City School – a small community-centered, authentic public school – to the Long Beach Unified School District Board [Diana Craighead, President] and Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser. Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education – 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach, CA 90810…send letters to info@newcityps.org
Visit the New City Public Schools (Long Beach) Facebook page or the New City Farm Facebook page and leave an encouraging message there – we will collect and send them as well – say why it matters to stand up to relentless testing and “accountability” that discounts parents’ involvement in teaching and learning, as well as their children’s development and interest!
For any support or encouragement you could offer to us, I will be forever in your debt.
Sincerely,
Stephanie nicole Lee
Public school educator since 1990
The Néw York Board of Regents is meeting today to vote on a proposal to make field testing of online Pearson tests for Common Core mandatory. Commissioner John King says it will make the tests more valid and reliable.
But it won’t make the tests useful to teachers or students. Teachers are not allowed to know which questions their students got right or wrong, so the tests have no diagnostic value. They are not allowed to discuss the tests with one another. The tests are an expensive waste of time.
In the past, Pearson tests have had numerous errors. How will the public know if their children are fairly judged?
Teachers must teach to the tests to help the children and to protect their jobs.
This is not education. It is regimentation.
Call your Regent and tell them not to make field testing mandatory. Call your legidlators. Enough is enough.
Rick Hess has an admirable record of inviting people who represent different points of view to speak and answer their critics at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Rick invited me to speak when my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education was published in 2010. I spoke, and then a panel of three people commented. One liked what I had to say, two disagreed. I responded. The auditorium was full, and a good time was had by all.
Rick recently invited Cami Anderson to speak about what she is doing in Newark, where she is the Superintendent, appointed by Governor Chris Christie. Newark has been under state control for nearly 20 years. Anderson is so controversial in Newark that she no longer attends meetings of the Board of Education, which is powerless. Newark has no democracy. Anderson has the power to do what she wants.
When Rick learned that a group of Newark students was coming to challenge Anderson, he was outraged that her freedom of speech might be abridged. He moved the meeting to a closed room.
Jersey Jazzman reports here on what happened, and includes a video of Anderson’s speech. She says that the number of critics in Newark are few in number. Jersey Jazzman disagrees. He points out that the mayoral election was a referendum on her plans. The following “few” are her critics, who did not have an opportunity to question Anderson at AEI:
Mayor Ras Baraka, who was elected in a race that became largely a referendum on Anderson.
His opponent, Shavar Jeffries, who lost because, even though he criticized Anderson, didn’t go as far as Baraka by calling for her removal.
The Newark City Council, which called for a moratorium on all of Anderson’s initiatives.
The Newark School Board, which, though powerless to remove her (we’ll get to that in a minute), voted “no confidence” in Anderson’s leadership and has tried to freeze her pay.
The students of Newark’s schools, who have walked out repeatedly to protest her actions.
Parents who have filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging One Newark is “de facto racial segregation.” (It is.)
The teachers union, which claims Anderson has repeatedly refused to follow through on the provisions of the contract she negotiated.
77 of Newark’s religious leaders, who have said One Newark could be “catastrophic” and must not be implemented.
Anderson should have had the opportunity to confront some of her critics, perhaps Mayor Baraka and a representative of the students. She did not lose her freedom of speech. The people of Newark lost their democratic rights long ago. When will the people of Newark have the right to choose the school board that represents them and makes policies that reflect their wishes, as 95% of school districts in America do? That’s the debate that never happened.
– See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/11/reality-leaves-newark-and-invades-rick.html#sthash.0ZTlh7E1.dpuf
David Callahan wrote an insightful article in “Inside Philanthropy” about something that most of us have noticed: the growing power of foundations that use their money to impose their ideas and bypass democratic institutions. In effect, mega-foundations like Gates and Walton use their vast wealth to short circuit democracy.
Callahan identifies five scary trends but they all boil down to the same principle: Unaccountable power is supplanting democracy.
He writes:
“1. The growing push to convert wealth into power through philanthropy
“Look at nearly any sector of U.S. society, and you’ll find private funders wielding growing power. Most dramatic has been the reshaping of public education by philanthropists like Gates and the Waltons, but the footprint of private money has also grown when it comes to healthcare, the environment, the economy, social policy, science, and the arts.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the specific views pushed by private funders, you’ve got to be disturbed by how a growing army of hands-on mega donors and foundations seem to get more clever every year about converting their money into societal influence. Love it or hate it, the Common Core is a great example: In effect, private funders are helping determine how tens of millions of kids will be educated for years to come. And to think that we once saw public education as America’s most democratic institution!
“Inevitably, the upshot of all this is a weaker voice for ordinary folks over the direction of American life. The veteran funder Gara LaMarche has a recent piece in Democracy that crystallizes the worries that many people have that philanthropy has become a powerful agent of civic inequality.
“2. How philanthropic dollars have become another form of political money
“Zeroing in on politics, we see philanthropic money increasingly shaping public policy and legislative outcomes. This trend isn’t new, of course, and along with Sally Covington, I wrote in the 1990s about the huge influence that conservative foundations like Bradley and Olin had over policy debates of that era by funding a network of think tanks and legal groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. Perhaps the greatest achievement of these funders was knocking off the federal welfare entitlement, after investing millions in work by Charles Murray and others.
“What’s different today is that many more funders, with much more money, are playing the policy game.”
The money quote: “And to think that we once saw public education as America’s most democratic institution!”
In city after city, state after state, wealthy funders are underwriting charter schools to replace democratically controlled public schools, school closings, mayoral control, state takeovers, and other means of removing democratic institutions. These funders have no compunction about privatizing “America’smost democratic institution.” They think they are acting in the public interest by removing the public from public education. Their wealth leads them to exercise power recklessly. They think they know everything because they are richer than almost everyone else. They are wrong. And their arrogance is dangerous.
John Hechinger, one of the narion’s top investigative reporters, here presents a balanced but nonetheless devastating overview of K12 Inc., the for-profit virtual charter chain listed on the Néw York Stock Exchange.
K12 is the biggest purveyor of online homeschooling, paid for with public funds drawn away from traditional public schools.
This approach may be effective for some students –students training to be athletes or performers, students with illnesses–but K12 reaches out to recruit as many as it can.
“Plagued by subpar test scores, the largest operator of online public schools in the U.S. has lost management contracts or been threatened with school shutdowns in five states this year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association ruled in April that students can no longer count credits from 24 K12 high schools toward athletic scholarships.
While the company says its investments in academic quality are starting to pay off, once-soaring enrollment at the more than 60 public schools it manages has dropped almost 5 percent. Targeted by short sellers, who benefit from a company’s decline, K12 shares have tumbled by two-thirds since reaching a near-record high in Septeber 2013…..”
“Of the full-time online schools assigned ratings by their states, only one-third were considered academically acceptable in 2012-2013, the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado reported this year. The percentage of K12 students achieving proficiency on state math and reading tests is generally below state averages, according to the company’s 2014 academic report.
“Ohio Virtual Academy, which accounts for 10 percent of K12’s annual revenue, received failing grades on a state report card last year for student test-score progress and graduation rates. Only 37 percent of its ninth graders receive diplomas within four years.”
Several online charters have cancelled their contracts with K12. Tennessee may soon cancel its Tennessee Virtual Academy.
“In Tennessee, education commissioner Kevin Huffman is moving to close a K12-managed school unless it can improve results by the end of this school year. Tennessee Virtual Academy has test results “in the bottom of the bottom tier” and is an “abject failure” in improving student outcomes, Huffman said in a telephone interview.”
One of the major initiatives of Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Education was the development of a new IBM computer system called ARIS (Achievement Reporting and Innovation System).
According to a story by Ben Chapman in the Néw York Daily News, the city DOE is killing the system because so few parents and teachers use it.
The $12 million contract to maintain the system was held by former Chancellor Joel Klein’s Amplify, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
When Klein was chancellor, he awarded a contract to fix ARIS to a company called Wireless Generation. Soon after Klein stepped down as chancellor, Murdoch bought Wireless Generation for $360 million.
Leaders of the anti-testing movement want to place two large billboards on major highways. informing parents of their right to opt out. They need only $300 more to meet their goal of $3,700.. Can you spare $10?
“Here at revolutionary headquarters, thanks to recent contributions from Colorado Springs, Denver, Loveland, and Washington State, our account at the Weld Schools Credit Union has grown to just shy of $3,000. We have come a long ways from the $700 we started with just after Labor Day. If you have yet to donate to the campaign to inspire parents to exempt their children from the fraud of the testing regimen, now would be a great time to contribute and help us reach our goal of $3,700.
“As you know, we have absolutely zero administrative costs. All contributions go toward our two billboards. (I’ll attach the board from last year, and the proof of this year’s board.)
“Please send your donation to:
The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
2424 22nd Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631
All donations regardless of amount are greatly appreciated. Now more than ever we can see the wheel of history begin to turn toward more humane educational policies. Let’s keep raising our voices. The billboard campaign is one outstanding way to do just that.
In solidarity,
Don Perl
The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
http://www.thecbe.org
Department of Hispanic Studies
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, Colorado 80639
don.perl@unco.edu
970-351-2746
For your viewing pleasure.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 