Archives for the year of: 2015

When I posted the other day about Malala Yousafzai, I said that she had been shot in the head, survived, became an advocate for the education of girls, and won a Nobel Peace Prize.

But there is so much more to know about this remarkable young woman.

“Her family runs a chain of schools in the region. In early 2009, when she was 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.

On the afternoon of 9 October 2012, Yousafzai boarded her school bus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat. A gunman asked for her by name, then pointed a pistol at her and fired three shots. One bullet hit the left side of Yousafzai’s forehead, travelled under her skin through the length of her face, and then went into her shoulder. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated their intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai.

The assassination attempt sparked a national and international outpouring of support for Yousafzai. Deutsche Welle wrote in January 2013 that Yousafzai may have become “the most famous teenager in the world.” United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a UN petition in Yousafzai’s name, demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015; it helped lead to the ratification of Pakistan’s first Right to Education Bill.

A 2013 issue of Time magazine featured Yousafzai as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World”. She was the winner of Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize, and the recipient of the 2013 Sakharov Prize. In July that year, she spoke at the headquarters of the United Nations to call for worldwide access to education, and in October the Government of Canada announced its intention that its parliament confer Honorary Canadian citizenship upon Yousafzai. Even though she is fighting for women’s and children’s rights, she did not describe herself as feminist when asked on Forbes Under 30 Summit. In February 2014, she was nominated for the World Children’s Prize in Sweden. In May, Yousafzai was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of King’s College in Halifax. Later in 2014, Yousafzai was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Aged 17 at the time, Yousafzai became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.”

Some readers have insisted that if she doesn’t take the SAT, she should be rejected by Stanford. I think that’s ridiculous. The admissions process for an elite college always involves a mix of priorities. Frankly, she honors Stanford by expressing an interest in becoming a student there.

Our readers have debated whether Stanford should insist that she take the SAT to prove her ability to enroll there. Some say, a rule’s a rule, no exceptions. Personally, I think that Stanford’s pig-headed insistence on subjecting this brilliant young woman to a standardized test aligned to the Common Core is absurd.

Our blog poet wrote a poem about Malala and this situation:

“”One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution.” — Malala Yousafzai, at her UN speech

“One student number , one ed-u-bot, one iPad, and one test can change the world. Testing is the only solution.” — Arne Duncan

Yesterday, I posted that the Network for Public Education had endorsed Lee Barrios for a seat on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

This is an unusually important election. At the last election, corporate reformers from out of state flooded Louisiana with dollars to support a state board controlled by Governor Bobby Jindal. That board went on to endorse charters, vouchers, Common Core, high-stakes testing, and attacks on teachers’ rights.

Over the past few years, we have seen corporate reformers lose elections again and again, despite outspending the candidate who knows the community best. People power can beat money power, if the people are informed.

Lee is a retired teacher, who received National Board certification. She is dedicated to children and to public education.

Please help her if you can. Any contribution will be appreciated.

Lee, knock on as many doors as you can. Stand in front of the post office and the grocery stores. Go where the people are and tell them that out of state billionaires want to buy their public schools and privatize them.

Go, Lee, go!

Seth Sandronsky, a journalist in California, loves Mercedes Schneider’s new book, “Common Core Dilemma: “Who Owns Our Schools?”

In this review, he summarizes the main themes of the book.

He writes:

“Uncle Sam helped to spur the Common Core State Standards, the newest “big thing” in education reform that profits businesses. Mercedes K. Schneider names the actors and unveils their deeds and words in Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools? (Teachers College Press, 2015).

“A laser-like focus on a politically-connected class of edupreneurs propels her empirical case against education privatization’s bid to establish national test-driven assessments and standards for K-12 public schools. There is a vital history here, away from public view for years.

“Schneider clarifies such deliberate obscurity. In an Introduction, 11 chapters, Conclusion, Glossary, Notes and an Index, she investigates the relevant CCSS methods and motives.

“Schneider begins with a look at the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It in part paved the path for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 under GOP President George W. Bush that Sen. And Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders voted for, too.

“Central to the NCLB is high-stakes student testing. It fuels education privatization. Teachers’ livelihoods depend on their students’ test scores.

“Under this small carrot-and-big stick framework, the NCLB used state education standards to assess and punish disproportionately public schools in black and brown communities. Democratic Party politicians facilitated this process.

“Yet such a policy reliance upon state standards proved to limit the playing field of education reform. Such limits to capital accumulation generally require federal intervention, with Pres. Obama’s Race To The Top, the CCSS-friendly offspring of the NCLB, a case in point.

“The reformers nearly to a person are not teachers. That fact is striking, and runs a thread throughout Schneider’s book, outraging her and maybe readers, too.

“The CCSS solution to the limits of state standards propelled Achieve, Inc.’s grand plan to create a “common” set of K-12 standards in in English and math. Achieve is part of a triad that includes American College Testing and the College Board pushing the CCSS.

“Elected by nobody, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State Officers own the copyright for the CCSS. If that is not an attack on democracy, what is?

“And as Schneider shows, the plan for the CCSS slithered ahead in stealth for reasons, we read, of preparing US public schools for the intrusion of global monopoly corporations. Business knows best, according to wealthy interest such as Bill and Melinda Gates.

“For example, Schneider shines the light on Gates and luminaries such as IBM’s CEO Louis Gerstner, Jr. He drips arrogance in his ignorance of what classroom teachers and their pupils do on a daily basis, while positioning Achieve to suckle from the CCSS.

“Readers get to know the CCSS word salad of groups and terms. This language of edureform is a try to obfuscate the privatization of American public education.”

There is more, of course. The media writes about the Common Core by reading the press releases of its advocates. Schneider’s book might well be subtitled: The Secret History of the Common Core Standards.”.

A must for journalists, parents, and educators.

It is hard to remember that we once had stable schools in this country. That was before No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top went into full implementation. Now, schools in African American and Latino communities are routinely targeted for state takeovers, turnarounds, transformations, and transfer to chartering entities, without the consent of the people who live in the communities and the people whose children attend the schools. The billionaires pushing the “parent triggers” want parents to have the power to turn their school over to a charter corporation, but they are unwilling to grant them the power to say “no” to a takeover or a closure ordered by the Mayor, the Governor, or some bureaucrat.

Takeover goes in only one direction: privatization.

If this subject interests you, you will find this brief report of great value. It summarizes the “systematic disenfranchisement of African-American and Latino communities through school takeovers.” It describes the failure of all of these measures, from the takeover of New Orleans to the takeover of Detroit to the takeover of Newark to the takeover of public schools in Tennessee. One thing that all these schools have in common is that they enroll children of color. The powerful assume that African American and Latino parents lack the political power to stop them, and so far they have been correct.

The hunger strike at Dyett High School in Chicago demonstrates that there are ways for the “powerless” to take power. With the strength of their will, they can force those who hold the levers of power to back down.

That same fortitude is needed in all the threatened communities. The same local leadership can change the outcome.

Steven Singer has noticed some striking similarities among corporate reformers: they didn’t do well in school. Others have noted that most of them went to elite private schools.

Scott Walker dropped out of Marwuette University with only a year to go; no one knows why. His grades were mediocre.

Campbell Brown went to private schools and was kicked out of her high school.

Bill Gates, as is well known, dropped out of Harvard.

Singer wonders whether they are angry at teachers because of their personal failures.

He wonders:

“Are these former bad students more interested in fixing the perceived problems they see with the system? Or are they consciously or unconsciously seeking revenge against a system that found them to be inadequate?”

Mike Klonsky does his usual round up of Chicago news.

70% of students in Illlinois “failed” the PARCC test. Arne Duncan was not troubled at all.

“Arne Duncan agrees…

“It actually doesn’t concern me at all. What Illinois and many other states are doing is finally telling the truth.” (EdWeek)”

Did he forget that President Obama named him as Secretaryof Education because of the alleged leap in test scores in Chicago? We’re they not telling the truth in 2008?

The news: the Dyett hunger strike is in day 32. See the interview with Jitu Brown.

JOIN THE WALK-IN TO SAVE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Thousands of parents, educators, students and community leaders will hold “walk-ins” on Friday, September 18 at more than 100 public schools across the city of Milwaukee to celebrate public schools and to share information about how a proposed public school takeover will hurt students and the Milwaukee economy. In addition to Milwaukee, all public schools in LaCrosse, Wisconsin will also hold walk-ins in solidarity with Milwaukee students.

When we walk in on Friday, we are demanding justice for our kids and our city, and we are willing to unleash all our collective power to win that justice. When we walk in tomorrow we will be saying that we will not stop until our students have the schools and communities they deserve.

The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association and the Schools and Communities United coalition are organizing the walk-ins in response to a public school takeover plan passed as part of Wisconsin’s 2015-17 state budget. The takeover is part of a coordinated attempt by Governor Walker and state legislators to turn as many public schools as possible over to private operators, whether it be through takeovers, statewide voucher expansion, special needs vouchers, or additional charter school authorizers.

The takeover plan charges Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele with appointing a takeover czar this fall. The takeover commissioner would then choose 1-3 schools and attempt to convert them into privately run charter or voucher schools in 2016-17. In subsequent years, up to five schools per year could be targeted for takeover.

Milwaukee parents and community members are concerned about this takeover plan for several reasons:

• The takeover threatens the entire school district – not just the schools targeted for takeover. In Milwaukee, more than 40% of students already attend privately run charter or voucher schools. Similar challenges have brought school systems to their financial brink in cities from Detroit to Chester Uplands, PA.

• The takeover plan offers no new ideas or resources to help students succeed. Simply changing who runs a school does not automatically lead to student success.

• Many students will be left without critical services. The takeover schools are not required to meet the needs of special education students or English language learners.

• School takeovers eliminate good jobs, particularly for African Americans and Latinos. Takeovers have hurt the economy in New Orleans, Memphis and Detroit. They have eroded middle class communities of color, and have led to a less diverse teaching force.

• Takeovers eliminate democratic local control, and disenfranchise African American and Latino communities. A recent report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools shows that across the nation, school takeovers target almost exclusively African American and Latino students: of nearly 50,000 students whose schools were taken over nationwide, 97% were Black or Latino.

Milwaukee parents have a better plan to promote and strengthen public schools, and make sure all students – regardless of zip code – get a great education. Community Schools, a nationally recognized model that increased graduation rates in Cincinnati by more than 30%, have begun to take root in Milwaukee and have wide support from Milwaukee-based state legislators.

The Network for Public Education is delighted to endorse Lee Barrios for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Lee is a tireless advocate for children and public education.

Barrios retired from teaching in 2010 and became a full-time advocate, working to protect public education in her home state. Barrios has a long list of qualifications for a seat on BESE. She is a retired National Board Certified Teacher with a Masters Degree in Secondary Education; a founding member of the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education, which represents classroom teachers; the Information Coordinator for Save Our Schools – LA; and she was a founding member of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, which worked to expose inBloom around the country.

Her opponent is James Garvey, who is running for his third term on BESE. He is a part of the board majority that supports charter schools, high stakes testing, vouchers, Common Core, VAM, and controversial Louisiana state superintendent John White. Garvey has well over $200,000 in his campaign coffers. Garvey entered the race with almost $160,000 left over from his previous campaign, and another $40,000 has been donated to his current campaign by four Political Action Committees (PACs) formed by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. See here, here, here, and here.

Barrios is well aware that she is up against powerful, moneyed interests, and has a clear sense of how dangerous market-based education reform is to the cause of public education.

“The market-based model that is driving reform since the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act has not contributed to meaningful, lasting improvements in education. Privatization of our public school system will only diminish the education opportunities to which every Louisiana child is constitutionally guaranteed. Market-based reforms remove the community-based system and its democratic foundation. Privatization is profit driven.”

HERE IS THE LINK FOR DONATIONS TO LEE’S CAMPAIGN: http://electleebarrios.blogspot.com/p/donate.html

Open the link to see embedded links.

A comment on the blog:

I am a parent of a student at one of the state’s 20 “persistently struggling schools” LeBrun mentions in the article. We learned at a meeting earlier this week that because the school has met the state’s goals on many of the metrics used to evaluate these schools entering the receivership game, the school cannot choose those metrics to be evaluated on at the end of the year. Almost all of the metrics that are left to be chosen to be evaluated on are related to the state testing. It is all a game of trying to figure out which population subgroups will be most likely to meet the metrics when the tests are given months from now And you just keep your fingers crossed that you pick the right subgroups. (This is helping the kids how?)

It also appears that the school population as a whole has to have 95% participation in state testing to meet metrics. Is there any district in the state that did that last year? I think our school was about 80% participation last year. This is something that the school has very little control over. (To the administration’s credit, they do not strong arm families to take the test.) How can a school be evaluated on this?

Ideas of what we can do about this? The school’s plan is due Sept 30, so there’s not much we can do to change the procedure prior to plan submission. (We received the metrics from SED earlier this week, so there wasn’t much lead time.) How can we fight this even after our plan is submitted?

I am quite scared about what might happen to the school next year. No one seems to know what the possibilities even are or what rights the school and the parents have.

Malala Yousafzai is the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school; she survived to became a world-famous advocate for girls’ education.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy and courage.

She decided she wants to go to Stanford University to study politics and philosophy.

But Stanford will not accept her unless she takes the SAT and presumably scores the requisite points.

I can understand that Stanford wants to maintain its high standards, but shouldn’t a Nobel Prize count for more than an SAT score?