Fred Smith, a testing expert who worked for years at the
New York City Board of Education, now advises Change the Stakes, an
anti-testing group. In
this article, he analyzes the progress of nine schools in
New York state that bear the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The schools are located in different cities and communities but
they bear two common features: they are racially segregated, and
their test scores are abysmal. Taken together, 91% of the
children enrolled in these schools are black (67%) or Hispanic
(24%); 13% are considered to be limited in English proficiency.
About 90% receive free (85%) or reduced-price (5%)
lunches. At these schools, 2,883 students took
the statewide English Language Arts exams and 2,921 took the math
tests — providing 5,804 test scores. Most students were in grades 3
to 5….. What of the 8- to 10-year-old
children whose educations, hopes, formative development and chances
for future success are bound up in these wonderfully named schools
where circumstance has placed them? In 2009,
when the state exams were discredited for being ridiculously easy,
55% of the heirs to King’s legacy were found to be proficient in
reading, as were 71% in math. By last year, with the advent of
tougher “more rigorous” exams, the results had fallen to 24% and
31%. The April results released this month
fulfilled the prophecy: 7% and 6% proficiency in reading and math
at the nine schools. What a disgrace: 7% proficiency in
reading, and 6% proficiency in math. Perhaps Commissioner John King
can take over these schools and kick out the kids with low scores,
suspend those who don’t walk in a straight line, institute a
“no-excuses” culture of “high expectations.” Can we not do better
by the children in these schools and in all schools regardless of
what they are named? Must we treat them like little robots to
compel them to obey? Or can we not educate them with dignity and
purpose and prepare them to live fruitful lives?
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/sad-measure-dr-king-dream-article-1.1438608#ixzz2dGw25m3P
Fifty years ago today, I took the train to Washington,
D.C., with my then-husband Richard to participate in the most
important protest of our era. We were not part of a group, though
we knew many groups that were involved. We went on our own, as
citizens, who wanted to add our voices to others to demand a
society free of the racial barriers that denied equal rights to
Americans whose skin color was not white. We knew Bayard Rustin,
one of the organizers of the event, very well. Bayard is not well
known today, his picture seldom appears in history textbooks, yet
he was the great thinker and organizer behind the March on
Washington. He was a close friend of both Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and A. Philip Randolph, the legendary black labor leader. Bayard
has been unjustly neglected in history books because he was gay; he
was also a pacifist. He happened to be brilliant and a great
political strategist. Bayard was a strong believer in coalition
politics. He knew that blacks on their own would be unable to bring
about change, but blacks in alliance with organized labor had the
power to organize great events and make politicians take notice.
When we got to the Washington Monument, we found ourselves in a sea
of people of all races and all colors and all ages. Despite
warnings about potential violence (intended to keep people away),
the huge crowds were cheerful, exhilarated, and peaceable. There
was the distinct feeling of joy in the air—the joy that is
associated with breaking free of stale laws, oppressive customs,
and dead ideology.
We were, on the Mall, in a new world: a world
where men and women of every background stood together, arm in arm,
to seek a newer world. Massed together, with the Washington
monument at one end of the Mall and the Lincoln Monument, at the
other, we sensed the possibility and reality of that newer world.
It was not a theory. For that brief few hours in time, the theory
was reality, and we knew that change was coming, that it was
inevitable. The only question was not whether it would happen, but
when.
Truth? Much has changed, but not enough. Barack Obama is
President, but poverty among people of color remains scandalously
high and racial segregation is no longer treated as outrageous.
When the U.S. Department of Justice warned Louisiana that its
voucher program conflicted with desegregation mandates, it was
almost surprising that someone remembered that desegregation is a
good idea.
The hottest “reform” idea of our time—charter
schools—has intensified segregation, and neither the U.S.
government nor the Wall Street donors seem to care. Indeed, the
promoters of charters and vouchers have the temerity to dub
themselves as leaders of “the civil rights issue of our time.”
As if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have supported a movement to
privatize public education! As if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
would have supported a movement that seeks to crush and ban
teachers’ unions! The so-called reformers forget that Dr. King was
closely allied with labor unions. They forget or maybe never knew
that when Dr. King was assassinated, he was in Memphis to help
underpaid sanitation workers (all of whom were black) organize into
a union to demand decent pay.
So, yes, let us remember the March on Washington. Let us not wait another fifty years to do so. Let us remember the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Let us remember that the promise of that day remains unfilled. And let us
rededicate ourselves to the dream of a day when all children have
equal opportunity to learn and their families have good jobs and
homes and healthcare, and the means to take care of their
children.
A large national alliance of civil rights organizations has joined under the umbrella heading of “Journey for Justice.”
This coalition has called for the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
To understand why, read the flyer it distributed.
Anyone who thinks that closing public schools and replacing them with privately managed charters and with vouchers is somehow part of the civil rights movement has no understanding of the purposes of the civil rights movement.
It was not to destroy the public sector but to assure access to good education, decent housing, and jobs without any racial discrimination.
It struggled for equality of educational opportunity, not privatization or a “race to the top.”.
It did not claim that poverty could be cured by “fixing” schools or privatizing them.
It demanded an end to poverty by creating jobs and justice.
It fought segregation in schools and housing.
That vision is not the vision of the corporate reform movement in education today.
It fights not for equality of opportunity but for a market-based system of winners and losers.
It accepts segregation as tolerable.
It is not a civil rights movement.
The Journey for Justice calls out these contradictions and speaks truth to power.
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Paul Thomas here explores this question: is it better to be born rich or to get a college degree?
Can a “no excuses” school overcome poverty?
Can 1,000 such schools change South Carolina?
Sarah Darer Littman watches in wonder as the Gates Foundation uses its billions to reorganize public education in Connecticut.
Their goal: more Achievement First charters, regardless of their high suspension rates for children in kindergarten and their poor record relating to students with disabilities.
Gates wants close collaboration with AF and other “high performing” charters. It wants them to be treated equitably, as if the generous support of Connecticut’s equity investors was not enough of a cushion.
What do they want? A dual school system of regulated public schools and unregulated charters, free to exclude, expel, or suspend any child?
Andy Hines, a writer and stay-at-home dad, describes his family’s debate about where to send their child to school. They live in San Diego, one of the nation’s best urban school districts, but most advantaged parents shun the neighborhood school. Instead they seek out magnet schools, charter schools, religious schools–anything but the neighborhood school.
Michael Petrilli wrote about the same soul-searching process in his book “The Diverse Schools Dilemma.” Should advantaged parents take a chance on the neighborhood school, where most children are poor and nonwhite? Or should they move to a more affluent district?
This is what Andy Hinds discovered about his neighborhood school:
“Our local public elementary school is a five-minute walk from our house. It has undergone major renovations in the past year, and although it’s not much to look at from the street, the campus is tidy and attractive, with a huge sports field, a brand-new playground, a cute little library, vegetable gardens and whimsical murals and sculptures brightening up the outdoor spaces. The principal is energetic and accessible, the staff turnover is low and the parents who do send their kids there think it’s a wonderful school.”
What’s the problem? Almost every student is poor, and more than half are English language learners.
What did the Hinds family decide? Read on.
The Chicago Teachers Union issued a report on segregation in the Chicago public schools:
New Report Unravels the Sordid History of Racial Segregation in Chicago Public Schools
On anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, “Still Separate, Still Unequal” examines continued acceptance of de facto segregation and injustices in district schools
CHICAGO—On was is the 59th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) today released a report on the history of disruptive actions against communities of color by Chicago Public Schools (CPS), exemplified by school closings that intensify the harmful effects of segregated schools and neighborhoods. The study, titled Still Separate, Still Unequal, acknowledges the deep segregation that exists in Chicago, but states that segregation is exacerbated by flawed education reform policies and assaults on communities that have long borne the brunt of its harmful effects.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was one of the most successful victories of the modern Civil Rights Movement. The ruling declared segregation in U.S. public schools unconstitutional, saying it violated the “equal protection under the law” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Now, nearly six decades later, parents of Chicago’s African-American and special education needs students are also seeking court protection against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to shutter 53 elementary schools. On Wednesday they filed two federal lawsuits seeking a halt closures because these actions are discriminatory and will cause undue harm to their children.
“The mayor and his CPS administration are barreling through the largest round of school closings ever—actions that will once again disproportionately harm students and communities of color,” said CTU President Karen Lewis. “What they’re proposing will set us back to the time before Brown v. Board of Education. This report shows that we are still living in an era of education apartheid and we must do all we can to resist the destruction of our schools and the harming of our vulnerable population.”
Over the past decade, one out of every four intensely segregated African-American schools—schools with a more than 90 percent African-American student population—has been closed, phased out or turned around. Yet segregation has increased and African-American students are now more segregated by race and class than in 1989. At the same time there are far more schools with virtually no Black teachers and no Black students. Schools with fewer than 10 percent African-American students and teachers now make up 28 percent of CPS schools, up from 10 percent in 2001. In CPS, integration has been abandoned as policy and segregation accepted as the norm, rather than as the deliberate and systematic construction that it is. The report addresses, specifically:
- · Intense segregation in CPS
- · Segregation across CPS and the city of Chicago
- · What segregation means for CPS students of color
- · The reproduction of segregation and inequity
- · Segregated access to experienced teachers
- · The increasing segregation of black teachers
- · The segregated harm of school closings
- · Integration and equity, not choice and competition
“CPS seems committed only to deepening the harms of segregation, rather than moving towards an integrated school system,” said Still Separate, Still Unequal author, Pavlyn Jankov. “Segregation has increased, and the associated policies of disinvestment and destabilization are more acute than ever.”
Still Separate, Still Unequal calls for an end to the segregated harm of failed school closings and turnarounds, and a halt to the rapid expansion of private charter operators and other aberrations of “choice” that increase segregation.
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On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregation of the races in public school was unconstitutional. At the time, segregation was the law in 17 states and many districts.
For years, the states where segregation was outlawed resisted the court decision. Their favorite ploy was school choice. They knew that school choice would preserve racial segregation because whites would choose to stay with whites, and blacks would be fearful of applying to white schools, where they would face a hostile climate, harassment, and even violence.
The Supreme Court and lower federal courts overturned the many strategies enacted to evade the necessity of desegregation.
But that was then,and this is now.
Now, billionaires proudly sponsor segregated schools. Now, cities and states authorize all-black, all-Hispanic, all-white charter schools without embarrassment.
The UCLA Civil Rights Project says that racial resegregation is on the rise, for blacks and Hispanics.
The federal government–most especially, the U.S. Department of Education–doesn’t care about racial segregation any more. Nor does it have an active interest in discrimination against students with disabilities. When the ACLU recently won a ruling against voucher schools in Milwaukee that excluded students with disabilities, it went not to the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, but to the U.S. Department of Justice. When the U.D. Government Accountability Office issued a report criticizing charter schools for their mall proportions of students with disabilities, James Shelton of the U.S. Department of Education said something like, “we’ll have to look into that.” That was the last heard from this Department.
Those who care about the resegregation of public education and discrimination against students because of their disabilities will have to wait for another administration that also cares about fairness, equity, and the principles enunciated on May 17, 1954. This one does not.
Responding to a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice warned voucher schools in Milwaukee to stop excluding, counseling out, or otherwise discriminating against students with disabilities.
“The state cannot, by delegating the education function to private voucher schools, place students beyond the reach of the federal laws that require Wisconsin to eliminate disability discrimination in its administration of public programs,” DOJ officials wrote in the letter to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Tony Evers.
Voucher programs across the nation–now operating in 20 states–will be affected, and states are now obliged to monitor voucher programs to be sure they are in compliance with federal laws protecting the rights of students with disabilities.
The ACLU contended that the voucher program excluded students with disabilities, and if they were admitted, they were systematically expelled and/or pushed out. This practice led to a very large percentage of students with disabilities in the public school district even as its funding was declining due to loss of enrollment to vouchers and charters. Consequently, the so-called “failing” district cannot possibly recover because the private schools don’t accept students with disabilities and the public school has to accept all comers. And despite their exclusion of students with disabilities, the voucher schools in Wisconsin DO NOT outperform the public schools.
A statement issued by the ACLU warned of the danger of choice programs:
“Publicly-funded voucher programs have the effect of setting up a separate escape hatch for only a few, leaving the majority of the poor students in schools that are even less likely to succeed than they were before the voucher program or tax credit began. Furthermore, the private schools that spring up to educate a child for $6,500 are producing results that are no better than the public school district – in Milwaukee, for example, three years of comparison test scores show they are performing worse than the public system. We also know that the Milwaukee parents who take advantage of these programs tend to have higher education levels and children without disabilities, leaving the public school district with a higher percentage of children with disabilities and parents with less education. There are few checks in place to ensure that all of the schools accepting vouchers are more than glorified day care providing convenient hours for parents.”
Even more ominous is the specter of segregation academies in the south:
“…some private schools in states like Georgia and Alabama, where tax credits have recently been put into place, were founded as segregation academies to thwart federal integration efforts. While the program in Milwaukee and its school district serve almost entirely students of color, as “school choice” spreads around the country, the stage is set for these programs to become even more exclusionary and segregated. We know this because Milwaukee’s voucher program already excludes students with disabilities and segregates them into the public school district while at the same time stripping the district of much needed funds to educate them. If we permit this to continue, we are condoning separate schools for a number of groups of students, including racial minorities, students with disabilities, religious minorities and LGBT students. What we have known for the fifty years since Brown v. Board of Education is that separate is not equal. School voucher programs and tax credits do not provide a choice for everyone. They create publicly funded separate schools.”
A reader sent these late-night reflections to me:
“I drifted off to sleep last night, the phrase “No Child Left Behind” kept ringing in my ears. It sounds so noble… No – Child – Left – Behind – surely that is good for our country. Yet, at the same time my eyes were closing, the disturbing aparthied maps that Jersey Jazzman posted were flashing before my eyes.
In the corners of my mind, memories of 1984, by George Orwell churn. Newspeak (the removal of negative terms from language) reappears today. “Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language.”
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/section11.rhtml
Samples: Newspeak Reform Dictionary and Guide to Phraseology:
“No Child Left Behind”
Phrase meaning: self-explanatory
Reality: Yes, there are many children left behind. Can we find them in these maps?
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/03/school-closings-new-apartheid.html
“AchieveNJ”
Word meaning: Achieve – attain; realize; accomplish
Reality: “AchieveNJ doesn’t even make the attempt to correct SGPs for poverty!”
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/03/nj-ed-commish-cerf-wrong-on-poverty.html
“Community Engagement”
Word meaning: Oh… forget about the real word meaning… what difference does this section make?
Reality: “DONT allow the opposition to frame the standards or the new tests negatively: In particular, get in front of any opposition that seeks to characterize the new standards and assessments as a “one-size-fits-all” approach…”
http://www.achieve.org/
“Education Reform Toolkit”
Reality: School Closure Guide by the Broad Foundation
“Privacy”
Reality: “States must collect, coordinate, and use K-12 and postsecondary data to track and improve the readiness of graduates to succeed in college and the workplace…follow students through K–12 into postsecondary AND THE WORKFORCE and establish feedback loops to the relevant stakeholders…” (emphasis mine)
http://www.achieve.org/P-20-data-systems
What would George Orwell have to say about this today?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 