Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública

2012-01-31T04:24:00.000-08:00

An infographic Series on the current Crisis Facing Higher Education

From time to time, we will look at the education crises within higher education. Why? Because those crises have direct and indirect impact upon our public education system.

For example, if the cost of a college education is far beyond the reach of most families, how do we overcome this financial gap? Student loans? Scholarships? Part time or full time work-while-in-school? Well the infographic series below gives us a stark insight into the shrinking choices for working class and middle class families to have the financial ability to give their children a college education with minimal debt.
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Created By: Education News----------------------------Education News----------------------------Education New

2012-01-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Actual Arizona Ruling Banning Ethnic Studies in the state's public schools

This the complete ruling: TUSD’s Mexican American Studies classes violated state law, a state administrative law judge ruled Tuesday, ruling that 10 percent of the district’s funding be withheld.

In issuing his decision, Judge Lewis D. Kowal found that the Tucson program promoted “social or political activism against the white people.” Specifically it included at least one class that 1) promoted “racial resentment” 2) was “designed primarily for one ethnic group” and 3) advocated “ethnic solidarity instead of treating pupils as individuals.”
Arizona's Ethnic Studies Ruling Jan 2012

Repeal the Arizona Government Ruling Outlawing Teaching ethnic/racial Studies

SIGN ON at: http://signon.org/sign/repeal-the-arizona-governmen

To be delivered to: The Arizona State House, The Arizona State Senate, Governor Jan Brewer, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama

Petition to Repeal the Arizona Government Ruling Outlawing Teaching ethnic/racial Studies

From The National Black Education Agenda - www.blackeducationnow.org

Tuscon, AZ Administrative law judge Lewis Kowal in his ruling to outlaw teaching Mexican American Studies said, “Teaching oppression objectively is quite different than actively presenting material in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.”

“Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against the white people, promotes racial resentment, and advocates ethnic solidarity, instead of treating pupils as individuals,” Kowal wrote. He cited a lesson that taught students that the historic treatment of Mexican-Americans was “marked by the use of force, fraud and exploitation,” and a parent’s complaint that one of her daughters, who was white, was shunned by Latino classmates after a government course was taught “in an extremely biased manner.”
See: http://wordstrike.net/ethnic-studies-ruling-escalates-arizona-schools

This racist Arizona ruling not only applies to Mexican American Studies, it also implicates Black/African American/Africana Studies, Latino/Hispanic Studies, Native American and Asian Studies within public schools and state and city colleges and universities. Given their records, there is NO presidential candidate--Democratic or Republican--who will support the fight to repeal this ruling.

Let's be clear, America’s ruling elites want a "postracial" society in which white supremacy racism remains unchallenged. In less than twenty years, however, they will rule a nation of majority folk of color. Therefore, they cannot afford the historic truth to be told to this generation because it would expose their "superiority-by-nature" as one of the world's greatest hoaxes.

Hence, we are outraged that there is a national silence on this racist ruling.

WE activist educators, parents and students have to fight to destroy this ruling and the rationale being used to justify it-- even if we don't live in Arizona--because it has immediate national implications. Many states could pass similar laws banning the teaching of so-called "ethnic studies". In fact, this ruling jeopardizes all forms of ethnic and gender studies that critically examine U.S. history.

Signing this petition, letter-writing, supporting the Arizona fightback students, teachers and parents, statewide boycotts, emails, demonstrations, legal battles. . .Occupy To Decolonize. . .are all the things we need to do start 2012 off with victory in mind and in hand.

Mexican American Studies, Latino/Hispanic Studies, Black/African American/Africana Studies, Native American Studies and Asian Studies are all here to reveal the true American history of resistance and struggle and of powerful and beautiful cultures and alliances with people of all backgrounds woven from these struggles.

Thru this petition, let our outrage against this racist and anti-intellectual onslaught upon public education and our demand that the Studies of People of Color become an integral part of U.S. public education be heard by the City of Tuscon, the Arizona state government, as well as the U.S. Congress, President Obama and all the presidential candidates who seek to occupy the White House.

SIGN ON at: http://signon.org/sign/repeal-the-arizona-governmen

2011-12-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) Documents Harlem Community Protest of Evil Moskowitz's Bumrushing Her Charters In Public School Spaces

This demo took place on Thursday 9 December outside of Eva Moskowitz's

Success Charter School Offices in Harlem.

2011-12-06T09:07:00.001-08:00

Charter Witch, Evil Moskowitz, Gets Charter-Checked in Cobble Hill!

This video depicts the very powerful fightback by the Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Community against the co-location of Eva Moskowitz's corporate backed Success Academy Charter School Network. Nine New York City public schools are already being dislocated by Success Charter Network Schools. Ms. Moskowitz has plans to open 30 more charter schools in New York City.

Where will she ask for free space next?

2011-10-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

We are Not Alone When It Comes to Fighting School Closures!

Oakland, California

Oakland Unified School District board members voted 5 to 2 in favor of “restructuring” package which includes the closure of five elementary schools in the area.

Oakland parents, students and educators are also struggling to hold onto their neighborhood schools. The economic crisis and the inability of those in power- locally, statewide and nationally- to solve this endemic problem is forcing ordinary folk to do extraordinary things.

If we continue down this path of finding massive democratic ways to solve the problems of US public education, we will have won. So... there is no alternative but to continue to fightback and continue to refine our vision of a truly democratic/antiracist FREE public education system thruout the US.

New America Media Editor's Note: A few weeks before Occupy Oakland moved into Frank Ogawa Plaza, the community of Lakeview Elementary School organized it's first action -- a march of students, parents, teachers and concerned community members to an Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) meeting. Videographer Siraj Fowler documented the multi-ethnic, intergenerational fight waged against the school closures and OUSD's eventual decision to close 5 schools.

New America Media Editor's Note: A few weeks before Occupy Oakland moved into Frank Ogawa Plaza, the community of Lakeview Elementary School organized it's first action -- a march of students, parents, teachers and concerned community members to an Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) meeting. Videographer Siraj Fowler documented the multi-ethnic, intergenerational fight waged against the school closures and OUSD's eventual decision to close 5 schools.

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Saving Oakland's School from New America Media on Vimeo.
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OUSD: The Fight Continues from New America Media on Vimeo.
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OUSD Strikes Back from New America Media on Vimeo.
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2011-10-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Occupy the Dept of Mis-Education!

The Last PEP- Panel of Elite Puppets (the NYC PEP- panel on education policy) was interrupted by hundreds of OccupyWallStreet inspired educators and parents (and a few students).

This is the first time in more than 10 years where folk recognize the PEP as an illegitimate body AND proceed to ignore them and establish their own Board of Education effort. It is truly a new beginning that needs to be fleshed out by many meetings with parents, students and educators across the city.

The OccupyWallStreet Movement has inspired education activists to be more brazen in their actions to dismantle the privateers' bumrushing policies of controls-for-profits.

The video below depicts the very beginning of this fight.

More Black & Latino parents, educators and students need to be at the center of this effort-- since they are the majority of the city. But, that requires a lot of work still needed to be done by Black/Latino/Asian organizers in the next few months.

Join us to make this happen! Email Akinlabi Makall <Jaydub16@aol.com> if you want to become an active member of the Coalition for Public Education.

2011-10-28T10:40:00.001-07:00

NYC Black/Latino Student-led Study Shows System Ain't Workin'!

To get a PDF version of the report, go to:

http://icope.org/documents/yrnes.pdf

2011-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

~A Report on the Education Trial/Tribunal~

Joel Shatzky --English Professor

Educating for Democracy: The People's Trial of Mayor Bloomberg

Posted: 10/16/11- huffingtonpost.com

CPE-CEP Sister Brenda Walker and son, Kaashief Toomer stated that the testimonies of resistance and struggle inspired them to continue the struggle to defeat Mayoral Control.

Shortly after Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed control of the New York City school system, he presented his programs as a national leader in "educational reform." But there has been evidence in the New York public schools in the recent past of cheating on standardized tests by teachers and supervisors.

Moreover, the much publicized "success" of the mayor's program has been in part based on inflated test scores and the "dumbing down" of the tests themselves. Yet under the mayor's "leadership" Bloomberg continues to close down "failing" schools and replace them with charter schools causing wide-spread disruption to students, parents and veteran teachers. As a result of these closings, some of the most valuable and experienced teachers lose their positions and end up in "ATR" (Absent Teacher Reserve) where they are misused as substitute teachers with no permanent position since the principals are reluctant to hire high-salary veterans and prefer to employ cheaper, inexperienced teachers to meet their "bottom line." This is the business model of education that the Bloomberg Administration has imposed.

At a "trial" held at DC 37 of AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sponsored by the Coalition for Public Education forpubliced.org and hosted by Sam Anderson, a noted educational leader dedicated to wresting the school system out of mayoral control, testimony was given by dozens of parents, teachers and concerned educators describing the negative effect the mayor's "educational reform" has produced in what seems to be a part of a nationwide attempt to privatize the public schools, deskill teachers, strip them of their union rights, and firmly establish a two-tier educational system: one for the privileged and one for everyone else.

The all-day trial was adjudicated by such well-known legal authorities as Thomas Mariadson, of the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund, Esmeralda Simmons, of the Center for Law and Social Justice, Damon Hewitt of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and attended by City Councilman Charles Barron. Angel Gonzalez, a member of GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) described in detail the destructive effect of school closings in which a disproportionate number of Black and Latino students are pushed out of their neighborhood schools to accommodate charter schools. This process not only results in damage to the students but a disproportionate number of Black and Latino teachers end up as ATR's further diminishing the ethnic diversity of the system. Among other results of the co-location of charter schools in district schools is that they-the charters- cut back on needed programs in bi-lingual and special needs education.

Another aspect of the damage the Bloomberg administration has done to the NYC public schools was revealed by a teacher-parent whose daughter goes to Bronx Regional High School, the school attended by Nicole Suriel, the girl who was tragically drowned on a class beach visit last summer. The parent testified that he had repeatedly warned the school administration and Department of Education of neglect and indifference to student well-being at the school and blames the Administration for fostering this negligent attitude that resulted in the girl's death.

The teacher also reported the conditions at the GED Plus school where he teaches which is located at Bronx Regional High School. The school is intended to offer a chance for high school dropouts ages 17-21, to get their General Education diplomas. However, according to the teacher's testimony, the school has no library, no arts programs, no gym, no special literacy program, no ELL for students whose first language is not English, and 35 in a class.

There were many other charges of mismanagement of the public schools by the Bloomberg administration. These included the dismissal of a twelve-year special ed veteran when the DOE discovered she hadn't taken a foreign language course in college; the excessive number of summonses and arrests of students of color where not only security personnel but also regular police with firearms patrol the former Brandeis High School. It had once been one of the best high schools in the City but was closed down so that a charter school can be "co-located" at the facility on the Upper West Side where the workers and teachers will be non-unionized. The testimony throughout the time I attended presented a consistent pattern of inadequate attention to and neglect of schools that desperately need more support.

And while these schools are "failing," Councilman Barron reported that during the period of the Bloomberg administration's control of the schools the DOE budget has increased from $11 billion to $24 billion while only 23% of the students graduating from the public schools are prepared for college. With a great many of the services for the city schools now "contracted out," Barron wonders where so much of this money is going with so little effect on improving public education.

At the same time, as pointed out by Leonie Haimson, a nationally known parent-advocate and Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a clearinghouse for information on class size, the actual number of students in classrooms K-12 has increased under the Bloomberg administration, despite the fact that $650 million each year for the past three were specifically appropriated by the State legislature under the Contracts for Excellence law to reduce class size. Moreover, Haimson pointed out that several programs that have no research to support them are being vigorously expanded under the Mayor's watch: paying students for improving test scores and increasing the use of on-line (computer-based) instruction.

An alternative to such destructive practices was offered at the hearing in an ICOPE (Independent Commission on Public Education) video created by a group of high school students who actually asked other students what they felt would improve their schools. The video, based on a study called YRNES (Youth Researchers for a New Education System) www.ICOPE.org
found that in addition to wanting to be treated with greater respect by teachers and other staff, about 80% of those students questioned expressed an interest in participating in leadership roles in their school. Perhaps if other school administrators, besides the Mayor, heeded the students' request, there might be some marked improvement in their performance in learning.

If the "Trial of Mayor Bloomberg" showed anything, it was that his programs were more expensive, more destructive, and more demoralizing with no significant improvement in learning outcome than prior to his administration. The sentence for what he's done is that he should be dismissed from his position as head school administrator so that more positive outcomes can be produced for our City's young learners: student, parent and teacher-based, not business-based education.

2011-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

The People's Education Trial/Tribunal Was a Great Start!

On to the People's Board Of Education!

Some of the early morning crowd who came out to DC37's Main Hall.

On Saturday 15 October more than 50 people testified about the decade-long educational crimes and violations they or their children have endured from the Bloomberg Mayoral Dictatorship regime.

Nearly 200 people were in attendance throughout the day at DC37. Those in attendance as well as the 8 prominent judges were moved by powerful testimony not only about the daily atrocities parents, students and educators have to face in our public schools, but also about how those who testified resisted and fought back... and were -at times- victorious.

City Councilman Charles Barron making a point in his testimony as the judges and State Assemblywoman Inez Barron listen .

The 8 judges were:

• Attny Esmeralda Simmons- Director, Center for Law and Social Justice (CLSJ) at Medgar Evers College

• Attny Joan Gibbs- Senior Counselor, CLSJ/National Council of Black Lawyers

• Attny Roger Wareham- December 12th Movement

• Father Luis Barrios, PhD- Pastors for Peace

• Ejim Dike- Human Rights Project (Urban Justice Center)

• Attny Damon T. Hewitt- NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund

• Attny Thomas Mariadason- Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund

• Attny King Downing- American Friends Service Committee

The first group of witnesses to testify came from Brooklyn's La Union. They gave powerful testimony concerning the daily racist onslaughts they and their children have to face as Latino immigrants and English Language Learners.

===================

CPE Members attending to the final work of the day. (Left to right: CoChair Muba Yarofulani, Roberta Pisker, Benita Rivera, Charmaine Phillip, Sandra Rivers, Akinlabi Mackall)

Over the next week or two, look to this blog and our website: www.forpubliced.org for all the video proceedings and documents submitted at the Trial/Tribunal.

The Coalition for Public Education/Coalicion por La Educacion Publica (CPE-CEP) will also be calling for the Founding Convention of the People's Board of Education within the next couple of months. So, be prepared to come and participate in envisioning, organizing and fighting for a new more democratic school governance system rooted in our communities and cultures.

2011-10-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Charting the charter schools funding network
By Laurie Bennett

October 6, 2011

A map of the funders of the charter school movement looks much like a map of the funders of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

To create the map below, we started with the Alliance for School Choice, an organization headed by Betsy DeVos, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

DeVos is the sister of Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater. Her mother, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, is a big donor to conservative organizations such as Focus on the Family and the Media Research Center. Broekhuizen was also a major contributor to the effort to outlaw same-sex marriage in California.

The alliance is affiliated with the American Federation for Children, also chaired by Betsy DeVos.

Carrie Penner, a director of both organizations, is also on the board of the Walton Family Foundation, run by the Wal-Mart heirs. The Waltons give generously to charter school organizations around the country. (See a larger, expanded version of the map.)

You'll note in both versions of the map connections to conservative think tanks and nonprofits, including the Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Federalist Society.

2011-10-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

Brother Crespo is showing us what we should do everytime Bloomie Flunky Walcott is in our Presence!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2011
CONTACT: Mickey Melendez
Assistant to the President
(212) 815-1372

THE PRESIDENT OF LOCAL 372 & UNION MEMBERS PROTEST CHANCELLOR WALCOTT DURING HIS SPEECH

This morning, to protest DOE's decision to layoff 701 school support workers, Local 372 President, Santos Crespo, Jr. and union members stood up and turned their backs to Chancellor Dennis Walcott during his speech, to demonstrate their solidarity with those who will be laid off tomorrow. Chancellor Walcott spoke at an event that honored DOE workers with over 20 years of service.

"We are one. When DOE lays off even one of our workers, we all hurt," said Mr. Crespo.

"Chancellor Walcott failed to stand up for the lowest paid workers at DOE who are crucial in taking care of our city's children. How is DOE going to fill this void? These are workers who monitor the lunch room, the hallways, and the yards to ensure the safety of our school children and to help maintain order in the schools. These are workers who call parents when children do not attend school to find out what is happening with the child. These are workers who provide a communication link between parents and the school system," stated Mr. Crespo. Laying off these workers will further deteriorate our public schools which continue to take the brunt of budget cuts.

"We turned our backs on Chancellor Walcott as a statement because we are standing up for the future of New York City's school system and the future of our kids," stated Mr. Crespo.

On Friday, October 7, 2011, DOE will lay off 701 school support staff workers, affecting thousands of children in the poorest of New York City's communities. Local 372 members will wear black on Friday as a sign of mourning for the loss of their fellow workers.

Josefa Febrillet-Barr
Political Action Coordinator

Local 372

125 Barclay Street, 6th Floor

local37207@aol.com

2011-10-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

COPY REGISTRATION FORM BELOW AND EMAIL TO: CPE.CEP@GMAIL.COM... or BRING IT WITH YOU ON OCTOBER 15-------------------

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PEOPLE'S EDUCATION TRIAL IS ON!

2011-09-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

/=/=/=/=//=/=/=//=/=/=/=/=//=

On-Line EDTrial Registration Forms

2011-09-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Billionaire Bloomberg Fires 800
Public School Workers!

A Massive FightBack is Building!

Towards The People's Hearing On Educational Crimes & Violations-- 9AM Saturday 15 October 2011 at DC37

Department of Education layoffs hit poor areas hardest

BY JUAN GONZALEZ - NEWS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, August 26, 2011

The city's plan to lay off nearly 800 nonteaching public school employees this fall will hit the poorest districts the hardest - and spare the more affluent ones.

The disparate nature of the cuts - the biggest layoffs at any agency in the Bloomberg era - became apparent yesterday, when officials gave Local 372, which represents nonprofessional school employees, a detailed hit list.

Under the plan, District 5 in Harlem and District 6 in Washington Heights will lose almost 8% of their school aides, parent coordinators and community workers - 77 out of a total of 998.

At the same time, only five of 942 similar workers in Staten Island's District 31 - less than 1% - will get pink slips.

Likewise, three school districts in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, East Flatbush and East New York will lose 4.4% of their nonprofessional workers.

But three more middle class districts in South Brooklyn that include Dyker Heights, Borough Park, Bensonhurst, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay and Mill Basin, will lose only 11 of 1,900 employees - less than 1%.

Those who could lose their jobs are some of the lowest-paid workers in the city and overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. School aides, the biggest group targeted, average about $11,000 a year for part-time work. Even with health insurance and pension costs factored in, the city pays about $27,000 annually for each of these workers.

"We've been trying for weeks to meet with Chancellor [Dennis] Walcott and each time they canceled . . . at the last moment," said Santos Crespo, president of Local 372.

"On Monday, they just called us in and hit us with these cuts," Crespo said. "They didn't even want to discuss ways we could cooperate to reduce costs."

At a time when the school system is spending hundreds of millions of dollars for more outside contractors and consultants, it's crazy to cut the most vulnerable workers.

DOE officials say Crespo's parent union, District Council 37, is to blame.

"During the budget negotiations this June, the chancellor called Lillian Roberts [executive director of DC 37] . . . to work . . . to avert DOE layoffs," agency spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said.

"Unfortunately, the union would not agree to any real savings . . . so schools took a larger budget cut than might have otherwise been necessary."

In other words, if you don't do what Bloomberg wants, you and your members will suffer the consequences.

But why hit poor districts so heavily?

It could be just a coincidence, but some of the biggest cuts occurred in neighborhoods where City Council members were vocal critics of the mayor.

Ravitz said principals made all the decisions on cuts.

"Schools received their budgets at the end of June and made school level decisions about which staff they were keeping and which staff to excess," she said.

Several principals I spoke to yesterday disputed that version. They say budget officials from Tweed encouraged them to look to their nonprofessional staff for cuts.

Nevertheless, one thing seems clear: if these layoffs take effect, the poorest districts will suffer most.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com

2011-08-21T09:51:00.001-07:00

Parents Take the Lead Summer Institute Ends On a High Note Of Activist Commitment

Some of the Members of La Union who came to all six sessions....

The Coalition for Public Education/Coalicion por La Educacion Publica (CPE-CEP) just completed its first Parent Take the Lead Summer Institute to help mobilize for the Big FightBack Against Mayoral Control & Privatization this coming school year.

A summation of the Institute's power-filled work will be posted shortly here and on our listserv (pubedco@googlegroups.com).

Meanwhile, here a few fotos of the lively and informative last session!

Serious discussion in which everyone participated.

Sister Sharitza making a point while all listen intently.

Brother Rodrigo Receiving his Certificate from CPE-CEP CoChair Brother Akinlabi.

Happy to receive their Certificates of Completion, La Union members celebrate.

Preparing to leave the Last Parent Take the Lead Institute Session that was packed with useful information, analysis and strategy-talk.

2011-08-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Moments in America for All Children

Every second a public school student is suspended.*
Every 8 seconds a high school student drops out.*
Every 18 seconds a baby is born to an unmarried mother.
Every 20 seconds a public school student is corporally punished.*
Every 21 seconds a child is arrested.
Every 34 seconds a child is born into poverty.
Every 42 seconds a baby is born without health insurance
Every 42 seconds a child is confirmed as abused or neglected.
Every minute a baby is born to a teen mother.
Every 2 minutes a child is born at low birthweight.
Every 4 minutes a child is arrested for a drug offense.
Every 8 minutes a child is arrested for a violent offense.
Every 18 minutes a baby dies before his or her first birthday.
Every 45 minutes a child or teen dies from an accident.
Every 3 hours a child or teen is killed by a firearm.
Every 5 hours a child or teen commits suicide.
Every 5 hours a child is killed by abuse or neglect.
Every 16 hours a mother dies from complications of childbirth or pregnancies.
* Based on calculations per school day (180 days of seven hours each)
State
=====================================================

How America Ranks Among Industrialized Countries in
Investing in and Protecting Children
1st in gross domestic product
1st in number of billionaires
1st in number of persons incarcerated
1st in health expenditures
1st in student expenditures
1st in military technology
1st in defense expenditures
1st in military weapons exports
17th in reading scores
22nd in low birthweight rates
23rd in science scores
30th in infant mortality rates
31st in math scores
31st in the gap between the rich and the poor
Last in relative child poverty
Last in adolescent birth rates (ages 15 to 19)
Last in protecting our children against gun violence

The United States and Somalia (which has no legally constituted government) are the only two
United Nations members that have failed to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

If we compare just Black child well-being in America to child well-being in other nations,
according to UNICEF:

• 70 nations have lower infant mortality rates including Cuba, Thailand and Costa Rica.
• 144 nations have a lower incidence of low birthweight, including the Dominican
Republic, Nigeria and Kazakhstan.
• Black women in the United States are more likely to die due to pregnancy complications
than women in 54 other nations, including Iran and Albania.
-------------------

Each day in America

2 mothers die in childbirth.
5 children are killed by abuse or neglect.
5 children or teens commit suicide.
8 children or teens are killed by firearms.
32 children or teens die from accidents.
80 babies die before their first birthdays.
186 children are arrested for violent offenses.
368 children are arrested for drug offenses.
949 babies are born at low birthweight.
1,204 babies are born to teen mothers.
1,240 public school students are corporally punished.*
2,058 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
2,163 babies are born without health insurance.
2,573 babies are born into poverty.
3,312 high school students drop out.*
4,133 children are arrested.
4,717 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
18,493 public school students are suspended.
* Based on 180 school days a year

Each day in America for White children

1 mother dies in childbirth.
1 child is killed by abuse or neglect.
3 children or teens commit suicide.
4 children or teens are killed by firearms.
25 children or teens die from accidents.
52 babies die before their first birthdays.
86 children are arrested for violent offenses.
266 children are arrested for drug offenses.
447 babies are born at low birthweight.
663 public school students are corporally punished.*
735 babies are born without health insurance.
811 babies are born into poverty.
823 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
846 babies are born to teen mothers.
1,270 high school students drop out.*
1,776 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
2,722 children are arrested.
7,236 public school students are suspended.*
* Based on 180 school days a year

Each day in America for Black children

1 child is killed by abuse or neglect.
4 children or teens are killed by firearms.
5 children or teens die from accidents.
25 babies die before their first birthdays.
94 children are arrested for drug offenses.
96 children are arrested for violent offenses.
233 babies are born at low birthweight.
312 babies are born to teen mothers.
332 babies are born without health insurance.
417 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
442 public school students are corporally punished.*
607 babies are born into poverty.
936 high school students drop out.*
1,296 children are arrested.
1,317 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
6,916 public school students are suspended.
* Based on 180 school days a year

Each day in America for Hispanic children

2 children or teens are killed by firearms.
5 children or teens die from accidents.
103 public school students are corporally punished.*
198 babies are born at low birthweight.
387 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
402 babies are born to teen mothers.
944 babies are born without health insurance.
945 high school students drop out.*
955 babies are born into poverty.
1,495 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
3,726 public school students are suspended.*
* Based on 180 school days a year

Each day in America for Asian and Pacific Islander children

2 children are arrested for violent offenses.
2 public school students are corporally punished.*
4 children are arrested for drug offenses.
21 babies are born to teen mothers.
21 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
57 babies are born into poverty.
64 children are arrested.
98 high school students drop out.*
117 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
351 public school students are suspended.
* Based on 180 school days a year

Each day in America for American Indian and Alaska Native children

1 child is arrested for violent offenses.
3 children are arrested for drug offenses.
20 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
23 babies are born into poverty.
24 babies are born to teen mothers.
29 public school students are corporally punished.*
51 children are arrested.
62 high school students drop out.*
89 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
264 public school students are suspended.
* Based on 180 school days a year

SOURCE: http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-of-americas-2011.pdf

2011-08-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Late George Carlin on Why US Education Sucks

WARNING! STRONG PROFANE & PROFOUND LANGUAGE!

2011-07-10T04:04:00.000-07:00

COMMUNITY CONTROL!

The Struggle For Control of Ocean Hill Brownsville Schools: 1968

2011-07-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Connecticut State Ed Dept Bumrushes Bridgeport School Board

This news report shows that the CPE Parent Leadership Institute is VITAL for NYC parents to become a central PowerForce to save and improve public education. If it is happening in Bridgeport, CT., it definitely can happen in New York City!

Takeover Is About More Than Bridgeport: Malloy Must Address Real Problem: Suburban Kids Learn, Poor Kids Fail

By RICK GREEN
The Hartford Courant
July 7, 2011

Bridgeport's forlorn plea for a state takeover of its schools isn't about another dysfunctional school board. It's about our abject failure to deal with the problem that, year in, year out, never fails to go away.

Suburban kids learn. Poor kids fail. It's a problem we won't, or can't, fix. Is it any surprise that an inept school board devolves into a squabbling mess?

One fourth-grader in four in Bridgeport reaches state goals for reading. The number is about the same — or worse — in Hartford, New Britain and New London. It's only slightly better in New Haven. All this has barely changed in decades of hand-wringing, commissions and studies.

No company or college wants graduates like this. We are talking tens of thousands of young people.

This is about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy deciding to make our greatest shame, the failure of city schools, his priority. Whether Malloy takes the lead here will tell us much about the success of his administration and the growth of Connecticut's economy. His office, not surprisingly, has been discussing the proposed takeover with Bridgeport officials for months.

The future of our state very much depends on whether cities like Bridgeport and its 20,000 students figure out a way to succeed. Because if it's not Bridgeport, it's New Britain or East Hartford, New Haven and Hartford. This is where our future workforce is coming from.

Cynics tell me the real problem is the raw material — poor children from dysfunctional families arrive in kindergarten years behind their counterparts. It certainly is. But I'd rather look to the striking success of the Achievement First schools in Hartford and New Haven and other public school programs for a glimpse of what can happen.

At least Hartford and New Haven have a clear schools strategy and strong leadership. Malloy, who showed no reluctance to jump in and pick a favorite in the Hartford mayoral primary last week, must provide the muscle to make sure Bridgeport also gets on track.

"He is not afraid to tackle big problems,'' Malloy's adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, assured me. "Bridgeport has thrown up its hands and said, 'We can't do this.' "

Unfortunately for Malloy, this sticky mess comes at the wrong time and long before his promised legislative session devoted to education reform next year. He doesn't even have a permanent commissioner for the agency that will assist the Bridgeport schools, the state Department of Education. That department is facing a 20 percent cut in staff.

At the meeting Tuesday night where the Bridgeport board voted to ask for state intervention, a lot of folks in the audience of a couple hundred were slamming Mayor Bill Finch, who has little control over city schools and nothing to gain through his support of a takeover just 90 days before a tough primary.

"This is a state of the suburbs, by the suburbs and for the suburbs,'' Finch told me Wednesday before heading into a State Board of Education meeting where a takeover was approved by a 5-4 vote. "That leaves mayors to run quarantine zones for poverty."

Finch wisely thinks Bridgeport ought to be open to a range of solutions: more public school choice for parents, more charter schools, hiring better-trained teachers, and even private school vouchers for children trapped in persistently failing schools.

To make change, Bridgeport will need a strong new leader to replace its underwhelming superintendent of schools, John Ramos, who didn't even attend the board meeting this week where members voted 6-3 to ask for state control. Eventually, the city will probably need an appointed board of education that gives the mayor real authority.

And Bridgeport, which receives thousands of dollars less per pupil than Hartford, will also need more money.

At the top of the list to temporarily take charge in Bridgeport is Steve Adamowski, the highly regarded former superintendent in Hartford. Adamowski isn't perfect (teacher unions loathe him) but he would bring strong leadership, direction and immediately restore confidence of parents and taxpayers.

Just remember, this isn't merely about Bridgeport. It's about whether there is someone in all of Connecticut's government who can step up and finally make sure we address the problems of urban education. We're waiting, governor.

2011-06-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

High Stakes Testing- A Brilliant Strategy to Make Working Class Youth Disengage From School

Dr Mark Naison

Fordham University

If I was going to figure out a plan to get working class youth to disengage from school, here would be my major components. First, I would make students sit at their desks all day and force them to constantly memorize materials to prepare for tests. Second, I would take away recess and eliminate gym. Third, I would cut out arts projects and hands on science experiments. Fourth, I would limit the number of school trips. Fifth, I would take away extracurricular activities like bands, and dance teams and talent shows and reduce the number of athletic teams, so that student’s energies could be exclusively concentrated on strictly academic tasks.

But wait a minute, isn’t that exactly what the dominant Education Reform movement in the United States is doing, from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on down. Aren’t policy makers forcing schools to add more and more standardized tests and threatening teachers and principals with mass firings if their scores on those tests don’t go up, with the results that anything that isn’t test driven is eliminated from the school culture?

Yes that’s what’s going on in education, all across the country. Starting with No Child Left Behind and continuing through Race to the Top, we are hell bent on making students from working class and poor families economically competitive with their wealthier peers by increasing their test scores and improving their graduation rates. And the way to do that, we believe, is to make them devote more and more of their time to acquiring basic literacy and then translating those skills into passing standardized tests in every subject.

But in formulating this strategy, which from the outside appears to be sensible and rational, we erase the world view of the very students in whose interests claim to be acting. We treat working class students as passive recipients of a service, who will do whatever we tell them to, rather than critical thinkers, and impassioned, sometimes impulsive historical actors, who respond to school policies based on their culture, values and their sense of how those policies effect their short term and long term interests.
As someone who grew up in a tough working class neighborhood, and has worked in similar neighborhoods as a coach, community organizer and teacher, I can assure you that young people in these communities are anything but passive when it comes to how they respond to externally imposed authority. Although some children in those communities accept authority unquestioningly, many more make it a matter of pride to challenge and test adults outside their families who claim power of them and get respect from their peers for doing so. No teacher, or coach, or social worker assigned to teach “in the hood” gets a free pass from that testing, which sometimes reaches the proportions of hazing. Whatever respect you get has to be earned.

And what goes for teachers or community workers goes for schools. Most people in poor and working class neighborhoods do not see schools as working in their or their children’s interests. Their own experiences with schools have often not been that positive and their attitudes of skepticism and even hostility readily transfer to their children. Overcoming that ingrained skepticism not only requires efforts by individual teachers, it requires efforts by the entire school to make students feel that it is a place where they are respected, where their voice can be heard and their culture validated, and where they can actually have some fun. The best inner city schools I know not only make sure they maintain a welcoming atmosphere, but try to create a festive one, with music and the arts being part of every public meeting, with sports events being highlighted, and where student, parent and community input is incorporated into every dimension of the school culture.

Now enter the Era of Test Mania, with administrators and teachers panicked they will lose their jobs if they do not produce continuous results on one high stakes test after another. Forget the school being a place where student and community creativity can be validated. Every bit of time, and energy and emotion must be devoted to test prep. Students have to sit still and listen, and memorize and regurgitate large bodies of information. Time for self expression disappears. Time for physical activity is erased. The school becomes a place filled stress and fear.

Some students will conform, and may even pass all the tests that they are given, but just as many- a good portion of them boys- will rebel, either by disrupting classes, challenging the teacher, vandalizing the school or not going to school altogether. There is no way that working class kids like I was or a lot of the kids that I coached and taught over the years, are going to sit in school and obediently memorize material if you don’t give them some physical outlets, some chance to move and express themselves, and some opportunity to speak out on issues important to them. When you are brought up to “take no …. from anyone” and stand up for yourself, you are not about to allow teachers and school administrators to humiliate you, intimidate you, and silence your rebellious spirit. In neighborhoods where respect of peers is the key to survival, where the underground economy beckons, and where many people, in the words of Big Pun “would rather sell reefer than do Pizza delivery,” schools which try to discipline students, rather than engage them, will find they are in for trouble

The vision of School Reform currently dominant in our country, where teachers and principals browbeat and harass students to pass tests in order to protect their own jobs, is going to blow up in our face.

And though teacher protest will be an important component of the resistance, it will be student disengagement and violence which will ultimately put this phase of Reform to rest.

Mark Naison

June 28, 2011

2011-06-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

PARENTS!

GET POWER TO FIGHT THE POWER!

“Parents Taking the Lead Institute”

Join The Coalition for Public Education/Coalicion por La Educacion Publica (CPE-CEP) in its Parent Leadership Summer Institute

JULY 14, 21, 28/AUGUST 4, 11, 18
• 6PM-8PM •

Because YOU have been a fearless NYC public school parent who has taken a stand against awful policies, school closings, budget cuts and racist inequities,YOU and a guest parent are cordially invited to participate in the first ever, free (and completely independent of the DoE & UFT) Leadership Institute for Activist Parents.

Sponsored by The Coalition for Public Education / Coalición por la Educación Pública,
our “Parents Taking the Lead Institute” will take place at
DC-37, Murray Street and the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan

We are only contacting 50 parents citywide. The first 25 to accept, will be guaranteed
places in the Summer Institute.

The awesome 6-week workshop series is on:

• Seizing Power: Organizing Empowered Parents in YOUR school for Change
• Strategies for Democratic Governance with Parents taking the Lead
• Budgets: School Finance & Economic Justice Considerations
• Critical Educational Issues Impacting Teaching and Learning
• Understanding the Federal Issues: Race to the Top
• Working with Key Allies & Community Groups . . .

and so much more!

-------------------

- Space is extremely LIMITED! You MUST RSVP by July 8th -
Call 212 362-6021 or 347 785-3418, email: cpe.cep@gmail.com

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2011-06-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 27, 2011

For Shame! UFT Victory Lap at Settlement Pilloried

NOTE: Loretta Prisco is part of CPE residing on Staten Island. Her comments follow a short commentary from education activist Norm Scott.

FROM NORM SCOTT:

--we sold out - not just ourselves and the communities we live in, but just as importantly, the families we serve. For shame! ---Loretta Prisco

If I were a parent of kids in the schools, I would be pissed. Parents and students supported the teachers, rallied with them, made phone calls, etc. There will be approximately 7,000 teachers less than a few years ago - and the student population has grown. Increased class size, less support for kids, many schools with closed libraries, not getting gym twice a week, and we call it a "victory"! For whom? The only way that we can get what we all need in this city is to raise revenue from those who can afford it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if teachers raised their voices in one loud unified "no" to this settlement?

Don't hold your breath as the mayor's tactics of threats and intimidation worked once again. Funny how if you say there is no money time and again - and your leaders go along - you begin to believe it. Is there a surplus? Does Tweed spend money on wasted projects like water? Should the UFT/AFT leadership take a stand on the way easy money appears when, oh, say you want a cool billion to go to bombing Libya. We know that a stand won't shake the money loose but the union is the only entity that could be out there making the case and trying to win people over to the revenue fight. Even though we started hearing "Wall St." words from the leadership, when push came to shove, the very concept of pointing out where the money is has disappeared from the lexicon.

I find it interesting that even some blogging friends have been looking at the deal between the UFT and Bloomberg through the narrow lens of the teacher. Loss of sabbaticals for a year? Many people think they were gone anyway. The ATRs as subs has created a but of concern. I agree - it is always worse than the UFT will present it at the DA on Tuesday, the last day of school, a day when people like to go out with their colleagues at school but now have to go to a meeting where they will really not have any decision making power.

We cannot separate the ATR issue from the closing school issue. The creation of ATRs was done jointly by the UFT and the DOE in the 2005 contract. That allowed them to accelerate the closing of schools. This agreement is part of the overall plan to force out ATRs after schools are closed by making the job as intolerable as possible. It opens the door to remove them from their school support network and as we know day to day subs - even experienced teachers - struggle. Suddenly subs teaching goodness knows what will be given the worst classes and written up as incompetents. Add that pressure to all the others and people will begin to flee - and the UFT leadership will do little to help and support them. Is this a way out for them without having to be charged with selling out ATRs?

But most important are these comments by retired teacher Loretta Prisco who still mentors new teachers about what this agreement does to the teaching/learning conditions. There is lots more to say - like does this mean that Christine Quinn - that Lilly livered anti- LIFO Bloomberg suckup will be the UFT choice for mayor as the UFT will argue mayoral control with her in charge would be better?

The threatened loss of 6,400 teaching jobs captured so many, kids or not, teachers or not, to this fight. We should have spoken in one, loud, unified voice ---- we had the pressure going, the Progressive Caucus of the City Council was pushing the Alternate Budget as proposed by the May 12th Coalition, we had the support of the community ---Loretta Prisco

Here is Loretta's full statement:

Looking at news reports, a teacher asked me to summarize what we really lost. After all, it didn't look like we lost much to save over 4,000 jobs. This was my response. We lost lots a golden opportunity - more than we will ever get back.

Specifically, no sabbaticals 2012-2013. You can count on this being the beginning of the end of sabbaticals. One rarely gets back what one gives up. We have NEVER gotten back anything given up. When I began in the system, at the very beginning of the union, every contract was a win-win. And every year, as our contract improved, so did teaching and learning conditions, because they are tightly woven together. Now not only do we give back when a contract is negotiated, we give back when we are not even negotiating and don't even have a contract!

Also, we must look larger at the fact that will not be filling those positions lost by attrition. Principals have been told to U rate and harass teachers, and I think purposefully. Let's look at motive. The Mayor is not concerned with maintaining good teachers. I don't think I have to convince you of that. All he and the Chancellors past and present under Mayoral Control, want are drones - young, will do as they are told, are cheap and will never collect a pension - and that they go steadily through a revolving door. Klein said years ago that he wanted to increase teaching by computers - cheaper and more controlled - with big contracts going to tech companies and those who sell programs. U ratings are designed to reduce the teaching force by pushing teachers out. We have lost over 6,000 positions in the last few years while our enrollment continues to grow. Translate that to increased class size. More on that later.

Having ATRs work as per diem subs? First of all, all the ATRs that I have met, have been doing the work of per diems by covering classes. So I am very suspicious of this. It is not saving money, so why was it negotiated as a financial issue. This has not been spelled out and I am concerned that this will be making it tougher for those who have done nothing wrong, except dedicated their teaching lives in underperforming schools.

Now let's look at what this has done to the communities we serve.

To save teaching jobs, (to keep class size down) parents joined forces with us - wrote letters, rallied, demonstrated, went up to Albany, and signed petitions. It was encouraging to hear parents say such nice things about teachers over the last few months. For too long we have been kept at each others throats. What did we do? How did we say thanks to our allies? Saved our own jobs ( no doubt important and I am not minimizing that) but we did not continue the battle to fill all positions so that class size would be maintained. We folded our tent and went away, leaving our allies out there alone. I am embarrassed by that.

But the reality was that we were never going to lose those positions, and Mulgrew knew that. The Mayor's motivation was political, not financial. He used the threats to defeat LIFO, but didn't get it. So Mulgrew and the Mayor "negotiated" a giveback. They come up winning. Our kids come up losing. We went to a party about 10 days ago and met an old friend who works for city government. He was clear - there will be no cuts and the announcement will come on Friday - and it did.

Now let's look at the really big picture - truthfully the city does have reduced funds - and it will get worse. The answer is the dilemma is to raise revenue, NOT CUT SERVICES. And Mulgrew knows that. He talks about the millionaire tax - and "we will work on it". Not good enough. We must get funds - now. For the super rich, with all of their loopholes and much of their wealth from capital gains, a millionaire's tax will undoubtedly help the city big time, and will mean that most of the wealthy will be paying under $10,000. They will not leave the city, as the Mayor keeps insisting that they will because in reality, it will cost them so little. But it is not just the millionaire's, but the banks and corporations that are profiting handsomely, no sinfully. Mulgrew doesn't even mention it.

So what will happen in our schools and communities?
Senior services have been reduced drastically over the last few years. Funding for elder abuse has been cut.
Meals provided for the homebound are down to one meal a day in 4 boroughs - try surviving on that.
Culturals (providing so many wonderful enrichments to our kids) have been cut ( the Noble Collection alone that provides wonderful programs has been cut 85%).
Our streets will be dirtier.
Library hours cut.
Literacy programs will be cut for the parents of the kids we teach.
Our roads and bridges will continue to be in constant disrepair.
Services for immigrant families curtailed.
It looks like other city workers - probably parents of kids we teach - will lose their jobs. We know how unemployment effects families. And continues to put a stress on the city's financial resources. Council member Recchia from Brooklyn recommended that we cut the number of agents that collect money from the parking meters (how much do you think they make?) - and not a word about those who stealing from this city with tax loopholes, no-bid contracts, etc.
AIDS funding and other city services will be compromised.
The list goes on and on. Enumerating the list is to depressing for Sunday morning. The threatened loss of 6,400 teaching jobs captured so many, kids or not, teachers or not, to this fight. We should have spoken in one, loud, unified voice. Just to say, we had the pressure going, the Progressive Caucus of the City Council was pushing the Alter Budget as proposed by the May 12th Coalition, we had the support of the community, and we sold out - not just ourselves and the communities we live in, but just as importantly, the families we serve. For shame!

Loretta Prisco

2011-06-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

Parents, Educators and Education Activists Stand Strong with the NAACP/UFT/Parent Union Lawsuit Against Charter School Bumrushing "Co-Location" Hustle

On Monday 13 June 2011, the NYC Parent Union sponsored a Press Conference on the steps of the Dept of Miseducation's steps to tell all about the growing support for their lawsuit and the NAACP/UFT lawsuit against BloomCott's separate and unequal co-location moves to bolster their charter school onslaught.

Here is video coverage the press conference:

PART1

PART2

PART3

PART4
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Parents Group Files Related NAACP CoLocation Lawsuit

by Micah Landau | published June 23, 2011

A new organization of public school parents, the New York City Parents Union, announced on June 13 outside DOE headquarters that it will file a lawsuit challenging the DOE’s co-location policies.

Dozens of parents, teachers and students held a press conference on June 13 outside the Department of Education’s headquarters to announce that a new organization of public school parents, the New York City Parents Union, will file a lawsuit against the city related to the suit already filed jointly by the UFT, the NAACP and other plaintiffs to stop the city from closing 21 schools and co-locating or expanding charter schools in another 18.

It is one of three lawsuits filed by parents challenging the DOE’s co-location policies.

Going a step further than the existing lawsuit, the Parents Union’s suit challenges inequalities between more than 75 already co-located district and charter schools, the DOE’s refusal to count dedicated special education rooms as “classrooms” for the purpose of determining available space in school buildings and the fact that charter schools do not pay rent to use public school buildings.

Mona Davids, a key player in both the Parents Union and the New York Charter Parents Association, thanked the NAACP and the UFT for “standing up and fighting for equal access to a quality education for all our children,” and condemned the recent attacks on the NAACP from charter school supporters.

Muba Yarofulani, a co-president of the Campaign for Public Education and vice president of the Parents Union, said the co-location of charter schools, which often have access to much greater resources than the district schools with which they share space, sends a message to the children in the district schools that some are better than others.

“The chancellor and Mayor Bloomberg must understand that all our children must be treated equally,” she said.

2011-06-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

NYC Hi School Students WalkOuts!

Fightback Against Budget Cuts Grows...

Hamilton High School

-----------------------

Goldstein High School

Originally reported on News12
(06/02/11) BROOKLYN – Students at Leon M. Goldstein High School walked out of their classes this morning in protest of proposed budget cuts to education.

Students chanted slogans and carried signs against proposed cuts to foreign language, art and music programs. Many say they are also against diverting education funding to charter schools.
The mayor and the City Council have until June 30 to pass the budget.
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2011-06-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

National Students Bill of Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Debra C. Anderson

June 1, 2011 202.225.4001/202.225.5236

Debra.Anderson@mail.house.gov

Student Bill of Rights Picks Up Major Endorsements

Washington, DC – The Student Bill of Rights, H.R. 1295, re-introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), has received the endorsement of 28 educational, parental, religious and civil rights organizations. The letter of support came from organizations that have long reinforced Fattah’s efforts to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.

The Student Bill of Rights ensures all students have access to the educational resources needed to be successful: highly effective teachers, rigorous curricula, early childhood education, and instructional materials including educational technology. If students are to excel, Fattah concludes these fundamentals must be the centerpiece of all school resource allocation.

“Our students are some of the brightest in the world and we must invest in their future,” said Fattah. “The Student Bill of Rights will equip them with the educational keys to unlock their full potential and help them realize that anything is possible.”

In their letter, leaders from the various organizations wrote that Congress should take the lead in bringing together the federal government and the states to work in partnership to overcome opportunity gaps, “School funding systems in the majority of states remain heavily reliant on local property taxes, a taxing system that disadvantages children and schools in communities without significant local property wealth. In this year of fiscal crisis across the states, the federal government’s leadership for equity is urgently needed to make these injustices visible and to work with the states to begin to remedy what Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond has called America’s obstinate commitment to educational inequality.”

The support letter was signed by: ACTION UNITED – Pennsylvania, American Library Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, Communities for Excellent Schools, Delawareans for Social and Economic Justice, Disciples Justice Action Network, Education Law Center (ELC), FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, The Forum for Education and Democracy, Gamaliel Foundation, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Metro Organizations for People (MOP) – Denver, Colorado, National Alliance of Black School Educators, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative, National Council of Jewish Women, Organizers in the Land of Enchantment – New Mexico, Parents Across America, Parents United for Responsible Education -Chicago, Peninsula Interfaith Action – San Carlos, California, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, Public Education Network (PEN), Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Rural School and Community Trust, Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, United Methodist Church, General Board for Church and Society, United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries, Youth on Board – Somerville, Massachusetts.

You can read the letter in its entirety below:

May 26, 2011

The Honorable Chaka Fattah

2301 Rayburn House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Rep. Fattah,

We write to support your bill, the Student Bill of Rights Act, which re-directs our nation’s

attention to the stated purpose of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to ensure that all

children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.

We believe Congress ought to initiate a process by which the federal government and the states

collaborate to overcome large opportunity gaps. School funding systems in the majority of states

remain heavily reliant on local property taxes, a taxing system that disadvantages children and

schools in communities without significant local property wealth. This is an old problem, but

despite 30 years of lawsuits in more than 40 states and the improved funding they have brought,

inequity in funding between wealthy and poor school districts remains 3:1 in many states. No

Child Left Behind imposes test based accountability—the demand for ever-growing test score

outcomes—without equalizing conditions and resources. As a result federal policy has punished

rather than helped our most vulnerable children.

Your bill equalizing Opportunity to Learn would mean that all children have access to high quality

early learning programs and public schools that, at a minimum: are well-resourced and

well-staffed by fully prepared and effective professionals; provide classes of a size to ensure

individualized instruction and attention to each child’s learning needs; and ensure that all

children will be challenged academically. States would be held accountable for complying with

court orders that address adequacy and equity of the state’s public school funding system.

Further the Secretary of Education would have some concrete tools to require remediation plans

and a timeline for improvement. The Student Bill of Rights Act would provide for essential

collection and reporting of data about equity and set in place a process by which the federal

government and states would move intentionally toward equity of school conditions.

In 2011, as state legislatures across the majority of states face budget crises, we see teachers

being laid off, school social workers being eliminated, school librarians being laid off, school

nurses sharing buildings, and students paying to participate in co-curricular activities. Deep cuts

in staffing are not being experienced equally, as we know that wealthy suburbs are more able to

pass local millage to protect their school funding. Once again the school districts with the lowest

tax base and the highest needs are being forced to impose the deepest cuts in services for

children, many of whom live in poverty.

We are grateful to you, Representative Fattah, for re-offering the Student Bill of Rights Act. In

this year of fiscal crisis across the states, the federal government’s leadership for equity is

urgently needed to make these injustices visible and to work with the states to begin to remedy

what Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond has called America’s obstinate

commitment to educational inequality.

Sincerely,

ACTION UNITED – Pennsylvania

American Library Association

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism

Communities for Excellent Schools

Delawareans for Social and Economic Justice.

Disciples Justice Action Network

Education Law Center (ELC)

FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing

The Forum for Education and Democracy

Gamaliel Foundation

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Metro Organizations for People (MOP) – Denver, Colorado

National Alliance of Black School Educators

National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative

National Council of Jewish Women

Organizers in the Land of Enchantment – New Mexico

Parents Across America

Parents United for Responsible Education, Chicago

Peninsula Interfaith Action – San Carlos, California

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness

Public Education Network (PEN)

Rainbow PUSH Coalition

Rural School and Community Trust

Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

United Methodist Church, General Board for Church and Society

United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

Youth on Board – Somerville, Massachusetts

###

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) • www.house.gov/fattah

2301 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 • 4104 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Phone: (202) 225-4001 • (215) 387-6404

===================================

112th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 1295

To provide for adequate and equitable educational opportunities for students in State public school systems, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMarch 31, 2011

Mr. Fattah (for himself and Mr. Honda) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

A BILL

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. Short title.

This Act may be cited as the “Student Bill of Rights”.

SEC. 2. Table of contents.

The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.

Sec. 2. Table of contents.

Sec. 3. Findings and purposes.

TITLE I—EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY IN STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMSSubtitle A—Access to educational opportunity

Sec. 111. Adequate and equitable State public school systems.

Sec. 112. State educational adequacy and equity requirements.

Sec. 113. State-established standards for opportunity to learn.

Subtitle B—State accountability

Sec. 121. Determination of educationally adequate and inequitable State public school systems.

Sec. 122. State accountability for improvement of educational opportunity.

Sec. 123. Consequences of nonremediation.

Subtitle C—Public reporting and remedy

Sec. 131. Annual report by Secretary on adequacy and equity in State public school systems.

Sec. 132. Civil action for enforcement.

TITLE II—EFFECTS OF EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES ON ECONOMIC GROWTH AND NATIONAL DEFENSE

Sec. 201. Effects on economic growth and productivity.

Sec. 202. Effects on national defense.

TITLE III—GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 301. Definitions.

Sec. 302. Notice and opportunity for hearing.

Sec. 303. Rulemaking.

Sec. 304. Rule of construction.

SEC. 3. Findings and purposes.

(a) Findings.—The Congress finds the following:

(1) A high-quality, highly competitive education for all students is imperative for the economic growth and productivity of the United States, for its effective national defense, and for achievement of the historical aspiration to be one Nation of equal citizens. It is therefore necessary and proper to overcome the nationwide phenomenon of educationally inadequate or inequitable State public school systems, in which high-quality public schools serve high-income communities and poor-quality schools serve low-income, urban, rural, and minority communities.

(2) There exists in the States an ever-widening educational opportunity gap for low-income, urban, rural, and minority students characterized by the following:

(A) Highly differential educational expenditures among local educational agencies within States.

(B) Continuing disparities within the States in students’ access to the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a).

(C) Radically differential educational achievement among local educational agencies within the States, as measured by the following:

(i) Achievement in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science on State academic achievement tests and measures, including the academic assessments described in section 113(b)(1).

(ii) Advanced placement courses offered and taken.

(iii) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and ACT Assessment scores.

(iv) Dropout rates and graduation rates.

(v) College-going and college-completion rates.

(vi) Job placement and retention rates and indices of job quality.

(3) As a consequence of this educational opportunity gap, the quality of a child’s education depends largely upon where the child’s family lives, and the detriments of lower quality public education are imposed particularly on—

(A) children from low-income families;

(B) children living in urban and rural areas; and

(4) Since 1785, the Congress of the United States, exercising the power to admit new States under article IV, section 3 of the Constitution (and previously, the Congress of the Confederation of States under the Articles of Confederation), has imposed upon every State, as a fundamental condition of the State’s admission, the following requirements:

(A) One, and sometimes two, square-mile lots in every township were to be “granted and . . . reserved for the maintenance and use of public schools”.

(B) “[S]chools and the means of education [are to] be forever encouraged”.

(C) “State conventions [were to] provide, by ordinances irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said States . . . that provision . . . be made for the establishment and maintenance of systems of public schools which shall be open to all children of said States”.

(See Ordinances of May 20, 1785, and July 13, 1787; Act of March 3, 1845, 28th Cong. 2d Sess., 5 Stat. 789, Chap. 76 (admitting Iowa and Florida); Act of February 22, 1889, 50th Cong., 2d Sess., Chap. 180 (admitting States created from the Dakota Territories); and the Acts of Congress pertaining to the admission of each of the States.)

(5) Over the years since the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, when a unanimous United States Supreme Court held that “the opportunity of an education . . . , where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms”, courts in 44 of the States have heard challenges to the establishment, maintenance, and operation of educationally inadequate or inequitable State public school systems. (347 U.S. 483, 493 (1954)).

(6) In 1970, the Presidential Commission on School Finance found that significant disparities in the distribution of educational resources existed among local educational agencies within States because the States relied too significantly on local district financing for educational revenues, and that reforms in systems of school financing would increase the Nation’s ability to serve the educational needs of all children.

(7) In 1999, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences published a report entitled “Making Money Matter, Financing America’s Schools”, which found that the concept of funding adequacy, which moves beyond the more traditional concepts of finance equity to focus attention on the sufficiency of funding for desired educational outcomes, is an important step in developing a fair and productive educational system.

(8) In 2001, the Executive order establishing the President’s Commission on Educational Resource Equity declared, “A quality education is essential to the success of every child in the 21st century and to the continued strength and prosperity of our Nation. . . . [L]ong-standing gaps in access to educational resources exist, including disparities based on race and ethnicity.” (Executive Order 13190, § 1 (January 15, 2001); 66 Fed. Reg. 5424.)

(9) According to the Secretary of Education, as stated in a letter (with enclosures) dated January 19, 2002, from the Secretary to States—

(A) racial and ethnic minorities continue to suffer from lack of access to educational resources, including “experienced and qualified teachers, adequate facilities, and instructional programs and support, including technology, as well as . . . the funding necessary to secure these resources”; and

(B) these inadequacies are “particularly acute in high-poverty schools, including urban schools, where many students of color are isolated and where the effect of the resource gaps may be cumulative. In other words, students who need the most may often receive the least, and these students often are students of color”.

(10) The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107–110), provides that—

(A) States must establish standards and assessments in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science;

(B) elementary schools and secondary schools must ensure that all students are proficient in such subjects within 12 years after the end of the 2001–2002 school year; and

(11) The standards and accountability movement will succeed only if, in addition to standards and accountability, all schools have access to the educational resources necessary to enable students to achieve.

(12) Raising standards without ensuring adequate and equitable access to educational resources may, in fact, exacerbate achievement gaps and set children up for failure.

(13) According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2001–2002, the United States ranks last among developed countries in the difference in the quality of schools available to rich and poor children.

(14) Each State Government has ultimate authority in determining every important aspect and priority of the public school system that provides elementary and secondary education to children in the State, including whether children throughout the State have high access to the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a).

(15) Since 1965, the Congress, in exercising its spending authority, has provided substantial Federal financial assistance to the States for the improvement of their public school systems. In their expenditure and oversight of this assistance, the States have failed systematically to achieve the purpose of the Congress in providing the assistance, namely the effective education of all the children of the United States.

(16) Because a well-educated populace is critical to the Nation’s political and economic well-being and national security, the Federal Government has a substantial interest in ensuring that States provide a high-quality education by ensuring that all children have access to the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a) to enable the children to succeed academically and in life.

(b) Purposes.—The purposes of this Act are the following:

(1) To further the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107–110) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) by holding States accountable for providing all students access to the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a).

(2) To ensure that all students in public elementary schools and secondary schools receive educational opportunities that enable the students—

(A) to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for responsible citizenship, including the ability to participate fully in the political process through informed electoral choice;

(B) to meet challenging State student academic achievement standards; and

(3) To end the pervasive pattern of educationally inadequate or inequitable State public school systems.

TITLE I—Educational opportunity in State public school systemssubtitle A—Access to educational opportunity

SEC. 111. Adequate and equitable State public school systems.

Each State receiving Federal financial assistance for elementary or secondary education shall maintain a public school system that meets the requirements of section 112 and provides all students in the State with—

(1) the educational resources needed to succeed academically and in life; and

(2) an education that enables the students—

(A) to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for responsible citizenship;

(B) to participate fully in the political process through informed electoral choice; and

SEC. 112. State educational adequacy and equity requirements.

(a) Opportunity To learn.—A State shall provide for all public schools in the State access, at levels defined by the State under section 113 as ideal or adequate, to each of the following opportunity to learn indicators:

(1) highly effective teachers;

(2) early childhood education;

(3) college preparatory curricula; and

(4) equitable instructional resources.

(b) Comparable educational services.—A State shall provide educational services in local educational agencies that receive funds under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.) that are, taken as a whole, at least comparable to educational services provided in local educational agencies not receiving such funds.

(c) Compliance with court orders.—A State shall comply with any substantive Federal or State court order in any matter concerning the adequacy or equity of the State’s public school system, to the extent required in the order.

SEC. 113. State-established standards for opportunity to learn.

(a) Establishment.—In carrying out section 112(a), each State educational agency, in consultation with local educational agencies, teachers, principals, pupil services personnel, administrators, other staff, and parents, shall develop standards to describe and measure the extent to which the State provides to the students in each public school and local educational agency in the State each of the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a) in terms of ideal, adequate, and basic levels of such access.

(b) Factors for consideration.—In defining the levels of access required under subsection (a), the State shall consider, in addition to the factors described in section 112(a)—

(1) the access available to students in schools in the highest achieving decile of public elementary schools and secondary schools in the State, as determined on the basis of student performance on statewide student academic assessments, including—

(A) student academic assessments in reading or language arts, mathematics, and science under section 1111(b)(3) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3));

(B) national student academic assessments of reading and mathematics under the National Assessment of Educational Progress carried out under section 303(a) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. 9622(a)); and

(C) State student academic assessments of reading and mathematics under the National Assessment of Educational Progress carried out under section 303(b)(3) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. 9622(b)(3));

(2) the unique needs of low-income, urban and rural, and minority students; and

(3) other educationally appropriate factors.

(c) Challenging standards.—The levels of access required under subsection (a) shall be aligned with the challenging State academic content and achievement standards, and the high-quality academic assessments, required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.).

(d) Submission to Secretary.—A State educational agency shall submit to the Secretary—

(1) a description of each of the levels of access required under subsection (a);

(2) a description of the level of access of each local educational agency, elementary school, and secondary school in the State to each of the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a), including identification of any such schools that do not provide ideal or adequate levels of access (as defined under subsection (a));

(3) an estimate of the additional cost, if any, of ensuring that the public school system meets the requirements of section 112; and

(4) the information required under subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (1) and paragraph (2)(B) of section 131(b).

(e) Publication and dissemination to parents.—The State annually shall publish the information submitted under subsection (d) and shall disseminate the information to the public and the parents of children attending (or who may attend) public schools in the State, in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language that the parents can understand, through such means as the Internet, the media, and public agencies.

subtitle B—State accountability

SEC. 121. Determination of educationally adequate and inequitable State public school systems.

(a) Annual determination by Secretary.—Beginning not later than October 1 of the first full school year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall annually determine whether each State meets each of the requirements of section 112.

(b) Publication by Secretary.—The Secretary shall publish and make available to the general public (including by means of the Internet) the determinations under subsection (a).

SEC. 122. State accountability for improvement of educational opportunity.

(a) State remediation plan.—A State determined under section 121 not to meet the requirements of section 112 shall develop and submit to the Secretary, by not later than 1 year after the determination, a remediation plan (which the State may amend to improve the plan or to take into account significantly changed circumstances), as follows:

(1) LONG-TERM REMEDIATION FOR ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN INDICATORS.—If the State is determined not to meet the requirements under section 112(a) (relating to access to the opportunity to learn indicators), the plan shall provide for the following:

(A) A description of the actions the State will take to meet the requirements of section 112(a), by not later than 12 years after the end of the 2003–2004 school year, to provide ideal or adequate access (as defined by the State under section 113) to the opportunity to learn indicators for each public school in the State.

(B) A timeline for improvement that includes annual interim goals for increasing the number of public schools and local educational agencies in the State that have ideal or adequate levels of access (as defined by the State under section 113) to each of the opportunity to learn indicators, in order to achieve the required levels of access within the time described in subparagraph (A).

(C) Implementation of a single, statewide accountability system to ensure that the State achieves the interim goals described in subparagraph (B).

(2) TWO-YEAR REMEDIATION FOR COMPARABLE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES.—If the State is determined not to meet the requirements of section 112(b) (relating to comparable educational services), the plan shall describe the actions the State will take to meet the requirements of such section by not later than 2 school years after submission of the plan.

(b) Disapproval of plan.—The Secretary may disapprove a plan (or amendment) submitted under subsection (a) that the Secretary determines does not meet the requirements of such subsection.

SEC. 123. Consequences of nonremediation.

(a) Failure To meet annual interim access goals.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law and in addition to any other consequence under this section, the Secretary shall withhold 2.75 percent of any funds otherwise available to a State (or a State educational agency) for administration of Federal elementary and secondary education programs for each annual interim goal established under section 122(a)(1)(B) for a fiscal year, or a prior fiscal year, that the Secretary determines the State fails to meet.

(b) Continuing failure To provide comparable educational services.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law and in addition to any other consequence under this section, the Secretary shall withhold from a State determined by the Secretary to continue to fail to meet the requirements of section 112(b) (relating to comparable educational services) at the end of the second school year after a plan is required to be submitted under section 122, up to 33¹⁄3 percent of funds otherwise available to the State for administration of Federal elementary and secondary education programs.

(c) Noncompliance with court orders.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law and in addition to any other consequence under this section, the Secretary shall withhold from a State determined by the Secretary to fail to meet the requirements of section 112(c) (relating to compliance with court orders) up to 33¹⁄3 percent of funds otherwise available to the State for the administration of Federal elementary and secondary education programs.

(d) Disposition of withheld funds.—For each State from which funds are withheld under this section, the Secretary shall make a determination whether the State, by not later than 1 year after a determination under subsection (a), (b), or (c), has corrected the condition leading to a withholding of funds and shall distribute withheld funds as follows:

(1) If the State corrects a condition leading to a withholding of funds, the Secretary shall make the applicable withheld funds available to the State (or State educational agency).

(2) If the State fails to correct a condition leading to a withholding of funds, the Secretary shall allocate the applicable withheld funds to public schools or local educational agencies affected by the State’s failure to make adequate remediation, for the purpose of enabling the school or local educational agency to correct such condition.

(e) Temporary waiver.—The Secretary may grant a request by a State for a waiver of the withholding provisions of subsections (a) through (c) for a total period of not more than 1 year if—

(1) the Secretary is satisfied that exceptional circumstances (such as a precipitous decrease in State revenues) prevent a State from complying with the requirements of section 112; and

(2) the State’s request describes the manner in which the State will comply with the requirements of section 112 by the end of the waiver period.

subtitle C—Public reporting and remedy

SEC. 131. Annual report by Secretary on adequacy and equity in State public school systems.

(a) Annual report to Congress.—Not later than October 1 of the first full school year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall transmit to the Congress a report that provides a detailed analysis of the public school system of each State.

(b) Contents of report.—The analysis under subsection (a) shall include the following information with respect to each State’s public school system:

(1) BASIC PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM INFORMATION.—

(A) The number of students, elementary schools, secondary schools, and local educational agencies in the public school system.

(B) For each such school and local educational agency, the number and percentage of—

(i) children counted under section 1124(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6333(c)); and

(ii) students, disaggregated by groups described in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3)(C)(xiii)).

(C) For each such school, a statement whether the school is an urban, rural, or mixed school (as defined by the Commissioner for Education Statistics).

(D) The average per-pupil expenditure (in actual dollars and adjusted for cost and need) for the State and for each school and local educational agency.

(E) The decile ranking of each local educational agency, as measured by achievement in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science on the academic assessments described in subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 113(b)(1).

(2) SUCCESS IN PROVIDING OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN INDICATORS.—

(A) A description of the ideal, adequate, and basic levels of access established by the State under section 113 to each of the opportunity to learn indicators described under section 112(a).

(B) For each school and local educational agency, the following information:

(i) The level of access (as established under section 113) of the school or local educational agency to each of the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a).

(ii) The percentage of students proficient in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science, as measured through assessments under section 1111(b)(3)(C)(v) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3)(C)(v)).

(iii) Whether the school or local educational agency is making adequate yearly progress under section 1111(b)(2) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)).

(C) The number and names of each school in the State that does not provide each of the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a) at an ideal or adequate level (as established under section 113).

(3) STATE REMEDIATION ACTIONS.—If the State is determined under section 121 not to meet the requirements of section 112—

(A) a detailed description and evaluation of—

(i) the State’s success in carrying out any remediation plan required to be submitted by the State under section 122; and

(ii) any other actions taken, or measures proposed to be taken, by the State to meet the requirements of section 112; and

(B) a copy of any remediation plan required to be submitted by the State under section 122 (including any amendments).

(4) EFFECTS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.—An analysis of the effects of the average per-pupil expenditure, and the level of access (as provided by the State under section 113) to each of the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a) provided to students in each school and local educational agency on the outcomes of the academic assessments identified in section 113(b)(1).

(5) OTHER INFORMATION.—

(A) The most recent information submitted by the State under section 113(d).

(B) For the year covered by the report, a summary of any changes in the data required in paragraphs (1) and (2) for each of the preceding 3 years (which may be based on such data as are available for the first 3 reports under subsection (a)).

(c) Scope of report.—The report required under subsection (a) shall cover the school year ending in the calendar year in which the report is required to be submitted.

(d) Submission of data to Secretary.—Each State receiving Federal financial assistance for elementary and secondary education shall submit to the Secretary, at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may reasonably require, such data as the Secretary deems necessary to make a determination under section 121 and to submit the report under this section. Such data shall include the information used to measure the State’s success in providing the opportunity to learn indicators described in section 112(a).

(e) Failure To submit data.—If a State fails to submit the data required to make a determination under section 121—

(1) the State shall be deemed to have been determined under such section not to meet the applicable requirements of section 112, until the State submits the data and the Secretary is able to make a determination under such section based on such data; and

(2) the Secretary shall—

(A) provide, to the extent practicable, the analysis required in subsection (a) for the State based on the best data available to the Secretary; and

(B) update the analysis, as necessary, after submission of the data by the State.

(f) Publication.—The Secretary shall publish and make available to the general public (including by means of the Internet) the report required under subsection (a).

SEC. 132. Civil action for enforcement.

A student or parent of a student aggrieved by a violation of this Act may bring a civil action against an appropriate official in an appropriate United States district court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to enforce the requirements of this Act, together with reasonable attorney fees and the costs of the action, without regard to the citizenship of the parties or the amount in controversy.

TITLE II—Effects of educational disparities on economic growth and national defense

SEC. 201. Effects on economic growth and productivity.

(a) Study.—The Commissioner for Education Statistics, in consultation with the Secretaries of Commerce, Labor, and the Treasury, shall conduct a comprehensive study concerning the effects on economic growth and productivity of eliminating disparities in public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112. Such study shall include the following:

(1) The economic costs to the Nation resulting from the maintenance by States of public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112.

(2) The economic gains to be expected from the elimination of disparities in public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112.

(b) Report to Congress.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commissioner for Education Statistics shall submit to the Congress a final report detailing the results of the study required under subsection (a).

SEC. 202. Effects on national defense.

(a) Study.—The Commissioner for Education Statistics, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall conduct a comprehensive study concerning the effects on national defense of eliminating disparities in public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112. Such study shall include the following:

(1) The detriments to national defense resulting from the maintenance by States of public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112, including the effects of education deficits arising from low-quality schools on—

(A) knowledge and skills necessary for the effective functioning of the Armed Forces;

(B) the costs to the Armed Forces of training; and

(2) The gains to national defense to be expected from the elimination of disparities in public school systems that do not meet the requirements of section 112.

TITLE III—General provisions

SEC. 301. Definitions.

In this Act:

(1) The terms “average per-pupil expenditure”, “core academic subjects”, “elementary school”, “highly qualified”, “local educational agency”, “parent”, “pupil services”, “pupil services personnel”, “secondary school”, and “State educational agency” each have the meanings given those terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).

(2) The term “public school system” means a State’s system of public elementary and secondary education.

(3) The term “Federal elementary and secondary education programs” means programs providing Federal financial assistance for elementary or secondary education, other than programs under the following provisions of law:

(A) The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.).

(B) Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.).

(D) The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.).

(4) The term “State” includes the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.

SEC. 302. Notice and opportunity for hearing.

The Secretary may make an adverse determination under this Act only after notice and opportunity for hearing.

SEC. 303. Rulemaking.

The Secretary may prescribe regulations to carry out this Act.

SEC. 304. Rule of construction.

Nothing in this Act may be construed to require a jurisdiction to increase property tax or other tax rates or to redistribute revenues from such taxes.

2011-05-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg No Longer Hides Behind the Liberal Curtain:

“Unfortunately there are some parents who just come from — they never had a formal education, and they don’t understand the value of education,” Mr. Bloomberg said on the program, which is broadcast on WOR-AM (710).

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/mayor-is-criticized-for-comments-on-parents-at-poor-schools

Mayor Bloomberg Arrograntly Dismisses Parents Who Want Their Community Schools Saved As "Ignorant & Uneducated"

from: Chaz's School Daze: http://chaz11.blogspot.com

Well, the world did not end and it is back to writing about education. I read with amusement how the Imperial Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has now publicly "disrespected parents". It was bad enough that under his proxy, the ex-Chancellor Joel Klein, parent voices were ignored and the Mayor could claim that he was working on giving parents a voice in the education process. Now that Joel Klein is gone, the arrogant Mayor's true feelings about parents are out in the open.

To the imperial Mayor, New York City parents are simply ignorant people who had no education, except for the minority that agreed with him. How could he allow these peasants any real voice in their child's education when they had the audacity to disagree in his view of education? In the Mayor's view he knows what was best for the community, not the people who actually live there and if his staff recommended a community school to close, so be it. It is more important to establish "Charter Schools" in those buildings rather than supply the resources and energy necessary to improve the neighborhood schools. Left behind, are the academically struggling students of the neighborhood who the Charters" encourage not to apply to or counsel them out of. The English Language Learners, Special Eduction students, Disciplinary or Attendance challenged children "need not apply" and are sent, in mass to another school which puts that school in danger of closing. Is it any wonder that parents want to keep their community schools open and keep that precious connection with the neighborhood intact?

Now the Imperial Mayor has publicly blasted the parents whose children either go to these closing schools or are in the community as "ignorant and uneducated". In other words just like Cletis and his wife as portrayed in the Simpson's cartoon program This imperial billionaire Mayor could never understand what it is to struggle with poverty, live paycheck to paycheck, or to be part of a larger community (excluding his country club friends). In the Mayor's world there is the privileged like himself and the peasants who bow and follow his imperial decrees. However, it appears that the Imperial Mayor has no clothes and the peasants are revolting with his lowest approval ratings ever (36%). Even the formerly loyal City Council is ready to go against his budget in a big way as he has painted himself in a corner with 4,100 teacher layoffs, the closing of 20 firehouses, and his grossly increased spending on technology and consultants.

Mayor Bloomberg's arrogance appears to show no limits as he follows his imperial legacy at the expense of New York City and the people who live in it. In his view the "operation was successful even if the patient died".

2011-05-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

STUDENT POWER In Action!

Tuscon Chicano Students Shut Down School Board!

April 30, 2011-- http://schoolsucksnyc.wordpress.com

On Wednesday April 27, Chican@ students and other shut down their school board, which was trying to take away their La Raza Program, which is a program looking at race, chican@s, and the border among other things, and which provides a crucial counter to a lotta the racist and imperialist histories that get taught in schools.

Check out these students fighting together with fire and fury, directly against the school board, and shutting it down! These students didn’t listen when people told them they couldn’t take power directly, or that the only way to make change was wait to 18 and vote for president; they know their history and that direct confrontation to power is the only way to survive. Could this happen in our own schools too when the Board of Education threatens to cut programs, teachers, and resources threaten?

2011-04-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Struggle to Save Katherine Ferguson Academy Is Part of the Struggle Against Fascism

(When Corporate Rule Trumps Public Government)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Transcript ferom the Rachel Maddow Show 22 April 2011

MADDOW: This is the Katherine Ferguson Academy. It's a public school in Detroit Michigan. You may notice a couple things right away about the students at Katherine Ferguson Academy in this footage and the rest of it that we've got. They're all girls, for one thing.

And if you look closely, you may notice that some of them appear to be pregnant. Also, they are farming. Yes, they are. They are picking apples and growing lettuce and raising animals in Detroit, in Detroit, in inner city Detroit. This is not some extracurricular activity thing. This is part of what they do at the Katherine Ferguson high school.

The school is named after Katherine Ferguson, who is born a slave. Her mother was sold and taken away from her when Katherine Ferguson was 8 years old. When she was 16, somebody bought her out of slavery for $200. She then spent the rest of her life mothering lost kids and providing religious instructions.

She reportedly founded the first Sunday school ever in New York. Though, she herself remained illiterate all of her life. The school named in her honor in Detroit welcomes specifically pregnant girls or girls who have kids. It exists for them. It is one of the only places like it in the country.

Your life isn't over because you got pregnant. There is still school for you. There is a daycare on sight to take care of your kids while you go to class. There's an expectation that you will get accepted to college if you stick it out and graduate from here.

There's parenting classes and support alongside the rest of your course work. But your course work, it's for real. Katherine Ferguson Academy was named a breakthrough high school by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want everybody to have the same opportunity that I have. I got out of here. I want you to do the same. I got two kids. You can make it with one, two, how many you got? You're going to make it happen. Mrs. Andrews will make it happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: She says Mrs. Andrews will make it happen. Mrs. Andrews is the school principal, Mrs. Asenath Andrews.

Looking around at the resources available to her school and her students, this principal decided to take advantage of one thing that Detroit came to have, even as the inner city of Detroit hollowed out over this last decades. Detroit, frankly, has some space. Detroit has room to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASENATH ANDREWS, PRINCIPAL: We have a garden. We have a big garden. They call it the farm because of these animals and stuff. I need to figure out how kids can make above $20,000 a year minimum, farming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Taking what resources they've got and doing with them what they can.

One of the requirements for graduation in Katherine Ferguson is you must get accepted to a college. Principal Andrews and her staff will hunt down a college for you to go to and money for you to go there, if you graduate. I do not want to pretend that this is in any way an easy thing. But if you come as a junior or senior, and again, you come here because you have become a very young mother or you're about to—from this school, Principal Andrews says you have a 90 percent chance of graduating.

We spent time on this show this week telling you about another hard luck place in the great state of Michigan, Benton Harbor, where this month, to the outrage of many of the people in Benton Harbor, a state-appointed emergency overseer just took over the city. The mayor in the entire city commission was stripped of their powers.

There's one man sent from the state in unilateral control of that city now. The city's elected officials are not running the city, not anymore.

Emergency managers are not a new idea in Michigan. They've been around for a long time. The Detroit public schools have been run by an emergency manager since the last governor was in charge, a Democrat, Jennifer Granholm.

But last month, the new Republican governor, Rick Snyder, signed a new emergency manager law which you could call emergency manager on steroids. Or if you really don't like it, you could call it financial martial law. This new bill contains more than a dozen new triggers for getting put under emergency rule. And it gives an emergency overseer in a town or in a school district, it gives us overseer astounding amounts of new power.

The Detroit schools manager told the "The Detroit News" he had been frustrated under the old manager law. Detroit was still allowed to have an elected school board and those locally elected officials did not always want what he wanted, which he found frustrating. The new law passed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, though, would do away with that complication. And that new power has the Detroit schools emergency overseer guy licking his chops and I'm not begin hyperbolic.

Listen to how he described it to "The Detroit News. He said, "I do drool when I think of the pace of change we could achieve under the new law."

Power tastes great, more thrilling. I do drool.

But the fact is that this guy used to feel throttled by the people who the people of Detroit elected to make decisions about schools and their city. Now, under the new law, whoever you elect locally is totally irrelevant.

Before the new law went into effect, the school's emergency managers said he wanted to close Katherine Ferguson Academy. It was slated for closure last year as part of Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb's plan to downsize the school system. But protest from students and community members kept it open. The manager wanted to shut down the city's special school for girls who were pregnant or who had kids. But protests, again, from students and community members kept it open.

Now, with expanded unilateral power, all teachers in the Detroit schools just got layoff notices from this person. And the girls at the Katherine Ferguson Academy just found out that their school has been put on this list. Look, closures or charters with a big asterisk on it.

The asterisk means, quote, "Proposals will be requested to operate these schools as charters. If an acceptable proposal is not submitted for a school, then it will be closed during the summer of 2011."

What that means in simple terms is that Katherine Ferguson High School is on the block. The emergency overseer has made a unilateral decision about Katherine Ferguson Academy. If a private company will take over Katherine Ferguson Academy and keep it open, then maybe it can stay open in some form, whatever the company wants to do with it. If not, it's gone, this summer.

When he tried to do it before, the emergency manager tried to close it down this before, it was local protest that stopped them. Now, with that being emergency overseer being given unlimited power to do what he wants no matte what Detroit says—well.

When the students got the news, they decided to protest. This video we showed a moment ago where these girls were talking about how much they love their school, how much they love Katherine Ferguson, you can see they are painting something there. What they are painting is protest signs. The video is from a sit-in at the school during spring break week last week.

The girls got the news about what was going to happen to Katherine Ferguson Academy. They went to their school, they gathered inside. They made a collective decision to say this is our place and we're staying.

And then, of course, this is what happened next.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

MADDOW: This school in an American city. The police turned on the sirens of their police cars to drown out the girls' voices while they were getting handicapped and arrested, for refusing to leave their school. At least one teacher was arrested alongside them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The attitude of the teachers was really plain. It was, we can find a job somewhere else, but these young women, they can't replace the school if we don't stand and fight for them and their futures. Then they don't stand a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: The news now from Michigan is not about whether Katherine Ferguson Academy stays open or it closes, or about what happens to Benton Harbor and the lake front park there that we've been talking act and its privatization into a really, really expensive golf course. It's not even whether there are political forces in America that want to drop the idea of public school and to turn schools into business opportunities instead, or to turn public parks into golf courses. Those political forces exist. They have existed for a long time. That is not new.

What is new here is that this state has decided that local elections, locally elected officials are a problem that has to be done away with, that democracy is in the way of fixing problems in the United States now, of making things more efficient, particularly in poor places. Not that democracy is the way we fix problems but that democracy is the problem and it therefore needs to be sidestepped for efficiency sake, for our own good. Governor knows best.

This week, a columnist with the "Kalamazoo Gazette" wrote a thoughtful and smart column that frankly was critical of me, critical of us for our coverage of the take over of Benton Harbor. The columnist's name is Julie Mack. And she wrote in response to our coverage, quote, "What's worse for Benton Harbor: a financial manager with dictatorial powers or an utterly dysfunctional city government?"

Hmm, dictator or dysfunction? Dictator or dysfunction? Only two options? Really?

The point here, what makes Benton Harbor a national story and Katherine Ferguson Academy a national story is that the whole idea of choice for them anymore is purely hypothetical. The state has chosen for them. And that they've got is, frankly, that aforementioned dictator. Their hope—their one hope is the dictator is benevolent.

Is that how we think problems should get solved in America now?

That is why Michigan is ground zero for American politics right now, at Benton Harbor and at Katherine Ferguson.

2011-04-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

A 30 Second Celebration!

Cathie Black Is Out!...

Celebration is Over!

Super Loyal Sir Walcott Is In!

2011-04-05T15:58:00.001-07:00

Paul Robeson Students Create a Fightback Website!

2011-04-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Fightback Against Albany's Worst Budget Cuts Has Started!

2011-04-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

See some of our members discuss the NYC Crisis and Fightback in Black Education

“THE EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN NYC AND BEYOND”

Program 2 (30 minutes)

(Pt 4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqiwDf7jn4w&feature=related

(Pt 5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKFjRh3qgqU&feature=related

(Pt 6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBp1z9Cjh_Y&NR=1

Cosponsored by BNYEE, CPE-CEP, Operation Power, S.E.E.D.S., and The MANY. With Sam Anderson, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Benita Lovett-Rivera, Akinlabi Mackall, and Brenda Walker.

NOTE: Parts 1, 2, and 3 can be seen via these links.

Principal Brian De Vale Teachers Ms Black On Unions & Class Struggle

2011-03-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn Principal Challenges Cathie Black Face to Face on Unions and Seniority

Thanx to Norm Scott of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) for his video and commentary

Principals, 80% (according to scuttlebutt) of whom have been appointed under the Bloomberg regime, are increasingly becoming a Trojan horse for Black & Bloom as they see the favored charter schools inundating their neighborhoods with flyers and expensive ads while their schools are cut to the bone. Black came to a Williamsburg District 14 Community Education Council meeting on February 28 at a particularly sensitive time. The entire neighborhood has been inundated with Harlem Success Academy fliers, ads at every subway stop and on every doorknob while public schools are starved. There are many charters in District 14 but as usual Eva has pushed the buttons a bit too far. She doesn't know just what she is in for and it will be fun to watch this develop as Eve puts young children into the IS 33 building in the middle of one of the most dangerous areas - a point people made at this meeting (video of this in a few days.)

Many of the old guard people who have worked and lived in the district for years are outraged. Not only at the charters, but at the attack on seniority and LIFO. I worked in the area for over 35 years and saw many old friends at the meeting at IS 71. Many teachers and supervisors were neighborhood people and they came out in force.

Here is a video of principal and community leader Brian De Vale going one on one with Black over seniority rights, all while holding a Teddy Bear. Black tried to make a joke - "Don't I get the bear" but when De Vale came up to offer it to her she refused it, saying "give it to a child." What a humanitarian she is - most likely she was afraid of touching it.

--------------------

I'm including a letter to parents from another Brooklyn principal from another district as another example of the outrage.

Dear Families:

We can’t help but comment briefly on the debate about teacher seniority that is all over the news. I remember my mother, Rose Barr's stories of pre-union teaching. Behind closed doors, and with a promise to keep her salary a secret, each year she negotiated her contract. She could not be hired for one position because she would have been a second Jew, and the quota allowed only one per school. She could not wear shorts in public, could not be pregnant and could not ask about her colleagues’ salaries. Most schools don't teach much about labor history and many Americans seem to have no notion of how unions have improved the quality of life for generations of Americans. My father, an early 20th century labor organizer, spent many months of his life in prison, fighting for the rights we are now expected to silently surrender.

Over and over we read about countries where students out-perform Americans. What we need to ask is how educators and education are regarded in those countries. Are teachers vilified or venerated? Are students sent to school with the message that schools, teachers, and educational leaders are to be respected, that education is of great value? Read our newspapers and see what is said about our teachers, people who have committed their professional lives to helping young people learn. Today's New York Times provides an excellent example of the effect of such negative publicity on our profession.

Seniority is a complex issue. First and foremost, there is a big difference between the city cutting positions throughout the city and cutting budgets at the school level. A citywide cut of positions would be unconscionable and should not under any circumstances occur. As bad as cuts to school budgets are, it is much better when we at the school level decide what to cut.

But what about this seniority question? There is no doubt that our system for teacher tenure could use a little tweaking and it would be great if the UFT and the DOE could agree on some changes to this system. But make no mistake about it, it is a dangerous thing when it is said that the difference between a brand new teacher and an experienced one is irrelevant. It takes time to develop your teaching practice and one of the wonderful things about the profession is that you can always learn more as a teacher. There is so much to learn and know when it comes to supporting others in the learning process. When we think back to our first years of teaching, we remember our energy and our commitment, wonderful qualities for new teachers. But when we recall later years, we remember our wisdom and how much we could do for both our students and our newer colleagues. That’s part of what makes teaching such a rewarding profession. We need both the experienced and learned teachers and the thoughtful, new and energetic teachers. In fact, you can’t have one without the other!

Let’s remember to keep on thanking these teachers for their intelligence, integrity, commitment to young people, and love of learning.

Posted by Norm @ ed notes online

2011-03-03T04:57:00.000-08:00

PEP MEETING 1 March 2011

In This clip the NYC DOE avoids the question of why they Do not have community support or input for these closing schools, more proof that these schools are BEING SET UP TO FAIL.
Hip Hop Pioneer Radio Rahim reporting from Brooklyn Tech H.S.
------------------------
A Young Studnet's Angry Tears Against Charter School Invasion

Here you see the passion a child has about her school being invaded by a charter school.
Hip Hop Pioneer Radio Rahim reporting from brooklyn tech H.S.

2011-02-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

Mothers Agenda of New York (The MANY) Say Cathleen Black Got To Go!!

Hell Hath No Fury Like Pissed Off Black and Latino Mothers!!

2011-02-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

2011 Specialized High Schools - 8th Grade Students Receiving a Specialized HS Offer by Ethnicity 2009-2011

Black and Latino Students "Structured" Out of Going to Specialized High Schools: a Clear Exposure of Institutional Racism

(click on chart to see enlarged full chart)

Racial Gap Persists for City's Specialized High Schools

by Anna Phillips gothamschools.org

"This year, 12 Black students earned spots at Stuyvesant High School, which is actually an improvement over last year when 7 students received offers."

Today’s the day that guidance counselors distribute envelopes to eighth graders with news of whether and which of the city’s top-tier high schools opened the door for them. But for Black and Latino students, the news continues to be grim.

Combined, white and Asian students account for 70 percent of the students admitted to elite schools like Stuyvesant, the Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School. Hispanic students make up 6 percent of those admitted and Black students 5 percent. The remainder, 18 percent, come from private or parochial schools and racial data for them was not available.

Despite repeated statements of concern from city officials about the tiny number of minority students earning entry to top high schools, the numbers have only declined in the last three years. In 2009, 744 Black and Hispanic students earned seats at specialized high schools. This year, 642 made it in.

Meanwhile, the number of Black & Latino students sitting for the exams has increased. Black and Hispanic students now make up a greater percentage of test takers than they did in 2009.
The numbers are even more concerning in the schools that are the elite of the elite. This year, 12 Black students earned spots at Stuyvesant High School, which is actually an improvement over last year when 7 students received offers.

In total, 5,404 eighth graders earned seats at one of the city’s eight specialized high schools that admit students purely based on their scores on the SHSAT (Specialized High Schools Admissions Test). A ninth specialized school, LaGuardia High School, auditions students for its music and arts programs. It offered seats to 962 students, about a third of whom also received offers from one other specialized school.

The Department of Education would not release the range of scores earned by students accepted to individual schools. Students are often able to figure this out on their own by comparing notes with classmates.

A spokesman said that releasing each school’s lowest score would give future applicants the impression that some schools are easier to get into than others, causing some of them to aim for schools they believe will accept them rather than the schools they really want to attend. As an example, he cited Brooklyn Technical High School, which is one of the city’s most popular elite high schools, but is also so large that it admits students with some of the highest scores and some of the lowest.

Students have until February 28 to accept an offer.

2011-02-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Deny Waiver Coalition Pushes for a Court Appeal on AntiChancellor Cathleen Black

10 February 2011 on the Steps of Tweed- Headquarters of the Dept of MisEducation (DOME)

2011-02-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Tough Lessons from Teach For America

By Anthony Cody on February 10, 2011

Two Important interviews that reveal the emptiness of a Teach for America approach as well as the vacuousness or the corporatization of public education whose only concerned is with profit maximization and control of the "Urban Horde."

vwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwv

Last week, by way of a video posted through something called the Teachers Talk Back Project, I met a former Teach For America intern teacher by the name of John Bilby. He spoke of his relationship with his mentor, David Greene. I asked the two of them if they would share some of their experiences with us. This is their conversation:

John: My name is John Bilby and I taught with Teach For America for 6 months before leaving the program because I think that it doesn't prepare or support its teachers for the challenges they will face. I'm currently enrolled in a traditional teacher certification program so that I can get a firmer grounding and more experience before heading back into the classroom. David Greene was my field observer from my graduate program during my time with TFA; he was the biggest help to me, and the kind of advice that he gave me went above, beyond, and sometimes around the advice that TFA gives to its first year teachers.

Dave, let's start at the beginning. In order to prepare me for a job teaching English in the South Bronx (the poorest congressional district in the nation), TFA had me teach Social Studies at a summer school in East Harlem for 45 minutes a day, 4 days a week, for 4 weeks. I was a History major in college, I recently completed my MA in American History, and I hadn't taken an English class since 2006, when I finished my minor for college; the principal of my school needed an English teacher, though, so that is what I became. TFA wasn't concerned with the particulars of content area, I guess. Dave, how does that compare/contrast with your training experience?

David: John, let me first say that training experiences are quite complex and more often dependent on who trains you than where you were trained. I went to Fordham University's undergraduate School of Education, which no longer exists. Too bad. The undergraduate program had a 4 year program that included heavy academic work in your subject area, classwork in pedagogy, and field work in local neighborhood afternoon centers before you began a full time, semester long internship as a "student teacher". The pedagogy classes weren't worth much, but that's true in all schools. I have always believed that more practical experience with great teachers beats theory in an ivory tower. Everyone at Fordham and other University based training programs had similar sets of experiences. So far we were all on equal footing.

However, the real difference in training was where you were assigned to student teach and, more importantly, what cooperating teacher you were given. I was extremely lucky to have a woman who was a marvelously talented teacher and mentor. Phyllis Opochinsky was the best social studies teacher in the South Bronx school I was assigned to and also gifted at mentoring new teachers.

A major difference between you and I was that I gradually entered teaching. I wasn't dumped into the quicksand up to my neck. The first few weeks I did nothing but watch her, learn from her work, and practice writing lesson plans. I was then allowed to teach one of her classes on occasion. Then, for the last quarter I took over one of her classes as my own, but always with her in the room. By regulation, she had to be there. More importantly, she was there for me. We had preclass and post class discussions to work on my improvement.

Notice I am not even talking about the style of teaching. That is another conversation.
The second difference was where and for whom I worked when I started my first job, also in the South Bronx. My immediate supervisor (Department Chair/Assistant Principal) and my principal were also master teachers of social studies and gifted mentors of new teachers. Together they gave me the foundation to become a confident teacher in my field of study. They also gave me academic freedom. They trusted my intelligence and creativity. As a result, I knew I could grow, and grow I did.

One of my biggest frustrations for new teachers, TFA or otherwise, is not only the lack of quality time to prepare to teach, but more significantly, the lack of highly qualified mentors to train them. As I travel to the various schools I work in as a field supervisor for Fordham Universtiy, I am both encouraged and shocked by the large number of younger teachers in these schools.
I love the energy they bring, but oh the inexperience! Often, novices are training novices in how to follow the simple prescribed scripts TFA or the school gives them while proscribing those very techniques more experienced teachers know work. It often becomes my job to find a compromise between what they are being told to do, and what I know works; to fit the square peg of tested and successful teaching techniques into the round hole of whatever is used today to "increase student test scores."

John: That was my experience with their mentors, as well. My immediate TFA supervisor had taught for two years; the program's "big gun" had taught for 5. My principal had taught for 4, the AP had taught for 3. Between all of them, they still come up twenty-four years short of you.

John: My name is John Bilby and I taught with Teach For America for 6 months before leaving the program because I think that it doesn't prepare or support its teachers for the challenges they will face. I'm currently enrolled in a traditional teacher certification program so that I can get a firmer grounding and more experience before heading back into the classroom. David Greene was my field observer from my graduate program during my time with TFA; he was the biggest help to me, and the kind of advice that he gave me went above, beyond, and sometimes around the advice that TFA gives to its first year teachers.

Dave, let's start at the beginning. In order to prepare me for a job teaching English in the South Bronx (the poorest congressional district in the nation), TFA had me teach Social Studies at a summer school in East Harlem for 45 minutes a day, 4 days a week, for 4 weeks. I was a History major in college, I recently completed my MA in American History, and I hadn't taken an English class since 2006, when I finished my minor for college; the principal of my school needed an English teacher, though, so that is what I became. TFA wasn't concerned with the particulars of content area, I guess. Dave, how does that compare/contrast with your training experience?

David: John, let me first say that training experiences are quite complex and more often dependent on who trains you than where you were trained. I went to Fordham University's undergraduate School of Education, which no longer exists. Too bad. The undergraduate program had a 4 year program that included heavy academic work in your subject area, classwork in pedagogy, and field work in local neighborhood afternoon centers before you began a full time, semester long internship as a "student teacher". The pedagogy classes weren't worth much, but that's true in all schools. I have always believed that more practical experience with great teachers beats theory in an ivory tower. Everyone at Fordham and other University based training programs had similar sets of experiences. So far we were all on equal footing.

However, the real difference in training was where you were assigned to student teach and, more importantly, what cooperating teacher you were given. I was extremely lucky to have a woman who was a marvelously talented teacher and mentor. Phyllis Opochinsky was the best social studies teacher in the South Bronx school I was assigned to and also gifted at mentoring new teachers.
A major difference between you and I was that I gradually entered teaching. I wasn't dumped into the quicksand up to my neck. The first few weeks I did nothing but watch her, learn from her work, and practice writing lesson plans. I was then allowed to teach one of her classes on occasion. Then, for the last quarter I took over one of her classes as my own, but always with her in the room. By regulation, she had to be there. More importantly, she was there for me. We had preclass and post class discussions to work on my improvement.

Notice I am not even talking about the style of teaching. That is another conversation.
The second difference was where and for whom I worked when I started my first job, also in the South Bronx. My immediate supervisor (Department Chair/Assistant Principal) and my principal were also master teachers of social studies and gifted mentors of new teachers. Together they gave me the foundation to become a confident teacher in my field of study. They also gave me academic freedom. They trusted my intelligence and creativity. As a result, I knew I could grow, and grow I did.

One of my biggest frustrations for new teachers, TFA or otherwise, is not only the lack of quality time to prepare to teach, but more significantly, the lack of highly qualified mentors to train them. As I travel to the various schools I work in as a field supervisor for Fordham Universtiy, I am both encouraged and shocked by the large number of younger teachers in these schools.
I love the energy they bring, but oh the inexperience! Often, novices are training novices in how to follow the simple prescribed scripts TFA or the school gives them while proscribing those very techniques more experienced teachers know work. It often becomes my job to find a compromise between what they are being told to do, and what I know works; to fit the square peg of tested and successful teaching techniques into the round hole of whatever is used today to "increase student test scores."
John: That was my experience with their mentors, as well. My immediate TFA supervisor had taught for two years; the program's "big gun" had taught for 5. My principal had taught for 4, the AP had taught for 3. Between all of them, they still come up twenty-four years short of you.

Dave, I remember when you first came in to observe me and everything was, to put it nicely, a mess: I was doing some confusing lesson on God knows what that I had picked up from my grad school class, I never varied the tone of my voice and the only way I knew to get people's attention was to count down from 5 or clap my hands. I also had posters covering every inch of available wall space and I didn't use my whiteboard, an absurdly labor-intensive and un-academic TFA "trick" where you write everything on chart paper and then "reveal" it as class goes on (it has the byproduct of completely stifling any class conversation). You sat me down and told me that it was, politely, "not too good;" more importantly, you gave me ways to fix it, number one being to have a personality in the classroom, which actually WENT AGAINST what I had been told, which was to be neutral in all things.

TFA would also give us access to "teacher-proof" materials, when in fact it would be some thoughtlessly scripted lesson with all the right buzzwords that would be over in ten minutes and leave you with an hour and a half of chaos. You mentioned the "prescribed and proscribing" scripts that TFA hands out - how do you think we can do these things better? I think more preparation with experienced teachers is key, but that means time and money, two things in short supply. What can new TFA teachers and mentors do now?

John: My name is John Bilby and I taught with Teach For America for 6 months before leaving the program because I think that it doesn't prepare or support its teachers for the challenges they will face. I'm currently enrolled in a traditional teacher certification program so that I can get a firmer grounding and more experience before heading back into the classroom. David Greene was my field observer from my graduate program during my time with TFA; he was the biggest help to me, and the kind of advice that he gave me went above, beyond, and sometimes around the advice that TFA gives to its first year teachers.

Dave, let's start at the beginning. In order to prepare me for a job teaching English in the South Bronx (the poorest congressional district in the nation), TFA had me teach Social Studies at a summer school in East Harlem for 45 minutes a day, 4 days a week, for 4 weeks. I was a History major in college, I recently completed my MA in American History, and I hadn't taken an English class since 2006, when I finished my minor for college; the principal of my school needed an English teacher, though, so that is what I became. TFA wasn't concerned with the particulars of content area, I guess. Dave, how does that compare/contrast with your training experience?

David: John, let me first say that training experiences are quite complex and more often dependent on who trains you than where you were trained. I went to Fordham University's undergraduate School of Education, which no longer exists. Too bad. The undergraduate program had a 4 year program that included heavy academic work in your subject area, classwork in pedagogy, and field work in local neighborhood afternoon centers before you began a full time, semester long internship as a "student teacher". The pedagogy classes weren't worth much, but that's true in all schools. I have always believed that more practical experience with great teachers beats theory in an ivory tower. Everyone at Fordham and other University based training programs had similar sets of experiences. So far we were all on equal footing.

However, the real difference in training was where you were assigned to student teach and, more importantly, what cooperating teacher you were given. I was extremely lucky to have a woman who was a marvelously talented teacher and mentor. Phyllis Opochinsky was the best social studies teacher in the South Bronx school I was assigned to and also gifted at mentoring new teachers.

A major difference between you and I was that I gradually entered teaching. I wasn't dumped into the quicksand up to my neck. The first few weeks I did nothing but watch her, learn from her work, and practice writing lesson plans. I was then allowed to teach one of her classes on occasion. Then, for the last quarter I took over one of her classes as my own, but always with her in the room. By regulation, she had to be there. More importantly, she was there for me. We had preclass and post class discussions to work on my improvement.

Notice I am not even talking about the style of teaching. That is another conversation.
The second difference was where and for whom I worked when I started my first job, also in the South Bronx. My immediate supervisor (Department Chair/Assistant Principal) and my principal were also master teachers of social studies and gifted mentors of new teachers. Together they gave me the foundation to become a confident teacher in my field of study. They also gave me academic freedom. They trusted my intelligence and creativity. As a result, I knew I could grow, and grow I did.

One of my biggest frustrations for new teachers, TFA or otherwise, is not only the lack of quality time to prepare to teach, but more significantly, the lack of highly qualified mentors to train them. As I travel to the various schools I work in as a field supervisor for Fordham Universtiy, I am both encouraged and shocked by the large number of younger teachers in these schools.
I love the energy they bring, but oh the inexperience! Often, novices are training novices in how to follow the simple prescribed scripts TFA or the school gives them while proscribing those very techniques more experienced teachers know work. It often becomes my job to find a compromise between what they are being told to do, and what I know works; to fit the square peg of tested and successful teaching techniques into the round hole of whatever is used today to "increase student test scores."

John: That was my experience with their mentors, as well. My immediate TFA supervisor had taught for two years; the program's "big gun" had taught for 5. My principal had taught for 4, the AP had taught for 3. Between all of them, they still come up twenty-four years short of you.

Dave, I remember when you first came in to observe me and everything was, to put it nicely, a mess: I was doing some confusing lesson on God knows what that I had picked up from my grad school class, I never varied the tone of my voice and the only way I knew to get people's attention was to count down from 5 or clap my hands. I also had posters covering every inch of available wall space and I didn't use my whiteboard, an absurdly labor-intensive and un-academic TFA "trick" where you write everything on chart paper and then "reveal" it as class goes on (it has the byproduct of completely stifling any class conversation). You sat me down and told me that it was, politely, "not too good;" more importantly, you gave me ways to fix it, number one being to have a personality in the classroom, which actually WENT AGAINST what I had been told, which was to be neutral in all things.

TFA would also give us access to "teacher-proof" materials, when in fact it would be some thoughtlessly scripted lesson with all the right buzzwords that would be over in ten minutes and leave you with an hour and a half of chaos. You mentioned the "prescribed and proscribing" scripts that TFA hands out - how do you think we can do these things better? I think more preparation with experienced teachers is key, but that means time and money, two things in short supply. What can new TFA teachers and mentors do now?

David: John, Those are two questions. TFA teachers are hard pressed to do much unless they can wean themselves off of the prescribed formulas and look for proscribed alternatives. That is not likely to happen for two reasons. TFA puts a lot of pressure on you to do it their way. They also give you the big TFA teat to suckle. They give TFA teachers the "safe" way to prepare, so TFA becomes like an enabling parent. As a result, only the strong and more independent type of TFA teacher will separate themselves from this without help. And that is more likely to happen with a mentor who knows about and successfully uses proscribed alternative methods.

Unfortunately many mentors, as you describe, are still either enabled by TFA or another big approved program (the Teachers College model come to mind). Mentors and more experienced teachers must develop a mind set that there is more than one way to skin the cat of teaching. They must become students of teaching, so that they can pass along what they discover to their mentees. That is what is missing. When did teachers, especially mentors of new teachers, stop becoming students themselves?

2011-02-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

VIDEO: Chicago Hi School Students Take on Rahm Emanuel and His Privatizing Hype

31- January - huffingtonpost.com. A group of Chicago high school students has decided to take Rahm Emanuel to task for his education policy.

Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez appear in a YouTube video, uploaded Sunday, entitled "Invest in Our Public Schools." The spot attacks Emanuel for his praise of the city's charter schools, and backs rival candidate Miguel del Valle for supporting neighborhood schools.
"I go to Roger C. Sullivan High School," says Henriquez. "This is not one of the schools Rahm Emanuel cares about."

The students, who wrote the script for the video, according to its description on YouTube, also point out what they describe as a factual inaccuracy in Emanuel's portrayal of the city's charters. "When you take out North Side, and you take out Walter Payton, the seven best-performing high schools are all charters."

"Someone didn't do their homework," the video says, listing the seven top schools as reported by the Chicago Tribune. None of them is a charter school.

The video says it has no connection to any candidate, and judging by the del Valle camp's reaction, they seem to be telling the truth. Spokeswoman Joanna Klonsky didn't know much about the video's origins, except to say that "we didn't orchestrate it."

2011-02-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

Militant Rally Opposing NYC School Closings Leads to Civil Disobedience

Thanx to Grassroots Education Movement

Rally Opposing NYC School Closings Leads to Civil Disobedience from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

January 31, 2011- A rally of mostly NYC students near City Hall in NYC focused on the forced closing of schools as part of the drive to privatize by short-changing these schools of resources. Over 20 people blocked Chambers Street near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and were arrested. Students began a march to the precinct but on the way they were told the police to avoid the march were taking the arrested to another precinct. The event was organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice, consisting of community based organizations.

2011-01-30T03:58:00.000-08:00

The Struggle to Defend and Improve Public Education is International!

NEW YORK CITY

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ENGLAND:

CPE In The News

2011-01-27T03:38:00.000-08:00

Volume 20, Number 37 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | January 26 - February 1, 2011

Protestors want large-scale education reforms

BY Aline Reynolds

Demonstrators congregated on the steps of Tweed Courthouse last Friday to protest mayoral control of public schools and to lobby for hefty reforms to the city system.

Several protestors held up banners, each listing one of ten education reforms the group is asking the D.O.E. to implement immediately.

Among the proposals the protestors highlighted were equitable funding for all schools, a halt to the proliferation of charter schools; an end to school closure; and a push for smaller class sizes.
John Yanno, a teacher at John Jay High School and a member of Grassroots Education Movement NYC, bemoaned the shortage in funding for his school and the co-location of Millennium Brooklyn in the building. Seniors at John Jay have huge holes in their schedules, he said.

“They literally spend their afternoons hanging out in the bathroom or hallway, ‘cause they have nowhere to go,” said Yanno.

Muba YaroFulani, a public school parent and a member of Coalition for Public Education, accused the D.O.E. for failing its students by not offering them quality classroom education or a sufficient number of after-school programs; and for shutting parents out of the decision-making process.

“Money is being spent more towards the prison system than educating our 1.1 million students,” she told the crowd. She also mentioned Black’s controversial birth control joke from the January 13 School Overcrowding Task Force meeting held at 250 Broadway.

YaroFulan also called for an end to mayoral control, which she referred to as “dictatorship behavior.”

“We want our children to know,” YaroFulan said, “that we’ll continue to fight – and not fail to fight for them – until the end, ‘cause they deserve what’s rightfully theirs.”

P.S. 364 third grader Martha Eckl-Lindenberg read aloud a letter she and Lisa Donlan, president of the District One Community Education Council, wrote to new D.O.E. Chancellor Cathie Black to the crowd, saying, “New York City public school students, parents and teachers cordially invite you to hear our objections to the D.O.E.’s disastrous policies that are destroying our schools. Come to hear our Real Reforms that can actually improve learning in our schools!”

Eckl-Lindenberg hand-delivered the letter to Cathie Black’s office at Tweed Courthouse during the demonstration last Thursday evening.

A D.O.E. spokesperson confirmed Tuesday evening that Black is not planning on attending the rally.

Donlan was disappointed to hear the news. Overcrowding, she said, is becoming a big problem in public schools on the Lower East Side.

“We’re seeing the highest increase in kindergarten for the last two years, with no attention to change that,” she said. The students, she said, are moving up in grades without sufficient classroom space to accommodate them.

Donlan said that the D.O.E. has made no strides to promote integration in a gentrifying neighborhood such as theirs.

Girls Prep, a charter school which will move into classroom space that is currently occupied by Ross Global Academy, a failing charter school set to close this year.

Such charters, she said, are low-performing, and admit few and homeless special need students. “I don’t understand why the D.O.E. is selecting to give more resources to [Charter Prep,] a school that isn’t proving itself by accountability measures, and not serving the highest-need students.”

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, said the D.O.E. is doing everything they can to undermine the health of neighborhood public schools and replace them with charter schools.

“The fact that there are several closing schools on the list which, for years, parents and teachers complained bitterly about… is directly attributable to their failed leadership,” she said. Closing schools, she added, “will just lead to more instability in their lives.”

2011-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

--ED STRUGGLE DOCUMENT--

Fighting BloomBlack Forced School Closing for Charter School

John Jay High School’s Secondary School for Research SLT Statement - January 11, 2011

Integrate - Don't Segregate

More than 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that separate was inherently unequal, and after hundreds of thousands fought against racism and for the integration of public schools, this country's public school system remains blatantly segregated—and is growing more so by the day.

The Department of Education's proposal to place the new Millennium Brooklyn in the John Jay campus reveals the racism and inequity in the New York City public schools. It also demands that we revive the inspiring struggles of past Civil Rights movements and take a stand against racism.

According to the Educational Impact Statement (EIS), "The proposed co-location of Millennium Brooklyn in building K460 [John Jay Campus] is part of the DOE's central goal to create high-quality educational options for all students." It is part of an initiative to expand options for "academically gifted students" in "underserved communities." While the DOE concedes that there is no shortage of high school seats in Brooklyn, "the community" wants more "high-quality options."

In the same paragraph, the DOE asserts, "All students deserve access to an outstanding education regardless of their zip code." We agree.

It is simply untrue, however, that the "community" demanding high-quality options is the same community that is "underserved" and denied access to quality education by their zip code. The correlation in New York City between zip codes and academic achievement (not to mention income, access to health care, and public transportation) is a shameful reminder of the entrenched, racist inequities of our society. Middle-class families in Park Slope already have access to high-quality school options (even if they feel they have to travel to get to them), while those from poorer neighborhoods in the district have been systematically denied these options. To propose that the DOE's investment in Millennium Brooklyn will increase equity is outrageous and insulting.

The DOE's claim of commitment "to investing in schools that optimize student performance and ensure that every student graduates from high school equipped with the skills necessary to achieve success in college, careers, and in life" belies the history of the three schools already in the John Jay campus.

In 2001, the old Board of Education combined three existing middle schools into one and moved them into the John Jay building to grow into a 6-12 school while John Jay was phased out. Like many initiatives heralded at their inception, this one was soon neglected and left to develop without support. School leadership and accountability was ill-defined. Space allocation was haphazard and chaotic. Long-range planning for the first graduating class was practically non-existent.

Just two years later, this new school, The Secondary School for Law, Journalism and Research, was re-divided into three separate schools, with predictable chaos and

All quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the Educational Impact Statement available at the DOE website disruption to students' lives and education. While" the new school had been given some additional start-up funds in 2001, none of that financial support continued beyond the first year. And no financial support was offered to the three new schools when they ventured out on their own in 2003.

In the Fall of 2004, my first year as principal, The Secondary School for Research was denied federal Title I funds mandated for economically disadvantaged students. The year before, my predecessor had fallen short in collecting sehool-lunch forms. For the next seven years, I fought in vain with the DOE to restore funding. When Chancellor Klein instituted Fair Student Funding (FSF) in response to demands that he address the inequities among schools, the Secondary School for Research was recognized as an under-funded school. Contrary to public claims that FSF would gradually reduce funds to "over-funded" schools and increase funds to "under-funded" schools, our school is now budgeted nearly a million dollars less than the School for International Studies, a virtually identical school community in District 15.

Please don't mistake me; I know of no public school in New York City that is truly "over-funded." While consistently documenting the disparities and appealing for redress from the DOE, I have always expressed support for the students, teachers and administration at International. But the fact remains that our school has been shortchanged even by the DOE's own inadequate funding formulas.

Before and during my tenure as principal, the new school and its three offshoots worked out of makeshift offices as a building equipped for one administrative team now had to house three. For years, several of our fourth-floor classrooms still had multi-tiered flooring to accommodate the music classes once assigned there. Water damage from a chronically leaky roof was so bad that some classroom walls crumbled. Door frames separated from the walls. In 2005-2006, when the roof of the building was belatedly replaced, nearly every classroom on the fourth floor was flooded. The science lab was so badly damaged that tiles floated in the water. To this day, the lab floor remains a patchwork of different-colored tiles. Though the building received funds for wireless access throughout, most of our students' classrooms have only one electrical outlet, severely limiting the use of interactive whiteboards, LCD projectors, and document readers. In our dingy student and faculty bathrooms, the plumbing is so old that the toilets fail with regularity. Our drinking fountains function sporadically; what water we get is always lukewarm.

Ancient radiators either heat rooms like blast furnaces or don't work at all. Whatever funding ever existed for classroom air-conditioners never made it to our fourth floor. Of course, there's no place to plug them in if they ever do.

When our school voted to change our bell schedule to increase the length of instructional periods, create common planning time for teachers, and relieve stairwell congestion, I requested $5,000 for a new bell system because the antiquated system we have now cannot be individualized for each school. The DOE refused. Unable to afford it within our school's budget, I paid for it myself.

All quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the Educational Impact Statement available at the DOE website. In addition to inheriting a dilapidated physical plant, we also inherited metal detectors and a building entry procedure that evokes a medium-security prison. When Ms. Bloomberg joined the Secondary School for Research in 2004, the building's safety statistics were equal to or better than schools without metal detectors. Even more to the point, the number of incidents was well below the DOE's threshold for "impact school" status, the trigger for installation of metal detectors.

In short, the DOE has all the data it needs to remove scanning from our building. Yet in spite of its claims of data-driven decision-making, the Department has refused for seven years to allow us to enter the building without lining up, removing our belts and jewelry, emptying our pockets, and periodically assuming the position for hand-wanding. This daily message to us is alienating, degrading and scary. It tells us that we are not to be trusted—nor should we trust each other or the school. While Park Slope may enjoy a reputation within New York City and beyond as a desirable place to live and work, that reputation has never been extended to our school. We are treated at best as interlopers and at worst as criminals. The heavy police presence outside the building each day, with officers aggressively herding us to the subways, intensifies the isolation of our schools from the neighborhood. This racist ritual—which you will not find outside other Park Slope schools with a different demographic-teaches the neighborhood to see us as dangerous. And it teaches us that we are not welcome in the neighborhood.

Less than a year ago, the DOE confronted the three principals in the John Jay campus with concerns about under-enrollment and the apparent lack of interest in our schools. We asked that they remove the metal detectors, fix up the building, and let us change our school's name to Park Slope Collegiate. They refused all three requests.

Our school was being set up to fail.

But in spite of this malignant neglect, we have succeeded. We are as the Educational Impact Statement proposes, "schools that optimize student performance and ensure that every student graduates from high school equipped with the skills necessary to achieve success in college, careers, and in life," No, we're not perfect, nor have we yet achieved our own goals. Our first graduating class of 2005, the students who were freshmen when the one school was cobbled together in 2001 and juniors during the re-division of 2003, represented only 35% of the original class. Barely one of three had survived the system's chaos and neglect.

But by 2008, our graduation rate had more than doubled—a testament to the collective efforts and dedication of a community that serves a population too often written off.

Today, 87 percent of the students at Secondary School for Research qualify for free or reduced lunch. At Millennium Manhattan, that proportion is 44 percent.

Nine percent of the students enrolled at our school have disabilities that entitle them to self-contained classrooms. There are none at Millennium.

All quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the Educational Impact Statement available at the DOE website.

Eleven percent of our students are English Language Learners. Again, there are none at Manhattan Millennium.

Graduates from the Secondary School for Research are now attending Babson College (Posse scholar), Bates College, Clark University, Columbia University, CUNY - Hunter, Eugene Lang, The New School, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Muhlenberg College, New York University, Polytechnic University, Skidmore College, St. John's University, SUNY - Stonybrook, Trinity College (Posse scholar), Union College, Utica College, Williams College and many others. Our students have received more than 10 million dollars in aid and scholarships—not from the DOE, but from institutions of higher learning that are willing to invest in them. The struggle to convince our students to succeed in spite of the disdain they feel from the DOE is ongoing. Our four-year graduation rate dips and rises; we strive constantly to improve. We also pay close attention to our six-year graduation rate, because we know that some students need more time. And we celebrate our college acceptances, because we appreciate that so many colleges see our students as whole people, filled with potential, and not as statistics and stereotypes.

We believe that our school provides us with the high-quality education the DOE refers to over and over again in the Educational Impact Statement arguing the need to create Millennium Brooklyn. It's hard for us to understand the DOE's criteria for "high quality." In reference to the Alternative Learning Center that shares our building, the DOE writes, "ALC's provide a safe and high quality instructional program to students who have received a superintendent's suspension." With all due and genuine respect for the students and staff at the ALC, I don't think the DOE is proposing that Millennium Brooklyn replicate the instructional program of the ALC. What is it about Millennium Manhattan then, that the DOE wants to replicate here in Brooklyn? When our SLT posed that question to DOE representatives, the only answer we received was this: "Popularity."

The DOE promises that "all students in NYC have access to high-quality education at every stage of their education," but it's simply not credible to maintain that they are working to create rigorous, college-preparatory education for all students. What is clear to us is that they believe in separate educational opportunities. As noted in the Educational Impact Statement, "Selective schools provide more of the city's top-performing students with a rigorous high school experience where they are surrounded by other high-performing peers, challenged to think critically, and free to explore new academic interests and extracurricular activities."

But the research shows that a tracked system, where students are assigned to classes and schools based on past academic performance and test scores, is harmful to ALL students.

The April 2005 edition of Phi Delta Kappan, the national education journal, includes an article titled, "Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracting." I'd like to read you a few paragraphs.

All quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the Educational Impact Statement available at the DOE website.

We have found that when all students - those at the bottom as well as the top of the "gap " - have access to first-class learning opportunities, all students' achievement can rise.

Because African American and Hispanic students are consistently overrepresented in low-track classes, the effects of tracking greatly concern educators who are interested in closing the achievement gap. Detracking reforms are grounded in the established ideas that, higher achievement follows from a more rigorous curriculum and that low-track classes with unchallenging curricula result in lower student achievement.

Despite overwhelming research demonstrating the ineffectiveness of'low-track classes and of tracking in general, schools continue the practice. Earlier studies have argued that this persistence stems from the fact that tracking is grounded in values, beliefs, and politics as much as it is in technical, structural, or organizational needs. Further, despite inconsistent research findings, many parents and educators assume that the practice benefits high achievers.

And so, despite the evidence that low-track classes cause harm, they continue to exist. Worse still, the negative achievement effects of such classes fall disproportionately on minority students, since, as noted above, African American and Hispanic students are overrepresented in low-track classes and underrepresented in high-track classes. Socioeconomic status (SES) has been found to affect track assignment as well. A highly proficient student from a low socioeconomic background has only a 50-50 chance of being placed in a high-track class.

Researchers who study the relationship between tracking, race/ethnicity, and academic performance suggest different strategies for closing the achievement gap. Some believe that the solution is to encourage more minority students to take high-track classes. Others believe that if all students are given the enriched curriculum that high-achieving students receive, achievement will rise. They believe that no students should be placed in classes that have a remedial academic curriculum and that the tracking system should be dismantled entirely. By dismantling tracking and providing the high-track curriculum to all, we can succeed in closing the achievement gap on important measures of learning.

The authors go on to describe the results of detracking in Rockville Centre, using Regents diplomas as a measure. In the graduating class of 2000, only 32% of all African-American or Hispanic graduates earned Regents diplomas, as compared to 88 percent of white or Asian-American graduates. By 2003, after detracking, the gap had closed dramatically: 82% of all African-American or Hispanic and 97% of all white or Asian-American graduates earned Regents diplomas.

Before committing to detracking, the authors note, the school district placed students with special needs and low-achieving students in a double-period class to remediate their lack of skills.

Consistent with the recommendations of researchers who have defended tracking, this class was rich in resources (a math teacher, special education inclusion teacher and a teaching assistant.) Yet the low-track culture of the class remained unconducive to learning. Students were disruptive and teachers spent considerable class time addressing behavior management issues. All students were acutely aware that the class carried the low-track label.

Achievement follows from opportunities — opportunities that tracking denies.

The DOE maintains that the co-location of Millennium Brooklyn at the John Jay campus "is not anticipated to negatively impact the current students attending school in the building." Like the students in Rockville Centre who were all acutely aware of their status as the "low-track" students, the current students in our building will be acutely aware that they have been labeled undesirable, unfit for selection.

The DOE describes the creation of Millennium Brooklyn as "an effort to expand the pool of option for academically gifted students." Allow us to describe some of the academic gifts outlined in the Educational Impact Statement that the DOE is bestowing upon Millennium:

New district schools are provided with a fixed per-school allocation and a variable per-pupil allocation of funds to cover start-up costs. Based on current one-time allocations for new schools, Millennium Brooklyn would receive a fixed allocation of $80,000 during its first year and approximately $451,559 in total per-pupil allocations.

Additionally, the Selective Schools Initiative raised private dollars to support the planning and development of seven new academically selective high schools [including Millennium Brooklyn]. Each school is allocated a total of $500,000 to spend over five years, based on the following budget model:

" One-Year Planning Process: $100,000 to support new school planning and recruitment; these funds will effectively support the new school leader to develop a vision for the school, build curriculum, and recruit and train school faculty.

" Four-Year Implementation and Program Support: After the planning year, schools receive $100,000 per year to support a four-year implementation process - enabling the school's leader to implement the school's unique vision by supporting continued coursework and program development, staff recruitment and training, community outreach, and capital investments.

Millennium Brooklyn is being set-up for success.

The additional $180,000 that Millennium is slated to receive in its first year-when it will have only 108 students amounts to an additional per-student allocation of $1,666.67. If that per-pupil allocation were equitably applied to the Secondary School for Research, we would receive an additional $750,000—more than a 20% increase from our current budget. At a minimum the DOE should grant us the same $580,000 to compensate us for the lack of start-up funds and implementation funds we need to support our unique vision, program development, community outreach and recruitment. Given our success with next to nothing, imagine what we could do with 5 additional teaching positions plus enough overtime funds to reinstate our Saturday Academy. We could also meet our teachers' every request for books and supplies.

But in the two-tiered, separate-and-unequal world of the DOE, our current budget lacks sufficient funds to hire needed substitute teachers. We have no funds to pay teachers to run our Saturday Academy. We suffer from a shortage of textbooks and funds for student trips and we have no budget what-so-ever for recruitment or community outreach.

In fact according to the DOE, we owe them $400,000 because enrollment across our seven grades is about 50 students below our projected register.

Our proposal is brief:

• Remove scanning from the building.

• Commit all of the capital improvement funds to the building to:

o Upgrade the electricity

o Renovate the bathrooms

o Renovate and upgrade the cafeteria

o Create a media center and small auditorium

• Bring the building up to the proposed capacity by enlarging the 3 schools currently
in the building by 150 rather than by creating an additional school of 450.

• Work with the schools in the building to create a heterogeneous student population
that reflects the true diversity of NYC, Brooklyn and District 15 in terms of
race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special needs, English Language proficiency
and previous academic achievement.

• Allow us to immediately change our name to Park Slope Collegiate

• Create a "detracking initiative" to support the planning and development of truly
diverse schools that close the achievement gap AND result in higher achievement for
all students.

Every generation has an opportunity, and a choice: to shut ourselves into the darkness of small-minded self-interest, or to stand proudly in the light of the age-old struggle against racism and inequality.

We are choosing to take a stand. We are choosing to fight racism and inequality, and we need everyone with us. Separate can never be equal. We invite you to join us in building something new on the John Jay Campus together. Integration, yes! Segregation, no!

All quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the Educational Impact Statement available at the DOE website.

2011-01-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

Paul Robeson Hi Students, Faculty, Parents and Alumni Fight School Closure/Charterization

Below are a series of videos depicting the growing resistance to the BloomBlack racist school closure policies.

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2011-01-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

CPE's David DuBosz Speaks Truth to Power at PEP January Meeting!

Cathleen Black, Billionaire Bloomberg's noneducator replacement for Klein, got a chance to sneer and smirk at dozens of outraged, frustrated and determined students, educators and parents about how the Privatization Bumrushing Machine (PBM) is making their educational lives a living nightmare.

Our own David Dubosz gives a powerfully moving speech about how arrogance and racism permeates the current DOME policies.

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2011-01-16T07:58:00.001-08:00