Just News from Center X – February 22, 2019

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Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Amid immigration debate, top teachers gather to protest child detention [VIDEO]

Kavitha Cardoza, PBS News Hour
Some of the nation’s top teachers recently gathered in El Paso, Texas, to speak out against the government’s practice of detaining children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Dismissing the notion that they shouldn’t get involved in political advocacy, teachers said they see some U.S. policy and procedures as “abusive.” Special correspondent Kavitha Cardoza of Education Week reports.

Oakland schools, teachers prepare for looming strike [VIDEO]

Lyanne Melendez, ABC 7 News
Oakland schools and teachers are gearing up for a Thursday strike after both sides failed to reach an agreement. On Monday, Oakland’s mayor told reporters she believes a strike is unavoidable but hopes it will be short lived given a series of new developments. Late on Monday the union was finalizing preparations for a walkout at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Oakland. With a teachers strike looming, both the Oakland School District and the teacher’s union have refused to make the first move to discuss the contract. For example, the union wants to see a new proposal in writing before sitting down with the school district. “What we’re saying is we want to see the proposal that the district has, we want to see it,” expressed Keith Brown, President of the Oakland Teachers Association. The district on the other hand wants to sit down first to discuss the latest offer, then begin to negotiate.

The Parkland school shooting galvanized a wave of activism — and it got results

Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
The shooting last Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., prompted a wave of student and parent activism for stricter gun laws not seen after previous massacres. The pressure succeeded in Republican-dominated Florida, which passed a package of gun-control laws within weeks. The legislation raised the gun-buying age to 21, imposed a three-day waiting period for purchases and authorized police to seek court orders seizing guns from individuals who are deemed threatening. But the policy response to the shooting was mixed in other states throughout the year. Only Vermont, a state with a Democratic legislature and Republican governor, followed Florida’s lead by approving comprehensive gun-control legislation.

Language, Culture, and Power

64 percent of California LGBT students are bullied. A new bill would train teachers to help

Andrew Sheeler, The Sacramento Bee
Anti-LGBTQ bullying is an epidemic in California schools: 64 percent of such middle and high school students surveyed by the California Department of Education last year reported being bullied. Nearly half had seriously considered suicide. Now, California lawmakers have re-introduced a bill aimed at giving teachers and school districts tools and funding to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students. Assembly Bill 493 is co-sponsored by Assemblyman Todd Gloria, vice chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. The bill would require every county office of education, school district and charter school to provide annual in-service training to all teachers grades seven to 12. The training would focus on “strategies to increase support for LGBTQ pupils and thereby improve overall school climate,” according to the bill language.

The gun violence that’s a bigger threat to kids than school shootings

Alia Wong, The Atlantic
Gun violence has killed nearly 1,200 children in the United States since the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, one year ago. Few of these deaths became the focus of the nation’s attention. Maybe that’s because these killings were so mundane, so normal, in the 21st-century United States. A few weeks after the Parkland shooting, a 17-year-old high-school student in Birmingham, Alabama, named Courtlin Arrington, who’d long dreamed of becoming a nurse, was shot and killed in class, just months before she was to graduate. In July, three siblings—the oldest of whom was 6—were, according to news reports, murdered along with their mother by their father, who used the same gun to kill himself. A few months after that, a 17-year-old budding entrepreneur in Dayton, Ohio, named Lashonda Sharreice Childs was allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Just days before her death, according to local news media, Childs had written in a Facebook post that “domestic violence is real,” that it wasn’t “just in movies.” In December, Izabella “Izzy” Marie Helem was shot to death at the age of 4. Izzy’s 3-year-old brother had been playing with a gun he found in their grandmother’s Lebanon, Indiana, home and accidentally fired it in her direction.

How special education is a prime example of our unhealthy ‘obsession with conformity’

Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post; Soyoung Park, University of Texas at Austin
The Supreme Court has lifted injunctions blocking a Trump policy preventing transgender people from serving in the military. The decision grants the Pentagon permission to ban transgender people from joining the military, or in some cases even staying in the military. President Trump has been pushing for this ban since 2017, even though studies indicate that inclusion of transgender individuals would have minimal impact on the military. The Trump administration’s active discrimination of people outside of the dominant culture is likely not surprising to the American people. President Trump, however, is not the source of systemic oppression; he is simply capitalizing on and perpetuating injustice. Fear of “the other” is something deeply embedded in our nation’s DNA. We need only look at schooling in America to see how ingrained our disdain for diversity actually is. Our education system is an enterprise designed to “fix” children who do not fit the norms of school. These norms are based on a white, middle class, able-bodied culture. Children learn from a very young age that if they are different — in their behavior, way of thinking, language, etc. — they will fail.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Elevating the arts to improve student achievement [VIDEO]

Alyson Klein, Education Week
It’s a Friday in December, but Lisa Perkinson’s dance class at Binford Middle School isn’t taking it easy. The students—some of whom had never had a dance class until they started school here less than three years ago—are practicing solos for upcoming auditions for the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, an arts magnet serving more than a dozen districts in Virginia. Watching the students perform their own choreography in a full-fledged studio complete with special flooring, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago, low-achieving Binford faced potential closure. It had just 205 students, or about half of its current 410-student enrollment. But Christie-Jo Adams, who had just stepped into the newly created position of instructional specialist for fine arts for the Richmond school district, pitched an idea to save the school: Launch an integrated-arts program and open enrollment up to the whole city. It was one of the most significant steps in her mission to get students in this urban school district, 75 percent of whom live in poverty, the chance to paint or sculpt, or dress up and go to a venue to hear choral music. (The district offered some of those experiences before she came on, but it wasn’t consistent, particularly in higher poverty areas.)

Among preschoolers, bullies who get bullied are at high risk for depression

Lillian Mongeau, The Hechinger Report
It turns out the old saying about sticks and stones breaking bones but words never hurting is bunk. According to research newly published in the peer-reviewed Early Childhood Research Quarterly, emotional bullying in the preschool years hurts quite a lot. When a child both bullies and gets bullied, the findings are especially clear: Depression symptoms begin to appear as early as age 3. Depression in early childhood increases the risk of depression in later childhood, which predicts depression in adolescence. Bullying by young children is “very obvious,” said Tracy Vaillancourt, a professor of child psychology at the University of Ottawa and co-author of the study. “They’re not very good at it but it’s still very effective.”

Stanford scholars examine issues of expanding genetics research in education

Melissa De Witte, Stanford News
As researchers learn more about the genes that shape a child’s development – including traits of interest to parents and educators – these discoveries must not distract from the essential need for well-crafted policy and determined teachers in the collective task of educating the next generation, Stanford scholars say. In a new paper published Feb. 20 in AERA Open, Graduate School of Education’s Benjamin Domingue and Sam Trejo discuss what recent developments in genetics research will mean for parents, educators and policymakers. They say that while genetics can provide valuable insight into human development and behavior – research might one day offer information about ADHD, dyslexia and other learning differences – environments also have immense effects for how a child grows, independent of genetic makeup. This, they urge, must not be ignored. Here, Domingue, an assistant professor and a faculty fellow at the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences, and Trejo, a graduate student whose focus is on education, health, genetics and social policy, talk to Stanford News Service about genetics research and education.

Access, Assessment, and Advancement

New York City public schools should be evaluated based on diversity, not just tests, panel says

Eliza Shapiro, The New York Times
A high-level panel commissioned by Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the city to adopt a sweeping measure to address entrenched segregation in education: create diversity targets for all 1,800 schools so that their population reflects the racial and economic makeup of the surrounding areas. Over the next five years, the panel recommended, elementary and middle schools should reflect the racial makeup of their local school district, and high schools should look as much like their local borough as possible, in terms of race, income level, disability and proficiency in English. New York’s schools have become increasingly divided along racial lines over the last two decades, and the city is currently home to one of the most segregated urban public school systems in America. Mr. de. Blasio, now in his second term, ran on a promise to reduce inequality in all aspects of city life. But, when it comes to school segregation, he has been stymied by the same quandary that previous mayors faced: How to redistribute resources so that black and Hispanic students have more access to high-quality schools without alienating middle class, white families.

This program is helping fast-diversifying suburban schools promote success for all students

Nick Chiles, The Hechinger Report
Standing in front of Ridgeview Charter Middle School in this Atlanta suburb, you can’t help but notice the opulence of the homes that surround it. Soaring turrets. Columned entrances. Lush lawns. These are folks who clearly have bitten off a sizable chunk of the American dream. Inside the doors of the middle school, there’s a different American story playing out. With a student body that is nearly 70 percent Hispanic and black, and with slightly over half of its 1,100 students categorized as low-income, this is an institution that is not serving the homes around it. Most of the students at Ridgeview live in modest apartment complexes a few miles away. If they have school-age children, the residents of the ornate homes tend to send them to private schools outside the neighborhood. In Sandy Springs, the public schools have had to confront a phenomenon that more and more suburbs around the country are facing, one long familiar to American cities: dwindling percentages of white students. At Ridgeview, as its share of white students decreased, its Hispanic population grew. Now Hispanic students make up nearly half the school; white students are about 30 percent; and black students, close to 20 percent.

California’s new ‘free college’ law for community colleges covers more than tuition

Mikhail Zinshteyn, EdSource
After California lawmakers passed a law in 2017 that some of its backers touted as making community college tuition-free, David Loverin heard from a lot of families eager to take advantage of it. When legislators and the media began focusing on the law, “they started promoting it as free college,” said Loverin, director of financial aid at College of the Sequoias, a community college in Visalia, south of Fresno. “But when you went back to the actual bill, it wasn’t really written that way. So a lot of families are coming to us saying ‘free college, free college’ and we’re like, no, not really.” That’s because the law, AB 19, known as the California College Promise program, allocated $46 million to the state’s 114 community colleges with the idea of helping students cover some of their costs, not necessarily tuition.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Episode 165: Civil rights in our schools [AUDIO]

Every February students across the country learn about Black History Month, including the civil rights movement. But educating children on the civil rights movement takes on a special role when you’re located in Birmingham, Alabama. Professor Tondra Loder-Jackson dives into the history of civil rights activism in Birmingham’s schools and what teachers today should know as they tackle this important topic in their classrooms.

‘Grit is in our DNA’: Why teaching grit is inherently anti-black

Bettina L. Love, Education Week
Teachers and school leaders need to abandon teaching students to embrace “grit.” In my new book, We Want to Do More Than Survive, I spend an entire chapter explaining how these quick fixes pathologize African-American children and are inherently anti-black. I argue that the idea of grit seems harmless at face value—we can all agree that children need grit to be successful in life, regardless of how you define success—but is actually the educational equivalent of The Hunger Games. Measuring African-American students’ grit while removing no institutional barriers, then watching to see who beats the odds makes for great Hollywood movies (i.e., “Dangerous Minds,” “The Blind Side,” “Freedom Writers”) and leaves us all feeling good because the gritty black kid made it out of the ‘hood. But we fail to acknowledge the hundreds of kids who are left behind because we are rooting for what we are told is an anomaly. However, if teachers knew how enslaved Africans made it to the United States and how we as African-Americans fight every day to matter in this country, I believe they would understand why questioning whether African-American kids have grit is not only trivial but also deeply hurtful.

1.3 million homeless students: New federal data show a 70 percent jump in K-12 homelessness over past decade, with big implications for academic performance

Mark Keierleber, The 74
Student homelessness has hit an all-time high following a significant spike over the past three years, with 20 states experiencing a surge of 10 percent or more, new federal data released last week indicate. The data also found that students who experience homelessness are significantly less likely to graduate from high school. More than 1.3 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2016-17 school year, a 7 percent increase over three years ago and the largest number ever recorded. Over the past decade, the population of students experiencing homelessness has spiked by a startling 70 percent. Several factors might have contributed to the growth in student homelessness. Among them are lingering effects of the recession, local economic issues, natural disasters, and the opioid epidemic, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection, which works to address homelessness through education.

Public Schools and Private $

This time, it wasn’t about pay: West Virginia teachers go on strike over the privatization of public education (and they won’t be the last)

Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
This time, it wasn’t about pay. West Virginia teachers walked off the job across the state Tuesday to protest the privatization of public education and to fight for resources for their own struggling schools. It was the second time in a year that West Virginia teachers left their classrooms in protest. In 2018, they went on strike for nine days to demand a pay increase, help with high health-care costs and more school funding — and they won a 5 percent pay hike. On Tuesday, union leaders said that, if necessary, they would give up the pay hike as part of their protest. They are fighting legislation that would take public money from resource-starved traditional districts and use it for charter schools and for private and religious school tuition. “Teachers are willing to forsake their raises for the proposition that public education must be protected and that their voices must be protected,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who went to Charleston, W.Va., for the strike Tuesday. “This was absolutely an effort to defund public education, and teachers fought it.”

With no funding, Kentucky charter school law flatlines … again

Mandy McLaren, Louisville Courier Journal
For the second year in a row, Kentucky lawmakers will take no action on charter school funding — effectively shelving the state’s controversial charter law. “It’s a pretty shocking failure of leadership,” said Todd Ziebarth, a national charter school advocate who helped craft the 2017 law. That law, once heralded by Republicans for its promise to help needy families escape failing schools, has floundered on the books for two years without funding. As a result, no charter schools have opened in the Bluegrass State.And though the legislature remains under GOP control — and a new Kentucky education commissioner has thrown his full support behind the effort — no charter funding bills are expected by Wednesday’s filing deadline. “To again fail to do it is pretty shocking and something we’ve never seen in any other state,” said Ziebarth, senior vice president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Moratorium on new charter schools passes first hurdle

Associated Press, Artesia Daily Press
No new charter schools would be allowed to open in New Mexico until 2022 under a proposal that cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday, an indication that New Mexico is among other states with Democratic strongholds where support for school choice is facing an uphill battle. The proposed moratorium in New Mexico has the support of teachers unions and some school board and superintendent associations. It passed the House Education Committee with a 10-3 vote. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who was among several Democrats nationwide to flip governor seats during the midterm elections, has voiced support for the moratorium until state leaders have time to review how those in place are performing.

Other News of Note

These governors are calling for teacher pay raises

Education Week
Amid threatened teacher strikes and budget surpluses, more than 15 governors so far this year have recommended that their state boost teachers’ pay, according to an Education Week analysis of State of the State addresses. In states across the South and West—including in Arizona, Idaho, and West Virginia, where chronically low teacher pay has inflamed teacher shortages and caused political angst—governors are urging legislators in proposed budgets to provide teachers next year with anywhere from a 2 percent raise in North Dakota to a 20 percent raise in Arizona. Other governors, such as in Arkansas and Maine, want to raise their state’s minimum pay for teachers. It’s still too early to tell what the final picture will look like, since at least seven governors have yet to make their State of the State speeches. And there’s no guarantee that all teachers will get a pay raise this fall even if governors push for it. Some states, such as Nevada and Pennsylvania, don’t have statewide teacher pay scales, so it’s up to districts to actually allocate any extra money toward teacher pay. The map and table below will be updated as governors give their State of the State addresses.