Bilingual Education and Common Core

English-Only to the Core

What the Common Core means for emergent bilingual youth

BY JEFF BALE

Children and their parents demonstrate against English-only Proposition 227. Oakland, California, 1998.
Photo credit: David Bacon

Among bilingual educators, there has been much debate about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Some of the most respected scholars of bilingual education have endorsed the Common Core and are working hard to make it relevant for English learners. Others have been more suspicious. Not only do the standards focus on English-only, critics note, but they were bankrolled by the Gates Foundation, pushed on states in a way that amounts to bribery by the Obama administration, and promise to worsen the impact of high-stakes standardized testing.

In fact, the genesis of the Common Core stands in direct contrast to how bilingual education programs were won, namely through grassroots, explicitly anti-racist organizing by students, parents, teachers, and community allies. The standards thus raise a key question: Given the history of bilingual education programs in the United States, is it possible to expand social justice for emergent bilingual youth through the Common Core?

Addressing that question has been challenging, given the inconsistent responses of professional and civil rights organizations to the standards. The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) issued a position statement in January 2013 with mixed messages. Although NABE’s membership passed a resolution opposing the Common Core, the statement explains that the group is “working collaboratively with policymakers, school administrators, and teachers” to ensure that implementing the Common Core does not negatively impact English learners. The TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) International Association issued a policy brief endorsing the standards.

What It Takes to Unite Teachers Unions and Communities of Color | The Nation

What It Takes to Unite Teachers Unions and Communities of Color | The Nation

Community Organizing as School Reform

National Growth of Community Organizing: Essential to School Transformation  Published on April 3, 2012

Author:  Keith Catone with Mark R. Warren

The recent "A Match on Dry Grass" conference at Harvard Graduate School of Education underscores that community organizing has become a powerful force for education change, and nurturing its growth is key to achieving equity for underserved youth living in high poverty.

The persistent failure of public schooling in low-income communities is one of our nation’s most pressing civil rights and social justice issues. Many school reformers recognize that poverty, racism, and a lack of power held by these communities undermine children's education and development, but too few policy - and decision-makers seem to know what to do about it.

Community organizing represents a fresh and promising approach to school reform as part of a broader agenda to build power for low-income communities and to address the profound social inequalities that affect the education of children. In AISR’s work in New York City and elsewhere, we have seen the power of communities, parents, and youth to transform their schools when they engage with educators and researchers to demand change and develop informed decisions. An emerging national field of education organizing reflects the growing visibility and power of this movement.

Learn to Organize

Feb. 21,2009. Session.Free.

Organizing in the Style of the Obama Campaign and Cesar Chavez (Organizing to Change) Duane Campbell,
We will use changing No Child Left Behind as a vehicle for discussion of how to organize for change.
10:30 Am. Feb. 21,2009. As a part of the Multicultural Education conference at Sac State.
Free. Open to the public.
For more information:
http://edweb.csus.edu/BMED/conference/2009/bmed20090221.pdf

details at : http://progressiveforum07.blogspot.com/

Keynote;
Youth Rising – Radical Healing and
Activism in the Post Civil Rights Era
Saturday, February 21, 2009
9 A.M.
University Union, Sacramento State, 6000 J. Street. Sacramento

Keynote Speaker: DR. Shawn Ginwright. Associate Professor. San Francisco State University

Organizing for Social Change

Session A
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Organizing in the Style of the Obama Campaign and Cesar Chavez (Organizing to Change NCLB), Duane Campbell, Democratic Socialists of America

Youth Rising – Radical Healing and
Activism in the Post Civil Rights Era
Saturday, February 21, 2009
8:30 am – 2:00 pm
University Union, Sacramento State

Keynote Speaker: DR. Shawn Ginwright. Associate Professor. San Francisco State University.

15th. Annual Multicultural Education Conference.
Free. Open to the Public.
8:30 AM. – 2 P.M.

Obama and Community Organizing

Creation Myth
What Barack Obama won't tell you about his community organizing past.
John B. Judis, The New Republic Published: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=2e0a7836-b897-4155-864c-25e791ff0f50
I found this essay very useful and well written. John Judis, at the New Republic. I think he was formerly at ITT, and in Chicago. At the same time, I have some criticisms.
The stuff Judis writes about community organizing is well said. The implications which he draws are often not well developed.
Yes, Barack Obama left community organizing. Most community organizers do. It is a hard, difficult, often not sustaining experience. We learn the skills of organizing and then we go on to use these skills in other locations, not the hard knocks of most urban neighborhoods.

1. There is nothing wrong about moving on from organizing.
I know well two outstanding, nationally recognized community organizers. ( and several more)
These two were at the top of their professions and their organizations. They devoted over 10 years to the struggle, some in Chicago.
After rising to the top, and staying there for a decade, they each left to become teachers. As teachers they were excellent. They had regular hours, regular salaries, and could clearly see the progress of their students. They were happier as teachers than as organizers. Sanity and humanity encourages you moving on. And, in the case of Obama, he continued to search for platforms where he could do good.

2. J. Judis makes a major case of Barack moving away from the hard principle of Alinksy, work from self interest not from appeals to moral principles. This seems like a good move.
In California the PICO organizing community developed out of, and by leaving, the Alinksy based IAF organizing on precisely this issue.
That is, many organizers do not agree that only self interest rules. There are other variables, like the race issues raised well in the article.
Judis argues that Barack may have gone too far in abandoning this core principle. I don't think so. ( nor does PICO). Rather, he applied another core principle; adjust to your environment. Read your constituency and work within their frames of interest. Listen to the authentic voices of the people.
Often, it is not a choice between self interest and moral principles. Rather, if you look for solutions, you can find places where self interests and moral principles combine. It is not an either-or choice. At best it is a both and choice.

3. So, then, what does the Obama campaign take from community organizing that informs his potential presidency?
You need to train organizers. ( the campaign is doing this).
Organizers need discipline. they need a strategy.
In this case organizers learn skills. It is not only voter mobilization, but skill development also.

These keys are valuable. They were essential to organizers trained by the United Farmworkers union which in a very real way helped to re-organize Latino politics in the U.S. See here: http://www.farmworkermovement.org/news/index.php
And, hopefully, they will be of value during and after the Obama campaign.

Duane Campbell