Teaching About Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the UFW

By Duane E. Campbell

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  Cesar Chávez.  November 9, 1984.

On March 31, 2015,  Eleven  states  and numerous cities will hold holidays celebrating  labor and Latino Leader Cesar Chavez. Conferences, marches and celebrations will occur in numerous cities this weekend.  See the  post below  on the Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference at UCD on March 28.   A recent film Cesar Chavez: An American Hero, starring Michael Peña  as Cesar Chavez and Rosario Dawson  as Dolores Huerta presents important parts of this story and shows how Chavez was lied about and attacked by Ronald Reagan, the Nixon Administration, the Republican Party and numerous right wing forces.  This film works well in high school classrooms. Lesson plans for teaching about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta are here. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/lessons-cesar-chavez-and-dolores-huerta.Chavez lessons

The story of Cesar Chavez, and to a lesser degree Dolores Huerta is mentioned in history books for California students, however much of the additional Mexican American history is missing.  A group of scholars, teachers, allies, activists have joined  in our campaign to improve the history textbooks in California by including the histories of  Mexican American/ Chicano people.  More than 52% of California students are descendants of Latino and Mexican people. Unfortunately they  can't they be found in the textbooks.

You are invited to participate in this effort. We need each of  you and your friends to write a letter.  Here is a guide. Here is how to write a letter :https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/latino-students-and-civic-engagement/project-plan---mexican-american-history

We can each do our part.

Meanwhile,  in March of 2015  hundreds of farmworkers have walked off their jobs in Baja California, Mexico, from the agricultural fields just a few miles from the U.S. border , fields developed to provide a harvest to the U.S. markets.  Farm labor strikes and violence against strikers remains a volatile issue.  Farm workers deserve dignity, respect, and fair wages.  Achieving these goals will require a union.

Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference

Teaching About Cesar Chavez

Let me tell you about this man.  Cesar Chavez, Union Organizer.  4th. and 5th. grade. Available from CFT.org  http://cft.org/images/committees/docs/letmetellyouaboutthis man.pdf

www.goo.gl/jhyuZh

The Schools We Deserve - Los Angeles

UTLA rally draws thousands in call for 'the schools LA students deserve'

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February 26, 2015—Today thousands of educators from across Los Angeles jammed Grand Park today in a rally for "the Schools LA Students Deserve." They arrived by rail, bus, car and on foot—wearing UTLA red to send a loud message to LAUSD that Los Angeles teachers will not stop fighting for smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools, clean and safe schools, and fair compensation. UTLA was joined in the rally by students, parents and community groups and supported by its affiliates CFT, CTA, AFT and NEA.

Last week, UTLA declared an impasse in negotiations with the District after LAUSD failed to bring meaningful proposals to the table on the key demands for the Schools LA Students Deserve. UTLA says it will continue to organize and hold actions until the Superintendent starts to listen.

Teachers life

Teach The Students Well- Their Own History !

Write Chicano/Mexican American History into California State Textbooks

By Duane Campbell

Mexican American/Chicano history is substantially absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has been since  1986.  This year we have an opportunity to change that. 

California has the largest student  population of any state, with more than 6,236,000 students  in school in 2013.  Students who are Mexican American of Latino heritage make up over 53% of the total school population. 

Latino student political non participation  and disconnectedness is significantly caused by Latino absence from the K-12 textbooks and curriculum. 

Children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics engagement in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools-  ignore the students’ own history, cultures and experiences.

California state textbooks currently largely ignore the roles of Mexican Americans and Latinos in building this state.  Students need to learn civic engagement – it is not automatic.  Students need to learn that they belong , that they are a part of the community and its history.

Vote for Eric Guerra- April 7

Eric Guerra has made District 6 his home since he first attended Sacramento State University nearly 20 years ago.

Eric and his family emigrated from Mexico when Eric was a young child. They earned a living as farmworkers in and around the Sacramento region, and Eric pitched in, working in the fields before and after school and each summer to help the family make ends meet.

Eric's Activism Started at Sac State

The lessons Eric learned from his parents – about the importance of hard work and education as a way to a better life – drove him. He did well in school, enrolled at Sacramento State University, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration. Eric also met his wife, Christina, in the Master’s program at Sac State.

As an undergraduate, Eric’s fellow students elected him Student Body President, and he successfully raised over $60,000 to fund student projects on campus. While at Sac State, Eric advocated for the community during the inception of the 65th Street Transit Village Plan to direct redevelopment funds into community improvements. He also met with then-City Councilmembers Dave Jones and Steve Cohn to address the issues of blight and improved pedestrian and bicycle paths in the region. Eric’s efforts to improve the neighborhood were highlighted in a 2003 Sacramento Bee article.

Charter Schools are Not Educational Reform

by David Hornbeck

As Philadelphia's Superintendent of Schools, I recommended the approval of more than 30 charter schools because I thought it would improve educational opportunity for our 215,000 students. The last 20 years make it clear I was wrong.

Those advocating change in Maryland's charter law through proposed legislation are equally committed to educational improvement. They are equally wrong. New policy should not build on current inequities and flawed assumptions, as the proposed charter law changes would do.

Mixed academic results: Charters, on the whole, do not result in significant improvement in student performance. It's mixed at best. In some evaluations, charter schools overall actually underperform regular public schools.

The 3 most important parts of Obama's emotional speech in Selma

Sorry about the ads.

Eric Guerra for City Council

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance supports Eric Guerra for Sacramento City Council, District 6.
Special election.  April 7, 2015.
The Sacramento City Council has not had a Latino member for twenty years. Many  of the Democratic Party clubs are supporting his opponent. Eric was a strong ally of multicultural education while he was President of ASI at Sac State.
Contract the Guerra campaign on Facebook. Campaign volunteers are needed.
The decision was made at our board meeting on Feb.21. 

Screw State Universities

How Republicans Chose Tax Cuts over Education  by Ed Kilgore- TPM. 

12130 Views

Scott Walker- Wisconsin 

The last time we had anything like the recent wave of Republican takeovers of state governments was in 1994, when the GOP picked up ten net governorships and took control of fifteen new state legislative chambers. The officeholders who benefited from this shift were for the most part very lucky people, assuming their positions just as the Long Boom of the mid-to-late 1990s began to gain momentum. The resulting revenue bonanza made it easy for Republicans at the state level to keep tax cut promises without unpopular spending reductions. Remember that large group of GOP governors who backed George W. Bush when he ran for president in 2000 as a “reformer with results?” They all, including Bush, owed a big debt of thanks to the drivers of the national economy, including Bill Clinton.

But the current batch of GOP landslide beneficiaries in the states are not quite so lucky, at least so far. While the economy has slowly picked up pace since the first cohort of them took office in 2011, it’s hardly roaring. And it’s not clear who’s in a worse position: veteran Republicans in budget trouble because of tax cuts already passed, or the 2015 freshmen who took office promising tax cuts they have no way to pay for without deep budget cuts. An additional complication is the revenue crisis facing states—most of them governed by Republicans—depending disproportionately on oil and gas severance taxes, which have been decimated by the recent fall in world oil prices.
Some high-profile Republican governors and legislative leaders are in a particularly deep hole of their own making, and are taking on the state version of the political “third rail” by attacking higher education spending.
There are plenty of reasons why higher ed is an unusually tough place to cut, varying from the power of alumni to football and basketball and the perceived economic payoff of a good state university system. Still, during the depths of the Great Recession, virtually all states cut higher ed subsidies, which non-coincidentally produced a large wave of tuition increases. But some cut more than others, and are doing less to replace lost funding now that the economy’s doing better. Only eight states failed to increase per student higher ed spending in Fiscal Year 2014: Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wyoming. And now in 2015 it generates headlines when significant higher education cuts are proposed, as in Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Louisiana.
You may note that these are all states with highly ideological Republican state administrations and legislatures. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback narrowly survived a reelection challenge focused on his credit-damaging tax cuts and unpopular education cuts; now, with little to lose, he’s back for more. In North Carolina, a state often matched with Kansas as a deliberate conservative policy experiment station, state legislators (guided by a conservative think tank founded by highly influential billionaire Art Pope) are seeking shutdowns in ideologically unfavored parts of the university system.

Students need more funds, not more tests.

As a teacher of more than 20 years at an inner-city high school in Los Angeles, I saw the value of federal dollars sent to our local public schools through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In fact, millions of America’s poorest schoolchildren depend on the Title 1 funding that was established in the law as part of the landmark 1965 “War on Poverty” legislation. 

In Los Angeles, Title 1 funding allowed us to buy paper, pens and pencils that, while taken for granted in many communities, were a luxury for children and parents living in poverty. It also allowed us to hire instructional aides and provide programs that gave thousands of students the help they needed to succeed in school and prepare for college.

Congress must now decide whether to reauthorize the act, and whether to continue with the high-stakes testing mandates adopted as part of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top.

Elect Eric Guerra

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance supports Eric Guerra for Sacramento City Council, District 6.
Special election.  April 7, 2015.
The Sacramento City Council has not had a Latino member for twenty years. Most of the Democratic Party clubs are supporting his opponent. Eric was a strong ally of multicultural education while he was President of ASI at Sac State.
Contract the Guerra campaign on Facebook. Campaign volunteers are needed.
The decision was made at our board meeting on Feb.21. 

Violence Against Children and Teachers

by Steven Singer 

She was smiling and laughing, but her eyes were terrified.

Sitting in class among her fellow middle school students, her words were all bravado. But her gestures were wild and frightened. Tears were close.

So as the morning bell rang and the conversation continued unabated, I held myself in check. I stopped the loud rebuke forming in my teacher’s throat and just listened.

“You know that shooting at Monroeville Mall Saturday night, Mr. Singer? I was there!”

I swallowed. “My gosh, Paulette. Are you okay?”

She acts street smart and unbreakable, but I can still see the little girl in her. She’s only thirteen.

She slowed down and told us what happened; a story framed as bragging but really a desperate plea for safety and love.

She went to the mall with her mother. When they separated so she could go to the restroom, the gunfire began. She ran out and Mom was gone. She was ushered into a nearby store where the customers were kept in lockdown. She stayed there until the police cleared the mall, and it was safe to find her mother and go home.

CSU hurts students by relying upon part-time lecturers

Lilian Taiz,

It’s bad enough that the California State University is using more part-time than full-time professors.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that CSU has been choosing, decade after decade, to follow a corporate model that builds its part-time workforce at the expense of recruiting and retaining permanent faculty. That model is bad for the employees, but it also has serious implications for the 447,000 students who rely on CSU for quality public higher education.

That hiring pattern is a long-term policy that the CSU has been advancing regardless of the state of the economy. Moreover, in recent years despite greater investment in the CSU at the state level (though not as much as the system needs), these hiring practices have continued.

What has NCLB wrought ?

Lily Ekelsen Garcia, President NEA I have a pop quiz for you. In 2001, before No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed, there were six federally-mandated tests per student. Guess how many there are now? 6 8 10 17 The answer: 17 Let that sink in for a minute...17 federally-mandated tests. And that's on TOP of all the other state and local assessments that are being administered.  But that's not even the real issue. It's the high stakes that are tied to those tests and the lack of attention on what really matters - the opportunities we're providing our students across ALL zip codes. That is the real heart of the problem. Join me in speaking up about it now. Right now, Congress is reauthorizing this cornerstone piece of education legislation - the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) or No Child Left Behind (NCLB). It's a HUGE deal that will dictate not only the amount of time students spend on testing, but also the resources like advanced courses, extracurriculars, and access to school counselors - they receive.

Schooled for Failure: California's k-12 Crisis

Bill Raden

“You can see a big difference between students who have gone to preschool and who have not,” Jones told Capital & Main in her tidily organized classroom. Aggravating the situation, she adds, is that Angeles Mesa is surrounded by charter schools that tend to siphon higher achieving students and attract more motivated parents, who are drawn as much by safety concerns as academic excellence. That has created an additional inequality within an inequality, as Angeles Mesa is left with a disproportionate population of underachievers lacking in basic social and learning skills.

“It is definitely difficult to have a child come into kindergarten who’s never been read to,” Jones explained. “And it’s not that they haven’t been read to because their parents don’t want to — it’s just when you’re a single mom and you’re working four jobs, it doesn’t always work out that way.”

If there is a lesson in evidence-based research for California policy makers, say Orfield and Gandara, it is that there are limitations to what even the most inspired teachers alone can achieve in a society plagued with inequities.

It is Time for Civic Education for All

by Duane Campbell
The Sacramento Bee editorial board was correct in their Friday Feb.6, 2015,  piece, “Civic Education is Essential to Democracy. congratulate them on their position. http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article9373664.html

However, they missed the boat on how to get to improved civic education.

While it is accurate that we have a general problem of civic engagement of the young,  it is also true that we have a very specific problem with the rate of Latino and Asian voter participation and  civic engagement.  Together they comprise over 60% of the students in our schools.  And, the textbooks have yet to acknowledge their presence.

 Rates of voting and voter registration provide a window into civic engagement.  The proportion of state voter  registration that is Latino and Asian has remained far below the proportions of these groups in the state’s overall population. In 2010, Latinos in the state made up 37.6% of the general population while they were on 21.2 % of the registered voters. The Asian population was 13.1 % of the state but  only 8.1 % of the registered voters.

The Bee recommendations , like the earlier report, Revitalizing K-12 Civic Learning in California, http://www.powerofdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CLTF-Final-Report.pdf

miss the single most direct and important  issue – include the children.  See http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2014/08/another-opportunity-missed-civic.html

 Children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, particularly students of color, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics messages in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools- ignore the students own history, cultures and experiences.

A fundamental way to engage students in civic culture is to engage them in their own schools and communities.  That is where the students most encounter civic opportunities.

The 1987 California History Social Science  Framework still in use today to guide the selection of  California textbooks   expanded African American, Native American, and women’s history coverage but remains totally inadequate in the coverage of Latinos and Asians. The only significant change between the 1985 and the 2005 adopted Framework was the addition of a new cover, a cover letter, and a photo of Cesar Chavez.

When the 51%  % of students who are Latino , and the 9  % who are Asian do not see themselves as part of history,  for many their sense of self is marginalized.   Marginalization negatively impacts their connections with school and their success at school.  It contributes to an up to  50% drop out rate for Latinos and some Asian students.  A more accurate, more complete  history  would provide some students with a  a sense of self, of direction,  of purpose, even a sense that  they should stay in school and learn more. History and social science  classes  should help young people acquire and learn to use the civics  skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives.   

Add their stories to the history textbooks, add their literature to the literature textbooks. They are not migrants from some distant place. They are California's children. Include them.  

The hard work of teachers and advocates, Los Angeles and San Francisco Unified  School boards have added ethnic studies to their curriculum.  This is an important step toward the inclusion of these students in civic education.  http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2014/12/la-unified-san-francisco-unified-to.html

To include more, the  1987 History Social Science Framework for California’s Schools needs revision. See here. See https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/why-california-students-do-not-know-chicano-history

And, yes, a revised civics course and appropriate support for teacher in-service preparation  is needed. The place to do that is in the History/ Social Science framework scheduled to be revised in 2015/2016.   It will require focused attention of many, including scholars, political leaders and editorial boards to overcome the inertia of the past frameworks. 

A more accurate, more complete  history  provided in Ethnic studies courses  would provide some students with a  a sense of self, of direction,  of purpose, even a sense that  they should stay in school and learn more.  And, ethnic studies would provide Anglo  students with an informed, accurate history of the political and cultural development of the state.  Ethnic studies classes should help young people acquire and learn to use the civics  skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives.   

The Department of Education and the Board of Education can start by revising the California History/ Social Science Framework to include the history of the majority of students in the schools  and by  joining LA Unified in requiring Ethnic Studies Classes in high school.

The Framework determines what goes into the California  textbooks.  Having sought for decades to change this framework, I recognize how difficult it will be.  The next revision is up for consideration in 2015/2016.   If the CDE stacks the committee membership for writing a new framework, as they did last time, we can expect little change.  See https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/why-california-students-do-not-know-chicano-history

There is a network of scholars and professionals interested in writing a more complete history of our state.  This has been said before and we will keep reminding these folks.

Duane Campbell,  Democracy and Education Institute.

Sacramento

Readers:  Please like this post on Facebook and forward it to your lists.

We encourage discussion of these issues. Please use the comments section of this blog.

Sen.Rand Paul Criticizes Common Core History Standards- duh There aren't any

Cailin Macneal. Talking Points Memo.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Common Core in a fundraising email on Thursday, lambasting the way the standards portray American history.
The senator claimed the standards contain "anti-American propaganda" and a "revisionist history that ignores the faith of our Founders," according to Bloomberg News.

However, Common Core only sets standards in english language arts/literacy and math, as ThinkProgress pointed out.
Critics of Common Core take issue with its alleged required reading list, which Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan, described as a "myth" in a September op-ed.
The only texts Common Core requires students to read are the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and President Lincoln's second inaugural address, according to NPR.

The Charter School Challenge

Understanding the complexity of the Charter School movement, and the so called "school reform" movement is an important step in defending public education.  This week the Sacramento Bee has been running a series by various advocates of "school choice".  Most of these efforts are anti teacher union.   I and Seth Sandronsky wrote a response to one of these.

School Choice Does Not Respond to Problem of Poverty

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article8042724.html

Ben Boychuk trumpets school choice, but at the same time, he ignores that a majority of kids in U.S. public schools live in poverty.

Leo Casey of the Shanker Institute has just published a well informed piece on Charter Schools.
I recommend it for your reading.

http://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2015/01/17/the-charter-school-challenge/

Should California Drop Common Core?

When will California drop Common Core? 

Of the 24 people selected to write the Common Core standards, none of them were working K-12 classroom teachers, and two-thirds had no K-12 teaching experience. No one had experience at the elementary level. The standards were not based on any existing successful standards, and they were never pilot tested. 

It is not surprising that both child development researchers and experienced teachers have found that the standards are developmentally inappropriate. For the first time in history, the state standards are frozen by a copyright protection held by a private entity, and they provide no provision for changing them. The only way to fix them is to drop them. Five states have already done just that and more are certain to follow this year. How long will it take California? 

BRAD CLARK,  Teacher. SACRAMENTO

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article7758762.html#storylink=cpy

California ends out of school suspensions.

AB 420: Getting students back to school – for good

Starting January 1, California became the first state in the nation to eliminate in and out-of-school suspensions for its youngest children – K-3, and all expulsions for what is known as “willful defiance.” 

Teacher Karen Junker at Davidson Middle School put it this way: “AB 420 puts California on the path to being a state where we can ensure that all 5-8 year old students have access to good academic and social outcomes, even when they make mistakes and get themselves in trouble. This will focus our efforts at the youngest grades on giving teachers and students opportunities to learn to build community and repair harm where harm is done.”

Governor Brown signed AB 420 last year because of the incredible support from community and civil rights groups and educators. AB 420 was co-sponsored by Public Counsel, Children Now, Fight Crime Invest in Kids, and the ACLU of California.