Crisis in the UC's

And, they even mention the CSUs

Why Are We Destroying Public Education?
University of California Students and Staff Prepare for
System-Wide Strike to Protest Cuts

Democracy Now - November 17, 2009

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/17/why_are_we_destroying_public_education

The governing body of the University of California
system, the Board of Regents, is preparing to vote on a
major tuition hike for both undergraduate and graduate
students. Undergraduate tuition would rise an average
32 percent, while some graduate schools would begin
charging thousands of dollars for programs that are
currently tuition-free. The Regents are meeting
Thursday at UCLA, where students from across the state
are converging for what organizers have dubbed a
"Crisis Fest," including mass protests, civil
disobedience and teach-ins.

The Crisis of Jobs

A Wake Up Call on Jobs

by Robert Kuttner

President Obama has announced a White House Jobs Summit for next month. At least that's the beginning of recognition that the unemployment rate is unacceptable. The measured rate is now 10.2 percent, but if you count people who have given up or who are involuntarily working part time, the real rate is over 17 percent.
This spells political catastrophe for Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, as foreshadowed by the recent losses in the New Jersey and Virginia governors' races. But Obama's top economic advisers, such as Larry Summers, don't seem to get it. They continue to resist the idea of a second stimulus package.
"I think we got the Recovery Act right," Summers recently told the Washington Post'sAlec MacGillis, adding, "We always recognized that America's problems were not created in a week or a month or a year and that they were not going to be solved quickly. We designed the Recovery Act to ramp up over time, through 2010, and to make sure that the investments we made were important for the country's future."
And other senior Obama officials such as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Office of Management and Budget Chief Peter Orszag are more concerned with cutting the deficit than spending more money to reduce joblessness. According to theWall Street Journal, Orszag is sympathetic to the idea of a commission to cap government spending and Emanuel is floating the idea of spending some of the money that has been repaid from TARP bank bailouts on deficit reduction.

Arne Duncan and the Department of Education

The use of trumped-up numbers downplays the difficulty of the work Demmellash and other nonprofit leaders do -- and it downplays the stubbornness of problems like poverty, racial isolation, and lack of education. T The Social Innovation Fund is not the only corner of the Obama administration to fall under the sway of venture--philanthropy vogue, sometimes to the detriment of good social science. Through the Department of Education's innovation funds, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is promoting a very specific image of school reform, one that borrows liberally from the venture philanthropists' goal of bringing free-market values to the public sector. The federal guidelines encourage states and schools to embrace specific "innovations," such as enacting merit pay for teachers and lifting laws that cap the number of charter schools. Though such policies may have tertiary benefits, there is no research consensus on whether either one contributes to the "bottom line" of education reform -- increased academic achievement for high-poverty kids. A recent Stanford University study of charter schools in 16 states found that in math, only about 17 percent of charter schools increase student achievement over traditional public schools. The researchers described the results as "sobering." A competing study out of Stanford, by Hoover Institute Fellow Caroline Hoxby, found that students who win a lottery to attend a New York City charter school do much better on standardized tests than socioeconomically similar students who lose the lottery and return to traditional public schools. But New York's charters may be superior in quality exactly because state law allows only a few carefully selected organizations to manage charters. It is exactly such laws that the Department of Education claims stifle innovation. Regardless of whether you believe the charter detractors or defenders, it's undeniable that the obsession with innovative charter schools is out of proportion to the reality that less than 5 percent of American kids attend such a school. "[Charters] should not distract us from the challenging, important, and unheralded task of making process improvements in the operation of traditional schools," writes Grover Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution, in a gently mocking essay titled "Innovation, Motherhood, and Apple Pie." In Denver, the site of one of the largest experiments in merit pay for teachers, a 2008 study from the University of Colorado found no evidence that the new compensation system helped students; rather, teachers who were already high-performing chose to opt in to merit pay, while those who were less successful opted out. Even among teachers who participated in merit pay, only 38 percent believed the program directly improved student test scores. Critics contend the administration has ignored more difficult, yet proven school reforms, such as efforts to integrate schools, thus guaranteeing that fewer classrooms are overwhelmed by the challenges of poverty and racial isolation. Research by Cornell labor economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina ended a 30-year busing program and resegregated, the highest-performing teachers fled schools that became predominantly black and poor. Yet integration is seen as a pie-in-the-sky, old-school lefty goal by the venture-philanthropy crowd and has registered not at all on the Obama/Duncan agenda. It's not "innovative." Another criticism is that even when innovative social programs are proven to work well, the Obama administration under-estimates the costs involved with scaling them up. The White House's single favorite nonprofit is probably the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada's effort to flood 97 blocks of New York City with educational, health, and economic resources -- including several charter schools. The president has asked Congress to set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget to replicate 20 such "promise neighborhoods" across the country. But that figure is considered laughable by most nonprofit experts. The Harlem Children's Zone has an annual budget of $70 million. While the Social Innovation Fund and Department of Education grants are unlikely to result in systemic policy improvements, it would be a mistake to view the administration's social--innovation efforts in a vacuum. The same White House is pushing for a major overhaul of our health-care system. The $700 billion stimulus package is the greatest increase in federal spending since the Great Society. In the end, the administration's social-innovation push may be most useful for its signaling effect. Both Obamas have appeared in front of the moneyed and influential to tell them they should invest in community nonprofits and care about inner-city schools and unemployment. Nevertheless, it's true that the Obamas' infatuation with social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy serves as a reminder of their aversion to a more robust, liberal, government-focused rhetoric. In this regard, they are, perhaps, more Clintonian than they'd like to admit. The administration's concept of social innovation injects government into the philanthropic sector as a sort of tastemaker, hopefully influencing charities to advance progressive public policy ideas without the federal government having to spend too much more money. With the Republican congressional delegation in a full-on tax revolt, the strategy is arguably politically savvy, at least in the short term. But is it innovative? Not so much. There's nothing new about vilifying big government and asking a stretched-thin philanthropic sector to address a truly staggering landscape of human needs -- 10 percent unemployed, 47 million uninsured, only half of all black and Latino boys completing high school. "Many of these social problems are of the scale that require the government to be involved," says Nee of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. "A lot of the nonprofit stuff is sort of ... nickel and dime." From: The American Prospect. DANA GOLDSTEIN | November 16, 2009

School life with "reformers"

'Feels Like My Heart Has Been Broken'
New and Veteran Teachers in D.C. Stunned By Their Dismissal, as Well as Handling of It
By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 8, 2009


A neat row of X's stretches down Eve McCarey's performance evaluation, showing that in category after category, she is someone who "exceeds expectations." With three years of experience as a special education teacher at Anacostia High School, she is hardworking, well-spoken and now unemployed.
McCarey seems to be the sort of teacher any hard-charging, reformist schools chancellor would want in a classroom. But despite layoff rules designed to help the system retain high-performing teachers, McCarey found herself out of a job Friday, along with other educators who range from idealistic Teach for America newcomers to a 32-year guidance counselor who is praised by parents as uncommonly effective.
"It just feels like my heart has been broken," said counselor Sheila Gill, 57, of McKinley Technology High School. "I have been trying to process all of what's going on. It happened so quickly and so suddenly."

Schwarzenegger signs Delta Death Warrant

Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant 

by Dan Bacher

After an all night session, the California Legislature on November 4 passed a water package including an $11.1 billion bond that provides a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and more dams. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger then signed the bills that he described as "an historic legislative package to reform and rebuild California's water system" during a series of press conferences and highly choreographed photo opportunities over the past week. 

While Schwarzenegger and Darrell Steinberg lauded the package for being an “historic compromise,” Delta legislators, fishermen and Indian Tribes slammed the legislation for leading to the destruction of the Delta, its farms and its fish. 

"Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California," said Schwarzenegger. "Without clean, reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow and we cannot prosper. That is why I am so proud that the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, came together and tackled one of the most complicated issues in our state's history. This comprehensive water package is an historic achievement." 

Schwarzenegger praised the efforts of his Democratic collaborator, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, to push the water policy and bond package through the legislature. "He has been a tireless leader, a relentless advocate for the environment and a true statesman,” said Steinberg. 

Steinberg claimed the legislation enacts “landmark improvements to the environment and investments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – the heart of California’s water supply system – to ensure the restoration of the Delta’s fragile ecosystem while enhancing water reliability for all Californians.” 

“Over the last several decades, numerous efforts to comprehensively address the state’s water problems have consistently failed,” Steinberg gushed. “But the Senate this week rose to the occasion, overcoming enormous regional, philosophical, and political obstacles to forge an historic, bipartisan compromise.” 

On October 11, Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation calling for the legislature to meet in an extraordinary session to address California's water crisis, in effect strong arming the legislature to pass the water package that he wanted. 

While the Legislature approved the water policy and bond measures, they killed a bill by Assemblywoman Alsyon Huber that would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature. 

“I offered up a simple bill, a common sense approach,” Huber stated. “Unfortunately, my bill was killed without a hearing.” She vowed that she will resubmit this bill so it will have a full debate. 

“I opposed the water package because it creates a new layer of bureaucrats who will make decisions on water that will impact the communities I represent, without allowing us to have a voice, “ she emphasized. “I opposed the bond, especially because of the billions in pork for LA. This dead of night pork giveaway is exactly why voters give us low marks.” 

Water and Water Bonds

The Sacramento Bee Forum has two major pieces on the Schwarzenegger proposed Water Bonds.
Several of the key Republicans supporting this approach voted to block passing of the budget this year.
They used their minority votes to block the passage until they got the budget they wanted. - No new taxes_.  This led to $6.1 B cut in public school funds and devastating cuts in higher education.
In return, I will vote against their water bonds.
The state can not afford to borrow money by selling bonds.  Bonds become due. Existing bonds will soon use 10% of the state's revenue. ( More than high education).  More bonds lead directing to more cuts in health, education, and public safety.

The economic crisis, the budget, and our schools

DSA Talk: The Economic Crisis:

Economic Crisis, The Budget, Our Schools, and Your Students. This session will focus on the causes and consequences of the Great Recession, and its impact on education. Speaker will focus on explaining the crisis, available resources, and strategies for resistance.

Duane Campbell, DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)

12:30 P.M. The Redwood Room. Nov.14. 2009. 

 Sac State hosts

Multicultural Education Conference 

Social justice educator Brian D. Schultz is the keynote speaker for the 16^th annual Multicultural Education Conference, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14, in Sacramento State’s University Union.

Titled, “Social Justice Through Civic Engagement and Action,” the free conference is sponsored by Sacramento State’s Bilingual/Multicultural Education Department (BMED) and co-sponsored by the Serna Center and Project Citizen. The conference provides an opportunity for university faculty and local educators to promote multicultural education in K-12 public schools in the Sacramento region

Ravitch

a blog note. I had to delete the excellent  post by Diane Ravitch which appeared here two days ago.
Something in the post disrupted the other posts on the blog.  I was unable to find the problem. It must be in the code.

Water bonds and school funding

A major water bill has been passed by the California  Legislature, led by local leader Darrell Steinberg.  It includes a 10.1 Billion water bond. We will vote on this bond proposal  in 2010.

Bonds are sold, and then  they must be repaid.  That is, in a future year, we will be paying billion for the bonds, plus interest.

This will come out of the budget before we pay for schools, health care, etc.

I see that major Republicans voted for this Water Bill. And, I recall that they voted against adequately funding the schools. So, I will vote against the water bonds.

Now, Democrats too voted for this bill - including Steinberg.

Well- they have a 13 % approval rating by the public.

That is about right. I don't find their opinion very convincing.

Perhaps we should start a campaign;

If they will not support  quality education for the children, I will not vote for their subsidized water.

No money for schools- no money for water bonds.

What do others think ? Is this  viable position?

Race to the top ? Teacher Opinion

Letters to the editor;

Race to the top a 'boondoggle'

Re "Not pretty, but state education bill takes a step" (Editorials, Nov. 1): Proposed regulations for Race to the Top resemble the failed policies of No Child Left Behind, with even more emphasis on standardized test scores as the measure of all things.

The National Academy of Sciences recently rebuked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for his plan to judge schools and teachers largely on their test scores. The nation's top researchers explained that his proposal for performance pay could never lead to school improvement.

Congress created the academy to provide it with objective advice. In this case, the advice is that the Race to the Top is likely to do far more harm than good. The one-time federal funds for which California might become eligible under RTTT are not even enough to cover the increased costs of this new boondoggle, which include adopting new state academic content standards, new textbooks, and a new set of statewide standardized tests.

– George Sheridan, Garden Valley

Upgrade Teaching ?

National Panel Urges Upgrades to Teacher Workforce

By Lesli A. Maxwell

Washington

A report from a high-powered education task force that calls for states and school districts to overhaul how they recruit, prepare, evaluate, and compensate teachers has raised the hackles of the American Federation of Teachers, which dismissed many of its recommendations as “top-down” and disrespectful of the profession.

AFT President Randi Weingarten’s sharp criticism of the report, released Tuesday by Strategic Management of Human Capital, came despite the participation of Ms. Weingarten and two other AFT officers in the 30-member task force that helped shape a series of 20 policy recommendations to improve the teaching corps in the nation’s 100 largest school districts. Some recommendations are aimed at improving the effectiveness of principals, but teachers are the overwhelming focus of the report.

“There weren’t many of us on the task force speaking for teachers, and I think the report reflects that, especially in the lack of emphasis on principal effectiveness,” said Francine Lawrence, the president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, an AFT affiliate, and a member of the panel. “It doesn’t speak to the professionalization of teaching at all, which is a real disappointment.”

Arne Duncan and PACT

Needed: an overhaul of teacher prep
At a speech to Columbia University's Teachers College, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for a broad overhaul of the nation's teacher colleges. Duncan, as reported by the Associated Press, explained that prep programs are lucrative for the institutions that offered them, but fail to adequately prepare teachers for the classroom. Large enrollment and low overhead make them "cash cows" for universities, but profits are diverted to smaller, more prestigious departments rather than invested in research and training for would-be teachers. Duncan also faulted state governments for overly easy licensing that does not gauge classroom readiness and for failing to track which programs turn out effective teachers and which do not. If the country is to reach the president's global goal of the most college graduates by 2020, "both our K-12 system and our teacher preparation programs have to get dramatically better," said Duncan. He pointed to the administration's use of stimulus dollars to reward states that tie student achievement data to their education schools and to the demand to pay for an expansion of teacher residency programs in high-needs schools. Duncan stressed that timing is crucial. A third of veteran teachers are poised to retire, which could create a million new teaching positions over the next four years.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091022/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_teachers
See the secretary's speech: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html

DuaneCampbell

It uses the popular approach of citing a number of "excellent" programs, which happen to be those that Duncan has visited. 

Perhaps he should visit more.  It contains many of the usual problems, such as quoting an anonymous student who reported to E.D. Hirsch why he thought students did not take his course.  There is a great deal of self interest here. Hirsch thinks everyone should take his course.

he uses as evidence hearsay.

Typical, and troubling to me was this;

This is self reported success:

Under the leadership of Sharon Robinson, the AACTE and its 800 colleges and universities have made it a core mission to have pre-service education lead to substantial increases in student achievement. AACTE has also recently launched a series of new programs and initiatives designed to improve teacher effectiveness. One of their most promising initiatives to date is the development of the first nationally accessible assessment of teacher candidate readiness. Under this performance-based assessment, supervising teachers and faculty would evaluate student teachers in the classroom. And student teachers and interns would be required to plan and teach a week-long stint of instruction mapped to state standards and provide commentaries on videotapes of their instruction and classroom management.

AACTE's project is based on PACT, California's Performance Assessment for Teachers, which Linda Darling-Hammond and a wide-ranging consortium of teacher preparation programs in California have done so much to pioneer. Already 14 states have signed up to pilot the performance assessment.

So. AACTE is adopting this "model".   BTW. There is no objective data showing that this model works. 

Here is an examination of its problems by those of us who have used it.

http://sites.google.com/site/assessingpact/

Those who report its success almost universally do not visit student teachers in schools. They are encamped in the university.

It looks good from there.

And, it costs California some $9 million per year for an invalid, unreliable measure.

Duane Campbell 

http://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/

Conflicts of Interest in education and publishing

Conflict of Interest Arises in Push for Common Standards:

The Literacy Research Association sent a letter Oct. 21 to the groups overseeing the development of common standards that, among other points, expresses concern that many of the authors are “representatives of multiple commercial entities that stand to profit enormously from selling curricula, instructional materials, assessments, and consultancies as the standards are rolled out.” Such connections should be “explicitly revealed and addressed,” says the letter from the group, formerly called the National Reading Conference.


http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/11/04/10conflict_ep.h29.html?tkn=VPVF3NIN%2BDo42qQ1y9Cmow%2FLDYSR4dNWo6Mm

Rueben Navarette praises Arne Duncan

Conservative polemicist Rueben Navarette published a piece praising Arne Duncan attack on Schools of Education. Here is a response.

Ruben Navorette ("An apple for the education secretary," Oct 31) agrees with Education Secretary Duncan that Schools of Education should be held accountable for student achievement.
If so, American Schools of Education deserve praise, not scorn. If the role of poverty is taken into consideration, American children do very well in international comparisons.
The late Gerald Bracey pointed out that US schools with less than 25 percent of their enrollments made up of children of poverty outscore all other countries in math and science. American children only fall below the international average when 75 percent or more of the students in a school live in poverty. The obvious reason: Poverty, hunger, poor diet, toxins in the environment, and a lack of reading material, all characteristic of high-poverty environments, seriously affect academic performance. The United States has the highest level of childhood poverty of all industrialized countries.

Poverty is beyond the control of Schools of Education. Low scores on international tests are the fault of a society that allows so many children to live in poverty.
Also, if we accept Secretary Duncan's logic, we should hold schools of business and departments of economics accountable for the current economic crisis.
Stephen Krashen
See the Navarrette post below.

NCLB Reauthorization?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has called for a speedy re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), branded the "No Child Left Behind" law (NCLB) by the Bush administration.  Since expiring in 2007, NCLB has continued under a series of temporary extensions.  Some of NCLB practices are so controversial that major education groups have opposed the extension and Congress has been unable to assemble a majority to pass it.  But "re-authorization can't wait," Duncan said recently, and he has pledged to get Congress to enact a new education law in 2010.

Most observers assume that the emphases placed in the current debate over Race to the Top will continue in the administration proposals for re-authorizing NCLB. See Race to the Top posts on this blog.

Major recent pieces on NCLB and resources: Riches Rothstein, Prospects for NCLB. http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/pm149/

Forum on Educational Accountability: http://www.edaccountability.org/

Fair Test. http://www.fairtest.org/k-12/national

Bill Gates is wrong and manipulative

The Sacramento Bee has an article today from the Associated Press on Bill Gates and school reform.

Here the article is in the Washington Post 

Here is a response to this often quoted mantra.

If you wish to fix the schools, you need to start by accurately describing the problem.  Bill Gates does not. He claims, “ It is no secret that the U.S. education system is failing.”   It is not only not a secret, it is also not accurate.

Well over 50% of U.S. schools are doing quite well- even with  the draconian cuts in school budgets.

There is a group of schools where students are failing at disgraceful rates- and these schools are almost all in poverty areas.  The late Gerald Bracey pointed out that U.S. schools with less than 25 percent of their students in poverty  outscore all other countries in math and science.

U.S.  children only fall below the international average when 75 percent or more of the students in a school live in poverty.  The political economy of the U.S. creates  the highest level of childhood poverty of industrialized countries and in the process creates school failure.

The Gates assertion  is a part of the new age corporate agenda to blame the schools and teachers for the crisis created by the corporate  domination of our economy and politics.

            For an alternative see www.boldapproach.org/

Duane Campbell

Prof. of Education (Emeritus)

Trumka: Showdown in Chicago

Campaign for America's Future

I'm going to Chicago next week for the American Bankers
Association meeting. Oddly, I haven't been invited to
the Roaring '20's dance party I hear they're having.

Why wouldn't they celebrate the era of wild money and
hot times (which slid into the Great Depression)? After
all, the bankers are doing well these days.

They're doing well because after financial institutions
caused the global economic crisis, we bailed them out,
to the tune of some $700 billion.

Now they're in good enough shape to pay the suits $7
billion in bonuses for driving working families and our
economy to our knees--to the verge of a second full-
fledged depression.

Things might be turning around for the bankers, but for
the rest of us, unemployment heads toward 10 percent and
home foreclosures continue to devastate families and
communities. Working families have lost health care,
pensions and savings--and in exchange we've gotten
predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees and sky-
high credit card interest rates.

The problem is poverty, Not lack of Standards

Published in Print: October 21, 2009
Education Week

LETTER
The Problem Is Poverty, Not a Lack of Standards
To the Editor:
"Standards Aren't Enough," the recent Commentary by Susan H. Fuhrman, Lauren Resnick, and Lorrie Shepard (Oct. 14, 2009), implies that the United States’ lack of clear and uniform standards is the reason other countries do better on international tests of math and science. It also implies that in the absence of externally imposed and detailed standards, American teachers do not know how to help students make progress.
Gerald W. Bracey, in his book Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality, points out that U.S. schools with less than 25 percent of their enrollments made up of children in poverty outscore all other countries in math and science. U.S. children only fall below the international average when 75 percent or more of the students in a school live in poverty. Studies also confirm that hunger, poor diet, and a lack of reading material seriously affect academic performance. The United States has the highest level of childhood poverty of industrialized countries.
The fact that American students not in poverty do so well strongly suggests that, in general, American educators know what they are doing. The problem is not lack of standards, the problem is poverty.

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, Calif.

Safety Nets for the Rich

by Bob Herbert Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times - October 20, 2009

The headlines that ran side by side on the front page
of Saturday's New York Times summed up, inadvertently,
the terrible fix that we've allowed our country to fall
into.

The lead headline, in the upper right-hand corner,
said: "U.S. Deficit Rises to $1.4 Trillion; Biggest
Since '45."

The headline next to it said: "Bailout Helps Revive
Banks, And Bonuses."

We've spent the last few decades shoveling money at the
rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor,
put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and
all but bankrupted the federal government - while
giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of
the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just
about everything they've wanted.

Read the entire piece; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20herbert.html

The Safety Net and the Great Recession

The safety net and the recession 
By Lawrence Mishel 
October 8, 2009

"Some claim somehow that the recovery package isn't working by simply pointing to continued job losses. I consider this peculiar, especially from those who favored the policies that actually caused the recession to begin with," EPI President Lawrence Mishel said in testimony to Congress on October 8, where he proposed a five-part strategy for creating and preserving jobs, and stressed that the causes of today’s high unemployment pre-date President Obama.

"I consider President Obama to be in the situation of having inherited a burning apartment building. He proceeded to gather all the available fire trucks and douse the fires in half the floors. Yet his critics complain that the other floors are still on fire. Even worse, those critics are the ones who started the fire. And they want to withdraw the fire trucks."