Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

“Hurting Authentic Education Reform”

By Donna Garner

7.9.18

/hurting-authentic-education-reform/

NO REAL HELP FROM TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION

Case in point: The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) is continuing to hurt authentic education reform. Going all the way back to 1989, I have tried to get TPPF leadership to invest their  time and efforts to involve themselves productively in the two most important aspects of any school environment: (1) consistent discipline and (2) quality Type #1 curriculum — in that order. I have never known TPPF to do one thing to help improve those two all-important aspects of education.

As we have fought to get Type #1 (traditional, academic) curriculum standards adopted in Texas, we never had TPPF come alongside us to battle the leftists. Years ago, I even helped in the political campaign of the person who later became the head of TPPF.  I just knew she would help to lead TPPF in the right direction to help us bring about education reform. Did not happen…

In 1995-97, when we classroom teachers wrote the Texas Alternative Document (TAD — curriculum standards for English/ Language Arts/Reading) on our own time and at our own expense, we begged TPPF leadership for their help to get the TAD approved by the elected members of the State Board of Education.

We teachers had no money and no political clout; yet our TAD gained national recognition because of its sensible and doable academic content which contained phonemic awareness/phonics, grammar/usage, spelling, vocabulary, cursive writing, penmanship, classic literature, expository/persuasive/narrative/descriptive writing, and research writing.

No classroom teachers (before or since) have ever written a curriculum standards document for K-12.  (My husband and I spent $12,000 of our own hard-earned money in one year on the TAD – never to be recovered.)

We teachers (who were working full-time and were taking personal leave to go to Austin to do battle) truly needed TPPF’s support as we fought the national/leftist groups that flooded into Texas to defeat our TAD because they knew that if Texas adopted such Type #1 standards upon which textbooks would be built, then the rest of the nation might do the same.

Where was TPPF at such a dramatic time in the history of authentic education reform?  In fact, where was TPPF when we concerned citizens all across America started battling Obama’s Common Core/Type #2 philosophy of education and its eventual indoctrination over the last eight years of America’s students?  TPPF was nowhere to be found, and we needed this organization’s help very badly because they had the ear of the Governor and the Texas Legislature.

[“The Two Philosophies of Education — Chart That Explains Type #1 vs. Type #2” — /comparison-types-education-type-1-traditional-vs-type-2-cscope-common-core/  ]

It greatly saddens me that TPPF and its minions have wormed their way into the Trump administration.  Brook Rollins, formerly the president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, currently serves as assistant to President Donald Trump in the Office of American Innovation. TPPF now has an office in Washington, D. C.  [6.17.18 — “Deceptive Semantics – Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) goes to Washington Promoting Public Private Partnerships” – by Alice Linahan — http://www.voicesempower.com/deceptive-semantics-texas-public-policy-foundation-tppf-goes-to-washington-promoting-public-private-partnerships/  ]

I love what Donald Trump is doing as President, but I believe he is listening to the wrong people when it comes to education issues. These wrong people include Jeb Bush and his vast “kingdom of tentacles” including TPPF.

[Please read — 6.24.18 — “Do Not Want American Dream To Be Replaced with American Nightmare Job: No Merger of Ed. and Labor Depts.” — By Donna Garner — EdViews.org — /do-not-want-american-dream-to-be-replaced-with-american-nightmare-job-do-not-want-dept-of-ed-to-merge-with-dept-of-labor/ ]

CONCERNS WITH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS AND/OR CHARTER SCHOOLS

Public-private partnerships in education are largely made up of people who know very little about true education reform, school/classroom discipline, quality Type #1 curriculum/tests, and the importance of fact-based academic standards and curriculum that grow in depth and complexity from K – 12.  The driving force with most of these people is that they know how to make a profit on the backs of the taxpayers and how to keep the Chambers of Commerce happy by forcing young students into career pathways at the whim of the federal government.

As I have said many times before, heaven help those students who are forced to choose a career pathway with specialized instruction at too early an age.

I often think of the iPhone.  Just by the development of this one miraculous techie device, the following markets have been devastated: tape recorders, alarm clocks, weather thermometers, calendars, cameras, books/novels, notepads, maps, pulse machines, retail stores, radios, calculators, flashlights, newspapers, stock market reports, weather reports, hard-copy newspapers, musical instruments, movie reviews, notepads, sleep noise machines, filing cabinets, computers, etc.  What about the employees who used to work in these markets, many of which no longer exist?

If students are forced to choose a career pathway with specialized courses too early in life without receiving a well-rounded, liberal arts education, they are helpless and unable to convert successfully to another career; and worse than that, these specialized students have such a shallow breadth of knowledge that they are unable to think logically and to analyze the current events around them. This makes them open to scam artists and fake news, causing them to be uninformed voters who do not know, respect, nor value the sacrifices of those who have come before us.

THE REAL PROBLEMS WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS

In the state of Texas as in others, it is not that difficult for a public-private partnership to gain a foothold without producing any independent, peer-reviewed, quantitative research to prove the particular charter school has raised students’ academic achievement.

Money speaks; and lots of money speaks loudly. With money comes PR and media people who know how to spin a charter school’s ear-pleasing niche. Parents are lured into these charters by skillful PR schemes without knowing who the nefarious people are behind these schools. Some of these charters are tied to people groups who seek to indoctrinate our American students into anti-American dogma. Other charters are just money-making machines for investors who are out to gain a profit but who have little-to-no knowledge about what makes a really good school:  (1) consistent discipline and (2) quality Type #1 curriculum.  

Not all charter schools are bad, but the whole concept should give parents pause. Charter schools (paid for with taxpayers’ dollars) have very little accountability (if any) to the people who pay for them. Charter schools do not have school boards elected by the public.  In many instances, one “mother” charter gets approved at the state level and is then free to have “baby” charters (satellite classrooms) all around the state. Normally there is one school board (not elected by the public) and one superintendent at the “mother” level. The school board members are largely figureheads who have very little if any real knowledge or concern over the “baby” charters and over what happens in those satellite classrooms. To whom do the parents in those “baby” charters complain?  If they go to the local officials, they tell the parents to take up their concerns with the “mother” officials who could well be located hundreds of miles away.

WHERE THE PUBLIC SHOULD FOCUS THEIR EFFORTS

I empathize with parents who are desperate to find a good school for their children. What I desire is that these parents would spend their time and energy to help expand efforts to bring Type #1 curriculum standards/tests/curriculum back to all of our schools – public/charters, private, home schools. Educating our children to be well-rounded, knowledgeable citizens who are equipped with a “deep and wide” understanding of fact-based content would help to insulate them from the unhealthy culture around them.  

Even that person working at a rather menial job needs to have been taught to appreciate art, classic literature, music, the great ideas of the world, the knowns and unknowns in science, the mysteries of the universe, and the mathematical principles upon which so much of our modern culture rests.  All American students should have been taught to value the lives of the heroes and heroines who have influenced the future of our nation and of our world. We must not allow students to be deprived of becoming the multi-talented adults they have been equipped by God to become.  

Universities risk losing their credibility due to “rocketing” grade inflation, a think tank has said.

According to Reform, the proportion of firsts awarded almost doubled between 1997-2009 and rose by 26% since 2010.

Their report calls for national tests to set degree grade benchmarks meaning only the top 10% of students could be awarded firsts.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said universities needed to act to protect the value of degrees.

Under Reform’s proposals, universities would lose their ability to decide what their students should be awarded.

University leaders have argued a standardised approach would threaten their independence.

Grade inflation?

The centre-right think-tank Reform argues that more and more students are being awarded top grades.

Its report says:

• Last year more than 40% of students at the University of Surrey graduated with a first class degree.
• Since 1995 the proportion of 2:1 degrees rose from 40% to 49%
• 75% of students achieve one of the top two classifications, compared with 47% in the mid-1990s
• In more than 50 universities the proportion of first class degrees has doubled since 2010

Universities currently make their own decisions about grades and the report suggested pressure placed on academics by senior managers could partly explain why more top degrees are being awarded.

The report also said “degree algorithms” which translate the student’s marks into their final grade classification were to blame.

Under Reform’s proposals final-year students would sit new, national assessments set by a “designated assessment body”.

The results from the assessments would determine how many students should be awarded a particular grade.

The top 10% of students would receive a first, the next 40% a 2:1, and the 40% after that a 2:2. The bottom 10% would get a third.

Report author Tom Richmond and former adviser to education secretary Michael Gove, said: “Rocketing degree grade inflation is in no one’s interest.

“Universities may think easier degrees are a way to attract students, but eventually they will lose currency and students will go elsewhere, even overseas.

“Restoring the currency of degrees would also mean better value for money for the £18 billion that universities receive each year in tuition fees,” he added.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “Students across the country work hard for their results and they deserve grading system that recognises their hard work.

“That is why this government has put an end to grade inflation in GCSEs and A-levels, and why it is time for universities to do the same.”

Source: Too many firsts risk universities’ credibility, says think tank – BBC News

When it comes to identifying learning disabilities, early detection is key. This is often done in early education settings including preschool and elementary grades. There are certain milestones that students are expected to reach by a certain age. These milestones should be considered guidelines. Every child is uniquely beautiful and different. Child will inevitably grow and develop at their own pace. But when a student is showing signs of struggling, they may need intervention. This can come in the form of academic support through the school, a private tutor or other educational programs and tools. So what are the warning signs to look for? There is no specific, all-inclusive list but below you’ll find some common signs that a student may need additional support.

Frustration

Children are no different than adults in the sense that they will become frustrated and impatient when something becomes difficult or seemingly impossible to accomplish. When a student begins expressing frustration over school work, it may because they’re struggling with that particular subject area. Watch for warning signs of this. Is the student taking much longer than normal to complete a task? Are they exhibiting outbursts of frustration or anger when they get the answer wrong or can’t finish a project? Ask the student’s parents if they are exhibiting the same type of frustrated behavior at home. Children aren’t always open about how they’re feeling. This can be due to a variety of factors from embarrassment to the inability to express exactly what’s bothering them. Their issue could be a multitude of things including vision problems, cognitive function or reading disabilities.

Disinterest in School and Schoolwork

When students find a subject difficult or hard to comprehend, they’ll often shy away from it. Take notice if your student is suddenly disinterested in a subject or project they once loved. Was reading once a favorite past time of theirs but now seems like a chore or punishment? Was the student once engrossed in the science lessons but now shies away from participating in experiments and other activities? Difficulty doing something is often masked as disinterest. A student may begin to withdraw and pull away from school work they find too challenging or overwhelming. Is their homework coming back incomplete, only partially complete, or not at all? This is another sign that they’re disinterest is carried over at home.

Physical Ailments

Stress is a powerful emotion that can have extreme impacts on a person’s physical well-being. When a student is struggling academically, it will undoubtedly cause them a certain level of stress. This could be due to worry over disappointing their parents, getting into trouble, failing, or embarrassment. Stress can manifest itself in a variety of ways and some of these are through physical symptoms. If a student is suffering from headaches, stomach aches or extreme fatigue, it could be a sign that they are stressed over their school work. It’s important to inform the student’s parents about any illness a student is experiencing. But if these physical symptoms are paired with other signs of academic struggle, chances are, they could be linked.

Changes in Behavior

Changes in behavior can be associated to academic stress and the need for intervention. Some of these changes can be do physical ailments that are present, meaning stomach aches can cause a loss of appetite and headaches can cause irritability. Sometimes, a child will act out in frustration in a negative way. This can manifest itself as misbehaving or getting into trouble. If a once well-behaved student begins acting out, this may be their way of asking for help. Try to stay in tune with your students normal behavior which will help you more clearly notice sudden changes. Students may also act out in order to get attention. If you’re paying attention to them, maybe you’ll notice that they need help. Children aren’t always skilled in expressing what’s wrong and they may need your help with this.

Drop in Academic Performance

This is also a pretty clear and obvious sign that a student is struggling. A drop in grades is a signal that the student is having trouble comprehending the current lesson. Homework and tests are often used to gauge a student’s understanding of what’s being taught. If the student is having difficulty completing these tasks or is getting more answers wrong than right, there could be an issue. It may be as simple as the need for review or additional practice on that particular skill or concept. If the drop in grades is apparent across several subjects or in all of the child’s work, a deeper learning issue may be present.

Know Your Students

The best way to spot an academic issue early on is to get to know your students well. You are with them for a large part of their day, which means you’re just as likely to notice changes in behavior and performance as their parents are.

Leader in the Field for Blind and Visually Impaired Inspires Her Students to Pursue Higher Education and Be Independent While Promoting Braille Literacy

Los Angeles — May 21, 2018 — Braille Institute has named Jeri Hile its 2018 “Teacher of the Year” for excellence in Braille Instruction. Jeri, a Teacher of the Visually Impaired for the Shawnee Mission Public Schools, one of the major school districts in the Kansas City metropolitan area, is being recognized for her dedication, innovation and creativity in teaching students who are visually impaired or blind.

“Jeri Hile is a gifted teacher and a valuable role model for students,” said Peter A. Mindnich, president, Braille Institute. “She is an innovative educator who promotes braille literacy through creative lesson plans and technology. Jeri also uses mathematics to help her students think logically in order to assist them to realize their full potential.” He added that Jeri specializes in helping prepare her students for college and careers by fostering independent living and self-determination skills. “Jeri’s impact on her students’ lives is immeasurable, and we feel privileged to be able to honor her this way,” Mindnich said.

A teacher for the visually impaired for a decade, Jeri was nominated by the family of one of her students. They attribute their daughter’s success in school directly to Jeri’s dedication and teaching skills, saying that she “knows how to push her students to want to learn, and not just learn, but to excel.” Her dedication has shown results as students have succeeded in college and the workforce.

Jeri is steeped in the basics and is well versed in adaptive technology, which she uses to great advantage with her students. She works hard at fostering independence in her students. For example, she teaches students all important financial literacy. She also provides them with hands-on experience for things that sighted people take for granted, such as making a tactile drawing of a baseball field and then visiting an actual baseball field to help the students understand the concept.

Jeri said, “More than anything else, I want my students to be confident in themselves, their skills and abilities—and know that being blind is just a small part of who they are. I encourage them to become independent and believe that they can achieve anything as long as they are willing to work hard and learn the necessary skills. I have high expectations that as a result of what they are learning, they will be able to face any challenge that may arise, either in their personal life or the workplace.”

A leader in the field of visual impairment, Jeri has delivered presentations and workshops at the Kansas AER Annual Conference and Regional Area Vision Professional Group Meeting, sponsored by Kansas State School for the Blind, and is co-author of a paper published by the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. She has been honored with an Envision TVI Award, for which she was nominated by both her students and peers. Jeri has also initiated several programs for her students, including a cooking club for children in middle school and higher. She has also helped organize and lead study groups for children who go to the national Braille Challenge.

Jeri earned her MS in Special Education with an emphasis on Visual Impairments from Missouri State University and her BS in Mathematics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is also a Certified Orientation and Mobility Instructor, as well as a Certified Braillist.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities and after school curricular activities, Jeri is a member of the Kansas State School for the Blind Advisory Board and is a Braille Certification Grader. She also served as secretary for the Kansas Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).

The Teacher of the Year award is an opportunity for all teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs) to be recognized on a national level, for the indelible contribution they make to the lives of students who are blind or have severe vision loss. Any TVI in the US and Canada can be nominated by peers, students or parents. The Teacher of the Year is selected by The Braille Challenge National Advisory Committee and is invited to attend The Braille Challenge National Finals in Los Angeles, with all expenses paid. In addition, the Teacher of the Year receives a cash award and a BrailleNote Apex Notetaker, thanks to the support of HumanWare.

About Braille Challenge

Braille Challenge, sponsored by Braille Institute, is an annual academic competition designed to motivate students who are blind or visually impaired to emphasize their study of braille while rewarding their success with fun-filled, challenging local and national events. Any blind or visually impaired school age student can participate in a regional event (held January – March) in communities around the US and Canada.  Top participants are invited to the National Braille Challenge Finals Competition (hosted this year on June 16 by Braille Institute in Los Angeles). Celebrating its 18th year, #BrailleChallenge2018 offered more than 1,000 students (this year alone) a chance to compete in five categories: reading comprehension, braille spelling, chart and graph reading, proofreading and braille speed and accuracy.

About Braille Institute of America

Braille Institute of America is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate barriers to a fulfilling life caused by blindness and severe sight loss. It serves thousands of people of all ages each year through an array of educational, social and recreational programs and services designed to help people with vision loss lead enriched and fulfilling lives. Funded by private donations, all services are completely free-of-charge. Braille Institute’s Los Angeles headquarters are located at 741 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles. For additional information, please visit www.braillechallenge.org or www.brailleinstitute.org. Follow on Facebook at facebook.com/brailleinstitute and facebook.com/brailleinstituteyouth and on twitter @BrailleInst

In the early 1960’s US intelligence obtained the 45 goals communist internationals intended to carry out to destroy western civilization & Christianity

Source: Read The Secret 45 Goals of Communism Leaked to Congress in 1963

https://pixabay.com/photo-3250007/

DevOps culture was primarily started with the aim to integrate the development and operations teams together in a bid to improves the productivity and collaboration of both the teams, resulting in faster deploys and injecting automation in the lifecycle of the application. LearningDevOps helps the DevOps Admin to achieve the technical benefits of consistent software delivery, faster solutions, decreased issue complexity and enhanced stable operating environment. The training equips the DevOps Admin with multidisciplinary knowledge about infrastructure, development and configuration management. Since faster delivery of software is becoming a necessity for organizations to stay ahead in the competitive edge, the DevOps Training helps the organizations by aligning the goals, while improving sharing tools, code quality and methods which allow faster delivery.

What You Learn in DevOps Training Course?

Learn DevOps to become the expert DevOps practitioner and through this course you can benefit in different ways. The course helps you:

• Understand the complete ecosystem of theDevOps

• Understand, build and test automation and how to create apt delivery pipeline and perform the test automation on it

• Learn the automate Source Code Management by using the continuous integration using Jenkins and GIT

• Learn the use-cases and master docker commands which will allow you to deal with different networking concepts present in docker, know the best ways to use the docker volume and create docket file.

• Learning the containerization using docker and understanding difference between containers and VMs

• Understanding the continuous monitoring using the Nagios and also learn about the system monitoring using Nagios, its components, Puppet and Docker

• Learning the Master Puppet, configuration management and infrastructure-as-code. You would learn the master-agent architecture along with catalog compilation in Puppet

• Execution of Live Projects

The Key Features of the DevOps Training

• 24 hours Instructor led sessions and online classes and you are liable for accessing to two self paced videos with 12 hours content

• Live project execution based selected cases and involving utilization of diverse DevOps Tools

• Each session is followed by an integrated practical session and assignments which will be aggregated to minimum of 24 hours.

• Live 24/7 assistance and support from experts in the field.

• Lifetime access to the Learning Management System and class recordings and presentations can be watched online from the system.

• Upon successful completion of the course the students will be offered with certificate confirming that you have undergone the DevOps Training successfully and now you are certified DevOps Expert based on projects.

The Prime Objective of Learning DevOps

Today, almost all the big and leading organization at global level adopts the DevOps methodologies so as to overhaul the security, recital and team dynamics. Since more and more companies are adopting this method, the DevOps concept has emerged to be the sought after skill that everyone needs to master in. Therefore, DevOps Training is designed with the aim to make your certified DevOps practitioner by offering them with practical training on different DevOps tools and making them aware of sharing DevOps best practices about configuration management, continuous training, continuous testing and more.

Author Bio: Sumeet Manhas is a T-Shaped digital marketer and freelancer on Up work where he talks about digital marketing case studies, tips, techniques, and more. Helping startups with digital marketing is what he loves.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photo-3250007/

In today’s world, singing does not remain limited to just a hobby only but has gone far than that. More and more people have opted singing as their career and getting themselves attached with different forms of music. So, if you also love singing and want to make career in this art then you must have singing lessons. There are so many music and singing academies where you can get your name enrolled and start taking lessons from experts. One of the main benefits of joining singing classes is that you will learn different variants of music, music vocals, scripts and much more. In fact, these days many music academies are also teaching modern vocals and modern music forms like pop, jazz, Hollywood and more.

The benefit of joining singing classes is that, you will get personalized attention and above all well experienced and trained expert will give you singing lessons. They will tell you each and everything related to music from its origin to modern form of this art and what changes come in its way.

Benefits of taking singing or music lessons

Have you ever wondered that what benefits will you get from music lessons, if your answer is no! Then, here are some of the main benefits. Music can enhance your thinking ability and also help in growth of brain. Not only this, it reduces anxiety, lowers stress and elevate endorphins. Some other advantages of learning music are:

Singing progression – One of the main reasons why music lessons can be beneficial is, it helps in building skills and help in learning whether or not you are singing right notes. Many of you don’t have any problem in singing while doing some other work, but at time of singing in front of many persons it is little difficult. Due to this, it becomes much important to have professional and skilled vocal coaching.

Build self esteem – In addition to morale that students get from working diligently at succeeding and skill, positive and individual attention given in small groups and private lessons fosters self worth and self esteem of student by showing and realizing them that they are wealthy with personal attention and others also believe in their success.

Help in connecting with others through music – Music is well known as universal language because of its incredible ability to time and cultural constraints for communication through impressions, ideas and emotions. So, learning fine music lessons will open many doors to an infinite library of poetry, essays, musical stories, manifestos and portraits which has always provided inspiration to world’s greatest singers.

Better tonal quality – Another great benefit of taking music lessons is that enhances tonal quality. If you seriously want to make your career in singing then you have to work on your tone and vocals which are very important aspect for any singer. In fact, on the basis of your tonal quality you will be judged in different singing competitions and other singing shows if ever participated.

Runcie defends the PROMISE policy that drove down the number of minority student arrests and suspensions

Broward County, Florida, superintendent of schools Robert Runcie says it is “fake news” that his PROMISE school leniency program likely allowed accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz to remain under the radar of law enforcement and, therefore, able to purchase the firearm that killed 17 individuals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.

On the eve of a left-wing-orchestrated event called “March for Our Lives” – an adult-led protest that uses students to advocate for gun control – Runcie defends the PROMISE policy that drove down the number of minority student arrests and suspensions in his school district by allowing threatening and even violent behaviors to go unreported.

In a column at the Sun Sentinel, Runcie – who once worked for President Barack Obama’s education secretary Arne Duncan in Chicago – mocks the attention paid to the Obama-era Dear Colleague letter that coerced school districts into adopting the policy as a means to supposedly end the “school-to-prison pipeline” for minority students.

The Obama administration threatened school districts with the possibility of federal investigation and loss of funding if their statistics showed disproportionately more minority students arrested and suspended than white and Asian students. The Obama administration praised Runcie’s PROMISE program and likely considered it a model for the rest of the country.

Nevertheless, the Broward County superintendent would prefer the focus to be on “easy access to guns” as the reason Cruz was able to obtain his firearm.

Runcie denies his PROMISE program was at all instrumental in Cruz’s shooting.

“Contrary to media reports, the district has no record of Nikolas Cruz committing a PROMISE eligible infraction or being assigned to PROMISE while in high school,” he writes:

PROMISE is part of the district’s Code Book for Student Conduct & Discipline Policy. It is an intervention program for 13 specific non-violent, misdemeanor infractions, such as petty theft under $300, trespassing, vandalism, alcohol use and disruption of campus.

The district has always been explicitly clear that we have no policies that limit or tie the hands of law enforcement in doing its job in addressing school safety.

Max Eden, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, however, tells Breitbart News Runcie’s explanation warrants a closer look.

“Runcie’s careful formulation contains a falsehood, several omissions, and obfuscations,” Eden says. “It doesn’t cover middle school, where Cruz racked up about two dozen offenses and was transferred into an intensive behavior management school – without ever getting an arrest record.”

“Runcie claims that PROMISE only covered ‘non-violent’ offenses,” Eden observes. “That’s just straight false. The 2013 version covered assault and fighting; the 2016 version covered ‘affray,’ i.e., fighting. That means Cruz’s fights were only deemed non-PROMISE eligible based on administrator discretion, not policy.”

“Given that Cruz is alleged to have threatened students, it’s also worth noting that ‘threats’ are a PROMISE-eligible offense,” he continues. “Perhaps those incidents weren’t recorded as threats. Students have reported that Cruz brought bullets and knives to school. Perhaps those incidents weren’t recorded at all. Or perhaps they were and Runcie’s statement eludes them; the discipline matrix doesn’t highlight Class B Weapons as a PROMISE-eligible Incident.”

Eden urges a careful look at “the hurdles Runcie built into the new discipline matrix.”

“After failing to get Cruz involuntarily committed to a mental institution, the school developed a plan: don’t let him bring a backpack because maybe he’ll kill everyone,” he explains. “Then he commits an assault. Used to be, there were four categories for assault and you could call the cops for three. But now, there were three categories and you could only call the cops for the most serious form of assault. So, despite everything about his record and insane behavior, policy prohibited administrators from sending him to law enforcement when he committed that assault … three weeks before he legally bought an AR-15.”

The 2016 PROMISE collaborative agreement among the school district, law enforcement, and community partners – such as the NAACP – also resolves that the parties “follow the letter and spirit of the ESSA [federal Every Student Succeeds Act] provisions to reduce exclusionary disciplinary practices, while implementing prevention and intervention programs for children and youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at-risk.”

“The parties will also follow the Department of Justice and Department of Education Guidelines on School Climate and Discipline,” the PROMISE agreement states.

At a recent Heritage Foundation panel focused on the reported disorder that has resulted from the Obama-era school leniency policy, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Gail Heriot, a professor of law at the University of San Diego School of Law, observed that the Obama administration essentially told schools that if teachers and principals are disciplining proportionally more African American students than white or Asian students, “we’re coming after you with massive investigations and threats to cut off your funding.”

“Under this approach it’s not actual race discrimination that gets schools in trouble,” Heriot noted. “It’s having ‘bad numbers.’”

“Nobody disputes that African American students are disciplined at higher rates than white students or Asian students nationally,” she observed. “But what if the reason for that is that African Americans misbehave more often, and what if the cost of failure to discipline those students falls on their fellow African American students who are trying to learn amid classroom disorder?”

Heriot also emphasized that white students get disciplined at rates higher than Asian students and that boys get disciplined at higher rates than girls.

“Yet, no one seems very interested in those bad numbers,” she asserted.

According to Heriot, it is “virtually undisputed that students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to misbehave in school than students from middle-class backgrounds.”

However, the U.S. Civil Rights commissioner said research shows that prior problem behavior is the best predictor of who will get suspended from school – and not race.

She observes the Obama-era policy has produced two “severely negative effects”:

First, it’s caused schools to back away from discipline generally, with the result of more chaotic classrooms. Second, it has led to real discrimination, where white and Asian students on the one hand, and African American students on the other, operate under different discipline rules – all in order to make the numbers look good.

Heriot urges the Trump U.S. Education Department to withdraw the Dear Colleague letters establishing the lenient discipline policy and put teachers and principals back in charge.

Source: Broward Superintendent: Keep Focus on Gun Control, Not ‘Fake News’ on Obama Policy to End ‘School to Prison Pipeline’ | Breitbart

Source: Chicago GOP to File Lawsuit Against Chicago Public Schools: Student Walkout ‘Political Indoctrination, Pure and Simple’

Survey Probes Attitudes and Needs of Parents and Teachers in Early Learning Centers and Public Schools in Three CA Counties

By Lisa Guernsey –

Evn in Silicon Valley, the epicenter of online innovation, families with young children are experiencing a digital divide. Hispanic families in particular saying that they experience slower connections, more data limits, and more broken computers and devices than their white and Asian-Pacific Islander counterparts. More than 80 percent of educators in the area’s high-need schools say that they are not assigning homework that uses digital media because they worry that families do not have access at home.

And mixed feelings about the benefits and harm of technology and digital media permeate the community.

Those are among the findings of a new report, Lost Connections in a World of Connectivity, from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Center for Early Learning, with research support from  New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. The intent was to gather information that would help address questions of technology use, attitudes, and access among families with young children and educators in pre-K through third grade across the three counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.

Calling the topic a “natural fit for Silicon Valley,” the report suggests that community members and innovators should “lead the way in ensuring that digital media and technology designed for young children considers optimal child development and promotes, rather than hinders, equity in school readiness and learning.”

The report is the first in the country to look at young children’s technology use comprehensively at the local level, probing different parts of the early learning ecosystem within the same one-year time frame. It includes results from an online survey of 907 parents and 617 teachers and child care workers, focus groups with public librarians, and two “community conversations”—meetings hosted by the center to elicit comments and questions from parents and other family members. The survey cut across the early childhood age span, from birth through age 8, capturing information on how parents and teachers view technology in child care settings, pre-K and other early learning settings, and the early grades of elementary school.

To ensure that the study included families from a range of economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, survey respondents from the three counties were drawn from a national opt-in research panel that is designed to ensure representation of different socio-economic groups. The survey was conducted in Spanish and English.

Some highlights from the report that reflect problems with equitable access:

• The top problem named by educators and parents was that the internet was “too slow,” but more educators (47 percent) than parents (36 percent) agreed with that statement. “Software problems” was the second most frequently chosen problem by educators, while “too many people sharing a device” was the second most frequently chosen problem by parents. Broken devices were third on the list for both parents and teachers.
• Hispanic families reported experiencing more problems than non-Hispanic white or Asian-Pacific Islander families. For example, 46 percent of Hispanic families said the Internet was “too slow” and 41 percent had at some point hit the data limit on their wireless service, compared to 32 percent and 25 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
• Eighty-one percent of educators in schools with a majority of children qualifying for free or reduced-price meals reported that they have not assigned homework that requires technology or digital media because they thought that the kids would not have a way to access the materials at home.
• Between one-third and one-half of parents (depending on county) say that “home tech challenges” make it difficult for their children to keep up with their peers at school.

“I have watched kids in the library type full papers on smartphones,” said one of the participants in the community conversations. “With the increase in rent, more people I know, including me, have to cut off our Internet,” said another.

The report also brings to the surface some of the unease that parents feel when it comes to technology use, as well as the divide between educators of very young children and those who work in the K-3 grades. The results from the survey show a level of nuance and mixed feelings across parents and educators, some of which are in conflict with each other. It finds:

• Educators serving low-income children (compared to those serving higher-income children) were more likely to agree with the statement “Children should be exposed to technology from a young age so they grow up learning to use it and feel comfortable with it.”
• However, among parents, lower income and Hispanic parents were most likely to believe strongly that children should not be exposed to technology at a young age so that they can develop important skills first.
• Educators of children in Transitional Kindergarten up through third grade were more likely to support the idea of exposing children to technology from a young age than were educators of younger children.
• Parents in general—and with no significant differences across socioeconomic groups—said they believed that “educational media” could be beneficial for their children across multiple subject areas (language, reading, and writing; math; science, art; social studies; social emotional skills; and creativity).

One of the participants in the community conversations said: “I’m really concerned about how technology affects other skills. I see my friend’s kid who can use the tablet better than his mom at age 4 but still cannot hold a pencil.”

The report used focus group conversations with public librarians to gain a sense of how children’s librarians and other library professionals see themselves in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. “Librarians uniformly agreed that the most important role they can play is to help parents navigate the use of technology with their child,” the report says. “However, nearly all of the librarians state that they are not currently prepared to adequately step into that role.” It adds that intentional communication between the area’s public libraries and local elementary schools “is rare, let alone specific to early learning technology.”

Twelve recommendations to solve these problems are laid out at the end of the report, including a push for librarians to be part of state advisory councils and considered key stakeholders in determining recommendations for children’s use of technology. It also promotes the importance of professional learning for educators across the age spectrum so that they can use technology in developmentally appropriate ways and engage parents in conversations about what is best for their children at home.

Fixing these disconnects and other equity issues raised by the Silicon Valley report is among the aims of a broader project underway at New America and the Cooney Center about the role of technology in early learning and family engagement. Last spring we published How to Bring Early Learning and Family Engagement into the Digital Age: A Guide for City and Community Leaders, which suggests four action steps communities should take before jumping into technology purchases or implementing new family engagement plans. The first was to take stock of family engagement offerings and online connectivity with an eye toward equity and diversity.  The results from this three-county research project are a good example of how communities can take a comprehensive look at what is happening around them and open up new conversations about what parents and educators need.

For more, listen to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation podcast released last week in which I talk about the local survey results and national trends with Michelle Siosan-Hyman, senior officer for the foundation’s Center for Early Learning. 

Source: Lost Connections: Tech Use Among Young Kids in Silicon Valley