Monday, December 30, 2013

Corporate, neoliberal edreform is racist and classist at its very core



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Sunday, December 29, 2013

CA-NAME Conference Reclaiming Multicultural Education: Fighting Back, Imagining and Building Socially Just Worlds

Reclaiming Multicultural Education by Robert D. Skeels

previous post



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Saturday, December 21, 2013

There are solutions to fascism, and patriarchy for that matter

There are solutions to fascism, and patriarchy for that matter.



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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Final Grade: first class back UCLA after 19 years—5 unit Capstone Seminar: Classics: Ancient Novel

While my initial goal was just to pass, earning that “A” really boosted my morale. Class was hard though, hundreds of pages of reading a week for 10+ weeks. Two classes next quarter and I’m done!



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MIT Researchers: Higher Test Scores Do Not Translate into Higher Levels of Thinking

MIT Researchers: Higher Test Scores Do Not Translate into Higher Levels of Thinking via Professor Diane Ravitch



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Monday, December 16, 2013

CA-NAME Conference Reclaiming Multicultural Education: Fighting Back, Imagining and Building Socially Just Worlds


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE
JANUARY 11, 2014
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON

OVER 25 WORKSHOPS! POWERFUL KEYNOTE SPEAKERS! 

REGISTER ONLINE! REGISTRATION WILL BE CAPPED AT 250 PARTICIPANTS!



On behalf of the California Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (CA-NAME), we invite you to our 3rd annual conference, entitled "Reclaiming Multicultural Education," that will take place Saturday, January 11, 2014 at California State University, Fullerton.

The conference is an all-day event that offers teachers, counselors, and others working directly with diverse student populations an opportunity to learn about multicultural teaching, curricular, and community strategies.   We have a line up of respected scholars in the field of multicultural education, including Dr. Antonia Darder, Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, and Dr. Thandeka Chapman.  

Workshops topics include:

• Culture, Community, and the Arts
• Multicultural Literacies
• Critical Media Literacy
• Literacy and Social Studies
• Second Language Learners & Policy Changes
• Student Identities and Institutions
• Teacher Identities and Practices
• Ethnic Studies: Surviving Neoliberal Assaults

Panel topics include:

• Decolonial Perspectives on Higher Education
• Bilingual Teachers: Raising Critical Consciousness
• Student Organizing in the CSUs
• School-Based Family Counseling


Conference registration: University Affiliates: $50.00; Teachers and Community Activists: $25.00; Students: $15.00.  Registration fees include access to conference, conference program, lunch, and gift.  Attendees can register online at: www.CaliforniaNAME.org.  If you have any questions, please contact ca.name.conference@gmail.com.

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: California Teachers Association (CTA), Student California Teachers Association (SCTA), Los Amigos of Orange County, Researchers and Critical Educators (RACE), Cultural And Public History Association (CPHA). Cal State Fullerton Departments: Chicana & Chicano Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies.


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Friday, December 13, 2013

UCLA F13 Survived



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Saturday, December 07, 2013

Parents in Action for Student Services (PASS) organize to return LAUSD Breakfast in the Cafeteria!

Parents in Action for Student Services (PASS) organize to return Breakfast in the Cafeteria! by Robert D. Skeels

A parent organization, Parents in Action for Student Services (PASS), is organizing to have Breakfast in the Cafeteria, before school. They are educating parents about school privatization and connecting it to BIC. This week they showed the connection between privatizers and BIC. Next week they plan to show the video from UTLA to drive the point home to fellow parents.

The messaging for this is very simple and effective:

"Should children eat breakfast in the classroom during instruction, or before school in the cafeteria?" Even L.A residents with no connection to public schools sign these petitions. This is not a ballot initiative petition, therefore signers do not need to be U.S citizens.

There are 1,000 schools in LAUSD. If each school in can collect 100 signatures, that would be 100,000 signatures! In our school alone, we have collected 300. We have received another 200 signatures from a school in the Valley. Between staff and parents at each school site this is very doable.

Please have people in your school communities circulate widely and sign. Turn in all petitions to the PASS address at the bottom of the petition by January 31, 2014.



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An investigative documentary into the Common Core State Standards Initiative

BUILDING THE MACHINE (2014) - Official Trailer [HQ]

I want to use the same disclaimer here that I did the last time I posted Common Core State Standards (CSSS) related materials from sources that I disavow any connection with. The video is produced by, and also features, individuals that are from fringe-right-wing groups. The last time I published a disclaimer like this, I was subjected to a firestorm of criticism from the right. That's fine, we will never be allies in any sense other than shared opposition to the vile corporate CCSS curriculum being foisted on students. That said, there's a distinction to be made between factual information about CSSS, and ideological opposition. That's why I am posting this film trailer, because the factual case against CCSS can be made from either end of the political spectrum.



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Friday, December 06, 2013

School Matter: Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel steps down from UNO! He was a darling of the AEI

First published on Schools Matter on December 06, 2013


Via Professor Diane Ravitch: Powerful Chicago Charter Leader Resigns in Wake of Financial Scandal

My commentary: Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel was a darling of the fringe-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In addition to their loving his stuffing of public money into his private pockets, AEI gushed about Rangel and UNO's systematic program of right-wing indoctrination.

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Alex Russo, intrepid blogger defending the 1%'s education privatization project

Alex Russo, intrepid blogger defending the 1%'s education privatization project


update



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Ms. Klein your schadenfreude over LaMotte's death was more than a little offensive

From: "Robert D. Skeels" <*********@ucla.edu>
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 23:43:47 -0800
Subject: Ms. Klein your schadenfreude over LaMotte's death was more than a little offensive
To: Karin Klein <karin.klein@latimes.com>
Message-Id: <93C75696-38C7-49D2-8770-C53706CFAA8F@ucla.edu>

Ms. Klein:

Your fringe-right leanings coupled with your limited knowledge of pedagogy have always tainted your awful editorials and op-eds. However, you really outdid yourself with today's painfully gleeful obituary of the Honorable Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte. In the future when someone asks me how to define schadenfreude, I'll point them to the mean spirited and duplicitous screed you penned today.

You are truly shameless.

Advocating Public Education and Social Justice

Robert D. Skeels

"Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor" — Paulo Freire


Update: Here's the conversations we're having about this on fb:

  • Vik Chaubey: No surprise. Lamotte stood for principle and integrity people like that are usually attacked. When you challenge charter schools you get attacked.
  • Robert D. Skeels: Los Angeles Times' Karin Klein uses the word "feisty" to describe LaMotte over and over. She may as well have used "uppity" to express her (and her handlers) disdain of a woman of color who stood up to Eli Broad's cabal. Every time I think the LA Times can't be more disgusting I'm sadly proven wrong.


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Thursday, December 05, 2013

John Deasy prioritizes corporate handouts over student lives—let's provide LAUSD kids with nurses!

The tragic death of sixth-grade Philadelphia student Laporshia Massey illustrates the dire need to ensure that every child has access to quality health and wellness services at school. I urge you to support requiring that every school have a full-time health professional on staff — and to commit to fully funding this critical resource.

In LAUSD, John Deasy prioritizes corporate handouts over student lives—let's provide all LAUSD kids with nurses! As a community, we've grown weary of school resources being diverted to tests and test-prep, when tragedies like the one described above are entirely preventable.



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Rest in Peace: LAUSD's Honorable Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte


Update: check out these amazing comments by people on facebook in response to the above tweet.



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Charlatan John Deasy calls transferring LAUSD's wealth to corporations a "civil rights issue"



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Parent Engagement Committee as opportunity to address LAUSD CAC concerns

From an avid reader [edited for anonymity]

Here's the link to the next Early Childhood Education and Parent Engagement Committee meeting scheduled for next Thursday, December 12, 1013. It has an unfortunate late start of 4PM due to Curriculum and Instruction Committee scheduled at 10am, and the Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee scheduled at 1PM the same day. Hopefully the Budget meeting won't go overtime and we can start at 4. As they will be speaking about Local Control Funding Formula, it is possible that public comment will not occur until around 6PM.

School board staffers recently spoke regarding difficulties with our Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting structure today and ongoing since PCSB has been helping us. It's been requested that this issue could be placed on the agenda as a whole, but it's full for next week. Officials facilitating the Ad Hoc committee suggest that it would carry weight if members of the CAC and other interested members of the public could come to the meeting and speak to the committee regarding this. The public could ask to have the committee consider this for a future agenda item. If anyone is able to attend, it would be beneficial to the CAC.

Link to committee info and agenda.



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Wednesday, December 04, 2013

What Does the PISA Report Tell Us About U.S. Education? (corporate edreform is a bust)

When the OECD releases the PISA report every three years, many people use the ranking to claim public education in the U.S. is failing and push their corporate education reform agenda. But looking at the data, lessons that can be learned from the highest performing countries point in a completely different direction. For more information: http://go.aft.org/pisa #ReclaimIt



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