Friday, January 31, 2014

As a UCLA Classical Civilization major, President Obama's vapid Art History comments reek of anti-intellectualism

My comments on the Washington Post:

As a forty eight year old Senior in Classical Civilization at UCLA, this President's vapid comments about Art History reek of his and Arne Duncan's longstanding anti-intellectualism. Someone needs to explain to these reactionaries that there is more to life than stuffing money in your pockets. The idea that education has value beyond economic concerns is sadly lost on these political opportunists and lackeys to finance capital.


Updated: February 6, 2014 A related tumblr post

Wonder what snarky, anti-intellectual jokes President Obama would make about this bulletin board in Dodd Hall? My department’s bulletin board — Classics — is right next to the Art History one. I’m sure that would arouse antipathy from finance capital’s favorite president as well. Obama’s disparaging remarks about the humanities and academia are another reason why I don’t regret voting for Cynthia McKinney in 2008 and Dr. Jill Stein in 2012.


Updated: February 15, 2014, Alexandra Miletta: What I Learned by Studying Art History via @DianeRavitch. My commentary there.

Thank you. I was dismayed by the President's comments, and would have written an essay in response except that I'm in my final quarter at UCLA and have precious little time to respond to his banal anti-intellectualism. As a Classical Civilization major, I have a deep affinity to art history. I should also mention roughly a third of my upper division courses were art history courses of the ancient world. For the past two decades I've worked at a STEM company, and I've always been taken aback by both how narrow and shallow the education of the types of majors the POTUS was hawking.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Seventh Annual Anti-racist Anti-bias Teaching Conference

Hosted at The Indian Community School  (http://www.ics-milw.org)

10405W. St. Martens Road
Franklin, Wisconsin
Saturday, May 3, 2014
8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m.

Conference Sponsors:  UW-Milwaukee School of Education, National-Louis University, YMCA Southeast Wisconsin, Plowshare Center, Indian Community School, Rethinking Schools


Keynote Speaker: Curtis Acosta
Mr. Acosta, a high school teacher in Tucson for nearly 20 years, developed and taught  Chican@/Latin@ literature classes for the district's acclaimed Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program. His classes have been profiled nationally, appearing in The New York Times, CNN and the Los Angeles Times.  He was also a plaintiff in the court case challenging the Arizona state law that banned the MAS program in 2010. Mr. Acosta is featured in the documentary Precious Knowledge and appears in a humorous segment about the ban on The Daily Show with John Stewart. Mr. Acosta is the recipient of many education awards and was named one of the 10 Latinos in politics to keep an eye on by the Huffington Post in 2013. He continues to work and collaborate to ensure students have access to critical pedagogy and culturally responsive curriculum.
Curtis Acosta

Proposal Submission Deadline:  February 10, 2014


LA Parents Need a Seat!


If you saw a person drowning, would you tell him to swim harder?Of course not, but that’s what some policy makers are telling our schools.  Struggling under decreased budgets and increased competition, our public schools are left on their own and threatened with closure. Yet every neighborhood deserves a great school.
*great quote by NPE co-founder, Diane Ravitch.

Please join supporters Jim Bickhart, Bernard Downing and Chiara Tellini, who got us to 20% of our goal and help me represent public school parents at the Network for Public Education (NPE) national conference in Austin, TX. Can you donate $10 today?
 
Public Education has been hijacked and we are taking it back! Parents, teachers and advocates will gather with national leaders in public education for the first annual conference of the NPE, an advocacy group that fights to protect and strengthen our public schools as a civic value. NPE also endorsed LA School Board member Monica Ratliff, attracting funding and national attention to her critical campaign as well as elevating Los Angeles’s issues in the national discussion about education.

As an active parent, my efforts reach far beyond the schools my children attend. I advocate for our students, teachers and families at the district, state and federal level. At this conference, we will strategize on how to move policy, organize our diverse and sprawling communities, and we will make sure national leaders in the movement to save public education have Los Angeles in mind when they return to their work fighting for our schools.
 
It’s critical that Los Angeles be represented at this urgent conference. Low cost sponsorship opportunities are available and supporters will be recognized on signage when LA hosts a reception at the conference.  
Please help make this happen! Donate $10 today and forward this email to friends who want to support the fight for public education.

Thank you for your support and help spreading the word,
Karen

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Vergara is a masterstroke in that it hides exploitation of poor families by plutocrats like David F. Welch by speciously blaming teachers



Big Education Ape: Lawsuit wrongly targets teachers: Guest commentary...: Lawsuit wrongly targets teachers: Guest commentary : Lawsuit wrongly targets teachers: Guest commentary On Monday a trial begins in a Los ...

SKrashen: The Common Core and Voluntary Reading

SKrashen: The Common Core and Voluntary Reading: Sent to the New York Times, January 23, 2014 Charles Blow's inspirational testimonial ("Reading is fundamental," January 22)...

Stop JROTC teachers from getting Physical Education authorization in CA

If you're concerned the military's presence and influence in our schools, please act NOW to speak out against this alarming threat in CA. 

This will in many cases lead to regular, properly trained, civilian, credentialed P.E. teachers being replaced by military JROTC instructors. P.E. for everyone could become JROTC.  

Written comments are due by this Monday, 1/27.  Please spread the word.

Immediate Action Needed !

What is Happening?
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) will hold a public hearing on February 14, 2014 toadopt new regulations that will have a critical impact on physical education in California schools. There was prioraction on this in September of 2013 and the CCTC voted to move ahead with adopting these new regulations.This is the final opportunity we have to express our concerns and ask them to vote “NO” on the new regulations.

Why Should I Be Concerned?
If approved at the hearing, this action will amend Title 5 regulations to authorize JROTC instructors to teachphysical education.   A confirming vote will add a Special Teaching Authorization in Physical Education for Holdersof Designated Subjects Special Subjects Teaching Credentials.
Designated Subjects Special Subjects Teaching Credentials currently authorize the holder to teach the subjectnamed on the credential (Aviation Flight and Ground Instruction, Basic Military Drill, ROTC, Driver education andTraining). The requirements for a credential include: four years of experience in the specialty area, two years ofsuccessful teaching experience in the courses listed above, nine units or 135 clock hours in a progra of personalized preparation. You will note the deficiencies in the requirements when compared to the requirements for a full credential to teach physical education. The proposed change will require JROTC instructors to verify their subject-matter knowledge in physical education.
As you know, high school physical education courses require every minute of the required instructional time and there isn’t instructional time to share with other interests.  
Can we count on JROTC instructors to provide content rich instruction in physical education? Or, will they focus on military content and devote time to physical activity as it related to successful completion of military activities?


What Can I do ?
Three important  ACTION STEPS for YOU to take:
1. Share this information with everyone who has an interest in quality physical education in our schools and ask them to participate in our efforts to let the Commission know that this is not an appropriate action to take.  Share with your colleagues who teach other subjects as well. Ask them to write a letter.
2.   MOST IMPORTANT  *** Write a letter (see sample and information below) to the Commission expressing your views and encouraging them NOT to APPROVE these regulations at the February 14th hearing. Send your letter via Email to   tduggan@ctc.ca.gov FAX (916) 322-0048
All written comments must be received by 5:00pm on January 27, 2014
3. Contact your teachers union before February 1, and let them know that we need their assistance in making surethis does not get approved at the public hearing on February 14th.

January 23, 2014
Linda Darling-Hammond, Ed.D Chair
California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
1900 Capitol Ave.
Sacramento, CA  95811 Re: Public Hearing February 14, 2014

Dear Dr. Darling-Hammond:

I’m writing to voice my concerns about the regulatory action scheduled for consideration on February
14, 2014 by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The proposal to amend Title 5 to establish a special physical education authorization for holders of Designated Subjects Teaching Credentials in Basic Military Drill and Reserve Officer Training Corps should not be approved for the following reasons:
 The Physical Education Content Standards for California Public Schools, K-12 affirm that participation in physical activity is not the same as education. JROTC has different goals and outcomes than physical educationand is focused on participation in physical activity rather than learning the content of physical education.
 Approving the physical education authorization would in essence, give CTC’s “blessing” for a blended coursethat cannot be delivered with fidelity. The content and learning outcomes for physical education and JROTC arenot the same. Sufficient time must be devoted to the learning process for students to learn the content of physical education.
 Physical education is a science based academic discipline.  Effective teachers of physical education have strongundergraduate foundations in biological and physical sciences. This proposal does not require that foundation forholders of Designated Subjects Teaching Credentials in Basic Military Drill and Reserve Officer Training Corps.
The children and youth of California depend on the CCTC to make decisions that will provide them with well-prepared and exceptionally qualified teachers.  Adding an authorization to teach physical education to theDesignated Subjects Teaching Credential in Basic Military Drill and JROTC will not prepare our students toachieve their highest potential.
Sincerely,
Your Name HERE in Script Font
Your Name Here
Your Title
Your City Here

Additional Information
Selected Rationale for Proposed Regulations
Communicated by CTC in the
Initial Statement of ReasonsDocument

Physical Education Community Response

Current basic military drill andphysical fitness training activitiesassociated with Basic MilitaryDrill and JROTC courses mayinclude instruction in some or allof the required eight contentareas.

Basic Military Drill and JROTC courses have objectives that are vastly differentthan the objectives for physical education. While physical fitness is indeed acomponent of JROTC coursework, the learning of skills, knowledge, anddispositions required to be physically active across the lifespan are absent in theJROTC curriculum. We have never seen a course that meets the objectives ofJROTC AND physical education and includes all eight content areas.

Alternate ways of meeting the requirements for physicaleducation as outlined in EC51225.3

JROTC is NOT an alternate way of meeting the requirements for physicaleducation as outlined in EC   51225.3. This section of the code does not providefor an exchange of content, rather a modification in instructional strategies. JROTC
does not provide students the opportunity to learn the content in the PhysicalEducation Content Standards for California Public Schools.

Some school districts grantphysical education course creditfor Basic Military Drill and JROTCand others do not.

Appropriate credentialing is one of several concerns associated with JROTCgranting physical education course credit.  See other issues.




Physical Education is an integral component in all branches of themilitary.

Physical Education is NOT an integral component of all branches of the military,physical fitness is. The physical activity that takes place in the military settingspreparation for military tasks and does not include learning the necessary skillsand
knowledge pieces to design, carry out, evaluate, and adjust one physical activityprogram.

Current Basic Military Drill andROTC special subjects teachingcredentials do not currently include a specific physicaleducation teaching authorization.

Because JROTC course are not physical education courses, they do not includea specific physical education teaching authorization.  One could make the casethat because military history is included in JROTC, social science credit shouldbe granted for these courses.



Districts that are willing to allow Basic Military Drill or JROTC courses to satisfy high school graduation requirements often require these classes to be taught byindividuals who hold a Single Subject Teaching Credential inPhysical Education.

Those that insist upon a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Physical Education are following currentcode and regulations.

Since many instructors in Basic Military Drill and JROTCprograms do not have a bachelor’s degree, they do notmeet the basic requirements for earning the Single SubjectTeaching Credential.

Teachers who do not hold a bachelors degree are notpermitted to teach any other subject in California.Why would the CTC think that it is permissible forteachers to teach physical education?  Theundergraduate degree provides importantfoundations for all teachers.

Pupils attending schools that do not grant physical education course credit for Basic Military Drill and JROTCare required to enroll in traditional physical educationcourses to meet graduation requirements. Thereby creatingthe potential for enrollment declines in Basic Military Drilland JROTC programs.

Enrollment declines in JROTC should not be a concern of physical education. Nor should thepromotion of these programs be placed anywherebut within JROTC.

A review of the 49 other states revealed that there are currently 9 states that allow JROTC courses to satisfy the physical education graduation requirement.

9 of 49 states is hardly enough to say it is a national trend that JROTC courses should be used to grantphysical education courses credit. Of the 9 cited in the document, 6 are permissive rather
than prescriptive, using the term “may”. No information is available for other decision making factors.






Read the CTC Documents thaare available online for the hearing:





Published abstracto be presenteathe AAHPERD National Convention in April 2014. The entire article iscurrently under review for publication.

Title:  Using SOFIT to Compare High School Physical Education and JROTC

Authors: Monica A.F. Lounsbery, Kathryn A. Holt, Thomas L. McKenzie, & Shannon A. Monnat

Background/Purpose: Physical education (PE) is important for engaging students in health-enhancing physical activity (PA) and for developing physical fitness and movement skills. PE is mandated as a curricular area in all
50 states, but many policy barriers to its effective delivery exist. Among these policy barriers is the practice of
allowing alternative programs, such as Junior Officer Reserve Corp (JROTC), to substitute for PE in high schools. Advocates supporting substitution policies typically argue that these alternative programs engage students insubstantial amounts of PA and provide the content that meets PE standards. Data supporting these argumentsare not yet forthcoming. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the conduct of PE and a commonlysubstitution program (JROTC) using direct observation.

Method: Two observers, trained via a standardized protocol, employed a validated and frequently usedinstrument, SOFIT (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time), to assess student physical activity levels andthe lesson contexts of 38 PE and 38 JROTC classes in 4 high schools. The schools were randomly selected from12 district schools that provided both PE and JROTC. Data were analyzed using two-tailed t-tests.

Analysis/Results: Inter-observer reliabilities exceeded 90% for both student activity and lesson context variables.Students engaged in relatively more time in Walking (49 vs. 19%; p<.001), Vigorous (11 vs. 4%; p<.001), andModerate-to-Vigorous PA (61 vs. 23%; p<.001) in PE than during JROTC. Conversely, they spent significantly lesstime Sitting (17 vs. 47%; p<.001), Standing, (22 vs. 30%; p<.05), and engaged in sedentary behavior (39 vs. 77%p<.001). Relative to lesson context, management time for both programs were similar (about 31% of lessons), butPE teachers allocated significantly more time for physical fitness (20 vs. 9%; p<.05) and game play (30 vs. 5%;p<.001) and teachers of JROTC lessons allocated significantly more time for knowledge (38 vs. 6%; p<.001).Knowledge time during PE primarily focused on physical fitness, motor skill development, and game strategyconcepts. In contrast, most knowledge time (83%) in JROTC focused on drill, inspections, and military history andstrategies.

Conclusions: JROTC and PE provide substantially different content, contexts, and opportunities for students to be physically active, learn movement skills, and become physically fit. Policies and practices for permitting substitutions for PE should be carefully examined. Replications of this study using the direct observation of otherprograms frequently permitted to substitute for PE (e.g., marching band) are recommended.

Education Code Section 51225.3

(b) The governing board, with the active involvement of parents, administrators, teachers, and pupils, shall adoptalternative means for pupils to complete the prescribed course of study that may include practical demonstrationof skills and competencies, supervised work experience or other outside school experience, career technicaleducation classes offered in high schools, courses offered by regional occupational centers or programs,interdisciplinary study, independent study, and credit earned at a postsecondary educational institution. Requirements for graduation and specified alternative modes for completing the prescribed course of study shallbe made available to pupils, parents, and the public.

Discussion on E51225.3
This section of the California Education Code encourages the governing board and local school districtstakeholders to adopt alternative means for pupils to complete the prescribed course of study.  You’ll note that itdoes not suggest that course content can be substituted or altered in those prescribed courses.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Network for Public Education National Conference




Register to join us at the NPE National Conference!

Several PAA founding members will be featured at the first annual Network for Public Education National Conference in Austin TX on March 1 and 2, and other PAA leaders plan to attend.

Speaking at the conference will be Helen Gym from PAA affiliate Parents United for Public Education in Philadelphia, Sue Peters, recent winner of a Seattle school board position and co-founder of PAA-Seattle, Leonie Haimson, from PAA affiliate Class Size Matters in NYC, and Julie Woestehoff, from PAA affiliate Parents United for Responsible Education in Chicago.

The Network for Public Education was formed by Diane Ravitch in 2013 and has become a prominent voice in the education reform debate. During the November 2013 elections, NPE rallied support for successful school board candidates in Bridgeport, CT, Seattle (PAA's Peters) and Atlanta.

The 2014 National Conference will be an opportunity for NPE to coordinate its network of education activists from across the United States in preparation for the 2014 elections. "We are bringing together allies from around the country who really know what is happening on the ground in their own states and communities. One of our main goals in forming our network was to create a means to support candidates willing to defend public education," said Anthony Cody, an NPE co-founder with Ravitch. "By gathering together, we hope to build real momentum, making 2014 the year we turn the tide in the fight for our schools."

PAA co-founder Haimson also serves on the NPE Board.

The conference will take place at the Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin on March 1 & 2, 2014, the Saturday and Sunday before SXSWedu. The conference will feature more than twenty panels
and workshops, keynote speakers including Ravitch and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, and networking opportunities for education advocates from across the United States
"Our movement demands a positive agenda for change based on love of learning, respect for educators, and dedication to the healthy development of children as good people," Ravitch said. "We hope you will be there and join us as we review the status and condition of our movement to reclaim public education and decide what we should do to grow stronger in the future."

You can find more information about the Network for Public Education 2014 National Conference here. Registration is currently open and the website contains information about the speakers, panels, accommodations and travel.

8th Annual A.R.E. Conference


WORKSHOP PRESENTATION PROPOSAL
APPLICATION FORM


8th Annual A.R.E. Conference
Saturday, March 1st, 2014
C.K. McClatchy High School
Sacramento, CA

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Friday, January 31st, 2014
Email Application to: Sacra.ARE@gmail.com

CONFERENCE TITLE
20 Year Effort: Raza Educators Building Liberated Spaces

WORKSHOPS
·       Critical Pedagogy: Theory and Practice
·       Media and Education
·       Immigration and Its Relationship to Education of Raza Youth
·       Role of Community In Education
·       Art and Culture
·       Educational Empowerment and Self-determination
·       Violence, Drugs, and Imprisonment of Raza Youth
·       The Struggle Against Cutbacks and Teacher Layoffs
·       Corporate Take Over and Privatization of Public Education

Please submit your workshop proposal using the enclosed form and send it via email to sacra.are@gmail.com

The conference will be free for all attendees and will include continental breakfast. Lunch Options: A) $5 donation or B) on your own. All presenters will be required to pre-register.   Pre-registration is available online, please visit the following webpage: www.razaeducators.org/conference14/theme2014.html

At least as far back as Plutarch wise scholars knew the phrase "rule of law" meant "rule of plutocrats."

…he laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders’ webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich.

Plutarch Solon

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Meet the new exploitation, the same as the old exploitation

My comments on Michael Staton's "The Degree Is Doomed"

You have to love all the corporate psychobabble like "use the language of innovation theorists and practitioners, being unbundled" that this piece is replete with. It sort of reads like a Tom Vander Ark meets Thomas Friedman at an all-you-can-eat-mescaline-venture-capitalist-buffet.

At the end of all his nonsensical ramblings, the author gets to the meat of the matter. It's not just that he and all these greedy tech companies see a way to get University of Phoenix rich by peddling these so-called "alternate credential solutions," it's also about driving down the prevailing wage for all fields, including those of educated professionals. Hence phrases like "avoids job candidates with advanced software engineering degrees because ... brings with it both higher salary demands and hubris ... candidate is likely to be an expensive, hard-to-work-with diva who will show no loyalty to the company."

Meet the new exploitation, the same as the old exploitation.

SKrashen: Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?

SKrashen: Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?:   Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2008. Heritage language development: Exhortation or good stories? International Journal of Foreign Language Tea...

Monday, January 06, 2014

The Zinn Education Project goes where Corporate Core (CCSS) refuses to go

In memory of Hugh Thompson, Jr. who died #tdih2006 (age 62.) On March 16, 1968, during the My Lai Massacre, Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson blocked fellow U.S. troops with his helicopter, had his crew train machine guns on them, and rescued a group of civilian Vietnamese villagers hiding in a bunker. His actions led to an end to the brutal massacre. Learn more from this ballad by David Rovics, here:http://bit.ly/19ZLJWY (A related new book is "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam" by Nick Turse that documents (tragically) that My Lai was not a rare event. Learn more from this Democracy Now! broadcast:http://bit.ly/1hre14h)

Please visit and support The Zinn Education Project

Bruce A. Dixon of Black Agenda Report posted addional information from Wikipedia

via Karen Watson...
Thompson: What's going on here, Lieutenant?
Calley: This is my business.
Thompson: What is this? Who are these people?
Calley: Just following orders.
Thompson: Orders? Whose orders?
Calley: Just following...
Thompson: But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.
Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I'm in charge here. It ain't your concern.
Thompson: Yeah, great job.
Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.
Thompson: You ain't heard the last of this!
Thompson took off again, and Andreotta reported that Mitchell was now executing the people in the ditch. Furious, Thompson flew over the northeast corner of the village and spotted a group of about ten civilians, including children, running toward a homemade bomb shelter. Pursuing them were soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, C Company. Realizing that the soldiers intended to murder the Vietnamese, Thompson landed his aircraft between them and the villagers. Thompson turned to Colburn and Andreotta and told them that if the Americans began shooting at the villagers or him, they should fire their M60 machine guns at the Americans: "Y'all cover me! If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them. Promise me!" He then dismounted to confront the 2nd Platoon's leader, Stephen Brooks. Thompson told him he wanted help getting the peasants out of the bunker. ~ Wikipedia

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Saturday, January 04, 2014

My comments on Mike Klonsky's 'Belmont's Blues'

I live within walking distance of Belmont, and Roybal is just a bit further to the east (they're separate schools). Because of Monica Garcia, the proliferation of privately managed charters in this area has caused both of the former to become under-enrolled and have drained their resources. Well financed charters use laptop giveaways and other perquisites to attract higher performing students over to their lucrative operations, leaving our public schools with both less resources, and the harder to educate students. Over the summer our community fought hard to keep Richard Riordan's real estate cum charter school empire from staking out the highly prized parcel across the street from Belmont http://echopark.patch.com/groups/robert-d-skeelss-blog/p/college-ready-alliance-charter-corporations-big-scam We succeeded in getting our Neighborhood Council to vote against Alliance, but with their connections, they'll probably still expand and further dismantle our area's public schools.

M Night Shyamalan's privatization agenda exposed as soon as he cites his model schools

M Night Shyamalan is crusading the right-wing, corporate edreform project. He lauds the abject Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA) as one of 50 schools that are "successfully" using his method. Those of us who have had to resist CNCA's corporate take-over of our public schools have exposed those charlatans, but don't let facts get in the way of Shyamalan and all the other self-appointed education experts' privatization narrative.


UPDATE

Here are the comments I made on SPCR's site. People might want to do the same and also reach out to Tess Vigeland letting her know the regurgitating Press Releases is NOT journalism.

Tess Vigeland might want to ask reactionary M. Night Shyamalan how he finds Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA)'s abject 6% CSU proficiency "successful."

http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/01/crafty-camino-nuevo-charter-charlatans/

Reporters used to ask difficult questions of power and privilege, but it's a given that SCPR will just toss Shyamalan softballs. Ask him how many of the "papers, journals and studies" he and his foundation "researched" were actually peer-reviewed, juried works.

At the end of the day Shyamalan is crusading the right-wing, corporate edreform project. Lauding CNCA, which are, as pointed out above, abysmal, as one of 50 schools that are "successfully" using his methods exposes his privatization agenda. Those of us who have had to resist CNCA's corporate take-over of our local public schools have exposed those charlatans, but don't let facts get in the way of Shyamalan and all the other self-appointed education experts' privatization narrative.

Worst thing is these reformers never engage in honest debate because they are not only out of their element, but are easily discredited with facts. Rather than having Ana Ponce—who herself has made a fortune off the corporate edreform project—why not have an academic who could challenge Shyamalan's schtick?