Equity,
Public Education
and
Revolution. . .
We have a great dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant
that America
will be true to her dream.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
America's public schools have been a topic of intense debate
for years. Many of the key issues have
always been centered around defining student success and determining how
effective our public education systems are in providing access to opportunities
for our students. Public education has
been advertised as the pathway to success and a way to escape poverty. At the same time it has been chastised as
another example of how our society is failing a significant number of students,
especially our children of color and students of poverty.
The attacks against public
education have come from a variety of sources, but supporters of public
education are pushing back and the debate has been intense. Unfortunately, we have found that defining
success or failure for our public schools is more difficult to do than one
would imagine.
A historian of education argues that despite the widely held
notion that American schools are failing, things have actually never been
better.
www.vox.com
We find ourselves engaged
in a societal debate about issues that are very personal and individualized in
nature. Attempting to create a perfect
system for a collection of diverse individuals is difficult at best, and the
results we are achieving demonstrate just how tough it is to try and
institutionalize something like education.
The terms we use, the policies we implement and the ways we instruct and
assess all lose their meaning as we travel further away from the central focus
of education, the individual student.
Things like Achievement Gaps are examples of issues that are immense in
scope, but made up of single components that need to be addressed as such. There is no perfect system in place that can
effectively meet the needs and fulfill the wishes of every student, family and
community in our diverse nation. Yet, we
also need to have a public education system in place that can provide
opportunities for all students. Quite a
challenging prospect. No wonder issues
around public education are so controversial and spark such intense debate. Yet, these discussions and the solutions we
arrive at are vital to the survival of our nation and the ideals that we have
based our national identity on.
While the debate about
defining education and providing equity in such a difficult endeavor are enough
of a challenge, we also find that there are other issues that impact our public
education discussions. Money is one of
the biggest of these. We can't forget
that there are those who view education not as a tool to improve society, but
as a vehicle to pad their bottom line.
A specter is haunting America - the privatization of its
public schools, and Big Money has entered into an unholy alliance to aid and
abet it. Multi-billionaire philanthropists and others are making common cause
to hasten the destruction...
www.huffingtonpost.com
Economics also impacts
education by creating an unequal playing field for the students in the
system. There is ample evidence that
poverty has a significant impact on student success in our education systems,
public or private, and the gaps between social classes exist inside and outside
of our schools. It is very troubling
that these gaps are widening in modern America.
Students from high-poverty public schools are less likely to
attend college than those from wealthier ones, regardless of whether they're
from urban, suburban...
www.huffingtonpost.com
With the discussion about
poverty comes a needed conversation about race in America and its impact on outcomes
whether educational, economic or any other.
Race and poverty are closely linked in our nation, and this is
compounded by the history of injustice and inequity that mar our nation's
history. This combination of present
problems, and historical struggles puts our nation's young people in a
difficult position. They are growing up
in a more diverse America
than ever before, but they are doing it in a society that is still controlled
by archaic and inequitable systems.
Breaking through these barriers is difficult and must be supported by
all of us. This means changing the
current ways of doing things and looking towards the future, not being
controlled by the past.
Telling young black males they are “endangered” is no favor.
washingtonpost.com
Our current systems are
driven and supported by "data."
Nowhere is this more true than in the realm of public education. We assess our students non-stop, and then use
the results as weapons against progress.
Instead of using assessment to promote better instruction, it often is
used to sort, classify and suppress learning.
Students who don't test well are relegated to remediation or to
"interventions" that simply continue to further separate them from
their peers. Assessment becomes, not a
vital part of instructional practice, but rather a way of justifying
institutional segregation and tracking systems.
While masked by righteous rhetoric, the end result too often is that we
use the results to put students into categories that will impact their entire
life.
When defenders of the Common Core say these standards are
tools that belong to teachers, they are ignoring the historical roots of such
standards.
livingindialogue.com
Behavior and the public's
perception of what is happening in our schools is also an important aspect of
the debate. There are many competing
ideas about how to make our schools safe and orderly. Yet, the policies that are created are often
imposed from outside of school buildings.
Each student is an individual and needs individual attention. Nowhere is this more true than in their
emotional engagement in learning and the relationships that are built as they
move along their educational journey.
While we may want to return to the "good old days" of
supposedly quiet and obedient students, we need to recognize that those days
were filled with challenging students and "pranks" that today appear
on police reports. Go to any high school
reunion and listen to the stories that make the case that kids of the past were
far from angelic.
In no way is this an
effort to ignore the reality that we face significant behavioral challenges in
our schools. Discipline is an issue and
the difficulties are compounded by societal pressures, mental health issues and
the stresses that our families and student live under. What makes these problems even more
challenging is the fact that there are many who don't recognize the importance
of relationships, time and the resources needed to make any school building a
safe and positive one for all who work and learn in it.
Joanne Lipman writes that today's educators are too soft. It
is time to go back to the discipline of the past.
m.wsj.com|By Joanne Lipman
The Madison School District
will receive about $6.1 million less in state aid for 2014-15 than expected,
according to final state aid numbers released...
host.madison.com|By Molly
Beck | Wisconsin State Journal
Non-partisan research and policy institute working on
federal and state fiscal policies and public programs that affect low- and
moderate-income Americans
cbpp.org
Instead we turn to
"fixes" that actually harm our students and our educational
systems. We operate under the illusion
that an educational marketplace will improve outcomes when in reality it simply
stratifies and segregates our students.
MADISON — Wisconsin
taxpayers have paid about $139 million to private schools that ended up being
barred from the state's voucher system for failing
postcrescent.com
We've always had gaps and
groups that have failed in our schools.
We know that a utopian ideal where all are equal is a dream, but never
has been a reality. Yet, we also know
that we can do better for our students, especially those of color, with
disabilities and who come from diverse cultures. As the diversity of our nation increases the
exposure to those different from us also increases. This can be a frightening experience for many
of us. Suddenly the view of what is
"normal" and "expected" needs to change and adapt in order
to incorporate others who have different experiences and opinions. This causes a number of responses,
unfortunately many of which are centered around fear and anger. It is time that we leave these negative
emotions behind and build a better future for all of our citizens.
This change can begin in
our public schools. However, positive
change for all students doesn't just magically happen. It involves a lot of work, some very
difficult discussion and even conflict at times. It doesn't happen unilaterally, nor does it
occur in a vacuum. It involves entire
communities coming together to talk about what they need and want for all
children. It must begin by breaking down
barriers that have been built over the years, and moving forward under the
premise that we all want a successful society where all of us are valued and
respected.
Why the current wave of reforms, with its heavy emphasis on
standardized tests, may actually be harming students
theatlantic.com|By John Tierney
Overcoming years of tensions and divisions, parents and
teachers are linking arms to save public schools.
thenation.com
The
Good, The Bad and
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . As the debate continues about voter ID, a great argument against the law,
written by a Conservative judge.
Conservative icon/federal judge changes mind on photo ID
laws, issues blistering dissent against them. Read it here
salon.com
The Bad . . . Teaching is a tough enough job without all of the legal and political
struggles, not to mention the disrespect that we are too frequently shown by
our employers. No wonder the attrition
rate for new teachers is so high.
A panel of education experts says that the nation's
understaffing problem is about retention, not recruitment. The solutions?
Better leadership and more freedom for teachers, they say.
blogs.edweek.org
The average teacher salary in Wisconsin dropped last year and trails the
national average.
postcrescent.com
Representing the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators
IEA Retired, we walked the line with striking Waukegan teachers this week. "There they
are," Harriet pointed. A couple dozen striking Wauke...
preaprez.wordpress.com
Union president Mike Lipp calls the standard needed to
prevail “punitive.”
host.madison.com|By Pat Schneider
The Ugly . . . So sorry to hear about Karen Lewis' illness. Hoping for a speedy recovery.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who just
pulled out of mayoral contention, is suffering from a cancerous brain tumor
that was diagnosed shortly after she experienced a severe headache on Oct. 5.
As a result, Lewis...
politics.suntimes.com
