From the Wall Street Journal, via Diane Ravitch's blog:
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/23/karen-lewis-and-randi-weingarten-write-an-article-about-the-strike-in-the-wall-street-journal/
SLS Project is an info space for courses taught in the Anthropology Dept. at Washington U. in St Louis (Prof. Bret Gustafson). Confronting St. Louis and MO politics has made me a bit outspoken. Opinions are my own, not the university, not the students, not the department. On St. Louis: @slsproject On energy politics: @energy_politics
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Exclusion of Black/Latino Young Men: Where does Missouri stand? (50-59% graduation rates)
The Urgency of Now Schott Foundation: America's Education System Neglects Almost Half of the Nation's Black and Latino Male Students
New report cites need to address students being pushed
out and locked out of opportunities to learn; Schott
Foundation joins call for a moratorium on out-of-school
suspensions
The research for this report was conducted by Michael
Holzman. It was edited by John Jackson and Ann Beaudry,
with assistance from Emily Dexter and Kalycia Trishana
Watson. The report was designed by Patrick St. John.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education
http://www.blackboysreport.org/
New report cites need to address students being pushed
out and locked out of opportunities to learn; Schott
Foundation joins call for a moratorium on out-of-school
suspensions
The research for this report was conducted by Michael
Holzman. It was edited by John Jackson and Ann Beaudry,
with assistance from Emily Dexter and Kalycia Trishana
Watson. The report was designed by Patrick St. John.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education
http://www.blackboysreport.org/
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Chicago Teachers Union | South Town Star: Miller: CTU plays school reform group for suckers
Chicago Teachers Union | South Town Star: Miller: CTU plays school reform group for suckers
The non-profit 'reform' organization Stand for Children spent a lot of money to influence Illinois legislators, changing the threshold needed to strike by public unions to 75%. Then, with the mayor's support, they moved to implement a number of measures that, according to CTU, run contrary to good teaching. See Stand for Children director Jonah Edelman brag about having outsmarted the unions on this video. So, now post-strike, with significant public support for the teachers' unions, what has been gained by this heavily funded attempt to undermine teachers' unions?
The non-profit 'reform' organization Stand for Children spent a lot of money to influence Illinois legislators, changing the threshold needed to strike by public unions to 75%. Then, with the mayor's support, they moved to implement a number of measures that, according to CTU, run contrary to good teaching. See Stand for Children director Jonah Edelman brag about having outsmarted the unions on this video. So, now post-strike, with significant public support for the teachers' unions, what has been gained by this heavily funded attempt to undermine teachers' unions?
Monday, September 17, 2012
Chicago Chooses Sides: Poll Shows Public School Parent Support for Strike
63-65% support the strike, among Latino and African-American parents.
Those opposed: a slight majority (52%) white, a slight majority (52%) whose kids go to private schools. Still pretty close to even, but sort that out for us.... these folks with kids in private schools are opposed because...?
Chicago Chooses Sides
From Harold Myerson, The American Prospect "The chief takeaway from this poll is that the anti-union education-reform movement doesn’t extend to most parents of children in unionized public schools. So long as this movement persists in its anti-union jihad, even as America’s children become increasingly minority, education reform may condemn itself to remaining a movement of the white upper-middle class. The voting breakdown in the 2011 Washington, D.C., mayoral election between the defeated incumbent Adrian Fenty, who, with overwhelming white establishment support, backed school chief Michelle Rhee in her war on the city’s teachers’ union, and the victorious challenger Vincent Gray, who won a clear majority of black voters, tells the same story as that in this poll of Chicago voters. Confined by its ideological suppositions to the white professional ghetto, the education-reform movement, powerful though it may be, will repeatedly subvert itself in its efforts to transform America’s schools."
Those opposed: a slight majority (52%) white, a slight majority (52%) whose kids go to private schools. Still pretty close to even, but sort that out for us.... these folks with kids in private schools are opposed because...?
Chicago Chooses Sides
From Harold Myerson, The American Prospect "The chief takeaway from this poll is that the anti-union education-reform movement doesn’t extend to most parents of children in unionized public schools. So long as this movement persists in its anti-union jihad, even as America’s children become increasingly minority, education reform may condemn itself to remaining a movement of the white upper-middle class. The voting breakdown in the 2011 Washington, D.C., mayoral election between the defeated incumbent Adrian Fenty, who, with overwhelming white establishment support, backed school chief Michelle Rhee in her war on the city’s teachers’ union, and the victorious challenger Vincent Gray, who won a clear majority of black voters, tells the same story as that in this poll of Chicago voters. Confined by its ideological suppositions to the white professional ghetto, the education-reform movement, powerful though it may be, will repeatedly subvert itself in its efforts to transform America’s schools."
POST-DISPATCH: CHANGING ITS STANCE ON ACCREDITATION AND THE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED BOARD?
From the STL Post-Dispatch Editorial Board:
1
Editorial: State should honor St. Louis accreditation request
September 16, 2012 12:15 am • By the Editorial Board
When discussing the process by which the state accredits, or unaccredits, public schools in Missouri, Chad Beffa uses a war analogy.
"There is no exit strategy," Mr. Beffa says.
Mr. Beffa is one of the elected members of the board that used to oversee the St. Louis Public Schools. Since 2007, when the schools lost state accreditation and a Special Administrative Board was appointed to take over, the elected board has been mostly toothless.
School Reform in Chicago: New Kind of Apartheid?
From the Occupied Chicago Tribune:
http://occupiedchicagotribune.org/2012/09/education-apartheid-the-racism-behind-chicagos-school-reform/
And, since St Louis often follows in Chicago's footsteps, are we heading the same way?
http://occupiedchicagotribune.org/2012/09/education-apartheid-the-racism-behind-chicagos-school-reform/
And, since St Louis often follows in Chicago's footsteps, are we heading the same way?
Friday, September 14, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Are Vouchers a Solution?
Review of a Brookings Study on vouchers, challenging whether they improve chances of getting to college: http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2012/13/vouchers-college
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Why I'm striking, JCB (Chicago)
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2012
CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard is on record saying both that CTU leadership is deciding whether or not to strike, and that “everyone knows that a strike would only hurt our kids.”I just wanted to educate my boss a little on the history of Chicago, as he is relatively new to the area....
Read the rest at:http://chiteacherx.blogspot.com/2012/09/why-im-striking-jcb.html
Friday, September 7, 2012
Chicago Teachers Union, Pending Strike
Chicago Teachers Say They'll Strike for the Kids
Theresa Moran
| August 28, 2012
http://labornotes.org/2012/08/chicago-teachers-say-theyll-strike-kids
Video from earlier this summer: