Segregation: 60 Years After Brown

In a few weeks we'll mark the 60th anniversary of the (May 17,) 1954 school desegregation decision, Brown vs. Board of Education. Even after 60 years, however, the U.S. is still struggling with racism and segregation.

SPEAKING OUT AGAINST RACISM

Last weekend President Obama spoke out against the racism reflected by the comments of Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA franchise, Los Angeles Clippers.

Obama: Donald Sterling’s Racism Is Part Of ‘The Legacy Of Race And Slavery And Segregation’

“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation, that’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination,” he said. “We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why statements like this stand out some much is because there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.” [emphasis added]

The President included segregation as one of the problems that still exists in America. Does he realize that his administration is contributing to the problem of segregation by forcing states to increase the number of charter schools?

Race to the Top, the Obama/Duncan plan to privatize America's public schools, requires states to, among other things, increase charter school caps. Charter schools do not, in general, perform better than public schools, and are often worse. But what's relevant to President Obama's comments, though, is that charter schools are often responsible for increased racial segregation.

CHARTERS AND SEGREGATION

Charter Schools and the Risk of Increased Segregation

...the policy on charter schools remains a centerpiece of the administration’s initiatives (as it was, in a different form, in the Bush Administration), despite abundant evidence that the policy is inconsistent with the longstanding goal of promoting school integration.

Perhaps the increase in segregation is unintended. In 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education struck down the concept of separate but equal schools. States could no longer maintain separate facilities for students based on race. However, in 2007, the Court found that using race as a means to desegregate schools was also not allowed. This allowed continued de facto segregation. In other words, it is legal for schools to be segregated if the segregation is by, among other methods, "parental choice." Whether segregation is desirable or not doesn't seem to be an issue any more.

The fact is that desegregation worked -- in that it helped the achievement of black students thereby reducing the racial achievement gap (The results were not universal, so desegregation alone is not sufficient to end the achievement gap, however, the gains made during the time the U.S. desegregated schools were real). The challenge to the nation today is to find a way to increase school integration without using race as a means to desegregation...

In any case, whether it is intended or not is irrelevant. School segregation is increasing and charter schools are contributing to the increase.

It is not that government has an agenda to increase segregation. Proponents of charter schools believe they’re giving low-income and minority students opportunities they otherwise would not have had. That belief is true in some cases; all charter schools do not result in segregation. But far too many do, and the trend is unfavorable. It takes a lot of care through targeted funding and oversight to mitigate the pressures that lead to yet more segregation. But whatever motivations drive the choices families and schools make, it is important that government does not exacerbate the problem of segregation by ignoring the unintended consequences of its policies. The risk is an increasingly divided public education system. [emphasis added]

It's been asked before if President Obama is even aware of what his administration's education policy is...what it expects the states to do...and its consequences -- intended or unintended. Does he know that charter schools increase racial segregation?

A new round of segregation plays out in charter schools

The Civil Rights Project at the University of California Los Angeles, which has documented charter school segregation for years, has found that in several western and southern states white students are disproportionately represented in charter schools. These patterns “suggest that charters serve as havens for white flight from public schools,” according to a 2010 report from the group.

Choice Without Equity:
 Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards

Seven years after the Civil Rights Project first documented extensive patterns of charter school segregation, the charter sector continues to stratify students by race, class and possibly language. This study is released at a time of mounting federal pressure to expand charter schools, despite on-going and accumulating evidence of charter school segregation.

Our analysis of the 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students reveals that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation. While examples of truly diverse charter schools exist, our data show that these schools are not reflective of broader charter trends.

“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation, that’s still there..."

Yes, Mr. President, it's still there.

Related:

• Breaking News: School Segregation Study Strikes A Nerve
• Scathing Report Finds Rocketship, School Privatization Hurt Poor Kids
• A Walmart Fortune, Spreading Charter Schools
• The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
• Jonathan Kozol at the Andrea Neves and Barton Evans Social Justice Lecture Series.

~~~

Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

Musical Interlude: It's Got That Swing

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUKE!

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born to two musicians on April 29, 1899.

He began his own musical career -- starting piano lessons -- at the age of 7. At 15 he wrote his first song (1914)...and spent the next 60 years writing and playing music.

I'm not going to write a lot about him other than to say that his music influenced me as a teen. There's quite a bit of biographical information on the web if you're interested. Some interesting reads are...

• The Official Site of Jazz Legend Duke Ellington

• The New York Times Review of: Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography, By A. H. Lawrence

• Wikipedia entry for Duke Ellington

NOW, THE GOOD PART

The first clip is from the documentary by Ken Burns, Jazz. It's a short clip of Ellington playing his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag."

Two of Ellington's signature pieces...the first, "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" -- this version is Ellington's orchestra with Louis Armstrong. You can only listen to on YouTube (click the image to listen), but it's worth it...

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

Finally, a late version (1964) of "Take the "A" Train." During the introduction Ellington introduces his arranger and collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. Music starts at about 1:25. Vocal by Ernie Shepard.

~~~

Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

Random Quotes, April 2014

Thoughts and ideas from various sources.

COURAGE

Sometimes the courage needed to stand up to the "reform" nonsense permeating public education is the courage to put one's livelihood at risk. Traditionally, teachers are well behaved and respect authority. "Reformers" and their legislative minions count on that...

Encouraging Courage by Alfie Kohn

It takes courage to stand up to absurdity when all around you people remain comfortably seated. But if we need one more reason to do the right thing, consider this: The kids are watching us, deciding how to live their lives in part by how we’ve chosen to live ours.

HOW LONG IS A TEACHING CAREER?

Having schools full of "test-prep technicians" instead of professional educators makes the privatization of public education easier.

Report: As Teacher Demographics Change, Districts Must Prioritize Retention by Alyssa Morones in Education Week's blog, Teacher Beat

Nearly one third of teachers exit the field within the first three years—a fraction that's even larger in urban school systems, where more than two thirds of teachers in those schools leave within 5 years. The attrition rate in high poverty schools is 50 percent greater than it is in other schools. Teachers of color leave at much higher rates than white teachers, a problem that's notable in light of schools' struggles to recruit more minority teachers.

Such turnover is costly. According to one study from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future cited in the report, teacher attrition costs school districts more than $7 billion to recruit and induct new teachers. Finally, because lower-income urban schools have a particularly hard time with teacher retention, their students on average receive weaker instruction because beginner teachers tend to be less effective than experienced ones.

These demographic changes are coupled with what appear to be a shift in teachers' thoughts on teaching as a long-term profession.

A national survey of teachers found that over half planned to leave the profession; new teachers who entered the profession through non-traditional routes, including Teach For America, were even more likely to express this outlook.

"REFORM" IS THE STATUS QUO

Finally...the perfect title for "reformers"...

Purveyors of Reformy Nonsense - aka PoRN Stars.

Duncan to Rest of US: Shut Up by Peter Greene in Curmudgucation Blog

At the risk of setting off the redundant redundancy alarm myself, let me repeat that neither King nor any of the other Purveryors of Reformy Nonsense are fighting the status quo. The PoRN stars have had years upon years to show us all how their complex of standards based test driven high accountability baloney will save us all, and it isn't happening. NY is special because it has had every single element the PoRNs want-- the charters, the TFA, the testing, the teacher evaluations, the centrally produced teacher-proof CCSS curriculum materials (okay, they haven't killed tenure yet)-- and yet none of those programs has produced anything remotely like success. In New York State the reformy nonsense IS THE STATUS QUO.

TEACHING IS EASY?

Who should we listen to in the current discussion about public education? The educators who spend their lives working with children and understand how learning works, or hedge fund managers, legislators, or billionaires whose view of education stems from childhood memories or from seeing public schools as a "market?"

Arne Duncan may know about basketball...Bill Gates may know about technology...and locally, Mike Pence may know about being an attorney...Bob Behning might know about flowers...and Dennis Kruse might know about auctions...

But not one of them knows about education. Not one of them knows as much as a first year teacher. Not one of them knows as much as the experienced special education para...or the music teacher...or the school librarian. Not one of them knows anything about how to help a struggling child learn...

From What They Don't Teach You by Erin Osborne

Elementary teachers take the brunt of teacher hate. Tony seems to think teaching thirty children colors and the alphabet must be simple. Come on, it's the alphabet! Of course, Tony doesn't remember how long it took him to correctly write the alphabet. He conveniently doesn't remember the hours his parents and teacher spent drilling and correcting. He was too young to recall that they thought he might have been dyslexic for a time but just needed some extra support.

Tony doesn't remember learning his multiplication tables or the planets in the solar system. He doesn't remember the first time he read a book by himself and where he learned about the settling of America. He wasn't born knowing how to share, to work together in a group, how to listen and respond to another human being. He was taught these things.

MYTHS AND LIES

Teachers are not against accountability...they just think that everyone who creates the conditions under which public schools have to operate should share in the accountability. Accountability should fall on policy makers, politicians, parents, and communities as well as educators. Schools don't exist in a vacuum.

John Kuhn wrote,

I ask you, where is the label for the lawmaker whose policies fail to clean up the poorest neighborhoods? Why do we not demand that our leaders make “Adequate Yearly Progress”? We have data about poverty, health care, crime, and drug abuse in every legislative district. We know that those factors directly impact our ability to teach kids. Why have we not established annual targets for our legislators to meet? Why do they not join us beneath these vinyl banners that read “exemplary” in the suburbs and “unacceptable” in the slums?

Yet, the myths and lies about public schools and public school teachers continue.

Top 5 Myths and Lies About Teachers and Their Profession from NEA Today.

Well-funded misinformation campaigns succeed in part by leaving no rock unturned in the quest to smear whatever person or institution they are targeting. In these cases, is there any meaningful difference between a hoax, myth, rumor or an outright lie? Not really, because they all serve to discredit and undermine, regardless of intent.

For more than ten years, public schools have been assaulted by a barrage of destructive policies that have been fueled by the widespread dissemination of misinformation. It begins with corporate cash flowing into new think tanks and advocacy groups, or films like “Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back Down.” And it all eventually trickles down to the neighbor a few doors down who asked you, “I support public schools and I love my own child’s teacher, but, gosh darnit, why can’t bad teachers ever be fired and what’s wrong with being held accountable?”

Needless to say, the conversation over public education needs to change course but is still largely bogged down in the morass of distortions and warped opinions

EVERYONE MATTERS

From Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch

Good schools are akin to families, in which every member of the family is different and every member of the family matters...

THE LIE THAT STARTED IT ALL

For decades politicians, policy makers, and pundits have been blaming schools for putting our nation at risk. One wonders how the U.S. managed to emerge as a world leader.

Education at Risk: Fallout from a Flawed Report by Tamim Ansary in Edutopia. A discussion of A Nation at Risk.

What we now call school reform isn't the product of a gradual consensus emerging among educators about how kids learn; it's a political movement that grew out of one seed planted in 1983...

STATISTICALLY INVALID

Why are we listening to people who don't know what they're talking about? What educational qualifications do Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michelle Rhee, or Jeb Bush have?

Are Teacher Evaluations Education ‘Reform’s’ Biggest Bust? from the Educational Opportunity Network.

...a key underpinning to the whole teacher evaluation program pushed by the Obama administration was cast into doubt. As Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuck again reported, the American Statistical Association, “the world’s largest community of statisticians,” examined the practice of basing teachers’ performance evaluations on students’ standardized test scores – a key criterion for getting Race to the Top money or an NCLB waiver – and warned against this approach.

We know that test scores do not accurately reflect a teacher's ability in the classroom as shown by research.

Reliability and Validity of Inferences About Teachers Based on Student Test Scores

Teacher VAM scores should emphatically not be included as a substantial factor with a fixed weight in consequential teacher personnel decisions. The information they provide is simply not good enough to use in that way. It is not just that the information is noisy. Much more serious is the fact that the scores may be systematically biased for some teachers and against others, and major potential sources of bias stem from the way our school system is organized. No statistical manipulation can assure fair comparisons of teachers working in very different schools, with very different students, under very different conditions. One cannot do a good enough job of isolating the signal of teacher effects from the massive influences of students’ individual aptitudes, prior educational histories, out-of-school experiences, peer influences, and differential summer learning loss, nor can one adequately adjust away the varying academic climates of different schools. [emphasis in original]

EVERY CLASSROOM IS DIFFERENT

The Teacher as Sisyphus by David C Berliner.

No classroom is like any other. Not even with the same teacher. Every year something is different -- the makeup of the students, the outside influences, the administrative support or foul-ups and the experience of the teacher. Every year, every teacher and every student experience something different than they ever have before.

Four variables:

1. some one
2. teaching some thing
3. to someone else
4. in some setting

There are only four variables for schools and teachers and school administrators to control, so the general public thinks that teaching seems easy. It certainly sounds easy, until you remember that four is exactly the same number of variables that make up our DNA. And just as those four nucleotides result in billions of different people, and great variation even within the same family, those four educational variables result in no two classrooms ever being alike. Class-to-class and year-to-year variations, even in the same schools, end up requiring remarkably different skills to teach and to administer well. Teaching and schooling is hard work because you cannot ever be sure of what you will draw as a class or what the dynamics will be at a school.

~~~

Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

Just Another Excuse to Bash Teachers

The Indianapolis Star Editorial Board apparently agrees with State Board of Education member Gordon Hendry that something must be wrong with the teacher evaluation system in Indiana since so many teachers scored as Effective and Highly Effective.

Indiana’s system for evaluating how well its 55,000 public school teachers are doing their jobs smacks of absurdity on multiple levels.

The Star lists three "absurdities" which prove, at least in their minds, that there cannot possibly be that many good teachers in the state. The not-so-hidden-assumption is the usual, "We know there are bad teachers and if this evaluation system doesn't reveal them, then there's something wrong with the system."

The assumption is based on the myth of the "bad teacher" being responsible for all the ills affecting society.

MANAGERS INFLATE PERFORMANCE

Absurdity No. 1: The ratings released by the Indiana Department of Education this month are clearly inflated. About 97 percent of teachers landed in the highest two categories -- “highly effective” and “effective.” Only about 2 percent were rated as “needs improvement.” And less than one-half of one percent -- about 200 teachers statewide — received the lowest rating of “ineffective.”

This must be incorrect because, the Star maintains, it's normal for "managers to overrate employees' performance." This may be true...and it may also be true that education managers (principals) have overrated employees' (teachers) performance. However, there's no proof that this is true. Saying the numbers are "clearly inflated" isn't sufficient. Maybe the bad teachers have already quit, been counseled out, or been fired within their first five years (nearly half of all teachers leave the profession within that time). The Education profession has a way of cleaning house before teachers gain too much experience.


HOOSIERS ARE UNEDUCATED

Absurdity No. 2: The ratings don’t match results. A lot of data measuring student achievement is available, some encouraging and some deeply discouraging, but there’s a bottom line statistic that can’t be ignored: Indiana ranks 42nd in the nation in the education level of its workforce. That’s a fatal flaw for a state that must compete in a global economy where a good education is increasingly an essential commodity.

Is the Star trying to blame the education level of the state's workforce on K-12 educators? It's hard to tell because there seems to be an immediate "walk-back" from this...

Educators argue, and rightly so, that they’re not fully responsible for that statistic and other key indicators. Education attainment has been undercut by Indiana’s long history as a strong manufacturing base, which for decades inadvertently weakened the value of an education; growing poverty rates in the state; and in many cases, a frustrating lack of parental support. [emphasis added]

...but they go on to write...

But taxpayers invest so heavily in schools -- 53 cents of every dollar in the state budget goes to K-12 education -- precisely because state leaders and the public recognize the importance of education to Indiana’s future. The problem is that taxpayers’ aren’t getting sufficient return on their investment.

In other words..."Hoosiers aren't educated enough and while we aren't going to come out and say it's the fault of the K-12 educators it's someone's fault and we really want to blame someone...whoever."

How about the fact that a third of Indiana residents who graduate from state supported universities and colleges leave the state after graduation...and almost half leave within 5 years of graduation (effectively lowering the educational attainment rate)? Is that the fault of K-12 educators, too?

Someone needs to take the blame for that after all, and since the Star won't criticize the favored legislature or governor, then it must be the fault of those pesky unionized teachers.

GIVE THE LOSERS A PAY RAISE

Absurdity No. 3: Some state leaders want to reward performance that’s less than satisfactory. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz floated the idea that even those 2 percent of teachers saddled with “needs improvement” rankings should receive pay raises.

I didn't know that...maybe we do need a different system for evaluating teachers after all. How about something like this...

The Montgomery County Public Schools system...has a highly regarded program for evaluating teachers, providing them extra support if they are performing poorly and getting rid of those who do not improve.

The program, Peer Assistance and Review — known as PAR — uses several hundred senior teachers to mentor both newcomers and struggling veterans...

In the 11 years since PAR began, the panels have voted to fire 200 teachers, and 300 more have left rather than go through the PAR process, said Jerry D. Weast, the superintendent of the Montgomery County system, which enrolls 145,000 students, one-third of them from low-income families. In the 10 years before PAR, he said, five teachers were fired. “It took three to five years to build the trust to get PAR in place,” he explained. “Teachers had to see we weren’t playing gotcha.”

Doug Prouty, the teachers’ union president, said, “It wouldn’t work without the level of trust we have here.”

Nancy S. Grasmick, Maryland’s state superintendent of schools, called PAR “an excellent system for professional development.” Senior staff members from the United States Department of Education have visited here to study the program, and Montgomery County officials have gone to Washington to explain how it works. In February, the district was one of 12 featured in Denver at a Department of Education conference on labor-management collaboration.

Unfortunately, the plan, which has worked so well, doesn't include evaluating teachers using student test scores, which Indiana now requires...

The Star continued

Let’s reward great teachers with strong compensation. But don’t dilute limited resources by handing out more money to those who aren’t getting the job done.

Is that like allowing failed charter schools to reopen as private schools and receive tax supported vouchers? Is that the kind of dilution of limited resources they're talking about?

The Indianapolis Star ought to admit it...they just want another excuse to bash public schools and their teachers.

~~~

Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~