Tag: Chaka Fattah

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Dropout Nation on the Airwaves

On the Move: Dropout Nation’s RiShawn Biddle, Congressman Chaka Fattah and Byron Garrett Headline State of Black CT Alliance’s Building Blocks of Educational Excellence Event

Dropout Nation Editorial Board

December 3, 2010 10:40 am December 3, 2010

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If Connecticut is to close the nation’s worst achievement gap between white and minority children, it must get at least 20,000 black and Latino boys and girls to read at…

If Connecticut is to close the nation’s worst achievement gap between white and minority children, it must get at least 20,000 black and Latino boys and girls to read at advanced levels. On December 16, join the State of Black CT Alliance (the grassroots activist group that advocated for the nation’s second Parent Trigger law allowing families to restructure the schools that their children attend) in rallying Connecticut’s parents and leaders to make that a reality by helping to kick off its Building Blocks of Educational Excellence Campaign with an awards ceremony and fundraiser.

The event, which will be held in Stamford, Conn., at the Hilton Stamford Hotel, will rally parents, leaders and activists for improving education. Speakers include your Dropout Nation Editor, RiShawn Biddle, along with:

Congressman Chaka Fattah: Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus
Byron V. Garrett: The first African-American man to serve as CEO of National PTA
Connecticut State Rep. Gary Holder: Co-author of the nation’s second Parent Trigger law
Sonja Manjon: Wesleyan University Vice President of Diversity and Strategic Partnerships
Stewart Hudson: President of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation

The event will also honor individuals and groups that have helped build a strong Connecticut and nation, including: CNN commentator and Capital Prep Principal Dr. Steve Perry, John H. Jackson of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, California State Sen. Gloria Romero (who helped pass the nation’s first Parent Trigger school reform law) and Parenting Magazine. Education Trust Artist-in-Residence Brooke Haycock will also perform a documentary drama focusing on the critical need for education reform.

Building Blocks of Educational Excellence will be held at the Hilton Stamford Hotel, One First Stamford Place, Stamford, CT. Tickets to attend the event are $125. For more information on this event, contact Gwendolyn Samuel at gwen@stateofblackct.org or visit http://www.stateofblackct.org/events.html.

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At the State Level School Districts in Trouble Urban Decay

Are Adequacy and Equity Funding Suits On the Comeback? Oh Yeah!

RiShawn Biddle

February 12, 2010 8:02 am February 12, 2010

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All about the Benjamins: Equity and adequacy lawsuits may be on the comeback

Yesterday, after analyzing a school funding adequacy case in Washington State, Education Sector analyst Robert Manwaring whether such torts (and their twins, funding equity suits) were on the comeback. The answer is yes. And the Obama administration, through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, may be aiding those efforts.

Back in November, at the Schott Foundation for Public Education’s annual confab, Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah announced that the department would be stepping up its efforts on that front — and reverse Bush administration policies on addressing adequacy and equity. Declared Fattah: “We need to use… the leverage of the federal dollars… to cause the other dollars to be spent more equitably.”

A day later, the Assistant Secretary of Education overseeing OCR, Russlynn Ali, admitted that the office has begun investigations into alleged violations of Title IV provisions, and is looking to provide “real data” that can help advocates and school funding lawyers advance their goals. Although the former Education Trust official cautioned those advocates that a school equity agenda needed to be more than about lawsuits and funding, she also declared that OCR was “back in business.”

All this comes as such suits are on the decline. Until the Washington State decision, the last major school funding tort was Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York. Most of these suits have fallen to seed partly because Centrist Democrat school reformers have found charter schools and standards-and-accountability to be better solutions for educational inequities. As seen in New Jersey with Abbott, funding equity and adequacy suits also fail to do little to fix the underlying problem of big urban school systems (and their suburban counterparts): Restrictive teachers union contracts; state laws that limit the ability of districts to remove laggard teachers; and systemic bureaucratic incompetence. The fact that these urban districts already yield per-pupil dollars from past funding formula revisions in their favor that make their spending nearly as high as their suburban counterparts often shows that more money doesn’t equal better student performance.

This also comes as states and school districts wrangle with strapped budgets. Already, Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s Michael Rebell is arguing that cutting school funding — which often accounts for at least a quarter of state budgets — is unconstitutional. Expect Rebell to make those arguments in court — complete with the usual citation of constitutional provisions that states must provide for free education.

Then there is the reality that as much of the problem lies with overall urban policies — including the granting of tax abatement that reduce tax revenues and a lack of focus on solving crime and other quality-of-life issues — which districts can’t solve without the backing of municipal governments. One important reason for mayoral control of schools is that the mayor must also think of schools as he considers whether to hand out another tax break to a favored property baron.

But more adequacy and equity lawsuits are coming.

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Dropout Nation on Twitter

Dropout Nation on Twitter for Feb. 11

RiShawn Biddle

February 12, 2010 4:07 am February 12, 2010

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Keep up with up-to-the-minute happenings by subscribing to Dropout Nation’s Twtter feed. Here are some of yesterday’s tweets: RT @Edubeat @HarvardResearch: Few experts see benefits of performance pay plans http://ow.ly/15TRk…

You seen the bird. Do what he says.

Keep up with up-to-the-minute happenings by subscribing to Dropout Nation’s Twtter feed. Here are some of yesterday’s tweets:

RT @Edubeat @HarvardResearch: Few experts see benefits of performance pay plans http://ow.ly/15TRk #edreform As Jason Kamras points out… #
Few studies on performance pay and few initiatives have been of any large scale. Most are also watered-down. So the “experts” honestly… #
Have little on which to base positions. It’s like asking astronomers circa Gallileo era about whether or not the sun rotates around the moon #
Ask the experts about #meritpay #performancepay when DC, NY, LAUnified engages in a major — and truly well-designed — performance pay plan #
RT @CharterInsights: Stimulus only delays the pain: The federal gov. put our nation deep in debt #ARRA #RttT #
A possible lesson for #edreform out of the debacle at MySpace: RT @mathewi: “turnarounds never really turn.” [via @om] #
Or the Smarick argument in tech form. #
RT @Trace_Urdan @gothamschools @jenny8lee: South African mom to daughter: “Education is the husband who will never let you down.” at #TED #
RT @ACRIBlog: Charter Schools/Civil Rights: Civil rights industry types worry about the wrong thing, #edreform #
MOre lessons for #edreform #schoolturnarounds from the private-sector: “The Myth of the Silver-Bullet CEO” #
It’s not just about hiring a #MichelleRhee #JoelKlein. There must also be strong political support, talented admins, willingness to change. #
Or else school district #edreform will fail (see Indianapolis Public Schools/Miami/San Francisco) #
RT @ELWATERS @EdEquality @gnaeyaert: Ouch!! New study finds MI earns D- grade for policies on teacher quality, http://ow.ly/166oK #edreform #
RT @Edubeat @EdEquality: RT @charteralliance: Education Week: Concerns Raised About Impact of Stimulus on Equity: #
This, of course, doesn’t include the complaints about #RttT and its focus on #CharterSchools The next stimulus bill will be interesting. #
Can a reform-minded administration continue its reform and still satisfy key constituencies who oppose elements of the plans? #
G.W. Bush had similar problems w/#NoChild among conservative “leave us alone” elements and moderate Republicans in suburbia. #
But it took six years for Bush II to feel the wrath because GOP had election victories. Obama is not so lucky. #
RT @Harvard_Ed_Pub: Audio Excerpt: Inside Urban Charter Schools by Kay Merseth : Education Next: #edreform #
@avalonsensei Last I checked, nearly all public charter schools accept all students via lottery. The lottery exists because the schools are. in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei small in size. There are very few selective charters. So, in essence, charters accept all students (even if not everyone… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei attends them. By the way, magnet schools w/in districts and selective publics such as Stuyvesant High and Murray Bergtraum… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei (the latter of which I attended in my freshman year of HS) are selective and don’t allow all students either. Even worse, in in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei the case of magnet schools (unlike Stuy, which is test-based/purely meritocratic), the kids either have to be on a certain… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Track (which is often dependent on whether teachers/guidance counselors favor the kid) or through political will (which… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei favors wealthier parents). Compared to current trad. public ed tracking/pol. meddling… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei I’ll take the charters w/lotteries any day. in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei But magnets rarely work as an integration tool. More often than not, in most parts of the country, they become similar… #
@avalonsensei to selective public schools (and in Indianapolis, for example, they are all one in the same). In fact, if you look at in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei The charter school stats for 2008-09, whites make up just a third of charter school students (versus 54 percent of trad… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei public schools) while blacks, Latinos and other minorities make up the rest. If anything, charters on a macro… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei are more integrated than traditional public schools. As for the special ed issue: Most charters are too small to accomodate… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Those populations. Remember, your average charter is about 300-400 students; they don’t have access to all the pools of public in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei dollars (facilities, for example, which they pay for through fundraising and loans), and have only been around for two decades in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei If anything, in many large urban cities, parents w/special ed students choose the trad. system because they have the infra- in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei structure available. Charters are working on this (in Indiana, the charter school association and Ball State have formed a in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei consortium for this very purpose). AS for parental commitment: Well, I believe parents must do their part. AS much as… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei I criticize traditional school districts for their mistreatment of parents, I also think that parents must be active… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Beyond field trips/homework. Education, in reality, needs to be so individualized for every student (especially SPED), that… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei parental involvement in curricula, etc. is paramount to academic success. Great teachers can improve academic learning, but in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Great teachers=active parents equals even greater likelihood of success. Again, your experience suggests sometihng different, in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei But experience w/o data is meaningless. If I based my views on ed just on my experiences, I’d have a more pessimistic view of in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei education systems in general, public or private. And, by the way, since magnets and selective schools don’t accept every child in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei (and they are public schools that are part of trad. districts), don’t they violate your view that all public schools should… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Accept kids no matter their circumstances? in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei I think “public education” should be the system of publicly funding the education of a child, no matter where he or she goes in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Be it trad. public, charter, private, parochial or homeschool. Or as I call it, the Hollywood model. Traditional in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei districts would be relegated to handling transportation, school lunch, those things they are (somewhat) good at. The same way in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei Warner Bros. /Universal handles distribution of films. The schools would handle the actual education, the same way… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei a Joel Silver handles production. The teachers would be treated like directors a la Warchowski/Hughes Brothers, as the in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei true professionals they should be. And parents would have choice, supported by grassroots groups who can give guidance… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei There wouldn’t be one option, but many options. Because not every kid is the same and not every school can educate every child in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei My goal is to expand all the options for every child to get the best education possible. The current system doesn’t do that… in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei It segments kids based on “ability” when those things can change (IQ, for example, is influenced by environment, not by birth) in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei It does well educating maybe 40 percent of students, but as seen in college remediation rates/H.S. grad rates, it is failing in reply to avalonsensei #
@avalonsensei To live up to the concept that every child should get a great education at a great school. in reply to avalonsensei #
EdSector’s Manwaring wonders if new round of adequacy lawsuits is coming: The answer is yes… #
At Nov.’s Schott Foundation conference, ED’s Civil Rights Czar (and former EdTrust exec) Russlyn Ali made it clear that will happen. #
So did Pa. Congressman Chaka Fattah. Expect Obama administration to be heavily involved in those next round of suits. #

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This is Dropout Nation

Live Tweeting The Schott Foundation’s National Opportunity To Learn Conference

RiShawn Biddle

November 5, 2009 11:02 pm November 5, 2009

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I’ll be at the Schott Foundation’s annual confab on Thursday and Friday. I won’t be around for everything, but you can get quick hits on comments by U.S. Department of…

You seen the bird. Do what he says.

I’ll be at the Schott Foundation’s annual confab on Thursday and Friday. I won’t be around for everything, but you can get quick hits on comments by U.S. Department of Education honcho Russlynn Ali and Congressman Chaka Fattah via the Dropout Nation Twitter feed . Enjoy.

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