Here are some interesting articles District Deeds received and discovered during the past week…

ENJOY! 

My experience with school choice 

– Flypaper Blog – Fordham Institute

Quote from Article:

“School choice” is one of those word combinations that lead people to think in sweeping generalities that align with their own beliefs about how schools should look. Political ideology gets in the way, and the zero sum game mentality takes over, leaving no room for nuance or compromise.

Some hear the phrase and immediately think “corporate profiteers,” “privatizers,” “vouchers,” “religious zealots,” “anti-union,” “competition,” and now even “Donald Trump.”

Others hear “states’ rights,” “flexibility,” “non-union,” “market driven,” “one size doesn’t fit all,” “autonomy,” and “innovation.”

Parents aren’t fixated on any of these things. Those who have chosen to exercise school choice don’t think in this binary way. They make choices based on their children’s best interest, overall well-being, and future opportunities, and they give nary a thought to politics or governance models or the pontificating of folks on either side of the school choice debate. While folks fight over charters and vouchers policies, parents fight for their kids.

District Deeds Synopsis:

This is an excellent article that describes very closely the reasons why parents make their decision to send their children to a particular school.

District Deeds has heard from many San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Parents that feel exactly the same way as the author of this article about school choice.  All parents want is a safe environment and learning atmosphere that offers their children the best possible opportunity for educational success.

As parents we have heard all the pros and cons regarding public, charter and private schools from individuals that receive a paycheck in one way or another from the educational institution, non-profit or organization that they work for.

The only “pay” that parents get is the education of their children and it only makes sense that they would choose the optimal education situation for their individual child regardless of what type of school that is.

Like the parent mentions in the article, one type of school does not fit all students…even students from the same family.  Equity does not equal uniformity.  The SDUSD should keep that in mind when trying to “market” the “quality school in every neighborhood” pitch and not try to jam the local school down the throat of parents through shortening the Choice enrollment period and eliminating busing.

If the SDUSD continues with elimination of choice options and busing for students and parents, enrollment in the SDUSD each year will continue to decline.

Expensive, Grueling Fights In Store For US Special Education 

– Associated Press

Quote from Article:

Thousands of parents each year clash with their children’s school districts over the level of special education services. The proceedings can be emotionally grueling and expensive, diverting education dollars away from classrooms, and in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling seen as empowering parents, some are expecting only more challenges as cash-strapped schools are called upon to meet higher standards.

District Deeds Synopsis:

This article is actually playing itself out in real time right now in the SDUSD.

Listening to the Special Education Staff and Parent testimony at recent Board of Education meetings, it was clear that Supt. Cindy Marten and her staff have no clue how much damage the layoffs and centralization of services will actually do…or even how the Special Education requirements are currently deployed.

The $124 million deficit has impacted the way that the SDUSD will be providing services to Special Education students next year.  Major layoffs combined with uprooting Special Education students and sending them to school site locations that don’t have needed features for cost saving purposes is a recipe for disaster, both educationally for the students and financially through additional lawsuits against the SDUSD.

Picting, not Writing, is the Literacy of Today’s Youth 

– THE JOURNAL

Quote from Article:

Two interesting observations:

• In the K–12 classroom, today’s youth spend 90 percent of the time with text-based materials and 10 percent of the time with image-based materials.
• Outside the K–12 classroom, today’s youth spend 90 percent of the time with image-based materials and 10 percent of the time with text-based materials.

District Deeds Synopsis:

This interesting article touches on a subject that may take a whole new generation of educators to implement.  Virtually all of the homework and tests of our students in SDUSD are text-based.  With the implementation of Common Core and the accompanying Professional Development of teachers using text-based tools, it is impossible to determine how long it will take education to arrive into the 21st century and provide image based curriculums.

There may quickly come a day when everything is taught and learned through image based tools and the current orthodoxy of text-based curriculums won’t even exist.

So, for our quote of the week:

“Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

“1984” George Orwell 

Have a great week!!!

_______________________________________________________