Here are some interesting articles we received and discovered this past week…
ENJOY!
Top 5 Points to Keep in Mind on Segregation in U.S. Schools
Quote from Article:
A civil rights summit kicks off tomorrow in Minneapolis featuring prominent national leaders and top officials from both national teachers’ unions. We agree with the premise of the summit, that segregation in America has “broad impacts and terrible costs.” The Government Accountability Office found a significant increase over the last decade in the percentage of schools with high concentrations of students of color and those from low-income families. A wide body of research shows that students can benefit academically, socially, and emotionally from attending racially diverse schools.
Mainstream debates on school segregation, however, often overlook key issues when it comes to racial inequities in education. In the interest of enriching the discussion, here are 5 points to keep in mind:
1. Politically powerful special interests send mixed messages on whether and how to desegregate school systems.
2. Progressive leaders have surrendered the de-seg fight.
3. Desegregation is not the only lever for improving educational opportunities for students of color.
4. Charter Schools Are, Generally, Not Part of the Problem.
5. Black and brown children don’t need to attend school with white children to achieve to the highest levels.
District Deeds Synopsis:
A very interesting article with a lot of research to back up the “5 points”.
Point 3 is especially interesting since the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is a BIG supporter of reducing class size. The article states:
“For example, class size reduction has been shown to dramatically increase the number of underqualified teachers who in turn are disproportionately concentrated in schools with high percentages of low-income students of color.”
This is a current REALITY in many of the SDUSD schools with “high percentages of low-income students of color.”.
District Deeds wonders “what if” the SDUSD, instead of just blindly implementing class size reduction, ALSO implemented a “years of teacher experience” minimum for the schools with “high percentages of low-income students of color.”.
Maybe then the policy would REALLY about what is best for Students and not what is best for Central Office Senior Administrators collecting a big SDUSD pay check and Board of Education Trustees using the “small class sizes” as a campaign slogan to get re-elected.
Many other good points in this article. Well worth reading!
The Betsy DeVos Tax Cut
Quote from Article:
President Trump wants the pending tax bill to be called the “Cut, Cut, Cut” Act, but it’s better described as “The Betsy DeVos Tax Cut” Act.
At its heart, this tax plan is a giant giveaway to the super wealthy coupled with a cut in support for public schools and other services on which middle class and low-income families rely. Because a deficit blowing $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and billionaires like Betsy DeVos isn’t enough for Congressional Republicans, they’ve got to come up with additional offsets. One of the biggest on their list is ending the ability of middle class families to deduct state and local income and sales taxes that fund public schools.
District Deeds Synopsis:
Despite the fact that we do not trust Supt. Cindy Marten to manage a household budget, let alone the $1.4 billion SDUSD budget, we do not want educational funding to be gutted for partisan politics. We welcome any of our readers to send us any articles that support the currently proposed federal budget cuts to education as somehow a good thing for Students.
Until then, this article clearly shows that the budget cuts being proposed are an educational funding disaster. The premise posed at the end of the article is relevant to all SDUSD Stakeholders:
“This isn’t a ‘blue’ state v. ‘red’ state issue. This is an issue of do you support public schools or don’t you.”
We do.
Latino Students in California Face Large Inequities Compared to White Peers
Quote from Article:
Latino youth in California make up a majority of the student population but face daunting obstacles in schools, including less access to quality preschools, honors classes and college counseling than their white peers, according to a report by Education Trust-West released this week.
The study, “The Majority Report: Supporting the Success of Latino Students in California,” found that in every California county, a majority of Latino students were not proficient in math or English language arts, based on Smarter Balanced test scores. By comparison, a majority of white students scored proficient in English language arts in more than 40 counties, and in math in more than 20 counties.
District Deeds Synopsis
Again, this article highlights the same struggles that Latino Students in the SDUSD face with the current inept Marten educational leadership. Many of the items listed in the report have been reported to District Deeds by Latino SDUSD Stakeholders and have been made worse by elimination of supports like English Language Suppo rt Teachers and replacing them with public relations scams like FACE and the phony (lack of) Quality Assurance Office.
The study is an excellent guide to the needs of Latino Students in the SDUSD.
This Quote of the Week was supplied to us by one of our readers:
The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.
– I. F. Stone
Have a Great Week!
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