Where Civility Is a Moto, a School Integration Fight Turns Bitter 

Dana Goldstein, NYT

Opponents say that redistricting and integration efforts by Maryland’s, Howard Country School Board is a destined-to-fail effort. Dr. Martirano, the Superintendent of Howard County Schools has proposed his Equity in Action Project. The policies would transfer 7,400 of the district’s 58,000 students to different schools in “an effort to chip away an at uncomfortable truth: Some of the county’s campuses have become havens for rich students, whole others serve large numbers of children whose families are struggling”. Either it urban or suburban, cities have been built on lines of segregation through a systematic process of exclusion. The racialized and economic inequity is so starkly reflected in the composition of schools which leads to the prevailing conversation circulating around the Howard County integration debate: civility, race, and self-preservation.

         Howard County, like other districts around the country have begun to move toward equity through integration proposals but have been met with fierce opposition. Opponents insist it’s about the extra 2 miles their child may have to be on a bus, or they even argue that lower-income families will have an ever-harder time engaging with their child’s school if it’s farther away. I argue that in reality, we’re battling racist stereotypes, fear, and an especially pervasive racism that illusions an individual of power into thinking that racism and a racist policy (like school zoning) benefits them or even solidifies their power if it subordinates another. 

The School Board is voting on Equity in Action come November 21st, 2019 

Equity in Action Link "Attendance Area Adjustment"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/howard-county-school-redistricting.html?searchResultPosition=3 

Test Bias

The Black-White Test Score Gap written by Christopher Jencks and edited by Meredith Phillips shed light and much-needed perspective on a sensitive issue with the American education system-- standardized testing as it relates to race in America. For years, people argued that standardized testing has been an illegitimate and unequal source of academic measurement in the United States. Historically, different forms of testing in American culture and society have included elements of bias, thus benefiting White Americans and disadvantaging people of color across lines of racial difference (ex. Voter literacy tests). 

The legitimacy of standardized testing as it relates to the Black community has been challenged many times. Many people standardized tests to be historically racially biased, with the pendulum swinging in the direction of white Americans. Jencks’s writes that test bias is perpetuated in the following regards: Labeling Bias, Content Bias, Methodological Bias, Prediction Bias, and Selection System Bias. Jenck’s explains the fore-mentioned categories of test bias in the following regards:

• Labeling Bias: When a test claims to measure one thing but really measures something else.
• Content Bias: When a test contains questions, that favors one group over another.
• Methodological Bias: When [one] access(es) mastery of some skill or body of information in a way that underestimates the competence of one group relative to another.
• Prediction Bias: When a test’s use has different implications for different groups
• Selection System Bias: When a person is selected solely based on their test-taking aptitude, rather than other relevant skills. 

Test bias as it relates to the American standardized testing system one of the things that gives white Americans an advantage over Black Americans. This extends beyond the American Education System into many other facets of life, oppression, and injustice in America.

https://www.crozetgazette.com/2019/11/08/county-schools-reinterpret-gifted-instruction/

Informal Teacher Evaluations in Baltimore City

There is a lot of talk within Baltimore City Public Schools around the change in the teacher evaluation system. North Avenue administrators are planning to move forward with a revision to the existing teacher evaluation model by implementing unannounced formal observations. The concept of implementing unannounced formal observations is that administrators seek to gain an authentic look into classrooms, learning, and management operations.However, teachers are anticipating that the plan may do more damage than good by working to undermine and penalize teachers without quality preparation and support.

Currently, the model includes a pre- and post- conference between administrators and teachers. The pre- conference provides teachers with adequate support by informing teachers on “look-fors” or aspects of the instructional framework that will be emphasized and used as a rubric. Additionally, admin provide teachers with feedback based on things that have been observed in their current practice. Teachers are prepared with the time and date of their evaluation to properly prepare their instructional lesson and their students leading up to the lesson. One reason why the pre-conference is essential is that these “look-fors”  and preliminary feedback allow teachers to properly prepare, adjust, and segment prior lessons to achieve instructional outcomes, according to the plan. Additionally, the post-conference provides space for teachers and administrators to discuss the outcomes and justifications for the evaluator's scores.

During September’s board meeting at North Avenue, one conversational point that was brought up and is worth strong consideration is simple-- kids. My administration makes a huge emphasis on cultivating strong culture and climate within our classroom space; however, they make minimal effort to include themselves in our classroom spaces (in a non-punitive way) on a routine basis. Students deserve to be included and clued in on the fact that “strangers”-- albeit administrators-- will be entering our classroom and the space that we have cultivated together. It’s important to consider how changes like this may impact student engagement and student performance. For example, when my administration enters the classroom for any form of an observation-- formal or informal-- they make it a point to involve themselves in my students’ work without any form of consent or acknowledgement towards my students' needs. Many students only associate administration with trouble because this is the only time in which they see them. On several occasions some of my English-language learners have expressed some level of discomfort with this, as they were not aware that others were entering the room-- neither was I. As a teacher, I don’t want my student’s engagement, effort, comfort, or learning to be compromised at the hands of a poorly devised plan.

The implementation of “surprise” observations could potentially create a punitive developmental structure that affects professional development and salary. Baltimore City Public Schools is one of the only school districts that connects it’s teacher evaluation to its salary scales. Therefore, teacher evaluations hold more weight than just feedback on one’s instructional practice; they determine one’s livelihood. Unannounced formal observations are likely to shift the dynamics of climate and culture across schools in the district dramatically as they instill a sense of timidness in teachers across the district. Teachers should not be made to feel fearful about the outcomes of unexpected observations nor should our instructional practice be holistically evaluated based on a random 75 minute period.

The district lacks a sustainable and strategic model that works to provide effective and consistent coaching to better develop teachers. Implementing one aspect of the plan without considering the need for the others is impractical and irresponsible.

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-teachers-push-back-against-proposed-evaluations/28985117

Chicago Public School Teacher Strike October 2019

Chicago teachers and their union, CTU, have been in a stalemate with the city for the past week. While students missed class, their teachers took to the streets, unified by their red and purple shirts in a desperate call for change. A major hope of theirs is to end issues such as overcrowded classrooms and to stop funding cuts that jeopardize supports for bi-lingual learners. The push for smaller class sizes, in particular, has been a contentious point for policy makers and on-the-ground practitioners for years. The praxis of theory and the reality of navigating what’s best for our students (and especially our students who are historically at the most risk) has been a back-and-forth battle rooted in funding measures and top-down policy implementations across the nation.

And perhaps inevitably, the conversation of class size is linked to staff shortages. I find that both are a result of a no-excuse culture that seeks to get the most "bang for your buck" in education. In reality, this pervasive mentality effects the futures of students and the longterm sustainability of a school district like Chicago, that's fully responsible for educating ~300,000 students and developing ~21,000 education professionals. And so, despite class size caps and designated district staff to monitor the over-crowning of schools in Chicago, some teachers still find themselves with classes of over 40 students. This especially seems odd given the city’s reported ratio of “one teacher for every 14 students”. My interest, and the interest of all educators, should be in supporting a just rhetoric of policy and research that works in the best interest of our students across the country. Let’s continue to create conversations around the reality of school districts and the ratio of in-classroom teachers to students. Depriving students of their right to equitable opportunity of education is detrimental, and the CTU knows this. So, backed by current research specific to “urban” schools, let’s continue to hold cities and stakeholders responsible for providing our students with what they need- contextually reasonable class sizes, assistant teachers, universal Pre-K, and the long list of measures still on deck. It’s up to us to know, decide, act, and advocate. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-cps-strike-crowded-classes-how-it-happens-20191025-kb44bvhworab3lw4emqviyuttm-story.html#nt=instory-link

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-cps-strike-chicago-teachers-union-updates-20191026-igiywrczazcf7oonzvrydam5gq-story.html

Warren proposes Charter School Funding Cuts, Increase in Title I Money

Elizabeth Warren just rolled out a huge educational plan to address what she calls "privatization" of public schools. This somewhat complex plan attempts to work on a a multitude of issues. In her plan, Warren proposes incentivizing house policies so that they eliminate strict zoning policies, fixing segregation, banning for-profit Charters and ending all Charter school funding, and quadrupling Title 1 funds. This dense, intricate plan seems to target a wide range of issues, so I am going to focus primarily on the charter school funding implications.

One of her arguments for her drastic charter school proposal is that she says that charter schools are not held to the same transparency standards and that they divert funds away from traditional public schools. Based on what we learned in class, I really don't think this is fair. Charter schools are unique in that most aspects of them (i.e., how they can be started, admissions, standards, etc) are dictated by each individual state's laws. In Maryland, for example, there are very strict and specific laws for starting a charter school. It's hard to be pro or anti them, as they are very much dependent on context. To eliminate the funding completely is just not fair because charter schools are not really run by the federal government! It's like saying that the federal government is eliminating money for a local restaurant -- they don't know what the standards are here!! Charter schools already operate on somewhat limited finances (at least here they do). I don't think eliminating the money for them is going to universally solve anything, as they are very different in each state.

As we've discussed, there's a lot of misconceptions and lack of understanding about how these particular schools work. In Maryland, charter schools still have to meet the same content standards -- the only difference is how educators approach teaching them.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/21/elizabeth-warren-education-plan-053260
https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-10-21/elizabeth-warren-k-12-plan-would-end-federal-funds-for-charter-schools-quadruple-title-i-funding