An Ecosystems Approach to Federal Legislation

I don’t really update new content at this Schools As Ecosystems blog anymore (see my new blog, Language and Literacy, for newer (yet still, alas, infrequent) writing), but I had to hop back on here to share this new paper from the National Education Policy Center, A Civil Rights Framework for the Reauthorization of ESEA , as it was really exciting to see an ecosystems approach being brought explicitly to bear in advocacy for federal education reform.

In this paper, the authors promote an “equitable, evidence-based, and ecological (EEE) framework” that “places students, staff, school systems, and cross-sector collaboration at the center of ESEA and considers the complexity of racial, socioeconomic, and other inequities along with the strengths nested within communities.” I love this framing and will be stealing the EEE framework!

They structure their recommendations at different levels of scale in education systems: systems, students, and staff.

There’s quite a bit of content in the report, but just to amplify some of the ecosystems specific elements and other areas we may have touched on in this blog’s history, as well as push on some areas I would have liked to have seen expanded upon:

To promote racial equity at the systems-level, they provide recommendations to promote regional and interdistrict racial integration, as well as improving school facilities and infrastructure (yes, yes, yes!).

In developing their ecological framework, they build upon the work of Marcus Weaver-High-
tower, whose work we have also examined on this blog.

I would have liked to have seen a few more specifics for students laid out, however. While I agree with all the general principles they’ve laid out, I would have liked to have seen an emphasis on evidence-based instructional approaches to ensure fluency with foundational language and literacy skills and practice with understanding the hidden norms in a variety of social contexts, explicit instruction through shared and interactive reading that moves from word, sentence, to text-level, and consistent school-wide routines within a coherent high quality curricular platform focused on intellectual engagement with reading, writing, and discussions of a diverse wealth of complex topics from multiple perspectives.

While I fully agree in principle with the call to support students’ individualized needs, I also worry about how this can be interpreted, most particularly in relation to edtech, when it is in the absence of a dynamic, shared, and collaborative curricular platform that is systematically enhanced by teams of teachers.

That critique said, I appreciated the calls for support with high quality childcare, supports for incarcerated youth, and more supports for student well-being and mental health.

I also would have liked to see their recommendations for staff expanded upon. They leaned heavily into anti-bias training, which unfortunately has little empirical support despite the billions of dollars that have been thrown at it (in the pretense of doing something). I’d prefer to see a focus on clear guidance in the expected professional language and behaviors that are predicated on the roles and responsibilities of staff who serve the children in front of them. For example, for teachers who serve children of historically marginalized backgrounds, I’d like to see teachers gain supports in getting to know the children and communities they serve through a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, guidance and practice in using asset-based language about their students and families, and guidance and coaching in the planning and delivery of responsive instructional supports, based on a shared curricular platform, that values the racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of students while holding high expectations for advanced intellectual success and ensuring access to and progress with grade-level skills and content.

Again, that critique aside, I appreciated the calls for support with educator well-being and mental health and building robust pipelines for educators of diverse backgrounds and languages.

Please check out their full report from an ecosystems here, and kudos to the authors for drawing upon a more complex framework for federal education policy: https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/publications/PB%20DeBray_1.pdf

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Segregation, Diversity, and More

This week is the last week of this legislative session in NY. While the political hoopla is around mayoral control, don’t let the noise detract you from something that has been simmering for decades: NY’s pervasively, deeply segregated schools.

There’s been some great momentum on the issue, at long last, both from NYSED and NYC. Yet the fact remains that there is no existing legislation on the issue that has been passed.

There is a bill that can begin the first steps in addressing that deficiency: Bill S3794 in the Senate and Bill A5795 in the Assembly.

Since I wrote my last post, there’s been some promising momentum: Senator Jesse Hamilton co-sponsored the senate bill, and Assemblyman Walter Mosley co-sponsored the assembly bill.

But the bill still needs to be put on a very busy agenda and made a priority in order to make it to the floor. Please call your senator and assembly person and ask them to help move this bill forward.

Thanks in advance. On to other news related to school diversity:

NYSED drafts a stronger statement against segregation than NYC

“Last week, the mayor’s drew headlines — and criticism — for his long-awaited diversity plan. Among the concerns — the mayor chose not to use words like “integration” or “segregation” to define the problem.

The state, on the other hand, isn’t mincing words. On Monday, the Board of Regents discussed its own draft diversity statement. “More than sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education,” it states in its opening paragraph, “New York is the most segregated state in the country.”

The use of the word “segregation,” vs. the more general word “diversity,” is a flashpoint in conversations about integration. Advocates stress that the word must be used because it acknowledges the history of discriminatory policies and choices in loans, housing, zoning, and schools that have led to and perpetuated segregation. Others, such as Mayor De Blasio, view the terminology as secondary—and even a possible impediment to—in moving forward to address inequities as they exist now.

I can see both sides on this, and when I’ve advocated for increasing diversity in schools at a policy level and to the wider public, I tend to phrase it exactly like I just did: increasing diversity in schools. Why?

I think it comes down to whether we are talking about the past, or the future. When discussing the historic conditions and policies and choices that have led to pervasive segregation, we need to call it what it is.

But when looking forward, I think it makes sense to call for increasing diversity. Because it’s not only about race and class, it’s also about making our schools into inclusive spaces, rather than exclusionary places.

Maybe that’s making the bucket too big, but the fact is that active exclusion of others who are “different”—by both children and adults—is a key issue, and that’s a problem that exists in a school of any racial composition.

State’s draft diversity statement addresses ‘segregation,’ a word the mayor’s plan avoided, Chalkbeat NY

How many white students need to attend a school before it can be declared officially desegregated?

Seems like an important thing to define. Though I also think if we end up getting caught up in talking about numbers we’re focused on the wrong thing.

What Defines a Segregated School? Debate Over Connecticut Integration Policy Heading to Court, the 74

New research from Ohio puts integration advocates who aren’t pro-choice on the spot

There’s a tension between being pro-desegregation and anti-school choice. Many advocates for integration are also opposed to school choice. A recent study out of Ohio suggests that interdistrict choice can promote improved academic outcomes (and integration).

New Research: Student Gains in Ohio’s Open Enrollment, but Top Districts Remain Closed, the 74

A rezoning effort in Baltimore reveals the difficulty in implementing integration

“Research shows that racial and socioeconomic integration benefits students of all races and backgrounds — but experience reveals the difficulty of achieving it.”

Redrawing school districts could redefine two Baltimore County communities, The Baltimore Sun

The school board ended up passing a compromise between the NIMBYists and the original rezoning plan.

Baltimore County passes compromise redistricting plan for eight schools

Two high school seniors design and publish their own curriculum to teach teachers how to talk about race with students

“Putting the project together required a huge time commitment outside school. Guo and Vulchi often met up at 4 a.m. to work on the book before classes started, and they have spent many hours traveling to schools to train teachers in how to talk about race and host class discussions on the topic.

And their work will only continue after their June 21 graduation. Vulchi has been accepted to Princeton University, and Guo plans to go to Harvard University, but they hope to defer their enrollment for a year to work on a third edition of the book. A crowdsourced fundraising effort is in the works.

“We don’t mind losing sleep for this. We feel the need. We feel the urgency,” Vulchi said.”

2 NJ High School Students Create Racial Literacy Text to Help Schools and Teens Learn to Talk About Race, the 74

Idea for increasing teacher diversity: elevate paraprofessionals

K-12 Teachers Are Disproportionately White and Monolingual. Here’s One Way That Could Change., Slate

Smorgasbord: Collective Memory and Vouchers

“Diverse teste dal naturale.” by Denon, Vivant (1747-1825) is licensed under CC0 1.0

Social structure affects collective memory; or, why fake news is such a big problem

“memory convergence is more likely to occur within social groups than between them — an important finding in light of survey data suggesting that 62% of US adults get their news from social media, where group membership is often obvious and reinforced”

How Facebook fake news and friends are warping your memory

http://www.nature.com/news/how-facebook-fake-news-and-friends-are-warping-your-memory-1.21596?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

So we need to counter groupthink

“a certain amount of contrarianism can go a long way”

There really was a liberal media bubble https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-really-was-a-liberal-media-bubble/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

Another method of fighting groupthink: When diverse groups interact, everybody ends up smarter and healthier

“The researchers conclude that society would be better off if governments promoted more interaction between groups. They point to public housing and school districting policies as ways to encourage such mixing.”

When diverse groups interact, everybody ends up smarter and healthier

https://qz.com/939404/economists-have-measured-the-benefits-of-diversity-to-education-health-and-public-investment/

People who don’t have regular interactions with others who are different are the most afraid of others who are different

How a Sleepy German Suburb Explains Europe’s Rising Far-Right Movements

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/europe/how-a-sleepy-german-suburb-explains-europes-rising-far-right-movements.html?_r=0

Does diversity strain—or develop—solidarity?

“You might argue that this just goes to show that diversity strains solidarity. Or you might argue that, because we need solidarity, we must learn to recognize America in other accents, other complexions, other kitchen aromas.”

Why does Donald Trump demonize cities?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/17/why-does-donald-trump-demonize-cities/?utm_term=.d7f92e837c62

Reading failure cuts across subgroups

“These staggering numbers of failed reading proficiency underscore our nation’s massive collective failure to effectively teach literacy and build verbal proficiency across all races. It also shatters the accepted truth that racism is the sole or even primary cause of low proficiency rates among all Americans.”

White kids can’t read, either (and other unacknowledged truths)
https://edexcellence.net/articles/white-kids-cant-read-either-and-other-unacknowledged-truths

Shakespeare received a classical education. Maybe that’s what fueled his creative mastery.

Daisy Christodoulou examines the type of curriculum and pedagogy Shakespeare would have been exposed to. Perhaps drilling and memorization centered on a core body of knowledge are not such horrifying things, after all.

Shakespeare and creative education
https://thewingtoheaven.wordpress.com/2017/03/11/shakespeare-and-creative-education/

Just as privatization has ensured that dentistry remains separate from a larger system that would better serve all students, privatizing schools. . .

“Private organized dentistry protects the marketplace for care and the power of private practitioners to provide it but that leaves a lot of people out.”

Why Dentistry Is Separate From Medicine

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/why-dentistry-is-separated-from-medicine/518979/?utm_source=atltw

Unreal. But oh so real

Corey Stewart advocates for Confederate flags, statues at Roanoke rally

Corey Stewart Advocates for Confederate Flags and Statues at Roanoke Rally

http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/roanoke/corey-stewart-advocates-for-confederate-flags-statues-at-roanoke-rally/article_d1befc53-4d30-5f96-a754-8c1767e6c15a.html

Time to drop the term ‘microaggressions’?

“The scientific evidence for microaggressions is weak and we should drop the term, argues review author.”

“Lilienfeld also suggests we all consider putting aside the word microaggression in favour of “perceived racial slight’”

The scientific evidence for microaggressions is weak and we should drop the term, argues review author

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/03/16/the-scientific-evidence-for-microaggressions-is-weak-and-we-should-drop-the-term-argues-review-author/

Physical infrastructure requires long-term vision

“Basic physical infrastructure is like that. It requires long-term vision and patient capital — think horizons of 10 years or more, rather than two or three. In return, investments in basic infrastructure will pay steady, reliable returns until the sun explodes. And the spillovers from those investments in terms of economic growth and social justice for everyone in a community are routinely extraordinary.”

Google Fiber Was Doomed From the Start

https://backchannel.com/google-fiber-was-doomed-from-the-start-a5cdfacdd7f2#.4f3cndu4d

Empiricism and Vouchers

“Post Trump and De Vos, I see plenty of commentators and researchers reporting “vouchers don’t raise test scores” and virtually no “vouchers increase parental satisfaction.” Is that empiricism? In isolation, maybe. In terms of reflecting the broader spirit of science, not so much. It is also not humility.”

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/03/empiricism-and-humility.html

Marilyn Rhames on why she wants vouchers as a parent

http://educationpost.org/when-the-only-real-choice-is-private-my-unlikely-attraction-to-school-vouchers/

School diversity as a means to build shared values and understanding

I’ve written here before about why I believe we need our schools to reflect the broader diversity of our society from the lens of fighting prejudice.

I also believe that nourishing diversity in our schools serves a civic purpose: building shared values and understanding. This is what can allow our democratic republic to flourish.

My attempt to voice is this has been published on The Hechinger Report; I would greatly appreciate it if you read it, and will be interested in your thoughts.

http://hechingerreport.org/opinion-diversity-schools-critical-democracy/

 

Smorgasbord: Albany, Policy, and Diversity

This group gives me hope for the future: @NYEdVoice teachers taking it upon themselves to advocate for better policy for their students pic.twitter.com/8g6k7EfbSh

— Charlie G. Cummings (@mr_cgc) February 7, 2017

I went up to Albany on Tuesday with other America Achieves NY Policy Fellows and we spoke with assembly members and senators and were welcomed and introduced by Assemblymember Patricia Fahy on the assembly floor. If you’ve been wondering whether educators should really be involved in policy, I can’t think of a clearer example of the “win-win” when educators point to a clear problem and a clear solution, and they obtain bipartisan support now being written into state regulations.

Principal Elissa Smith (from upstate New York) and special education teacher Jennifer Chernis (from downstate) identified a significant problem in the field that policymakers were not aware of: certified teachers working as teacher assistants couldn’t maintain or advance their state teacher certification. Their solution? Just add the addendum they suggested to the regulations! This was such a clear fix and win for legislators and for educators that they swiftly earned support from both Republican and Democratic representatives and their proposed addendum is moving forward into law. This will benefit a significant number of teacher assistants across the entire state of NY.

This is what can happen when you empower and equip educators to bring policy solutions to problems in the field. If you’re a NY educator interested in being a part of this, you can apply here. Here’s the other viable policy problems and solutions proposed by fellows:

• A Plan for Meeting the 95% Participation Testing Mandate of ESSA That is Fair to All – Policy Fellow Patti Siano
• Increasing Diversity in New York Schools – Policy Fellow Mark Anderson
• Providing Additional Subject Certification Pathways for Science – Policy Fellow Amanda Zullo
• Providing Quality Alternative Pathways for At Risk Youth – Policy Fellow Lisa DiGaudio
• Sustainable Funding for Teacher Centers – Policy Fellow Amanda Zullo
• Recruiting and Retaining Effective Teachers – Policy Fellows Leah Brunski, Michele Cleary, Teresa Ranieri, and Lexie Woo
• Certified Teachers Working as Teacher Assistants in New York – Policy Fellows Elissa Smith and Jenn Chernis

In other news:

There is clear evidence that integration works. NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/opinion/integration-works-can-it-survive-the-trump-era.html (Also review the evidence in my policy paper above.)

Yet the track record of Betsy Devos, the barely confirmed and heavily contested new Secretary of ED, does not bode well for efforts to increase diversity in schools. CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/05/opinions/devos-racism-public-school-opinion-wong

Furthermore, Devos’s inevitable focus on school choice will do little for rural schools—the very constituency that has swept Trump and his Republican cohort into office. USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/02/02/devos-rural-america-school-reform-column/97362016/

Diversity is increasing in rural areas, not only in cities. If California is any indicator, there will be negative bluster around this diversity, but an eventual swing back to acceptance. While there are clear difficulties around an increase in diversity in any community, there is also a clear opportunity for starting by increasing exposure to a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds in our public schools. NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/upshot/strife-over-immigrants-can-california-foretell-nations-future.html

An important reminder that smart federal policy can have positive effects on education. The 74: https://www.the74million.org/article/marnie-kaplan-sometimes-government-is-the-solution-reauthorizing-head-start-10-years-later

And a reminder that education is important to long-term outcomes. “Educated people are generally healthier, have fewer comorbidities and live longer than people with less education.” BioRxiv: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/13/074815

Some high schools are breaking out of the traditional school setting. Ozy: http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/how-high-schools-are-demolishing-the-classroom/74603#.WJhZMNKDhIc.twitter

Teenagers who vandalized a historic black schoolhouse were ordered by a judge to educate themselves by reading some real literature. If only they had already been reading these books in school. . . NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/black-school-racist-sexist-graffiti.html?smid=tw-share

One researcher claims that there is little validity to Bloom’s taxonomy, the ubiquitous source of ranking “higher-order” questions and tasks. “The only distinction that is supported by research is the distinction
between declarative/conceptual knowledge (which enables recall,
comprehension or understanding), and procedural knowledge (which enables
application or task performance).” I, for one, would be more than happy to see these waste-of-time ranking taxonomies go the way of the Dodo. Teachers’ time will be much better spent actually developing educational tasks and resources. https://eppicinc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/sugrue_bloom_critique_perfxprs.pdf

And here’s fish singing “in the coastal waters off Port Headland in Western Australia.” New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106331-fish-recorded-singing-dawn-chorus-on-reefs-just-like-birds/