In honor of a great American Hero, Martin Luther King, Jr.
ABCFT Week in Review – January 12, 2018
ABC FEDERATION OF TEACHERS THIS WEEK...
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NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE : by Negotiating Team
The ABCFT Negotiating team next bargaining session with the District will be on Tuesday, January 23rd and Thursday, January 25th. ABCFT is hoping to complete negotiations for a 2017-2018 school year compensation package in the next 60 days. The team is also negotiating calendar and contract language changes to the Master Contract. Members of the ABCFT Negotiating team continue to visit school sites and programs to deliver a comprehensive presentation on the financial state of ABCUSD and how that impacts current negotiations.
Over the last twelve months the negotiating team has worked closely with Career Tech Education teachers (CTE) to develop contract language that helps to protect and support these newest members of the ABC Federation of Teachers. The team and CTE teachers have recently put the finishing details on the new Master Contract Article that will be proposed specifically for CTE teachers. Most of our CTE teachers are former ROP teachers In and were at-will employees. This is the first time most of the CTE teachers have the protections of a union contract.
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ABCFT TEACHER LEADERS PROGRAM: Tanya Golden TLFacilitator
Our committed Teacher Leaders began the new year with our monthly meeting on Monday after a long day at work! They continue to prepare for their action research by fine tuning their research question and literature review by collaborating in affinity groups. The TL’s were also informed about negotiations and the effects of Local Control Formula Funding (LCFF) and how for the first time in California, the community and teachers can advocate during the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and influence on the way the district budget is allocated. The night ended by discussing our trip on January 30th to Sacramento where 14 ABCFT teachers will be meeting state legislatures and lobby for educational issues that support teachers and students. After we return from our Lobby Day, we’ll have a full report of our day here in the Week in Review.
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CURRICULUM LINK OF THE WEEK
Thank you Aloha Elementary for sharing the website Brain Pop - https://www.brainpop.com/ it’s a great online interactive website where students can play educational games. Topics include science, social studies, math, language arts, music, art, health, engineering, and technology. Students can self-select topics or teachers can assign curriculum to enhance their lessons. If you get a chance, head on over to Brain Pop and see if your brain pops!
Sharing resources and ideas are what keeps our classrooms innovative, interesting, and organized. Each week, ABCFT will highlight an education resource that we heard was great for teachers. If you have a website, book, or training that you found helpful in your classroom let us know at abcft@abcusd.us so we can share it with everyone. If you send an idea or link and we use it in the Review, we will send you a Starbucks gift card for the helpful hint.
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Monthly Site Representative Meeting Held at Haskell
Thank you to the Site Representatives that attended the monthly union meeting. We are fortunate to have a dedicated group of union activists that regularly attend these important informational meetings. During the our focus group session, Reps were asked to share feedback on the YOUnion Campaign and the progress of their sites PBIS or Restorative Justice programs. We are developing a strong YOUnion campaign that empowers and informs members. Be on the lookout for more union information from your Rep at your monthly union site meeting. ABCFT will post the rep talking points in the next Week in Review in case you are not able to make your school site union meeting.
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Protecting Our Students: Gaby Ibarra - V.P. Elementary
Resources from AFT- #2 What To Do If ICE Comes To Your Door
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a series of community and home raids in 13 states, including California. There are 4.1 million U.S.-born children with at least one parent or family member who is undocumented and risks deportation. As educators, we face the possibility of deportation occurring in any of our students’ hom es and its huge impact on our students’ educational success. We can help our students and their families know their rights on what to do if ICE comes to their home.
In order to avoid singling out anyone in your classroom, it’s best to share information on the topic of raids broadly to the entire classroom and offer to be available for follow-up questions and one-on-one conversations if students are interested. To point out, the following are rights of every individual, regardless of status.
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PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Happy New Year and in the words of Rich Saldana from Artesia High School, “even though it isn’t true I believe we are half-way through with the school year.” I hope everyone had time to recharge their batteries and to prepare mentallyfor the next five months. As we head into 2018, ABCFT will continue to work hard to increase communication with members on the many areas ABCFT members advocate for teachers and students.
Over this past week I attended/worked with unit members in representations, contract resolutions, email/text/phone call questions, site concerns, and mediations. Here are a couple of highlights from my week:
As we visit sites one universal concern among all teachers are the vast number of district professional learning obligations they are attending. Many state that the content of the professional learning is often timely and helpful but that the time spent away from their classroom students is having a negative impact on the delivery of curriculum.
I know that there are many good substitutes, many who are former teachers, who do their best to follow and deliver the lesson plans teachers leave when they attend professional learning. However, research has shown that a student that misses more than ten percent of a school year will actually fall behind a years worth of learning. Having a substitute deliver instruction is NOT the same as having the regular classroom teacher deliver the curriculum to the students. Lastly, a point that many teachers make is that there is a limited pool of highly qualified substitutes largely because many of our ABC substitutes also work for other school districts that offer better pay and money is a major motivator for substitutes.
A couple of years ABCFT advocated for better substitute pay because of the lack of qualified substitutes and were successful in lobbying the ABC School Board to increase the daily rate. Judging from what I am hearing from school sites, ABCFT will again inform the school board that the promise to further raise the pay of substitutes needs to be fulfilled to create a bigger pool of highly qualified and skilled substitutes. In the meantime, ABCFT will continue to look for ways to advocate for fewer professional learning days away from the school site or for more professional learning to be paid for during the summer months.
On Tuesday, I visited with Child Development representatives to discuss future plans for expanding the instructional minutes for our Head Start teachers. This change is being dictated by the LA County of Education and has contract implications that need to be worked out before implementation can proceed. Later in the week, ABCFT Membership Coordinator Tanya Golden and I met with Adult School teachers to discuss representation and services for Adult School members. We committed to have more information in the Week in Review highlighting Adult School programs or issues that are impacting ABCFT Adult School members.
Tanya and I always appreciate the many teachers who invite us to visit their school sites so that we can hear about how to better serve the needs and supports for members. This week we also visited Aloha Elementary School, Whitney High School, and Gahr High School and listened to teachers thoughts and concerns that are impacting their schools.
As always, have a great weekend, take a pause to reflect on Monday on Mr. King’s life and his vision of America and we will see you back here next week.
In Unity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
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(ABC Federation of Teachers)
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AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
AFT President Randi Weingarten Denounces Trump Comments
WASHINGTON— AFT President Randi Weingarten responds to President Trump’s racist comments:
“Blowing up a bipartisan deal to protect kids and young people from deportation is bad enough, but spewing hateful attacks against people from countries that are majority non-white has once again exposed the racist and nativist ideology that forms the core of this administration.
“It doesn’t matter if Trump now denies the actual vulgarity, although not the intent of his words; damage to the reputation of the United States and our standing in the world has already been done. Worse, as with his comments after Charlottesville, is that the president’s words enable an environment of hate and bigotry.
“This morning in classrooms across our country, America’s teachers are dealing with the fallout. Think about it—if you were a child of Haitian or African descent, what would you be feeling this morning? What happens in classrooms if children simply mimic or repeat the president’s vulgar and vile comments or share their racist overtones? How do we teach children that their president is betraying the values embedded in the Constitution on the eve of the MLK weekend in which we honor and promote justice, freedom and opportunity?
“The countries and the people the president targeted need to know that the American people do not stand for Trump’s hateful and racist words. We are better than that. Fair-minded Americans, regardless of ideology, need to denounce these words and intentions. For these reasons, President Trump must apologize.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten Calls for Action to Fix Heating Issues in Baltimore City Schools
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WASHINGTON—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten calling for action to fix the heating issues in Baltimore City schools and standing with the Baltimore Teachers Union:
“Kids can’t learn and teachers can’t teach in freezing classrooms and in schools with no heat, frozen pipes and frigid winds coming in through drafty windows. These conditions are unsafe, unbearable and unacceptable for students, educators and school employees. We stand with the Baltimore Teachers Union and our members, who are standing up for the children they serve and demanding that the district close schools until crews can properly assess and fix the heating problems in every school in the city. Our top priority is ensuring safe and productive learning conditions in all of Baltimore’s public schools.”
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Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
#MeTooK12 launched
According to research from the American Association of University Women,nearly half of students in grades seven to 12 reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in the 2010-2011 school year. “First and foremost, sexual harassment is occurring at the K-12 level,” says Anne Hedgepeth, from the association. “This is not an issue that’s only relegated to college campuses or other workplaces.” Now, the #MeTooK12 is being launched by nonprofit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools and it is already gaining some attention in social media and political arenas. “I think the #MeTooK12 hashtag creates a space for students to speak out about their experiences,” Hedgepeth says. “That’s something we know has been valuable in the higher education space when we think about campus sexual violence.”
Teacher shortage varies across the U.S.
In many large U.S. school districts, hundreds of teaching positions were left unfilled at the start of the school year; however, Los Angeles USD said it had only 12 open positions at the start of 2018. This compares favorably withChicago , where nearly 6% of teaching jobs were vacant. A district spokesperson credited recruitment practices, partnerships with local teacher preparation programs, and a program to award early contracts to certain candidates in hard-to-staff schools. The district has also touted its retention rate among novice teachers: 94% in the 2015–16 school year.
----- STATE NEWS -----
State education spending figures published
According to a new report released by the National Center for Education Statistics, across the United States, current expenditures for public K-12 education rose by over $18bn during the 2014–15 school year. The state of New York spent the most money per pupil: $20,744, more than three times the $6,751 spent in Utah, where expenditures are the lowest. Among the other lowest-spending states was Texas with $9,081 per pupil. Meanwhile, California saw the largest increases in state spending on overall education between 2014 and 2015 with a 7.3% increase over that year, followed by Texas with 4.8%
Crowdsourced spreadsheet highlights sexual harassment in academia
An anonymous, crowdsourced spreadsheet called ‘Sexual Harassment In the Academy,’ launched in November by former anthropology professor Karen Kelsky, now contains more than 2,000 anonymous anecdotes that describe a wide range of alleged harassment at universities in the U.S., Europe and beyond. The University of California, Berkeley , has been named more than two dozen times in the spreadsheet, and spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said the school is “saddened and unsettled” by the allegations but would need to know the accusers’ identities to determine possible next steps.
Are California schools failing on literacy?
Noting the recent lawsuit alleging that California is failing to teach students to read, and a recent Stanford University study which found 11 school districts with low reading performance in the state, a Los Angeles Times editorial considers whether California's public schools really are failing students on literacy. The state has backed away from its role as overseer of educational progress, the Times suggests, with its "baffling" new color-coded accountability system that includes too many items that don’t necessarily translate into better learning. "California might not be able to turn all of its students into university-level scholars, but at minimum, it owes them that most basic part of education: Strong reading programs and the teachers trained to deliver them. And they shouldn’t have to sue to get it," the paper argues.
Harassment and assault settlements in U.S. schools examined
At least 26 U.S. public-school districts this year have agreed to at least $37m in settlements stemming from allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault of students, teachers or other employees, according to analysis by the Wall Street Journal, ranging from $30,000 to $8.25m. In Northern California, the WSJ notes, Morgan Hill USD in March approved an $8.25m settlement in a case involving the sexual assault of three elementary-school girls over several years by a male teacher who received a prison sentence. Despite the increasing statistics, the paper adds, some education and legal experts believe that school administrators have gotten better at reporting sexual misconduct.
Brown unveils online funding boost
California governor Jerry Brown is planning to launch the state’s first fully online public community college to help 2.5m young adults without college credentials gain skills for better jobs. In his 2018-19 budget plan, Brown has proposed spending $120m to open the college by fall 2019, with a focus on short-term credential programs for careers in fields including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and child development. Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the California Community College system, said the college would be targeted at people who don’t have time to physically go to school to attend classes. “What we're talking about are job skills that target adult learners - those who are in the workforce with no college or some college but no credential.” Brown has also proposed a $190.3bn overall spending plan for the 2018-19 fiscal year that would boost funding for K-12 and higher education, as well as infrastructure and the state’s Rainy Day reserve fund.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Do random searches keep students safe?
The Los Angeles Times' Sonali Kohli examines whether random searches are useful or detrimental to keeping students safe. Los Angeles USD is the only district its size that requires every middle- and high-school campus to conduct daily random searches for weapons using metal-detector wands, she notes, and LAUSD acting superintendent Vivian Ekchian recently said that she planned to commission a districtwide survey of attitudes about the searches after local activists highlighted inconsistencies in the way they are conducted and the lack of evidence that such searches are necessary.
Fresno Unified leaders must end teacher dispute, advocate argues
Amid widespread concern about the possibility of a teacher strike, leaders of Fresno USD have in effect "gone on strike," argues Steven Roesh, consciously neglecting to perform an important part of its job in its refusal to negotiate with the Fresno Teachers Association. Regardless of mid-January's fact-finding report, he says, district leaders must come back to the negotiating table and compromise with the teachers’ union.
LAUSD appoints interim leader
Meeting for the first time since superintendent Michelle King announced her retirement, Los Angeles USD’s board of education has named Vivian Ekchian - who has been filling in for King since October - as interim superintendent. Board members voted to amend Ekchian’s contract to reflect her expanded responsibilities and the district’s legal office is working out the terms, with board approval expected next week. “There’s confidence in Ms. Ekchian’s ability to lead the team that has been doing the work of serving kids,” board president Monica Garcia said. In November, as acting superintendent, Ekchian helped craft a compromise that gave charter schools concessions that they badly wanted but preserved the district’s almost unlimited freedom to investigate and audit them.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Students not being taught financial basics
According to a report, schools in California aren’t providing students with adequate education in financial literacy. The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College produced a map of the U.S. grading each state A to F for such education with California graded F. The Center wants all American students to take a course in financial literacy in order to graduate.
Kids should be taught to spot fake news, senator says
State Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa and Solano Counties) has highlighted aStanford study showing that 82% of middle schoolers struggled to tell the difference between ads or false stories and actual news, and aims to introduce bill allowing teachers to show them how they can tell the difference. "We need to empower students to get all the facts - and people to get all the facts," Dodd says, "and not just listen and believe everything that they read." Dodd is also introducing a bill to provide universal pre-school to all California 4-year-olds, which he says will help the roughly 170,000 children eligible for pre-school but who aren't using it because there aren't enough spaces.
----- WORKFORCE -----
Expansion of harassment laws
A new year update to California legislation on sexual harassment will enhance the protections given to transgender men and women. Mandatory training for supervisors will now include instruction on handling issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity as part of what will be known as the Transgender Work Opportunity Act. State senator Ricardo Lara welcomed the new legislation and said that he hoped it would mean that less transgender people would leave their jobs through feeling uncomfortable at work.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
More stick for ‘clunky’ dashboard
Whilst the California School Dashboard has been lauded by educational professionals for its use in measuring the performance of schools and districts, it does have its critics. Some are calling it “clunky” and difficult to navigate. Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute said that the dashboard does not give a clear signal as to whether a school is “excellent, terrible or somewhere in between”.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
Applications surging for flagship universities
Washington Post analysis has found that over 1.3m applications for freshman admission were filed to the 50 state flagships for fall 2016, up 79% compared to 10 years earlier. More than 89,000 students have applied this year to enter the University of California at Berkeley in fall 2018 as freshmen, while 113,409 applied to the California flagship’s sister campus inLos Angeles. “Right now, it is all hands on deck,” said Rick Bryant, director of admissions operations for the University of Florida.
Calls to overhaul accreditation system to improve higher education
Carrie Sheffield argues that, backed by the US Department of Education, a "cartel" of regional accreditors is making college more expensive by stifling competition and limiting students' higher education options. The system is rife with conflicts of interest, she asserts. "Overhauling the accreditation system would create new educational options for those who have been ill-served, or not served at all, by the existing university-focused culture," Sheffield concludes.
----- LEGAL -----
California laws ensure schools remain safe spaces
As DACA protections come to an end, California lawmakers are moving to assure families, school districts by passing legislation to strengthen protections for undocumented students. The 74 profiles state laws SB 54: The “California Values Act”, which takes effect Jan 1 to provide "essential safeguards" to ensure that schools, health facilities, courts, and other public services remain accessible to Californians regardless of their immigration status, SB 699: “Educational equity”, which prohibits school officials and employees of a school district, county offices of education, and charter schools from collecting information or documents regarding citizenship or immigration status from students and their family members, and the California Dream Act, which allows children who were brought into the U.S. under the age of 16 without proper visas/immigration documentation who have attended school on a regular basis to apply for student financial aid benefits.
----- OTHER -----
Arizona blocked from banning Mexican American studies
Federal judge Wallace Tashima has blocked Arizona from enforcing its controversial law banning ethnic studies courses, ending a seven-year battle over teaching about Mexican Americans in Tucson public schools. Tashima told state legislators that the ban, from 2010, violated the Constitution and was racially motivated.
Teacher arrested for questioning superintendent’s pay raise
A Louisiana teacher, Deyshia Hargrave, who stood up at a Vermilion Parishschool board meeting and asked why the superintendent, Jerome Puyau, was getting a raise while educators and support staff were not was ejected from the room by a marshal, handcuffed on the floor and put into a patrol car. Ms. Hargrave was arrested for allegedly “remaining after having been forbidden” and “resisting an officer,” Ike Funderburk, Abbeville’s city attorney and prosecutor, said, but after reviewing the now-viral video, he decided not to pursue charges against the teacher.
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