ABCFT - Week in Review - October 26, 2018
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In case you’ve missed previous Weeks in Review, you can find all of them here: ABCTeachernews To find previous editions, just click on “Blog Archive” which is the menu on the right and click on the specific week.
(ABC Federation of Teachers)
In Unity
ABC Federation of Teachers
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Join us in Support of Measure BB:
TEACHERS AND MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS COME OUT FOR THE LAST PUSH FOR MEASURE BB ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3RD FROM 10-2PM. FOOD AND DRINKS WILL BE PROVIDED.
13737 Artesia Blvd. Suite 108 Cerritos 90703
Each week I work with unit members in representations, contract resolutions, email/text/phone call questions, site concerns, site visits, presentations, state/national representations and mediations. Here are some of the highlights of interest.
Hi Everyone and sorry for the delay,
This week ABCFT and ABCUSD held our annual two-day labor management conference called the ABC West Coast Labor Management Institute where state, national and district teams convene to learn about labor management structures that we use here in ABC. The ABCFT/ABCUSD labor management collaboration is a national model that is studied and replicated in some of the districts that go to the conference to learn.
As part of this conference, ABCFT site representatives and their principals spend time working on communication and teacher voice in decision making at their schools. We will have a special edition of the REVIEW next week that will highlight the agendas, powerpoints, some speech clips and an opportunity for you to win a free book from the conference.
The bad news is that Tanya Golden and I have been so focused on the weeklong activities for the conference that we have had very little time to put new material into the Week in Review for this week. We have updated the state, national, and local news, but the articles are repeats from last week. We will have all new material next week so think of this week like a fumble in football and next week we will recover in style.
Have a good weekend!
In Unity
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
RESEARCH FOR YOUR CLASSROOMS repeat
Educating English Language Learners
A Review of the Latest Research on Language acquisition. By Diane August (AFT)
It’s October in the Rio Grande Valley; the summer heat has receded and the school year is in full swing. Rolando Diaz teaches sixth-grade science at Del Valle Middle School. His class is a mix of English language learners (ELLs) with varying levels of English proficiency. He also has a few newcomer students, mostly from Mexico and Central America. Although all the students are Latino, they have varying degrees of Spanish proficiency.
A longtime teacher, Mr. Diaz has effectively planned and carried out instruction on a specific science topic. He has ensured that students with varying degrees of English proficiency can access the academic content, strengthen their literacy skills, and engage with and learn from their peers.
The Ice Cream Social/Open House was a Success! repeat
Last week ABCFT had an Open House Ice Cream Social so that members could drop by to get a tour of the Union Hall and meet people congregating around the refrigerator freezer. Is the Union office a big place because you keep calling it a “Union Hall”? The answer is that the ABCFT office is probably the smallest office space we have had in a decade, but we are living within our budget and the facility is big enough to have meetings for the ABCFT Executive Board.
Thank you to those who stopped by to visit and take a tour. Any social gathering is first and foremost about fun but it’s also an opportunity to speak with the ABCFT officers about an issue you are dealing with or just to share with others how your school is doing.
The ABCFT leadership hopes that you will come by the Union Hall at one of our future events we will be holding at the office. We had all kinds of ice cream left over so if you get the urge to pop in as you drive by 19444 Norwalk Blvd (between Del Amo Blvd and South St).
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
CFT recommends Thurmond for State Superintendent & Newsom for Governor
- Tony Thurmond for Superintendent of Public Instruction
The CFT endorses Richmond Assemblymember Tony Thurmond for state superintendent of public instruction. President Josh Pechthalt said Thurmond, a former social worker, has demonstrated “time and again he is a champion of public education. His policy positions solidly align him with the needs of students, parents, and educators.”
He recognizes the critical need to address California’s teacher shortage, and advocates for attracting and retaining qualified educators by providing affordable housing, recruitment bonuses, scholarships and higher wages. He supports raising California up from near the bottom of the states in per pupil funding through progressive tax reforms. He sponsored a bill to bolster early childhood education enrollment by taxing private prison corporations.
In comparison to the Trump/DeVos education agenda, Thurmond—a former school board member—opposes vouchers and other schemes to shift taxpayer dollars from public education to private hands. He believes charter schools should be held to the same standards of access, transparency and accountability as public schools, and firmly opposes for-profit charters.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Transgender ‘roll back’ could hit schools
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to establish a new legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law which bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The narrower definition could significantly impact schools and the Education Department could have to decide what documentation schools would be required to collect to determine or codify gender. Harper Jean Tobin, policy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, called the move “an extremely aggressive legal position that is inconsistent with dozens of federal court decisions.”
U.S. needs 'constitutional right' to education, advocate urges
Christian Barnard, an education policy researcher with the Reason Foundation think tank, and school choice advocate, argues that a federally recognized "right to education" could stop traditional public schools from failing students. States' autonomy has created a situation where Idaho spend less than $6,277 per pupil, he says, while New York spends more than $18,719 per pupil. "Political and legal differences also yield disparities in how individual states disburse federal and state aid, use local revenues, and to what extent they prioritize low-performing schools," Barnard adds, along with varying levels of school choice restrictions and encouragements.
----- STATE NEWS -----
State superintendent applauds new Bill
California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has praised Governor Brown for passing the Statewide Equity Bill, Assembly Bill 2626, which addresses inequities in early learning and care programs by making eligibility requirements the same in all counties. “Policies are causing inequities for child care providers and early learning services,” he said. “This bill is the first step to resolve these issues.”
State Superintendent rivals trade barbs over attack ads
The race to be elected the next California State Superintendent of Public Instruction is entering its final phase, with Bay Area Assemblyman Tony Thurmond and former education executive Marshall Tuck, both Democrats, accusing the other of twisting the facts with new negative attack ads. The Thurmond campaign is seeking to have an independent committee take off the air an ad that falsely claims their candidate was reprimanded by the Obama administration while he was a West Contra Costa USD board member, for failing to address widespread sexual harassment. Another ad, produced by the Thurmond campaign, sought to tie Tuck to the education policies of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. To date, two committees supporting Mr Tuck have taken in $24.1m, while one supporting Mr Thurmond has received $11.5m.
California schools race sets record for most expensive
California is again recording the most expensive state superintendent election in history, with teacher unions being outspent by the wealthy backers of a former charter schools executive. This year’s election for the California State Superintendent of Instruction office is being contested by Marshall Tuck, who previously led the nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and the charter network Green Dot Public Schools, and union-backed state Assemblyman Tony Thurmond. While the latter has raised around $12m in independent expenditures, two-thirds of which was contributed by the California Teachers Association, the former has benefited from over $32m, from individuals including Bill Bloomfield, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and various heirs to the Walmart fortune. CTA president Eric Heins said the union wants to see Thurmond in office because he'll continue to implement the education reforms already in place. Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and University of Southern California professor, said the support for Tuck is a “show of force” from charter school advocates: “"It prevents them from being totally steamrolled by the teachers union. The message is 'You need to listen to us too," she said.
----- CLASSROOM -----
How losing a teacher midyear can affect students
A trio of new studies focusing on schools in North Carolina document the impact on students who see their teachers leave a classroom in the middle of the school year, suggesting that teacher turnover significantly disrupts the continuity of a child’s learning experiences. Gary Henry of Vanderbilt and Christopher Redding of the University of Florida have written three papers, two published earlier this year and one to come in the next few months, showing that elementary and middle school students’ test scores in math and English drop when teachers leave in the middle of the school year, with the decline in math scores almost as large as the difference in performance between an average teacher and an excellent one. Impacts were smaller in English, but also consistently negative. The studies argue that policymakers ought to make extensive efforts to avoid midyear teacher turnover when possible, including making information from teacher evaluation systems available before the school year gets underway.
----- LEGAL -----
Private school expels toddler, still charges parents
Palm Valley School, a private academy in Rancho Mirage, expelled a two-year-old student following an argument with his parents, then continued to charge them the full $10,000 for the academic year. Courts have sided with the school.
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
School Health Clinics Could Take Hit Under New Green Card Rules
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed expanding current green card rules, which require immigrants to prove they will not be a “burden” on the government, to deny the cards to immigrants who rely on benefits such as non-emergency Medicaid, Medicare Part D, food stamps or forms of housing assistance. The proposals could see large swaths of immigrants halting their public benefits, out of fear they will affect their ability to become permanent U.S. residents – with a knock-on effect on school clinics which offer free care regardless of a student’s immigration or insurance status, thanks to Medicaid funding from other students’ claims, thus reducing funding. Beyond clinics losing funding, immigrant parents might be too scared to let their children go to an in-school clinic. Advocates said there is a fear among immigrants over what information government institutions are collecting and how it could be used against them.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
Thousands join strike at University of California hospitals
Thousands of University of California medical workers on strike today against hospitals, clinics and campuses that prompted the rescheduling of thousands of surgeries and outpatient appointments. Picket lines were called for the five UC medical centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Irvine and Davis, and are set to remain in place for three days. AFSCME 3299 spokesman John De Los Angeles said the workers are protesting UC’s practice of hiring contract workers rather than unionized employees for many patient care and service jobs. Although thousands of operations have been rescheduled, emergency rooms remain open for patients.
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