ABCFT - Week in Review - May 24, 2019
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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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ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program
Teacher Leaders celebrated the completion of their program with a Showcase sharing their action research. Each participant shared their action research and recommendations. All of the topics are chosen by the Teacher Leader and focus on practices that support students and teachers with the intent to influence education policy at the district and/or state level. Listed below is each Teacher Leader’s research question and recommendations. We are very proud of all the hard work these leaders accomplished.
Jennifer Marcus a teacher from Aloha Elementary - How would a systematic approach to the teaching of listening skills, using podcasts affect student listening skills in grade 6?
Recommendations:
Teachers need supports to prepare their students for the listening portion of the SBAC assessment. The district should provide a curriculum and give teachers time to collaborate and create these assessments.
Stefani Palutzke a special education teacher from Artesia High School - How does an IEP at-a-glance binder enhance collaboration between general education and special education teachers to support students?
Recommendations:
All secondary schools should develop an IEP at a Glance Binder System at their site to empower general education teachers to develop an inclusive classroom and to assist with providing accommodations to students with special needs. A district goal should be that 100% of ABC teachers understand accommodations/modifications for their students.
Catherine Pascual a teacher from Artesia High School - How does starting secondary school no earlier than 8:30 am positively affect student achievement and mental health?
Recommendations:
All secondary schools should look at starting school after 8:30 am in order to align school start times with teens and their biological cycles. This change can improve physical health, mental health, attendance, safety, and learning. Whether CA SB 328 mandating later start times is signed into law this year or not, ABCUSD should look at what it would take to start our middle and high schools at a later time.
Claudia Fontoura a teacher from Elliott Elementary - What are the benefits of having a full-time school nurse on campus?
Recommendations:
Every school in our district should have a full-time nurse present everyday. The valuable information and data in this report should be used to encourage ABCUSD to allocate the necessary funds to provide much-needed full-time nurses in all of our schools. Let's do what we can to continue to provide the best for students and pave the way for districts across the nation to follow in our footsteps.
LeAnn Gause a teacher from Cerritos High School - How do students feel about the school climate and support systems in place for LGBTQ+ students at Cerritos High School?
Recommendations:
The topic of LGBTQ+ support and safety should be highlighted through specific anti-harassment policies, clearly stated behavior expectations, and professional development. Mandatory professional development focusing on how to be a supportive ally to LGBTQ+ students, and how to effectively deal with issues of harassment should be provided to all school employees each year. Teachers and school leaders should work together to create an inclusive school climate so that the frequency of these events declines, and every student feels that they have a safe and welcoming place to learn. When students feel safe and protected by an adult at school, they will learn more, have better grades, and have enhanced physical, social and emotional well-being. The teachers and staff at Cerritos High School should make more of an effort to stand up for students’ rights to attend school free of verbal and physical harassment, to support a positive and welcoming school climate.
Sharon Zamora a teacher from Wittmann Elementary - How important is it to have a district-wide systematic approach to writing?
Recommendations:
The district pursue and present a strong writing program that would support and enhance the teachers of ABC which in turn would show progressive achievement in our students’ writing. It needs to be a clear, organized, systematic, instructional writing program which includes teaching the writing process, teaching fundamental writing skills, encouraging students to develop essential writing knowledge, and providing a supportive writing environment. The program needs to be teacher-friendly, simple but practical and aligned with the California Common Core Standards. The goal is to create a community of engaged writers.
Erika Cook a teacher from Cerritos Elementary - What impact does The Write Stuff, a systematic writing program, equipped with multimedia presentations and generative grammar instruction have upon student’s writing?
Recommendations:
A limitation of this study is the sample size and therefore, further research and implementation of this program with a larger population are necessary to support the findings of this study. However, the evidence supports essential components in the current research:
- Writing instruction should be systematic and constant.
- Teachers need a writing program that promotes the systematic and consistent application of writing skills and concepts.
- Grammar should be embedded into the writing program to support language development.
Marivel Aguirre a teacher from Carver Elementary - How can multi-years of an implementation of a comprehensive, systematic, and multimedia grammar based writing program for K-6 affect student achievement?
Recommendations:
Further research using a whole grade level at one site or at applying the program at a different school for a much longer period of time would be necessary to validate the effectiveness of The Write Stuff. Writing must be taught daily using a systematic, grammar based instruction.
Susie Gomez a teacher from Fedde Middle School -How can The Write Stuff, a systematic grammar development approach through multimedia presentations, support long-term English Learners at the secondary level improve their writing skills?
Recommendations:
The findings show that a need for a consistent and purposeful instruction of grammar is needed for student progress in the command of writing conventions. It is recommended that a uniform system is set in place at the primary and secondary level in order to help students build their skills over time and enable secondary teachers to use a common language that all students can understand. Uniformity in writing curriculum will foster stronger vertical articulation and empower students to receive precise feedback to help them recognize, understand, and revise errors in writing.
As you can from the Teacher Leaders work, there were many compelling topics and findings. Four of the Teacher Leaders focused on the need to have a systematic, multimedia, grammar based writing program. Three of the Teacher Leaders, Ms. Cook, Ms. Aguirre and Ms. Gomez all used The Write Stuff writing program developed by ABCFT Members and former Teacher Leaders, Connie Nam and Ka Yang both teach at Carver elementary. Because of the overwhelming demand for their effective and comprehensive writing program they will be offering Members only workshops at the Union Hall during the 2019-20 school year. More information about the writing workshops will be provided in the fall.
Teacher Leaders Application for 2019-20 Program
With the support of AFT our national union, we are again honored to offer the ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program for the 2019-20 school year. Below are the details regarding this national program as well as the online application process.
The recruitment flyer which highlights the program
and TLP guidelines here--->TLP Participant Guidelines
ABCFT Teacher Leaders Applications are due by Tuesday, June 4, 2019
ABCFT YOUnion Social
and Teacher Leader Meet and Greet
As the year winds down it’s time to celebrate the ending of another school year. Please join us Friday, May 31 for the last YOUnion Social at BJ’s in Cerritos from 3:00-7:00 pm. Our past and present Teachers Leaders will be available to discuss the program as well. Also, we have extended our YOUnion social to include our EDP teachers who usually are working during our social get togethers. Hope to see you all there!
ABCFT Health Benefits Survey
Over 400 members responded to the Health Benefits survey. Thank YOU!
On Tuesday, ABCFT along with the other district workgroups attended their monthly Health Benefits committee meeting. They received the final proposals and are preparing to make recommendations. The data collected from the survey is being used to guide ABCFT leadership to help guide future decision making. As soon as we have more information about the direction we will take we will share it with you. Just to be clear, ABCUSD is not looking at changing carriers or anything dramatic but we want to make sure the membership is aware of the situation and the possible minor changes that may or may not happen in the future.
There were many thoughtful comments and questions in the Health Benefits survey and we think it’s important to answer the questions, address concerns and clarify some misinformation. In the last remaining Week in Reviews, we will include continue the dialogue about our health benefits. We understand the value of sharing important information with our members and hope to address the issues around our health benefits.
RESEARCH FOR YOUR CLASSROOMS
Transgender teens in schools with bathroom restrictions are at higher risk of sexual assault, study says
CNN - Transgender and gender-nonbinary US teens -- those whose sexual identity falls outside the traditional male and female -- are at greater risk of sexual assault at schools that deny them access to bathrooms or locker rooms that match their sexual identity, according to a new study.
Researchers analyzed data from 3,673 adolescents in the LGBTQ Teen Study, an anonymous web-based survey of US kids ages 13 to 17. Students who reported being told by teachers or staff that they could not use restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their sexual identity at school were classified as having "restrictive access."
Just over 1 out of every 4 students in the study, or 25.9%, reported being a victim of sexual assault in the past 12 months. Transgender and gender-non binary teens who were subject to restroom or locker room restrictions had an even higher prevalence of sexual assault, at 36%, according to the findings, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
The rates of sexual assault for non trans US teens, those whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth, is 15% for girls and 4% for boys, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey administered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Student Debt Crisis
Have you been denied student loan forgiveness? AFT would like to hear from you. Below is a request from AFT seeking members that have been affected by these loans.
Many AFT members and their families are struggling under a mountain of student debt, making it difficult for them to make ends meet. This is an opportunity issue, a funding issue, a living wage issue and a quality of life issue. Post-secondary education is increasingly essential, yet we fail to fund college as a public good; as a result, student debt has exceeded $1.5 trillion. That’s why the AFT has taken on the student debt crisis as a union issue. In fact, a few months ago, 11 of our members filed a proposed class-action lawsuit, on behalf of all employees who work in public service, against Navient, a student loan servicer, for purposely and systematically giving these workers inaccurate information about their eligibility for income-driven repayment plans and the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
However, Navient is not the only one to blame. As of the end of December 2018, 53,749 unique borrowers had submitted 65,500 applications for public service loan forgiveness, and only 610 applications had been approved by the Department of Education. Those who work in public service are being denied the forgiveness they are entitled to at alarmingly high rates, and it’s time to put a stop to it. The law that created this program, by the way, was a bipartisan one—signed by President George W. Bush and spearheaded by Sens. Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy more than a decade ago.
That’s why the AFT is exploring further legal action on behalf of our members who have been denied public service loan forgiveness. Specifically, we are looking for AFT members whose applications for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have been denied.
Such members must meet the following criteria:
- Made 120 payments on their federal student loans;
- Worked in a public or private school, for the government, or for a nonprofit organization for at least 10 years; and
- Applied for and were denied public service loan forgiveness.
If you fit this description and would be interested in being considered,
click here and answer a few questions.The AFT or our lawyers may then reach out to you to learn more about your experience. Any information you share will be kept strictly confidential unless you give your express permission.
NEGOTIATION TIMELINE repeat
More information here next week, May 31st! .Stay tuned and informed
At this time, the ABCFT Leadership and Negotiating Team are researching data, attending budget workshops, and working with ABCFT member groups. ABCFT will have a full review of California’s May Revised Budget which is released later this month. As we wait for the state to sort out the revised budget, we thought it would be good to highlight the State’s budget process over the past eleven months. Hopefully, if you were not aware of the budget process for the state of California this timeline would shed light on how the process works.
ABCFT expects to be in salary negotiations for the 2019-2020 school year starting in August after the State budget is finalized.
(From a previous post) When do negotiations for salary raises start again?
Here is an overview by the California Federation of Teachers of the 2019-20 California State budget Here is the link if you would like to look at this document. This document is an analysis of the Governor’s preliminary State budget for 2019-2020. The proposal is part of preliminary negotiations between the Governor and the CA Legislators about how they will prioritize spending. As of the beginning of March, ABC is looking at 6 million dollars of additional monies but this doesn’t take into account ongoing increases in Health (1 million), Step and Column (750K), Declining enrollment (1-2 million), STRS increases (1% at 1 million). These are ballpark figures but as you can see we are suffering from what every other district is suffering from flat COLA (Cost of living) funding. We hope to have more information closer to May when the State budget is revised and we have solid numbers that we can use for negotiations.
New information
CFT Research Department - Joanna Valentine
- State revenues ran behind Dec-March due to personal income taxes coming in lower than expected. This turned around in April with the receipt of more than enough money to cover the shortfall. The additional funds could result in an upward revision of Ca general fund revenues which will yield a corresponding increase in minimum Prop 98 guarantee. Governor called this "modest good news" as "there are dark skies on the horizon." May revise may be out as soon as next week, due on May 14th.
- COLA rate at January budget was 3.46%, will be revised down to 3.26% in the May revise.
California State Budget Timeline Made Easy
July 1 - Fiscal year begins.
July 9 - September 15 - Department directors and agency heads initiate detailed reviews and develop budget proposals for their programs for the next fiscal year. These requests are then reviewed by the Department of Finance for review.
October- January 10 - The Governor evaluates the requests as reviewed by the Department of Finance and sends his or her proposed budget to the legislature.
January - February - The budget committee chairs in each house introduce the Governor's’ budget proposal in bill form. The Legislative Analyst’s Office prepares a detailed review of the budget bill.
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MAY ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
Each month Connie Nam and Rich Saldana work with Beth Bray and Carol Castro to provide teacher input about professional development, curriculum changes, and testing changes. ABCFT believes that the biggest working condition impacting teachers are the key curriculum and the professional development being churned out of academic services. Many times the district is implementing changes that are coming from the State of California but rarely do unions get involved in those changes. ABCFT believes that teacher's voice helps to provide the district office with classroom advice and input that helps to deliver better comprehensive changes. Each month at the ABCFT Representative Council Rich and Connie give reports and take questions on all things related to academic services.
School of Choice Update by Ray Gaer-
We ran short on time this week to update this report. The Union office electricity was being fixed so we couldn’t scan the paperwork for you to see. We will make it up to you next week. Sorry for the delay.
If you have been negatively impacted by the dramatic procedural change for ABC’s School’s of Choice lottery, I would encourage you to write to Tim.Catlin@abcusd.us
PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
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.
Happy Memorial Day next Monday. Let’s keep in mind all those veterans and families who have given their loved ones to protect the great democracy experiment known as America. We are relatively a young country and we are in the middle of some growing pains as a society but will get through it. As with any challenges, the situation will end for the better in the end from all the healthy dialogue and changes. I call it growing pains.
School sites are not any different and they have life cycles of evolution as they change and grow. If a school site is going through a rough time there is usually a lot sometimes painful conversations about the situation. If you look across the ABC District you will see a bell shaped curve of where schools are in terms of mental health, collaboration, student issues, principal leadership, staff skill sets, excetera. What is special about the ABC School District is that our bell curve is pushed far to the right so we have more schools that are in the exceptional range. In fact, I can’t think of a single school in ABC that is struggling in every category. Every school in ABC is excellent and has something special to offer for students and parents. Is there evidence to show that ABC schools are exceptional and that the public is aware of the exceptional teachers in ABC? Yes, there is evidence and just like you see a bell shaped curve for schools there is another one for school districts.
To illustrate this point, let's take a look a one of our local next door school districts, Norwalk-La Mirada. Twenty years ago the Norwalk La Mirada School District had a larger school population than ABC, but over the years they have declined in enrollment and they now have only 17,000 students compared to ABC’s 20,000 students. You might ask yourself, “ how did that happen in Norwalk?” The answer is that the door opened when legislation allowed for parents to shop around for the district that best fit the needs of their students. In order for a student to leave their home district and enroll in another school district is that parents have to show that another school district can offer alternative programs that their home district cannot offer. ABC schools have a ton of special programs and magnets opportunities for students and parents like these options. Behind the scenes in education, school districts are in a lethal battle for survival as they compete for students. ABC has over 3,000 students attending ABC instead of their home districts and this has a positive financial impact on our school district. One of the best moments this school year was when the Schools of Choice committee realised that these 3,000+ students kept ABC robust with programs and provided financial health for the ABC school district. Without these students we would be like Norwalk-La Mirada who is losing students and struggling to survive their shrinking ADA base. I think that ABC as a district has moved to the right on the bell shaped curve while other districts like Norwalk-La Mirada have moved to the left.
Yes, we work in an exceptional school district and the example of Norwalk-La Mirada illustrates how your hard work in the classroom is saving the preverbal butts of ABCUSD. Your hard work attracts parents and was recently highlighted in a study released by Learning Policy Institute where ABC Unified is listed as one of the top districts statewide in LPI's latest Districts Beating the Odds. The bottom line is that students mean funds and funds mean programs and compensation. I would much rather work in a school district that is maintaining their enrollment numbers than be in a district that is losing students in droves.
As you can tell, I’m already preparing for our next salary negotiations for next year. Your ABCFT Negotiating team is also preparing for next year’s salary negotiations. This week members of the negotiating team attended a budget workshop by School Services where we were given an overview of the State’s May revised budget. In next week’s Review we will have that information available for you so we can begin the dialogue with members about negotiations and the state/districts financial standings. Furthermore, we will summarize the health benefits input and see how that fits into the overall financial picture. Thank you again to all of those who completed the health benefits survey, your thoughts were insightful and helpful in guiding the ABCFT health committee representatives.
Lastly, congratulations to all of those who were recognized at last nights 30th annual Recognition Dinner. Every milestone we cross as educators needs to be celebrated. ABC honors those of service with 15,20,25,30,35 and even 40 years at this event. The longevity in this school district is truly astonishing. A special congratulations to all of those are retiring and were honored last night. It’s a treat to share in their moments of celebration. Congratulations!
Keep on truckin’ (from the 1970’s)
We are almost there….
In Unity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Check out the new website at the California Federation of Teachers for education news and how the State organization is supporting members interests. Click the Union Strong logo to go to the convention webpage for details on the CFT 100th year Convention.
CFT provides members important information about professional issues and workplace rights through numerous newsletters and publications. You can find a summary of each publication below and download the current issue of each newsletter. Click on the links to read some stories online, to get more information or contact the editor, and to access the archives.
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Teachers rally at Capitol as charter bill progresses to Senate
More than 1,000 California teachers, students and school district administrators marched in downtown Sacramento and rallied under the national Red for Ed banner at the state Capitol on Wednesday, adding their voices to a statewide advocacy day for school funding. Many at the rally said they are concerned that charter schools are undermining the public school system. “Charter schools laws are basically destroying public education, and we don’t think a dime of public funds should go to corporate charter organizations,” said California Teachers Association Vice President David Goldberg. “Every school should serve the needs of the community.” As the teachers rallied, lawmakers narrowly advanced a teacher-backed measure that would give local school districts more power to reject charter schools. Assembly Bill 1505 passed 42-19, despite concerns went too far in limiting the ability of charter schools to appeal authorization denials from local school districts to county and state education boards. Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, called the bill a “politically motivated and a slap in the face to parents and families who deserve to choose the best school for their children.”
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Education Secretary used personal emails for work
Betsy DeVos used her personal email accounts for official business in “limited” cases, according to an internal investigation, leaving the Education Secretary open to criticism. The Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General surveyed DeVos and 51 other political appointees “to determine whether the officials and the Secretary received the Department’s records management training and used their personal email and/or messaging accounts to conduct government business.”
]Education Department enacts special-education rule
The Education Department has informed states that it is to reverse course and enforce an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms. Under the regulation, states face stricter rules about how they tabulate data about the demographics and treatment of children in special education to ensure that there are not racial disparities - which could tip more states over a threshold that requires them to create a plan to ensure students of color are not being disproportionately targeted.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Experienced teachers key to top-performing California districts
California school districts with higher test scores in math and English language arts than expected, for African-American and Hispanic students, has underlined how experienced teachers were the common factor behind the results. “The research finds that providing students with qualified, fully prepared teachers is a critical component for raising student achievement,” said Anne Podolsky, lead author on the “California’s Positive Outliers: Districts Beating the Odds” report by the Learning Policy Institute.
----- TEACHER STRIKES -----
New Haven teachers prepare for strike
Talks on Sunday between contract bargaining teams representing New Haven USD and its teachers union failed to bear fruit, both sides have said, meaning that the union’s 575-600 teachers will begin a planned strike today at 7a.m. The New Haven district includes 12 schools in Union City and Hayward, which the district vows to keep open, using substitute teachers and administrative staff to lead educational activities. The teachers are seeking a 10% raise over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. However, the district says its “last, best and final” offer is for a 1% raise for the next school year, and a one-time 3% payment.
Second day of strikes in New Haven
About 600 teachers and counselors from New Haven USD went on strike yesterday as they fight for better pay. The district said about 20% of all students showed up for classes Monday. At James Logan High School in Union City, fewer than 15% of the approximately 3,600 students attended, according to district spokesman John Mattos. The strike is the first in the district’s 50-plus years of existence, sparked by what union officials contend is a shift by district leadership away from a precedent of prioritizing teachers. The strike will continue today, with administrators commenting they hope to return to the bargaining table tomorrow.
Tensions run high at Newhaven board meeting
Tensions in the ongoing New Haven USD teachers strike increased yesterday, beginning with the resumption of negotiations between the district and the New Haven Teachers Association (NHTA), and ending with a school board meeting where parents, educators and students angrily demanded pay raises for the near-600 staff on strike. The NHTA is asking for a 10% raise, split between the current 2018-19 school year, and the coming 2019-20 school year, and has been offered a on-time 3% bonus for the current school year, and a 1% salary raise for the coming school year plus 0.5% for every additional $1m it receives in state funding that year, up to an additional 1% total.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Sacramento City super "confident" in avoiding state takeover
Sacramento City USD superintendent Jorge Aguilar has said he is "confident" in his plans to avoid a state takeover of the school district, as it struggles to tackle a $34m budget deficit. The superintendent noted that "nobody who has gone through this process of being taken over" had told the district that it was "a good strategy to take," with SCUSD instead stating that the district must "reign in the cost of healthcare" and secure more funding to avoid takeover. According to Aguilar, SCUSD employee benefits cost the district twice as much as other local districts pay, totalling $35,000 compared to $17,000 elsewhere.
New Haven teachers prepare for strike
Talks on Sunday between contract bargaining teams representing New Haven USD and its teachers union failed to bear fruit, both sides have said, meaning that the union’s 575-600 teachers will begin a planned strike today at 7a.m. The New Haven district includes 12 schools in Union City and Hayward, which the district vows to keep open, using substitute teachers and administrative staff to lead educational activities. The teachers are seeking a 10% raise over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. However, the district says its “last, best and final” offer is for a 1% raise for the next school year, and a one-time 3% payment.
West Valley residents against converting schools into homeless students shelters
Residents in West Valley are asking the Los Angeles USD not to convert underused local school sites into shelter accommodation for homeless students, arguing that the area is in need of more schools. Residents believe that LAUSD is considering conversions for underused campuses in Woodland Hills and West Hills. Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council passed a motion last week against the use of former school sites for any purpose "other than schools," and urged district and district leaders to start building a new K-8 school "immediately."
----- FINANCE -----
Oakland forced to cope with CFO departure
As Oakland USD struggles to balance its budget and build community trust, it is having to deal with the abrupt resignation of its chief financial officer, just a month after it eliminated its chief business officer position. CFO Ofelia Roxas announced earlier this month that was resigning to “pursue other opportunities.” Her departure comes in the wake of the elimination of the CBO position held by Marcus Battle; it also comes at a time when the district needs to be drafting a third budget revision for county education officials who have challenged the district’s three-year budget projections, claiming that they overestimate revenues and underestimate expenses.
----- WORKFORCE ----
Berkeley plans for affordable staff housing
Berkeley USD administrators are making preparations to potentially develop affordable housing units for staff. A recent survey conducted by the district indicated that 78% of BUSD employees who are not homeowners say that housing insecurity is impacting their ability to continue working in the district. $150,000 was allocated for the district to commence pre-planning on affordable housing proposals at a City Council meeting on April 30.
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
“My Skin Is Darker Than My Daughter’s. Here’s why it Matters”
Our bedtime routine that night started off like so many others, harried but mostly sweet. After making our way through brushing teeth and getting into pajamas, my daughter and I lay down on her bedroom floor to sing songs, the final step before crawling into bed.
When I tried to curl up next to my 4-year-old, though, I sensed her hesitation. She wiggled her little body away from mine each time I inched closer. “Do you not want mommy close to you, sweetie?” I asked, assuming she was initiating a game to extend our nighttime ritual. Her light-brown eyes locked in on me as she brushed her honey-colored locks aside with her hand.
In a casual on-the-edge-of-sleep voice she cooed, “Your skin is dark. I don’t want you to touch me.”
My brown Indigenous Latina body stiffened; I labored to breathe, outraged and confused. She rendered me speechless.
Did my daughter think I would contaminate her pinkish, almost golden skin? Had she already begun to decode what our culture adores and what it abhors? Had I unknowingly conveyed negative views of brownness, causing her to absorb them? Did she intuit my lifelong ambivalence about my skin color?
Marin County urges parents to vaccinate children
Marin County officials are urging parents to vaccinate their children, terming schools with a vaccination rate lower than 50% "a real concern." 94% of Marin County kindergarten students and 95.1% of kindergarteners across California were recorded as fully vaccinated in 2017-18, but a concentrated handful of schools in the county have vaccination rates of less than 50%.
Stress impacts achievement gap, report warns
A new report, co-authored by Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein, and co-published by the Economic Policy Institute and the Opportunity Institute, “Toxic Stress and Children’s Outcomes,” argues that educators and policymakers should pay greater attention to the contribution of “toxic stress” to the achievement gap. Morsy asserts that children exposed to frequent or sustained threatening events that are likely to induce toxic stress do worse academically and reveals that such experiences are not evenly distributed across children, as low-income and African American children are more likely to experience trauma.
Half of U.S. kids have poor cholesterol levels
Just half of children and adolescents in in U.S. are in the ideal cholesterol range, according to a study published in JAMA, which warns that 25% are in the "clinically high" range. Though cholesterol levels in U.S. youth have improved from 1999 to 2016, the study, which analyzed nationally representative data from more than 26,000 children and adolescents aged 6-19 years, notes that all youth should have their cholesterol checked at ages 9 to 11 years - and again at 17 to 21 years.
-----CHARTER SCHOOLS -----
Bernie Sanders would ban for-profit charter schools
Outlining his education policy priorities ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a moratorium on federal funding for charter schools. In a 10-point plan, Mr. Sanders said that, if elected, he would “desegregate schools” by banning for-profit charter schools, require charter schools to be subject to the same oversight as public schools, and insist that teachers and parents account for at least half the representation on all charter school boards. “The proliferation of charter schools has disproportionately affected communities of color. We do not need two schools systems; we need to invest in our public schools system,” he said.
Thirty months in prison for Celerity founder
Vielka McFarland, the founder of Los Angeles-based charter school network Celerity Educational Group, has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for misspending $3.2m in public funds. She has also been ordered to pay restitution of $225,138.15 within 60 days. The bulk of the misspent funds — which came from the U.S. Department of Education — was used to purchase and renovate an office building in Columbus, Ohio, where McFarlane oversaw the founding of a separate charter school, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
Many U.S. schools remain vulnerable to malware
Thousands of Windows servers in use at U.S. public school systems remain vulnerable to WannaCry-like cryptographic malware - two years after the computer virus brought global computer systems down. Research into Baltimore City’s ongoing ransomware attack revealed that neighboring Baltimore County’s public school system had eight publicly accessible servers that still were running in configurations that indicated they were vulnerable to malware, and school systems in Lynn, Massachusetts, Cartersville, Georgia, and Greenville, in North Carolina, have also had electronic payment systems taken offline by ransomware in the last month alone.
----- SPORTS -----
State Senate OKs bill for college athlete endorsement deals
College athletes in California would be able to sign with agents and profit from endorsement deals under a bill that cleared the state Senate on Wednesday. Senate Bill 206, by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), would allow student athletes at public and private universities and colleges to earn money from the use of their name, image or likeness in endorsement deals starting in 2023. Sen. Skinner said the issue is particularly pressing for women athletes, who have fewer professional sports opportunities after college and typically have just one chance to profit from their talent.
----- CHILD DEVELOPMENT -----
Top-performing countries' early ed systems provide lessons for U.S.
Sharon Lynn Kagan of Teachers College, Columbia University, has warned that the U.S. lacks a "social strategy" for creating a more coherent system for young children and should step away from striving for a "one solution fits all strategy" for providing early-childhood education and care. Speaking at a National Center on Education and the Economy event, she suggested that the nation instead look for inspiration in education systems in Australia, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, and also consider a diverse funding system for serving all children and families that honors America's "entrepreneurial, market-driven society."
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT stated a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.
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