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  • Public vs. private education in a woke world

    Public vs. private education in a woke world

    Is a public education better than a private education? Allie Beth Stuckey tackles this question in one of her latest episodes — and as a mother herself, it’s safe to say she’s quite passionate about the topic.

    It’s a topic on the tongues of most parents these days, amid growing concerns that children are being taught completely inappropriate material in the classroom.

    Twitter accounts like Libs o fTikTok have consistently exposed teachers who are blatantly calling for indoctrinating children into the LGBTQ+ community. However, not much work needs to be done in order to expose it. They’re literally exposing themselves by uploading the videos to TikTok and repeating deranged sentiments such as children needing to choose their own gender without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

    It’s not just that parents don’t want their children exposed to this inherently Marxist ideology, but that the material completely contradicts their own Christian faith.

    Stuckey landed on this topic after a recent heated debate between pro-public-school Jen Wilkin and pro-private-school Jonathan Pennington was hosted by the Gospel Coalition.

    Wilkin claims public schools are better for the community and that Philippians specifically tells us to put the needs of others over our own.

    Stuckey completely disagrees, saying, “There is nothing, your neighbors, your community, your city, your country, benefits more from than kind, wise, virtuous, loving children who grow up to be kind, wise, virtuous, brave, loving adults who know their Bibles.”

    She says there’s “no correlation” between loving thy neighbor and sending your children to public school.

    If anything, ignoring any woke red flags at the school your child attends would be worse for your community and the world. We already have enough blue-haired, terminally confused children clamoring to make sense of the world.

    Learning the Bible is grounding and serves a higher purpose. Woke ideology might serve some deluded higher purpose, and it’s certainly not a good one.

    Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

    To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Education-centered perks set companies up for recruiting, retention success

    Education-centered perks set companies up for recruiting, retention success

    The logistics industry has been grappling with labor constraints in the form of a truck driver shortage for ages. As pandemic-fueled labor shortages — dubbed the Great Resignation — have rocked the job market as a whole, recruiting and retention concerns have widened to include employees of all ranks and stations. 

    In fact, 60% of companies working in the supply chain field have identified addressing labor shortages as a top priority in 2023, according to Gartner for Supply Chain. Despite this, the research organization found that only about one-third of companies in the space offer benefits packages that effectively engage workers on a holistic scale.  

    “It seems like whatever supply chain publication I read or podcast I listen to, attracting and retaining supply chain talent is high on everyone’s priority list,” said David Dobrzykowski, associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas and internationally renowned supply chain scholar. “In a market where the demand for talent exceeds the supply, I think it makes perfect sense to offer incentives, especially those that develop your talent and, in turn, increase their contribution to your company.”  

    Companies have long offered various incentives to attract and retain talent. Often, these perks center around salary, financial bonuses and time off. While employees value these types of rewards, standing apart from the crowd in a tough market requires employers to hone in on what their recruits value and get creative.

    For the past several years, millennials have dominated the workforce. This generation — composed of those born between 1981 and 1996 — became the largest single group of workers in 2016, according to Pew Research Center. Their numbers have been growing ever since. 

    Millennials value many of the same benefits as their baby boomer and Gen X predecessors, including affordable health insurance, paid time off and work-life balance. Where they differ, however, is in their strong desire for ongoing career development. 

    A 2016 Gallup report, “How Millennials Want to Work and Live,” explained that 59% of millennials consider growth opportunities when applying for jobs. Additionally, 87% of millennials said “professional or career growth and development opportunities” were important to them when considering whether to take or keep a job. These numbers far outweighed those reported by their working peers from other generations.

    Ongoing education — from short training to complete degree programs — is one of the best ways to keep employees from feeling stagnant. Companies that offer access to those opportunities will have an edge when recruiting and retaining today’s future-minded workers. These companies will also naturally benefit from having more informed employees.

    “​​We know from listening to our people that education and development is important to them,” J.B. Hunt Senior Vice President of People Jessica Brooks said. “When we invest in that development, we are able to contribute to a more engaged employee base. We view this as a win/win, where we are empowering innovation and career development while influencing retention as well. We know all of these factors make us a much stronger company.”

    Within the logistics industry, organizations can consider offering tuition assistance benefits for advanced education programs — like the University of Arkansas’ master’s degree in supply chain management — to keep employees engaged and growing.

    “Our program is so affordable that the ROI is a no-brainer in most cases,” Dobrzykowski said. “The price and flexibility of our programs are designed for learners to complete their coursework while working. This accelerates learning and the immediate contributions that your employees make to your company.“ 

    Dobrzykowski emphasized that supply chain management students leave each class session with new knowledge they can apply at work, making employees more effective in both the short term and the long term. As technology continues to evolve and the supply chain becomes more complex, having workers armed with these up-to-date skills will be more important than ever.

    “​​Our mission is to create the most efficient transportation network in North America,” Brooks said. “To do that, we need innovative thinkers that can leverage knowledge in the supply chain and all of the areas that support it.”

    J.B. Hunt offers its employees tuition reimbursement for business-related education expenses. Additionally, the company has partnered with specific institutions – including the University of Arkansas – to directly offer debt-free degree programs to its workers. 

    In August 2022, J.B. Hunt and the University of Arkansas announced the naming of the Sam M. Walton College of Business’ supply chain program to the J.B. Hunt Transport Department of Supply Chain Management. 

    “J.B. Hunt and the Walton College have jumpstarted numerous initiatives to study factors such as inclusion, sustainability, thought leadership, education, and innovation,” Brooks said. “With a long-term vision of investing in the future of integrated supply chain management, these efforts focus on ensuring the industry has a modern workforce with professionals that can grow with the industry to meet evolving supply chain challenges, blending logistics expertise with advancing technology.”

    The University of Arkansas is home to the No. 2-ranked graduate supply chain management program in North America (Gartner, 2022). The institution offers a wealth of competitive advantages for organizations and individuals, including:

    • Multifaceted cohorts with learners from different industries within the greater supply chain field, creating a valuable alumni network.
    • Northwest Arkansas location puts learners in proximity to the Fortune One company, 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and over 1,800 CPG firms — all focused on innovation in their supply chains.
    • Flexible learning options like a blended weekend program and 100% online option bring opportunities to students across the world.

    J.B. Hunt employee Kasey Grovey completed the University of Arkansas MS SCM in 2022 with the help of the company’s tuition assistance initiative. 

    “I think it gave me a depth of knowledge in the supply chain industry as a whole,” Grovey said. “I think it will open new doors for me… I think it will allow me, when the time is right, to take advantage of an opportunity because of the knowledge I obtained through this program.”

    If you would like to learn more about the master’s in supply chain management program through an online information session or to schedule a talk, visit the website here. Or, if you’d like to set up an online information session for your company, reach out to KPatterson@walton.uark.edu.  

    The post Education-centered perks set companies up for recruiting, retention success appeared first on FreightWaves.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Bill seeks to eliminate school takeovers by Mass. education department – The Boston Globe

    Bill seeks to eliminate school takeovers by Mass. education department – The Boston Globe

    “It’s always some of the poorest communities with the greatest number of students of color,” said Max Page, Massachusetts Teachers Association president.

    Critics of the bill, though, say it would obliterate valuable leverage in ensuring the state’s most vulnerable students aren’t left to languish in struggling schools. BPS, for example, wouldn’t be reckoning with systemic changes to its transportation and special education systems had the district not been threatened with a takeover, they said.

    “If you’re a parent of a BPS student and you have limited options, wouldn’t you want your superintendent or commissioner to take action to fix your son or daughter’s failing school?” said Ed Lambert, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education executive director.

    Mirror versions of the proposal, which also would end the use of MCAS scores in graduation requirements, have been filed in each legislative chamber.

    Bills to scrap high stakes testing are not new to Beacon Hill, but the Thrive Act stands out from previous legislation for making state receiverships a target. With Governor Maura Healey now in office, bill supporters say they see an opening, since she signaled a willingness to rethink the system while on the campaign trail.

    Thousands of bills are filed each session, a small percentage of which ultimately prevail. But supporters feel hopeful.

    “I think with the new administration, it’s a little more accepting. This is the time when we can get it through,” said Rep. James Hawkins, an Attleboro Democrat and lead sponsor of the House bill.

    Here’s what you need to know:

    Local control goes back to the districts

    The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has had the power to take over local schools and districts since 2010.

    Today, three districts remain under receivership: Lawrence, Holyoke, and Southbridge.

    Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley served as the receiver for six years over Lawrence Public Schools. Lawrence initially was looked to as a national example for successful turnaround.

    But state intervention has not led to sustained improvements in Lawrence or other districts, a 2022 Globe analysis found. Instead, for the districts it had taken over, the state failed to meet nearly all of its goals or make improvements on the MCAS, college attendance, or absenteeism.

    The Thrive Act would require each district to resume local control within one year of the bill becoming law, but they would get state help in the transition.

    Jonathan Guzman, a Lawrence School Committee member, was in high school when the state took over in 2011. He and his colleagues serve in an advisory role to a state receivership board, but the board may rebuff their guidance, Guzman said.

    “It’s been 11 years and the city of Lawrence is under receivership still, and we’re still failing. Who is overseeing DESE on their failure?” he said.

    Improvement matters as much as achievement

    Moving forward, the state would have no power to take over districts writ-large, effectively eliminating the threat still looming over BPS.

    That would give the district “breathing room” to focus on locally-driven school improvement strategies, such as community hub schools, said Boston Teachers Union President Jessica Tang.

    The state would continue to identify its lowest performing schools (as required by federal law), but student growth would be given as much weight as achievement.

    Any school showing “forward motion” could not be identified as low-performing, said Hawkins’ legislative director, Tara Major.

    By eliminating receiverships, the Thrive Act also rids superintendents of the power to work outside teachers union contracts. For example, under current law, receivership allows a superintendent to change staffing, school hours, and compensation.

    Union leaders argue the change would reduce turnover in high-needs schools and districts.

    Lambert disagreed, saying there is “never a good time to take away tools that can benefit students.”

    Coursework over MCAS scores

    Under the Thrive Act, MCAS testing would continue, but scores would no longer be used as a graduation requirement. Instead, diplomas would be issued to any student who demonstrates skill “mastery” by “satisfactorily completing coursework.”

    Supporters say the change would remove a barrier to economic opportunity faced by those who leave high school with a certificate of attendance, rather than a diploma — an outcome most often affecting students of color, from low-income households or with disabilities.

    What mastery looks like would be left up to each of the state’s more than 300 school districts, according to the bill.

    Mary Tamer, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, said such a move would “completely diminish” the value of a Massachusetts diploma.

    New commission to study alternatives

    The Thrive Act would create a new 24-member commission to study a “more authentic and accurate system for assessing students, schools, and school districts.”

    Members of the commission would include legislative representatives, educator groups, and advocacy organizations. The group would be required to consider other measurements than standardized test scores, including projects and portfolios.

    Families want to be involved in improving their children’s schools, but the current system is “arbitrary and unwelcoming,” especially for caregivers struggling to provide basic needs, said Vatsady Sivongxay, the executive director for the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, one of the groups given a seat on the proposed commission.

    Domingo Morel, author of the 2018 book, “Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy,” called the Thrive Act the most “comprehensive” and “inclusive” turnaround legislation he’s seen.

    “To recognize the local community as a strength rather than a hindrance or an obstacle is a step in the right direction,” he said.

    Mandy McLaren can be reached at mandy.mclaren@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @mandy_mclaren.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Ex-prisoner fought for education behind bars

    Ex-prisoner fought for education behind bars

    Sandra Brown walked gingerly down a walkway to the side door of Decatur Correctional Center.

    She wore jeans and a hooded sweatshirt that said “The Reclamation Project,” and her hair was styled into a thick, high frohawk. Brown is tall, and moves with grace and elegance, so her hairstyle only added to her regal demeanor.

    It had been 21 years since she first walked into an Illinois prison and five months since she walked out.

    Correctional staff gathered at the security station to greet Brown as she and her group went through the slow, procedural process of checking into a prison. She was there with a film crew to lead a discussion with prisoners about the links between gender-based violence and incarceration. One by one, IDs were logged, and bags and audiovisual equipment examined.

    As she waited on a wooden bench for the process to finish, a guard at the desk motioned quietly to Brown to come back over. She walked over and bent down to the small gap in the partition so she could hear the guard.

    “Breathe,” Brown said the officer told her.

    Brown, who had been cautioned about how unsettling a return to prison can be, sat back on the bench and raised her arm. Her hand held the slightest tremor.

    “But I think it’s more from excitement,” she said with a smile, feeling relieved. “Not so much anxiety.”

    While visiting Logan Correctional Facility on June 8, 2022, Sandra talks with Sherrin Fitzer, a prison employee who proctored Brown’s exams while she was incarcerated at the facility. Without Fitzer’s advocacy, Sandra said, she would not have been able to complete her studies. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Working with the Women’s Justice Institute, Sandra leads a discussion with incarcerated women at Decatur Correctional Center on June 8, 2022. Many of the women shared personal experiences with domestic violence after watching the documentary, “And So I Stayed,” a film about domestic abuse survivors who end up in the legal system. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown, against huge odds, earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and started a Ph.D. program while she was locked up in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The staff, both high-ranking and front-line guards, knew her and were genuinely happy to see her.

    Since her release from prison in January, Brown has become a full-time education advocate, joining a number of formerly incarcerated women working to reform conditions both inside and outside of prison. They are working in government and running housing nonprofits and partnering with probation departments to provide more effective social services.

    Brown, a senior adviser at the Women’s Justice Institute, is doing her work at a critical time. Key federal funding that was stripped from prison education in 1994 will be restored next year. In October an 80-page task force report pointing out critical gaps in education in Illinois prisons was released.

    The Tribune has followed Brown since her release, as she settled into life outside of prison, where she has also continued writing and performing poetry. She has moved to Los Angeles to live with her husband and travels regularly to Las Vegas to reconnect with her son, whom she left behind when he was just 8 years old.

    Sandra leaves the Logan Correctional Center after talking with incarcerated women on June 8, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Tough on crime

    Brown, now 50, entered prison in March 2001 after she was convicted of murder for shooting the mother of her brother’s child.

    Brown disputes some facts of the case that are part of the court record. But she does not challenge that she bears responsibility.

    “I am always going to be sorry this happened,” Brown said in 2021, before she was released. “I am always going to be sorry.”

    Brown began her sentence at a time when the Illinois female prison population was at its highest and six years after Congress passed the 1994 crime bill, which has since been widely criticized for creating harsh sentencing penalties that contributed to mass incarceration. The bill also banned use of the federal Pell Grants for prison education programs, which experts and advocates say stripped educational access for tens of thousands of prisoners.

    And there were other barriers for what programming remained. Technology was exploding outside prison, but inside it was — and remains — largely unavailable. Some prisons required those serving long sentences to wait the longest for programming spots, effectively barring people like Brown. Programming for the female population also lagged behind the much larger male population.

    After being incarcerated for 22 years, Sandra waits for her husband’s arrival as she prepares to leave the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora and start her new life on “the outside” on Jan. 13, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Sandra hugs her husband, Arnold Bass, who brought flowers for her, as she leaves Fox Valley Adult Transition Center on Jan. 13, 2022. Sandra met Arnold through a prisoner correspondence website. The two eventually fell in love through letters and married in 2018 while Sandra was still incarcerated. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Sandra tries on high-heeled shoes her husband brought her in celebration of her leaving the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    A more sweeping problem, experts told the Tribune, is that prisons function largely for punishment not rehabilitation.

    “It’s a system (that) for 200 years has been more about punishment than it is about building opportunity,” said Rebecca Ginsburg, associate professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It is built into the fiber.”

    By the early 2000s, higher educational opportunities had all but disappeared, except for a few outliers, Ginsburg said.

    “When you read articles it sounds like such an era of despair,” Ginsburg said. “Students will talk (about) what it was like for them when the programs just (got) sucked away. It was awful, the environment at that time … and the loss of hope.”

    Brown has described, in her writings, about how that hopelessness washed over her as soon as she walked into prison and was handed tattered and ill-fitting clothes. She felt her identity strip away when she looked at her ID and saw the word “INMATE” in large type totally eclipse her name at the bottom, Sandra Brown.

    Sandra shows her inmate identification card on April 22, 2021. She referred to it as “identicide” because it lists the word “inmate” first and her name second. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown, who had wanted to be a teacher, tried to make the best of it. She grabbed any available class. She once signed up to work as a teaching assistant for a class she couldn’t take, she recalled. She continued to serve as a TA in other classes, helping countless women, some of whom wrote to court on her behalf, describing her as a model to them.

    Eventually, she decided that she’d have to look outside the prison if she was to get the education she had dreamed of. Brown researched college guidebooks in the library to find programs that offered correspondence options and wrote letters to find out whether they’d work with someone who could only hand write assignments.

    Once she found programs willing to work with her, Brown tucked away cash from her work as a prison seamstress. She even volunteered to clean showers so she could collect used soap chips and save more money. Brown also scoured college guide books for scholarship opportunities.

    Once enrolled, she found prison staff members and officials who were willing to help. She saved $263 and bought a typewriter she named “Bessie” in honor of her grandmother, who farmed in Mississippi and is a model of strength to her, to make her assignments easier.

    Sandra displays her second “Bessie” typewriter in her dorm room at Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora on April 22, 2021. Sandra took one class at a time, handwriting or typing her papers and assignments on Bessie to earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown wants people to know this part of her story because, for one, it was critical to her success. And as someone who feels judged and defined by others, she wants to be sure that the efforts of prison employees to help are recognized.

    “Once in a while we found people who genuinely cared about the work they do behind the walls,” Brown said. “I was one of the fortunate ones who did.”

    It was these employees who proctored her exams and sought book donations for Brown and approved the mailings so her correspondence work could get out the door. When she had trouble ordering replacement typewriter ribbons, it was a prison official who made sure the order was filled so Brown would still be able to use Bessie to complete her coursework.

    It would take 11 years, but Brown earned two degrees: a bachelor’s in specialized studies, with an emphasis in literature, from Ohio University in 2012 and a master’s of arts in humanities from California State University at Dominguez Hills.

    Before leaving, she started a Ph.D. program at California Coast University.

    Sandra returns to her dorm room to do homework for her Ph.D. program after Thanksgiving dinner at the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora on Nov. 25, 2021. Those who watched Brown complete her education remember her as poised and driven, having “a hustle on a whole ‘nother level,” as one said. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown said this educational journey — with Shakespeare and Nikki Giovanni and Frederick Douglass along the way — helped her confront how she wound up in prison. But those years and studies also helped her examine what so many women in prison experience, histories of domestic abuse, sexual assault, depression and PTSD.

    “It is the way outside of yourself,” Brown said of her studies. “The way to understand what happened to you in the broader context. … The humanities teaches a person who is really engaged in it who they are, who they want to be and why it matters.”

    Early years, struggles

    Brown grew up on the West Side in Austin, one of four siblings.

    Brown worked as a bus aide in Chicago Public Schools and as a classroom aide at charter schools, according to her filing with the court. She finished her high school education. She married and had a son.

    But her life was filled with struggle too, according to interviews with the Tribune as well as court filings on her behalf by friends and family members. This included suicide attempts, homelessness at a young age, abuse by domestic partners, her own substance abuse and financial struggles.

    Sandra hugs Stephanie Bonds, center, and Mishunda Davis,right, as she visits the Logan Correctional Center, where she spent some of her 22-year sentence. Sandra visited the women at the facility, working with the Women’s Justice Institute, to show a film about domestic abuse, violence and incarceration. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    In 1990, when she was 18 and pregnant, Brown was the victim of a serial rapist, who dragged her into an abandoned building in Chicago and violently assaulted her. Her assailant was caught.

    Brown now says the violence she suffered played a role what happened in January 2000, when she fought with and then fatally shot the mother of her brother’s child, in a store parking lot in a Chicago suburb.

    Brown acknowledges she fought with the woman, Tiffany Washington, 20, in the parking lot over the care and visitation of the baby, whom Brown said she had helped care for and raise.

    In court filings for clemency and public statements about the shooting since then, Brown has described acting in self-defense.

    But in court documents Cook County prosecutors described Brown as the aggressor who was looking for Washington and confronted her, first striking Washington over the head with a handgun and then discharging the gun.

    A Polaroid of Sandra, showing her around age 35 and taken while she was in the Logan Correctional Center, is kept on the fridge in her home in Los Angeles. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown said her prosecution was a tense, difficult process that involved threats on her family and, she claims, pressure on her to take a plea deal or risk a longer prison sentence.

    Brown eventually entered a plea of guilty to first-degree murder, but she maintains she never got a chance to argue her side of the story, something she and advocates for incarcerated women say is common.

    Brown also believes that what she did that day was connected to years of suffering and trauma, “grief I never even realized was grief until after I got inside and got a little healing here and there.”

    Sandra recounts the altercation that left her brother’s girlfriend, Tiffany Washington, dead of a gunshot wound and Brown in the Illinois prison system for 22 years on April 27, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Reached by the Tribune, Washington’s aunt, Diane Lewis, said she she still carries trauma too, some 20 years later. She was there to help decide to take her niece off a breathing machine and then raised her great-niece.

    Today, her great-niece lives downstate and is thriving, studying nursing and raising her own children, which gives Lewis great comfort. As for Brown, Lewis said hopes her rehabilitation is genuine.

    “I am at place, I don’t have any animosity against her,” she said of Brown. “That is good if she is trying to help other women. (The murder) is the past. She has to live with that. I can’t judge. That is for God to do.”

    Four months after her release, Brown sat in the lobby of a Hyde Park hotel.

    Minutes earlier, inside her room, Brown’s Zoom link and Wi-Fi had failed.

    With barely any time to spare, she relocated to the lobby to a desktop computer. Pop music piped overhead, guests’ luggage rattled over the hard floors, and a hotel maintenance worker mopped nearby as Brown turned on the computer, found her link and looked directly into the monitor’s camera.

    “I’ve been having some technical difficulties,” she said in a steady, even voice to online attendees there to learn more about prison education. “But I am honored to be here.”

    After a stressful day dealing with technology issues before her virtual presentation, Sandra finally connects with the Prison Neighborhood Arts Project using a computer in a hotel lobby in Chicago to share her thoughts on education in prison. “I’ve been having some technical difficulties,” she said in a steady, even voice to online attendees. “But I am honored to be here.” (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Her voice gained in both strength and volume as she continued, sharing her own struggles to get educated, not to mention policy recommendations she has researched for the Women’s Justice Institute, who hired her when she was still incarcerated in IDOC.

    Restore accredited college programming in Illinois prisons. Stop making prisoners who are serving the longest sentences wait at the back of the line. Increase access to grants, work study and scholarships to offset any costs. Set up a formal way for incarcerated people to find out about what programming and financial aid information is available. Create a monthly stipend for enrolled students, like other states do.

    There needs to be more dedicated space for study inside prisons, as well as access to technology, she continued. What about a housing unit set aside for those enrolled in education so students can support each other, she offered.

    Brown then shared the story about the showers and how she had collected other people’s leftover soap as a way to save money for her own college tuition.

    “No woman should have to make that kind of choice in environments designed allegedly to help her make better choices,” she said.

    After Brown finished, she let out a deep breath.

    “Oh, my God,” she said. “Inside, I feel like a total wreck.”

    Sandra exhales after her virtual presentation is over for the Prison Neighborhood Arts Project on April 2, 2022, in Chicago. “Oh, my God,” she said. “Inside, I feel like a total wreck.” (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Those who watched Brown complete her education remember her as poised and driven, having “a hustle on a whole ‘nother level,” as one said.

    Maggie Burke, who formerly served as coordinator of Women and Family Services for IDOC and is the official who stepped in to help secure typewriter ribbon, saw this as well, saying Brown never stopped advocating for herself.

    “What I found remarkable about her was that even after spending so much time in prison and being told ‘no’ so many times on so many things, she continued to have this bright light, this passion, this desire to learn and keep going forward,” said Burke.

    Somebody’s neighbor

    Even though Brown is an outlier, she and others still wonder about how many others would have taken advantage of programming or support, if it was there.

    Ginsburg, who served on the Illinois task force, estimates that fewer than 5% of Illinois prisoners have access to programming, including credited courses, vocational training or the kind of higher education degrees that Brown pursued.

    Sandra hugs an attendee after performing at the Women’s Justice Institute Reclamation Center on June 12, 2022, in Chicago. After the performance, she sold and signed copies of her book of poetry called “Odyssey in Progress,” which she wrote while incarcerated. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    But the estimate of how many have access is likely an undercount, task force members said. It is based on incomplete data and a lack of detailed information from IDOC, which led to the No. 1 recommendation in the task force’s October report: Formalize a commission immediately to study higher education and find out where and why programming is lacking.

    Research shows that access to education inside prison decreases the chances a person will commit more crimes once released and increases the chance they will find a job and get paid more, the task force pointed out.

    Instead, while Brown was incarcerated, she watched women come and come back, picking up new convictions and facing further setbacks. Then she saw the daughters of other incarcerated women enter the system too, having suffered from the same problems as their mothers.

    As she prepared for her own release, Brown reflected on this cycle to the Tribune, questioning why the system doesn’t want to interrupt it.

    Sandra prepares to leave the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center, the final part of her 22-year incarceration on Jan. 13, 2022. Sandra said she watched other women leave and come back, picking up new convictions and facing further setbacks. As she prepared for her own release, she reflected on that cycle questioning why the system doesn’t want to interrupt it. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    “We do come back different but the question is how different, different in what way,” she said. “We either learn how to do something that will impact our lives for the better. (Or) we become passive and adopt this idea of fatalism and then we go back, costing taxpayers more money. … Or we leave out of here and learn how to be better criminals. And we’re going to be somebody’s neighbor.”

    Brown now lives in Los Angeles with her husband in a small house with a bird of paradise in her yard and palm trees lining the nearby streets.

    Above the mantle there is a framed diploma of Brown’s master’s of arts in humanities from California State University at Dominguez Hills.

    Brown met her husband in a prison correspondence program, and opted to move to L.A. as soon as she was released. Doing that required permission from the Illinois probation services department, which agreed to transfer Brown’s case to an agent in California. Initially, Brown was put on a 10 p.m. curfew and wore an ankle monitor. She still can’t travel outside California without permission.

    Sandra figures out how to use the self-checkout machine for the first time while at the grocery store with her husband on March 14, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Sandra takes her first bath after having her ankle monitor removed — only her second one after 22 years, at home in Los Angeles on March 14, 2022. “I love soaking … just soaking these last 22 years off of me,” she said. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Brown works mostly from her home office but has been granted permission to travel frequently to Chicago for work. She has become close to her husband’s family and gotten comfortable navigating large shopping malls and groceries and learned to drive.

    One of her great joys has been visits to Las Vegas to see her son, Gregory Dobbs, who was 8, when she went to prison. Today he is married and is raising four girls.

    In April, during her first visit there, the slow guitar groove and longing lyrics of “Tennessee Whiskey” filled the house one afternoon as Dobbs glided around his kitchen, tending to several dishes at once. Steak, ribs in sauce, salty savory greens cooked in broth and simmered in pork, cheesy gooey macaroni, barbecued salmon and corn.

    Nearby, Brown sat at the dining room table, helping one of her granddaughters on her tablet.

    Sandra Brown holds her granddaughter Azariah Dobbs, 2, as her son Gregory Dobbs, 31, cooks at his home in Las Vegas on April 26, 2022. After spending 22 years in the Illinois prison system, this was Brown’s first visit to Las Vegas and only the second time seeing her grandchildren outside prison walls. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    Sandra Brown visits with her grandchildren Sapphire, 11, from left, Azariah, 2, and Kaniyah, 12, on April 27, 2022, at their home in Las Vegas. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    When her son was still in high school, he surprised Brown during one of their phone calls with news that he was leaving Chicago to live with his girlfriend’s family in Las Vegas. He needed to escape Chicago’s violence and stress, he told her.

    Brown understood this. But she begged him to finish his high school education once he resettled.

    Children of people who go to prison are at risk for all sorts of negative outcomes — from higher rates of chronic illness to not succeeding in school. The year Brown was arrested, in fact, Dobbs struggled in the third grade, she recalled.

    And as it turns out, he never finished high school. Dobbs said he pursued his GED, however, and is working a security job at a hospital.

    Sandra Brown walks on Fremont Street in Las Vegas with her son Gregory Dobbs on April 26, 2022. “I couldn’t be prouder of him. What a beautiful family and beautiful home. I’m such a cream puff. I’m trying really hard to keep it together,” she said of the visit. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

    As Dobbs continued cooking, Brown and her granddaughters went upstairs so they could show her their bedrooms.

    Once there, Kaniyah, who was in middle school, breathlessly detailed her sewing hobby and theater and math class.

    She then told Brown that she had big plans for college too. UNLV or Harvard, she thinks — a safe bet and a dream school. If it happens, she will be the second person in Brown’s immediate family to go to college.

    Brown was the first, she said.

    This content was originally published here.

  • The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022 | Edutopia

    The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022 | Edutopia

    This past year didn’t feel normal, exactly, but compared with the last few trips around the sun, well—it sufficed. In 2021, when we sat down to write our annual edition of the research highlights, we were in the throes of postpandemic recovery and wrote about the impact of a grueling year in which burnout and issues of mental and physical health affected educators everywhere.

    We found evidence that sheds new light on the misunderstood power of brain breaks, took a close look at research that finds a surprising—even counterintuitive—rationale for teachers to focus on relationships, and located both the humor and the merit in asking kids to slither like a snake as they learn about the “sss” sound of the letter S.

    Observers sometimes assume that teachers who radiate empathy, kindness, and openness are “soft” and can be taken advantage of by students. But new research shows that when you signal that you care about kids, they’re willing to go the extra mile—giving you the flexibility to assign more challenging school work.

    The researchers determined that “learner-generated highlighting” tended to improve retention of material, but not comprehension. When students were taught proper highlighting techniques by teachers, however—for example, how to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas—they dramatically improved their academic performance. Crucially, “when highlighting is used in conjunction with another learning strategy” like “graphic organizers or post-questions,” its effectiveness soars, the researchers said.

    The need for explicit teaching may be linked to changing reading habits as students graduate from stories and fables to expository texts, which require them to navigate unfamiliar text formats, the researchers note. To bring kids up to speed, show them “examples of appropriate and inappropriate highlighting,” teach them to “highlight content relatively sparingly,” and provide examples of follow-on tactics like summarizing their insights to drive deeper comprehension.

    When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act called for greater inclusion—mandating that students with disabilities receive support in the “least restrictive environment”—one goal was to ensure that educational accommodations didn’t interfere with the students’ social and emotional development in classrooms full of their peers. The law also confronted age-old prejudices and established a binding legal obligation in favor of inclusion.

    Now a new large-scale study appears to put the matter beyond dispute. When researchers tracked nearly 24,000 adolescents who qualified for special education, they discovered that spending a majority of the day—at least 80 percent—in general education classes improved reading scores by a whopping 24 points and math scores by 18 points, compared with scores of their more isolated peers with similar disabilities.

    Representational drawings, such as a simple diagram of a cell, may help students remember factual information, the researchers explain, but they “lack features to make generalizations or inferences based on that information.” Organizational drawings that link concepts with arrows, annotations, and other relational markings give students a clearer sense of the big picture, allow them to visualize how ideas are connected, and provide a method for spotting obvious gaps in their understanding. On tests of higher-order thinking, fifth graders who made organizational drawings outperformed their peers who tried representational drawings by 300 percent.

    A study published in February this year argues for minimalism. Researchers tracked the on-task behavior of K–2 students and concluded that visually ”streamlined” classrooms produced more focused students than “decorated” ones. During short read-alouds about topics like rainbows and plate tectonics, for example, young kids in classrooms free of “charts, posters, and manipulatives” were paying attention at significantly higher rates.

    Classroom decoration can alter academic trajectories, the research suggests, but the task shouldn’t stress teachers out. The rules appear to be relatively straightforward: Hang academically relevant, supportive work on the walls, and avoid the extremes—working within the broad constraints suggested by common sense and moderation.

    Teachers of young students can have a “learning goal” in mind, but true play-based learning should incorporate wonder and exploration, be child-led when possible, and give students “freedom and choice over their actions and play behavior,” the researchers assert. Interrupt the flow of learning only when necessary: gently nudge students who might find activities too hard or too easy, for example. The playful approach improved early math and task-switching skills, compared with more traditional tactics that emphasize the explicit acquisition of skills, researchers concluded.

    To get it right, focus on relationships and ask questions that prompt wonder. “Rich, open-ended conversation is critical,” Christakis told Edutopia in a 2019 interview, and children need time ”to converse with each other playfully, to tell a rambling story to an adult, to listen to high-quality literature and ask meaningful questions.”

    A new study suggests that sound-letter pairs are learned much more effectively when whole-body movements are integrated into lessons. Five- and 6-year-olds in the study spent eight weeks practicing movements for each letter of the alphabet, slithering like a snake as they hissed the sibilant “sss” sound, for example. The researchers found that whole-body movement improved students’ ability to recall letter-sound pairings and doubled their ability to recognize hard-to-learn sounds—such as the difference between the sounds that c makes in cat and sauce—when compared with students who simply wrote and spoke letter-sound pairings at their desks.

    When teaching students foundational concepts, a video lesson equipped with a simple pause button, for example, may allow students to reset cognitively as they reach their attentional limits, a 2022 study concluded. Pause buttons, like rewind buttons, are also crucial for learners who encounter “complex learning materials,” have “low prior knowledge,” or exhibit “low working memory capacities.”

    In the review, researchers explain that students who prefer techniques like reading and rereading material in intense cram sessions are bound to fail. Instead, students should think of learning as a kind of “fitness routine” during which they practice recalling the material from memory and space out their learning sessions over time. Teaching kids to self-quiz or summarize from memory—and then try it again—is the crucial first step in disabusing students of their “false beliefs about learning.”

    The effect sizes are hard to ignore. In a 2015 study, for example, third-grade students who studied a lesson about the sun and then reread the same material scored 53 percent on a follow-up test, the equivalent of a failing grade, while their peers who studied it once and then answered practice questions breezed by with an 87 percent score. And in a 2021 study, middle school students who solved a dozen math problems spread out across three weeks scored 21 percentage points higher on a follow-up math test than students who solved all 12 problems on the same day.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Education Freedom Wins Big in Arizona

    Education Freedom Wins Big in Arizona

    Arizona came closer to the important goal of separating education and state with the defeat of a ballot challenge to a recently adopted school-choice law. In June, the state legislature voted to allow education funding to be used for whatever learning path best suits individual children, not just to support government-run institutions that fail to meet the needs of many students. Opponents pushed an initiative to block expanded education options, but ultimately fell short in their effort to gather signatures. That leaves the instantly popular program free to proceed.

    Arizona first introduced Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) in 2011, originally only for children with special needs, and later expanded to encompass students in failing schools, children of military families, and those who are adopted. The new law makes the ESA program available to essentially all students in the state of Arizona, providing funding for the education of their choice, subject to broad requirements.

    “An ESA consists of 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise been allocated to the school district or charter school for the qualified student (does not include federal or local funding),” notes the Arizona Department of Education. “By accepting an ESA, the student’s parent or guardian is signing a contract agreeing to provide an education that includes at least the following subjects: reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science.”

    At current spending levels, “families would receive over $6,500 per year per child for private school, homeschooling, ‘learning pods,’ tutoring, or any other kinds of educational service that would best fit their students’ needs,” adds the Goldwater Institute, which has long championed ESAs.

    Once made available, the expanded ESA program won immediate support. In August, the online application form warned visitors: “Due to high volume, you may receive an error message.…Please try again later.”

    The tidal wave of applications should be no surprise. Gallup finds that 54 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of K-12 education, and only 28 percent express a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in public schools (33 percent say they have “very little” or “none”).

    These miserable numbers come after years of general decline, but also after growing controversy over the performance of government-controlled educational institutions. Many public schools spectacularly face-planted in response to COVID-19, resulting in serious reading and math losses among students. Disagreement over pandemic policy as well as over interpretations of history and current events have also turned classrooms into political battlegrounds. What families want is often irreconcilable, whether involving public health or curricula, resulting in a sharp partisan split over public schools.

    “The percentage of Republicans having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in public schools fell from 34% in 2020 to 20% in 2021 and 14% today,” Gallup’s Lydia Saad observed in July. “Since 2020, independents’ confidence has declined nine percentage points to 29% and Democrats’ has remained fairly high – currently 43%, versus 48% in 2020.”

    The obvious solution would be to stop forcing people into shared institutions where opposing preferences invariably come into conflict. Instead, parents should be able to educate their kids by their own values, and according to the particular needs of their children. People were nominally able to do that in the past, but only if they paid twice— once through taxation for government institutions they rejected and then, again, for private schools, homeschooling, or other options they actually used. Something has to give to end classroom disputes and encourage some degree of happiness with children’s schooling.

    National polls tracked by the American Federation for Children finds anywhere from 63 percent to 74 percent support for giving “parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.” A poll from February of this year specifically about education savings accounts of the sort adopted by Arizona found 77 percent of respondents supported the idea.

    But even though nobody is compelled to make use of ESAs, and everybody who is satisfied with public schools is free to leave their children in the government-controlled institutions, not everybody is happy with the expanded program. Save Our Schools Arizona, a union-backed group, tried to put a challenge to school choice on the ballot in a replay of a successful tactic from 2018. Voters that year overturned ESA expansion, approving a confusingly worded measure that may have led many of them to vote the opposite of what they intended.

    To get on the ballot, the group needed to gather over 118,000 signatures. But this time, a pro-ESA Decline to Sign effort worked to persuade voters to spurn petitioners. They succeeded; on September 30, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs rejected the anti-choice ballot effort, noting “our office has inspected enough petitions & signatures to confirm that the 118,823 signature minimum will not be met.”

    Arizona families are again free to apply for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, with the deadline extended to October 15 because of the ballot battle.

    The fight for education freedom isn’t over. Hobbs may have rejected the challenge to ESA expansion out of necessity, but she’s the Democratic candidate for governor on a platform including opposition to school choice. Hobbs, who attended private school herself, puts forward an education plan that would restrict charter schools and that also boasts she “continues to oppose the universal expansion of school vouchers. As governor, she will work to roll back universal vouchers.”

    But if she wins election to office (she and Republican Kari Lake are running neck-and-neck), any attempt to roll back ESAs will result in stripping them from thousands of families already enjoying education options. As of September 30, according to the state Department of Education, Arizona families submitted over 12,100 ESA applications for the expanded program. Any reversal will elicit outrage.

    Meanwhile, West Virginia’s Supreme Court just cleared the way for the similar Hope Scholarship program. “The Hope Scholarship Program is an education savings account (ESA) program that will allow parents and families to utilize the state portion of their education funding to tailor an individualized learning experience that works best for them,” according to the office of State Treasurer Riley Moore.

    The fight for separation of education and state isn’t yet won. But advocates scored an important victory in Arizona, another in West Virginia, and have momentum on their side.

    This content was originally published here.

  • A Guide to Rethinking Education After Pandemic

    A Guide to Rethinking Education After Pandemic

    As the pandemic kicked in and much of the world went into lockdown, schools everywhere were forced to adapt. Much of the national media coverage made the result look like a total disaster:. Students everywhere set back; teachers burnt out; and parents at wit’s end. And certainly there have been plenty of challenges for educators during this health crisis.

    But there is another story—a story of rebirth, of opportunity, of hope, of beacons of light.

    During the pandemic, there were those who rose to the occasion—innovators who forged a new path, students who learned more than they knew they could, teachers who felt unbound by convention, administrators who mobilized bureaucracies known for inertia and parents who saw first-hand that another world is possible. There were many individuals and organizations who knew it was a once in a millennium moment to rethink what has been, to experiment with what could be, to create an upgraded education model and a better school experience.

    Michael Horn’s new book, “From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)Creating School for Every Child,” highlights key organizations and individuals who seized the moment—some because they were prepared; some because they were lucky enough to have a quirky vision which suddenly made sense to try during pandemic lockdown; some because they were forced to adapt and had no other choice. From those, Horn sheds light to help others learn a brighter path forward.

    The book is in some sense a guidebook for where to go now with education.

    In short, he suggests that education:

    • shed our fixation with seat time and instead move towards mastery-based learning.
    • rethink grading and assessment, and turn it into meaningful feedback that improves learning and informs strength of character.
    • reimagine the organizational model of teaching – breaking up the role of a single teacher and entrusting it to a team of educators who collaborate and cooperate, and are given the time and process to do so.

    His book, though, is also a call to arms. We must understand that as the pandemic becomes a memory the real threat begins—a threat of increased rigidity. If schools that try to go back to business as usual double down on what wasn’t really working, that’s bound to create further entrenched patterns, ossify bureaucracy and further lock educators into bad practices that should have been shed long ago.

    The book hits at a critical moment for schools. By now most are back to in-person teaching. But not all of the students returned after lockdown. A million or more parents are sticking to homeschooling or colearning or unschooling or otherwise opting out of the traditional system.

    Here are just some of the problems with our school system that became clearer during the pandemic:

    • Time is held as a constant even when each student’s learning is variable.
    • Our assessment and grading systems are sorting students in deeply pernicious ways rather than helping students learn and progress.
    • Teachers are burnt out, fed up, and many are on the verge of leaving the profession.
    • While students had Zoom fatigue like most of us, Parents saw it first hand that listening to teachers deliver content for long periods isn’t a great way to learn.
    • The curriculum largely covers antiquated subjects defined circa 1913, and this curriculum squeezes out learnings bound to be more useful—applicable skills, habits of success, health and wellness.
    • Most educational institutions can’t really define their priorities because there are too many. But they need to.
    • Innovating at schools is no one’s job.

    So as schools rush back, we should take a huge moment to figure out what we’ve learned from the challenges the pandemic foist upon us.

    Where did we innovate? Where did we adapt? Where did we thrive? Where did the pandemic unmask problems that have been long covered up? Where did the pandemic shed light on the challenges that created as the world moves to remote and hybrid work?

    Horn’s prescription is so simple anyone might overlook it. He wants educational organizations to create an “autonomous opportunity unit.”

    What is that? The basic idea is that giving a small team of educational decision makers the capacity to innovate, and giving the autonomy (removing them enough from the main organization so as to not co-opt their thinking and action) is actually the important first catalyst that will make all else possible.

    Once they do that, Horn has some specific ideas for what those innovation teams should do:

    • Switch to mastery-based learning.
    • Stop sorting students by grades and scores, and instead support them on their unique journeys towards mastering concepts and skills. Counterintuitively, this doesn’t mean less assessments – it means using assessments to create better data, and using that data to make better decisions.
    • Create teams of educators who specialize, cooperate, and collaborate. In particular, he thinks that the grading function and the instruction function should be entrusted to two different educators. Someone in a teaching team should be responsible for making sense of all this new data.
    • Give feedback to students that is timely, actionable and constructive–which means fundamentally rethinking grading.
    • Integrate parents and families as a core part of organizational design.
    • Experiment with microschools, hybrid homeschooling, and colearning with learning hubs and pods.

    Horn’s advice is worth a read for anyone interested in the future of education. For those professionals involved in making key decisions about how to move forward from the pandemic, the ideas that will come from the few hours of pouring through the book will be more than worth the sacrifice in this time of overwhelm and stress. Mastering innovation itself is critical in this moment because without innovation, our education system could revert back to the old days. Even before the pandemic, we knew it’s a system that doesn’t work well enough for our children and is far off the mark of preparing them for the future.

    In short, this moment could be the opportunity to create something much better. Or we could end up making everything worse.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Arizona teacher brags about work-around for sex education law in the state so she can talk about gender with little kids

    Arizona teacher brags about work-around for sex education law in the state so she can talk about gender with little kids

    PHOENIX, AZ –Arizona educators are prevented from speaking to students who are below fifth grade about sexual education.

    Despite the law, a second-grade teacher has found a workaround that she has been sharing on TikTok which would allow her and others to get children from kindergarten to fourth grade to announce what gender pronouns they like to use.

    Tweets by libsoftiktok

    Arizona lawmakers recently passed a law that prevents educators from speaking to children that are in kindergarten to fourth grade about sexual education.

    Additionally, the law requires parents the ability to weigh in on any sexual education course that is provided to their children.

    Regardless of the law, Arizona teacher Alex Naomi Parker has allegedly found a way to get passed the law and still speak to young children about sexual identities.

    Parker took her workaround and plastered it all over TikTok so that other liberally-minded teachers can use the same tactic. In the video, she says:

    “Man, there were so many teachers in that guy’s section that said their district won’t allow them to ask children for their pronouns so here’s a little workaround.

    This is an icebreaker I called “Call Me” because I am bad at naming things, that I use with my second graders.”

    Parker goes on to instruct fellow teachers in the way that she gets around the law and speaks to her children about what these little children think their pronouns should be. She said:

    “So we sat in our community circle, and we’re around the circle and it is just ourselves and our introduction sounded like this: my name is Ms. Parker and when you talk about me you can call me she.

    They went around, they did the same thing, and they were (inaudible), but afterward we talked about why that’s important and all my kids go by pronouns of the gender they were assigned at birth.

    This is kind of scary–celebrating solstice? Sounds a little satanic. Watch this Phoenix teacher avoid a recently passed law–>https://t.co/WDSHIDi5dl

    — NotInOurSchools (@nopinkschool) September 13, 2022

    “But one of the little boys has long hair and we talked about how he gets really frustrated when people call him ‘she’ because they see him from behind and think he’s a girl. One of my little girls said that she had shaved her head one year for lice and people kept calling her he and it made her really sad.

    “So, we kind of framed it in that way. You might now know who someone is or what they want to be called by just looking at them. I hope that helps.”

    The Arizona Independent looked for Parker’s teacher profile at the Solano Elementary School where her LinkedIn profile says she works as a teacher mentor.

    However, Parker’s teacher profile is not on the school website which could be because she alleges she has received several death threats after she shared her way to violate Arizona State Law.

    While many have weighed in on the tweet thinking that what Parker has provided is harmless, they are seemingly missing the point.

    If children grow and mature and believe they should be referred to as something else when they are adults, that is on them. Forcing children to speak about how they ‘identify,’ which is in essence what Parker was trying to get them to do, is wrong.

    Liberals have a real issue with complying with policies & laws.https://t.co/hlUSwdvBHp

    — The One & Knowing (@DodgeMyAss) September 13, 2022

    Children, especially at that age, are extremely impressionable and could easily be manipulated into thinking one way and grow to regret what they did when they were younger.

    Instead of forcing an ideology on children, teachers, in general, should be doing nothing more than teaching facts and scientific theories, not progressive liberal mindsets.

    If a child grows up and believes they are a different gender, then they at least have formulated the opinion themselves as opposed to thinking it is the ‘cool’ thing to do to fit in.

    CA school districts change curriculum to push trans-ideology, hide “gender” from parents, discuss “semen”

    LOS ANGELES, CA – According to reports, one of the largest school districts in the state of California is allegedly teaching a curriculum promoting gender identity, including transgender and non-binary genders in K-12 school children.

    Public documents show that the Human Relations, Diversity, and Equity department at Los Angeles Unified School District is using presentations, training programs, and clubs to instruct K-12 students on gender identity, which include classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored event calendars.

    These types of classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored events first appeared during the 202-2021 academic school year.

    One example is when the district hosted a virtual conference featuring a panel of 7th graders who identified as LGBT.

    Documents indicate that at that event, the panel of students were “advising” parents on what LGBT middle schools “want you to know.” The conference allegedly included a presentation encouraging student athletes who may identify as LGBT to “come out.”

    Another event was a workshop on “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” which documents show said, “history has a disturbing way of elevating certain voices while silencing others.”

    The presentation allegedly focused on raising awareness for the transgender community to achieve “trans justice.”

    Another event, according to documents, the “Standing with LGBTQ+ Students, Staff and Families,” run by school administrators, taught local social justice engagement and gave out free gender-affirming clothing.
    The districts “queer and trans-affirming” school calendar, titled “Queer all School Year,” features different pride events that take place each month, such as “Standing with LGBTQ Students” conference.

    Another event, the “Queering Culture & Race,” allegedly promoted the abandonment of gendered expressions such as “boys and girls.” The presentation documents for that event stated:

    “The black community often holds rigid and traditional views of sexual orientation and gender expression. Black LGBTQ youth experience homophobia and transphobia from their familial communities.”

    Teachers in the district have been instructed to address a student by their chosen name and pronouns, and are allegedly not permitted to alert the parents of the student if they change.

    Documents show that students were also told they can use any pronouns, including “tree” or “ze.”

    Documents state that in as an “elimination of barriers,” the school has established a “gender neutral dress code and school uniform policy.”

    More than 600,000 students attend the K-12 education in the school district that includes more than 115 schools and campuses, making it the second largest school district in the nation.

    Los Angeles is not the only California school district adding gender identity to the curriculum.

    According to a report by Christopher F. Rufo with City Journal, San Diego public schools want to “overthrow heteronormativity and promote genderqueer, non-binary, pansexual, and two-spirit” identities.

    Rufo states that publicly accessible documents from San Diego Unified showcase the district’s new “ideology.” According to the district, the gender binary has created an unjust society that disrupts “heterosexual and cisgender privilege.”

    San Diego Unified school district has allegedly created a program of gender-identity instruction with, as Rufo states:

    “The explicit goal of undermining the traditional conception of sex and promoting a new set of boutique sexual identities, such as ‘transgender, ‘genderqueer,’ ‘non-binary,’ ‘pansexual,’ ‘asexual,’ and ‘two-spirit,’ that promise to disrupt the oppressive system of heteronormativity.”

    In another document published by San Diego Unified, administrators reportedly celebrated “non-binary identities,” arguing that there just be a “linguistic revolution to move beyond gender binaries.”

    The district adopted the term “Latinx,” which “makes room for people who are trans, queer, agender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.” According to Rufo:

    “If the case against queer theory as an academic discipline is strong, the case against queer theory as K-12 pedagogy is even stronger. The goal of dismantling heteronormativity is nonsensical and destructive to the basic building blocks of society.”

    RedState went into more details about the curriculum:

    Intimacy, evidently, is critical. Consequently, one of the district’s “Key Messages for Discussion” for students is that “sex can be fun and meaningful in a healthy relationship.” One group conversation asks, “What does ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive sex ed’ mean to you?”

    And then:

    Presentation:

    • Safe Oral Sex

    • Safer Vaginal Sex

    • Safer Anal Sex

    Two sexual diagrams are shown — those of “reproductive anatomy of people with a penis” and “reproductive anatomy of people with a vulva.”

    From there, the training — complete with practice exercises — serves sample questions from hypothetical kids: “Is it okay to masturbate?” “How do gay people have sex?”

    Also:

    What does semen taste like?

    • What might be the intent of the question?

    • What knowledge do they need to make healthy choices?

    • How could you make your response inclusive of all students?

    • How would you respond?

    —

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    The post Arizona teacher brags about work-around for sex education law in the state so she can talk about gender with little kids appeared first on Law Enforcement Today.

    This content was originally published here.

  • New Leadership Continues the Wei LAB Legacy | Diverse: Issues In Higher Education

    New Leadership Continues the Wei LAB Legacy | Diverse: Issues In Higher Education

    Dr. Brian A. Burt, director and chief research scientist at the Wei LAB.Dr. Brian A. Burt, director and chief research scientist at the Wei LAB.Twelve years after its creation, Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB) at the University of Wisconsin—Madison has a new director: Dr. Brian A. Burt.

    Burt, a 2019 Diverse Emerging Scholar and associate professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (UW—Madison), was previously assistant director and research scientist at the Wei LAB. He takes the reins from founder Dr. Jerlando F. L. Jackson, who is now the dean of Michigan State University’s College of Education.

    Jackson and his work at the Wei LAB were early inspirations for Burt. They first met at an all-day symposium focusing on Black scholars, while Burt was still pursuing his doctorate.

    “Dr. Jackson was laying out the blueprint of what the Wei LAB was, what intervention it does, why it’s important and necessary, how centers and labs have the capacity to elevate the work you do and disseminate the work,” said Burt. He took diligent notes that day, never knowing that later he would be leading the lab himself.

    The Wei LAB was founded in 2010 as a research unit dedicated to advancing the mission of UW—Madison’s Office of Diversity and Climate. Over the next decade, the lab expanded to partner with other offices and organizations, both internal and external, that focus on Black students, LGBTQ+ campus climate assessments, urban education centers, and more. The lab won multiple grants and shared their work across state and country borders.

    As the new director, Burt said he is keen to continue and increase these collaborations. Building new partnerships and funding opportunities will be a key feature in Burt’s first year as the Wei LAB director. The Wei LAB, Burt said, is a storyteller for those with marginalized voices, and Burt has plans to amplify those stories by turning research into tangible practices for education at all levels.

    “We’re going to be much more streamlined in having a research arm and a practice intervention arm. We’ll be able to offer workshops and other kinds of resources for people,” said Burt. “I want the Wei LAB to be a go-to place where people can reach out if they need resources or want to gain experience with resource preparation. That’s the vision that I have.”

    Dr. Brian A. Burt and researchers at the Wei LAB.Dr. Brian A. Burt and researchers at the Wei LAB.Burt is also eager to make sure the Wei LAB remains an open and exciting place for undergraduate, post-doc and graduate students alike to find a home. He recalled how a research community helped him find success when he was contemplating dropping out of his master’s program at the University of Maryland in College Park.

    “My mentor, Dr. Sharon Fries-Britt, invited me to join her primarily doctoral research team,” said Burt. “It was exactly what I needed.”

    Fries-Britt’s research in STEM influenced not only Burt’s field of study but his understanding that research can be a tool for retention. With the support of mentors like Fries-Britt, Burt began to see research as a way to build confidence and a culture of community.

    Another mentor Burt counts as an influence is Dr. Chance W.  Lewis, the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education and director of the Urban Education Collaborative at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The Collaborative is one of many Wei LAB partners.

    “It’s a proud moment for me. Seeing Brian Burt as a doctoral student to what he does now, I get to see how he’s mentoring the next generation,” said Lewis. “In the Wei LAB, he has the ability to provide opportunities for many students that will prepare them for their careers here after.”

    Lewis said that Burt is not only an excellent researcher and writer, but he also has a knack for earning funding. Burt has been able to garner millions for his research, and he credits his success to understanding how to break down a big research idea into smaller sections for study.

    “You’ve got to find that sweet spot of this great idea,” said Burt. “What’s the idea you’re really passionate about, curious about, committed to, and then what are the small units of it that can break it down into multiple studies? I think about it like goal setting—what’s the goal and what are the small pieces of the goal? I’m very structured like that.”

    Burt said he plans to continue his research on high achieving Black men in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while folding in new elements like art and medicine, both of which have gained particular relevance during the pandemic and its increasing toll on physical and mental health.

    Music in particular has an important place in Burt’s life. He was once a classical pianist, and still returns to the piano in times of great stress. He said he used to watch the Boston Pops every Sunday, dreaming of one day becoming a famous orchestral conductor.

    “I realized, I don’t have an orchestral symphony, but I kind of do—my team is my symphony,” said Burt. “I’m still conducting, and the Wei LAB is the world-renowned orchestra.”

    Liann Herder can be reached at lherder@diverseeducation.com.

    This content was originally published here.

  • Lawsuit: Parents Say Special Education Cases Are Rigged Against Them – Disability Scoop

    Lawsuit: Parents Say Special Education Cases Are Rigged Against Them – Disability Scoop

    Virginia’s courts routinely rule against parents of students with disabilities who sue to ensure their children are receiving an appropriate education, according to a class action lawsuit filed in federal court last week.

    The suit names the Fairfax County Public Schools in northern Virginia as well as the state department of education, which trains and certifies hearing officers to review parent complaints. The suit alleges the state maintains a list of “school-friendly hearing officers” who are more likely to rule against families that challenge district decisions about services for their children.

    Trevor and Vivian Chaplick, parents of a Fairfax student with autism, ADHD and other “profound” disabilities, along with a nonprofit they’ve created, filed the suit on behalf of all students in the state who participated in due process proceedings since 2010. Virginia state Superintendent Jillian Balow and Fairfax schools Superintendent Michelle Reid — last year’s national superintendent of the year — are also named as defendants.

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    “Due process is a parent’s recourse if something goes wrong,” said Callie Oettinger, a Fairfax parent who runs a watchdog website documenting special education complaints in the district. “What happens is they lawyer up and they’ll spend millions fighting you.”

    The lawsuit comes as parents across the state are seeking compensatory — or make-up — services due to school closures during the pandemic. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, districts are required to evaluate and provide services to students if educators failed to follow a child’s individualized education program, or IEP. But the lawsuit claims Virginia’s system was rigged against parents long before the pandemic.

    According to the complaint, hearing officers ruled in favor of northern Virginia families only three out of 395 times between 2010 and 2021. Statewide, there were just 13 out of 847 cases in which hearing officers found districts at fault over that same 11-year period, according to documents the Chaplicks obtained through public records requests.

    Twenty-two of the hearing officers, who act as judges in such cases, have “been virtually unchanged over the last two decades, which represents two generations of disabled children seeking a better education under the IDEA,” the complaint said. “Despite (or because of) the incredibly one-sided outcomes from these hearing officers, the VDOE continued to recertify these same 22 hearing officers.”

    Because of their son’s severe needs and aggressive behavior, the Chaplinks asked the district to place their son in a residential school. The district refused, and when the parents prepared to file for due process, a district social worker told them they would lose. They thought the staff member was exaggerating — that is, until they collected the data.

    Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said officials would not comment on pending litigation.

    “The department is committed to ensuring that students with disabilities receive all services and supports that they are entitled to under federal and state law,” he said.

    Julie Moult, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax district, said officials had not been served with the lawsuit and were not able to comment.

    Reid, who is new to Fairfax this year, previously served as superintendent of the Northshore School District near Seattle, the first in the nation to close a school because of COVID. The district, with about 23,000 students, is a fraction of the size of Fairfax, which has an enrollment of roughly 180,000.

    ‘That’s how hard it is’

    The case is the latest probe into whether Fairfax — one of the nation’s largest districts — is denying the civil rights of students with disabilities. In January 2021, in the final days of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the district’s handling of services for students with disabilities during school closures.

    Kimberly Richie, who led the civil rights division at the time, took action after seeing news reports of schools opening for child care, at the parents’ cost — but not for students with IEPs. Now Richie is a deputy superintendent at the Virginia education department, whose division includes special education. Oettinger sees that as a good sign.

    “These were people who were trying to actually do something before they left office,” she said.

    Prior to the pandemic, parents sued the district for its use of physical restraint and seclusion of students with disabilities. In December 2021, it reached an agreement with the plaintiffs and disability rights organizations to ban the practice.

    The new lawsuit includes the names and decisions of hearing officers, in northern Virginia and statewide. One is Frank Aschmann, an Alexandria, Va., attorney who has ruled in favor of parents in one out of 62 cases over a 20-year period.

    Debra Tisler was one of those 61 parents he ruled against. With a severely dyslexic son, she began asking the Fairfax district to evaluate him in fourth grade, but she said they kept putting her off for a year — even though she had been a special education teacher in the district from 1997 to 2014.

    “That’s how hard it is,” she said, referring to efforts to get her son the literacy instruction that experts recommended. She taught him herself, but had to hire private speech and language tutors. “By 6th grade, he had hit a complete wall.”

    She filed for due process in 2019, arguing that the district would not give her access to her son’s educational records so she could prepare a case and that they had failed to provide him with an adequate literacy program.

    Aschmann ruled against the family on multiple points, including refusing to compel the district to turn over records and stating that the student’s struggles in his Spanish class did not constitute evidence of the district’s failure to implement his IEP.

    Aschmann did not return a call seeking comment.

    “They are ruining children’s lives,” said Tisler, who now volunteers as an advocate for other families and serves as an expert witness in due process hearings. “All they care about is how much money they get.”

    In January 2020, an invoice shows Fairfax paid Aschmann $12,400 for the 99 hours he spent on Tisler’s son’s case. Parents who lose to their district, she said, can file in state or federal court. States tend to transfer the cases to federal courts, but most families, she said, don’t have the financial means to pursue cases that far.

    “You just get bounced around,” she said.

    This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America.

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    This content was originally published here.

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