Carmen Fariña, the chancellor of New York City Schools, announced Thursday that she would be resigning in 2018, leaving behind a school system fundamentally changed from where it stood when her tenure began four years ago.
Fariña, 74, plans to leave her job as head of the 1.1 million-student school system, the largest in the country, prior to the end of the school year.
“I took the job with a firm belief in excellence for every student, in the dignity and joyfulness of the teaching profession, and in the importance of trusting relationships where collaboration is the driving force,” Fariña wrote in a letter to staff Thursday. “These are the beliefs that I have built over five decades as a New York City educator, and they have been at the heart of the work we have done together for the past four years.”
A nationwide search for her successor is already underway, with plans to hire a successor within months, said Mayor Bill de Blasio. Under state law, the city’s mayor controls the schools.
Who de Blasio has in mind for his next chancellor isn’t yet clear, but school leadership experts say the job requires a hard-to-find combination of someone with credibility as an educator and the acumen to navigate the rough-and-tumble politics of New York City…
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More midstate public schools are surpassing expectations for student progress.
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement released its “Beating the Odds” report Thursday, and many Middle Georgia districts had additional schools on this year’s list.
The list details which schools in each district performed better than statistically anticipated on the College and Career Ready Performance Index, which is based on graduation rates, benchmark test scores and other data. Also considered are student characteristics such as race/ethnicity, enrollment, turnover rate, grade cluster and percentage of the population that’s disabled, economically disadvantaged and English language learners.
The report shows how similar schools compare in performance, and about 40 percent of schools “beat the odds” each year, according to the student achievement office. This metric is another way to “identify areas of opportunity” for schools, and it can be used as a “second look” for schools that don’t meet CCRPI targets, Houston Superintendent Mark Scott said.
Indiana University Northwest’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs invites the campus and community to observances of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month. All events are free and open to the public.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration
January 18, 2018
In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, IU Northwest welcomes Stephon Ferguson. His presentation takes place at 6 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 18 in the Theater at the Arts & Sciences Building.
For the past 12 years, Ferguson has traveled the globe performing as King and educating people about his philosophy of love, peace, justice, and unity to bring about positive change. Ferguson works with the National Park Service at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia, where he gives historical presentations and Dr. King re-enactments. He is certified by The King Center, Emory University, and the University of Rhode Island to teach the Kingian Nonviolence Curriculum.
Black History Month Theatrical Production: “The Movement: 50 Years of Love and Struggle in America,”
February 8, 2018
“The Movement: 50 Years of Love and Struggle in America,” a multifaceted journey through the ever-changing face of the African American experience, takes place at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 8 in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium, located in the Savannah Center.
A visual chronicle highlighting many of the political, social, cultural markers of the more than 50 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, this theatrical production features Emmy Award winning actor Ron Jones playing multiple characters. An open discussion with the audience follows the performance.
The Wiz
February 22 – 25, 2018
The Wiz, a production written by William Brown and Charlie Smalls; directed by Mark Spencer; and choreographed by Asia Dickens, is set for 7:30 p.m., February 22, 23 and 24 and 2:30 p.m., Sunday, February 25 at the Theater at the Arts & Sciences building.
After celebrating the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East with the Munchkins, Dorothy departs for the Emerald City with a live yellow brick road. The words are jive, the songs upbeat. She encounters a hip Scarecrow who wants to join her because he has a feeling he isn’t going anywhere; an uptight Tin Man who needs Dorothy’s help to hang loose again, and a mama’s-boy Lion who has lost faith in the psychiatric help he’s been getting from an owl. Together they will seek help from the great and powerful Oz.
Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace
February 27, 2018
A film screening of the documentary Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace with film director Rich Gentile, takes place at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 27 in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium, located in the Savannah Center.
Imagine the Deep South, Southeastern Conference (SEC) Basketball, the 1960s. Now imagine being the first African American to play in that setting. And now, imagine no university or coaching support between you and the noisy, venomous crowds, waving confederate flags and spewing racial epithets—demonstrating their displeasure that you are even stepping onto the court.
That’s the line Perry Wallace crossed in 1966 and the challenge he faced—alone—with courage, talent, tenacity, and faith. He ultimately prevailed and our country, along with collegiate sports, took another long-overdue step forward, thanks to Perry. Perry’s crusade continued after playing for Vanderbilt University, and today, 50 years later, his remarkable story is finally being told.
This is not just the story of a trailblazing athlete, but of civil rights, race in America, a campus in transition during the tumultuous ’60s, the mental toll of pioneering, decades of ostracism, and eventual reconciliation and healing.
More events are being planned for Black History Month. For updates, please visit iun.edu/diversity.
For more information, contact Tierra Jackson at jacksoti@iun.edu or (219) 980-6596.
About Indiana University Northwest
One of eight campuses of Indiana University, IU Northwest is located in metropolitan Northwest Indiana, approximately 30 miles southeast of Chicago and 10 miles from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The campus has a diverse student population of approximately 4,000 degree-seeking students and 1,500 dual-degree-seeking students. The campus offers Associate, Baccalaureate and Master’s degrees in a variety of un- dergraduate, graduate and pre-professional degree options available from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health and Human Services, the School of Business and Economics, and the School of Education. The campus is also host to IU School of Medicine-Northwest-Gary, which actively involves students in research and local healthcare needs through its four-year medical doctorate program. IU Northwest emphasizes high-quality teaching, faculty and student research and engagement on campus and in the community. As a student-centered campus, IU Northwest is committed to academic excellence characterized by a love of ideas and achievement in learning, discovery, creativity and engagement. Indiana University Northwest is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to achieving excellence through diversity. The University actively encourages applications from women, minorities, veterans, persons with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups.
NEWBURGH – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Friday visited Newburgh Free Academy to announce her bipartisan legislation, 21st Century Strengthening Hands On Programs that Cultivate Learning Approaches for Successful Students Act. This bill would direct federal funding to high-tech training and education programs in high schools and institutions of higher education, which would give more students the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to get good-paying jobs in the high-tech manufacturing sector. U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) is a cosponsor of this bill.
Technologies like 3D printers, laser cutters, and computerized machine tools are transforming American manufacturing and increasing the need for specialized training for manufacturing jobs. To prepare our students with the skills needed for high-tech jobs, this legislation would amend the Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act to give greater priority to funding for maker education, makerspaces, and training for teachers in the application of maker education.
Newly elected Orange County Legislator Kevindaryán Luján talks with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Friday while she visited Newburgh Free Academy to announce her bipartisan legislation. Hudson Valley Press/CHUCK STEWART, JR.
“Many manufacturing companies in our state have job openings with good salaries, but they can’t fill them because too many workers haven’t had the opportunity to learn the skills they need to take on those jobs. We need to fix this,” said Senator Gillibrand. “I’m proud to introduce bipartisan legislation to make sure tech-ed classes are teaching students how to use the latest high-tech tools, like 3D printers, that manufacturing companies expect them to know how to use. Our students should be able to take many different paths in order to get a good job and earn a good salary, and this bill would help equip more students with the skills they need to get on a path toward good-paying high-tech jobs when they graduate high school.”
“We appreciate the support of Senator Gillibrand in promoting legislation that will give students access to new and emerging technologies as they prepare to become the workforce of tomorrow,” said Johnnieanne Hansen, Director of Workforce Development and Apprenticeship Coordinator for the Council of Industry. “Career and Technical Education provides a clear path to rewarding and lucrative careers in the advanced manufacturing sector. More and more students, parents and professional educators are recognizing this fact and this legislation will help make CTE available to more students. It is also a wonderful complement our association’s efforts to encourage people to pursue careers in manufacturing such as GoMakeIt.org and Apprenticeships.”
This investment in vocational education would give more students the technical skills needed for good-paying jobs, providing hands-on learning experiences for students to use high-tech industrial tools to create and innovate. This approach to technical education will offer more opportunities to inspire the next generation of manufacturing workers and entrepreneurs.
This bill, as well as a broader reauthorization of federal CTE programs, will help promote to career and technical education to set more students up for success by preparing them for the jobs of the future.
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Kentucky’s plan for implementing the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has taken a step forward in the process toward approval.
This week the United States Department of Education (USED) provided feedback based on its initial review of the plan submitted in September.
“Overall, I am pleased with where we are in the process and the feedback we have received,” Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt said. “Primarily, USED is requesting clarifying or additional information, and several revisions to language, some of which has already changed as a result of the state regulatory process, so that our plan is in clear compliance with the federal law. Certainly that is our intent.”
ESSA provides states flexibility in how they meet the letter of the law. As a result, each state plan is different. To date, many states have received similar types of feedback on their plans as Kentucky.
Kentucky developed its plan over the past year-and-a-half with input from thousands of shareholders including educators, business and community leaders, parents and legislators.
The plan outlines how the state will evaluate public schools and districts, including charter schools, and hold them accountable for equitably educating each child regardless of where he or she lives, the student’s race, ethnicity, family income or whether the student has a disability. Kentucky’s plan, based on a system of continuous improvement for all schools, incorporates a method for identifying the lowest-performing schools and providing support. The plan also includes aggressive goals for closing the achievement gap, increasing graduation rates and ensuring all students leave high school with the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to be successful in college or the next phase of their career education and training.
A panel of four peer reviewers, the majority of which have had recent practical experience in the classroom, school administration, or state/local education agencies, also evaluated portions of Kentucky’s plan and had some very positive feedback. Specifically, they cited:
the state’s attempt to include every student in accountability
the growth of individual students toward proficiency and beyond
the state’s focus on reducing the achievement gap
the inclusion of social studies and science in accountability
the state’s plan to identify both Title I and non-Title I schools for comprehensive support and improvement
The peer reviewers also noted the state’s unique opportunity and access indicator, which includes multiple measures of school quality and student success. Among the strengths mentioned:
the inclusion of visual and performing arts, physical education, career exploration, cultural studies, and career and technical education including a work ethic certification the intent to focus on high-achieving students in addition to those who are low-performing
the focus on whole-child supports to address a variety of student and family needs
an opportunity for districts and charter schools to highlight their focus or priorities
the state’s plan to report additional measures not included in the accountability system
In the area of school improvement, reviewers praised the Kentucky Department of Education’s rigorous approach to providing supports and technical assistance for schools before state intervention and called the state’s support plan for schools identified for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement “well thought out and impressive.”
The goal of the peer review is to support state- and local-led innovation by providing objective feedback on the technical, educational and overall quality of the state plan and advising USED on the approval of the plan.
While the report highlighted strengths of Kentucky’s plan, both the USED and peer review reports also made suggestions on how Kentucky’s plan could be strengthened.
“We recognize there is always room for improvement,” Pruitt said. “We welcome the feedback and will consider it very carefully before resubmitting our plan. We anticipate that, when all is said and done, Kentucky’s plan will be approved and will set an example for other states. Most importantly, we will have a strong roadmap for school improvement that will close the achievement gap and ensure all Kentucky children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.”
The state has 15 calendar days to respond to the initial feedback and resubmit its consolidated state plan. However, due to the upcoming holidays, the state requested an extension beyond the January 4, 2018, deadline to ensure staff has adequate time to review all feedback and provide details that will clarify the state’s intent, methods and processes. It is anticipated the state will resubmit its plan sometime around the end of January 2018.
A copy of Kentucky’s plan as originally submitted and the initial feedback letter are available on the USED website, as are peer review reports related to Title I, Part A; Title III, Part A and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
The Chronicle — (Charleston, SC) Representative-Elect Marvin Pendarvis (D-North Charleston) has pre-filed multiple bills aimed at promoting educational opportunity for South Carolinians.
Pendarvis pre-filed H. 4439, the “South Carolina Promise Scholarship Act,” which would establish a scholarship program for South Carolina students seeking an associate’s degree, certificate, or diploma from state postsecondary institutions. This bill would cover the cost of tuition and mandatory fees, less all other financial aid, and establish a mentorship program for Promise Scholars. Pendarvis’s House bill mirrors legislation filed in the state senate earlier this year.
H. 4449, the “Rural Schools Act,” would establish safeguards against closing rural schools in the Charleston County School District. The legislation requires the school district to show that such a school closing would be in the best interests of students and require public hearings to gather input from the affected community.
Similarly, H. 4510 would reform the Summerville School Board, providing for members to be elected from single-member districts. This would ensure that rural communities are represented in decisions that affect their local schools.
Pendarvis signed on as a co-sponsor to two additional bills. Partnering with Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-Charleston) on H. 4388, the “Advanced Manufacturing Instruction Act of 2018,” this legislation would provide students with elective courses in advanced manufacturing. STEM education in public schools is an integral way for students to gain skills necessary in the modern workforce.
Working with Rep. John King (D-Rock Hill), H. 4390 calls for additional federal funding for public education in South Carolina.
“I grew up in the Charleston Farms neighborhood, graduated from Garrett High School, and went on to the University of South Carolina. As a product of South Carolina’s public schools, I know the importance of a quality education,” Pendarvis said.
“All students deserve quality education. All students deserve the opportunity to gain the skills needed to compete in the 21st century economy,” Pendarvis continued. “I’m sponsoring these bills so that South Carolinians – regardless of their ZIP code or economic background – have a fair shot at success.”
JACKSON FREE PRESS — Otibehia Allen’s days in the Mississippi Delta start and end with her five children—three boys and two girls. She feeds them. Clothes them. Their well-being rests on her shoulders. She does it all on her own.
It is hard for her to put into words what it is like to raise five children. It is even harder to discuss her fight for them.
“My greatest hope for my children is that they see I’m trying to have a better future,” Allen said last summer, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m trying.”
Allen lives in Jonestown, Miss., which sits in Coahoma County with a poverty level of 38 percent. Mississippi’s three-year average poverty is 20.8 percent, which makes it the state with the highest poverty rate. In 2017, the state’s population was 2,892,894; of those, 602,768 lived below the poverty threshold of $24,340 for a family of four.
The U.S. Census Bureau shows that poverty in Coahoma, 18 miles northeast of Clarksdale, is far above the national average of 12.7 percent. Even the poverty rate in the state’s capital city, Jackson, is more than twice the national average at 30.7 percent.
Mississippi Delta counties—places where African Americans were first enslaved, then became poorly paid workers and sharecroppers—average a poverty level of 30 percent, and services and opportunities are even farther apart than in a city like Jackson—and food and shopping desserts can span the width of entire counties.
Coahoma County’s average income per capita is just over $15,000.
Allen’s story of generational poverty—inherited because it is so difficult to break due to long-time structural inequities embedded back when rich planters made Mississippi the wealthiest state in the union—is common in Delta counties. Her story and many others are what brought activist and Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman back to the Delta in July 2015 along with journalists she invited to hear the stories of Delta residents like Allen.
As tears streamed down her face, Otibehia Allen faced Edelman in the packed New Baptist Church in Jonestown on July 12, 2017, naming the stakes that she and her children face in the nation’s poorest state.
“Do you want me to die?” she asked the congregation.
‘Against the Law’?
People can miss Jonestown, Allen’s current hometown, in a blink. The town’s old roads connect even older houses and trailers. The businesses in town are limited. There is a post office, police department, a few local churches and an oil mill—which grinds oil out of seeds such as cottonseeds or peanuts.
It is a place that looks like both history and people passed it by—which arguably they did—and is similar to other Delta towns trying to get a more solid point on a map since their early 18th-century days of helping drive the state’s, region’s, and even nation’s economic engines through cotton production and the use of free labor.
Fortunes in the Delta have shifted dramatically after many of the early white planter families sold out and moved on, leaving behind many poorer residents, especially African Americans, with few opportunities, a dearth of good jobs and poor educational quality.
In fact, civil-rights veteran Bob Moses, who helped launch Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 to help blacks get the right to vote here, calls the post-integration public schooling available to many African Americans a “sharecropper education.” And that isn’t a compliment; it’s a symptom of the cyclical poverty that the Delta represents in full relief.
Research by the Pew Research Center found that a white household in Mississippi can easily have a net worth 13 times higher than those of black families. PBS reported in 2016 that the average median income for a black family in the Delta town of Cleveland is less than half the average for a white family.
This wealth disparity plays out in everyday lives and in inter-connecting ways. Allen cannot afford a car, so she pays $10 a day or as much as $20 to commute to and from work. Her job is 15 miles from Jonestown, a familiar situation for many people in the Mississippi Delta.
“That $50 I could use it if my son needs a new pair of shoes or we need some soap and tissue or I need to go to the washer; that’s what makes it difficult,” Allen said at the church.
Jonestown does not have a medical facility, clinic or grocery store.
“I can’t get to where I need to go,” Allen said. “Everything I need is in another city. I have to drive to get there.”
Allen said the simple task of building a Dollar General in her town would change its citizens’ current lives tremendously.
“I could just walk to the store and get what I need,” Allen said. That’s a concept many people do not have to consider in their everyday lives, she added.
The town’s limited resources are a constant problem. “I have to worry about money. That wasn’t something that I was fortunate enough to have, so you shouldn’t penalize somebody else because they don’t have what you have. That’s discrimination. Isn’t that against the law?”
Robert Kennedy’s ‘War’
Not enough has changed since Edelman helped get then-Sen. Robert F. Kennedy to come to Mississippi 50 years ago to face first-hand the poverty levels of the Delta and those in the worst condition: children. Then 27, she was an NAACP attorney based in Jackson and testified in Washington, D.C., to the Senate subcommittee on poverty, which included Kennedy. The help was not getting to the people who needed it more; more than 50,000 people were going hungry in the Delta, University of Mississippi journalism professor Ellen Meacham, the author of “Delta Epiphany: RFK in Mississippi,” wrote in The New York Times last April.
Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general, then visited three Delta counties in Mississippi in 1967 after her testimony to see for himself how well the federal “War on Poverty” was working in one of the nation’s poorest states. With a poverty level of nearly 70 percent, the Delta was in crisis when he arrived. He met with many adults and children in the Delta, and came away believing not that government could not do everything itself, but that the best anti-poverty efforts engage and are informed by people living in poverty themselves.
“Instead, he envisioned businesses and charities working with government to provide jobs and strengthen poor neighborhoods in rural areas,” Meacham wrote. Kennedy wanted collaboration combined with data that prove that the programs work—moving them far beyond mere hand-outs to becoming systemic approaches that can interrupt the cycle of poverty and what it breeds, such as crime, neighborhood decay and hopelessness.
Meacham mentioned several programs that used a systemic, data-driven model, starting with the early Bedford-Stuyvesant Renewal and Rehabilitation Corp., which Kennedy had helped create in New York in 1966.
The Delta Health Alliance was one result—working with private and public partners in 18 Delta counties to improve health-care options. Edelman’s Children’s Defend Fund is another bright example—a data-driven collaborative effort to interrupt the cycles for children in poverty.
Still, the Ole Miss professor wrote, in the three poverty-stricken counties Kennedy visited, poverty rates for minor children are around 50 percent now. Not enough consistent effort has yet broken the cycle for too many families, and the State of Mississippi, as well as the newest presidential administration, are weakening the safety net that can help create bootstraps for poor Mississippians to pull on.
Notably, the programs that are working, Meacham writes, use the model that Kennedy and Edelman embraced then.
“If he returned to the Delta today, Mr. Kennedy would cheer the advances but be dismayed at how hard advocates must fight to maintain that limited progress,” Meacham wrote of Kennedy.
‘We Have No Jobs’
When Marian Wright—she wasn’t married, yet—first arrived in Jackson, Miss., during spring break 1961, local NAACP leader Medgar Evers picked her up at the airport. She had dinner with Evers and his wife, Myrlie, and their children. He then drove her 95 miles north to Greenwood. She didn’t know anyone in the Delta, and there were only four black lawyers in the entire state.
But she had a job to do then, and now. “Movements are built from the ground up,” Edelman said in July. “We are the leaders.”
In Edelman’s return to the Mississippi Delta this time, she wanted to once again bring the conversation of both its progress and the long road still ahead to the forefront as Kennedy had helped do then. Her main fear, she said, was the Trump administration’s cuts to social services, which are too often framed as a way to clean up waste by people too lazy to do for themselves.
“America is going to miss the boat,” Edelman said in July about children’s education and health.
Poverty in the Delta is not as high as it was during the 1967 Delta Poverty Tour, but more hard work is needed, Edelman emphasized, and with programs that bring systemic change over time.
“We are still working hard to improve the economy for socially, economically disadvantaged,” Mississippi Delta Council Executive Director Don Green said in July. “We have been working very hard to improve life here in the Delta.”
Green said Coahoma County had a poverty level of about 50 percent as far back as 1989. It now sits at 41.8 percent, a slight decrease.
“We’ve reached that hard spot,” Green said. “We’re trying to get it (poverty level) lower than that 35 percent.”
Green said some of the current programs are bringing progress, but the struggle will be reducing the current poverty level of each of the counties, which range from about 30 to 35 percent.
Glendora, a small village in Tallahatchie County, is home to the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center.
“On these grounds, here is where he (Emmett Till) was initially beaten and almost killed,” Glendora’s mayor of 35 years, Johnny B. Thomas, said in July. “So we call it ‘Ground Zero.'”
White adult men murdered the 14-year-old Till 18 miles away in Money, Miss., but Thomas said the premeditation took place in Glendora, where one of the boy’s killers, J.W. Milam, lived.
“It’s here in Glendora where we say that we are the beginning to modern civil rights,” Thomas said.
“Our museum is the beginning of the healing,” he added.
The historical draw of the town does not hide the financial burden of its residents. More than 40 percent of the 161 residents in Glendora live below the poverty level. Thomas says the root problem is jobs for residents. The town of Glendora employees offer only four part-time jobs, the only jobs in town, he said.
“We have no jobs,” Thomas said. “The job here are four hours round-trip.”
The main job prospects for Glendora people are either in Washington County at a catfish factory or in a casino in Tunica. Both trips are one to two hours away.
Thomas said the town no longer has the grass and agricultural stability to grow cotton, a job he once had.
“We are 99.99 percent low-wealth,” Thomas said. “We won’t say ‘impoverished’ anymore because we have hope in all of the young folks we’ve got here.”
In the town, the grass is high and unkempt with a limited number of small houses surrounding the museum. Thomas said someday Glendora will be where it needs to be, though.
“This community should be a picture,” Thomas said.
“We will make it a picture.”
Hope and Dissatisfaction
Access is a major problem in the Delta counties, whether it is to health care or a convenience store or opportunity.
Glendora residents once went as far as an hour away for toilet paper and other basic necessities, but the town now has a grocery store.
“We have been without,” Thomas said during the July Delta tour.
Amelioration of poverty in the Delta, and much of Mississippi, moves slowly. In September, the U.S. Census Bureau released new data showing that Mississippi holds the highest rate of income inequality and poverty in the country. It shows that more than 50 years after Kennedy’s initial tour here that upward of 20 percent of Mississippians still live in poverty. The towns of Glendora, Jonestown, Marks and most Delta counties have a poverty level of 35 to 40 percent, sometimes higher.
“We don’t just want to show it off,” Oleta Fitzgerald, the director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Southern Regional Office, said in July. “We want to show that there’s still work to do 50 years after the Kennedy site visit.”
Access to quality health care is a primary block to progress—especially for poor children in the wake of the federal delay on continuing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which could expire in 2018. CHIP covers 9 million children in the U.S. whose parents do not qualify for Medicaid. In September, Congress failed to reauthorize CHIP, and the program has yet to be reconciled in Washington. More than 43 percent of Mississippi children rely on Medicaid, an analysis of census data from Georgetown University Center for Children and Families shows.
In the three Delta counties Edelman visited—Tallahatchie, Coahoma and Quitman—more than 55 percent of the children are on Medicaid or CHIP, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families showed, based on U.S. Census data. Seventy-four percent of children in Quitman County are on Medicaid or CHIP.
“Ninety-five percent of all children today are now covered by either CHIP and Medicaid,” Edelman said in July.
Even if CHIP survives, Mississippi kids’ caretakers cannot always stay well enough to work and care for them well. Allen, for instance, does not qualify for Medicaid, but her children do. “If I get sick, then I can’t go to the doctor because I can’t pay for it,” Allen said.
Delta residents desperately hope these conditions will change. “We are already at the bottom. I don’t know how we can go any further,” Thomas said. “Hopefully, he (President Trump) will change the situation. I’m hopeful.”
They also want more people surrounding them to open their eyes and pay attention.
“I want people to know that there are small towns and other cities that need help,” Allen said. “I want everybody to reach out in any way that they can, even just by listening to the stories.”
The main thing, retired Mississippi Rep. Robert Clark said, is to avoid complacency and use the dissatisfaction to demand change.
“If you look at the statistics, you will see where Mississippi, particularly the Delta, stands, and I am not satisfied,” Clark told journalists in July.
“We’ve got to look at where we are and see where we go from here.”
Read and comment at jfp.ms/poverty.
Disrupting Poverty: 5 Points
A Disrupting Poverty Conference in Boston highlighted five points that not all may consider to help people achieve self-sufficiency:
“Poverty is more complicated than it used to be.” “A high school diploma, a resume and a reference,” isn’t enough, the San Francisco Foundation wrote about escaping poverty, and entry-level jobs pay much less than they did previously. “Getting out of poverty requires education beyond a high school degree, a job that pays a living wage, a supportive peer or family network, and enough assets to have a cushion to fall back on.”
“Poverty is ‘sticky.'” That is, poverty is often generational and passed down; children in poverty are likely to be adults in poverty. “Breaking poverty cycles takes time, persistence, dogged engagement, and relentless outreach. … It has to occur in the context of everything going on in our lives—safe and stable housing, individual and family well-being, higher education, competitive job skills, financial capability and a strong network of support to rely on.”
Needed: prep, tools for “high-demand, high stress jobs.” “[H]holding a job in today’s environment means a person needs to be able to multi-task, manage multiple priorities, and make many high-stakes choices throughout the day. It is virtually impossible for a family to get ahead in any one critical area if other areas are unstable.”
Brain science can help “executive function.” “The executive function capabilities allow us to multi-task, organize a set of steps, control our inhibitions, and keep the goal in mind, even under pressure. Under extreme and pervasive emotional stress, resulting from living in poverty and in violent communities, executive functions are compromised, and impulses are extremely difficult to control. It’s harder to calm down; dealing with authority feels threatening; maintaining confidence is challenging; and being resilient to make myriad decision necessary to hold jobs and keep families together feels impossible.” But modern brain scene shows that the brain’s “plasticity” can help build executive function “required to solve complex problems and set goals necessary to successfully manage their lives.”
Essential: “peer network and a supportive community” “Engaging with peers through productive and supportive community-led activities, such as social events, learning circles, support groups, and healthy activities, promotes healthy living, provides emotional support, builds trust, creates social cohesion, builds leaders, and encourages positive engagement in the community. Communities support individuals to stay on track with their goals, which is necessary component of moving out of poverty and achieving self-sufficiency.”
Read full post by the San Francisco Foundation at jfp.ms/poverty.
ANSWER to “Poverty: Causes and Effects”
Pat yourself on your back if you circled and drew Xs through every item on the list. In the complicated cycle of generational poverty, research shows that the causes of poverty is also an effect, and vice versa. It’s circular: This means that to interrupt the cycle of poverty, we need to tackle all spokes at once. Where do you fit, and what can you do to help? Please pledge an immediate action here or at jfp.ms/poverty.
EDUCATION WEEK — Minnesota, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
All four states, who were among the 34 that turned in their plans this fall, were flagged for issues with accountability, helping low-performing schools improve, and other areas. So far, ten other states that turned in their plans this fall — Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming—have received feedback from the feds. Puerto Rico has also gotten a response on its plan. (Check out our summaries of their feedback here and here.)
Plus, sixteen states and the District of Columbia, all of which submitted plans in the spring, have gotten the all-clear from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Colorado, which asked for extra time on its application, is the only spring state still waiting for approval.
So what problems did the department find in this latest round of states? Here’s a quick look. Click on the state’s name for a link to the feds’ letter…
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
As young kids amaze us all by developing reading fluency (remember this blog?), they typically move toward greater and greater comprehension of what they read. That’s good: reading with comprehension is, after all, the point of learning to read fluently.
But not all kids have enough of what they need to get to reading comprehension. Some kids have strong phonics and word recognition skills, but still fail to comprehend. Others show solid, insightful comprehension when you read TO them, but fall down in comprehending what they read on their own.
What gives? This sounds complicated.
Actually, it’s helpful to focus on how simple it is. An important model for reading comprehension is one asserted by Gough & Tunmer (1986). Their model, the Simple View of Reading, is described by a simple formula: RC = D x LC
This is “simple” because it only has two moving parts, the D and the LC. Just as a simple lever only has two parts, handle and fulcrum, the development of reading comprehension can be modeled as being, at its core, simple.
Decoding (D) is the ability to turn printed words into the right word sounds, more and more automatically. Phonics instruction aims toward increasing decoding proficiency.
Language Comprehension (LC) is the ability to understand spoken words in sentences. When we speak with easier words and less complex structures to very small kids, we are reaching toward their less proficient language comprehension.
In this model, D and LC are multiplied together, not added. That’s important because it means this: when one is weak, you can’t just compensate with a heavier dose of the other…
Lansing, Mich. – Michigan school counselors are spread thin, with the third-highest student-to-counselor ratio in the nation, according to a recent report from the American School Counselor Association.
That ratio – 729 students for every counselor – makes it difficult for students to get the guidance they need, especially when it comes to exploring careers and pathways to good jobs.
The Michigan Career Pathways Alliance is working to support school counselors and help them provide students with the most current information about careers and training needed to get good jobs. Three of the alliance’s 17 recommendations include proposals aimed at providing more counselors, or resources to those currently in the job.
“We know many of our school counselors are asked to do more and more,” said Roger Curtis, director of the Michigan Department of Talent and Economic Development. “But their role is going to become even more vital as students start thinking about careers and navigating potential pathways earlier. We’re looking to help communities provide additional resources for counselors and give them the tools they need.”
Curtis and State Superintendent Brian Whiston at the direction of Gov. Rick Snyder co-lead the Michigan Career Pathways Alliance, which has recommendations to improve student access to the multiple career pathways that lead to good-paying, rewarding jobs in Michigan.
Based on the most recent data available, from the 2014-2015 school year, only Arizona and California have higher student-to-counselor ratios, and Michigan is well above the national average of 482 students per counselor. The American School Counselor Association suggests an optimal ratio of 250 students per counselor.
The Michigan Career Pathways Alliance recommends creating a program to provide state matching dollars through crowdfunding to assist in covering the costs for additional counselors and Professional Trades programs.
Another initiative calls for hiring career development facilitators to support counselors, with the focus on helping students explore career options and learn what training they need to get in-demand jobs.
The alliance also calls for counselors and teachers to be able to use externships and other experiences gained with local employers to count toward professional development requirements.
Snyder in November signed into law a bill that mandates school counselors dedicate 50 hours of the current 150-hour professional development requirement to better assist students with college and career selection, helping them assist students with additional information about career technical education and all possible pathways.
Several state agencies recently unveiled Pathfinder, a free, online tool providing counselors, students and adult jobseekers with real-time data about careers, the training needed to get those jobs, projected openings and average wage information.
The American School Counselor Association recommends that school counselors spend 80 percent or more of their time in direct and indirect services to students. School counselors participate as members of the educational team and use the skills of leadership, advocacy and collaboration to support the academic, career and social/emotional needs of all students.
Tony Warren, president of the Michigan School Counselor Association, said counselors today are pulled away from their core responsibilities. He said counselors also serve as test coordinators, Individualized Education Program facilitators, and Americans with Disabilities Act coordinators in addition to entering data for new enrollees, dealing with discipline issues and covering other administrative duties.
“Schools should eliminate or reassign all inappropriate tasks as identified by ASCA, doing so would allow counselors to carry out career development activities that align with state initiatives and promote equal access to school counseling programs for all students,” Warren said.
As the 21st century workforce adapts to technology and the jobs of the future, the Career Pathways Alliance recognizes the need for educators and employers to work more closely so students can explore careers and obtain in-demand skills.
Patrice Mang, a veteran school counselor in Allen Park, Mich., said she is excited to see school counselors get much-needed support.
“We love what we do,” Mang said. “The students must be the focus of what we are doing and seeing the Michigan Career Pathways Alliance make these strong recommendations to help us gain resources shows that we are working together to support our students. We need people to support this effort and see it through.”
Carmen Fariña, the chancellor of New York City Schools, announced Thursday that she would be resigning in 2018, leaving behind a school system fundamentally changed from where it stood when her tenure began four years ago.
As young kids amaze us all by developing reading fluency (remember 
Lansing, Mich. – Michigan school counselors are spread thin, with the third-highest student-to-counselor ratio in the nation, according to a recent report from the American School Counselor Association.