CHICAGO – Mike Havener, school librarian for Springfield (Illinois) High School, is the recipient of the 2018 American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Ruth Toor Grant for Strong Public School Libraries. Sponsored by Jay Toor, the grant provides $3,000 in funding for the creation and implementation of a local public awareness/marketing campaign that promotes and positions the school library as a necessary resource in the community.
Havener will use the Toor funds to build a recording studio in an underused office space centrally located in his school library. Along with technological equipment, Havener plans to use a portion of the budget on painting the space and adding sound-dampening panels to the walls. His goal is to create a fresh, modern, and attractive space for students to work together in, while increasing foot traffic and advertising modern, non-traditional library services. Students and faculty will be invited to use the studio to record broadcasts that will bring greater public and administrative attention to the school library.
“One of the best ways to gain the attention and engagement of parents, administration, and community members is to showcase the work and creations of students,” wrote Havener in his application. “This project will give the library program the same kind attention that departments such as art and music receive through exhibits and concerts. All projects will be hosted on the school library website, uploaded to iTunes, and advertised throughout the building bringing crucial public and administrative awareness to the power, importance, and necessity of a strong school library program.”
“The recording studio planned by Mr. Havener will showcase student learning and creativity in ways unique to the school library,” said Lynn Gordon, award committee chair. “These broadcasts are the kind of creative collaboration that bring the library to the forefront of the school and serve as an advertisement for the school library! We give Mr. Havener, his partners Ms. Kaisner and Mr. Lightfoot, and the staff and students of Springfield High School our sincere congratulations and best wishes as they move forward with this project.”
Along with the $3,000 in funding for project creation and implementation, the grant includes $2,000 for both the school librarian and a school official to attend the ALA Annual Conference.
The AASL award winners will be honored at the AASL Awards Ceremony & President’s Program during the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The ceremony will be held from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Saturday, June 23. All are welcome to celebrate the accomplishments of their peers during this recognition event.
The American Association of School Librarians www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.
I believe that it is possible that, in the annals of time — should our republic survive this period in history — America will be revealed to be the hollow, shallow shell of what the experiment was meant to be. The kids from Parkland, Florida are proving that it was and should always be the government of the people, by the people, for the people, and not the people with the most money.
But I think that America stopped being that place when we refused to acknowledge that this country was built on the backs of slave labor, and we decided that there would be no accountability for that. We stopped living up to that ideal when we began to delude ourselves that this nation had a manifest destiny to lead the world, but there would be no repercussions for slavery. That lie we told ourselves — that no accountability was and no repercussions were necessary — was the beginning of the downward slide to where we are now.
Alondra Alvarez lives about five minutes from her high school on Detroit’s southwest side but she drives there instead of walking because her mother fears for her safety. Once the 18-year-old enters the building, her surroundings take on a more secure feel almost immediately as she passes through a bank of closely monitored metal detectors.
“My mom has never been comfortable with me walking to school. My mom is really scared of street thugs,” said Alvarez, who attends Western International.
As schools around the U.S. look for ways to impose tougher security measures in the wake of last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead, they don’t have to look further than urban districts such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York that installed metal detectors and other security in the 1980s and 1990s to combat gang and drug violence.
Security experts believe these measures have made urban districts less prone to mass shootings, which have mostly occurred in suburban and rural districts.
Officials in some suburban and rural school districts are now considering detectors as they rethink their security plans after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz allegedly brought in a duffel bag containing an assault rifle and opened fire. He’s charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The massacre has galvanized thousands of students around the country who walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes — one for each Parkland victim — on March 14 to protest gun violence.
“I think urban schools are eons ahead. They’ve been dealing with violence a lot longer than suburban schools,” said Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association.
During the mid-1980s, Detroit was one of the first districts in the nation to put permanent, walk-through metal detectors in high schools and middle schools. New York schools also had them in some buildings.
By 1992, metal detectors had been installed in a few dozen Chicago high schools. And in 1993, under pressure to make schools safer, Los Angeles’ district announced that it would randomly search students with metal detectors.
Such measures “are designed to identify and hopefully deter anybody from bringing a weapon to school, but metal detectors alone portray an illusion of being safe,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the 50,000-student Detroit Public Schools Community District.
“Our schools need to be safer than they are,” Vitti said. “As a nation, we need to fully fund and make sure all districts can adequately staff school resource officers and also offer mental health and first-aid training to all educators.”
Security measures don’t always keep guns off school grounds. A 17-year-old high school senior was killed and another student wounded March 7 in a Birmingham, Alabama, classroom shooting. Metal detectors at the school were not in use that day. A 17-year-old student has been charged with manslaughter.
Two students were shot and three people suffered other injuries in February when a gun in a backpack accidentally fired inside a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school. The district does random metal-detector wand searches daily in middle schools and high schools. A 12-year-old girl has been charged with being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds.
In response to the Parkland shooting, Florida’s governor has said he wants to spend $500 million to increase law enforcement and mental health counselors at schools, to make buildings more secure with metal detectors and to create an anonymous tip line.
A package of legislation passed by the New York state Senate includes provisions for metal detectors and improved security technology in schools. A parent in Knox County, Kentucky, has said his law office would donate $25,000 for metal detectors in schools there.
Alvarez, the student at Detroit’s Western International, said she and others who attend the school go through metal detectors every morning. Her elementary and middle schools also had metal detectors.
“I’ve always seen it as something that made me feel safe,” she said, adding that all schools should have them and not just inner-city ones “so students don’t feel discriminated against.”
Metal detectors are seen as a symptom of a “stigma that already exists,” said Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s Racial Justice Project.
“There is a presumption that urban schools — particularly those with students of color — are violent places and security demands you have procedures in place that are intended to protect the safety of the students,” Fancher said.
But metal detectors, property searches, security guards and police in schools create conditions similar to those found in prisons, he said.
“Students, themselves, internalize these things,” Fancher said. “If you create a school that looks like a prison, the people who go there will pretty much decide that’s what is expected of them.”
Many urban districts have a greater awareness and sensitivity when it comes to students’ needs, said Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm.
“I think in urban schools, the approach of most of the educators, administrators and security personnel is, ‘We realize there are issues kids bring to school,’” said Trump, who has been in the school safety field for more than 30 years. “The people will tell you, ‘We are not in denial … we acknowledge our problems. We just don’t have enough resources to deal with it.’”
Suburban and rural administrators, parents and students often view themselves as different from their big-city counterparts, and that may impact how they treat school security, he said.
“There’s very often that divide of ‘There’s us and there’s them. We’re not the urban district. We are the alternative. We’re the place people go to get away from the urban district,’” he said.
In the wake of yet another mass slaughter of innocent Americans, I am writing to implore my colleagues in both the Congress and our state legislatures to go to CNN’s website and listen carefully to the words of a young American named Cameron Kasky. You can find his declaration of principle and truth on CNN.com.
This 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is demonstrating more courage, moral clarity and determination about the danger of unregulated guns in America (and, especially, the danger to us all of high-powered, military grade, semi-automatic weapons) than are many of the women and men with whom I serve.
As most Americans now know, on February 14 (Valentine’s Day), Cameron Kasky, his brother, Holden, and all of the students and teachers at their Parkland, FL, high school were forced to fear for their lives. A deranged person had picked up a lawfully purchased AR-15, took it to the school, and methodically murdered 17 people, injuring another 14.
We also know that, in the era after the Columbine massacre of 1999 (13 dead and 24 injured), mass slaughters with semi-automatic weapons have become a harsh, terrifying and unacceptable reality of American life.
Just as we must redouble our efforts to reduce the violence in places like Chicago and Baltimore, we cannot – and we must not – forget the sense of loss and personal devastation that we felt after Virginia Tech (32 dead). We cannot brush aside the primitive brutality of Binghamton, NY (14 dead), or Aurora, CO (12 dead), or Sandy Hook (the lives of 27 children and teachers methodically destroyed).
We must act. Our national conscience and sense of security and self-worth cannot withstand any more breaking headlines – any more mass killings in San Bernadino, CA (14 killed), Orlando, FL (49 massacred), Las Vegas, NV (58 killed and 546 injured), or Texas (26 killed).
Now, if you think that this partial listing of the butcher’s bill from our failure to adequately regulate semi-automatic weapons of war is incomplete, you are correct. There is insufficient room in this newspaper to adequately remember all of the casualties from the gun violence that our nation has endured.
What should be heartening to us, however, is the determination and clarity that Cameron Kasky and young people across America are expressing in their challenge to their elected representatives, their governors and the President of the United States.
“At the end of the day,” Cameron observed in his CNN interview, “the students at my school felt one shared experience – our politicians abandoned us by failing to keep guns out of schools….”
“Our community just took 17 bullets to the heart,” he continued, “and it feels like the only people who don’t care are the people who are making the laws.”
I must agree.
There is no period of silence, no equivocating delay, no overreaching argument about the constitutional sanctity of our Second Amendment that is adequate to counterman a simple, compelling and unavoidable truth.
Cameron Kasky is speaking truth to power when he declares that, as a nation, we are failing to protect our people from this carnage. Most unforgivable of all, we are failing to protect the lives of our school children.
Every last elected official in America, and every last citizen who voted for us (or failed to vote at all), bears a measure of responsibility for this failure and its bloody toll on human lives. Yet, as Cameron Kasky also acknowledges, we are not all equally culpable.
“The truth,” he observed, “is that the politicians on both sides of the aisle are to blame. The Republicans, generally speaking, take large donations from the NRA and are therefore beholden to their cruel agenda. And the Democrats lack the organization and the votes to do anything about it.”
We, who have been elected to serve and protect our Constitution and the American People, can only stand before this challenge, acknowledge our failures and seek to reclaim our honor.
As a first honest step, we can acknowledge that before the federal assault weapons ban expired, it did not stop all killings, but it did significantly reduce the carnage. We who serve in the Congress have the power, right now, to renew those protections.
The proposed Assault Weapons Ban of 2018 [H.R. 5087], sponsored by my colleague, Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, now has more than 173 co-sponsors. Senator Diane Feinstein’s companion bill [S.2095] has 29. I, along with all of Maryland’s Democratic Delegation, am fighting for its passage.
However, in proof of Cameron Kasky’s indictment, there are no Republicans in support of these modest, protective measures, only a few Republicans support strengthened background checks, and a Republican House and Senate leadership, beholden to the NRA, is denying us the ability to even have a floor debate and up-or-down vote.
Nevertheless, I am cautiously optimistic that the will of the American People will prevail. A recent Quinnipiac opinion poll found that 67 percent of Americans (including 43 percent of Republicans) now favor an assault weapons ban. Even more encouraging, the young people of our nation (along with many of us who are older) are mobilizing.
This growing movement for greater safety, security and sanity in our national discussion about guns – this March for Our Lives – will be bringing upwards of 500,000 Americans to Washington, DC, on March 24th – with companion marches across the nation, including here in Baltimore. For more information, go to https://marchforourlives.com/ on your Web browser.
Even if you can’t march on the 24th, please remember this. Our Constitution (including its Second Amendment) was not designed to be a collective suicide pact. It was designed to protect the safety, as well as the liberty, of the American People.
Above all else, and whatever political obstacles may be placed in our path, we must protect our nation’s children. Our sacred oaths and honor demand that – and more.
Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.
In February ComEd launched its Solar Spotlight program, designed to expose African American high school students to opportunities in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as part of its annual Black History Month celebration.
During ComEd’s Solar Spotlight, more than 60 high school students participated in the two-day educational sessions where they interacted with STEM professionals, including ComEd engineers and executives, and learned more about solar energy, famous African American STEM leaders and careers.
The Solar Spotlight curriculum includes live solar demonstrations and new this year, the students helped assemble portable solar suitcases in conjunction with the team from We Share Solar. The portable suitcases included solar cells that generate energy and can become a back-up power source during emergencies for lights, cell phones and computers. The suitcases assembled by the students will be sent to local community centers and some will be sent beyond Illinois’ borders to locations like Haiti and Puerto Rico, which have been impacted by hurricanes that caused massive power outages.
MELISSA WASHINGTON, VP of External Affairs and Large Customer Services (center) and the entire ComEd Solar Spotlight Black History Month team celebrated with students from across Chicago for a job well done after they assembled Solar Suitcases to be sent to places like Puerto Rico, Haiti and Uganda to provide lights to people in need.
The Solar Spotlight educational events took place on February 10 at the ComEd Training Center in Bridgeport, and on February 17, students visited the Illinois Tech’s (IIT) campus. While at IIT, Solar Spotlight students were given a tour of the facility and introduced to current IIT students.
Anne Pramaggiore, President and CEO of ComEd noted that the company was “ honored to celebrate Black History Month and help African-American students in our communities learn more about career options that could make positive impact on their future.” She said “In the next 10 years, the workforce will need 1 million additional STEM jobs and these jobs are growing faster in terms of opportunity and pay. It’s critical that we create awareness of these career opportunities and help to build a diverse workforce of the future. My hope is that one day these students will return to join the ComEd team.”
COMED MENTORS AND Students from across Chicago got hands on experience building Solar Suitcases that will be deployed to places like Puerto Rico, Haiti and Uganda to provide lights to people in need.
The educational events are part of ComEd’s effort to cultivate the next wave of STEM talent and create the workforce of the future. While African-Americans make up 14 percent of college students, they represent only 8 percent of general engineering, 7 percent of mathematics and 5 percent of computer engineering majors. To urge the students toward STEM careers, ComEd engineers, employees and members of the Exelon African-American Resource Alliance (EAARA) serve as the students’ mentors for the programming.
To help ensure the Solar Spotlight program is engaging and memorable for its high school participants, ComEd has also enlisted the support of local organizations like Blue Studios, who are committed to building STEM pathways for kids of every age and background, and music personalities J Niice of B96 and DJ OddCouple. For more information about ComEd’s Solar Spotlight program, visit ComEd.com/SolarSpotlight
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 10 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The House and Senate begin their spring recess next week. Legislators will be in their district offices for the next few weeks, so it will be a good time to meet with them about collective bargaining, K-12 and higher education funding, the teacher shortage, and other important issues.
Here are highlights from this week’s action in Springfield:
IFT protects out-of-district tuition waivers
At the urging of the IFT, the House defeated HB 4235 (Pritchard). This bill would have prohibited school districts from waiving the out-of-district tuition fees for their employees and teachers who live out of district but want their children to attend school in the district where they teach or work. The change would also have excluded local unions and districts from bargaining the issue, and exacerbated the teacher shortage in downstate Illinois.
House committee takes up school safety
Former IFT staffer, school counselor, and current Dist. 150 school board member Dan Walther testified before the House Education Curriculum committee about school safety and mental health. Considering the Parkland school shooting and previous tragedies, Walther discussed the need for the General Assembly to ensure proper funding of schools, provide wraparound services for students, and trauma training for teachers. He also suggested the possibility of arming trained school resource officers but strongly opposed arming teachers.
Representatives from the Illinois Education Association, school management, and mental health and social work groups were also present. The committee is considering potential action but has not offered any proposals.
House continues to tackle the teacher shortage
The House Elementary and Secondary Education Licensing committee heard more testimony on the teacher shortage issue this week. Speakers included representatives from the Grow Your Own Teachers program, career and technical education advocates, professors in educator preparation programs, the superintendent of O’Fallon Township High School Board of Education, and representatives from the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents.
Additional discussions are taking place around the Capitol about how to address the shortage, in both the short-term and long-term. More than 20 bills have been filed on the subject with potential solutions ranging from changing licensure requirements to shortening educational programs for traditional and alternative certification. The IFT is working closely with legislators as this important conversation continues.
Bills will help retirees substitute teach HB 3080 (Reis) would create a window until June 30, 2019 to allow a retired teacher to work 120 paid days (or 600 paid hours) in a school year without impairing retirement status. The House unanimously passed the bill.
HB 751 (Davidsmeyer) would allow a teacher to return to teaching in subject shortage areas without impairing his or her retirement status or retirement annuity until June 30, 2020. This bill is positioned for a vote in the House.
The IFT supports both these bills.
School funding bill moves to Senate
House members approved HB 5812 (Davis), a follow-up bill to the school funding reform law that passed last fall. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) claims that the bill must pass to ensure that the additional $350 million in funding is properly distributed under the new plan. School officials have said they will start distributing money under the new formula in April. The bill now moves to the Senate.
Committee approves workers’ comp bill
In response to concerns from the governor and business groups, the House Labor and Commerce committee passed HB 4595 (Fine). The bill would establish a not-for-profit insurance fund to help lower workers’ compensation insurance costs for employers by creating competition in the insurance industry.
Rep. Harper advances elected school board resolution HR 796 (Harper) passed the Elementary & Secondary Education School Curriculum and Policies committee. The bill urges the Illinois General Assembly to pass legislation to create an elected school board in Chicago, which voters have previously demanded. IFT and the Chicago Teachers Union (Local 1) strongly support this resolution.
E-learning pilots extended
The House Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum and Policies committee approved HB 4860 (Fortner), which would allow the e-learning pilots in Gurnee, Leyden, and West Chicago to continue until ISBE issues a report and the General Assembly has reviewed it to consider the policy path forward. The IFT supported the bill based on conversations with members who reported successful experiences in the pilot districts.
Two school support bills pass the House HB 4409 (Pritchard) would change part of the definition of school psychologist to an individual that holds a valid Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential. The bill was approved unanimously.
HB 4514 (Pritchard) would provide that only individuals licensed and endorsed as school counselors may use the title of school counselor. The bill passed the House by a vote of 106-0-1.
Both bills now move to the Senate.
Proposal would weaken collective bargaining, increase healthcare costs SB 2819 (Syverson) would remove the requirement for the state to implement Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) if high-deductible healthcare plans are imposed by the governor, as he has proposed to do. Currently, the state must make HSAs available and contribute one-third of the deductible in the event a high-deductible plan is implemented. SB 2819 would give the state full discretion to establish the amount, if any, of the employer contribution.
The IFT strongly opposes this bill because it would put public employees at risk of escalating healthcare costs with no financial support from the employer.
Watch Under the Dome for future updates on legislative action.
Contact:
Sarah Ostman
Communications Manager
ALA Public Programs Office
312-280-5061 sostman@ala.org
CHICAGO — Twenty-five libraries have been selected to participate in the pilot phase of the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Great Stories Club, a thematic reading and discussion program series that will engage underserved teens through literature-based library outreach programs and racial healing work, the American Library Association (ALA) announced.
The TRHT GSC is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
An expansion of ALA’s long-standing Great Stories Club program model, the TRHT Great Stories Club will feature books that explore the coming-of-age experience for young people in historically marginalized groups. The TRHT Great Stories Club is a part of the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation efforts, a comprehensive, national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism.
The grantees represent twenty public libraries, two K-12 school libraries, one academic/college library and two prison libraries. Some grantees will work in partnership with alternative schools, youth detention centers and other organizations that serve youth. View a full list of grantee libraries and their partner organizations.
The libraries will work with small groups of teens to read and discuss three titles — selected by librarians and humanities scholars to resonate with reluctant readers facing difficult challenges — on the theme “Growing Up Brave on the Margins.”
Featured titles will include “Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal” by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona; “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas; and “MARCH: Book One” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell.
Participating libraries will host at least three book discussion programs and at least one interactive racial healing session, led by a racial healing practitioner familiar with the Kellogg Foundation’s TRHT framework and racial healing approach. Programming will take place between May and October 2018.
Towson University, a public university near Baltimore, Maryland, will implement the TRHT Great Stories Club program by drawing on partnerships between Towson’s Center for Student Diversity and students from Baltimore City Schools.
“Our primary goals are that participants in the program get these three empowering books in their hands and get to meet each other in a space where their voices are central,” wrote Miriam DesHarnais, research and instruction librarian at Towson University’s Albert S. Cook Library. “By connecting the high school students with university students who are involved with Towson University’s Black Student Union, Towson Freedom School and our library’s A-LIST Student Leadership Program, we hope to provide a window into what activism and engagement on a college campus can look like.”
Grantees will receive 11 copies of each of the three book selections (ten to gift to participants; one for discussion leader/library collection); programming materials such as discussion guides, reading lists and program activities; and training opportunities, including travel and accommodations for a two-day orientation workshop in Chicago for project directors.
The TRHT Great Stories Club will be administered by ALA’s Public Programs Office in partnership with ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services.
About the American Library Association
The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 57,000 members in academic, public, school, government and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.
About the ALA Great Stories Club
A project of the American Library Association (ALA), the Great Stories Club (GSC) is a reading and discussion program model that targets underserved, troubled teen populations. Launched in 2006, the GSC has received funding from Oprah’s Angel Network, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation, bringing literary reading and discussion programming to more than 800 libraries and 30,000 young adults. The project seeks to inspire teens to consider “big questions” about the world around them and their place in it, affecting how they view themselves as thinkers and creators; establish important connections between underserved youth, their public library and community support agencies; and contribute to improved literacy and changed, positive attitudes toward reading.
Public schools in the nation’s capital recently reported that the graduation rate for 2017 was the highest in the school system’s history.
According to school officials, about 73 percent of Washington public schools’ students graduated on time, another record high for a school system that had struggled years ago to graduate even half of its students. The graduation rate marked a four-point rise from the previous year and a 20-point gain from 2011, when just over half of D.C. Public School students graduated within four years.
In response, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser proudly described the school system as the “fastest improving urban school district in the country.
“These graduation rates are a reminder that when we have high expectations for our young people and we back up those expectations with robust programs and resources, our students can and will achieve at high levels,” Bowser said in a statement.
But it was all false. A report by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education shows more than one of every three diplomas awarded to students were not earned. The report found that 937 out of 2,758 graduates of D.C. public schools did not meet the minimum attendance requirements needed for graduation. Teachers even admit to falsely marking students present.
Washington is the latest of a series of public school systems found guilty of widespread cheating. Similar cheating was found in public schools in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta.
The perpetrators in these scandals weren’t the students but the administrators and teachers. Both have admitted to falsifying records on standardized tests, graduation requirements and student grades.
In response, some teachers have been fired and stripped of their licenses to teach again. In other places like Atlanta, teachers and administrators have gone to jail. In Washington, D.C., Antwan Wilson, District of Columbia schools chancellor, resigned Feb. 20 after it was revealed he used his position to get his daughter into a preferred school.
The real culprit in these cheating scandals, according to education experts and teachers, is the increased — and some say unfair — pressure on education officials from the government to meet a certain level of student performance. If they don’t meet the mandated standards, school systems could lose funding, and with less money to pay for staff and supplies some people could lose their jobs.
President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 and former President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top created an “accountability system,” education experts said, linking student performance to Title I funding, which are federal grants given to schools with a high percentage of low-income students.
No Child Left Behindwas the first law requiring federally-mandated tests to measure student performance. Prior to the law, states and cities used achievement tests to measure what students were learning to decide how effective their instruction was and what changes they might make.
Harvard professor Dan Koretz, author of the book The Teaching Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better, said cheating by teachers — in many cases sanctioned or encouraged by administrators — is fueled by the misuse of standardized tests to measure school performance which has pressured teachers to raise scores beyond what is reasonable.
“Some cheat and, ironically, all of these shortcuts undermine the usefulness of tests for their intended purpose—monitoring what kids know,” Koretz said.
Koretz and other education experts believe standardized tests can be a useful measure of students’ knowledge, when used correctly.
A survey by the Washington Teacher’s Union and EmpowerED echoes Koretz’s assertion that teachers feel pressure to cheat. The survey found that almost 60 percent of teachers said that they’ve felt pressure or coercion from superiors to pass undeserving students.
“There has been strenuous pressure to hit specific targets regardless of student performance or attendance,” an anonymous D.C. public school teacher said on the survey.
Another teacher said, “Administrators, parents, and teachers just want good grades so the school system and the student look accomplished on paper.”
A study conducted by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, showed that over 45 percent of Black students nationwide attend these low-income or high poverty public schools. Meanwhile, only 8 percent of White students attend these same schools.
Education expert Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said the result is that cheating is found primarily among majority-Black schools, which lack the educational tools and support they need in order to adequately serve their students.
“There are teachers who’ve felt pressure because they don’t feel that they have the capacity or support to achieve expectations through realistic measures,” Polikoff said.
Koretz said the cheating underscores the fallacy of rewarding and punishing schools based on standardized tests.
The answer “is to reduce the pressure to meet arbitrary targets,” he said. “Another is to routinely monitor how schools are reaching their targets. Yet another is to broaden the focus of accountability in schools to create a more reasonable mix of incentives.”
Four Chicago-Area Teens Selected to Participate in Mentoring Trip to Disney Dreamers Academy
Four Chicago-area teens are among the 100 extraordinary youths from across the nation announced by Disney to participate in its immersive, transformational four-day program, March 8-11, at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
The program, which is entering its 11th year with a new “Be100’’ campaign, and is hosted by entertainer Steve Harvey and ESSENCE Magazine, highlights Walt Disney World Resort’s continued commitment to the next generation of teens by inspiring them at a critical time in their development to make a difference in their lives and to relentlessly pursue and realize their dreams.
“Each of these 100 girls and boys has proven themselves to be exceptional as students and as human beings, so it’s an honor to have them join us at Walt Disney World Resort,’’ said Tracey D. Powell, Walt Disney World Resort vice president of commercial management – resorts and Disney Dreamers Academy executive champion. “It is our hope that this potentially life-changing program will help create the next generation of great dreamers and achievers.’’
Participating students, known as “Disney Dreamers,” embark on a journey throughout the Disney theme parks and behind the scenes, turning the vacation destination into a vibrant classroom for students to discover new careers, pursue their dreams and interact with Harvey and other motivational speakers and celebrities. Among the celebrities who have participated in the past are singers Patti LaBelle and Mary J. Blige, NBA legend and business mogul Magic Johnson, gospel music star Yolanda Adams, NFL superstar Cam Newton, plus TV personalities such as “The Chew’’ co-host Carla Hall, “Good Morning America’’ co-anchor Michael Strahan and ABC correspondent T.J. Holmes.
Additionally, students participate in hands-on, immersive career-oriented workshops, ranging from animation to zoology. Each student is given important tools such as effective communication techniques, leadership skills and networking strategies.
“Inspiring our youth to dream big and chase those dreams is a personal mission,” said Harvey. “Having a dream is one of the most important things in life. That is why engaging with these students is an annual highlight for me, and the 2018 Disney Dreamers Academy will be no exception.”
The four Chicago-area students are: Mariah Barnett from Aurora; Tabitha Willis from Country Club Hills; Tamela Trimuel from Harvey and Jayvion Rice from Riverdale.
Since 2008, Walt Disney World Resort has provided all-expenses-paid trips to more than 1,000 students, plus a parent or guardian, to participate in the annual Dreamers Academy. The students are selected from thousands of applicants who answered a series of essay questions about their personal stories and dreams for the future.
“At ESSENCE, we are committed to impacting the leaders of tomorrow,” said Michelle Ebanks, president of ESSENCE Communications. “Every year, we continue to be impressed by the exceptional students selected for Disney Dreamers Academy, and it is our privilege to play a role in encouraging them to achieve their goals.’’
CHICAGO CRUSADER — After School Matters® is now accepting teen applications for its Spring 2018 program session. More than 400 programs in the arts, communications and leadership, sports and STEM will be offered at nearly 150 Chicago public high schools, as well as Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library and community organization locations throughout the city. Programs will continue to be offered downtown at Gallery 37 Center for the Arts and at The Michael and Karyn Lutz Center for After School Matters in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood. Teens can search and apply for spring programs online at afterschoolmatters.org. The online application is also available entirely in Spanish.
In total, more than 7,000 paid apprenticeship and internship opportunities will be available to Chicago high school teens this spring through After School Matters. Participating teens will be eligible to earn a stipend of up to $425 (depending on the program level), and interns can earn up to $10.50 per hour.
“After School Matters is committed to providing teens with inspiring and engaging opportunities to explore their interests,” said Mary Ellen Caron, chief executive officer of After School Matters. “Through our programs, teens are able to further develop their passions and expand their skill sets, which we know will help them succeed in college, careers and beyond.”
After School Matters’ unique programs offer teens an opportunity to develop their current skills while incorporating critical 21st Century skills like collaboration, problem solving, social awareness and more. Multiple independent studies and data have confirmed that teens who participate in After School Matters programs have higher Freshmen On-Track rates, improved school-day attendance and higher high school graduation rates than their peers.
A few of the exciting programs offered throughout the city this spring include:
Kelvyn Park Bikes – Sports
Location: Kelvyn Park High School, Hermosa
This program offers teens the opportunity to explore the biking industry. Teens will develop hands-on mechanic skills, organize community events and participate in weekly field trips. Upon successful completion of the program, teens are eligible for summer employment with the Chicago Park District and West Town Bikes.
Museum 44 – STEM
Location: National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, Pullman
Using pop culture, various media and professional mentors, teens will produce a television show in this program. Teens will learn about music production, film production, marketing, promotions and media from industry professionals while working on a film that can improve their communities.
Teatro Americano – Arts
Location: OPEN Center for the Arts, South Lawndale
In this program, teens explore different aspects of theater production and performance including acting, movement, voice, improvisation, writing, marketing, costuming, and stage management. At the conclusion of the program, teens present a full-length play in a professional theater setting.
Teen Arts Council – Arts
Location: University of Chicago Arts Incubator, Washington Park
The Teen Arts Council collaborates with the University of Chicago Arts + Public Life initiative to develop skills in arts administration, community engagement and event planning, while providing opportunities for other teens to engage with the arts. The Council members work with university staff and local partners to develop projects and public events for various audiences.
Territory Urban Design Team – Communications & Leadership
Location: Roosevelt High School, Albany Park
In this program, teens will work in art, architecture, urban planning, entrepreneurship, community organizing and public health. Teens will have the opportunity to research, design and implement ideas to activate public spaces.
Urban Hardball and Softball – Sports
Location: Columbus Park, Austin
Teens in this program will train to become umpires and coaches by learning the rules of baseball and softball and developing their leadership and communication skills. Teens are able to practice what they learn with little league programs.
Windy City Harvest Youth Farm – STEM
Location: Neighborhood Housing Services, North Lawndale
In the Windy City Harvest Youth Farm North Lawndale program, teens learn what it takes to grow healthy food in the urban environment. Participants grow, harvest, sell and cook more than 40 varieties of fruits and vegetables and showcase their work at a community famer’s market.
Teens can search and apply for Spring 2018 programs at afterschoolmatters.org. All After School Matters programs are free and open to Chicago teen residents who are at least 14 years of age (16 years of age for internships) and are high school students. As part of the application process, teens interview with program instructors to discuss their interests. Chicago teens are encouraged to apply early, as program opportunities fill up quickly. Application features include an interactive map to help teens search for programs and a full Spanish translation on a mobile-friendly platform. For questions about programs and applications, call 312-742-4182 or email applications@afterschoolmatters.org. Para mas informaciónen Español llámenos al 312-846-7106 o mándenos un correo electrónico al espanol@afterschoolmatters.org.
