Oregon Allows Educators to Be Punished in Secret

Oregon Allows Educators to Be Punished in Secret

Several years ago, when she was a high school teacher, a new assistant principal at Ockley Green Middle School broke a rule, partly because Portland Public Schools wasn’t vigilant about communicating and enforcing the standard.

Twice, Regina Sackrider drank alcohol while on school field trips, first on an overnight stay and later when she ordered a drink with a meal. She didn’t appear drunk and no one got hurt, state discipline records indicate. Both times she wasn’t the only adult drinking. Portland Public Schools officials didn’t feel the conduct merited action, but the state agency that licenses educators did after an investigator discovered the drinking while looking into an unrelated matter.

The ensuing investigation found her guilty of unprofessional conduct. State regulators put her on probation for two years, but also granted her a little-known mercy: Her misconduct would stay secret.

Since 2009, regulators have had the ability to punish educators in private as a way to give them a conditional second chance. This is done through an informal letter that goes only to the educator and the educator’s employer.

This method keeps secret from the public not only the conduct of the educator, but the actions of the educator’s bosses. For example, the secret Teacher Standards and Practices documents that The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained detail not only Sackrider’s mistakes but also reference “a lack of training and policy conformation on the part of the school district…”

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Parkland Students Are Still Going Strong. Their Message to Students: Vote

Parkland Students Are Still Going Strong. Their Message to Students: Vote

They came from all over Virginia, battling gray weather and buckets of rain, to see the faces of a student-driven movement that shows few signs of stopping.

They came by the hundreds, young people and older ones—at least a third of the attendees were parents, judging by a show of hands—to hear first-person testimonies from the survivors of the mass shooting in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. They came to learn how they might be involved in ending gun violence. In a few cases, they came to protest.

The message they got from the speakers at this traveling town hall, over and over, was this: Vote.

As it matures over the course of its months-long Road to Change tour through the United States this summer, the March for Our Lives movement’s broad goal of ending gun violence is increasingly focused on voting, one of the most essential of all civic responsibilities.

The rally here on Thursday was the 24th since the tour hit the road in June. It took place a stone’s throw from Virginia Tech, the site of the nation’s second deadliest school shooting, in 2007, which left 33 dead.

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Teacher warns HISD could lower teachers’ expected salaries during upcoming year

Teacher warns HISD could lower teachers’ expected salaries during upcoming year

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Is cash-strapped HISD decreasing teacher salaries for the upcoming school year? That’s that claim one teacher is making in a viral Facebook post that’s racked up more than 18,000 views and 700 shares.

Victor Treviño III, the teacher behind the video, feels like the current fight over teacher pay is déjà vu of a similar battle in 2016.

Treviño says he’s most upset the plan’s reportedly been in the works since March, but he only recently found out about it after being tipped off by a concerned HISD employee.

“Obviously teachers, we don’t get into this profession to become millionaires, but at the same time, we don’t want to be undervalued. We don’t want to be exploited,” said Treviño, who’s taught at Austin High School in southeast Houston for 11 years.

In a now-viral video, Treviño warns the district is planning to lower teachers’ expected salaries in the upcoming school year, while at the same time, he says, adding high-level, high salary administration jobs.

“If you really care about students’ achievement, we need to be able to attract and retain the most highly qualified teachers in those classrooms,” said Treviño, who wants HISD to scrap the idea and also begin a new superintendent search.

“That draft of the salary schedule freezes salaries at their current level,” said Andy Dewey, Executive Vice President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, the union for HISD teachers. “Nobody would get less money next year.”

However, Dewey says if that draft proposal is adopted, those employees will not make what they expected to make based on the current salary schedule.

“That’s where Victor is saying the pay cut is coming from, the fact that they are not getting the amount of money that was promised them for next year,” Dewey said.

Dewey says if the board approves freezing salaries, that change would come after the July 13 deadline for teachers to resign and potentially find higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

“Frankly, I believe if HISD tries to do that after the resignation date, they’ll be in breach of contract,” he said.

Dewey says union officials will meet with district higher-ups on Aug. 2 during their monthly consultation. He hopes officials will back off the proposal.

KHOU requested an interview with HISD officials Thursday and emailed several questions, including whether the draft proposal was still under consideration and how long it’s been in the works. In response, HISD sent the following statement:

“Teachers will not see a pay decrease in their salaries for the 2018-2019 school year.”

N.J. Schools Sued Over Policies Preventing Immigrant Student Enrollment

N.J. Schools Sued Over Policies Preventing Immigrant Student Enrollment

The 12 school districts require parents to provide a New Jersey driver’s license or other state-issued forms of identification that undocumented immigrants likely would not possess, in violation of both the state and federal constitutions, the ACLU says in its suit filed Thursday. Under current laws and policies, schools may only request proof of a child’s age, residence, and immunization record when registering them for classes, the ACLU says.

“New Jersey’s state Constitution calls for free public education, and that applies to every single child – no exceptions,” ACLU-NJ staff attorney Elyla Huertas said in a statement. “In a state where one in five residents is foreign-born, at a time when our president has made the exclusion of immigrants a key part of his policy agenda, it’s more important than ever for every school district in New Jersey to meet its obligations, both to New Jersey’s families and to the Constitution.”

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that had denied undocumented immigrant children an education in the public school system. After a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Mexican school-age children who lived in Texas, the high court ruled that the law had violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In a landmark ruling, the high court held that “education has a fundamental role in maintaining the fabric of our society” and that it “provides the basic tools by which individuals might lead economically productive lives to the benefit of us all.”

The lawsuits were filed in state Superior Court in the individual counties where the districts are located, one month after thousands demonstrated in Washington to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and separation of undocumented children from their parents at the Mexican border. The protest was organized by the American Civil Liberties Union and several other civil rights organizations.

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Deeper Learning Digest: How One High School Integrated Deeper Learning Into Its Curriculum

Deeper Learning Digest: How One High School Integrated Deeper Learning Into Its Curriculum

“We wanted to increase rigor and our students’ academic abilities, so I thought [deeper learning] would make sense for our school setting.”

That’s Jennie Canning, lead STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) teacher at Pittsburgh Brashear High School, explaining why she and Brashear’s principal, Kimberly Safran, reached out to the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) to help rethink their approach to instruction.

In this week’s Deeper Learning Digest learn how All4Ed provided direct technical assistance to teacher leaders at Brashear on implementing strategies that support deeper learning.

Elsewhere in this week’s Digest, what happens when schools are linked together in networks that share models, tools, and professional learning experiences? Expanded access to deeper learning experiences for more students.

This week’s Digest also explores dynamic math instruction and how to make project-based learning stick through professional development. And if you want to learn more about how adolescents’ tick, do we have a resource for you.

Deepening Students’ Learning at Pittsburgh Brashear High School

After the Pennsylvania Department of Education identified Pittsburgh Brashear High School as a priority school for improvement, the school’s educators began to rethink their approach to instruction.

Teacher leaders wanted to identify promising practices that would improve engagement for the school’s 1,230 students, most of whom are African American or come from low-income families. They also were looking for ways to increase academic rigor and promote cross-curricular instruction to enable all students to achieve academic excellence. So what did they do and which tools and resources did they use?

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Natasha L. Jones Named Principal at W.B. Goodwin Elementary

Natasha L. Jones Named Principal at W.B. Goodwin Elementary

Natasha Jones

Natasha Jones

Charleston County School District this week announced and welcomed Natasha L. Jones as principal of W.B. Goodwin Elementary School. Jones joins Goodwin from Memminger Elementary where she has served as assistant principal since 2014.

Jones began her teaching career in 1997 in Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District at Sharon Elementary School where she taught fifth grade and served as Lead Teacher. Three years later, Jones moved to Charleston to begin work as a fourth grade teacher at C.C. Blaney. Over the next several years, Jones taught fifth grade and held an administrative internship at Mary Ford Elementary, as well as taught sixth grade and middle school math at Jane Edwards Elementary while serving as the school’s textbook coordinator and PBIS Lead. Jones departed the classroom in 2013 for one year to work for the district’s Office of Teacher Effectiveness as a professional development coordinator. The following school year, Jones joined the staff of Memminger where she has served for the past four years.

Jones has been a member of several South Carolina Department of Education cohorts including the Aspiring Principals Program (DAPP), Foundations in School Leadership (FSL), and the Assistant Principal Program for Leadership Excellence (APPLE). Additionally, she has participated in Flip Flippen’s Capturing Kids’ Hearts training and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) training.

Jones holds a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Johnson C. Smith University and a Master of Education in Elementary Leadership and Supervision from The Citadel.

 

Community and school step up to support teen denied Kalamazoo Promise scholarship for being homeless

Community and school step up to support teen denied Kalamazoo Promise scholarship for being homeless

 

By Fox 17

A Kalamazoo teen who learned just before graduation that she wouldn’t be eligible for the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship is getting some support today.

Wednesday, Fox 17 told you about Zaviona Woodruff, who due to her family becoming homeless in 2016, moved out of Kalamazoo, even though she continued to attend Kalamazoo Public Schools. The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship promises college tuition for students who graduate from the Kalamazoo Public Schools after attending from kindergarten through 12th grade and live in the city.

Woodruff had a 3.57 GPA and was an all-star on the bowling team. She had recently toured Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan and loved it.

Read more at https://fox17online.com/2018/07/26/community-and-school-step-up-to-support-teen-denied-kalamazoo-promise-scholarship/

Deepening Students’ Learning at Pittsburgh Brashear High School

Deepening Students’ Learning at Pittsburgh Brashear High School

After the Pennsylvania Department of Education identified Pittsburgh Brashear High School as a priority school for improvement, the school’s educators began to rethink their approach to instruction. Teacher leaders wanted to identify promising practices that would improve engagement for the school’s 1,230 students, most of whom are African American or come from low-income families. They also were looking for ways to increase academic rigor and promote cross-curricular instruction to enable all students to achieve academic excellence. So what did they do?

Specifically, the educators wanted guidance on how best to nurture students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills and abilities to collaborate, communicate effectively, and direct their own learning—a set of skills collectively known as deeper learning competencies. So, in 2017, the leadership team from the school’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) Academy contacted the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) for direct technical assistance on implementing strategies that support deeper learning.

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Trump Ed. Dept. Announces New Career and Technical Education Grants

Trump Ed. Dept. Announces New Career and Technical Education Grants

Education Week logoStates: Got an idea for supporting the transition for high school Career and Technical Education students into postsecondary education and the workforce? The U.S. Department of Education wants to hear from you.

The department has created a new, $3 million grant program aimed at helping states provide apprenticeships in STEM fields (that’s science, technology, engineering, and math) during high school. The deadline to apply is July 17. The department will be holding a webinar on the program on June 5, 2018.
You can register for it here.

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What Would a Merged Education and Labor Department Look Like?

What Would a Merged Education and Labor Department Look Like?

Education Week logoBy Alison Klien

President Donald Trump’s proposal to scrap the U.S. Department of Education and merge it with the Department of Labor reflects the administration’s priority on workforce readiness and career development. It is likely to require a heavy lift on Capitol Hill, if past proposals are any guide.

The creation of a Department of Education and the Workforce, which the administration proposed June 21, aims to help the nation’s schools catch up to counterparts in other countries that handle both issues in one agency, including some that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited on a recent swing through Europe.

“I saw such approaches during my first international trip as the U.S. secretary of education to schools in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom,” DeVos wrote in an Education Week commentary that appears in this issue. “Each country takes a holistic approach to education to prepare students for career and life success…”

But congressional Democrats overwhelmingly panned the proposal, which would almost certainly need their votes to pass. Republicans said the idea is worthy of consideration but haven’t introduced legislation to make it a reality.

Attempts to get rid of the Education Department, or to mesh it with another agency, go back decades. In 1981, the Reagan administration tried to bust the department down to a subcabinet-level agency, to no avail. And former Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis., pitched a similar plan back in 1995. That plan also failed to gain traction.

Educators and advocates are highly skeptical of the latest proposal.

One local superintendent worried about the message it sends…

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