January 2014 – blackwomanteacher |

Facing the near-Antarctic temperatures, I walked over to Bethany Baptist Church this morning to attend the What’s Up with Newark? roundtable discussions. I am a member of the host committee for Young People Organizing for Change, a coalition of young professionals who are targeting a particular population to get more involved in their communities, and the group that organized this morning’s event. In Newark, there tend to be islands of political activity. Any young person trying to eat usually is attached to one camp or another, and their talents and ideas can get overlooked. But this morning, that wasn’t the case. We were speaking loud and clear about what we see as the most pertinent issues. Unfiltered. No sugarcoat.

Articulate. Intelligent. Moving. These are the words that first come to mind when I reflect on the conversations of which I was a part. My area of expertise is what has come to be known as urban education, so I was super-ready to contribute to the “The Miseducation of Education” conversation. I ended up doing more listening than speaking (though if you know me, that’s not unusual for me); however, this time it was because I was drafted to take notes. There were a few other educators at the table, but most were speaking from different roles. Listening to my peers, they were hitting all of the major points of contention in education debates today—the role of charter schools in public education systems, culturally relevant teacher preparation, the importance of engaging parents in their children’s education, and more.

A blog will always be a personal platform, so I get my chance to speak regardless! On a serious note though, an observation I made through the education discussion is that, when discussing the dysfunctional public education system and proposing solutions, we tend to have a narrow point of view as to what these solutions could possibly be. For example, I am not convinced that we need to continue to follow this combination factory-agrarian model of education that still exists. Factory in the sense that students are shuffled along from one grade to the next solely based on age and agrarian in that most public school students have two months off in the summer. I know we haven’t strayed from the plantation system figuratively, but I don’t literally see any kids picking cotton in Newark. Internships during the last year or two of high school and over the summers would be real career-readiness, and we’ll expand our notion of what comprises institutionalized education at the same time.

My observation actually applies to the other two discussions—“Poverty=Crime” and “The Cycle of a Dollar”—as well. At one point, we were discussing the possible impact of the decriminalization of marijuana. Essentially, the individual drug seller would be displaced by the institution. Again, riveting dialogue—real talk, as they say—and it gets at a deeper discussion of market forces and other economic concepts I only know on a superficial level, but we still remained within the realm of capitalism. Small businesses and keeping our dollars in our communities could be approached from other political-economic perspectives. Maybe there exists a shade of capitalism that could serve our communities’ needs, but we have to acknowledge that it is an inherently unequal system. A strong structure of checks and balances would have to exist; otherwise, any solutions proposed out of capitalism will ultimately perpetuate a class system with some group shouldering an inordinate amount of burden.

At the next event, our mini-conference on February 15^th “Empowering Change Agents,” I look forward to the drafting of an agenda. Carving out a space just for the discussion itself is vital; in organizing, this is when we can build relationships and develop common understandings. But taking action—there’s nothing like taking action. And today was another experience in that continued renewal of my activist spirit.

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September 2013 ushered in not only a new school year but new curricula across Newark Public Schools. These changes come on the heels of official Common Core implementation throughout classrooms in September 2012. In just one more year’s time, the first standardized tests aligned to Common Core will be administered.

But are we ready? A group of New Jersey legislators wants to slow down the process, delaying the use of any test until a thorough report is issued. With all the other fast-tracked changes occurring in NPS—namely the closing, consolidation, and selling of schools; new curriculum implementation; new teacher and administrator evaluation systems; the abolishment of essential staff positions like attendance counselors—the passing of this bill may teach the district administration how to put change in perspective.

A senator from southern New Jersey and four assembly members from northern New Jersey introduced a bill (S2973) in September which calls for the creation of a Common Core State Standards Evaluation Task Force. There will be nineteen members, seemingly to represent stakeholders of differing interests. Members will be appointed on recommendations from the two state unions (NJEA and NJAFT), the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, and the New Jersey School Boards Association. Four parents of students enrolled in a New Jersey public school will be members, and four experts in mathematics and language arts literacy instruction and curriculum will be members. Two members each of the two legislative branches will sit on the task force, as well as the Commissioner of Education. The final member of the task force will be a representative of a nonpublic school located in New Jersey.

The task force has ambitious goals to be accomplished in six months:

describe the actions taken by the State to date to implement the common core state standards and outline a timeline of any subsequent actions to be taken;
compare the common core state standards for English language arts and mathematics to the core curriculum content standards in language arts literacy and mathematics that existed prior to the adoption of the common core state standards;
estimate the full cost for school districts to implement the common core state standards, including those costs already incurred by districts and those to be incurred in the future;
analyze students’ performance on the State assessments prior to the 2012-2013 school year and in the 2012-2013 and subsequent school years (the analysis shall assess changes in the achievement gap between different racial and ethnic groups and different economic groups); and
study and evaluate the issue of student and family personal data mining and a student’s right to privacy.

At least four public hearings held in different regions of the state must also occur for the purpose of gathering information regarding the implementation of the common core state standards, the mining of student and family data, and student privacy rights. No assessment connected to the Common Core—PARCC or otherwise—will be able to be administered prior to the issuance of the final report.

It is worthy to note that an identical bill was introduced in November in the New York State Assembly. And other states have taken commensurate actions to delay implementation of Core-aligned tests and/or use of the tests to make high-stakes decisions, including Massachusetts, Florida, Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, and Louisiana. Critiques of Common Core at this stage of the initiative are overwhelmingly about the lack of time given to enable a deep understanding of the standards. Teaching materials still need to be developed. Current high school students have only had these standards in their classes for a couple of years. Any Core-aligned test would be developed with the assumption that these students have mastered all of the preceding grades’ standards, making the test unfair and invalid.

Critics are also concerned about the elimination of local control of their public education systems. Parents in South Carolina protesting Common Core by participating in a “National Don’t Send Your Child to School Day” rally cited this as a worry. And a bill in Congress, introduced just two weeks ago, wants “to ensure that decisions by the Secretary of Education to award grants or other assistance to States or local educational agencies are not contingent upon the adoption of specific educational curricula.”

Back on the home front, Melissa Tomlinson, an NJEA rank and file member, started a petition on change.org with the purpose of gathering signatures in support of S2973 and urging NJEA leadership to conduct its own evaluation of the path of current education policy initiated with the adoption of the Common Core. Of all of the individuals the petition was addressed to, only Executive Director Ed Richardson has responded on the website. He acknowledged that NJEA was in full support of the legislation and would “be targeting our efforts after the new legislature convenes in mid-January.”

Actions like requesting signatures for a petition are often the impetus for a groundswell of organized, democratic participation in the public policy arena. If nothing else, S2973 will provide us information as to how to move forward in providing educational equity in the state of New Jersey.

Month: January 2014

What’s Up with Newark?: Unfiltered Discussion

Is Slowing Down Common Core in NJ Enough?