THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Chicago & Oakland

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Chicago & Oakland

Recently, I’ve become curious about Chicago. Arne Duncan, Obama's U.S. Secretary of Education Nominee, has been the CEO of Chicago public schools for several years. That city has been dealing with issues similar to those here in Oakland (teachers blamed for low student achievement, the closure of existing, neighborhood public schools and the re-routing of low-income students to other types of schools, all maneuvered by the power and dollars of educational philanthropist businessmen who seem, to me, incredibly misguided about what children really need).

Oakland’s parents might be interested in knowing about Parents United for Responsible Education (P.U.R.E.), an impressive, independent public school parent organization in Chicago. One of the things they do is to give a great deal of support to their equivalent of OUSD’s School Site Councils (called Local School Councils). Please take time to look at their website.

I’ve been involved with School Site Councils here, and have seen how hobbled they are by their limited parent involvement, and the rigid, one-sided agendas of certain participants. In my imagination, I can see their tremendous potential and wish it could be better tapped. I give my kudos to P.U.R.E. for the work they’ve done in Chicago because they are definitely on the right track.

Here’s a basic comparison between Chicago and Oakland.

CHICAGO V. OAKLAND

City population, 2006 estimate: 2,833,321 vs. 397,067

Black/African American: 36.8% vs. 35.7%
Asian: 4.3% vs. 15.2%
Latino/Hispanic: 26.0% vs. 21.9%
White: 42.0% vs. 31.3%

Public school enrollment: 380,787 (13.4% of city pop.) vs. 46,431 (11.7% of city pop.)

Black/African American: 45.4% vs. 36.2%
Asian: 3.5% vs. 13.7%
Latino/Hispanic: 39.7% vs. 36.6%
White: 8.3% vs. 6.2%
Low income: 83.6% vs. 64%
Limited English/English Learners: 14.8% vs. 30%
High School Dropout Rate: 12.5% vs. 10.5%

Teachers

Avg. Teacher Salary: $74,839 vs. $53,869*
Statewide Average Teacher Salary: $60,871 vs. $63,323**
Avg. Teacher Experience: 12.3 years vs. 11.4 years

Other facts

Median home cost: $510,400 vs. $573,800
Cost of living: 26.45% higher than US average vs. 40.73% higher than US average
Student spending: $6,681 vs. $6,289

My sources are the Illinois State Board of Education (2008 Report Card for City of Chicago), the California Department of Education (DataQuest and Ed-Data), the US Census Bureau (QuickFacts), and Sperling’s Best Places.

Other interesting sites out of Chicago that cover local educational issues are Substance News and SmallTalk, Mike Klonsky’s blog. I have also discovered Michelle Obama's public magnet high school, Whitney M. Young. Here is its report card (Young Magnet High School).

* & ** This comparison was totally shocking. Is it a wonder why OUSD teachers might not be satisfied with their paychecks? The word that comes to mind is “deprived.”

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Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Chicago & Oakland

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