Supporting Public Education in the Era of DeVos

Today, while I was proctoring the interim assessment I'm required to give by the district, the US Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. I heard this news during nutrition, my 10 minute break between third and fourth periods, while students were coming in and out of the room, finishing up homework and studying for tests. I wasn't particularly surprised and went on with my day.

Woah, Betsy. 

I wrote postcards against this nominee. I called Republican senators who might be swayed. I am highly invested in this fight for our public schools. But the vote came down to 50-nays, 51-ayes and the confirmation carried.

To be honest, I was surprised by the unity of the Democrats. DeVos's reform agenda is aligned with many DFERs. These Democrats For Education Reform, like Senator Booker who sat on the Alliance for School Choice board with DeVos, are pro school choice, private charters, testing, accountability, and vouchers, and also anti-union and anti-teacher. President Obama's two prior picks championed many of the same causes DeVos favors. She takes things a bit further with vouchers and lacks experience in public education, but, to be honest, she isn't very different than Sec. Arne Duncan or Sec. John King.

So, guess what I will do tomorrow? Well, after this interim assessment is over, I will go back to my public school, my classroom, my students, and I will teach. For now, things will carry on as before, and I will continue to believe in my job, my students, their families, and our schools. That is the true narrative of our public schools. There are amazing things happening inside our schools if you take the time to look beyond test scores or aging facilities. I see them every day. The "fake news" of our failing schools is a story that has run its course. If you want to know how to fight back against DeVos and for our schools, invest some time and/or money in a public school, and then, send your kid to one.

2015 Blog Review

This is post number 33 for 2015. I hoped to post 4 posts per month, 48 for the year. It's the third most in a year for this blog and readership is pretty steady. Thanks for tuning in, y'all.

My third most visited post for the year is "The End of Our Fertility Journey." It summarizes the long journey David and I took to complete our family with lots of links to previous posts I made along the way. I hope couples struggling with fertility might stumble upon this blog and know that their struggle is one many couples share and that wherever they are on this journey, the only way out is through.

My second most popular post is part of my 12 Days of Blog Posts: "Two Kid Life." I introduce my 12 Days idea and describe the gratitude David and I try to feel as we live out our two-kid dream.

My most visited blog this year and of all time is "Fasting Again..." I've written a great deal about public education and the attacks from the corporate education reform movement. This post summarizes my one-day fast to show support for a school in Chicago. I'm not sure if it is the labels I posted or the desire for people to understand the subtext behind struggles for schools like the one going on at Dyett, but over 3,000 people visited this post, way more than any other I've posted.

There were three other posts that managed over two-hundred visits, so I think I'll link to them as well.  I think they do show that my blog is a little bit all over the place. After all, these are random bits.

"Remembering To Kill A Mockingbird" about teaching, reread, and writing about this classic American novel.

"Back to the Grind" about heading back to work after maternity leave.

"Culmination Address for the Class of 2015" about the end of my journey this past school year.

So, with that, 2015 is in the books. See you in 2016!

Fasting Again as the War Against Public Education Wages On

I know, I look tired and hungry. 

I'm fasting today in solidarity with #FightforDyett, a community movement in Chicago to save a beloved school.

I fasted during testing in 2003 to protest the high stakes testing and punitive measures of No Child Left Behind. I blamed Bush for NCLB, but as congress revamps the bill this week, most democrats, even the most progressive, continue to support the "accountability measures" that corporate education reformers use to foster distrust in our public schools, shut down campuses like Dyett, and privatize our public education system.

With deep pockets in The Gates Foundation and Walmart's Walton family, the reform movement's attack on teachers and students can feel too big to fight, but we are fighting back. We will not surrender our classrooms. Communities like Dyett are fighting back. Representatives like Mark Takano, a former teacher and public education advocate, are fighting back. Our unions who represent our teachers are fighting back. Our parents who send their students to us and trust their public schools are fighting back. We will continue to fight against the failing school narrative and show that our teachers are teaching, our students are learning and despite what they throw at us this is happening at schools everywhere.

Today I fast, but I also teach. Then, I go home and get my little ones to bed. With an empty belly, I write this hoping that when my kids are ready to attend our neighborhood school, it is still there. I hope the attacks will cease, that our schools will be fully funded and filled with joy and music and play and sport alongside the academics. I hope our schools have all they need, in my neighborhood, in South Los Angeles, in Chicago, and New Orleans. That is what our families and communities deserve. That is what I fight for it.

For more about my fight for public education, explore these posts:

To Test Prep or Not to Test Prep?

Fighting for Democracy: Some Lessons From Egypt

Testing Season Is Upon Us! But It Doesn't Have to Be...

My Take on Waiting for Superman

Testing Fast Anniversary

Thank You Patriots, Our Public School Parents

The Schools Our Communities Deserve

Civil Disobedience

Testing Season Is Upon Us! But it Doesn't Have to Be...

It's that time of year. Day light's saving is here. Early warm days remind us that spring is around the corner. Glorious summer awaits. But first... first things first. It's testing season.

I've already been asked to take my students to the computer lab to help prepare them for the new Smarter Balanced Field Test which is all online. Proponents of these assessments like to say, "Look, no more silly bubbling! Now you are challenged by questions which really show what you know!"

Kiara has had enough of this testing injustice. We're opting out!

But to that I say, please. This test, just like the SAT, will be an excellent indicator of family income levels. Students who read online, have their own computers, and use the technology they have for reading and schoolwork are at a huge advantage on this test. And guess what. There are still multiple choice questions. And the short answer English questions, well, I'm curious who will score them and how many of my students will actually complete them within the time frame given. And if early field tests from New York are any indicator, our students will do poorly. Not only will they struggle to read lengthy passages followed by just a couple of questions, not only will they battle with questions that require them to think "the Common Core" way, but their scores will tell them they are not proficient, their teachers are failing, their schools are failing, and any small bit of confidence remaining in our public schools will erode away to nothing. Awesome. Sounds like a great way to evaluate students, teachers, and schools.

Want to read more to debunk myths about Smarter Balanced Assesments? Here's a great start.

But I took my classes to the computer lab. I helped my students get an early preview of the materials and I will again for two days next week.

I complain to colleagues, tell them what a waste it is. "Well, I don't see it going away," one answered back.

But it could.

And next month, all of my students will spend eight hours taking this test. It is a "Field Test," not a real test at all. And the prep I've been doing in the computer lab? Practice. Practice for the practice. Not a real test. Practice. Allen Iverson has a few things to say about this.

The thing is, NONE of my students HAVE to take it. I wish I could tell them all this, but I'm not allowed to inform students or their parents that it is within their rights to opt out. Seriously. I cannot tell my students or their families or I could be removed from my position. I thought about doing it anyway. Let's test the district and see if they really would go after me, but after a conversation with my husband, we decided I should keep my mouth shut.

But it's so hard for me. I believe the right thing to do would be to talk with parents about the changes happening in education and the roles we all play. I want to tell them our students and our schools are not just data points on a district map. I want them to know about their right to opt out. I want them to know that if they exercise this right they will be taking a stand for our students, our teachers, and our schools.

There is a simple opt out form, but it could be more challenging than just submitting a form.
Read this post from a parent who opted out.

But I would love to find out what would happen if parents at my school, and schools all over our city, state, and country did the same. Imagine if we took our schools back. Just imagine.

Spring could be a glorious season once more. 

Testing Fast Anniversary

Ten years ago this week I fasted as a form of personal protest against testing. Ten years ago I sat in the same room where I watched the Towers in New York fall and decided I had to do something about the way we look at our public school system. I wrote this on April 25, 2003:

I am opposed to high stakes testing.  The No Child Left Behind Act requires these types of tests to evaluate students, the professionals who instruct them, and the school communities where they do their work.  These test results, good or bad, are used to determine the quality of education at a school, but reveal an incomplete picture of our academic communities.  They oversimplify the educational needs of America’s diverse student population and all those who are hard at work in American public schools. 

Since 2003, Bush left office, No Child Left Behind ended, but in its place Obama launched Race to the Top which continues to value high stakes testing and pushes to link test scores to teacher evaluation. Now, rather than schools qualifying for federal funds, districts must apply and plan to integrate Department of Education policies. Education has become a race rather than a right with the influences of corporate philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad holding more weight than educators.

Noah reading his poem at our class open mic.

But day-to-day life in my classroom, in most classrooms, probably doesn’t look so different. Since 2003 I have taught thousands of students. We’ve read books, write stories, essays, and

poems; we discuss novels, ideas, and grammar. We take tests. But my school has changed. We have lost half of our enrollment, some to new much-needed neighborhood schools, but many more to charter schools.

Caro and Yisel's poem battle on independence!

No Child Left Behind succeeded in causing the public to lose faith in our schools. But I haven’t and I am here in the trenches. I know on every campus, no matter what the API label, there are good teachers, bright students, and hard-working families making sure their schools work. Every morning I head to school. My students are there and we do the work of learning. Our school, even though it’s been labeled a failing school for a decade now, succeeds in so many ways, ways most will never see by looking at our test scores.

To Test-Prep or Not to Test-Prep?

It happens around this time every school year. Testing looms just after spring break and instead of thinking about the experience my students have in my classroom, instead of caring about their love of reading and writing or what they hope for in the future, I start worrying about how well they will bubble. I get fed all of this test-prep garbage and because, "Noriko, accountability is important," I've swallowed it all.

This year I don't want to. I want to go old school. I want to trust that if I've taught my students how to think, if I've done my job and given my students reading and thinking strategies they should do just fine. Am I morally obligated to do our school's test prep program that feeds into an accountability system that year after year discredits our school system, my teaching and my students' learning? Or am I morally obligated not to do the test prep?

Will one year of Ms. Nakada make a difference? If my students do not review the process of elimination, proper bubbling technique and test-release questions this year, will it make a difference to students who know school as a testing factory? I'm not sure it matters in either direction, but would I be failing my students if they got the year off?