Get on the bus America

Today I posted on my home page the above picture with the following comment and link to the Makana song "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPgQV0YgWI
Get on the bus people, the middle class is shrinking, our pensions are sinking, and for the first time in our history our children are going to be less well off than their parents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPgQV0YgWI
Occupy America,
Jesse

The silence and apathy in America as we accept closing public schools in our poorest and most needy communities, leaving our university students with massive loan debts, and the constant union bashing is deafening. How can we accept this premise that our children should expect less. Is the American dream dead?
I was blessed to have Mrs. Stansfield. She was Black, and our Honor's English teacher. She taught everyday like everything in the world depended on her teaching, and years later I realize how much it really did. God rest your beautiful soul Mrs Stansfield, thank you, thank you, and thank you. She prepared me for the silence and the apathy of the masses with Langston Hughes's Let America be America again. It's worth returning to the poem and her lesson.

Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

We were young, urban, and of course responded as young people do...It's cool, and kind of like it is written for now Mrs. S, the hook was baited, and she had us on her line.
Ah, she never let us off easy, no we did not write a five paragraph essay, or any persuasive essay. We studied it, we dug into it, we compared and contrasted it to a dozen other poets, and we studied the historical context of slavery, immigration, poverty, racism, and the labor movement. I can't imagine any teacher taking the time to do that in this insane time of covering the Common Core. Although something deep in this soul tells me there are teachers still breaking the mold, and honoring our profession by doing just that. Thank you, thank you, thank you mold breakers! You know the crazy one we love!

Well back to the lesson. It went on well over a week, and we read numerous other poets from all around the world making universal connections. In the end we ended up with something like Langston's poem makes Americans, what most would rather be kept secret. That dark side of that elusive American dream. An America not so beautiful, not so promising, an America not discussed in the news. It is as relevant as that old gospel: "Let justice roll down as waters and rightness as an ever flowing stream!" And yes she brought her bible in, and yes she brought Dr. Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech in. She brought it all in, remember she taught like life itself depended on her teaching. We even read Marcus Garvey. I fell in love with Marcus Garvey in her class while she played Bob Marley's "Redemption song for us."  She taught us like we were her own children. We knew this from her actions in our classroom everyday.
Oh, I almost forgot I don't remember one single teacher being observed by any administrator in my entire schooling, or any newspaper believing printing our test scores worthy of print. Certainly no one evaluated Mrs Stansfield. Oh, and none of what she taught was on the curriculum. Why this beautiful Black Peal brought it all in, and I am the better for it. Her teaching core wasn't common, it was extraordinary.

Students are blessed not by the teachers who toe the line, but by the ones who break all lines. They certainly won't be blessed by those who toe the Common Core line
Hear's to you Mrs Stansfield with my deepest love and appreciation. It will be in your honor that I join the 50th Anniversary March on Poverty next week.
You are my hero,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4NS2zdrZc Here's to the crazy ones link

Resisting Mandates in Connecticut

2002 failing policy: NCLB
2008 failing policy RTTT,
2012 Common Core State Standards, and the test to measure our compliance.
Now Ed refromers it's three strikes and you are out.

Fighting that third strike

Tough luck getting passed the CC if you are a priority school district, (poor district). State funding often requires these districts to blindly follow all DOE initiatives. In reality state initiatives are really Federal mandates that since NCLB was implemented come without the real resources to implement them out.
After 12 years of NCLB/RTTT some school districts in Connecticut have began to question reform policies. Thus Connecticut has Special Masters to oversee them, (Windham and New London), and in Bridgeport people like Paul Vallas.
My opinion is their mission is to remove any administrators or teachers who question state initiatives.
At this point in urban districts more and more teachers don't believe any of their hype. This cuts across length of teaching experiences. Especially teachers with advanced degrees, they are required to know education research. Something people like Vallas, Duncan, and Rhee know little about. Research is important, because it helps us avoid doing the same stupid things over and over again.

One peice of research Ed Refomers missed

One of the most important literacy research studies in the history of American Education is:
"The First Grade Studies" (Guy Bond and Robert Dykstra, 1964-67). These comprehensive studies researched how young children begin to learn how to read. (27 different individual projects coordinated by7 27 different directors in which a cadre of researchers compared first-grade reading programs from 1964 to 1967. (A recap from (www.weber.edu)

They research 3 basic questions:

1. To what extent are various pupil, teacher, class, school, and community characteristics related to pupil achievement in first-grade reading and spelling?
Answer: Negligible. “To improve reading instruction, it is necessary to train better teachers of reading rather than to expect a panacea in the form of methods and materials”(p.416).

Too bad our NCLB policy makers did not pay attention to this research. They went on to spend billions of dollars on Reading First Schools that force prescribed literacy programs on schools. 6 years later the findings indicated third graders in these schools actually lost comprehension. Plus the only group to show any comprehension gains was the control group, (these are the groups that did what they already were doing). Now you why, the Reading First Schools experiment ended. Of course, no one was fired, no one was repremanded, no one was held accountable for the 6 billion dollars spent on this U.S. DOE reform experiment. These edunation reformers operate across the nation without repricussions, they are above accountability, and in the case of Paul Vallas even the law in Connecticut.

Getting back to the questions

2. Which of the many approaches to initial reading instruction produces superior reading and spelling achievement at the end of the first grade?
Answer: classrooms using an integrated approach, which combined systematic phonics with reading for meaning and writing, far surpassed those using mainstream basal programs. “No one approach is so distinctly better in all situations and respects than the others that it should be considered the one best method and the one to be used exclusively “ (p. 416).

Once again too bad our NCLB Policy did not review the literature before they wasted 6 billion dollars over 6 years on non-integrated basal programs. These education reformers are above the research, we are told they operate like CEO(s). Funny, I know of no sucessful private scetor ventures that operate with paying close attention to research. 

3. Is any program uniquely effective or ineffective for pupils with high or low readiness for reading?
Key finding the persistence of project differences in reading achievement, even after adjustments were made statistically for differences in pupil readiness for reading. Reading achievement is influenced by factors peculiar to school systems over and above differences in pre-reading capabilities of pupils. (1997, p. 415).

Now, what might two of those differences be? Poverty, and quality preschool experiences, you know two of the things Finland when after as it moved from the bottom to the top of international education rankings.

Secretary Rod Paige who opened up our National journey into NCLB said poverty doesn't matter, and was no early childhood advocate. With A trillion dollars they could have easily made Early-Childhood Education free and universal without raising one single tax dollar. Instead America’s public schools were handed new standards and testing. Something that has no historical data to indicate it has ever been effective anywhere in the world.

America's leading Ed Reformers have for over a decade done what no serious researcher would do. They cherry pick their studies, and over looked the "First Grade Studies" one the most respected research studies in education. They overlooked research studies on retention, correlations between high stakes assessments and drop out rates. They ruled out the ones that indicated a connection between heavy emphasis on high stakes assessments, and behavior problems and higher rates of special education identifications. It appears they overlooked anything that might question their objective of increased testing. 

A decade of massive failures later, they don't even cite any research, they enter in board untested experiments. This means they are turning more and more to people with little or no experience and knowledge of education research. Thus the former semi pro basketball player with no teaching experience, no school administrative experience is made U.S. Secretary of Education. Duncan's fellow reformers Paul Vallas, Michelle Rhee, and a host of others given the keys to the kingdom. 

WHY?

This leadership quickly realized that it does not take long for them to realize that even new teachers quickly lose faith in their reform policies. Thus, the reformers push for more TFA(s) in our public schools. TFA(s) perfect people to deliver DOE policies, because they won't stay around long enough to understand they are being used.

Coconspirators the Main Stream News Media

America's free press isn't so free these days, and they willingly supported every reform every step of the way. Why? Well, Judas betrayed Chirst with a kiss for 30 silver pieces. Our media these days owe it's soul to ALEC. Who do you think buys add time on our major news networks? You got it ALEC sponsors. If you are interested in more about ALEC: Dr. Morna McDermott has a nice utube video that connects ALEC to ed reform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvUMk1ro27E

WHY are Ed Reformers still force feeding these reforms on our schools : in my humble opinion MONEY! Our children, their teachers, and our public schools are for sale. 
I am fighting back,
I am rejecting their betrayal.
I am rejecting their "for sales' signs,
This is why I walked to DC,

This is why I marched with SOS,

This is why I am a BAT,

This is why I will join my SOSers brothers and sisters as they join the 50th MKL Anniversary March on August 24, 2013,

Still resisting and still marching,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

On my walk over the mountain this morning I listened to one of Momma favorites : the Staple Singers "I'll take you there" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3vgBzgYn4

If you need to know the way to DC...I'll take you there

It was never about improving public schools

Bruce Fuller (2009) said in Standardized Childhood, “This framing accents the importance of building a tidier system, one that incorporates the array of existing child care centers, then pushes to make their classrooms more uniform, with a socialization agenda "aligned" with the curricular content that first or second graders are expected to know. Like the common school movement, uniform indicators of quality, centralized regulation, more highly credentialed teachers are to ensure that instruction--rather than creating engaging activities for children to explore--will be delivered in more uniform ways. And the state signals to parents that this is now the appropriate way to raise one's three- or four-year-old. Modern child rearing is equated with systems building in the eyes of universal pre-kindergarten advocates--and parents hear this discourse through upbeat articles in daily newspapers, public service announcement, and from school authorities.”

Ed Reform 101. Alexey was only in middle school when his Mom removed him. Today he is a smart young man who last summer helped the hospice center by identifying and fixing tech equipment donations for their summer tag sale. He is one smart young man.  I should know, we worked with him in our Literacy Center at the university when he was an elementary student. Reading is an obstacle he climbed over, and made it his strength. He is a special needs child with an IEP, (Individual Education Plan). He is also a good reader, creative, and funny. In elementary school on Crazy Hair Day he dyed his hair orange, and got a Mohawk. He is one heck of a kid.
I met his Mom last week; she told me he is doing well, and getting ready to graduate from the private school he now attends.
Why did the public schools lose Alexey? What did this affluent suburban public school system do to Alexy to make his Mom remove him frm their schools?

In elementry he prospered; he had music, art, P.E. and reading. But then in middle school, they came for the music.  Alexey plays the French horn among other instruments. He loves music. One day his school decided to give their district writing prompt during the music class. This was not the  mandated state test, it was a practice test for the test.  Alexy has an IEP that indicates his legal right to specific modifications. The teacher dutifully gave Alexey the assessment. Rather than honor his IEP he was asked in front of his peers "Do you need help"?  He is a proud kid, a good kid, who loves music.  Alexy said "no, and he took his test during music.  Alexy sat through the testing, and handed in a blank paper.  Alexy's grade for music became a failing grade because of the same blank paper.  His Mom could not understand how this happened.  She could not understad why Alexy was failing music, and was later told it was because of the writing prompt assessment where he had received a ZERO.  

Remember this, no matter how they twist it, reshape it, stretch it, or deny it, this is not about Ed Reform improving our public schools. It’s about all the Alexeys’ out there who are being hurt and humiliated in our public schools. Trust me it was never about the data, it is about power, money, and control. The only question is, how many children have to suffer before we give them back their childhood?
Still Walking,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what my whispered prayers on my morning walk were today? I prayed for change, I prayed for strenght, I prayed for an America whose leaders understand that children are more than test scores. If you are wondering what I was listening to it was Old Crow Medicine Show's "I hear them all" http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=987owXK3iPI#! And oh yeah it's about the music, the art, and respecting childhood.