I know why they call it the school to prison pipeline

 I know why they call it the school-to-prison pipeline.

One of the hardest realities as Director of our Central Literacy Center is seeing the vast inequality of specialized services children receive. Children from affluent predominately white school districts have an abundance of specialized Tier 3, (one-to-one) support services. These children are easy to help, and often just need an extra push. In our center, every struggling receives the same level of support, one-on-one with a certified teacher twice a week. Equity is real here. Children come from surrounding communities, some from poor ones, and others from wealthy ones. No one pays anything, actually, our teachers pay 6000 dollars to complete their final 6 credits for their advance degree to become a Literacy Specialist. They provide services equivalent to 6000 dollars free to two children for 15 weeks. That equity is not the reality for Connecticut Public Schools.

Now, our children from poor predominately communities of color wait years for specialized services, and seldom if ever get those desperately needing one-to-one services. This places them far behind their peers. This is heartbreaking, unfair, and a direct result of inequality and not fully funding our public schools.

This is not acceptable, spending 23 billion dollars more On wealthy predominately white schools every year is immoral.

Enough is enough education reform mumble jumbo from policymakers and legislators, it is these vast inequities that are holding our children in communities of color back. This fault cannot be placed upon our teachers or our poor school districts.

Let me call out whose feet this blame can be placed on, a state that refuses to take responsibility for a school funding formula that fails any equity smell test. I call this out as blatant RACISM. Vast inequality in the richest state in the union is morally UNACCEPTABLE. Trust me this is not just Connecticut, this is all 50 states. How many years must past before Black, Brown, Poor and Special Education Children are given an equal chance? The answer is blowing in the wind.

I reject silence and indifference,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Central Literacy Center Director If you like to listen to the tune that inspired today's blog...its the cover of "Blowing in the Wind' by Peter, Paul and Mary. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6fAO4idaI <

Hispanic Heritage is for everyone

 

Hispanic Heritage is for everyone

Mrs. Sanchez my Spanish teacher is high school brought the life of Cesar Chavez to us. She taught Spanish, but the world was her textbook. While we were learning our Spanish, we were also learning about great contributions to art, literature, science, Human Rights, and music. she connected the dots of human rights across all the continents. She wanted us to see the beauty of language and of the people who speak it. Some of the cool kids thought she was corny, me I knew better, she was amazing. I was blessed with incredible teachers across all subject areas. 

I knew "Sí se puede", before President Obama ran for office, and so did he. Cesar, taught President Obama and Dr. Turner, that peaceful action can breakdown walls of injustice; Yes, it can be done.

Our teachers taught us about Cesar Chavez. I learned that in 1966 he walked with strikers on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to bring awareness to the cause of farmworkers. They taught about every Civil Rights activist that ever lived, the made sure we saw the connections between standing up for right and education. It was never about a job; it was always much bigger.

So, decades later in 2010, influenced by Cesar Chavez's walk, I decided to walk 400 miles from Connecticut to Washington DC to bring awareness to abusive high-stakes testing in our public schools. In 2015, I would walk it again protesting high-stakes testing and inequality in our public schools. 

Our teachers taught us about Civil Rights Activists like Cesar Chavez hoping those stories would inspire our own stories. They taught us there is no American History without, Hispanic Heritage, Black History, Women's History, Immigrations and Labor. America's story is all our stories. American History is all our stories, and everyday all our stories are relevant. 

Guess what teachers teaching students about Civil Right? 

Works,                                                                                                                                                            Dr. Jesse P. Turner

Central Literacy Center Director

Just in case you like to listen to the song that moved me today...its Barry Lane's Jesse Turner is a walking man trip down memory lane 2015 400 miles to DC
 > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSWx8YRTs4I&t=3s < 

Teachers know where the gold is!

 

It is important to follow the data. However, there is the data that matters, and there is the data that really matters. The data that policymakers, administrators, and the media consider important is important. However, the data that really matters comes from teachers who spend 5 days a week in the presence of the children they teach. There are only so many hours in a school day. So much is demanded of teachers that does not fit within the school day. This is one of the reasons we are losing young teachers. Too much to do with not enough time to do it. 

Policymakers and education reformers have our teachers using expensive and time-consuming online data collecting tools. Our teachers are chasing data, they already know. When people ask me who knows a child best. I always say the people closest to them, their parents, and teachers. 

Rather than have our teachers following their authentic real time observational data and intuitive understandings of the children they teach. We force them to engage in time consuming repetitious data, that has them second guessing what they already know. 

From my work with classroom teachers, this online data consumes 10 to 15 hours a week. 10 to 15 hours that use to be spent on finding ways to motivate learners. and with the demands of teaching today. We are losing experienced and new teachers because they are not given the time to act on the data that really matters. 

Teachers not only see the numbers, but they also see the child, they have essential knowledge about what motivates the children they teach. What teachers know often takes a back seat to the data policymakers value. I say the data that matters most is the real time observational data teachers have. The data the system often causing them to doubt. Or, feeling as if their voice does not matter. This feeling of doubt and being voiceless is in my opinion the number one reason we are losing experienced teachers today.

Those 10-15 hours of online data chasing prevents teachers from acting in real time on that rich Kid Watching Data that Dr. Yetta Goodman told me 30 years is a learning goldmine.

Teachers know where the gold is,                                                                                                               Dr. Jesse P. Turner                                                                                                                                      CCSU Literacy Center Director

If you like to see what inspired my blog today...its Barry Lane's What's Happening in our schools > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZLqsZzzzo < 

In case you want more Chuck Barry's "School Days" reminds me of > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHG5-GxI_Es <