May 9, 2013
CSUMB's LS380 class action project was to tackle the issue of the new speed humps, bumps, and lumps around campus. Please watch our video and share = )
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CSUMB's LS380 class action project was to tackle the issue of the new speed humps, bumps, and lumps around campus. Please watch our video and share = )
Video Research - Aydin Bal
A historic background of bilingual education: This is a discussion of bilingual education in the State of New York and in the United States. It discusses a case brought by ASPIRA, a non-profit group, against the State Board of Education. The result was one in which the State of New York was forced to implement Lau v. Nichols (1974), in effect establishing bilingual education. The video goes on to briefly discuss the history of bilingual education and what was done with students before establishing bilingual education. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIppleeIjk (6:01)
California Rural Legal Assistance: This video is a history CRLA and it discusses the aims of the organization, to address the needs and concerns of the poor and rural communities. CRLA was responsible for the betterment of working conditions of farmworkers, one example is stopping the usage of the short handled hoe. In 1976 California enacted the Bilingual Education Act sponsored by the CRLA. Also, in Diana v. California State Board of Education (1970) CRLA attorneys brought a civil case against the State at the request of farmworkers who argued that their children were being placed in special education classes due to their lack of command of English. As a result the state was forced to address the dis-proportionality of non-English speaking students in special education classes. CRLA continues to help the rural poor and addressing present social inequalities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYeHxpaaurw (7:04)
KOMO News clip (out of Seattle) - District suspends 'race and social justice' class after complaint: This news clip informs about the cancellation of a "Race and Social Justice" class after parents complained. Class students voice some of their thoughts about the cancellation of the class. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/District-suspends-race-and-social-justice-class-after-complaint-195205531.html?tab=video&c=y (2:10)
Team Bloggers: The Jellies
Found Poem:
Beginning to End:
Marginalized Communities who were experiencing
Social and behavioral difficulties in and outside school
Lack of care and resources for education
Inadequacy in providing aspirations, opportunities, role-models
Started from minority parents
Ended with the cultural deprivation
Sunk into the social psyche of society
Superior moral and intellectual qualities
Aim to proliferate pluralism not melting differences
Utilizing complex life experiences, voices, cultural practices
Embodiment of the “At risk” student
Non-dominant student’s invaluable educational resources
Design better educational contexts for ALL students
Started from Minority parents…
Tanka Poems:
Poem #1:
Deficits to Strengths
aspirations providing
experiencing
strengths of at-risk students life
Core responsibility
Poem #2:
Embodiment of
strengths of at-risk students life
experiencing
of non-dominant students
better context for students
Poem #3:
Social justice for all
Race, class and ability
Boys and girls
Beyond outcome disparities
Construction of disability
Video Researchers: Aydin Bal
Kindness Is Society: Participatory Social Justice for All
Aydin Bal
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBuN5kzQwa4
Published on Mar 29, 2012 (3:56)
The United States arguably has the greatest justice system on Earth, however, if the poor and disadvantaged cannot access that system then they cannot receive justice. The United States ranks next to last in the developed world for providing access to justice. Help us change that. Make a difference.
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4nkuN3Oflc
This video is a clip from “Waiting for Superman” which is a documentary about improving our schools and education system. This video also talks about how going to a specific school can shape whether you succeed or not and how the playing field isn’t fair and equal for everyone.
3. http://edge.ascd.org/_Disproportionality-A-Little-Dose-of-Honesty/BLOG/2360305/127586.html
This website had a video of the results of Disproportionality in education. It also pertains information and encouragement to make a change.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0BWRa7FhpE
This video talks about the disproportionality in special education. It calls not only for teachers to understand their culturally diverse students, but also for curriculum to be more culturally diverse. This video also talks about how more teacher training is necessary to change the representation of different cultural groups.
Web Research
DoSomething.org is a not-for-profit group for young people (13 - 25 year olds). The goal of the group is to have young people work for social change in their communities or an a larger level. They have different causes that they care about like Education, Homelessness, Discrimination, etc. The website provides resources for it's members to be able to fight for the cause(s) they care about without having to speand any money. For example, they list ways in which young students can organize a "School Supply Drive" or to start a "Tutoring Program" in their schools among others. http://www.dosomething.org/cause/77/act-now
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: The Source for News, Ideas and Action is a "non-partisan initiative that brings together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to find genuine solutions to the economic hardshits" of millions of Americans. Among the issues the group focuses on is the impact of poverty on education. Among the resources offered to learn about this issue are: academic and government reports, news headlines http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/education_and_poverty.aspx
NPR.org segment titled: Former 'No Child' Supporter Says It's A Failure- Diane Ravitch discusses with NPR host Michel Martin about issues being faced today by the American education system (the conversation lasts approximately 7 minutes, the transcript is also included). http://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162643516/former-no-child-supporter-says-its-a-failure
Author Spotlight: The Jellies
Background info:
Diane was born on July 1, 1938 in Houston, Texas. She had seven siblings and attended public schools in Houston. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1960. She received her Ph.D. in history from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science in 1975. Diane currently lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Her ex-husband is Richard Ravitch and they have two sons together. They had a third son, but he died from leukemia at the age of two. She worked as Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. Her responsibilities were for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education. From 1997-2004 she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board. She also held the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution from 1995 to 2005. She is an honorary life trustee of the New York Public Library and a former Guggenheim Fellow. She was a member of the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University) from 1999 to 2009. She was a member of the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation from 1996 to 2009. Ravitch began her career as an editorial assistant at the New Leader magazine, a small journal devoted to democratic ideas. In 1975, she became a historian of education with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. At that time she worked closely with Teachers College president Lawrence A. Cremin, who was her mentor.
Passion and Inspiration:
Diane has a passion about getting a better education for all. She serves as an advocate for public education through government service. She has said that she got her passion for writing from her rabbi and school teachers from Houston. She had an early interest in history focusing on public education. Diane spent many hours in the library reading about public education. She later led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards.
Current Focus or Work:
Diane is a historian of education. She is a Research Professor of Education at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, she was a U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. She will be speaking at different graduation ceremonies this year like Queens College and Stanford. She also has a blog which she posts about different educational issues frequently.
Published Works:
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010)
Edspeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon (2007)
The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2003)
Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform (2000)
National Standards in American Education: A Citizen’s Guide (1995)
What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? (with Chester Finn, Jr.) [1987]
The Schools We Deserve (1985)
The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980 (1983)
The Revisionists Revised (1978)
The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805–1973 (1974)
Here is a link if you would like to purchase any of her books: http://dianeravitch.com/dianes-books/
She blogs at dianeravitch.net, a site which has had nearly 3.5 million page views in less than a year.
Web Researchers DJ-CA
Kindness Is Society: The Plight and Promise of Social Justice in Public Education
Diane Ravitch
http://www.teachersforjustice.org/
This is a website for teachers who are for social justice in education. Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) is an organization of teachers, administrators, pre-service teachers, and other educators working in public, independent, alternative, and charter schools and universities in the Chicago area. We have come together based on our commitment to education for social justice. We are working toward classrooms and schools that are anti-racist, multicultural / multilingual, and grounded in the experiences of our students. We believe that all children should have an academically rigorous education that is both caring and critical, an education that helps students pose critical questions about society and "talk back" to the world.
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2009/mar09/social-justice.html
This is a newspaper article about Multiculturalism and Social Justice in American Public Education in the Education Reporter, a newspaper of Education Rights.
http://dianeravitch.net/
This is a link to Ravitch’s personal blog. She speaks a lot about educational reform among other topics. She has posted more than 2000 times since she started the blog.
http://redthread.utah.edu/public-education-needs-social-justice-education/5358
This link discusses the importance of good education and what that entails. It also covers why social justice is an important aspect that public education needs.
http://saveourschoolsmarch.org/event/12th-annual-teaching-social-justice-curriculum-fair This is a website for teachers, parents, and concerned community members to come together to organize fundraisers and write letters to President Obama or federal education officials to have their voice heard and/or state their concerns.
Discussion Facilitators: The Jellies
“There are no simple questions and no easy answers; what there can be is a commitment to unpacking the questions and making them more and more challenging and exploring the difficult of answering then.” (Page 73)
Sapon-Shevin illustrates this quote and then she talks about a poem she has placed in her wall. A part of the poem says “Live the question now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Do you think this is a true statement? How can you relate the first quote to what the poem says?
“Our discomfort often comes from the fact that as adults we have learned not to notice, not to mention, not to name things we see around us - have been encouraged not to see, not to comment about. We all started out inquisitive and interested, but in the name of comfort, politeness and not making waves, we have been silenced.” (Page 74)
What can we do to help children stay interested and aware of their surroundings when the world is trying to make them silent?
At what point do we begin thinking that asking questions or having different perspectives is rude? How does society make you feel incapable of challenging different perspectives? How can we change society?
“When one of my daughters was in elementary school, her teacher told us “Your daughter cares too much about other children.” The teacher told the story of when another child pencil broke and started crying, she took out an extra pencil to share with the other student. Instead, the teacher told the student, “just do your own work and ignore other children.” (Page 74)
As teachers, how would you react to this situation? Do you want your students to be caring and think about possible reactions and responses, or ignore anything not relevant to their self?
“I want my children and all people to see themselves as active agents of change, not passive recipients of a world filled with strife and despair.” (Page 78)
What can we do as future teachers to show our students that they are capable of standing up and making a change? How can we motivate them to not sit back and not speak up. How can we set an example for them?
What is your role in making the world better and what kinds of relationships do you need to have to do that work?