Friday News Roundup

Here’s your Friday News Roundup –

A Tinseltown High School Where the Syllabus is Light, Props and Makeup (The 74)

“L.A.’s celebrity-back Royhal Film and Television Production Magnet program seeks to link minority students to behind-the-scenes jobs in TV and film.”

Celebrities like George Clooney, Don Cheadle, and Mindy Kaling have invested in this school, but here’s my question:

Why hasn’t the Los Angeles Unified School District created more of these types of partnerships with Hollywood and a host of other industries located in southern California?

We’ve talked about America’s attraction for falling in love with the “boutique” school, a school that can give a school district positive headlines but really doesn’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things because it doesn’t scale to give more learners the opportunity to participate in that special and engaging subject.

C’mon LAUSD! Break the mold and begin creating and scaling schools like this one so that more of your kids have an opportunity to access quality learning.

Texas’ Pick to Lead Houston’s Schools Used Aggressive, Polarizing Methods in Dallas (The Texas Tribune)

The Texas Tribune online reported earlier this week that,

“Mike Miles, the new state-appointed superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, started his tenure in a manner eerily similar to how he ended his embattled time in charge of Dallas Independent School. District: with everyone asking where he was.”

“During the first Houston ISD school board meeting led by the board of managers that the Texas Education Agency appointed as part of the state’s recent takeover of the district, many community members were upset they didn’t see Miles until he came in the very end. Eight years ago, after a tumultuous three years as superintendent of the Dallas ISD, Miles didn’t show up to his last board meeting.”

“Already, the manner in which Miles has begun his new positions in Houston is drawing comparisons with his short-lives stint in Dallas. Within a week of being appointed to lead Houston ISD, the largest schools district in Texas, Miles announced an overhaul of certain campuses and a new program that will pay teachers more to work with students struggling academically, steps that resemble his approach during his last superintendent gig.”

Ok, let’s get a few things straight.

Mike Miles was an under-performing superintendent when he was in Dallas. That’s why he was there only three years.

If you’re wondering, it was Mike Hinojosa’s second stint as Dallas ISD superintendent when Big D began to improve learning for their kids.

Mike Miles is good friends with Mike Morath, the current Texas Commissioner of Education. Are you starting to figure out why Miles got the Houston job?

This idea of paying teachers extra money to teach hard-to-learn kids is not new. In fact, Houston had this type of program back in 1984, the first year I started teaching there.

Houston ISD will improve the schools necessary for Miles, Morath, and the rest of their state cronies to go away, but real change for black, brown, and poor learners in the district will continue to struggle as it always has.

NAEP Scores ‘Flashing Red’ After a Lost Generation of Learning for 13-Year-Olds (The 74)

Reading and Math Achievement is Getting Worse, Nation’s Report Card Shows (EducationWeek)

I’m not even going to add more summarization to these two articles other than their titles. That’s enough.

Here’s my question – does anyone care that our public education system is tanking? Does anyone care that our public education system is failing millions of black, brown, and poor kids across the country?

All the educational pundits seem to think all of this is due to COVID-19 and the mental health crisis that followed.

But what if it’s more than that? What if all of this data that is staring us in the face tells us that it’s time to change our public education system into more of a learning system?

Can we change? Will we change?

Where Teachers Say Professional Development Falls Short (EducaitonWeek)

According to an article found in EducationWeek online this week,

“Most teachers say that their professional learning isn’t providing them with much access to expert advice, especially when it comes to supporting English learners and students with disabilities, according to a new survey of educators from the RAND Corporation.”

“’There’s a sort of disconnect,’ said George Zuo, an associate economist at the RAND Corporation, and the lead author on the report. ‘The specific needs that teachers had were not always aligned with what professional development was able to provide.’”

Just like we now can build individual learning plans for kids, we can also build individual plans for adult learning leaders.

Then why aren’t we?

I’ll tell you why.

Because it’s a lot easier to pack teachers into a cafeteria or auditorium to listen to a speaker drone on about the important of taking care of the mental health of English learners than it is to create an individual learning plan that addresses the specific needs of those English learners, along with all of the rest of the students found in the school.

Sometimes, we are so stupid it hurts.

Til Monday. SVB