Warren on ESSA

Senator Warren speaks at ten at Clark University on ESSA.
Blogging/tweeting to follow...hashtag is #GurelLecture
UPDATE: the video is here: skip to 1:52
We've just been told "We believe the Senator is in the vicinity..."

Clark provost Davis Baird: Clark "is the end point of the cradle to college pipeline"
two decades have partnered with WPS
particularly proud of Clark's MTA program
introduces Mr. Gurel who is here
symposium will follow lecture, speaking of opportunities in urban education

Ben Forman, MassInc
thanks Clark for their support in education
community-wide learning opportunities in Gateway cities
Gateways home to 1/4 of our youth
"important that all these children reach their potential"
speaks of Globe report on increasing economic segregation increasing
economic inequality rooting themselves in Gateway cities
Question for us all is how to give all students that opportunities
"to support the growth and vitality of our middle class"
has been "disheartening" to see trajectory of economy
take heart from Sen Warren standing alone and bending policy as a result
one of only two members of her party to vote v ESSA bill
resulted in greater attention to equity

Warren: thanks for very generous introduction
thanks Gurel himself for being here
"has been a real champion of public education"
"critically important to all of us...public education in America"
didn't have ambitions to be a senator as a child
"I did have ambitions, ambitions to be a school teacher. For me, that was the tops."
"Teaching is not a job; teaching is a calling."
second grade teacher told her, "Betsy, you know you could be a teacher someday"
organized her dollies for school: "we were heavy on reading and snacktime"
every child has a real opportunity and a chance to succeed
quotes from Brown v Board : Education "a right which must be made available to all on equal terms"
"all deliberate speed"
"across America, racism ran deep, and its hold was strong"
"Problem We All Live With" focuses on Ruby but "when state and local governments blocked Ruby, the federal government was there for her"
First ESEA was "part of our civil rights laws"
withholding funding from school districts that failed to integrate
was meant to counteract the effects of poverty
focused on schools that needed it most
LBJ: "education the only valid passport from poverty"
today, majority of schoolchildren live in poverty
in largest 100 cities, children most likely to attend majority poverty schools
public schools now majority children of color
strong role of federal government "more important now than ever before; we cannot abandon our children"
Obama called ESSA "a Christmas miracle"
NCLB "was so unpopular, that passing anything that left No Child Left Behind was WOOHOO!"
as important as it was to replace it, very important to ensure that we replace it with a bill that is true to its roots
early Republican version of the bill was effectively a block grant: let states do what they wanted with the money
fought for insurance on how the states would use that money
one is for states to target their efforts towards kids who need it most
final bill is "a whole, whole, whole lot better" than it was before
focus on high schools that graduate only 2/3rds of kids
require states to report better data "crosstabulated data"
able to look at different subgroups of students, look at them systematically over time
calls herself "a real data nerd"
"a step in the right direction, but it is only one step"
college: more people of color borrow money to go to college and they borrow more money to do so
ten percent of college students are in a for-profit college
they are sucking down 20% of federal aid
dropouts of those colleges are responsible for more than 40% of all defaults of such loans
Warren calls for a crackdown
federal government can ensure that a debt-free college experience is available to all students
can fight back against resource inequality in our schools
The federal government:
"can ensure that young Dreamers can access the same great education as their peers...no punishment just because they were brought to the United States as children"
make sure children of color are not disproportionally suspended, are not disproportionally pushed into sped
"can make sure that every young girl has equal access to sports, science, math, whatever she wants to study"
never forget where she came from: what is possible to a kid who tries hard
"these aren't other people's children...these are our children: every single one of them"

and that's it from Warren, who gets a standing ovation

ESEA renewal: Senate votes today

The Senate votes today on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, or ESEA renewal).
In Massachusetts news:

A little news for ya: @SenWarren will vote in favor of #ESEA today. Voted against before, but believes accountability issues are now met.

— David S. Bernstein (@dbernstein) December 8, 2015

Grade 3-8, 10 testing is going to stay in

I realize that no one is going to thank me for pointing this out, but I feel honor-bound to.

I continue to see calls via social media for some sort of hold on the NCLB renewal (ESSA is the new abbreviation, for "Every Student Succeeds Act"*) with a push to drop the grades 3-8 and 10 testing requirement.

That isn't going to happen.

The issue of grade level testing was raised in the deliberation in both the House and the Senate. In the Senate, nothing quite as far as dropping that requirement was proposed; an amendment that would just allow parental opt-out and notification failed, though. There also was considerable concern on the Democratic side if the rollback of federal oversight around testing would lead to civil rights abuses (Massachusetts, you may remember that this is why Senator Warren voted against the bill).
In the House, with its Republican majority, an amendment that would allow states to opt out of federal accountability entirely failed as "too conservative," though the parental opt-out passed.
The testing requirements are in the conference committee bill because that is what a majority of both the House and the Senate support; it's also pretty clear that it would be required to get the President's signature.

I'd just as soon this weren't the case; in my own testimony regarding this, I urged otherwise. It is clear, though, that the successor to NCLB is going to have grade-level testing in it.


*and enjoy the possibilities of "it's a"

Senator Warren on budgeting

possibly more on this later, but for now: 

"We have got to align our spending with our values" @SenWarren
— Tracy Novick (@cascadingwaters) April 25, 2014

Post-election day panel

Moderated by Jim Braude; panelists are Michael Jonas of CommonWealth magazine, Jennifer Braceras a  (conservative) commentator and political columnist, and Robert Haynes, president emeritus MA AFL-CIO
Notes going up at the end...everyone's talking too fast to post as we go! Sorry for any typos; I'll clean it up later.

Pinkie swear

Fun photo today in the T&G of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren "pinkie swearing" for better schools yesterday at her Worcester event. I'd love to know that this means that a) we're going to have an actual conversation about education in this election and b) that we could have someone pushing back on the current national nonsense that passes for ed policy.