This Thanksgiving we have so very much to be proud and thankful for relative to the education of underserved children living in the poorest areas of Santa Clara County. And last week will prove to be one of the most important weeks in local school governance in decades.
Santa Clara County is quickly becoming the epicenter for educational accountability in California, if not the nation. This is primarily due to the courageous leadership by several of our local superintendents, including Vincent Mathews, San Jose Unified; John Porter, Franklin-McKinley; and Dan Moser, East Side Union High School District; as well as their respective school boards.
What occurred on Wednesday and Thursday evenings of last week demonstrates that San Jose/Silicon Valley is on the right path to end inequality in educational opportunity for underserved children. These decisions could have major consequences for the increase in the quality of life in Silicon Valley for many decades to come.
Yet the California Teachers Association wants to put up legal roadblocks against doing what is proper for our underserved children. CTA’s interest appears to be in keeping the status quo. The status quo has not done right by low-income children for decades. Thirty-one percent of SCC Latinos drop out of school before completing high school.
It deeply saddens me, as a former grievance chair, vice-president and president of my local CTA union (1975-81) as well as a strong advocate for unions my entire career, to listen to CTA’s tired arguments. CTA’s current position lacks foresight and is stuck in 20th century thinking. For the sake of teacher union efficacy in the 21st century, CTA’s positions must be honed and refined. Their obstruction to new federal models of accountability is one of the major reasons California did not receive any Race to the Top federal funds. Our children and their teachers deserve better leadership.
Charter schools, even though I have been a reluctant supporter over the years, are embraced by both sides of the political aisle today. I now believe their freedom to innovate provides a mechanism for academic improvement. Rocketship is a prime example. Former Mayor Susan Hammer, Councilmember Sam Liccardo and U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren in September urged the SCCOE Board to approve the Rocketship Charter schools.
Last Thursday afternoon, I was verbally attacked for my vote and the vote of my colleagues in approving unanimously (7-0) the countywide Rocketship schools (#6 in Alum Rock, and #7 and #8 scheduled to open in San Jose Unified in August 2012). Lisa Vieler, CTA staffer, told me in front of SCCOE teachers and Service Employee International Union members that “the Board (SCCOE) has shown it is completely willing to violate the law relative to countywide charter schools, in opposition to its own county counsel advice, and the views of five Districts that such action does violate the law. CTA believes the countywide charter approvals violate the law.”
Perhaps at some future date the California courts will sort out whether or not we violated the law. We fervently believe our vote was harmonious with state law. County counsel is preparing findings for our decision that will demonstrate how our vote was consistent with state law relative to countywide charter schools.
Suffice to say the unanimous vote was very well-received by the 700 parents and community members that packed the county office to capacity in four standing-room-only conference rooms. The primary source stories from the parents passionately told about how some traditional public schools did not provide a learning environment where their children excelled. They told of their new experiences with the learning climate at Rocketship, which is rich with high expectations for academics and behavior. Each and every speaker told us their child is bound for college, because Rocketship instills in them the value of a college education. Rocketship has a longer school day (as compared to traditional public) and a hybrid model of instruction using a computer lab for up to two hours per day for each child.
There are several bold and courageous leaders that made decisions last week on behalf of children over adult politics. The San Jose Unified Board of Education, after a recommendation to approve by Superintendent Mathews and his staff, voted unanimously (5-0) to approve a Rocketship Charter school in their district. This collaboration could mean a dawning of a new day for those schools still needing to find ways to work toward increasing student achievement across the board for all students while closing the achievement gap. One shining and unique example of a CTA leader who is charting new ground is San Jose Teachers Association President Stephen McMahon, who no doubt helped shape the school board’s decision.
In addition, the East Side Union High School District Board of Trustees, after a recommendation from Superintendent Moser and staff voted 4-1 to authorize an extension of the ACE Charter School from a 6-8 grade school to an all encompassing 6-12 grade school in the ESUHSD.
Not since the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 have local school districts been shaken. That 1954 decision demanded school districts to make decisions on what is constitutionally correct for students in public schools, separate but equal was not good enough. It is a new day in San Jose/Silicon Valley, where we have stated loudly that the entire village must step up and cooperate and collaborate at the highest of levels to ensure a quality education for each and every child. Some districts stepped up to the plate and hit a home run, while others stayed with the old, tired legal arguments that spend taxpayer money on lawyers instead of children.
Thank you to the men and woman who have blazed the trail for underserved children in public education. May your Thanksgiving Day be one where you get the thanks you deserve for your bravery to do what is right.
Allright, Joe.
Yes, you did take a courageous stand and I think you need to get some credit for working for diversity.
Joe, diversity in education is a macro level issue.
From K-12 to university, we need to fight for diversity.
Case in point. State universities are cutting back opportunities for students wanting to go into public education, it is cost too much to attend a college and train to be a teacher.
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY
+For the past six years, it has focused its efforts to award fellowships to student leaders for seminars in Austria for a European business group, the Salzburg Global Fellowship is nothing but a think tank for a corporation. Student leaders are strongly discouraged from speaking out about budget cuts, and they get a free month in Austria. Check the university website.
+What is my point?
A student facing years of debt for college is not going to go into teaching, Joe. They are going to get MBAs. So your Latino students are going to have to stay back, because there will soon be very few students to teach them, unless they speak German.
I agree with Board President DiSalvo to a great degree and commend him for his paradigm shift, but I want to give a big shout out to all of my colleagues on the Santa Clara County Board of Education as for without their courage to put student interests ahead of adult politics none, none of this would be possible. Let us not be fooled – but for County Board of Education granting several charters on appeal from local districts that ‘just say no’ – we would not have the number of charter schools we have today in this county. And but for the County Board’s ability to approve countywide benefit charter schools as the law provides for, underserved students would have little to no hope of being emancipated from systems that have not worked for generations. I too applaud the few districts that have approved one or more local charter schools, but given the depth of the problem it is going to take a much larger magnitude of change to make an immediate and positive affect on the trajectory of student outcomes.
In conclusion, the County Board supports excellent public education be it traditional or non-traditional (charters) and both paths should be judged, evaluated on student outcomes.
Craig Mann
Member, Santa Clara County Board of Education
Please see the email that I sent directly to your Board address. Thank you.
You and Joe are passing private notes back and forth?
If it’s none of our business, why even mention it?
You jelly bro?
> You jelly bro?
Jealous?
Of you?
At least they let me into the homeless shelters without delousing.
Mr. DiSalvo:
I applaud your efforts and I applaud what appears to be a genuine concern for Santa Clara County youth. That said, the realist in me is convinced that educational and economic equality will never exist in this country. This is not the result of some cabal engineered by the rich (they could not care less), but actually a result of so many individuals who profit off the misery and dire circumstances of others.
When it comes to education, too many people make money off the backs of the less fortunate and disadvantaged. For example, rather than truly promote and encourage non-English speaking students to learn English, your postulated “epicenter for educational accountability in California” instructs countless students in so many native tongues. Why? The answer to that question is simple: ESL teachers and administrators of such programs make more money. There is really no monetary incentive to get a kid out of an ESL class and mainstream them. If that was truly the goal of ESL teachers and administrators, they would happily have put themselves out of work long ago. They never will. They profit off of someone’s continuing struggle.
Lest you or your readers of the blog think I’m a complete cynic, I do realize there are many individual ESL teachers who are well-intentioned, and do not have an ulterior motive of securing and preserving better remuneration by intrinsically thwarting student progress. However, the system itself is the problem, and not the solution. The well-intentioned ESL teachers and administrators are following in the footsteps of Sisyphus. How are they enjoying that teaching block boulder?
When it comes to the CTA and its leadership, these power hungry, duplicitous individuals deserve future reservations in the Ninth Circle with Judas. These fraudulent grifters are in it for themselves, and the kids are just political pawns.
Again Mr. DiSalvo, I laud your efforts, but am concerned with a misguided assumption that you seem to possess. You ascribe to a prevailing attitude in America, that all kids should be college bound.
I will argue that having all kids college bound is counterproductive to this country’s future success. Most people should never matriculate to a four-year college or university in any country. Dare I sound like an elitist, but most individuals to not possess the prerequisite IQ to attend college.
But in a misguided effort to level the so-called “playing field,” our nation has already watered down college courses in this country so that the masses can be coillege bound. Big mistake. This is not only folly; it is dangerous.
In an Orwellian display of 2+2=5, a mantra has been inculcated into many of my fellow citizens: If you don’t go to college, you won’t amount to anything. This belief is harmful to us as a nation.
I happened to benefit from a superlative liberal arts education at the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College, and that education has paid off in affording me the opportunity to work with the BBC, ABC News, CBS News, and other venerable media outlets. But my ability to convert my educational opportunities into job assignments is the result of having professors who were more concerned about student achievement over publishing papers and books of their own. This is a rarity at most universities, while the “publish or perish” rubric is in full effect on most university campuses.
We must all be aware of and beware of grade inflation at private high schools and public high schools. There are a host of 4.0 students matriculating to university and college campuses who have no business attending their school of choice, or any college or university for that matter.
Meanwhile, there are a host of non-college bound youth who seem to successfully muddle through life without ever looking at a college catalogue. These individuals get real jobs in the blue-collar world. Yet, these individuals are loooked down upon by the college-attending Brahman. Well, I’d rather “slum” with Tony The Plumber, Beer Distributor Pete, Barkeep Mike, and Igor The Mechanic. These guys have practical educations that have relevance in the real world. Plus, many blue-collar folk educate themselves, and they read for pleasure, knowledge, and self-awareness. They do not engage in the garbage in and garbage out mentality on too many college and university campuses, where beer-bonging students are just seeking grades.
A sign of the coming apocalypse is my stepsister. No, she’s not some demonic succubus, but a professor at the University of Arizona. She and her husband have blazed a trail in higher education by coming up with innovative ways to teach remedial English.
Joe,
I knew that the County of Ed was going to approve the 3 charters . My last comment to the previous article on the RocketShip issue stated that the County has a record of approval of charters regardless of what school boards say on appeal . The CTA / NEA is not for charters , and that might be an overstatement on their part . Regardless I congratulate you on your stand .
I applaud SCCBOE for courageously approving charter schools. The CTA and CA Ed Code has created laws and agreements that serve not the kids of our county, country and state, but their own interests. With California law having so many exceptions to the “at will” employment law that the exceptions swallow the rule, employees, including teachers, staff and administrator, are sufficiently protected. Collective Bargaining Agreements are choking our systems and our kids, even those from the affluent side of the county. Seeing first hand what the charter schools can do that the regular public schools cannot, (yet still be held accountable even more so than regular district schools) it seems a no brainer to grant charters. I commend the Board Trustees, and those like Mann, Hoover-Smoot, Beauchman, Chang and Di Salvo, in particular, for standing up for children, irrespective of their social, racial, and/or economic status.