Hello Folks, I'm excited and honored to announce that I am now blogging for our local paper the Fillmore Gazette. They have granted me space for "School Matters". That's the name of the new school issues blog. See the first post for info on submitting questions. Let's keep the dialogue going.
http://www.fillmoregazette.com/blogs
Because School Matters.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Parents, Students and Residents of FUSD, are you done waiting yet?
What I'm reading this morning:
Seriously, Are you done waiting?
see the article on StudentsFirst.com : http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/chicago-parents-demand-better-schools/
Atiyah Colbert spoke at a rally outside a school board meeting and is part of the coalition that sent this open letter to the Chicago Sun Times last week.
A women of excellence is what I strive to be.
A concerned mother is what I am.
To be brutally honest, I was unaware of the major battle for quality education in Chicago until my child entered into the school system. Our school offered a chance for the parents to view the movie Waiting for "Superman" and it brought me to tears, literally. And that did it!
Atiyah Colbert is my name and providing my three children with quality education is my goal.
I am a Chicago resident of eight years and I have always had a passion for education.
My educational upbringing was a rocky one. I attended elementary school in New York City, my hometown and I can recall my mother having to fight back then with teachers and officials to get us the best education a single mother of three could afford. Unfortunately she died when I was 12 and my education was left up to the public school system, where I knew I was not in good hands. Against all odds I attended high school in Dallas, TX at F.D. Roosevelt High school and college at Langston University where I was in pursuit of my BA in Liberal Education/Elementary Education. However, I did not obtain my degree. I can recall during my early years of school, the lack of guidance given to me to really achieve the goal of college. So for me to have graduated sixth grade through high school was all but a triumphant feat of accomplishment.
Fast forward to the present.
While raising my three kids, providing them with a quality education and being heavily involved in their education is a must for me. My son was the first to enter into the Chicago Public School system (CPS) and I was not impressed at the course curriculum that he was coming home with. He remained in the CPS school only because I was not aware of another source available to us since I can't afford private school. When I received information about LEARN Charter school opening in the South Shore area, I jumped right on it!
Why?
The test scores this school had compared to CPS and other charter schools was phenomenal and I wanted my son to be a part of a school that was out- performing all other surrounding CPS schools.
I can remember being that child in school wondering why other kids where placed in AP classes and so many of us were not. I recall going to school and knowing that at least 2 of my classes a day were "chill" classes, where the teacher only took role and then left out of the room for almost the entire class period and the students were left to either teach themselves or just "chill".
I refuse to let my children be taught by educators that are not motivated to teach.
Now, I am just a parent, but a concerned one about education.
I believe that every child deserves the right to receive a quality education and we, as parents need to stand up and monitor our children's education with a fine toothed comb. A good education provided by qualified educators in a safe, nurturing environment is all I ask and I know I am not alone.
Now is the time of change, by any means necessary.
How?
Involvement starts at home. If parents become more involved in their children's education and behavior, we can begin to take back our communities from negative influences. When the community sees that the parents are being proactive, leadership can be born and a better community can be built.
It will be legislators who can work out all details but I know this: our kids are dying in the streets, not being properly educated while some are only worried about lining their political pockets with funds that should be going toward rebuilding the community, schools, jobs and our country as a whole. If we don't properly educate our children, who do you think will run this country in 10 years?
I am determined to work with the school, parents and any one.."I don't care what color you are as long as you want to change the miserable condition that exists on this earth today."- Malcolm X.
We are the Supermen and women that our kids need.....up, up and away!
Time to stand for our children, since no one stood up for me.
Equal Education is Essential to Economic Empowerment.
I'm just a mother of three in Chicago saying....enough.
Seriously, Are you done waiting?
see the article on StudentsFirst.com : http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/chicago-parents-demand-better-schools/
Chicago parents demand better schools
Atiyah Colbert spoke at a rally outside a school board meeting and is part of the coalition that sent this open letter to the Chicago Sun Times last week.
A women of excellence is what I strive to be.
A concerned mother is what I am.
To be brutally honest, I was unaware of the major battle for quality education in Chicago until my child entered into the school system. Our school offered a chance for the parents to view the movie Waiting for "Superman" and it brought me to tears, literally. And that did it!
Atiyah Colbert is my name and providing my three children with quality education is my goal.
I am a Chicago resident of eight years and I have always had a passion for education.
My educational upbringing was a rocky one. I attended elementary school in New York City, my hometown and I can recall my mother having to fight back then with teachers and officials to get us the best education a single mother of three could afford. Unfortunately she died when I was 12 and my education was left up to the public school system, where I knew I was not in good hands. Against all odds I attended high school in Dallas, TX at F.D. Roosevelt High school and college at Langston University where I was in pursuit of my BA in Liberal Education/Elementary Education. However, I did not obtain my degree. I can recall during my early years of school, the lack of guidance given to me to really achieve the goal of college. So for me to have graduated sixth grade through high school was all but a triumphant feat of accomplishment.
Fast forward to the present.
While raising my three kids, providing them with a quality education and being heavily involved in their education is a must for me. My son was the first to enter into the Chicago Public School system (CPS) and I was not impressed at the course curriculum that he was coming home with. He remained in the CPS school only because I was not aware of another source available to us since I can't afford private school. When I received information about LEARN Charter school opening in the South Shore area, I jumped right on it!
Why?
The test scores this school had compared to CPS and other charter schools was phenomenal and I wanted my son to be a part of a school that was out- performing all other surrounding CPS schools.
I can remember being that child in school wondering why other kids where placed in AP classes and so many of us were not. I recall going to school and knowing that at least 2 of my classes a day were "chill" classes, where the teacher only took role and then left out of the room for almost the entire class period and the students were left to either teach themselves or just "chill".
I refuse to let my children be taught by educators that are not motivated to teach.
Now, I am just a parent, but a concerned one about education.
I believe that every child deserves the right to receive a quality education and we, as parents need to stand up and monitor our children's education with a fine toothed comb. A good education provided by qualified educators in a safe, nurturing environment is all I ask and I know I am not alone.
Now is the time of change, by any means necessary.
How?
Involvement starts at home. If parents become more involved in their children's education and behavior, we can begin to take back our communities from negative influences. When the community sees that the parents are being proactive, leadership can be born and a better community can be built.
It will be legislators who can work out all details but I know this: our kids are dying in the streets, not being properly educated while some are only worried about lining their political pockets with funds that should be going toward rebuilding the community, schools, jobs and our country as a whole. If we don't properly educate our children, who do you think will run this country in 10 years?
I am determined to work with the school, parents and any one.."I don't care what color you are as long as you want to change the miserable condition that exists on this earth today."- Malcolm X.
We are the Supermen and women that our kids need.....up, up and away!
Time to stand for our children, since no one stood up for me.
Equal Education is Essential to Economic Empowerment.
I'm just a mother of three in Chicago saying....enough.
About Atiyah Colbert
 | Atiyah Colbert, a Chicago parent, was driven to action after seeing the movie Waiting for “Superman.” She and other parents formed a Chicago chapter of a new group called Done Waiting to bring attention to low-performing schools. |
Friday, December 17, 2010
Why EVERYONE Needs to be Educated about Education Issues
"Like most people—especially people who don’t have children—he was blissfully unaware of the many practices, mechanisms and laws that keep schools under-performing and budgets bloated. -“Parents love their kids and want to do well by them, but they equate loving their schools with supporting everything the schools do,”
"From John Koppisch's review of "The Cartel"
"People should be in jail"
"You can't lose a billion dollars and not be able to say where it went"
Follow Me
A Year of Education Reform, and Reform Movies
Image via Wikipedia
Three documentary films this year helped drive the discussion. “Waiting for Superman” made the biggest splash. It focused on five grammar-school students and their efforts to get a decent education. Earlier there was “The Lottery,” which zoomed in on the make or break lotteries that parents and children endure to escape bad schools. But before those there was “The Cartel,” which takes apart the education establishment in one state—New Jersey—by exposing everything from the billions wasted in a school construction program to the remarkably high number of luxury cars in a Newark school administrators’ parking lot. Presaging the two movies that followed, its most compelling moment comes when it visits the annual lottery for a Newark charter school and keeps the camera on the students as they slowly realize their numbers are not going to be called.
The Cartel was put together as a labor of love by 41-year-old, Hoboken, N.J., TV journalist Bob Bowdon. Seizing on the reform zeitgeist, it captured nine film-festival awards and opened in theaters in 25 cities around the country. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who’s made a national name for himself by going to battle with the teachers’ union and ushering in a wave of school reforms since taking office last January, saw it twice and—in a YouTube clip in October–gives Bowdon credit for helping him to inspire his education policies. This month The Cartel was released on DVD, cable TV video on demand and other platforms.
The movie leaves many people enraged as they leave the theater and that’s how Bowdon felt as he dug into the topic. Like most people—especially people who don’t have children—he was blissfully unaware of the many practices, mechanisms and laws that keep schools under-performing and budgets bloated. He had not yet encountered the infamous education blob of union leaders, administrators and elected officials that absorbs and defuses just about any attempt at reform. Early in the decade he was hosting a call-in cable show and the topic one day was tenure. “It sounded like something out of a Third World country, a decree that no one could be fired,” he says in an interview in his Hoboken office. “Then I found out we have that here. And yet people who were intelligent didn’t consider that a job for life in this high-tech economy was a preposterous anachronism. I was dumbfounded.” Then he had a friend who got a job as a public high school English teacher and he began hearing the stories—the work rules that limited how a school could deploy its staff most effectively, the incompetent teachers who got the same guaranteed raises as the best teachers, the innovative programs—like distance learning—that got killed because they threatened the union. “I saw that the union is very good at muddling their interest and the kids’ interest.”
Another thing he saw was that rarely did anyone in the press write about this, and rarely did anyone connected to education even talk about it. “I felt there was an edict of silence being forced on people to discourage speaking out about the abuses,” he says. “That’s one reason I did the movie. The country’s been asleep. I did the movie to wake people up, shock people.”
The underbelly is indeed dark, and like the other movies, fingers are pointed directly at the unions, and their unholy alliance with elected officials locally and in state capitals. Teachers’ union campaign contributions that get recycled right back into enormous salaries and gold-plated benefits. School boards dominated by teachers (who work in other towns) and other members of the education establishment. Board elections held separately from other elections in order to keep turnout low and voters unengaged. “Parents love their kids and want to do well by them, but they equate loving their schools with supporting everything the schools do,” says Bowdon.
In some ways Bowdon is the wrong messenger. He’s a libertarian who was predisposed to see the inanity of the system. New Jersey’s teachers’ union went to war against him and though the movie was well-received in many quarters—reviews in the Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others, were very positive—some parts of the press that have long ignored these issues were remarkably hostile. In a review last April, the New York Times called it “visually horrid and intellectually unsatisfying” and said it was “lousy with ad hominems and emotional coercion,” adding: “In one particularly egregious scene [Bowdon] parks his camera in front of a weeping child who has just failed to win a coveted spot in a charter-school lottery–another tiny victim of public school hell.” Of course, scenes like that later became the whole basis for the critically acclaimed “Superman” and “Lottery.” But “Superman” was made by Davis Guggenheim, who also made Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” and that gave his movie instant credibility with the press and the left. And that’s probably the biggest development in this Year of Education Reform—the left is starting to get what’s wrong with schools, from President Barack Obama on down. Give Bowdon some credit, however, for helping to set the stage for a year of reform, and a year of reform movies.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Teachers Speaking on School Reform
Watch this, "it's a social issue, not just a family issue".
"When the excuses stop [my students can't speak english, the parents aren't involved]... then an excellent teacher [makes good on the promise to educate]"
"When the excuses stop [my students can't speak english, the parents aren't involved]... then an excellent teacher [makes good on the promise to educate]"
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Santa Paula's Thille School Recognized
Link to article: http://m.vcstar.com/news/2010/dec/08/santa-paulas-thille-school-nominated-for-blue/
Santa Paula's Thille School nominated for Blue Ribbon Schools Program
State officials announced Wednesday that Thille School in the Santa Paula Elementary School District is one of 32 California nominees for the national Blue Ribbon Schools Program.
Blue Ribbon schools are recognized annually by the U.S. Department of Education for academic achievement. Federal officials will announce winners in September.
“The schools I have nominated have stepped up to the challenge of closing the achievement gap and are deserving of this prestigious national honor,” state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell said in a statement Wednesday.
Blue Ribbon schools must have shown academic success and significant gains on student test scores while working with disadvantaged students. They are considered national models for other campuses, state officials said.
About 86 percent of students at Thille qualify for free or low-cost school meals based on economic need. Nearly 80 percent also are classified as English-learners, state records show.
On annual state tests, about 85 percent of Thille’s students scored proficient or advanced in math and 62 percent in English-language arts last year. Both scores were above federal goals.
From the US Dept of Education: "Poverty is No Excuse"
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/12/no-excuses-defines-success-at-springfield-illinois-schools/
“We don’t use poverty as an excuse for low achievement.”
That strong message from Springfield School District 186 Superintendent Walter Milton, Jr. resonated throughout a day-long visit that Peter Cunningham, ED’s assistant secretary for communications and outreach, made to the central Illinois district Nov. 29.
Like many urban areas throughout the nation, Springfield—the state capital—has a proud history and a diverse community with a strong will to prepare both their children and their city for successful futures. Springfield recognizes that a high-quality education is vital to achieving both goals. The school district serves more than 14,000 students, with nearly 66 percent of them eligible for free or reduced-rate lunches.
Cunningham learned firsthand about the district’s focus on readying students to meet 21st century challenges through a whirlwind itinerary of activities that ranged from a Blue Ribbon School celebration to a planning meeting for turning around a struggling high school. He spoke with district students, parents and educators about local progress and plans, and their ideas on national education reform.
“This isn’t easy. There are no ‘one size fits all’ answers,” Cunningham told a group of teachers, administrators and parents at Lanphier High School, identified by Illinois as eligible for a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG). “Solutions need to come from the local level.”
While the dialogue at Lanphier was sobering, it was also hopeful. The group discussed strategies to improve, to include an extended school day, a new curriculum to make subject matter relevant to students and developing a system where kids at risk may be identified early and provided resources to succeed. According to Sara Vincent, the district’s director of communications, implementation of some of those elements has already begun, and has produced small but positive results, to include better attendance and a decline in suspensions.
The assistant secretary and other ED officials frequently visit schools around the nation, and often bring reports of promising best practices and insights, as well as concerns, back to Washington. The takeaways from the visit were invaluable, voluminous and varied.
At Vachel Lindsay School, a neighborhood elementary school serving a 45 percent low-income population, Principal Wendy Boatman cited the school’s dedicated outreach to the parents of disadvantaged children as key to its improvement in state assessment scores, which earned it recognition as one of 314 Blue Ribbon Schools throughout the United States for 2010. After discussions with Boatman and some of the award-winning school’s other administrators and teachers, Cunningham said he was impressed with the clear “culture of trust” among them.
“From day one, the clear message to students is that they are going to college,” said Chris Colgren, principal of Capital College Preparatory Academy, a new school opened this fall that will ultimately serve students in grades 6-12. CCPA, open to all Springfield students through a lottery, uses best practices from schools throughout the U.S. that have generated strong achievement among high-poverty populations, including gender-specific classrooms and an extended day schedule, as well as the pervasive college-bound attitude.- Continued at Ed.gov: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/12/no-excuses-defines-success-at-springfield-illinois-schools/
Blue Ribbon schools are recognized annually by the U.S. Department of Education for academic achievement. Federal officials will announce winners in September.
“The schools I have nominated have stepped up to the challenge of closing the achievement gap and are deserving of this prestigious national honor,” state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell said in a statement Wednesday.
Blue Ribbon schools must have shown academic success and significant gains on student test scores while working with disadvantaged students. They are considered national models for other campuses, state officials said.
About 86 percent of students at Thille qualify for free or low-cost school meals based on economic need. Nearly 80 percent also are classified as English-learners, state records show.
On annual state tests, about 85 percent of Thille’s students scored proficient or advanced in math and 62 percent in English-language arts last year. Both scores were above federal goals.
From the US Dept of Education: "Poverty is No Excuse"
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/12/no-excuses-defines-success-at-springfield-illinois-schools/
‘No Excuses’ Defines Success at Springfield, Illinois, Schools
Assistant Secretary of Education Peter Cunningham greets Jason Curry, a 1st grade teacher at Iles Elementary School.
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
That strong message from Springfield School District 186 Superintendent Walter Milton, Jr. resonated throughout a day-long visit that Peter Cunningham, ED’s assistant secretary for communications and outreach, made to the central Illinois district Nov. 29.
Like many urban areas throughout the nation, Springfield—the state capital—has a proud history and a diverse community with a strong will to prepare both their children and their city for successful futures. Springfield recognizes that a high-quality education is vital to achieving both goals. The school district serves more than 14,000 students, with nearly 66 percent of them eligible for free or reduced-rate lunches.
Cunningham learned firsthand about the district’s focus on readying students to meet 21st century challenges through a whirlwind itinerary of activities that ranged from a Blue Ribbon School celebration to a planning meeting for turning around a struggling high school. He spoke with district students, parents and educators about local progress and plans, and their ideas on national education reform.
“This isn’t easy. There are no ‘one size fits all’ answers,” Cunningham told a group of teachers, administrators and parents at Lanphier High School, identified by Illinois as eligible for a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG). “Solutions need to come from the local level.”
Assistant Secretary Peter Cunningham congratulates Lindsay School's teachers, students, and parents during a Blue Ribbon School celebration.
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
The assistant secretary and other ED officials frequently visit schools around the nation, and often bring reports of promising best practices and insights, as well as concerns, back to Washington. The takeaways from the visit were invaluable, voluminous and varied.
At Vachel Lindsay School, a neighborhood elementary school serving a 45 percent low-income population, Principal Wendy Boatman cited the school’s dedicated outreach to the parents of disadvantaged children as key to its improvement in state assessment scores, which earned it recognition as one of 314 Blue Ribbon Schools throughout the United States for 2010. After discussions with Boatman and some of the award-winning school’s other administrators and teachers, Cunningham said he was impressed with the clear “culture of trust” among them.
Superintendent Walter Milton, Jr. hugs an Iles Elementary student.
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
Photo by Dave Heinzel, Springfield Public Schools
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
What I"m Reading Today: www.studentsfirst.org
Here is an excerpt from the site I'm looking at today,
I joined their pledge and committed to
getting involved in my community.
Will you join the pledge? www.studentsfirst.org
Watch the video here: http://www.studentsfirst.org/video/michelle-rhee-video/"Now I see why things are the way they are... It all becomes about the adults."- Michell Rhee
I want to bring the full movie "Waiting For Superman" to the Fillmore theatre.
Email me if you want to help: kimberly.rivers@gmail.com
From the site: http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/our-mission
Our mission is to build a national movement to defend the interests of children in public education and pursue transformative reform, so that America has the best education system in the world.
America's schools are failing our kids. On this point, the data is clear. While some people blame the kids, or simply want to throw more money at the problem, we know that real change requires a better system — one that puts students' needs before those of special interests or wasteful bureaucracies.To succeed in our mission, we're working with parents, teachers, administrators, and citizens across the country to ensure great teachers, access to great schools, and effective use of public dollars. Together, we'll demand that legislators, courts, district administrators, and school boards create and enforce policies that put students first. We'll make sure politicians and administrators recognize and reward excellent teachers, give novice teachers the training they need, and quickly improve or remove ineffective educators. We'll work to ensure that every family has a number of options for excellent schools to attend, so that getting into a great school becomes a matter of fact, not luck. And we'll make sure all Americans understand that our schools are not only an anchor for our communities, but an absolute gateway to our national prosperity and competitive standing in the world economy.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
I'm Thankful for Truly Dedicated Teachers (What I'm Watching Today)
Watch the whole thing, it's not what you think it is. Brings tears to my eyes because it is so true that it's not how MUCH you make it's WHAT you make. Thank a dedicated teacher today.
"How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best"
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