Impact: Volume 8

8/4/2019 Impact: Volume 8

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impa

ct

VOL. 8THE REFORMMOVEMENT INTHE UNITED

STATES

76% of Americans think parents are themost important factor in determiningwhether students learn in school.

Reading for spiritual reflection

Nehemiah is the not the most well-known character in the HebrewBible. But he was a true reformer.He would make a visionarypolitician or executive director of anot-for-profit organization today.Nehemiah knew that reform was along process and would not comewithout its controversies andadversaries.

Nehemiah lived in the 5th centuryBCE in Persia, present day Iran. Buthe was Jewish and his ancestorshad once lived in the land of Judah,

the southern region of Israel. Three

hundred years before Nehemiahslifetime, the Babylonian empire(which later became the Persianempire) destroyed Jerusalem and

all of Judah. Most of the Jewishpeople were captured and exiled tolive in Babylon. All that remained in

Jerusalem was a torn down Temple,burnt and vulnerable walls, andhandfuls of people that werentvaluable enough to the Babyloniansfor them to bring back.

The Babylonian Exile was a verypainful time in the history of the

Jewish people. By the time

Nehemiah came about, all he knew

of Jerusalem was from the storiesrecounted from generation togeneration of Jewish people inPersia. He knew of the splendor of

King Solomons Temple, not theabandoned pile of rubble it hadbecome.

Nehemiah now worked for KingArtaxerxes of Persia as his personacupbearer. One day Nehemiahsbrother came up to the capital from

Judah. Nehemiah asked him, Sowhats Jerusalem like these days?How are the people that escaped

captivity and still live there?

continued

by Cameron Mason Vickrey


2/8

It is difficult, often impossible,to raise healthy children in adisintegrated community.Without local institutions thatdraw families and youngpeople together aroundcommon interests andactivities even the most

heroic child-rearing is likely tofail. Conversely, by gatheringand organizing members ofthe community aroundactivities of common interest particularly the healthydevelopment of children even the most devastatingconditions can be reversed.

The Harlem Childrens ZoneBusiness Plan 2001-2009

His answer: The survivors there in theprovince who escaped captivity are ingreat trouble and shame; the wall of

Jerusalem is broken down, and its gateshave been destroyed byfire. (Nehemiah 1:3). When Nehemiahheard this, he sat down and wept, andmourned for days, fasting and prayingbefore the God of heaven (1:4). The

Jewish people in Jerusalem were his kin,and he mourned for their troubled state.He became very passionate thatsomething must be done on theiraccount.

Nehemiah took action. He went to hisking and relayed the situation. He askedpermission to return to Jerusalem torebuild its walls and renew the city. Theking gave his blessing as well as militaryprotection for his journey and writtenconsent for the use of supplies he mightneed.

Over the next 52 days, Nehemiahassembled the people in the city to worktogether to rebuild the walls of

Jerusalem. In those days a city withoutwalls could not prosper. It wasconstantly vulnerable to attack. Anyprogress the city made on its own wouldhave been ransacked. A wall was very

important to the future of Jerusalem.

As Nehemiahs story continues, we findthat after the wall was reconstructed,there was plenty of internal work to bedone. The wealthier residents weretaking advantage of the debts of others.The people were not being faithful tothe tenants of their religion. But with thehelp of the priest Ezra, Nehemiahgathered the people for daily study onthe Torah. Other priests helped to offer

interpretation and held discussions inthe courtyard. Eventually the peopleunderstood what the Jewish law meantfor their lives, and that many thingsneeded to change. This long-lastingreform took longer than the 52 days ittook to put stone on top of stone andcomplete the wall. This cultural reformtook years.

But the initial drive for change cameabout because one person had a vision.And he did not float into Jerusalem and

labor night and day all by himself tobecome the hero who single-handedlyrebuilt the wall. Nehemiah recruited thepeople of the city. He knew that theyloved Jerusalem and would want to bea part of its renewal. He gave thepeople ownership over the new face oftheir city. Every family in Jerusalem didtheir part, and that is why the wall was

rebuilt so quickly and effectively. It wasa collaborative effort.

The rebuilding of the wall did not comewithout its adversaries. Leaders fromsurrounding nations became verynervous about Jerusalems improvementand tried to thwart their progress. ButNehemiah would not be intimated. Heknew that God desired for Jerusalem tobe whole and prospering again, and so

he encouraged his people, saying: Donot be afraid of them. Remember theLord, who is great and awesome, andfight for your kin, your sons, yourdaughters, your wives, and yourhomes (Neh 4:14).

Think of Jerusalem as Dallas and thewall as education. The future of Dallasdepends on rebuilding our educationalsystem. This kind of reform may not takejust 52 days like Nehemiahs wall. It will

take years, like the deep culturalreformation of Jerusalem. But initially,true educational reform depends on theentire city of Dallas coming together inthe name of the future. Children inDallas are being deprived of the chancefor a successful life, and we have achance to stand together and fill theholes in the wall that surrounds them.We can build a strong wall that will notleave our children vulnerable to theoutside forces trying to hinder their

education.

We have plenty of Nehemiahs in Dallasalready that are organizing efforts forchange. Its time that we stop ignoringtheir calls to action and pitch in our timeand energy to build a great system ofeducation for Dallas. Remember thevision of our God, who is great andawesome, and fight for your city, yoursons, your daughters, your spouses, and

your homes.

This is the last unit of

Impact, and it is time

for your action group

to form an advocacyagenda for

education

improvement.

As you study this

lesson, be thinking

about the issues thatpress you most

deeply and be ready

to discuss them.


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ume EIGHT

The Reform

Movementin the

United States Part 1: Teachers Unions--Friend or Foe?

Teachers Unions have more

influence on the public schools

than any other group in American

societymore than school boards,

state legislators, the federal

government or parents. Unions

primarily represent the

employment interests of its

members (e.g., job security,

working conditions, and benefits).

Power accumulates to the teachers

unions in two ways: collective

bargaining (negotiations) with

school districts, and political power

at the local school board, state,

and federal levelsmade possible

by the unions huge memberships.

12% of the workforce in America is

unionized, compared to the 38%

in education alone. The National

Education Association (NEA) and

American Federation of Teachers

(AFT) have more than 4 million

members between them, many of

whom can be mobilized to work on

political campaigns. Their dues

finance lobbying. Texas is a right

to work state, which protects the

right of public employees to d

for themselves whether they w

to join a union, without fear o

termination.

There are many acknowledgebenefits and negatives to teac

unions. On the pros list wo

the following:

Unions act as a check for

school administration, maki

sure it is conducting itself

according to the current co

teachers are working under

Powerful lobbying force (bo

a local and a federal level)

Higher salaries and benefits

associated with teachers un

which serve to attract and r

superior teachers.

Equal bargaining power be

administration and educato

Prevents discriminatory

retaliations or termination.

Unions fight for scarce publ

education funding, smaller

sizes and adequate

compensation.


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The drawbacks would include the

following:

Increases cost of education and

takes resources away from

initiatives aimed at improving

student achievement.

Reduces incentives to improve

instruction. When teachers know

their jobs are secure, they have

less reason to be the best

educators they can be.

Interferes with a principals

managerial role.

Encourages distrustful

relationships between teachers

and administration.

Makes it virtually impossible to

get poor teachers out of the

classroom.

Charter schools and laws like the

Parent Trigger Law are increasingly

potential threats to Teachers

Unions. Charter schools give kids

and their parents an alternative to

the regular public school. If more

kids choose charter schools, more

money and job opportunities go

with them. The Parent Trigger Law

enables a union of parents who are

dissatisfied with failing schools or

underperforming students to go up

against the teachers.

Part 2: Special InterestGroup Influences

An interest group is a group of

individuals with common goals and

shared attitudes that come together

to seek certain political results.

Their goal of influencing public

policy is usually (though notexclusively) achieved by attempting

to influence government actors.

Texas is ranked highly among states

with strong interest group systems.

Special Interest Groups on

Education have played large roles

in efforts to reform public school

financing. Higher education

lobbying efforts are particularlypowerful (e.g. Council for

Opportunity in Education). There

are numerous Special Interest

Groups on Education:

American Federation of Teachers

Center for Education Reform

(Conservative)

Educational Excellence Netwo

(Conservative)

Educational Resources

Information Center (Governm

Resource)

Ed/Web (Liberal Index)

National Education Associatio

(Teachers Union)

Partnership for Public Educati

(Liberal)

SchoolReport.com (Conserva

Separation of School and Sta

Alliance (Libertarian)

Some special interest groups wi

political power within the local

school system, such as athletic

booster clubs, band booster clu

PTAs, civic organizations and

various other groups.

Grassroots initiatives are politic

action taken by common people

a local level to provoke change

a national level. Whatever you

end goal may be, the use of

various grassroots outlets to dru

up publicity for your cause may

very well be your best bet at

gaining the political and financi

clout you need to succeed.


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Some examples of Grassrootsnitiatives:

Stand for Children Grassroots

child advocacy group empowering

parents to use the democratic

process to help children get the best

public education.

Communities in Schools works

with the public school system,

determining student needs and

establishing relationships with local

businesses, social service agencies,

health care providers, and parent

volunteer organizations to provide

needed resources.

Save Texas Schools a

nonpartisan statewide volunteer

coalition of parents, students,

educators, business leaders,

concerned citizens, community

groups and faith organizations.

Their primary goal is to educate

Texas elected officials about the

mportance of maintaining funding

for Texas public educationfrom

pre-K through college.

Online Activism

Some parents have organized

through social media online.

Parents in Richmond, VA have

turned to social media to rally

support for their schools, which are

facing statewide cuts of more than

$1 billion.

Part 3: Closing theAchievement Gap

The Achievement Gap is the

difference in academic

performance between students from

different economic circumstances,

or racial and ethnic backgrounds.

A students chance of success in

school and life depend more ontheir family circumstances than on

any other factor. By the time a

child turns age three, kids with high-

income parents are already a full

year ahead of their peers with low-

income parents. They know twice as

many words and score 40 points

higher on IQ tests. By Age 10, the

gap is three years. By 4

th

grade,lower income minority students are,

on average, nearly three academic

years behind their more affluent

white peers.

The massive reform efforts in the

United States were intended to

close two types of achievement

gaps: the gaps among the different

subgroups of the U.S. populatio

and the gap between the U.S. a

other countries.

The NCLB brought notoriety to

achievement gap by requiringstates to set the same performa

standard for children from

economically disadvantaged,

disabled, limited English

proficiency, and from all major

ethnic and racial groups. But gi

NCLBs unpopularity and a pub

outcry for decreased governme

intrusion, many groups (and ev

other countries) have taken it up

themselves to develop and carr

out their own reforms.

Whats happening in other plac

Research has shown that the

average child spends about ha

his waking hours up unto the ag

18 outside of schoolthat time

cannot be ignored. Some progrhave increased school time. Fo

example, KIPP (Knowledge is

Power Program) students spend

percent more time in school tha

the average American student.

They arrive earlier, leave later,

attend more regularly, and eve

to school every other Saturday.

The average child spends about half of

waking hours up unto the age of 18 out

of sch


6/8

Preuss Charter School (on the UC

San Diego campus) has some

creative ways of educating their

students which have proven very

successful. First, they have a unique

entrance requirement: parents who

did not go to college. Homeroom

consists of tutoring, character

building, and, eventually, SAT-prep

and college-essay help. Their

student-teacher ratio is just 21:8.

And keeping the same teacher for

grades 6-12 allows students an

ntimate faculty recommendation

etter. A long school day and a 198-day year keeps the entire student

body on a single advanced track.

95% of seniors are accepted to

college.

And Summit Prep Charter (Redwood

City, California) is also known for its

creative tactics and high success

rate. The school calendar mimics

college calendars. Students enroll in5 courses in the fall and 5 in the

spring. 96% of Summit Prep

students get into college.

Finland recognizes the value of

ndividualized attention. In Finland,

kids who start to struggle receive

one-on-one support from their

teachers. Roughly one in three

Finnish students gets extra help from

a tutor each year. And in Chile, the

school day was extended to add

the equivalent of more than two

years of schooling.

Part 4: Understanding andNegotiating the PoliticalLandscape

Today, education is perhaps the

most important function of state and

local governments. Because of the

importance of public education, it is

subject to continual political scrutiny.

The local school system is an

organization with a political culture

that can be characterized as a

competitive environment in which

various groups from both within and

without are competing for power

and limited resources. Scarceresources make for a highly

competitive and (at times) heated

culture within local school systems.

Funding priorities become the object

of political debate at the local,

state, and national levels.

Education in general is in many

cases a major component of both

national political party platforms

and discussions. This is largely

to a societal shift in which high

levels of education used to be

considered the province of few

one where now a high-quality

education is viewed as both a

universal right and a necessity

individual welfare.

Even though the 10th Amendm

delegates education to the stat

there is a federal interest in

education because of the link t

both national security and glob

competitiveness. In 1983, theNational Commission on Excel

in Education released a report

entitled, A Nation at Risk, wh

called for a sense of urgency a

refocused the nations attention

education reform. Congress

followed suit in 2001 when the

passed the NCLB act, calling fo

greater accountability, better q

teachers and greater parentempowerment. Along with the

states, the recent trend at the

national level has been movem

toward increased standards an

accountability systems.

In the past four decades, the co

running schools has doubled, w

student performance has rema

flat.

tudies in the United States have shown that kids with

he most effective teachers learn three times as much as

hose with the least effective.


7/8

Other developed, as well as some

developing countries, meanwhile,

ave improved and are now

outperforming us.

n 2009, in response to NCLB andts inability to measure student

performance outside of state lines,

a series of organizations began to

work on a new Common Core

State Standards. By 2010, the new

tandards, which apply to

anguage, arts, and math in grades

K-12, were completed. 45 states

ave formally adopted the

Common Core State Standards.

exas is not one of them. The

majority of these 45 states

ubmitted Race to the Top (RTTT)

applications detailing reform plans.

Of those, prizes were awarded to

chools that (among other criteria)

adopted standards from the

Common Core Standards.

t has never been more important

o know the names and faces of

ey education reformers than

oday, particularly as we undergo

ome of the largest budget cuts in

he history of public education.

Many are undertaking education

eform at its highest level as

members of Congress or members

of federal lobbying groups. They

have, in turn, enabled well-

informed grassroots organizations

a growing trend among political

and social action groups.

Senator Michael Bennet:Democrat from Colorado who

will be a powerful voice for

education reform in Washington.

Having served as Denvers

superintendent prior to filling a

vacant Senate seat in 2009, look

to him to spearhead many of the

conversations on teacher

effectiveness and school

accountability.

Steven Brill: Investigative

journalist soon to release a book

about school reform and expos

on education practices that make

no sense and waste a lot of

money.

Jeb Bush: Since leaving office,

Mr. Bush has been on a missionto reform education and is

poised to become a prominent

player in the road to reform.

Oversees Foundation for

Excellence in Education advises

governors and policymakers on

how to push through Florida-style

education reform.

David Coleman: An architect by

trade who helped develop the

Common Core Standards.

Easily, one of the most influentia

figures in American education

today.

John Deasy: Deputy

Superintendent of New York City

who is expected to take the helm

of the troubled LA school system

Jonah Edelman: Founded Stand

for Children. Recently pushed

through tax increases to improve

school funding in Oregon as weas changes in the ways that

teachers are evaluated and

granted tenure in Colorado. He

is changing how politicians think

about grassroots education

reform.

Kristin Richmond and Kirsten

Tobey: Their company,

Revolution Foods, provideshealthy (and tasty) school

lunches to low-income students.

They are involved in passing the

child-nutrition legislation that

Congress passed, which starting

next year, will expand the

federal school-lunch program

and promote healthy food in

schools.


8/8

post your advocacy action

agenda on DallasFACET.org

Sample Advocacy Action Agendas

http://savetxschools.org/join-us/ (shows their short list of education

advocacy priorities for Texas schools)

http://www.wallacefoundation.org/learn-about-wallace/GrantsPrograms/

our-initiatives/Pages/default.aspx (this foundation has great information on

education advocacy initiatives that they fund; great place to get resources

and more research on these topics)

http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-

developmental.html (this group uses monthly advocacy calendars to alert

their constituents on current action)

1. Go to www.DallasFACET.org & create a New Account2. Take action on current Action Alerts3. Join an Action Group & take part in the online conversation on your groups blog4. Invite friends to join.

Ste s to Take ActionOur lives begin to end

the day we become silentabout things that matter.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr

SPECIAL THANKS for the research and development of materials toAnn Drumm, Melva Franklin, Maria Rojas Fernandez, Leslie Johnson,

Shree Moffett, and Cameron Vickrey.

Work product of Dallas Faith Communities Coalition. Permission required for reproduction.

DFCC2011

Take some time as a group

to discuss what has made

the most IMPACT on you as

far as education

improvement is concerned

through the materials

studied and the relationships

you have formed with PAGE

parents.

Where do you feel the spirit

leading you to influence

change?

Follow the exercise on

the insert provided, and

as a group create your own

Advocacy Action Agenda.
http://www.dallasfacet.org/http://www.dallasfacet.org/http://www.dallasfacet.org/http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/action-center/advocacy-developmental.htmlhttp://livepage.apple.com/http://livepage.apple.com/http://livepage.apple.com/http://livepage.apple.com/http://savetxschools.org/join-us/http://savetxschools.org/join-us/

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Impact: Volume 8