PreK-12 Articles

Overview

PreK-12

News for educators and support staff working in early childhood through high school.

California Teacher

Arizona outlaws core Mexican-American Studies program
Tucson High School teacher recounts story of textbook and curricula ban

A few days before she traveled to CFT Convention in San Jose, María C. Federico Brummer received an email at 8 p.m. from the Tucson Unified School District. It contained a list of newly banned books that the district wanted packed by noon the next day. During class, her students watched her comb the cabinets and remove classroom sets of the affected titles.

Article

Ravani comments on new “parent trigger” regs
In San Jose Mercury News op-ed

Last week the state Board of Education issued new regulations governing the “parent trigger” law for struggling schools. The CFT views the new regulations as an improvement over the original poorly-crafted law, but finds the very concept of the “parent trigger” to be a distraction from the central issues facing public schools. 

CFT’s EC/K-12 Council President Gary Ravani comments in today’s San Jose Mercury News in an op-ed piece.

Article

CFT speaks out on No Child Left Behind reauthorization
Tell your Senator and Congressmember to fix NCLB

On August 28, the House Education and Labor Committee released its Title I discussion draft of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization. The AFT submitted a detailed critique, based on the views of its membership and discussions with parents and students throughout the country.

Below you may access the letters submitted to the House Education and Labor Committee.  In addition, CFT passed a resolution at the September 29, 2007 State Council meeting addressing issues involved in reauthorization of NCLB.

Article privatization

No public education by corporation
The privatization assault on public education intensifies

By George Martinez, President EC/K-12 Council

Do you remember the Excellence in Education movement, along with the Time on Task idea, and the Assertive Discipline model? These efforts to bring about educational reform followed the publication of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. This report popularized many of the privatization notions regarding public education. I refer to this as Phase 1 of the movement to privatize public education.