Topic: Education Issues
Classified Conference highlights staff as partners in student success
Attendees hear how co-workers educate, mentor kids
For Esmeralda Grubbs, success starts when a Local 1475 member takes a preschool boy or girl by the hand and begins to build a foundation for lifelong learning.
Grubbs works with the Early Childhood Federation, a Los Angeles County local representing preschool workers, from faculty and teaching assistants to custodians and kitchen staff. Challenges can be daunting, especially in low-income communities. In October, a drive-by shooting threatened a Head Start program in a Watts housing project.
How and why Mexico’s City University came to be
Q&A with Manuel Perez Rocha, founding president of the university
Q&A by David Bacon, Labor Journalist
Manuel Perez Rocha was the founding president of the first major university established in Mexico City in decades, the Autonomous University of Mexico City. Mexico doesn’t have the equivalent of two-year community colleges, but the UACM is very close to the ideas on which our community college system is based.
The way forward: Greatness by Design
Over the past year CFT was a proud participant in developing the recommendations of Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s Educational Excellence Task Force and we applaud the results of this lengthy process.
Community stands with beloved City College of San Francisco
Report faults school for having too little money and doing too much for students
In early July, more than 300 people packed a San Francisco meeting hall to express their outrage over a letter from the Accrediting Commission for Community & Junior Colleges saying City College of San Francisco must prove its fiscal stability by March 15 to remain accredited.
San Francisco defends part-timer progress during accreditation crisis
Though faculty and students at San Francisco City College are fighting to keep their college open following a report from the Accrediting Commission for Community & Junior Colleges, Local 2121 says changes such as reducing health benefits for part-time faculty are off-limits.
“No Time to Quit”
A look at school desegregation by former CFT President
By Miles Myers, Former CFT President
CFT publishes Position Paper on Charter Schools
In 1988, the late Albert Shanker, then president of the AFT, introduced the notion of charter schools to the American public in a Press Cub speech in Washington, DC. Charter schools have received support across the political spectrum.
Conservatives supported charter schools for a variety of reasons; they believed that:
Member Speak Out: Classified work makes a difference every day
Paraprofessionals matter more now than ever
FIRST PERSON | Arti O’Connor
I know my workas a special education para makes a difference when I look into the faces of the children I teach. I know I matter when an excited child says, “Now I get it! I understand it now!” I know I touched a child’s heart when he or she tells me, “You’re a very nice person.” And when a child talks about something sad that has happened in their lives, it means he or she trusts me enough to share something meaningful.
Member Speak Out: College staff contribute to student success
FIRST PERSON | Bessie Love
There’s a school of thought that classified employees play a very limited role in student success. In truth, staff members are the unshakeable, earthquake-proof foundation on which students can build success, despite many potential obstacles.
Labor leads opposition to two-tier fee plan at Santa Monica
Faculty and students defend the working class on International Workers’ Day
It took the pepper-spraying of 30 Santa Monica College student protestors to put the brakes on a two-tier pricing plan that threatens to deny higher education to thousands of students.
Classics lecturer maintains classic ideas about unions
New local president Rundin says union makes lecturer job worth having
Classics lecturer John Rundin feels privileged to pass on to another generation the cultural treasures that were given to him by the previous generation. The teacher of Latin and ancient Greek is one of two recipients of this year’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UC Davis Academic Federation.
“I live my job, love what I do, and I love my students,” says Rundin. “It is a great honor.”
Honored academic Axel Borg a driving force at UC Davis
Agricultural sciences librarian excels at organizing information and colleagues
Long-time UC Davis reference librarian Axel Borg wears so many hats that he received the James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award from the Academic Federation last year. Borg has served on three of its committees, including the one which names the Federation president each year.
Darling-Hammond charts path to fair teacher evaluation
Stanford education professor encourages teachers to stay the course despite difficulties
Linda Darling-Hammond applauded teachers who are struggling with classes of 35, and even 45 students, sometimes without desks or textbooks, while the misplaced focus on teacher evaluation has become a drum beat.
It’s What Matters Today
In American education and in Finnish education
Diane Ravitch and Pasi Sahlberg spoke at events hosted by United Educators of San Francisco and co-sponsored by CFT and CTA
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.
CFT participates in EdSource “Convening”
A California Education Policy Convening: Getting from Facts to Policy
EdSource served as the neutral host of the “Convening,” which was held as a response to the Getting Down To Facts research project. The focus of Getting Down to Facts and the policy Convening are finance, governance, personnel and leadership, and data systems. The Convening took place on October 19, 2007.
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.
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.