Education researchers from throughout Chicagoland have prepared this fact sheet to distinguish myths from realities, and to provide new visions.

CReATE

Public education in a democratic society is based on the principle that every child is of equal and incalculable value. This guiding principle requires the fullest development of every member of our nation. Effective public schools are necessary to enable every member of our nation to reach his or her fullest potential. Schools in a democracy aim to prepare the next generation to be knowledgeable and informed citizens and residents; to be critical thinkers and creative problem solvers; to be prepared to contribute positively to communities, workplaces, and societies that are characterized by diversity and inequities; and to be healthy, happy, and prepared to support the well-being of others with compassion and courage. The children and youth of Chicago deserve no less … but how do we do this?

In the midst of campaigns and debates for the 2011 Chicago mayoral election, we hear many proclamations and promises about what it means to improve public schools.  But how does each candidate compare to what we know so far from research about the real problems and solutions?  Education researchers from throughout Chicagoland have prepared this fact sheet to distinguish myths from realities, and to provide new visions. Following each topic is a list of researchers who can be contacted for elaboration. For general information: createchicago@gmail.com. A PDF of this statement is here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2561000/CReATEjan2011.pdf 

VISION: Provide Bold Leadership that Addresses Difficult Systemic Problems and Avoids Scapegoating the “Usual Suspects.”

MYTH: The main problem with education is the lazy or incompetent teacher, who is protected by corrupt unions and supervised by out-of-control local school councils, so the key to reform is a system of rewards and punishments and the dismantling of rights to organize (as with state legislation currently under debate).

REALITY: Consistently underperforming schools are unevenly but predictably distributed in Chicago’s public K-12 education. School success maps strongly with traditional markers of privilege (by race, income, class, immigrant status, etc.) and school failure maps predictably along lines of poverty.[1] Even if every teacher were hardworking, knowledgeable, and skilled, inequities in education would still exist because of a range of larger, systemic problems that hinder effective teaching, both inside and outside of school.[2] Furthermore, good learning conditions cannot exist without good teaching conditions, and the most successful public schools have teachers’ unions and effective local school councils that are responsive to their membership and that operate with democratic decision-making processes.[3]

MYTH: In this financial crisis, there is no additional funding available for education, but even if there were, increased funding does not improve education, Chicago’s public schools already enjoy equitable funding, and if a community wants to raise more funds it has that option.

REALITY: Financial and other resources can drastically change education quality.[4] Wealthy communities are able to invest much more into their schools through private donations and fundraising, while some elected officials are able to advocate more effectively for additional resources for well-heeled districts. Consequently, public schools across the city operate on vastly different budgets.[5] Budgets reflect priorities, and education does not fare well against, say, prisons. At a time when allocations for public education are shrinking, states are building new and expanding prisons and detention centers. Across the nation, state spending on prisons was six times the increase of spending on higher education. In Illinois, the cost of incarcerating one adult is about 4.5 times the cost of educating one child. Research suggests that one more year of high school would significantly reduce crime and incarceration rates, and that increasing the male high-school graduation rate by one percent would save $1.4 billion nationwide.[6]

PLEDGE: Chicago’s next mayor must pledge to:

·       Develop and implement policies that address historic educational inequities that arise from poverty, segregation, discrimination, and social isolation;

·       Prioritize education budgetarily and invest in public K-12 schools by, for example, reallocating TIF funding;

·       Distribute funding and other resources equitably, by implementing broader tax redistribution[7] and by fully funding the Illinois Education Funding Advisory Board’s minimum per-pupil funding level;

·       Resist scapegoating unionized teachers and local school councils, and instead, support democratic processes such as teachers organizing and parents serving on governing bodies for their children’s schools.

RESEARCHERS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS:

·       Sumi Cho, DePaul University, scho@depaul.edu

·       Jerome Hausman, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, jerryhausman@gmail.com

·       Lauren Hoffman, Lewis University, lph1332@gmail.com

·       Pamela Konkol, Concordia University Chicago, pamela.konkol@cuchicago.edu

·       Kevin Kumashiro, University of Illinois at Chicago, kevink@uic.edu

·       Michelle Turner Mangan, National-Louis University, michelle.mangan@nl.edu

·       Tema Okun, National-Louis University, tema.okun@nl.edu

·       Michelle Parker-Katz, University of Illinois at Chicago, mparker@uic.edu

·       Brad Porfilio, Lewis University, porfilbr@lewisu.edu

·       Karyn Sandlos, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, ksandl@saic.edu

VISION: Develop and Implement Education Policy and Reform Initiatives that are Primarily Research-Driven, Not Market-Driven.

MYTH: School turnarounds have benefited Chicago Public Schools by giving “failing” schools a new start.

REALITY: First conceived by the Commercial Club of Chicago, Chicago’s school reform policy—“Renaissance 2010”—is based not on sound research and analysis, but on market principles of privatization, competition, and commercialization. CPS has even adopted a market structure in which “CEO’s” are preferred over educators for the top leadership position, and Boards are appointed by the mayor, not elected by the people. Since the implementation of Renaissance 2010, districtwide high-school student achievement has not risen, and most of the lowest performing high schools saw scores drop. Moreover, the process for identifying “failing schools” was neither consistent nor research-based, and disproportionately affected low-income African American and Latino students by closing schools in disadvantaged minority neighborhoods while leaving untouched those schools in more affluent areas with comparable performance and enrollments. The CPS schools that were “turned around” have not all shown significant improvement in student achievement, and instead, have shown increases in tensions and violence inside and outside of school.[8]

MYTH: Because competition leads to improvement, school “choice” options are necessary, and because the private sector can do better what the public has failed to do, the “choice” options must involve privatization.

REALITY: Philanthropies altogether spend almost $4 billion annually on education, dominated by a handful of foundations that advance initiatives of choice, competition, deregulation, and accountability, despite that school-choice, voucher, and restrictive-enrollment programs have not proven to be more effective in increasing district overall student achievement.[9] In some cases, poorer neighborhoods in Chicago saw reductions in funding even while enrollments rose, and there is evidence that choice programs exacerbate racial segregation.[10] Similarly, the private sector has not proven to be more effective at improving schools, despite a rapid increase in expenditure of outsourcing services and products, including school management, curriculum, and assessments. The majority of privately run schools, including charter schools, operated with deficit budgets in recent years and/or violated such public-accountability measures as the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act. Charter schools are exempted from Illinois state laws that require a voting majority of Local School Councils to be parents, and in Chicago, less than 5% of charter-school board members are parents. Furthermore, specialty schools, including charter schools, are not all required to enroll students with special needs, including English language learners and students with disabilities, thus providing “choice” for only some children and families. While some parents and families may perceive that select specialty or charter schools provide viable pathways for young people, the success of some of these schools has not improved the overall school system. [11]

PLEDGE: Chicago’s next mayor must pledge to:

·       Draw on the expertise of educators and researchers, not primarily the business and philanthropy sectors, to develop policies and reforms.

·       Halt the school-turnaround process, adequately evaluate its effectiveness, and then develop and apply standards for school turnaround or closure that are research-based, consistent, fair, and transparent;

·       Enforce policies for public accountability, and require all schools that are supported by public funds to constitute Local School Councils with a voting majority of parents;

·       Provide district leaders who are knowledgeable about education and urban contexts and skillful in collaborative and democratic decision-making processes, starting with a credentialed superintendent of CPS, and transitioning from mayoral control to a democratically elected school board that is accountable to the public.

RESEARCHERS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON CPS REFORMS:

·       William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), billayers123@gmail.com

·       Leslie Bloom, Roosevelt University, lbloom@roosevelt.edu

·       Gabriel Alejandro Cortez, Northeastern Illinois University, g-cortez@neiu.edu

·       Michael Klonsky, DePaul University, mklonsky@depaul.edu

·       Dan A. Lewis, Northwestern University, dlewis@northwestern.edu

·       Amanda M. Maddocks, Concordia University Chicago, amanda.maddocks@cuchicago.edu

·       Kenneth Saltman, DePaul University, ksaltman@depaul.edu

·       David Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago, dostoval@uic.edu

VISION: Improve Teaching and Learning Effectiveness by Developing Standards, Curricula, and Assessments that are Skills-Based, not Sorting-Based.

MYTH: A standardized curriculum, with emphasis on basic reading and mathematics, will raise standards.

REALITY: In districts with mandated, scripted curriculums, or in schools that inevitably narrow the curriculum in order to prepare for high-stakes testing, students are covering less content in ways that do not require higher-order thinking skills. The standard for student learning is being lowered, not raised, and those students who struggle the most are even less likely to be served by curriculums designed with little knowledge of the unique needs in a given school and community.[12] One of the many subjects being cut is the arts, particularly for students in low-income communities of color, despite that arts education contributes significantly to creative problem-solving skills and to social and emotional learning, which are all essential for academic success.[13] In contrast are nations such as Finland where broad, rich curriculums with diverse, flexible, and rigorous standards are developed at the school level by teachers and school administrators, and where students perform at the highest levels internationally with little variation between schools.[14]

MYTH: High-stakes testing is an effective way to measure learning and to hold students, educators, and schools accountable.

REALITY: High-stakes tests may effectively measure a small set of knowledge and skills, but they do not measure higher-order thinking skills and a broad set of knowledge, and consequently, offer a very narrow picture of what students have learned and how well teachers have taught. Grade retention that results from narrow measures of academic preparedness can increase student risk for problems in school, including increased drop-out rates, and even when the student is promoted, the use of such assessments to sort students creates tracks within grade levels that reflect racial, ethnic, and social-class differences and that function to direct entire categories of students toward low-wage jobs or incarceration.[15] When such narrow and biased assessments are then tied to teacher evaluation and compensation, the result is a system that rewards narrow and biased teaching.[16]

MYTH: Good teachers are primarily those who know what they are teaching and need not have learned how to teach or be able to connect to the community.

REALITY: Chicago Public Schools has reserved teaching vacancies for graduates of fast-track alternative certification programs, despite that such graduates overwhelmingly report that they are ill-prepared for the reality of schools, and have not shown to be more effective at raising student achievement. Programs like Teach For America recruit bright college graduates but offer little pre-service preparation, and then see their participants leave the profession after an average of three years.[17] In contrast, teachers with community knowledge and connections are more likely to raise student achievement, as well as to participate in long-term efforts at school-community partnerships and teacher professionalization, including mentoring and collaboratively improving working conditions.[18]

PLEDGE: Chicago’s next mayor must pledge to:

·       Support teachers and school administrators in developing broad, rich curriculum that centers on diverse, flexible, and rigorous standards and that is targeted to their students’ unique and varied strengths and needs.

·       Create more complex and accurate assessments and use them not to penalize students or teachers, but to identify what additional resources or services are needed, such as with multi-layered performance-based assessments that are used formatively.

·       Invest in high-quality and long-term teacher preparation.

RESEARCHERS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT:

·       John Duffy, National-Louis University, john.duffy@nl.edu

·       Judith Gouwens, Roosevelt University, jgouwens@roosevelt.edu

·       Nicole Holland, Northeastern Illinois University, n-holland@neiu.edu

·       Eleni Katsarou, University of Illinois at Chicago, elenik@uic.edu

·       Jung Kim, Lewis University, kimju@lewisu.edu

·       Eileen Quinn Knight, Saint Xavier University, knight@sxu.edu

·       Jeff Kuzmic, DePaul University, jkuzmic@depaul.edu

·       Gregory Michie, Concordia University Chicago, gregory.michie@cuchicago.edu

·       Isabel Nunez, Concordia University Chicago, isabel.nunez@cuchicago.edu

·       Therese Quinn, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, tquinn@saic.edu

·       Brian D. Schultz, Northeastern Illinois University, bschultz@neiu.edu

·       Noah Sobe, Loyola University Chicago, nsobe@luc.edu

·       Durene I. Wheeler, Northeastern Illinois University, d-wheeler@neiu.edu

VISION: Ensure the Support, Dignity, and Human and Civil Rights of Every Student.

MYTH: Students are as likely to find the necessary support for school success in large schools and classrooms as in small ones.

REALITY: Next to parental income level, school size is the key factor in school success. Defined as under 500 students at the elementary level and between 1000 and 2500 at the secondary level, small schools do better on every measure: graduation rates, attendance, grades, test scores, violence, drug abuse, suicide. Smaller schools and classrooms make it more likely for every child to be well-known by a teacher, for teachers to collaborate, and for parents and families to participate, and not surprisingly, in the nation’s wealthiest private schools, class size is typically limited to 15 in elementary schools and 25 in high schools.[19]

MYTH: Safer and more effective schools result from tougher punishment or militarized discipline.

REALITY: There is no evidence that punishment leads to safer schools. However, research confirms that schools punish certain gender, racial, and sexual-identity groups more often and more severely than others. From as early as preschool, boys are expelled almost five times as often as girls; for all grade levels, African American students are suspended or expelled at rates several times higher than any other group; and nonheterosexual youth experience school sanctions up to three times more often than heterosexual youth.[20] Similarly, there is no evidence that military programs increase academic success, and yet, Chicago has the most militarized public-school system in the nation. The military high schools, JROTC, and Cadet programs enroll a disproportionately high percentage of students of color, reflecting the broader strategy to recruit African American and Latino males from low-income areas for first-responder positions in U.S. wars abroad. Military programs are reducing coursework in academic content (replacing them with JROTC courses, for example), and graduates of such programs are not always receiving the financial benefits promised. The majority of expenses to run such programs are covered by Chicago taxpayers, not the Department of Defense, totaling over $9 million.[21]

MYTH: Public education is already supportive and effective for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) and gender non-conforming youth; for English language learners; and for undocumented immigrant students.  

REALITY: Despite state laws and district policies that prohibit discrimination and address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity, many LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth are experiencing verbal and physical discrimination and harassment, are not able to identify adult supporters, and are not learning accurate information about gender, sex, and sexual orientation; and teacher-preparation programs in Illinois are not adequately preparing teachers to address such bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity.[22] Despite evidence that developmental bilingual education is correlated with the strongest outcomes for academic achievement in English for English language learners, schools continue to operate as if such students will learn English faster through immersion in an English-only school experience.[23] Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states may not discriminate against students enrolling in K-12 public schools on the basis of their legal status, clear guidelines do not exist for higher education. In the absence of federal guidelines, states have created their own rules. Although undocumented students can apply to most colleges, they are not eligible for federal or state financial aid. Conservative estimates put the number of undocumented children at 1.7 million, with 65,000 of those who have lived in the United States for five years or longer graduating from high school, and between 7,000-13,000 enrolling in colleges.[24]

PLEDGE: Chicago’s next mayor must pledge to:

·       Limit the number of students in every school and every classroom to the levels that research has determined to be optimal.

·       Provide successful restorative- and transformation-justice programs instead of tougher punishment policies and practices.

·       Halt the establishment and expansion of all military programs, phase out JROTC programs, and invest instead in programs that research has shown to be effective in fostering academic success, discipline, leadership, and college pathways.

·       Improve both pre-service and in-service preparation for all school personnel about diversity and equity regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, and provide adequate resources to support students, operate programs, and monitor compliance.

·       Provide high-quality developmental bilingual education programs.

·       In the absence of federal legalization or pathways such as the DREAM Act, create other avenues for accessible higher education.

RESEARCHERS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON STUDENT SUPPORT AND RIGHTS:

·       Stacey Horn, University of Illinois at Chicago, sshorn@uic.edu

·       Kathleen McInerney, Saint Xavier University, mcinerney@sxu.edu

·       Erica Meiners, Northeastern Illinois University, e-meiners@neiu.edu

·       Christopher J. Palmi, Lewis University, palmich@lewisu.edu

·       Sonia Soltero, DePaul University, ssoltero@depaul.edu

·       Gerri Spinella, National-Louis University, gerri.spinella@nl.edu

·       June Terpstra, Northeastern Illinois University, j-terpstra@neiu.edu 

REFERENCES

[1] Berliner, D. (2009). Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/poverty-and-potential. Lipman, P. (2011). The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City. New York: Routledge.

[2] Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher 35(7), 3-12.

[3] Molnar, A., Rosenshine, B., Lugg, C., Howley, C., Downey, D., Glass, G., Bracey, G., Kupermintz, H., Finn, J., Carini, R., Reitzug, U., & Barnett, S. (2002). School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence. Tempe, AZ: Education Policy Studies Laboratory. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/school-reform-proposals-the-research-evidence.

[4] Kozol, J. (2006). The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. New York: Broadway.

[5] Myers, J., & Anderson, V. (2005). Assessing Inequities in School Funding with Chicago Public Schools. Chicago: Catalyst Chicago. http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=1650&cat=23.

[6] Justice Policy Institute. (2002). Cellblocks Or Classrooms?: The Funding Of Higher Education and Corrections and Its Impact on African American Men. Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute. http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/02-09_REP_CellblocksClassrooms_BB-AC.pdf. Kim, C., Losen, D., &  Hewitt, D. (2010). The School to Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform. New York: NYU Press.

[7] Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. (2006). Funding a Quality Education Requires Fiscal Reform. Chicago: CTBA. http://www.ctbaonline.org/Education.htm.

[8] Cassidy, L., Humphrey, D. C., Weschler, M. E., & Young, V. M. (2009). High School Reform in Chicago: Renaissance 2010. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research. http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/other/Renaisance_2010.pdf. Fleming, J., Greenlee, A., Gutstein, E., Lipman, P., & Smith, J. (2009). Examining CPS’ Plan to Close, Phase Out, Consolidate, Turn-around 22 Schools. Data and Democracy Project, Research Paper #2. Chicago: CEJE. http://www.uic.edu/educ/ceje/resources.html. Gwynne, J., & de la Torre, M. (2009). When Schools Close. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research. http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id=136.

[9] Barkan, J. (2011, Winter). Got Dough? Public School Reform in the Age of Venture Philanthropy. Dissent Magazine. http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=3781.

[10] Arsen, D., & Ni, Y. (2008). The Competitive Effect of School Choice Policies on Performance in Traditional Public Schools. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/the-competitive-effect-school-choice-policies-performance-traditional-public-schools. Wolf, P. J. (2010). The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary of Third Year Reports. Fayetteville: University of Arizona School Choice Demonstration Project. http://www.uark.edu/ua/der/SCDP/Milwaukee_Eval/Report_14.pdf.

[11] Karp, S. (2010, August). Budget Landmines. Catalyst Chicago. http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=2635&cat=23. Miron, G., Urschel, J. L., Mathis, W., & Tornquist, E. (2010). Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/schools-without-diversity. Woestehoff, J. (2008). Public Accountability and Renaissance 2010: A Report of Parents United for Responsible Education. Chicago: PURE. http://pureparents.org/data/files/FOIAreport11-16-08.pdf.

[12] Mathis, W.J. (2010). The “Common Core” Standards Initiative: An Effective Reform Tool? Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Educational Policy Research Unit. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/common-core-standards.

[13] Eisner, E., & Day, M. (2004). Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education. New York: Routledge. Illinois Creates. (2005). Arts at the Core: Every School, Every Student. Chicago: Illinois Arts Alliance. http://www.artsalliance.org. Kroll, A. (2009, August 30). Fast Times at Recruitment High. Mother Jones. http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/fast-times-recruitment-high. Zehr, M. (2009). Access to Arts Education. Education Week, 25(5), 5.

[14] Kupiainen, S., Hautamäki, J., & Karjalainen, T. (2009). The Finnish Education System and PISA. Helsinki, Finland: The Ministry of Education.

[15] Forum on Educational Accountability. (2007). Assessment and Accountability for Improving Schools and Learning: Principles and Recommendations for Federal Law and State and Local Systems. Boston, MA: Forum on Educational Accountability. http://www.edaccountability.org/reports.html.

[16] Hinchey, P. (2010). Getting Teacher Assessment Right: What Policymakers Can Learn From Research. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/getting-teacher-assessment-right. Holme, J. J., Richards, M. P., Jimerson, J.B., & Cohen, R. W. (2010). Assessing the Effects of High School Exit Examinations. Review of Educational Research, 80(4), 476-526. Sirotnik, K. (2004). Holding Accountability Accountable: What Ought to Matter in Public Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Tollefson, K. (2008). Volatile Knowing: Parents, Teachers, and the Censored Story of Accountability in America’s Public Schools. New York: Lexington Books.

[17] Grossman, G., & Loeb, S. (2008). Alternative Routes to Teaching: Mapping the New Landscape of Teacher Education. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press. Heilig, J. V., & Jez, S. J. (2010). Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/teach-for-america.

[18] Molnar, A., Rosenshine, B., Lugg, C., Howley, C., Downey, D., Glass, G., Bracey, G., Kupermintz, H., Finn, J., Carini, R., Reitzug, U., & Barnett, S. (2002). School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence. Tempe, AZ: Education Policy Studies Laboratory. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/school-reform-proposals-the-research-evidence.

[19] Meier, D. (2002). In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization.  Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Strike, K. (2010). Small Schools and Strong Communities: A Third Way of School Reform.  New York: Teachers College Press.

[20] Gilliam, W. (2005). Prekindergarteners Left Behind: Expulsion Rates in State Prekindergarten Programs. New York: Foundation for Child Development. http://www.fcd-us.org/resources/prek-3rd-policy-briefs. Gregory, A., Skiba, R., & Noguera, P. (2010). The Achievement Gap and the Discipline Gap: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59-68. Himmelstein, K., & Bruckner, H. (2010). Criminal-Justice and School Sanctions Against Non-Heterosexual Youth: A National Longitudinal Study. Pediatrics, 127(1), 48-57. Lochner, L., & Moretti, E. (2004). The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports. American Economic Review, 94(1), 155-189. Losen, D., & Skiba, R. (2010). Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis. Montgomery, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center. http://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/publication/Suspended_Education.pdf.

[21] Anderson, G. L. (2009). The Politics of Another Side: Truth-in-Military-Recruiting Advocacy in an Urban School District. Journal of Educational Policy, 23(1), 267-291. Diener, S., & Munro, J. (2005). Military Money for College: A Reality Check.  Peacework Magazine. http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0506/050607.htm. Hagopian, A., & Barker, K. (2011). Should We End Military Recruiting in High Schools as a Matter of Child Protection and Public Health? American Journal of Public Health, 101(1), 19-23.

[22] Biegel, S., & Kuehl, S. J. (2010). Safe at School: Addressing the School Environment and LGBT Safety through Policy and Legislation. Tempe and Los Angeles: Education Policy Research Unit and UCLA Williams Institute. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/research-that-reaches. Illinois Safe Schools Alliance. (2010). Visibility Matters 2010: Higher Education and Teacher/Social Work Preparation in Illinois: A Web-based Assessment of LGBTQ Presence. Chicago: ISSA. http://www.illinoissafeschools.org/page_attachments/0000/0116/visibility_matters_full_report_final.pdf. Kosciw, J. G., & Diaz, E. D. (2009). Shared Differences: The Experience of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools. New York: GLSEN.

[23] Collier, V. P. (1989). How Long? A Synthesis of Research on Academic Achievement in a Second Language.  TESOL Quarterly, 23(3), 509-531. Gandara, P., & Hopkins, M. (2010). Forbidden Language: English Learners and Restrictive Language Policies. New York: Teachers College Press.

[24] Fry, R. (2003). Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools: Measuring the Challenge. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center. http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=19. Lopez, M.P., & Lopez, G. (2010). Persistent Inequality: Contemporary Realities in the Education of Undocumented Latina/o Students. New York: Routledge. Mehta, C., & Ali, A. (2003). Education for All: Chicago’s Undocumented Immigrants and Their Access to Higher Education. Chicago: UIC Center for Urban Economic Development. http://www.urbaneconomy.org/sites/default/files/undocumentedImmigrants_edu_22.pdf. National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (2005).  Policy Alert. Income of U.S. Workforce Projected to Decline if Education Doesn’t Improve. San Jose, CA: NCPPHE. http://www.highereducation.org/reports/pa_decline/pa_decline.pdf.

Prepared January 2011 by

 CReATE 

 (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education)

http://createchicago.blogspot.com

createchicago@gmail.com

Download this statement as a PDF here: 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2561000/CReATEjan2011.pdf 

Colbert was brilliant last night.

Made a mockery of Wake County's T-Party rollback of deseg

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Disintegration
www.colbertnation.com

Message from Lake Michigan

Broader and Bolder...

The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign (BBA), has announced it is preparing for new debates around re-authorization of "No Child Left Behind" (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). NCLB has continued to be in force despite the clear lack of improved student outcomes and the law's expiration four years ago. Whether Congress engages this year in the long-overdue reauthorization process or again defers action, BBA says it will be a vocal participant in the debate.

BBA also announced the appointment of Elaine Weiss as its National Coordinator.

Ms. Weiss will be a regular spokesperson for BBA, will be our leading public advocate, and will direct public forums and media events that advance the campaign agenda. Elaine Weiss comes to BBA from the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she served as project manager for Pew's Partnership for America’s Economic Success campaign. Ms. Weiss is an attorney, a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, and will receive a Ph.D. in public policy from the George Washington University in May, 2011. She is a member of the Center for Disease Control's task force on child abuse, and has served as volunteer counsel for clients at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Arizona's law banning ethnic studies

"...Mr. Horne goes way overboard in trying keep high school students from studying works like Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a classic educational text, or any effort to deepen students’ understanding of history, and their place in the world. Tucson school officials say that far from stoking teenage resentment, the program has helped students keep their grades up and stay in school."--New York Times editorial

New Orleans 5 years after Katrina

"Louisiana has a 63 percent high school graduation rate,” Mr. Turner said. “It has roughly a 60 percent adult literacy rate. We know that wealthy white people Uptown can read, right? But no one really cares if the public school system works because rich people’s kids are going to private schools.” -- Teacher Nat Turner

Michelle Rhee's testing madness

Many baby boomers will be retiring soon. Who will take our places? If teacher pay and evaluations rest entirely on test scores, the corruption of our school system will be complete. Perhaps we teachers and parents need a grassroots movement of our own!-- Anthony Cody, Edweek.

'We pauperize education'

"...The richest nation on Earth has never allocated enough resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige our work justifies. We squander funds on highways, on the frenetic pursuit of recreation, on the overabundance of overkill armament, but we pauperize education." 

-- From March 14, 1964 speech by Dr. Martin Luther King upon accepting the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers.

That old gang of mine

Ed Burke and Gery Chico are back together again at long last. Ald. Edward "Slow Eddie" Burke, powerful chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee announced his support for Chico, his longtime friend and protege, in the race for mayor.

Back in the day, Burke and Chico were both part of the infamous Vrdolyak 29, the all-white Chicago City Council's majority bloc that tried to thwart the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington. The 29 were led by Alderman Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak of the 10th Ward and "Slow Eddie" from the 14th. Chico served as a staffer on Burke's committee and learned politics from his mentor, Burke. He later served as Mayor Daley's hand-picked school-board president.

According to today's Sun-Times:

In 1989, Burke dropped out of the mayor’s race and threw his support to Daley. The deal restored Burke to the role of Finance Committee chairman he had held during Council Wars...Chico served as a Finance Committee staffer under Burke during Council Wars. Burke’s 14th Ward Democratic Regular Democratic Organization circulated Chico’s nominating petitions. Members of the Chico family are longtime residents of the 14th Ward. ("Burke backing buddy Chico in mayoral race")

Ted McClelland (Ward Room) writes:

Chico is the candidate of powerful Southwest Sider bosses who want to stop Rahm Emanuel from establishing another autocratic regime. As Burke said this week, it’s going to be “a new day” in City Hall -- meaning he wants a more powerful City Council.

Racism & resegregation take hold in Wake County, N.C.

Gen Tata & Palin

"I'm talking about diversity sir," ABC11 I-Team reporter Jon Camp said."I'm talking about achievement," Tata replied. -- ABC News

According to the Washington Post, the Wake County School Board is turning back the clock on desegregation. Wake County's new T-Party superintendent, Gen. Tony Tata (Sarah Palin's buddy) looks to continue the school board's emphasis on "neighborhood schools." Tata told WRAL that he believes progress and diversity are two separate issues, and his focus is on the former. According to WaPo, school board member John Tedesco backs Tata's position, calling the district's deseg policies "outdated."

"This is Raleigh in 2010, not Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s -- my life is integrated. We need new paradigms."

Civil rights activists are picking up where they left off 40 years ago and are facing arrests and brutality by engaging in protests at the school board offices.

IN MY MAILBOX

Dear Michael Klonsky,

I want to thank you for your chapter "Power Philanthropy" in The Gates Foundation and the Future of U.S. "Public" Schools. I found it very helpful and quoted it in my article in the new issue of Dissent magazine. Below is the link to the article which I hope you will pass on to anyone who might find it useful:
http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=3781

All best,
Joanne Barkan

Duncan lied

Vivek Wadhwa

U.S. schools aren't really falling behind

Arne Duncan has been grabbing as much media time as he can, sounding the alarm that the U.S. is losing it's dominant position in the global education race to the top. He's been calling the results from the latest PISA tests, "a wake-up call" in order to spread panic and push through his corporate reform agenda. Duncan, running through the town square shouting, "the Chinese are coming," "the Finns are coming," conjures up memories of Cold War rhetoric after the Russians put Sputnik up in space. The fear mongering volume was turned up again during the Reagan years with the publication of A Nation at Risk.

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

In an official DOE press release, Duncan claims:

“Today’s PISA results show that America needs to urgently accelerate student learning to remain competitive in the global economy of the 21st century. More parents, teachers, and leaders need to recognize the reality that other high-achieving nations are both out-educating us and out-competing us....The results are especially troubling because PISA assesses applied knowledge and the higher-order thinking skills critical to success in the information age.”

It turns out (as usual) that most of this is a pile of crap. 

So says (not in those words, of course) Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at University of California-Berkeley, senior research associate at Harvard Law School, and director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University.

Writing in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Wadhwa argues:

"Much is made of the PISA test scores and rankings, but the international differences are actually quite small. Most of the U.S. ranking lags are not even statistically significant. The U.S. falls in the second rank on some measures and into the first on others. It produces more highest-performing students in science and reading than any other country does; in mathematics, it is second only to Japan. Moreover, one has to ask what the test results actually mean in the real world. Do high PISA rankings make students more likely to invent the next iPad? Google? I don't think so."

Gates' 'value-added' study is full of holes

"Slightly better than a coin toss"

A study released last month by the Gates Foundation supposedly offered up “some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of ‘value-added’ analysis.” VAA makes the claim that teachers' effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students' progress on standardized tests.  But Jesse Rothstein, an economist at UC Berkeley, argues that the analyses in the report do not support its conclusions.

Rothstein reviewed the Gates study for the Think Twice think tank review project. His  review is published by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado . Rothstein, who in 2009-10 served as Senior Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers and as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, has conducted research on the appropriate uses of student test score data, including the use of student achievement records to assess teacher quality.

He concludes: 

“A teacher who focuses on important, demanding skills and knowledge that are not tested may be misidentified as ineffective, while a fairly weak teacher who narrows [his or] her focus to the state test may be erroneously praised as effective.”

In other words, “teacher evaluations based on observed state test outcomes are only slightly better than coin tosses at identifying teachers whose students perform unusually well or badly on assessments of conceptual understanding."

Del Valle: 'Let's stop attacking teachers'

From today's Chicago Sun-Times

Mayoral candidate Miguel Del Valle slammed candidate Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday over Emanuel’s support for a bill that would curtail Chicago teachers’ right to strike.

“Let’s stop attacking teachers,” Del Valle said after a tour of Telpochcalli Elementary School on the Southwest Side. “Trying to take away teachers’ right to strike is a direct hit on the teachers. Let’s not try to punish the Chicago Teachers Union by saying ‘We are going to take away your right to strike’ when they haven’t had a strike in 23 years. I think it’s a slap in the face of teachers. I want to stop the teacher-bashing.”

Read the entire story here. 

Milwaukee study on school choice

Another new report out of the Univ. of Arkansas, has found little difference between charters and neighborhood schools when it comes to measurable learning outcomes.

Using regression models that produce the most precise estimates of 2007 achievement, our comparisons of students in our sample of independent Milwaukee charters to matched MPS students exhibit few significant effects of attending a charter school on achievement growth in either math or reading.

OK, how many ore of these do we really need. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Ethnic studies illegal in Arizona

“There’s a fierce anti-Latino sentiment in this state. These courses are about justice and equity, and what is happening is that the Legislature is trying to narrow the reality of those things. Who are the true Americans here — those embracing our inalienable rights or those trying to diminish them?”-- Augustine F. Romero, New York Times

No room at the reform table for educators

"A big part of the problem is that the conversation has been hijacked by corporate leaders who think they know best how to improve our schools." -- Greg Michie, author of Holler if you hear me, at The Answer Sheet.

U.S. ignores education funding at own peril

"Over the long term, the only way we're going to raise wages, grow the economy and improve American competitiveness is by investing in our people - especially their educations." --Robert Reich, S.F. Chronicle.

On Arizona shootings 

"We have nothing whatsoever to do with this," --Palin aide Rebecca Mansour, CBS News

Gates clears the bench

He sends in super-sub John Deasy to get things under control in L.A. But who's left on the bench? He's LAUSD's 4th superintendent in 5 years. This is what passes for school reform--corporate style. It gives new meaning to the term "City of the Angels." Angels, Gates and Broad, now run the city's schools.

A look at my 2008 post on Deasy's jumping ship in Prince Georges County, Md., will show you what to expect from him in the way of leadership. He was touted as a “superstar” and the great white hope of the power philanthropists, when he came into this predominantly poor, African-American district from Santa Monica. He bailed out when the district went broke and criticism in the black community began to mount.

"I think John is smart enough to get out of here, frankly, before the (expletive) hits the fan," said Doris A. Reed, the executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative Personnel, the union that represents principals and other administrators.

Some of the expletive deleted Deasy has been running from concerns a scandal around his doctorate from the Univ. of Louisville and contracts he awarded back to a  university center run by his former dean and advisor.

Central Falls firings were first shots fired in current war on teachers

History may well record the mass teacher and staff firings at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island last February, as the opening salvo in this administration's war on teachers and their unions.

The firings sparked outrage among teachers, organized labor and parents. Students organized walkouts in support of their teachers. Supts. Gallo and Gist, who had led the assault with full support from Pres. Obama and Sec.Duncan, were ultimately forced to retreat and bring those teachers, who hadn't moved elsewhere, back into their classrooms. They were rehired only after the union agreed to a longer work day and made other concessions to try and save jobs. At the time, State Supt. Gist promised that the changes would result in "dramatic achievement."

But the damage to the school and to the economically-ravaged town of Central Falls was a fait accompli.

Eric Tucker writing in today's Washington Post describes the fallout from this devastating betrayal by an administration that only weeks earlier had  promised reform done "with teachers, not to them."

Writes Tucker:  

"President Barack Obama appeared to endorse the firings, saying drastic action may be warranted when schools show no signs of improvement. The White House declined to comment this week"   

Yes, Obama went so far as to call the mass firings, "courageous," a clear signal to state education leaders of what was demanded of them if they expected to receive their share of federal Race To Tbe Top funds.

As for the city itself, Tucker writes:

Heavily Hispanic Central Falls is Rhode Island's smallest and poorest city, with a population of nearly 19,000. One-quarter of families live in poverty and 65 percent speak a language other than English at home. The city is under the control of a state-appointed receiver, who says its problems are so dire that Central Falls should consider merging with neighboring Pawtucket. 

The mass firings have proven to be a disaster, both for school reform and for all the citizens of Central Falls. It's been a failed reform strategy everywhere it's been tried. Obama and Duncan are now tight-lipped about their support for the debacle. Ironically, AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, in her latest call for an end to teacher resistance to Race To The Top,  is holding up the "reform" at Central Falls as a model of collaboration.

Because the district and the union had built a relationship based on trust, they refused to take the easy way out. They stepped outside their comfort zones, took on the very difficult task of crafting a new form of school governance, and, together, have taken promising steps to turn around these schools.

Collaboration indeed.

Wear Red for Ed follow-up

Tweet message from Bonnie Cunard

5 hours after your post, and I have reporters at my classroom door:) http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=13781905 U are read far and wide:

IN THE MAILBOX

From Rico Gutstein at Teachers For Social Justice

Fight to Keep the "Public" in Public Education-What You Can Do! 

 

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 12:23 AM

TSJ, as part of the CTU-Community Board (a coalition of the Chicago Teachers Union and several community organizations), is working to derail the "Performance Counts" proposed legislation now in front of the IL lame-duck legislature as you read this. We're asking, no urging, people to take some IMMEDIATE action to let elected officials that we will NOT let them shift the blame for the economic crisis onto ordinary people and unions (specifically public sector unions, and most immediately, teachers unions-see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/business/02showdown.html?src=me&ref=general).

This legislation will basically turn teachers in Illinois into "at will" workers, hamper their capacity to unionize, eliminate seniority in hiring and layoffs, stop the union from being able to bargain class size, and basically eliminate due process and protection from arbitrary administrator actions. It is NOT about meeting the needs of the students in the state (see Rethinking Schools great editorial on "What's Up With All the Teacher Bashing?" at http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_04/edit244.shtml)

What can you do? Lots. First, familiarize yourself with the legislation and the CTU's plans to fight it, at: http://www.ctunet.com/blog/text/CTUmailer-STUDENTS-COUNT.pdf?1294071674

If you want to look at the bill itself, check out:
http://www.ctunet.com/blog/text/Performance-Counts.pdf?1294071376

Then: Contact your reps and let TSJ know who you called, who you reached, and their response-Email Rachel: rachel.serra@gmail.com

1. Call YOUR State Representative and Senator!.

2. Call every member of the Education Reform Committee and tell them you DON'T want Performance Counts (see the CTU's "Student Counts" platform at their website for an alternative)

Special Committee on Education Reform

    House members

    Co-Chair:Linda Chapa LaVia(D) (217) 558-1002

    Co-Chair :Roger L. Eddy (R) (618) 563-4128

    Member:Keith Farnham(D) (847) 841-7130

    Member:Jehan A. Gordon(D) (309) 681-1992

    Member:Robert W. Pritchard(R) (815) 748-3494

    Member:Darlene J. Senger(R) (630) 219-3090

    Member:Ed Sullivan, Jr.(R) (847) 566-5115

    Member:Karen A. Yarbrough(D) (708) 615-1747

    Senate members

    Co-Chair: Kimberly A. Lightford(D) (708) 343-7444

    Co-Chair:J. Bradley Burzynski (R) (815) 895-6318

    Edward D. Maloney (D) (773) 881-4180

    David Luechtefeld (R) (217) 782-8137

3. Take 5 friends and visit your State Representative and Senator; follow up with calls and emails.

4. Take a personal business day between January 4th-7th and the 11th to lobby in Springfield.
Contact your regional CTU organizer (if you're a CTU member) to register for the daily trips.

    * Northside-Matthew Luskin 312.329.6249- Instructional Areas 1, 2, 3, 19, 21, 25, 29
    * Westside-Christel Williams 312.329.6248- Instructional Areas 4, 6, 7,8,9, 27, 28
    * Southwest Side-Alix Gonzalez-Guevara 312.329.6247- Instructional Areas 10, 11, 12, 13,22, 23,26, 54
    * Southeast-Rosita Chatonda 312.329.6246- Instructional Areas 14, 15, 16, 17,18, 24, 53

5. Attend one of 4 regional meetings on January 6th at 4:00 till 5:30

    * Learn about the very real and IMMEDIATE threat posed by Springfield's House Committee on Education Reform, and the Performance Counts bill.
    * Learn about the CTU Students Count platform.
    * Learn how you can take direct, personal action to defend our rights as educators, to stand up for our students, and to win the war for public education in Illinois.

    NORTH:            Lane Tech High,

                    2501 W. Addison St.

    WEST:            Westinghouse College Prep,

                    3223 W. Franklin Blvd.

    SOUTHWEST:       Eberhart Elementary,

                    3400 W. 65th Pl.

    SOUTH:           Robeson High,

                    6835 S. Normal Blvd.

OWNERSHIP SOCIETY NEWS

Pro-charter 'fat cats' topped N.Y. campaign donors in 2010

Today's N.Y. Post reports that wealthy boosters of charter schools, led by billionaire hedge-funder Bruce Kovner, were among the top donors to candidates for state office in 2010. The financier gave $130,000 to Republican candidates in their successful effort to recapture the state Senate. Kovner sits on the board of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But Mayor Bloomberg (richer than Kovner) contributed even more to the Limbaugh Party takeover and to anti-teacher union and charter school causes with nearly a million bucks of his personal money going to senate Republicans.

The man from J.P. Morgan

If there was any doubt about how fast the Obama administration is running to the right, one need only look at the likely appointment of Chicago Democratic kingpin Billy Daley to replace Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff.

Choosing the brother of Chicago's mayor and  J.P. Morgan's mid-west honcho, Daley, would make perfect Wall Street sense. The deal would also likely buy the outright support of the Daley family for the hated Emanuel in his apparent cakewalk into the mayor's office. But it sure doesn't bode well for progressive Democrats or those within the White House who are trying to defend health care reform and other pieces of progressive policy against the onslaught of the Limbaugh Party and blue-dog Democrats. Writes Ben Smith at Politico.com:

A Daley appointment would be an early signal of Obama's confidence that the party's left will ultimately have no choice but to show up and vote for him in 2012.

GOOD READS

Thanks for these, the best of recent review copies:

Click on covers for more.

IN MY MAILBOX

Wear Red For Ed

Mike,

We are a grassroots group of teachers and parents who use the Facebook Senate Bill 6 site to advocate public education We are looking for a way to raise awareness to the issues. Thus, the Wear Red for Ed day. We are urging people to get involved and informed. Here are some of our objections/positions:

Florida teachers and parents have joined again, as they did last Spring, to let our new Florida Governor know that we do have ideas and suggestions.

We recognize that 2011 offers an opportunity to improve our public schools. We do not, however, believe that the Florida Governor Rick Scott's voucher proposal is the positive, proactive move that is best for the education of our all of our children. A good hard look at the proposal reveals serious problems.

At the core, vouchers open the door for others to profit at the expense of taxpayers and, most importantly, at the expense of our children. The proposed voucher will not be enough for all students to afford high priced private schools.

Those who can not afford the difference in tuition will be left with few options. Some will turn to fly by night corporate charter schools that have less than a positive track record of success. Others will turn to online virtual schools, resulting in mass numbers of youth at home or on our streets - instead of in school. And the rest will be left to heavily tested, depleted, and de-funded public schools.

Schools will become market driven and education will be controlled more by profit than principle.

Essentially, there will be a quick and concise separation between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in Florida. And, as we learned before in history, separate is not equal ... never has been, never will be.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled against vouchers in 2006, saying that Florida could not finance an alternative to public education. Our leaders and new Governor would do well to heed the advice our our ruling Court.

It is essential that we improve our public education... we do not need, nor have the Constitutional right, to replace our public education.

Floridians are calling for reform... not replacement. Keep Public Schools Public - STOP and listen to the stakeholders.... we are ready to offer better options.

Wear Red for Public Ed, Tuesday, Jan 4th

Thanks, Mike.
Bonnie Cunard, Parent &  teacher, SW Florida public school

The Mayor's Race

Chicago's Louisiana Purchase?

Chicago mayoral candidate and Mayor Daley's hand-picked former school board prez, Gery Chico tried to think of something clever to say after rival Miguel del Valle came out strongly against Daley's sell-off of the city's parking spaces. A spokeswoman for Chico issued a statement Friday saying:

“Gery thinks the parking meter deal was the worst since the Louisiana Purchase."

I don't know what beef Chico has with the Louisiana Purchase. I mean, the U.S. got all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, portions of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans, from cash-hungry Napoleon for a mere $15 million.

The only problem with the deal, so far as I'm concerned is, Louisiana ended up with Bobby Jindal running the state and Paul Vallas running New Orleans schools. Surely Thomas Jefferson could have written something into the contract to prevent such catastrophes.

Obama's recent successes

"Obama seems to be doing a whole lot better since Rahm left," said mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle. "Now we know where the problem was." (Chicago Tribune)

NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

Two Americas

"'We're becoming two societies, two Americas,' [sociologist Robert] Putnam told me recently. There's a deepening class divide that shows up in many places. It's not just a matter of income. Education is becoming the key discriminant in American life. Family structure is part of it too." (Doyle McManus, L.A. Times)

 More on China's test-crazy schools

"But don't the PISA results at least show that China's K-9 education is the best in the world, and that standardized testing, as U.S. President Barack Obama seems to believe, is necessary to improve American schools? Not really. According to research on education, using tests to structure schooling is a mistake. Students lose their innate inquisitiveness and imagination, and become insecure and amoral in the pursuit of high scores." (Jiang Xueqin, WSJ)

The Scott Sisters

"How can it be possible for individuals with no prior criminal record to be sentenced to two consecutive life terms for a crime in which no one was hurt and $11 was taken? Who had it in for them, and why was that allowed to happen? The Scott sisters may go free, but they will never receive justice."  (Bob Herbert, NYT)