As a former employee of the School District of Philadelphia I am well aware of the segregation issues plaguing neighborhoods across cities. I have written before on issues of racial and ethnic differences between teachers and students (here and here) but not as much about diversity of the student population. During the time I spent teaching in Philadelphia I mostly worked in schools that were 80%+ Black with a smattering of other groups (Latino, Asian, White. African immigrant). At the time I noted this but did not have as personal a stake in it because of lack of neighborhood connections and being shifted around from school to school so frequently.

Fast forward to this year when I am finally in the third year at a school I love to work in and have been elected one of its Union leaders. I have been attending meetings with the administration and Union and learned more about this issue amongst many others. 

What I've learned about our school is that we are incredibly diverse in comparison to some of our neighbors and that other schools are popping up in our district that are less diverse but somehow more desirable (i.e. are placed higher on applications for middle school and high school). Apparently, a school with around 60-70% White students where the rest are of a variety of backgrounds is desired more than our more balanced demographic (something like 40% Latino, 30% Black, and a mixture of the rest). Perhaps if a student population is majority White then middle- to upper-class parents will more likely send there children there?

New maps that recently came out of the Center for NYC Affairs have fanned the flame of a battle being fought across the city. As school diversity debates are raging in NYC many residents are wondering what will Chancellor Fariña do about some schools that do not reflect the diversity of the neighborhood surrounding them.

I, personally, wonder about an elementary school a few blocks away from my house - PS 282. I have good friends who send their son there as a minority White student amongst a majority Black and Latino population. He has a great education and is involved in the Chess club (he is nationally ranked at age 8!) yet the surrounding neighborhood has many more White families that do not send their kids there. If this is a continuing trend, we are well on our way to sustaining segregation and all its pitfalls.

On Monday, December 21, 2015, Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that he will be signing an executive order allowing for up to 12 weeks of paid family leave for new parents. This will be a huge boon to newborn and young parents beginning to expand their family with children. As a newly-married individual, I am paying attention to new laws like this since it is possible I will soon benefit from them. I recently learned about the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, a law put into place in 1993 to allow for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain medical and family-related situations. While the order De Blasio plans to sign would not provide benefits for medical needs other than newborns, it would provide money for those who cannot afford to take off the time otherwise.

While you can see this is not the best in comparison to other countries in the world, it is progress, and so I am glad to see it taking shape. 

The one question now is how will this play out for City Employees that have contracts negotiated through collective bargaining agreements. When I saw the article explaining this new policy I immediately got excited but before I share it with my staff in my new role as Union Representative, I needed to make sure we would benefit from it. Apparently, the De Blasio administration is already in talks with the United Federation of Teachers for how to incorporate this into our contract, since it will last until 2022. We will see how those talks shake out.

As many of you probably know, last week President Obama signed a new bill into law with the largest ramifications for education since No Child Left Behind. Entitled the "Every Student Succeeds Act", it is currently being hailed as a savior of sorts from the ill-conceived notions of testing sponsored by NCLB under President George W. Bush. With bipartisan support (like NCLB also had), the law sailed through the House of Representatives and the Senate, despite being a 1000-page behemoth that was only truly released a few days before the vote. 

What is most fascinating to me is that the law changes a lot while at the same time changing very little. The main shift that everyone is focusing on is that the federal government no longer mandates teacher evaluation to be tied to standardized test scores. Instead, the states and local governments are left to battle that fight on their own. In New York State Governor Cuomo simultaneously announced a moratorium on test-based teacher evaluations for four years. This seems at odds with his previous positions on incorporating testing so highly into teacher evaluation.

There are some strange things included in this bill, however, that are just coming to light (as people can finally sit down to read it). 

1) States are free to choose their own test-based accountability policies but they must be approved by the secretary of education in order to receive Title 1 funding (Source).

2) The ESSA contains a ban on abortion-funding for school-based clinics. While this is a very low number of clinics, it is interesting that it is included (Source).

3) Possibly the biggest issue is surrounding teacher preparation programs and what constitutes a "high-quality teacher," what credits they should be earning, etc (Source).

While it is a step in the right direction, in my opinion, to reduce the role of the federal government from mandating testing, it is not true that testing will be gone. States are still mandated to test students in grade 3-8 and once in high school for a variety of subjects. We'll see how this plays out.

I may think of today as my "inauguration" into union politics in New York City. As a newly-elected chapter leader of my school, I was sent to the District 15 Chapter Leader meeting in the afternoon to heard updates of the goings-on in the United Federation of Teachers. For those unfamiliar with the designation "District 15," it is not a Hunger Games reference - there are 33 subdivisions of the entire NYC Department of Education and my school is in the 15th. 

The meeting was an interesting view into how information is disseminated to schools as well as what issues pop up. I overheard several conversations about principals using evaluations to "catch" teachers or _forcing teachers to use lesson plan templates that have no real jurisdiction. I am lucky that I do not have these kinds of issues at my school; but I know if I want to have a better understanding of education in New York City, I need to hear about them. The meeting was interesting and I learned a lot. I can't wait to understand more of the acronyms and get to know my UFT contact.

Tonight I went to a panel discussion on the standardized testing movement in New York City and New York State. There were some interesting panelists, including a current NY State Regent representative (person responsible for a lot of state-level education decisions), a superintendent for District 15, and the national director of the Network for Public Education. The dialog was mostly uninteresting or information I already knew but at the end of the meeting there was some heated questioning of the superintendent Anita Skop regarding opt out policies. Apparently, there is state law (which I need to find a reference) saying teachers are not allowed to use their position of power to influence any children or parents in regards to politics. I've heard the same argument in Philadelphia, causing many teachers to get reprimanded. The audience fired back that this discussion was more akin to asking about homework policy than political views. Unfortunately, this all happened after the time for the meeting had expired, so the fever died down.

These two meetings were my first foray into this system's underbelly. I look forward to learning more and sharing what I learn here.

This week I took part in my first two Math for America classes and they were both incredibly awesome.

For each session, I went to a very nondescript office building at 915 Broadway where they have offices on various floors. The elevator ride was uneventful but at their offices I was greeted by friendly employees of MfA welcoming me to my session. I signed in and went to their lounge area that had mounds of amazing-tasting pizza sitting on the counter. Behind the lounge sits a kitchen with a refrigerator stocked with cans of soda free for the taking. There are two or three Keurig machines in the kitchen and throughout the facility in case you want a cup of a variety of coffees (no tea or hot chocolate which will be my one major criticism). There were also various snacks (granola bars, bunny grahams, crackers) piled in a corner.

It's amazing how it feels to be learning in a professional setting.

The first class on Monday was led by a fellow MfA Master Teacher; it was the first of three workshops focusing exclusively on Pascal's Triangle, which you can see below (there is one error - can you find it?).

We worked in groups to brainstorm as many kinds of patterns as we could find. There are so many and more are found even in recent years (2012 is the most recent he shared with us). I had a very enjoyable session, despite the fact that he had some issues with his technology briefly. 

The second session was on Friday, entitled, "Techniques for Staying Happy and Healthy as We Teach." Led by a wonderful meditation expert and former teacher named Jesse Johnson (of Relentless Joy), we had a chance to go through two meditation practices as well as reflecting in writing about various things that we want and need in order to feel successful as people, let alone educators. There were various discussions in which I, surprisingly, stayed mostly silent. I found that in this space I really wanted to spend time on myself and listening to others help a lot with that. Had I spoken up, I think my mindset would have been very different at the end.

I have to say that I was and am very impressed by how MfA treats me like a professional. A number of teachers in the meditation workshop said the same (a few even pointed out the access to regularly cleaned bathrooms!). I can't wait to learn and see more as I go to (and maybe eventually lead) workshops.