"All students should read at grade level by the end of third grade." Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson visited the Northwest this week on behalf of our friends at the League of Education Voters promoting this simple but important idea. It's a simple, important, and powerful message that is central to his Stand Up campaign in Sac and his new role as Education Chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
After retiring from the NBA in 2000, KJ returned to the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento where he grew up and started to turn things around. He became a one man economic development department, bought up a few dilapidated buildings and opened a coffee shop, a barber shop, and an art gallery.
In 2003, he set his sights on Sac High, the big bad neighborhood that pushed out more students than it graduated. Superintendent Jim Sweeny was an early leader in the urban portfolio strategy -- a district of choice featuring multiple operators -- and knew that closure and replacement was the only way to promote dramatic improvement in a reasonable amount of time. KJ's nonprofit, St. Hope, applied for and won a charter to open six schools on the Sac High campus. The schools have demonstrated significant improvement in graduation and college attendance rates as well as academic achievement.
Next Kevin launched an elementary school, PS 7, now recognized as one of the top performing schools in California. The long day and long year have reversed the achievement gap between this low income school and the schools serving affluent populations.
There are a few other all stars have helped to form academically successful schools, but KJ didn't stop there. In addition to being mayor of Sacramento, Johnson is one of the most important and effective advocates for education equality. Some folks here in the Northwest don't agree with his support for charter schools, but who can argue with his stand for high expectations and every student reading in third grade? Johnson told a crowd in Tacoma, "If education is the civil rights issue of our time, we need to be willing to pay the price." Johnson is recruiting other mayors to the reading campaign. As most states adopt higher Common Core standards, Johnson's mission is the right one at the right time for America's great cities.
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My observation is that given a choice, my boy would prefer to watch tv or play video games. However, I force him to read to me every night and keep comic books in the car to occupy him during the long drive home from school...no Nintendo DS. I don't leave reading up to his school, or to him. I have to make this happen.
My son and I belong to Stand Up and I know he is enlightened each time he attends an event.
I sincerely hope that you will consider joining our group.
My son-in-law is a high school English teacher and basketball coach. He couldn't be bothered to read as a kid until he realized that he could read about sports.
My kids are strong readers. But getting there took encouragement - we had to largely ban TV and all other screen diversions before my son would read. Even not, he will play video games or watch movies if he can get away with it. We time ration both, so he has to read a lot.
Don't blame teachers for this one. It is a parent and home environment issue.
Where many people would part company, I think, is where to place the blame when, inevitably, some don't. Blaming the teachers that are trying to help the kids instead of the parents holding them back isn't going to accomplish much of anything, but it's much more likely to lead to re-election than a more accurate assessment.
It's not hard to do. It's just inaccurate.
That said, the fact that he's married to Michelle Rhee (weirdest thing in the world) makes me doubt that any education idea he has from this point on will be genuine.
And the fact that some charters are successful does not change the fact that they are, overall, a destructive force in education.
Like his wife.
http://www.cncsig.gov/StHopeSR.html
I also know a lot more than I'm saying about charter schools. They're also an Arizona institution. And I don't support them.
I wish KJ good luck. But I don't get behind his initiatives to privatize public education.
But as I said, she is demonized by tenured teachers, because she pushes for accountability in their ranks. And they don't like it.
Who to believe?
It's because she is trying to finally make them accountable. Currently in most districts, accountability is deemed according to superficial observations that are planned in advance. After which, a teacher is deemed in binary terms (effective/not effective). Consequently, nearly all teachers are deemed effective, to the point where most districts report effectiveness in the 99th percentile. In other words, accountability is a mere formality.
Rhee wants real accountability, and teachers don't like it. So they attack her, like you attack me. Teachers, who are supposed to be such beacons of light (e.g. you), acting in such an ignorant and spiteful way. So unbecoming.