'American Teacher': A Film on Education That Gets It Right

Published on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by The Answer Sheet Blog

By Mark Phillips

Every policymaker should be required to see the new film “American Teacher,” which powerfully reveals the huge challenge that the country faces in attracting and keeping the best teachers to help improve public education.

Director Vanessa Roth’s new film, co- produced by Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari and narrated by Matt Damon, notes that while “most people agree that a teacher is the most important in-school factor to school success,” you’d never guess this from what many teachers experience in our public schools.

Instead of focusing on this problem we’ve gotten lost in misdirected answers and foolish debates about improving public education. The answer is charter schools! The problem is charter schools! Blame the teacher unions! Fire bad teachers! And some movies, like “Waiting for Superman ,” have fallen into the same traps.

American Teacher takes a different approach. It compellingly shows how we lose many of our best teachers, and suggests how we can change this pattern.

The film follows a handful of teachers, each dedicated and highly effective both pedagogically and interpersonally. They are:

• A first-grade teacher in Brooklyn who works 10 hours every day and who spent $3,000 of her own money to provide classroom supplies during her first year. (Ninety percent of public school teachers have been found to spend their own money to provide necessary supplies.)
  
• A middle school teacher, who has 40 desks in her packed classroom along with with students sitting on cabinets. She says, “I feel like I give everything I have, but it’s never enough. …And if I had three of me I might be able to get it done.”
  
• A gifted social studies teacher and coach in a Texas school who has a starting salary of $27,000 and eventually has to take a night warehouse job to help support his wife and two children.
  
• A gifted young African-American teacher, with a bachelors degree from Harvard University and a masters degree from Columbia University, who has to explain to family and friends why she chose teaching. “You could do anything! Why teaching?!”

There is no better encapsulation of the problems facing teachers than the story of this teacher, named Rhena, who also exemplifies the best practices and habits of a great teacher. She has great energy, knows her subjects, motivates kids, and works closely with their families. She makes it clear just how challenging and complex teaching is today:

“So little of what I do is …instructing in the classroom. So much of what I do is in the role of a counselor or a social worker or a parent when they need one, or a friend when they need that. Dealing with all of those other social and emotional and personal issues so we can just get down to the work of learning is a huge part of what… many teachers do that I don’t think people always realize.”

Certainly most policymakers don’t.

Most good teachers work 10 hour days that include early morning tutoring or planning and afternoon tutoring, coaching or club advising. Many have papers to grade at night. They average close to 50 hours a week at school and 15 hours after school. Many work on weekends. And more than 30% also have after school jobs.

The stories of these teachers are in some instances heart-breaking.

The Brooklyn first-grade teacher gets six weeks of maternity leave and then has to go back to work to make ends meet.

The Texas teacher, continually unavailable to his wife and children, loses his family, his home is foreclosed, and he eventually has to take an even longer night job.

Another superb African-American teacher who helped many inner-city students go on to college has to quit to go into the family business because he can’t support his family with the low salary. Students use the words “shocking” and “devastating” to describe his departure.

Forty-six percent of all teachers quit before their fifth year, driven from the profession by a combination of low salaries, long hours, a lack of support, and the lack of prestige given to the profession. Almost all leave despite a love for teaching. Almost all miss it. And, of course, many potentially excellent teachers don’t choose this as a career because of these same obstacles.

The deputy superintendent of South Carolina nails it when he says: “When you have teachers who have to have second jobs…. teachers that are living at the poverty level. Then I think there is something wrong … And as a society we need to really change that culture. We need to flip it around to say that being a teacher is the most important job in our society.”

Although the film doesn’t see this as THE solution to the problem, it introduces us to Zeke Vanderhoek’s new Equity Project Charter School in New York City. He pays the best teachers $125,000, cuts almost all other costs, most of them administrative, and thus gives the kids who need it the most the best teachers possible. Vanderhoek says that the high salaries change the perception of what it means to be a teacher.

As the film shows, Rhena becomes one of 600 applicants for eight teaching positions at this school. She is selected and leaves her traditional public school in New Jersey, a loss deeply felt by the children and parents. But after a number of years of low salary and long hours, this is an understandable choice.

“We still struggle to provide the status, the salaries, the respect, and the training that teaching as a full profession requires and deserves,”said Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, an expert on teacher training and one of our most prominent educational leaders.

Finally, the film notes that the top-performing countries on international standardized tests in math, science, and reading share a number of characteristics. They selectively recruit for teacher training programs. Training is government funded. The pay is much higher than in the United States. Professional work environments are excellent. And the cultural respect for teachers is very high. In Finland, teaching is the most admired job among top college students. Few teachers leave the profession.

“American Teacher” spells out the cost to teachers who stay in troubled, low-paying schools as well as to the students when good teachers leave — and it continually makes the point that the most disadvantaged kids are the ones who suffer the most as a result. But it goes beyond spelling out the problem by showing things that we can do to change the dynamic.

The film will open in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, in San Francisco on October 7th and in New Orleans on October 14th. It will also screen in Rockville, Md., on Oct. 12; in Charlottesville, Va., on Oct. 13, and many other cities. You can check the screenings here.

You can also check the Teacher Salary Project website for additional information and updates on showings: www.theteachersalaryproject.org/

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McCain hits appropriation for Guam military buildup

FRIDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2011 00:38 BY THERESE HART | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

UNITED States Senator John McCain said on the Senate floor that it was incredible to him that the Senate

Senator John McCain

Appropriations Committee would prioritize and appropriate $33 million to purchase school buses for Guam’s school children, build Phase One of a repository for Guam’s cultural artifacts, and fund a facility for Guam’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

The Committee last week passed H.R. 2219, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which included the $33 million for Guam.

“That legislation should reflect the will of the Defense Authorization bill, but runs directly contrary to it in many areas,” said McCain.

The $33 million is for operation and maintenance funds, that is, money used to maintain the readiness and combat capability of U.S. troops.

The $33 million and the $40 million appropriation expected next year “to complete these facilities, is, at least in theory, supposed to help promote Guam’s cooperation as part of the plan to move 8,700 Marines and 9,000 family members from their current bases on Okinawa to Guam,” said McCain.

But McCain warned that the plan to move the Marines, which will require spending between $18 and $23 billion on Guam to build up its capabilities as a permanent base, “is so much in doubt that both the Armed Services Committee and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee have stopped funding Guam military construction projects until the Department of Defense provides a master plan and considers alternatives that may provide the needed Marine forward presence at much less expense.

“In the face of all the doubt about the scope and timing of the eventual buildup, the Appropriations Committee put a premium on buying school buses, an artifact repository, and a mental health clinic in Guam. Those simply are not my idea of top Defense priorities in the fiscal environment we face.”

Bordallo response

Rep. Madeleine Z. Bordallo criticized McCain for his comments.

“Senator McCain’s views are out of step with the Department of Defense, the House, and the State Department, and they are not consistent with his previous stance on infrastructure funding for Guam,” said Bordallo.

“During last year’s debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate expressed concern about infrastructure funding and requirements in Guam. This $33 million address critical civilian infrastructure needs and provides funding for the Department of the Navy to fulfill certain obligations agreed to in the Programmatic Agreement.”

Bordallo said McCain’s comments are not consistent with recent developments in Japan.

“For the first time, the government of Japan has a concrete plan on how to achieve tangible progress in Okinawa next year, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has expressed his government’s support for moving forward with the realignment. The buildup in Guam is an absolute necessity for the United States to ensure regional stability, and Congress must provide the resources necessary to ensure that it is a win-win for both our military and Guam’s civilian community,” said Bordallo.

Guthertz response

Senator Judi Guthertz, Guam buildup chair, also responded, saying McCain’s remarks are “irresponsible and suggest his memory is failing.”

“He has forgotten many promises that were made to pave the way for the buildup,” she said.

“Now I know the Marines will enjoy being on Guam,” McCain said. “I’m not sure it’s absolutely necessary for them to have a repository for cultural artifacts.”

Guthertz said, “If Senator McCain or his staff had bothered to look into why these decisions were made, rather than firing off cheap media shots, they would understand, unless they have been totally brainwashed by the Tea Party,” Guthertz said.

The funding for these projects came about when the Department of Defense offered to fund the museum in view of widespread concern that the massive development planned for the buildup would destroy archaeological and culturally significant artifacts on the island. It is supported by a 2010 Programmatic Agreement signed off by both the government of Guam and the military.

Guthertz said the “sniping at the construction funds for the mental health facility was particularly outrageous since the Environmental Impact Statement process made it quite clear that the arrival of Marines and their dependents envisioned in the original buildup plans would push present mental health facilities in Guam past the breaking point.”

Guthertz accused McCain of not caring “one bit about the U.S. citizen civilians on Guam, who have been assured by the DOD that impacts on the civilian community would be mitigated in exchange for their support of the buildup.”

McCain said in the Senate, the process of authorizing prior to appropriating money for the federal government was a “fundamental problem of this body,” and “it is time this process be stopped.”

McCain said this was because “a handful of senior appropriators, and their unelected staffs, dictate the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars – often in a manner that directly contravenes the will of those committees that still authorize spending.”

The solution, said McCain, is to not authorize appropriation bills and any funding proposed for unauthorized projects which should be subject to the scrutiny of the authorizing committees and reflect the will of their members.

“We are all to blame for this problem. The fact is that routine passage of authorizing legislation simply doesn’t occur as it should. And far too often, even routine passage of appropriations legislation has devolved into passage of a single ‘omnibus’ bill. This also must stop.”

McCain said at a time when the government is facing a $14.7 trillion national debt, “the Senate Appropriations Committee is proposing a Defense spending bill that uses a budget gimmick totaling over $10 billion to mislead the American people about the savings the Committee claims to achieve.”

“And while the Department of Defense is struggling to find more than $400 billion in cuts directed by the President, the Appropriations Committee is still conducting business as usual by rewarding special interests and funding pet projects that have little or nothing to do with our national defense,” he said.

McCain listed roughly 580 items that were changed by the Appropriations Committee which are differences from the bill adopted unanimously by the Armed Services Committee in June in the Department of Defense Authorization bill. The list is 45 pages long and represents $20 billion in changes.

As the Drone Flies...

Published on Monday, September 26, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Ralph Nader

The fast developing predator drone technology, officially called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, is becoming so dominant and so beyond any restraining framework of law or ethics, that its use by the U.S. government around the world may invite a horrific blowback.

First some background. The Pentagon has about 7,000 aerial drones. Ten years ago there were less than 50. According to the website longwarjournal.com, they have destroyed about 1900 insurgents in Pakistan's tribal regions. How these fighters are so clearly distinguished from civilians in those mountain areas is not clear.

Nor is it clear how or from whom the government gets such "precise" information about the guerilla leaders' whereabouts night and day. The drones are beyond any counterattack--flying often at 50,000 feet. But the Air Force has recognized that a third of the Predators have crashed by themselves.

Compared to mass transit, housing, energy technology, infection control, food and drug safety, the innovation in the world of drones is incredible. Coming soon are hummingbird sized drones, submersible drones and software driven autonomous UAVs. The Washington Post described these inventions as "aircraft [that] would hunt, identify and fire at [the] enemy--all on its own." It is called "lethal autonomy" in the trade.

Military ethicists and legal experts inside and outside the government are debating how far UAVs can go and still stay within what one imaginative booster, Ronald C. Arkin, called international humanitarian law and the rules of engagement. Concerns over restraint can already be considered academic. Drones are going anywhere their governors want them to go already--Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and countries in North Africa to name a few known jurisdictions.

Last year a worried group of robotic specialists, philosophers and human rights activists formed the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) (http://www.icrac.co.uk/). They fear that such instruments may make wars more likely by the strong against the weak because there will be fewer human casualties by those waging robotic war. But proliferation is now a fact. Forty countries are reported to be working on drone technology or acquiring it. Some experts at the founding conference of ICRAC forshadowed hostile states or terrorist organizations hacking into robotic systems to redirect them.

ICRAC wants an international treaty against machines of lethal autonomy along the lines of the ones banning land mines and cluster bombs. The trouble is that the United States, unlike over one hundred signatory nations, does not belong to either the land mines treaty or the more recent anti-cluster bomb treaty. Historically, the U.S. has been a major manufacturer and deployer of both. Don't count on the Obama White House to take the lead anytime soon.

Columnist David Ignatius wrote that "A world where drones are constantly buzzing overhead--waiting to zap those deemed threats under a cloaked and controversial process--risks being, even more, a world of lawlessness and chaos."

Consider how terrifying it must be to the populations, especially the children, living under the threat of drones that can attack through clouds and dark skies. UAVs are hardly visible but sometimes audible through their frightful whining sound. Polls show Pakistanis overwhelmingly believe most of the drone-driven fatalities are civilians.

US Air Force Colonel Matt Martin has written a book titled Predator. He was a remote operator sitting in the control room in Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada watching "suspects" transversing a mountain ridge in Afghanistan eight thousand miles away. In a review of Martin's book, Christian Cary writes "The eerie acuity of vision afforded by the Predator's multiple high-powered video cameras enables him to watch as the objects of his interest light up cigarettes, go to the bathroom, or engage in amorous adventures with animals on the other side of the world, never suspecting that they are under observation as they do."

For most of a decade the asymmetrical warfare between the most modern, military force in world history and Iraqi and Afghani fighters has left the latter with little conventional aerial or land-based weaponry other than rifles, rocket propelled grenades, roadside IEDs and suicide belted youths.

People who see invaders occupying their land with military domination that is beyond reach will resort to ever more desperate counterattacks, however primitive in nature. When the time comes that robotic weapons of physics cannot be counteracted at all with these simple handmade weapons because the occupier's arsenals are remote, deadly and without the need for soldiers, what will be the blowback?

Already, people like retired Admiral Dennis Blair, former director of National Intelligence under President Obama is saying, according to POLITICO, that the Administration should curtail U.S.-led drone strikes on suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia because the missiles fired from unmanned aircraft are fueling anti-American sentiment and undercutting reform efforts in those countries.

While scores of physicists and engineers are working on refining further advances in UAVs, thousands of others are staying silent. In prior years, their counterparts spoke out against the nuclear arms race or exposed the unworkability of long-range missile defense. They need to re-engage. Because the next blowback may soon move into chemical and biological resistance against invaders. Suicide belts may contain pathogens--bacterial and viral--and chemical agents deposited in food and water supplies.

Professions are supposed to operate within an ethical code and exercise independent judgment. Doctors have a duty to prevent harm. Biologists and chemists should urge their colleagues in physics to take a greater role as to where their know-how is leading this tormented world of ours before the blowback spills over into even more lethally indefensible chemical and biological attacks.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book - and first novel - is, Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us. His most recent work of non-fiction is The Seventeen Traditions.

Bordallo meets with President Obama, discusses Guam issues

MONDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2011 01:03 BY THERESE HART | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

GUAM Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo, vice chair of the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), met with President

President Barack Obama meets with members of the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Contributed photo

Barack Obama at the White House last week to discuss issues important to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Federal-territorial issues were discussed with the President. Bordallo thanked Obama for his past support of Guam war claims and asked for his continued help to help pass the bill in Congress. The Obama administration continues to support Bordallo’s efforts to resolve Guam war claims. The Departments of Defense and the Interior have testified before Congress about their continued support.

However, the climate in Washington to grapple with a record high deficit and the recent talks to cut more than what is being proposed has Guam leaders questioning whether Bordallo can push forward with war reparations at this time.

“Let’s be realistic. It’s rather difficult to even try to bring it up in Congress, given what’s being discussed with regards to cuts. I haven’t given up hope, but at this point, I believe it’s something that Congress isn’t ready to deal with yet,” said Speaker Judi Won Pat.

Won Pat said she and her colleagues are certain of federal cuts which will affect Guam; cuts which Guam must be ready to handle.

“We are literally waiting to see what decisions are made in Washington regarding Guam, because whatever those decisions may be, we have to plan appropriately,” said Won Pat.

Parole

During her meetings, Bordallo also spoke about the need to extend parole authority to Guam for Chinese and Russian visitors. The White House committed to ensuring a continued dialogue with the Department of Homeland Security on the status of extending parole authority to Guam.

The delegate expressed her appreciation for these efforts and conveyed her hope that the White House will continue to provide policy direction on the importance of this initiative to DHS.

The meeting also focused on the need for tax considerations for the territories when the Obama administration is developing national economic policy.

Bordallo and the delegates recently sent a letter to Obama, requesting that he include cover over provisions for the territories in his American Jobs Act. Bordallo thanked the President for listening to the delegates’ concerns and for including cover over provisions in his bill.

“President Obama showed that he is sensitive to the needs of Guam and all Pacific Islanders,” said Bordallo.

“I made the point that our visitor industry will grow with the inclusion of Chinese and Russian visitors. I also told him that Guam’s goals are similar to those expressed by Vice President (Joe) Biden last month in China to make it easier for Chinese tourists to visit the United States. I thanked the President for including cover over provisions in the American Jobs Act and for his concern for the economies of the territories.”

Bordallo also shared with Obama: “We were disappointed that he had to cancel his scheduled visits to Guam last year and that our invitation still stands and our welcome mat is always out.”

Ethnic Californians -- The State’s ‘Environmental Vote’

New America Media, Text By Ngoc Nguyen, Posted: Aug 05, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO -- A majority of Californians want to move forward with environmental regulation, despite a tough economy, with the strongest support coming from those with the highest joblessness rates, according to a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

A poll released last week found that two-thirds of Californians approve of AB 32 - a state law that calls for reductions in global-warming pollution, and nearly 60 percent favor taking action right away, rather than waiting for the state economy or job situation to improve. The survey of 2,504 adults was conducted July 5-19 in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.

“In the face of serious economic downturn, and that continues with high unemployment, residents in California remain steadfast in their support for environmental regulations that call for clean air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and that is very important finding,” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC’s president and CEO.

California has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation, with 11.8 percent of Californians out of jobs compared to the national rate of 9.2 percent.

Support for the state’s landmark climate change law was highest among ethnic Californians: nearly three-fourths of Asians, blacks and Latinos support AB 32, compared to 61 percent for whites. Sixty-nine percent of blacks and Latinos and 53 percent of Asians want the state to act now to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming, compared to 51 percent of whites.

“People of color are the strongest environmentalists in California,” said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). “Air pollution, climate change, clean energy - [our communities have] the highest level of concern and favor more action from government at all levels,” he said during a briefing on the poll for ethnic media on Wednesday.

Support for environmental policies was strongest among African Americans and Latinos, who also have the highest unemployment levels in the state - 19.5 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Most Californians believe climate change policy will lead to more jobs and address environmental problems and air pollution they are concerned about,” Baldassare said.

Pablo Garza, associate director for external affairs and state policy with the Nature Conservancy, said Californians’ strong support for environmental regulation during the economic downturn contrasts the “negative mood” of the nation and Washington, where federal legislation to tackle climate change has gone nowhere.

“California leads the nation on environmental policy and attitudes, and Latino, African-American and Asian communities are the environmental vote in the state,” said Garza, citing the defeat last November of Proposition 23, which called for the indefinite suspension of the state’s climate change law AB 32.

This year’s poll findings track with numbers from 2010, which showed that African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos were at the forefront of support for the state’s climate change law.

The state’s ethnic communities were more likely to perceive climate change as a threat to health than their white counterparts, the poll found. Seventy-two percent of African Americans, 61 percent of Latinos and 52 percent of Asians said they were “very concerned” global warming would increase air pollution, compared to 36 percent of whites. They were also more likely than whites to believe that policies to reduce global warming would create jobs.

Jakada Imani, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, said outreach to ethnic communities about the environment needs to focus on issues relevant to their lives, such as air pollution.

“We don’t talk about polar bears,” he said.

“The environment is very personal and impacts us everyday…it’s very much connected to issues of health, economics and politics,” said Kim.

Californians rank air pollution as the most important environmental issue. A majority (53 percent) of Californians said they consider the health risks from air pollution as very or somewhat serious. Seventy-seven percent of blacks and 67 percent of Latinos felt that way, compared to 44 percent of whites and 43 percent for Asians.

APEN’s Kim said that Asian immigrants in the United States come from Asian cities where air pollution is much worse, so “in comparison, the air here seems better.” He said the poll also shows varying socioeconomic status in the community, adding that perceptions of health risks from air pollution in low-income regions are in line with their black and Latino counterparts.

Yet despite the strong levels of support by ethnic Californians for environmental action and policies, activists say their voices are still not being heard.

“We’re not a part of the debate happening at all government levels,” said Kim.

He pointed to recent legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that requires the state to get one-third of its electricity from renewable sources such as the sun and wind by 2020. This legislation will spur opportunities, Kim said, and ethnic Californians need to be at the table to ensure the implementation plan benefits the communities most in need.

Peace Day Event Calls for Ending Missile Testing in the Pacific

September 17, 2011 by kyle from DMZhawaii.org

Hawai’i Peace and Justice (formerly the American Friends Service Committee Hawai’i Program) will sponsor a talk by a renowned peace activist to commemorate International Peace Day.

MacGregor Eddy will speak about “Peace In the Pacific: Stop Missile Testing!” Ms. Eddy sits on the board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power Space <http://www.space4peace.org>, is a member of the International Committee to Save Jeju Island (Korea) <www.savejejuisland.org>, and coordinates peace protests at the Vandenberg Space Command <www.vandenbergwitness.org>.

The event takes place on International Peace Day, September 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm, at the Honolulu Friends Meeting House, 2426 Oahu Avenue, Honolulu. The presentation is free and open to the public.

On what has been declared an International Day of Peace by the United Nations, the United States had scheduled to launch a nuclear-capable Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. After an outpouring of international criticism, the launch has been postponed to a later date.

There was much controversy with the selection of this particular date, which was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 2001 to be reserved as “a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day…commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said, “Missile testing is a provocative act, not a peaceful one, and is particularly inappropriate on the International Day of Peace. Rather than testing one of its nuclear-capable missiles, the US should be taking steps to further the goals of peace and nuclear disarmament on this important day. To build a more peaceful world, US leadership is critical.”

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California routinely tests hydrogen bomb delivery systems, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMS), over the Pacific to Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands in violation of the U.S. commitment to disarmament under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The US and its allies use the few, short range launches by North Korea as a pretext for military buildup on Guam, Okinawa, and Jeju Island South Korea. The Pacific Missile Range Facility in Nohili, Kaua’i is key to the testing and tracking of missile launches.

Kyle Kajihiro, coordinator for Hawai‘i Peace and Justice said “On Peace Day we should reflect on the high cost of war and militarism and commit ourselves to ending the disorder of global militarization. Will Hawai‘i truly be a gathering place for peace, or a weapon of global domination? ”

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