Susan Carlson | Special for the Arizona Republic
May. 12, 2008

Members of the Arizona Business & Education Coalition, or ABEC, recently joined other Arizona residents for the 92nd Arizona Town Hall focused on the teaching profession.

We also conducted our own "Crash Course on Teacher Quality" last week for members of the business and education communities.

Four recommendations are of particular interest to ABEC:

• Raising the status of the profession.

Defining and promoting teaching as a distinguished profession is a primary recommendation. Indeed, top-performing systems worldwide consistently attract more able people into teaching because of the elevated status of the profession. These systems recruit from the top 10 percent in their university systems.

Promoting teaching as a profession is a task for all of us and starts with the language we use every day when discussing teachers. How do we attract the top 10 percent if we don't demonstrate by word and deed that we value the profession?

A top demonstration of the value we place on that profession is compensation. The recommendation is to provide teachers with professional pay linked with systemic education reform.

Arizona should establish a statewide competitive-pay structure. ABEC agrees this should be accompanied by a well-developed performance-pay system that includes student achievement as a component. Base pay should provide a professional, competitive wage for all teachers. Performance pay should be significant, focus on teaching conditions, individual student growth and provide accountability measures at the teacher level. And non-performing teachers should be removed from the classroom.


• Improving the outcomes.

As the top performers know, the only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction. The town hall recommends the implementation of a statewide data-driven professional-development system with a strong mentoring component. Professional development should be required over a career span and either made affordable or subsidized by the state.

We also must provide alternative pathways into teaching that enable content area experts to be effective with students. Teachers need be certified in multiple disciplines and should be able to be qualified in high-need areas.


• Systemic reform and restructuring.

Two recommendations reference "systemic education reform" and restructuring the system for school funding. But the bigger questions are: Are we ready? Are key leaders ready to design a system of funding schools that is transparent, equitable, and fully funds the needs of public schools? Do we have the political will to cast aside old models and create a new future? We believe it's possible.


• Businesses play several vital roles.

Firms advocate policy change and develop, recruit and support those drawn to teaching - at whatever point in their careers. For example, they can validate teaching as a profession by increasing awareness of the importance of the link between teacher quality and 21st century competitiveness; draw the link between education and economic development; and take a leadership role in developing tax policy to ensure that resources are not subject to political whim.

ABEC will lead the charge on school finance redesign, high school reform, and closing the achievement gap with our "World Class - What Will it Take?" conference on June 2 and 3 at the Orange Tree Golf Resort in Phoenix.

Labels: teachers

posted by Patricia Lopez at 12:15 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Education News
May 16 2007

PHOENIX - A coalition of parent, education and civic organizations is lauding a decision today by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which ruled that tax-payer funded vouchers that subsidize private school tuition are unconstitutional.

The decision resulted from a lawsuit filed by the coalition on Feb. 20, 2007, in response to two statutes enacted by the Arizona Legislature in spring 2006. The statutes authorized the state to give public tax-dollars to religious and other private schools through tuition vouchers.

Lawyers for the coalition argued that the programs violate the state's Constitution by appropriating funds for religious instruction and directing aid in advance of religion. The two provisions, found in Arizona's Constitution, are distinct from and more expansive than the U.S. Constitution's religion clauses of the First Amendment.

Public education advocates in Arizona and throughout the nation have long criticized private school vouchers as a threat to the basic right of every child to an excellent public education.

"Vouchers are not sound education policy," said Panfilo H. Contreras, Executive Director of the Arizona School Boards Association. "They divert funds from an already strapped system and channel them to private organizations that, unlike public schools, are not required to be accountable for how the money is spent or the level of achievement that results. Vouchers also create inequities for students, particularly those who live in rural areas, where few private schools exist.
"

"Today's decision strikes another blow against the ineffective and misguided policy of school vouchers. We applaud the court's decision and the leadership shown by Arizona's public schools coalition, including the Arizona School Boards Association," said Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, which filed a friend of the court brief in this case.

In addition, vouchers lack support of the voting public. Since 2000, voters in three states (California, Michigan and Utah) have overwhelmingly rejected vouchers as an unnecessary choice for parents and students in their states.

John Wright, President of the Arizona Education Association, said, "Just like voters in other states who have declined vouchers, Arizonans understand that public schools are our pathway to great public schools that serve every child equally and that vouchers only divert funding and attention away from public schools."

Coalition partners in this legal challenge are the Arizona School Boards Association, the Arizona Education Association, the Arizona School Administrators, the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Arizona Federation of Teachers, Arizona Parent-Teacher Association and the Arizona Rural Schools Association.

Labels: Vouchers

posted by Patricia Lopez at 12:08 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out a short video clip discussing the demands of migrant workers leading up to the gathering. Also, read a previous post on this blog "Acuerdo migratorio, única alternativa para mexicanos" addressing the need for an alternative migration agreement. -Patricia

Sonia Pena | ColorLines Blog
May 14, 2008

This week, Racewire contributors will be blogging from the Transnational Assembly of Remitters and their Families, a global gathering of more than 200 people from more than 22 countries and 22 U.S. states being held in Mexico City.

We’ll be blogging more on the workshops and sharing the stories that we are so lucky to be able to hear first hand, but I wanted to share two things to give you a flavor of the tone and sentiment behind the gathering and the people that are here. The first is a short video clip of Francis Calpotura from the Press Conference held to open the convening and the second (below) are the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Principles, drafted by Kim Fellner and read out loud at the opening Assembly of the gathering by Javaid Tariq of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Delegates at the Assembly will be giving feedback for changes to the declaration this week. The full text of the final declaration will be posted on the TIGRA website next week.


Declaration of Principles: Global Assembly of Remitters and their Families, Mexico City, May 13, 2008

We are an assembly of united migrant remitters who sustain our families, communities, and countries with the proceeds of our labor and the power of our love.

Our story is written in our bodies, in the words of the poet, “a condition of our age.” It is a chronicle of separation, driven by need, and fueled by the yearning to make a better life for our loved ones. It is about the places we left behind and those where we now live, the cultures we bring with us—and the ones we have learned to embrace. It is a story we whisper to ourselves in the lonely nights, shout out in frustration at hateful ignorance, share with each other to heal our spirits, and pass on to our children as a testimony of endurance and hope.

We are among the millions in motion across the globe who provide desperately needed sustenance for many millions who remain behind. But our conditions make us vulnerable to the unscrupulous practices of companies and governments that feed off our modest harvest, snatching the fruits of our labor to garner their wealth by the billions, which we have purchased with our sacrifices. And that is a blow against our humanity and a transgression against our children.

Today, we form the first–ever assembly of remitters to build a better future for our families and communities everywhere. As the assembly of La Liga de Sustentadores de la Communidad Mundial/The Global League of Community Sustainers, we believe that a new vison of globalization is necessary and possible……

Labels: migration

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:20 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's a link to download presentations from the UC LMRI's 2008 Annual conference. -Patricia

Mary Ann Zehr | Ed Week
Sacramento, Calif.
May 14, 2008

Preliminary findings from new research suggest that in three states where voters decided to replace bilingual education with structured English immersion as the default method for teaching English-language learners, the new approach may be producing less-than-stellar results.

The studies were commissioned by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Linguistic Minority Research Institute at UC-Santa Barbara, as well as the University ofCalifornia’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity, or UC ACCORD. The findings were presented here in California’s capital city during the institute’s annual conference on May 2-3, which focused on “restrictive language policies.”

Read on...

Labels: bilingual education, English language learners

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:56 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Edición 15021 martes 20 de mayo de 2008 Publicación de Hoy
Acuerdo migratorio, única alternativa para mexicanos

Para los mexicanos residentes en Estados Unidos, la única alternativa viable para solucionar conflictos como la inseguridad jurídica, la confrontación social y la discriminación es un acuerdo migratorio.

De acuerdo con líderes de varias agrupaciones de mexicanos que viven en diferentes estados de la Unión Americana, la oleada antiinmigrante que se vive en entidades como Arizona y California, lejos de resolver el problema, lo avivan.

En entrevista por teléfono, Gloria Saucedo, de la Hermandad Mexicana, señaló que las medidas antiinmigrantes perjudican más de lo que benefician, pues provocan disgregación familiar y conflictos económicos en las comunidades.

Refirió que, según un estudio del Centro de Políticas de Inmigración de California, independientemente de su calidad migratoria, las personas provenientes de otros países aportan cuatro mil 500 millones de dólares anuales de impuestos a ese estado.

El vocero de la Alianza Nacional de Comunidades Latinoamericanas y Caribeñas (NALACC, por sus siglas en inglés), Jorge Mario Cabrera, desmintió a su vez las afirmaciones de las autoridades locales de Los Angeles en torno del “costo” de los indocumentados.

Recordó que recientemente el supervisor Mike Antonovich, del Distrito 5, aseveró que el condado de Los Angeles “gasta” al año 220 millones de dólares en seguridad pública, 400 millones en salud y 432 millones de dólares en ayuda a los indocumentados.

Cabrera indicó que esas cifras son falsas, pues es bien sabido que los inmigrantes, lejos de representar un gasto para la ciudad, contribuyen de manera importante con sus impuestos y el consumo local.

En tanto para Marco Amador, de la Cadena Nacional de Organizaciones de Jornaleros, la situación en Estados Unidos es grave, pues al amparo de las medidas antiinmigrantes, muchos patrones han dejado de pagar a sus trabajadores.

Las leyes que obligan a los empleadores a revisar el estatus migratorio de sus trabajadores antes de contratarlos -y que ya están vigentes en varios estados, entre ellos Arizona- se usa como pretexto para dejar de pagar sus salarios.

Esta situación provoca problemas económicos a las familias de los jornaleros, quienes dejan de recibir remesas desde Estados Unidos.

Una encuesta publicada por el Tomás Rivera Policy Institute

(TRPI), con sede en la Universidad del Sur de California en Los

Angeles, muestra la preocupación por la seguridad en el envío de

dinero.

Debido a las medidas antiinmigrantes, los mexicanos que reciben

dinero de sus familiares en Estados Unidos muestran una creciente

preocupación por la certeza de que esos recursos lleguen completos y

a tiempo.

De acuerdo con el Informe sobre la Inflación de enero-marzo de

2008 del Banco de México, “a lo largo de 2007 el ingreso de recursos

al país por remesas familiares mostró una desaceleración, la cual se

acentuó en el presente año”.

El año pasado, el monto de las remesas ascendió a 23 mil 979

millones de dólares, mientras que “en el primer trimestre de 2008,

esa entrada de recursos fue de cinco mil 350 millones de dólares, lo

que implicó una caída anual de 2.9 por ciento”.

La encuesta del TRPI levantada en 10 entidades de México revela

que, en promedio, 51 por ciento de las personas tiene preocupación de que el dinero llegue con seguridad. Pero desglosada por estado, la

cifra es grave.

Por ejemplo, en Jalisco la preocupación es compartida por 61 por

ciento de los encuestados, en Puebla por 57 por ciento, en Guanajuato

por 56 por ciento, y en el Distrito Federal y el estado de México por

39 por ciento.

Al respecto, el director del Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, Carlos González Gutiérrez, señaló que hay una preocupación importante porque los mexicanos recurren cada vez más a medios

clandestinos para el envío de dinero.

A pesar de los esfuerzos de autoridades mexicanas para “bancarizar” a los migrantes, las medidas tomadas en Estados Unidos los ahuyentan de las sucursales bancarias y de las oficinas de envíos regulares de dinero, lo que genera riesgos económicos.

El director ejecutivo de NALACC, Oscar Chacón, ha señalado en

repetidas ocasiones que las redadas que se han llevado a cabo en

varios estados provocan descalabros económicos.

Los casos se han documentados en Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,

Kentucky, Florida, Nueva York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas y Virginia Occidental, donde la expulsión de indocumentados ha dejado vacantes y desintegración de familias.

Los dirigentes consultados coinciden en que la única manera de

resolver esos conflictos, que afectan más a la de por sí debilitada

economía estadounidense, es lograr un acuerdo migratorio que

regularice el flujo de personas.

Sin embargo, el panorama es poco alentador. Dennis Bixler y

Márquez, director del Centro de Estudios Chicanos de la Universidad

de Texas en El Paso, asegura que nunca se firmará tal acuerdo.

En su opinión, ni las autoridades, ni los representantes de la

política estadounidense, es decir los diputados y senadores, tienen

el menor interés de llegar a un acuerdo migratorio con México.

En ese sentido, advirtió que la lucha seguirá siendo larga y la

presión contra los inmigrantes dependerá de las circunstancias

políticas y económicas que se vivan cada momento.


Copyright :Diario de Mexico

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 6:59 PM 0 comments Links to this post