Resisting & Transforming Policies, Practices & the Riddiculum: Creating a Pedagogy of Hope

1. Resisting & Transforming Policies, Practices & the Riddiculum: Creating a Pedagogy of Hope Dr. Barbara Flores 2013 OABE Annual Conference McMinnville, OR

2. HOMENAJE A CESAR CHAVEZ İSI SE PUEDE!

3. Just Some Statistics… • “Demography is Destiny” Dr. Juan Andrade, The Almanac of Latino Politics, 2008 • 80% of Latino population concentrated in 10 states • Latinos and African Americans together are the majority in 48 of the nation’s 100 largest cities • From 1970 to 2006 Latino Growth has been at 387% Rate • By 2050 Latinos will comprise ¼ of the nation’s population at 102 million people • The 2010 Census counted 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States, making up 16.3% of the total population. The nation’s Latino population, which was 35.3 million in 2000, grew 43% over the decade. The Hispanic population also accounted for most of the nation’s growth—56%—from 2000 to 2010.

4. The Economic Force of Latinos • In 2008 Latinos had approximately $980 Billion buying power in the United States • In 2013 Latino buying power is in excess of over $1.5 Trillion • Forty-seven percent of the nation´s purchasing power and 50% of the Hispanic population are concentrated in California and Texas. • Small Businesses Growing at Record Rate • CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, NJ, AZ, CO, NM and GA top 10 states accounting for 81% of all Latino buying power • In the Salem metro area, the report pegs the Hispanic purchasing power at $955 million, or about 11% of the total for the area. That compares to a 5.7% rate overall for Hispanic purchasing power in Oregon in 2011.

5. Oregon Latino Demographics • Ten of Oregon’s 213 school districts enroll 50 percent of the state’s Latino students. Seven of these school districts are in the Portland metropolitan area, two are located in the mid-Willamette Valley, and one is located in Southern Oregon. These school districts are Salem-Keizer, Beaverton, Portland, Hillsboro, Woodburn, Reynolds, Forest Grove, Tigard-Tualatin, Gresham-Barlow, and Medford.

6. By 2020 38% of the Oregon population will be Latino. • Based on current incarceration rates, about one in six Latino males— and one in three Black males— will be imprisoned at some point during their lifetimes. • In 2008, a majority of Latino children in Oregon lived in two-parent households according to estimates by the American Community Survey, U.S. Bureau of the Census. • In 2008 32 percent (44,280) of Latino children live in poor families in Oregon OREGON COMMISSION ON HISPANIC AFFAIRS Report February 2010

7. The Economic Force of Latinos • In 2008 Latinos had approximately $980 Billion buying power in the United States • In 2012 Latino buying power is in excess of over $1.2 Trillion • Forty-seven percent of the nation´s purchasing power and 50% of the Hispanic population are concentrated in California and Texas. • Small Businesses Growing at Record Rate • CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, NJ, AZ, CO, NM and GA top 10 states accounting for 81% of all Latino buying power • In the Salem metro area, the report pegs the Hispanic purchasing power at $955 million, or about 11% of the total for the area. That compares to a 5.7% rate overall for Hispanic purchasing power in Oregon in 2011.

8. Transforming Latino Education—Its Historical BackgroundIts Deficit Ideology Its Insidious Politics, Policies, Practices & ProgramsToward A Pedagogy of Hope

10. What is an IDEOLOGY? • Ideologies map the political and social worlds for us. (Freeden, 2003) • Ideologies are used to deliberately manipulate those under its control. (Mannheim) • Ideological hegemony is used by the dominant class to domesticate and subordinate the masses. (Gramsci) • Ideology is something that happens within us and to us.

11. Naming, Interrogating & Transforming Deficit Ideology, Policies, Practices and Programs Impacting Bilingual/EL Children & Students • The Deficit Legacy • The Demographic Imperative • The Cultural Divide between Teachers and Students • Racist & Class Policies that Deny Education as a Civil Right • Bankrupt & “Backlash” Pedagogy

12. Naming & Interrogating the Status Quo • The Legacy of the Deficit View of Spanish Speaking Children During 20th Century & Beginning of the 21st Century • Tracking by Ability, Use of Invalid Language Proficiency Tests, and High Stakes Testing • Unequal Access to Curriculum, textbooks, and Quality Teachers • The Dismantling of Public Education through No Child Left Behind • Over 50% Dropout Rate for Latinos • Institutionalized Failure of Latino Children

13. John F. Kennedy once said, “For the greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, continued and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, pervasive, and unrealistic.” (Yale, 1962)

14. The Intellectual Presence of the Deficit View of Spanish Speaking Children in Schooling During the 20th Century by Decade Decade:1920’s Problem:Mental Retardation Fallacies, “These children are Myths & mentally retarded Habitudes due to their language.”

15. Decade: 1930’sProblem: Bilingualism Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “Spanish speaking children do not achieve in school because they are bilingual.” • “Learning English is difficult.” • “Bilingualism and its effects upon the reading aspects of language is a problem.”

16. Decade: 1940’sProblem: Change the Mexicans through Education Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “The Mexican can be changed through schooling.” • “The bilingual child’s language is a problem; therefore, it is the only problem that the schools have direct and complete control over.” • “Because the Mexican children have a language problem, they must be segregated.

17. Decade: 1950’sProblem: Dual Handicap & the Language Barrier Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “The school must compensate for the Mexican children’s deficiencies by providing a rich and satisfying program.” • “Bilingual children’s reading problems arise generally from their home situations.”

18. Decade: 1960’sProblem:Cultural & Linguistic Deprivation Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “Home and Language are the primary causes of school failure.” • “The school must remedy the deprivation of the Mexican Americans.” • “Before the child with a language handicap can begin to read successfully, he must command a meaningful English vocabulary.”

19. Decade: 1970’sProblem: Equal Educational Opportunity for the Culturally & Linguistically “Different” Child Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • The “Limited English” (LEP) child must be helped. • English language achievement is the only yardstick for educational success. • Bilingual children must not mix their languages. If they do, it means that they know neither well. They are said to be “alingual,” “nonlingual,” or “semilingual.”

20. Decade: 1980’sProblem: Semilingualism Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “If children don’t learn certain concepts in their native language, they will be cognitively deficient when learning those concepts in a second language.” • “Semilingualism is determined by a score on a standardized test.”

21. Decade: 1990’sProblem: These Children are At Risk Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “These students come from dysfunctional homes and need additional help.” • “These children need to be reached early so that they don’t fail.” • “These children’s parents don’t care, can’t read or write, and neglect their children.”

22. Decade: 2000-2012Problem: Lack of English Myths, Fallacies & Habitudes • “The inability to learn English prevents ‘these’ children from succeeding.” • “English Language Learners have difficulty learning English as evidenced on standardized test scores.” • “These children continue to fail in school because they have been in bilingual education and speak Spanish.”

23. Examining the Institutionalized Policies and Practices of Failure • Teacher perceptions and low expectations by class, race, ethnicity, and language • Tracking by ability, test scores, and proficiency levels • Labeling our children, e.g. LEPs, ELLs, CELDT I, II, III, IV, Far Below Basic, Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced • The Insidiousness of High Stakes Testing, Exit Exams, Use of Invalid Language Proficiency Exams • Mandated, Scripted & Bankrupt Riddiculum, Reading First Remnants---“Banking Education” • Unexamined Domestication of Colonized Minds

24. No Child Left Behind DebacleCommon Core Promise or Peril • False promises, Under Funding • Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing-Reading First • Legislating the Dismantling of Public Education • Corporate Hijacking of precious Educational Funds (Testing & Textbooks) • Legislated Corruption, Lies & Fraud with Impunity, e.g. Reading First Debacle • Institutionalized Abuse of Children & the Demise of Public Education • Mandated Scripted Curriculum (Riddiculum), “Teacher Proof” Textbooks, and Empty Assessments (Fluency, Dibels)

25. Mandated, Scripted & Bankrupt Riddiculum--- “Banking Education” • Decodable Books/Reading First • REACH • LANGUAGE! • READ 180 • High Point • One Size Fits All Riddiculum • Scripted Language Arts Textbooks, e.g. Pearson’s Reading Streets, Houghton Mifflin, Open Court • Pacing Guides • Reading Excerpts of Books INSTEAD of Real Books!!!!!

26. Mom has a pot Mom has a hot pot Mom has a spot Dad has a mop Dad mops the spot Open Court Decodable books, Level B, Set 1 What does she do with it? Why would she have one? How did she get it? What is my Dad doing with a mop? How can he mop a spot that my Mom has? Doesn’t make any sense??? Nonesensebegetsconfusion

27. Characteristics of Decodable Text “Decodable text is composed of words that use the sound-spelling correspond-ences that children have learned to that point…” (Grossen, 1997) Example of Decodable Text As Bankrupt Riddiculum

28. “…decodable text’ has two key features that distinguish it from other types of reading text: a) it is composed of words that are considered phonetically regular The /ă/ sound [cat and sat]

29. …and b) those words are constructed from phonic elements that have been previously taught.” (Allington, 2002, p. 200) The /ă/ sound [cat and sat]

30. REACH Example • We fill pots with clams. • We fit lids on the pots. • We can get the pots hot. • That is how we fix a clam dish.

31. Invalid Use of Tests • Dibels • Aims Web • Fluency • Nonesense Words • Word Accuracy • Focus on Decoding Only • Phonemic Awareness in Isolation • High Stakes Tests/ CCSS/ • PARC/SMARTER BALANCE

32. Legislated Corruption-- Lies & Fraud with ImpunityReading First Debacle & the Fallacy of Decodable Books& Dibels/EDL

33. Decodable Texts are not supported by ANY Research • CLAIM:“…Research strongly asserts that children benefit greatly from direct, systematic decoding instruction and that instruction should follow with practice in decodable stories” [Texas Reading Initiative, p. 8…citing Adams, 1990; Anderson el al., 1985; Beck & Juel, 1992; Juel, 1994, and others]

34. Teachers in K-3 Use “Reading Programs & Materials” that are “Research” Based • The OIG also found that several people integral to Reading First’s development of violating federal law by subverting state decision-making when states approved local reading programs deemed out of favor with the department. • “Based on its research findings, the NRP did not recommend any commercial reading program—NONE.” (Garan, 2004, p.89)

35. Research Cited Does Not Support Recommendations • “No research studies were identified that systematically manipulated the proportion of words in texts considered “decodable” to assess the efficacy of texts compromised of ‘some,’ ‘many,’ ‘mostly’ or ‘exclusively’ words that could be pronounced based on the lessons previously taught.” (pp. 200-201) (Richard Allington, Editor, Big Brother & the National Reading Curriculum: How Ideology Trumped Evidence, 2002)

36. Research Analysis and Findings on the Use of Decodable Texts in the Teaching of Beginning Reading • “We have carefully traced the research citations noted in advocacy and policy documents [e.g, Texas and California State Departments of Education] to their original research sources and we’re unable to locate any ‘reliable, replicable research’ concerning the use of ‘decodable text’ upon which these policy decisions are based on.” (Allington, 2002, p. 212)

37. Conflicts of Interests • The Office of the Inspector General is investigating the “conflicts of interests” associated with Reading First Grants whereby states have been told to adhere to certain products e.g. Dibels, or they would not be awarded federal monies. • Update: OIG found gross misdeeds, conflicts of interests, and violations of federal policies.

38. HOWEVER • The OIG September 22, 2006 Report • “An inspection of the U.S. Department of Education’s oversight of the grant-application process for RF finds that officials may have stacked panels of grant reviewers with advocates of a specific teaching method and that federal officials may have overstepped their authority in advising states on the types of materials and assessments they could use as part of the $1 billion-a-year initiative.”

39. Report #5on February 22, 2007 • “The OIG found that the U.S. Department of Education failed to restrict federal employees’ and representatives’ direction or influence over curriculum and assessment decisions as prohibited by law.” (Education Week)

40. Education Week 2/23/07By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo • RMC Corporation oversaw the National Reading First Technical Assistance Center and its regional centers at Florida State University, the University of Oregon, and the U of T, Austin. • “The Education Department did not put in safeguards against the contractor’s potential bias or conflicts of interests, the inspector general found. Some of the experts employed by RMC…were connected to specific programs and assessments, and may have served as advisors or reviewers for states that included those products in their applications.”

41. Sin Verguenza • Secretary Spellings dismissed the wrong doing as “mistakes.” • No one has been charged with criminal action like fraud, corruption or conflicts of interest. • Lies, Fraud and Corruption with Impunity appear to just be an everyday happen stance • Congress never took punitive action.

42. READING FOR PROFIT • In 1995 the National Business Round Table issued its Education Initiative where they made a 10 year commitment to “reform the entire system of public education.” • “The Corporate Coup” of Public Education by the High Jacking of the People’s Federal $$$ thru draconian legislation that increases profit margins for Textbook and Testing Corporations such as McGraw-Hill is obscene.

43. The Arrogance of Power • Breeds Corruption • Sanctions Lying • Uses Bullying • Rules byF.E.A.R. (FlaseEvidenceAppearingReal) • Manipulates the Rules • Violates the Law • Bankrupts Morality & Ethics

44. After Interrogating these Insidious Policies, Practices & Programs…Then What? • Replace Deficit Ideologies with the Truth-- “La mentira dura hasta que la verdad llega.” • Boycott and/or Replace High Stakes Testing • Advocate for Authentic/Multiple Assessments • Demand Respect by Claiming It with Our Collective Voices and Actions • Reclaim Our Democratic and Civil Rights thru Our Collective Actions to use our Public $$ for our Children’s High Quality Education and Make Educational Equity a FACT of Everyday Schooling • Go to the Streets, Descend on the Legislatures & Congress in MASS! As in Wisconsin

45. HOW WILL WE TRANFORM & CREATE OUR WORLD? • By Restoring Public Education As a Human & Civil Right in our Democracy • By Teaching for Equity, Social Justice & Civic Rights • By Transforming Deficit Ideology & Resisting the Riddiculum & Migas • By Valuing All Children • By Teaching to the Potential • By Taking Back Public Education & Our Power to Allocate Our $$$$ • By Embracing the Demographic Imperative and the Shift in Power

46. Instead of Giving Power to… • The Devaluing of Teachers’ and Administrators’ Social and Cultural Capital, Let’s Use It to Inform Our Teaching and Leadership; • The Dismantling of Public Education thru NCLB, Let’s Dismantle and Replace the Debilitating Policies; • Divisiveness; Let’s Close the Cultural and Linguistic Divide with United Voices & Actions; • “Blaming the Victim,” Let’s Take Responsibility for Unmasking Racism, Classism, and Our Own Domestication of our Colonized Minds • Waiting & Seeing, Let’s Collectively Engage in the People’s Power to Act and Transform • Watching Our Kids “Fail,” Let’s Boycott NCLB, High Stakes Testing, Mandated Riddiculum, the “short fall of state Budgets,” and the RIFing of Teachers & Administrators!

47. Replace Debilitating Policies & Practices • Instead of Organizing Teaching/Learning to the perceived developmental levels, TEACH to the Potential • Instead of the Riddiculum, Provide Access to Rich Curriculum, Materials & Resources • Instead of Discrepant Quality of Teachers, Hire Teachers Who Really CARE & Are DEDICATED Professionals • Instead of Managers, Become Sustained & Pedagogically Sound Curricular Leaders • Instead of a Lack of Huevos, Stand up for Our Rights and Our Children’s Rights

48. THE PEDAGOGY OF HOPE • Walking the 4 Paths of the Warrior, the Healer, the Teacher and the Visionary; • Engaging the “daughters of HOPE”—CORAJE Y VALENTIA; • Leading with the HEART; • Planting the seeds of HOPE To Reinvent Our World for Social Justice, Humanity and Civil Rights through a Public Education

49. Walking the Four Paths of the Warrior, the Healer, the Teacher, & the VisionaryAngeles Arrien The Path of the Warrior • “Showing Up and Choosing to be Present” is a principle that guides the warrior inside all of us. (Angeles Arrien, 1993) • According to indigenous societies the developed warrior shows honor and respect for all things including ourselves. • Also, the warrior communicates effectively, sets limits and boundaries, is responsible and disciplined, and demonstrates rightuse of power.

50. Courage is present in Everyone‘s Heart, Mind, Spirit, Will & Body. Walking the Path of the Warrior • A true Warrior/Leader is someone who knows how to extend honor and respect; set limits and boundaries; aligns words with actions; and extend responsibility into structure and function in an empowering way.