Why Mr Trump's Language Has Backfired: Lessons From a Brooklyn Coach

In the late 1980's and early 90's, most of my spare time was spent coaching CYO basketball and sandlot baseball. My teams, based in St. Saviour's parish in Park Slope, played games all over Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. At that time, New York was a racial tinderbox, with killings of Black men in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst producing huge protests and bitter counterdemonstrations. There was tremendous tension in the city, affecting people in the neighborhoods which fielded teams, many of which were highly segregated . Our multiracial teams from Park Slope played all Black teams from Red Hook, Farragut Houses and Flatbush, while competing against all white teams from Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Marine Park Howard Beach and Rockaway.

How did the coaches, families and players handle the tensions surrounding them? How did they prevent basketball games and baseball games between kids from different neighborhoods, and from different racial backgrounds, from devolving into fights, riots and communal warfare?

The answer was very simple. There was an unspoken agreement among the coaches, parents, and referees that in the heat of closely contested games NO ONE WOULD EVER MENTION SOMEONE'S RACE! You could insult a player by referring to his weight, height, size of his butt, the way he walked talked or shot, but never ever by referring to his race. You could call someone an asshole, but never a Black or White asshole.

People stuck to this rule religiously and the result was that in more than 10 years of coaching, there only one game I coached that turned into a riot even though many were hotly, even bitterly contested. And that one exception was when white parents form a parish in Marine Park claimed that a black player on our team was intimidating their kids and use a racial term to get their point across.

The lesson. to me is clear. People in public life, if they want to prevent tensions from exploding into violence, have to refrain from openly attacking people by race, religion or nationality, even when they are angry.

Mr Trump failed to follow that rule and now we are about to reap the whirlwind.

Why Elites Have to Destroy Public Education

I just had an epiphany. I've been thinking about why our economic and political elites are devoting so much energy to destroying public education. What's in for them, other than the profits to be made from investments in technology, software, real estate and other direct benefits to corporations from testing and school privatization?.
And then I realized something- the generation of Sixties rebels that I was part of were products of the greatest investment in public education in US history! The schools we attended, starved for resources during the Depression, still often segregated by race and class, benefited from a huge investment of funding in response to postwar economic growth and the Cold War. In New York City, this investment was reflected in the creation of incredible music and arts programs, excellent science labs, after school programs and night centers; regular recess and physical education, and lots of school trips. And from what i have gathered from talking to friends who grew up in LA, Newark, Detroit, Buffalo and Chicago, the same kinds of programs were available in public schools throughout the nation's cities. Schools, even those in working class neighborhoods and communities of color,had bands and orchestras, plays and debates, science fairs and great school teams.
The young people attending those schools, me among them, believed that the American dream of freedom and economic opportunity was really for THEM,and when they discovered injustices not discussed in their homes and schools, responded fiercely, not only with indignation, but with the confidence to challenge entrenched hierarchies.
So many of the great young leaders of 60's protests from founders of the Student on Violent Coordinating Committee, to those who led campus protests against the Vietnam War, to the activists in the radical Women's Liberation movement which did so much to change gender relations in the US,, were product of public schools
As wealth has concentrated at the top levels of American society to an unprecedented degree, the last thing our elites want to see is another wave of rebellion like we had in the Sixties.
Starving, privatizing and scripting what goes on in public schools seems like an excellent strategy to prevent that from happening.

Sample Letter To School Districts That Force Students to Take Tests Against their Parents Wishes

Dear ................

I am writing to urge you to reconsider your efforts to force ........... to take state tests against the will of his parents. I am doing so as part of an informal committee of scholars, journalists, and civil rights lawyers monitoring how school districts around the nation handle children and families who are refusing tests they consider invasive and developmentally inappropriate. We regard
resistance to testing as one of the great civil rights causes of our time, as we believe testing in our educational system has reached dangerous proportions and is doing especial harm to ELL students and special needs who are forced to take tests which they experience as humiliating and demoralizing.

Given that perspective, which is shared by a growing number of educators, education scholars, and psychologists, I urge you as a matter of conscience and sound education practice, to abide by the wishes of ............parents and refrain from requiring him to take tests which they choose to exempt him from. Hundreds of thousands of parents around the country have taken this step, more than 220,000 in my home state of New York. School districts which have chosen to force children to take tests over the protests of their parents are likely to face much negative publicity and lawsuits.. While this possibility may seem remote in your own school district in South West Texas, I can assure you that the test resistance movement is national and reaches into every portion of the nation. It is truly a cause whose time as come as it has the best interests of children and teachers at heart

I realize that I have no institutional standing to address you this way, but I do so from a strong moral foundation. I am among many
who care deeply about education policy, and about justice who believe that children and families should be free from intimidation and deprival of school recources to which they are entitled when facing the very serious decision whether to participate in state tests

Sincerely,

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University

The Grim Future of Public Education in the Face of "Personalized Learning"

As a student of history, who has watched how the financialization of capital and the expansion of technology has affected labor markets, housing markets, and the political process, I am incredibly pessimistic about the future of public education. After the recent financial collapse, more and more of those with investment capital seeking profitable outlets have are seeing education, and educational technology, as potential growth areas. Resistance to standardized testing and Common Core confronted them with a temporary setback, but now they are poised to make an end run around the Opt Out movement by concentrating on "personalized learning" which requires a huge investment in computerization of classrooms as well as software. Along with this remaking of schooling, they plan a data based reinvention of teacher education which will require the closing, or reinvention of colleges of teacher education. If these plans go through, and majority of the nation's teachers and teacher educators are likely to lose their jobs in the next 10 years, to be replaced by people who will largely be temp workers making little more than minimum wage. This has already happened in higher education with the switch to adjunct labor. It is about to sweep through our public schools with the force of a juggernaut.
Can it be stopped? Based on the reports I am getting from places as far apart as Colorado, Maine, Florida and Connecticut, it is going to require resistance on a scale far beyond anything we have seen to prevent this from going into effect.
Given the impact on wages, and jobs, along with the destruction of any forms of collective experience in a school setting, it looks to me like the Oligarchy is ready to make itself invulnerable for the next `100 years.

We Are All "Illegals"

One of the things that perplexes me most in the current political landscape is the use of the term "illegals" to refer to undocumented immigrants. If there is ever an example of the pot calling the kettle black, this is it. There are very few working class, and even middle class Americans, who can support themselves strictly through legal means, especially now that wages have plummeted and many available jobs have become part time. To get by,and support their families, almost everyone has an off the books source of income, ranging from painting houses, to fixing cars, to tutoring or styling hair, to producing or selling iilegal substances, and huge numbers of families rent out rooms, and in some cases portions of rooms, to help meet mortgage payments or pay the rent. This isn't accidental, it is institutionalized The economic system would collapse without these supplementary sources of income. You can't live on Wal- Mart or K-Mart wages.or by driving for Uber.

But though wage compression and the arrival of the "gig economy" have made participation in underground/off the books economies an essential part of most peoples lives, these activities have always been a part of American working class history. I have often argued that few working class Americans were able to pull themselves out of poverty strictly by legal means, and my own family is a great example of this. My mother's side of the family, Jews from various parts of Eastern Europe, included bootleggers, gamblers, and,enforcers for the mob along with people who worked in retail outlets, sold food from pushcarts,, worked in the garment district, drove trucks and taught school. More than that, the mob was an integral part of our neighborhood. Barry H's father, the neighborhood bookie, was as much a fixture of the community as the grandmothers sitting on the benches commenting on everyone's behavior.

And lest you think this behavior is just urban or "ethnic";think of all the country music songs about moonshiners, gamblers, and people being chased by sheriffs or revenue men ( e,g, Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road")
And this isn't just historic. Until legalizatiion started to gain traction,, marijuana was the second largest cash crop in the nation- behind corn- and the people growing it, in most cases, were people who had been in the US for generations.

So, the next time you hear someone refer to undocumented immigrants as "the illegals" you might want to remind the person using that term that we are not only a nation of immigrants, but a nation of "illegals."

I am proud to be part of a family of "illegals"- people who worked hard to support their families "by any means necessary."

Donald Trump and "Whiteness"

I have not been at a Donald Trump Rally, but from what I have been able to observe from photos and video cllps posted by both supporters and opponents, attendance at them has been overwhelmingly white. In a society which is increasingly multiracial, that cries out for explanation.Is that accidental, or does it reflect some underlying divisions in the society or the segregated nature of our social networks?

Please understand that this comment is not intended to demonize supporters of Donald Trump. I made the same comments about education activist events I have attended, ranging from the first big Save our Schools March, to the founding conference of the Network for Public Education, and have applied a similar critique to recruitment and admissions policies of my own university.

The big issue here is not the raw facts of this observation. but how Trump supporters deal with the "Whiteness" of their movement. Is this something they see as problematic, and want to change, or is it something that they draw strength from and is essential to the movement's appeal?

If Trump's support is driven by an affirmation of Whiteness,and an implicit if not explicit connection between Whiteness and Americanness, it is only a matter of time before the movement comes to grief. You cannot in this society, given its demographic composition, base a political movement on the solidarity, defiance and rage of a single racial group without increasing division and inciting people to violence.

White Trump supporters may in fact be more diverse than I am suggesting. I certainly hope so. But if they aren't. we are in for a very rough ride, and not only during this election cycle. We don't need another George Wallace unleashing the demons of White Racial Angst. We need leaders who understand the danger that path entails, even while they make sharp criticisms of how the country has been run.

How Age and Race Discrimination Laid the Groundwork for the California Teachers Shortage- A Report

March 4, 2016


Valerie Trahan
2045 Emerson St Lower
Berkeley, CA
Retired Teacher
Masters in Education; Harvard University
510-689-6123


To:  Dr.Linda Darling Hammond; Professor Emeritus Stanford University; (indadh@suse.stanford.edu)
 Dr. Louis Freedberg; University California at Berkeley  (lfreedberg@edsource.org)
Dr. Bill Koski; Stanford University; (bkoski@law.stanford.edu)


SUBJECT: A QUANTITATIVE AND STATISTICAL STUDY ON CALIFORNIA TEACHER SHORTAGES AND AGE DISCRIMINATION


Query: Is the California Teacher Shortage caused by an intentional age discrimination policy?

Subject Area 1: Referrals to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for Discipline

Subject Area 2: Referrals to Peer Assistance and Review (PAR)

Subject Area 3: Los Angeles Unified School District Teacher Jail; Housed Teachers


This letter is in direct response to the Legislative Analyst Office Report on teacher shortages. This report was reported to media on March 1st, 2016.

http://edsource.org/2016/debate-surfaces-over-how-much-state-action-needed-to-ease-teacher-shortages/95302



1.The data used for this query was taken from Public Records Requests. The data acquired from the CTC is teachers referred for discipline between January of 2003 to August of 2014. On the list, their are 3771 teachers. We do not know why these teachers were referred or the disposition of their cases. However, we can do an empirical analysis and measure the probability that the demographics referred due to random or non random events. As a benchmark we will use the Biddle method(http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm). Utilizing the 1 Z proportion test or the binomial distribution test to measure the likelihood of the observed event. Methodology: I will perform the which is a recognized methodology to measure expected results vs. observed results. The also measures the actual standard deviation and whether the standard deviation meets the legal threshold for a prima facie case of discrimination. The 1 Z Proportion Test shows 6.54 standard deviations for teachers referred to the CTC over the age of 56. According to Biddle, (http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm) two to three standard deviations is used in Disparate Impact Cases and 5 Standard Deviations for Disparate Treatment Cases. I will use these recognized metrics for my

Our next test to probe discriminatory findings is the Heads or Tails Binomial Distribution Test. This test is also recognized to measure statistical discrimination as recognized by judicial courts. For the CTC Analysis (see attached) The heads or tails binomial distribution test shows 0.00 probability of a random event. This also is for teachers referred to the CTC for discipline over the age of 56.
2. Peer Assistance and Review. PAR is a popular teacher remediation program supported by School Districts and Unions to “improve teacher performance”. However, as you will see, persons referred to PAR have high degrees of education, thousands of hours of professional development, are above 50 years of age, and not coincidently the highest salaried teachers. We will begin with data on Los Angeles Unified School District’s use of PAR.
2A. Peer Assistance and Review Los Angeles Unified School District
2B and 2C Combined-Peer Assistance and Review San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District
2C-1 Oakland Unified School District PAR- Binomial Distribution age 56 and over
3A. Teacher Jail Housed Teachers-Los Angeles Unified School District

Objective Findings:
1.The data from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows a bias towards persons over the age of 56 not explained by random events.
2A. The data regarding PAR from Los Angeles Unified School District shows racial discrimination towards African American Teachers and teachers over the age of 56. Again the numbers are not explained by random events, and suggest Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Discrimination.
2B and 2C. The data from San Francisco and Oakland Unified School District shows a bias towards teachers over the age of 56.
2C-1. The data from Oakland Unified School Districts use of Peer Assistance and Review in particular shows intentional age discrimination and not a chance of a random event.
3A. The data from Los Angeles Unified School District regarding “Teacher Jail” or Housed Teachers shows a massive age bias of teachers over the age of 40. In this query 93% of the Housed Teachers are over the age of 40.

Summary:
The teacher shortage in California is caused by deliberate age and in some cases racial discrimination in School Districts state wide. The Commission on Teacher Credentialing and Los Angeles Unified School District using teacher jail executed byCalifornia Education Code 44939(c) are deliberately forcing veteran teachers out of the profession.
The teacher shortage in California is also caused by the use of Peer Assistance and Review (codified in California Education Code 44500) to drive high salaried, highly educated, and veteran teachers out of the profession. The idea that teachers referred to PAR suddenly forgot how to teach is absurd on its face. Veteran teachers are lifelong learners and work constantly to maintain their content knowledge and pedagogy.
The financial motive for these policies is clear.1. For every maxed out salaried teacher that is removed, employers save a huge premium on salaries and benefits. 2. These policies weaken the institutional memory of school sites and force teachers in to retirement before they are fully vested in the system. 3. The precision of these polices are clear and the effects have been devastating. It is no wonder that teacher preparation programs in the state are in a heavy state of decline. In a profession where bullying, harassment, and the anti teacher narrative dominate the education debate, the honor of the profession has been tainted to a large degree. I challenge the recipients of this communication to re examine and amend their report to probe for age discrimination and cost cutting as the cause for the California Teacher Shortage. Having survived the horrid process of Peer Assistance and Review myself, and being forced into early retirement, I can speak on these issues with much authority.
Valerie Trahan
Masters Degree in Education
Harvard University
March 4, 2016


Valerie Trahan
2045 Emerson St Lower
Berkeley, CA
Retired Teacher
Masters in Education; Harvard University
510-689-6123


To:  Dr.Linda Darling Hammond; Professor Emeritus Stanford University; (indadh@suse.stanford.edu)
 Dr. Louis Freedberg; University California at Berkeley  (lfreedberg@edsource.org)
Dr. Bill Koski; Stanford University; (bkoski@law.stanford.edu)


SUBJECT: A QUANTITATIVE AND STATISTICAL STUDY ON CALIFORNIA TEACHER SHORTAGES AND AGE DISCRIMINATION


Query: Is the California Teacher Shortage caused by an intentional age discrimination policy?

Subject Area 1: Referrals to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for Discipline

Subject Area 2: Referrals to Peer Assistance and Review (PAR)

Subject Area 3: Los Angeles Unified School District Teacher Jail; Housed Teachers


This letter is in direct response to the Legislative Analyst Office Report on teacher shortages. This report was reported to media on March 1st, 2016.

http://edsource.org/2016/debate-surfaces-over-how-much-state-action-needed-to-ease-teacher-shortages/95302



1.The data used for this query was taken from Public Records Requests. The data acquired from the CTC is teachers referred for discipline between January of 2003 to August of 2014. On the list, their are 3771 teachers. We do not know why these teachers were referred or the disposition of their cases. However, we can do an empirical analysis and measure the probability that the demographics referred due to random or non random events. As a benchmark we will use the Biddle method(http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm). Utilizing the 1 Z proportion test or the binomial distribution test to measure the likelihood of the observed event. Methodology: I will perform the which is a recognized methodology to measure expected results vs. observed results. The also measures the actual standard deviation and whether the standard deviation meets the legal threshold for a prima facie case of discrimination. The 1 Z Proportion Test shows 6.54 standard deviations for teachers referred to the CTC over the age of 56. According to Biddle, (http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm) two to three standard deviations is used in Disparate Impact Cases and 5 Standard Deviations for Disparate Treatment Cases. I will use these recognized metrics for my

Our next test to probe discriminatory findings is the Heads or Tails Binomial Distribution Test. This test is also recognized to measure statistical discrimination as recognized by judicial courts. For the CTC Analysis (see attached) The heads or tails binomial distribution test shows 0.00 probability of a random event. This also is for teachers referred to the CTC for discipline over the age of 56.
2. Peer Assistance and Review. PAR is a popular teacher remediation program supported by School Districts and Unions to “improve teacher performance”. However, as you will see, persons referred to PAR have high degrees of education, thousands of hours of professional development, are above 50 years of age, and not coincidently the highest salaried teachers. We will begin with data on Los Angeles Unified School District’s use of PAR.
2A. Peer Assistance and Review Los Angeles Unified School District
2B and 2C Combined-Peer Assistance and Review San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District
2C-1 Oakland Unified School District PAR- Binomial Distribution age 56 and over
3A. Teacher Jail Housed Teachers-Los Angeles Unified School District

Objective Findings:
1.The data from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows a bias towards persons over the age of 56 not explained by random events.
2A. The data regarding PAR from Los Angeles Unified School District shows racial discrimination towards African American Teachers and teachers over the age of 56. Again the numbers are not explained by random events, and suggest Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Discrimination.
2B and 2C. The data from San Francisco and Oakland Unified School District shows a bias towards teachers over the age of 56.
2C-1. The data from Oakland Unified School Districts use of Peer Assistance and Review in particular shows intentional age discrimination and not a chance of a random event.
3A. The data from Los Angeles Unified School District regarding “Teacher Jail” or Housed Teachers shows a massive age bias of teachers over the age of 40. In this query 93% of the Housed Teachers are over the age of 40.

Summary:
The teacher shortage in California is caused by deliberate age and in some cases racial discrimination in School Districts state wide. The Commission on Teacher Credentialing and Los Angeles Unified School District using teacher jail executed byCalifornia Education Code 44939(c) are deliberately forcing veteran teachers out of the profession.
The teacher shortage in California is also caused by the use of Peer Assistance and Review (codified in California Education Code 44500) to drive high salaried, highly educated, and veteran teachers out of the profession. The idea that teachers referred to PAR suddenly forgot how to teach is absurd on its face. Veteran teachers are lifelong learners and work constantly to maintain their content knowledge and pedagogy.
The financial motive for these policies is clear.1. For every maxed out salaried teacher that is removed, employers save a huge premium on salaries and benefits. 2. These policies weaken the institutional memory of school sites and force teachers in to retirement before they are fully vested in the system. 3. The precision of these polices are clear and the effects have been devastating. It is no wonder that teacher preparation programs in the state are in a heavy state of decline. In a profession where bullying, harassment, and the anti teacher narrative dominate the education debate, the honor of the profession has been tainted to a large degree. I challenge the recipients of this communication to re examine and amend their report to probe for age discrimination and cost cutting as the cause for the California Teacher Shortage. Having survived the horrid process of Peer Assistance and Review myself, and being forced into early retirement, I can speak on these issues with much authority.
Valerie Trahan
Masters Degree in Education
Harvard University