A very touchy subject.

Immigration, somehow I don't think that in the cloistered world that George W. lives in that he really, I mean really gets how our country is changing. I think he is surrounded largely by white people and I have noticed that it seems like anyone with any racial diversity around him seems to get stuck with some pretty lousy work. Gonzales for example. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if W put him up as a sacrificial lamb to do dirty work in the partisan way. Colin Powell, an amazing man, also trod over (not listened to), it seemed pretty continuously. Connie Rice, a woman who amazes me, I am waiting for her slam dunk.

And as a teacher who works with kids whose parents are getting hauled away on raids...kids who I love (no I am not afraid to say that) because I know how hard they work and the tough spots they are in at times.

My kids were going to the rallies for immigration this year. It was very good for them to organize, to participate in the political process. I know they are subject to racial attacks regularly, we live in a poor area where drugs and gangs are very real to them. And so is ignorance from everyone who is not with their same skin color. It would be better for them to empower themselves through visibility than to fall into rebellion via gangs/crime.

Immigration. The whole process, every step of it is pretty astonishing to me. To risk ones family, ones babies, marraige to push into another country. To leave their communities, their churches, schools and families. The streets they know, the language. And then to come here, with a new language, get jobs in the lowest most taken advantage sector, where the work is more akin to a kind of benevolent slavery. I know they do it out of hope for a better future, for their kids and their grandkids. Ten percent of the entire population of Mexico has done it for that reason.

Immigration, particularly illegal immigration, seems like a violence to families. I am against it. It is so hard on families. They put themselves in a state of total dependence. It is a risk that I cannot comprehend.

I will not be the one to deny bread to a mom who needs to breastfeed her child. It would be inhuman to deny care to people who are hurt, food to the hungry, or education to their children based on political status. To rub people's noses in their own difficulties or turn a blind eye because of political status. I don't comprehend who would do that either.

My kids tell me they march with the flag of Mexico draped on their shoulders. I think they are confused. I know they want to not be ashamed of their heritage, indeed, they should be proud. But in the face of people making the laws of the country of America, people wearing Mexican flags have no voice among the lawmakers of America. There is a confusion of identity. America is not Mexico, it is not for the legislators to make laws endorsing the desires of people of another country.

My students tell me that if a person is against immigration they are racist. And the conversation ends right there. There can be no dialogue if there is no listening. They tell me that their life is hard, and I know. I know they are stuck, and for that very reason, immigration is not a good thing any longer.

I believe that America, in its wealth, has a responsibility to be generous. And we should be. But when I hear people chant that they are going to take back California because it is theirs..., or call me a racist because I don't want to hear anymore stories about people perishing in the backs of semi trucks attempting to cross...

I want my students to stand up. But wisely. Not to shoot themselves in their own feet. I want them to have access to all I have access to-college and health care and jobs and legal status. But I don't want them to demand this in ways that create a wider divide. And I want everyone to have enough food for their families, and I want even to help them. But I think immigration, especially this mass movement must end until there is some way to make the transition less desperate for families.

And I don't think anyone should be called a racist because they think immigration is something that needs to be addressed.

best laid plans

Our school, I mean, our state, Oregon, satisfies NCLB requirements with an online test called TESA.

If the kids go to TESA, as of last week, this is what they found.

There is a message:

On January 23, 2007, Vantage Learning terminated its contract with the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) because of ODE's failure to pay for past and continued TESA service. Since then, Vantage has continued the TESA service - administering more than 250,000 assessments over and above the contracted amount - in a good-faith effort to help the teachers and students of Oregon...

Go there and read this yourself, they even put a link to a DHL delivery confirmation of termination notice.

Here is the OPB story which aired on Monday March 12 wherein ODE discusses what has happened.

Last week I forwarded J the email from Oregon Department of Education that said there were "vendor issues" and the online tests would end for this year and resume when pencil and paper tests could be gotten out by May.

What is happening is of course the case of "two sides to every story".

The vendor, Vantage Learning, who has created the system that we have been using for the past several years, said there was a contractual issue once they found out that the project would have to go out for Request for Proposal and that they wouldn't automatically be granted the contract renewal. This is a State of Oregon thing that is done to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent in a way that looks closely for the most competitive bidder.

Once Vantage learned they would have to bid again for the same job, the state received invoices in the 7 figures. After that the TESA system began to falter all over the state. When ODE called them about this, they mentioned there were also contractual issues that needed to be resolved.

And when ODE didn't pay up the crazy invoices , TESA limped along in a faulty manner for a month and last week crashed for good. Now the place where all kids used to go to take tests says in so many words "Oregon didn't pay so there are no tests".

So what is at stake here is our compliance with NCLB, a whole LOT of classtime that has been lost, and a huge precedent--here we farmed this out to a private technology vendor and it has resulted rather poorly. Can Vantage do this? I am curious to see how this resolves.

Our school, which covers about 5 blocks square (its enormous) reorganized our whole campus in order to comply with TESA testing. From where I stand, the testing is a burden, though it is necessary. It has been frustrating because getting the technology to test 3000 students in several different areas and still be able to use our computers for learning has been a rather complex knot. Getting absent kids tested, makeups, computer glitches all conspire to make the process less than easy.

My students, recently arrived from other countries, are so overwhelmed by the reading test that even the "A" students click through it and are done with the 70 some odd questions in 15 minutes. This is NCLB.

I wonder about a lawsuit regarding the details of the contract and I predict doom for Vantage Learning, I seriously doubt a judge would rule in favor of the action they took. I think Vantage thought they had Oregon by the short hairs and could pull this off, but it just doesn't work that way. Vantage Learning can't have done anything good to their reputation in this move--what educational facility would want to farm work out to a company that thinks blackmail is a suitable business model?

Woe, WOE to Vantage.

In other news I have an interview at a tiny little school. I visited the place where A will do daycare today and it depressed me to put her in daycare (only 12 times she will have to go between now and summer, but still, every kid had some malady--facial rash, snotty nose, coughing everywhere...) .

I am adjusting all over the place. I never say no to adjusting, but I call it quits when things don't work out. After this daycare thing today I think that maybe part time would be just fine...only problem is there are precious few part time jobs out there...

Privacy

One of the things that ever gave me pause about this blog was privacy. J sent this to me. It is from the ACLU. Scary! Go check this out!!

Down to the very items purchased at the store?!

Madness

It is that time here. Standardized tests.

I teach second year ESL kids. Some of them are in an American school for the first time. They are required to take the same reading test as kids who have been in the US all their lives. This isn't really even amazing to anyone anymore. The chance that they will pass the state score at this level is 0.

So it is little to no surprise that (shhhh!) most kids just click through the test and say "I'm done!"in 15 minutes. They have learned the secret. Never mind that they read at a first grade level (at best), and the test is for 10th graders, and many 10th graders cannot pass. Never mind the nearly 50 questions with intense reading. Never mind that they don't usually know the word for "scroll bar" before the test but our monitors are so small that they have to scroll all over the place in 2 different windows to take this test. Just never mind.

I only heard this anecdotally, but another teacher, understandably shrill and about to go crazy, complained about putting having to administer a 70 question computer test to kindergartners, with headphones. Can anyone even imagine this?

It is just confirmation to me that those who make education policy (read: NCLB) just have no idea what kids are like, what schools are like or what will really work.

And by way of qualification, I am all about high standards, and I can even get behind some standardized testing. But agreed with a coworker this year, who when we saw the testing schedule said "Phew! With all this I won't have to write more than 3 lesson plans this year!"

It is true, our ESL kids have to take 3 and a half standardized tests just for their english proficiency annually to comply with state and federal standards. They are not short tests.

In other news, Addy said for the first time tonight "I love you!" over and over and clapped each time. It was awesome. I know she will be pulling it out of her pocket now when she gets in trouble. I can see it now:

"No Addy, you cannot hula dance on broken glass on top of the chair with bare feet while you reach across to pick up a knife on the kitchen counter. Naughty."

Addy continues reaching only now she is looking at me saying "I love you mommy!" thinking that if she is cute enough she may be able to avoid the inevitable impending repercussions of her decisions to do the opposite of what I ask.

Jeff got the tile in the laundry room down, and we will sleep for a second night with no door on the laundry room because we will just have to take it off again tommorrow for the washing machine delivery (I begged him to put it on, every bump in the night makes me wake up with a door off, I wonder why). I was rebuffed firmly. I have heard that robbers don't come when there are people in the house, but if they do come, I just might say "I told ya so", though I have sworn I would never say it. Still J wins the official stud award, he was not excited neither about tiling nor about the washing machine, but it is all over now, and he even painted the laundry room. It was a room we were both pretending it didn't exist. But now it looks decent, new trim, new paint and new tile. No fancy tile though, just cheapest of cheap since this was his first go at tile, though now he is kind of getting into it, looking at fancy tile jobs and making plans.

Bok

This is what I found on the link Suley left --it is a very good, brief and to the point flash presentation about well not just Sudan, but slavery. Clicl where it says about the lifestory of Bok.

Don't pass it by...

re rentanegro: un poco mas...

So this thing from Damali Ayo isn't really a joke. She has written a book.

And people are saying things like this...

"the generation of artists to which ayo belongs has begun to address not only the commodification of black people but also the marketing of blackness. (Ayo specifically acknowledges comedians Godfrey Cambridge and Dick Gregory, who told Rent-A-Negro jokes during their 1960s performances.)"

Maybe I should send her publisher a bill for promoting her. I could use the money.