August 10, 2017
What We Stand For
In This Newsbrief:
- What We Stand For: A Statement from Christopher Edley, Jr.
- DACA Program Faces Legal Challenge from States
- US ED Proposes Changes to the Civil Rights and Data Collection (CRDC)
- New Partner Resources
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What We Stand For: A Statement from Christopher Edley, Jr.
Christopher Edley, Jr., the Co-Founder and President of the Opportunity Institute, reacts to the tragic events in Charlottesville and across the nation. Read Our Statement Here.
Leaders in public education are also speaking out:
- VIDEO: Federal Flash: Charlottesville (Alliance for Excellent Education)
- Charlottesville – a Letter from Michael J. Petrilli, President (Thomas B. Fordham Institute)
- Statement on racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia (National Education Association)
- AFT Statement on White Supremacist Demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va.(American Federation of Teachers)
- MALDEF Statement on Violent White Nationalist Protests in Charlottesville, Va. (MALDEF)
- 10 Actions that You Can Take to Stop White Supremacy and Stand Up for Civil and Human Rights (Leadership Conference for Civil and Human rights)
- Education Leaders Say Schools Must Stand Up to Bigotry and Domestic Terror (Chiefs for Change)
- 50CAN Leadership Team statement on Charlottesville (50CAN)
- IEL Condemns White Supremacists, Violence In Charlottesville (Institute for Education Leadership)
- NASBE President on Events in Charlottesville, Virginia (NASBE)
- On Charlottesville: Race Matters, But Facts Do Too (Education Trust)
…And more: Education Community Takes Trump to Task for Charlottesville Remarks (EdWeek)
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Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program Faces Legal Challenge from States
President Trump has promised repeatedly that his administration will crack down on undocumented immigrants, increase deportations, build a physical wall across the entirety of the southern border of the United States, and create a new, “merit-based” immigration system. The President and his administration have been less straightforward with regard to their treatment of individuals covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) created by President Obama. In exchange for their registration with the federal government, the DACA program protects undocumented youth, including many students, from deportation. The Trump Administration has threatened to end the DACA program and has deported students and their families, but has also renewed work permits for DACA recipients and issued new work permits under DACA.
Texas and nine other states have threatened to sue the federal government if it does not begin phasing out DACA by September 5. Meanwhile, Senate leaders are working on a bipartisan basis to create a path to legal residency for undocumented youth, but their bill is not expected to gain support from the administration.
Learn More
- With DACA’s Future in the Balance, New MPI Brief Finds Vast Majority of Those Eligible Are in the Labor Force, with 1 in 4 Juggling Work and College (Migration Policy Institute | August 17, 2017)
- “Dreamers” Deadline Looms for Trump (The Hill | August 13, 2017)
- Durbin, Graham File DREAM Act, Hoping to Ward off Legal Challenge to DACA (Washington Post | July 21, 2017)
- New Questions and Answers About DACA Now that Trump is President (National Immigration Law Center | July 17, 2017)
Take Action
- Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-2311 to speak with your Congressional member about the Senate “DREAMers” bill and the companion bill in the House of Representatives, as well as about protections for undocumented students in the United States.
- Read the text of the Senate bill here.
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US ED Proposes Changes to the Civil Rights and Data Collection (CRDC)
The US Department of Education (US ED) has reopened the public comment period for changes it is proposing to make to the civil rights data collection (CRDC), a bi-annual collection of data at the school and district level that is housed within US ED’s o Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The public comment period closes on Monday, August 21, and US ED is seeking input regarding a few discrete proposed changes, including:
- The inclusion of new questions to measure school internet connectivity;
- The removal of questions pertaining to student performance on AP exams;
- The collection of information on chronic absenteeism, including a revision of the definition of chronic absenteeism from 15 or more school days missed in a school year to 10% or more school days absent.
The CRDC fills gaps in local, district, and state level data systems. By making this information available and comparable across the nation, it provides data that is critically important to the public interest, to the mission of US ED and US ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and to the ability of state-based and local authorities, parents and community leaders, to ensure that each and every child is protected under the law and has equal access to an excellent education.
Learn More
- Hearing on “ESSA Implementation: Exploring State and Local Reform Efforts.” (Education and the Workforce Committee | July 18; start at 26:10)
- Every Student Succeeds Act: Early Observations on State Changes to Accountability Systems (Government Accountability Office | July 18)
- Every Student Succeeds Act: 50 State Roll Call (The 74 Million | July 18)
Take Action
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Read the Notice of the Proposed Changes in the Federal Register.
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Read comments submitted to US ED on the proposed changes by other individuals and organizations, and submit a comment of your own on regulations.gov (Docket No.: ED–2016–ICCD–0147) by 11:59 pm ET on August 21, 2017.
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New Partner Resources
- In our new report, Process and Protest, Partners for writes about how high-quality, meaningful stakeholder engagement processes can both enhance the ability of state and local education agencies to advance evidence-based, equity-focused, pragmatic change, and provide a forum and an outlet for public pushback against state and local education policy reforms. Our review of state ESSA plans uncovers common promising practices as well as room for growth shared among states.
- The National Indian Education Association has produced a tribal consultation guide, “Building Relationships With Tribes: A Native Process for ESSA Consultation,” to help meet the needs of Native communities as part of ESSA plan development and implementation.
- Two reports by New America – Pioneering Change: Leveraging Data to Reform English Learner Education in Oregon; Seeing Clearly: Five Lenses to Bring English Learner Data into Focus – examine recent efforts in Oregon to apply key principles related to English learner data to concrete policy reforms, especially significant within the context of ESSA, and the need to better serve English learners.