by James Crawford

President Obama’s new “Blueprint” for school reform features lots of familiar promises: providing “every child in America a world class education” … placing “a great teacher in every classroom” … “closing achievement gaps” … graduating “college- and career-ready students” … “fostering a race to the top.”

We’ve heard it all before. Remember “No Child Left Behind”? That misguided experiment has failed to meet any of its lofty goals. Worse, it has created a tyranny of testing in our public schools that requires key decisions to be made solely on the basis of student scores. Among other perverse effects, it has dumbed-down the curriculum, eliminated subjects like music and art, demoralized educators, frustrated parents and short-changed students – especially those most in need our help.

Recognizing the unpopularity of this law, candidate Obama denounced the “data-driven” madness of No Child Left Behind throughout his campaign.

He often used the applause line: “Teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.”

So what does the President propose now in his Blueprint for elementary and secondary education?

More filling in bubbles.

On the brighter side, some of the harshest No Child Left Behind mandates would be eased, along with other improvements such as restoring federal ­grants for bilingual education programs. But what Obama gives with one hand, he takes back with the other.

His Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has complained loudly about the low quality of standardized tests. Yet the Administration still intends to rely on those tests to punish, dismantle and privatize thousands of public schools each year whose scores fall in the bottom 5 percent. Equally troubling is its plan to extend the use of unreliable and even fire teachers.

None of these radical ideas has been validated by research. To the contrary, there is considerable evidence that “high stakes” testing can do considerable harm to schools and to children.

To visualize the likely impact, let’s set aside the Blueprint’s flowery rhetoric and consider the Administration’s recent actions. Last month, in a public show of support, Obama and Duncan endorsed the dismissal of all staff at a so-called “failing” high school in Central Falls, RI. The students – 70 percent Latino, with a large percentage of English language learners – turned out to support their teachers and administrators. But the superintendent and local politicians refused to listen, threw out the union contract, and carried out the mass firings, without regard to whether individual teachers were successful or not.

Adding to the injustice, this decision was substantially based on the scores of students not yet proficient in English, the language of the test, despite the fact that nobody even pretends that such results are valid. The Blueprint includes ideas for improving assessments for English learners – a worthy goal. Yet, meanwhile, it would continue using invalid test data to make important decisions.

The ugly saga of Central Falls is just a preview of what’s in store for large numbers of urban schools if the Obama administration gets its way. No doubt many of these schools need help. But “turnaround” strategies, such as transforming them into charter schools, with a new staff and different kids, have proved disruptive and harmful in many cities – notably Chicago, where Arne Duncan ran schools before coming to Washington. And there’s no question that many students, especially children of color, have been left behind by these actions, proclaimed – ironically – in the name of civil rights.

Such draconian policies raise troubling questions. Perhaps the most obvious is: Who will want to teach English learners and other students who face academic challenges if educators will be blamed and punished, on the basis of faulty data, for failing to work overnight miracles?

As Leo Casey, a New York union leader put it recently: “If the price of working with America’s neediest students is a game of Russian roulette with one’s professional careers, many teachers will reasonably decide that the price is too high. And the losers will be the schools and the students who need accomplished teachers the most.”

[James Crawford is President of the Institute for Language and Education Policy (www.elladvocates.org),

­Community in Peril: Latino Borrowers Struggling After Meltdown’

por César Castro

(Primera parte en una seria de cinco partes)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Hispanic Link News Service) — Nationwide, the still unfolding foreclosure epidemic has crippled countless communities and drained the hard-earned wealth of many families. For an already economically fragile Latino community, this continuing financial meltdown has been nothing short of a catastrophe. States with large or rapidly growing Latino populations such as California, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida continue to lead the nation in the effects of this crisis.

These developments did not have to happen.

In 2006, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) published research that revealed Hispanic borrowers were more likely to pay for high-priced, riskier subprime loans than their white counterparts with the same credit scores1. In fact, more than 40 percent of the loans made to Latino borrowers in 2005 were in the form of riskier, high-priced loans2, the very type that sparked the surge in foreclosures over the last two years and resulted in the current recession.

Despite early warning signs, the subprime market grew in the Latino community as the financial appetite of Wall Street investors hungered for even more of the risky high-priced loans without accountability or regard for the future of these neighborhoods.

As marginalized borrowers with a historically documented lack of access to credit and financial literacy, Latinos were perfect prey for the flock of predatory lenders and resulting abuses.

Keep in mind that 90 percent of the high-priced loans that sparked this crisis were made to families who already owned a home. Doors to first-time homebuyers were not being opened by these toxic products, despite industry claims to the contrary. Now as millions of foreclosures continue to mount and a foreclosure filing occurs every 13 seconds, Latino families continue to be one of the groups affected the most by the crisis.

Hardest hit are states with large Latino populations: California, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. In New Mexico alone, Latino families accounted for more than 36 percent of the foreclosures in 2009. In the more densely populated states of California and Florida, Latino households accounted for more than 243,000 foreclosures last year alone.

Even relatively new epicenters for Latino activity such as Nevada are not immune from the recent collapse in the financial sector. In 2009, Latino families in the state faced an estimated 72,157 foreclosures, with many more projected for this year.

Most regrettably, no end is yet in sight. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization, CRL projects that in the next four years more than 1.3 million foreclosures will occur in the Latino community. In addition, adjustable interest rates will likely soon reset, putting more pressure on families already struggling to keep up with mortgage payments in a sluggish economy. Even as new federal loan modification programs begin to reach affected families, new foreclosures will likely far outpace any help now available.

But as bleak as the situation may appear, there is a silver lining for the Latino community. Efforts are underway to make the federal home loan modification program more accessible to troubled borrowers. More importantly for the long-term financial health of the nation, Congress is considering legislation that would create a new agency dedicated to passing and enforcing safeguards for all consumers on every financial front, from mortgages to bank fees and small-loan programs.

The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would unify and streamline consumer protection powers that now are scattered across several federal agencies and largely ignored. The Latino community needs to voice support for this legislation to elected officials at every level of government. The CFPA would be a giant step to helping all families across the country keep more of their hard-earned money and obtain a better financial future for themselves, their children and future generations.

Despite the setbacks in recent years, one thing is certain for Latinos: the dream of homeownership and family wealth remains steadfast. Now more than ever these hopes must be protected from the abuses and deceptive tactics of predatory lenders. Hispanic Link.