Recently an article was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the increase of school violence, and the steps that need to be taken in order to solve this growing problem. Over the past year or so, the issue has received a lot of attention from media because the problem became racial. With the violent attacks towards Asian students at South Philadelphia High, the flaws of the Philadelphia School District were put on display for the entire country to see. A policy is already in place for students in order to decrease violence. Programs that will heighten children’s tolerance for different races and sexualities are hopefully going to change this problem. In an the same article (linked above) Michael Johnson, a science teacher at Germantown High School states, “The policy is wonderful… The implementation is missing." Meaning that even though the policies are there, the district, teachers, and even student fail to enforce it. This problem could possibly stem from the recent cut of the Office of Safe Schools Advocate, which was eliminated in August 18, 2009. According to the National School Safety and Security Services website, “While the State claimed the cuts were for budgetary reasons, Stollsteimer [monitor of school crimes and violence in Philadelphia Schools.] alleged the cuts were due to his advocacy and unwillingness to not document failures by the school district to report school crimes.”

Some key players in this issue are the names we hear in Philadelphia all the time. Officials such as, John Street (when in office), Chaka Fattah, Paul Vallas, and 150 community leaders were said to have pledged to increase the saftey of schools in Philadelphia back in 2004.

The Pledge:

We, the public officials and active citizens of Philadelphia, entrusted with "securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," pledge to work together and with our youth leaders to combat violence in our schools and to build safe and supportive neighborhoods for young people throughout the city.

Even though Street is no longer is office, this pledge to uphold the safety in schools was taken 6, almost 7 years ago but at yet the violence in out schools has increased.

From doing this research it seems as though my main job is to get these officials back on track with their plans. It seems as though they have forgotten about the problems in school, because of the small policies they put in place but did not truly enforce. Issues such as money, health care, and the recent elections have totally taken the attention away from our schools and their lack of safety. It is time now to bring it back.

Some recent hearings on school violence were held back in January. There were 11 hearings with more than 125 testimonials from activist, city leaders, student, and parents. The topics of these hearing were of coarse about the South Philadelphia incidents. Other then those hearing there haven’t been any recent hearings about the violence, which I hope to change soon

Work Cited Page

Sachdev , Nina. "The School District Needs the Feds to Tell Them What to Do?!." Philly Now 1 Sept 2010: 1. Web. 22 Nov 2010. <http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2010/09/01/the-school-district-needs-the-feds-to-tell-them-what-to-do/>.

Trump, Ken. "School Crime Reporting and School Crime Underreporting." National School Saftey and Security Services. National School Safety and Security Services , 2009. Web. 22 Nov 2010. <http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/school_crime_reporting.html>.

Graham, Kristen. "City panel says hearings on school violence heard of problems and also promise Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20101117_City_panel_says_hearings_on_school_violence_heard_of_problems_and_also_promise.html?page=1&c=y#ixzz164fHQiCF Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else." Philadelphia Inquier 17 Nov 2010: 1. Web. 22 Nov 2010. <http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20101117_City_panel_says_hearings_on_school_violence_heard_of_problems_and_also_promise.html?page=1&c=y>.

                                                

Shared Interest

His Views on School Violence

“Congressman Brady also won nearly $1 million in violence prevention funding. And, on the heels of tensions at South Philadelphia High School, he was able to secure $100,000 for the Main Line Chinese Culture Center for after-school and weekend programs at the Russell Beyer’s Charter School.”

-Press Release from 12/16/09

Chris Cassise

#1 & 2

Lobbying against: No Child Left Behind Act

The act was proposed by George W. Bush to standards-based education reform, which is the belief that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades and does not assert a national achievement standard. These standards are set by each individual state.

The main goal of NCLB is to close the “achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind.” Voting took place in 2001 with majority voting yes (87) and only 10 nays. Two republican senators from Pennsylvania voted yes on the bill.
More on the NCLB Act.

Arlen Sector was a republican senator since 1996 and voted yes to pass the No Child Left Behind Act when it was proposed in 2001. He also believes that this act needs to be reformed by supporting the Pathways to college act proposed to reform the educational and re-authorization of middle and high school success in education. In 2009, he switched parties to the Democratic side to try and get reelected. He was unsuccessful being defeated by current runner Joe Sestak.  
Rick Santorum was a former senator of Pennsylvania and voted yes to pass the No Child Left Behind Act also. He played a major role in the process of NCLB act being proposed and is now known for creating the Santorum Amendment. The Santorum Amdendment is in the modified bill and doesnt play a major part in the Act but is still considered the stepping stone in proposing the act. He came up with the “teach the controversy” campaign which implemented teaching science efficiently and teaching things that are still being debated.  He was defeated in 2006 by Bob Casey jr.





My defense:
Who is creating this test? Officials or the teachers? It takes away from the unique experience in class that officials who have no experience of situations with students choose to pick the educational process of learning and the tests that follow through their lives.

Some states dont even have as many writing questions because they lack funds. Gary Cook, Wisconsin’s former testing director, said “it could cost a thousand times more to score an essay question than a multiple-choice question.” In 2005, the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center reported that 15 states relied on multiple-choice questions in reading and math tests.

There is no evidence that this is succeeding as a program and it seems that it is just crippling school districts with funds that they do not have.

Evidence:

“A study classified elementary school students as "actively" engaged in learning if they went back over things they didn't understand and participated in understanding such questions” Students are able to skip hard questions and relate to the easy parts of the test which defeats the purpose helping students to learn better.

Schools are under pressure to show better test results which has cannibalized the curriculum. When students are judged on a multiple-choice test, teachers use multiple-choice exercises and in-class tests to curb a students understanding to the test, which takes away from the rigor of learning that a student is supposed to learn. A student shouldnt have to worry so highly and waste class time on learning to take a quiz or eliminating wrong answers to multiple choice questions.

Administrators have cut back vital parts of schooling such as:
Programs in the arts
Recess for young children
Electives for high schoolers
Class meetings discussions about current events since that material will not appear on the test



Supporters against NCLB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTzLILQx3c


Senator Bob Casey jr.
Representative of Philadelphia’s 1st district.
Caseys statement on No Child Left Behind Act, a General Statement:
“Reforming the No Child Left Behind Legislation Washington's No Child Left Behind legislation is actually leaving millions of schoolchildren behind. As it stands now, No Child Left Behind is all stick and no carrot. Its combination of confusing federal mandates and gross under-funding threatens to undermine creative state and local efforts to improve our schools. In contrast, Bob Casey will work to provide our schools with the crucial assistance they need to meet high academic performance standards.”

Casey is hoping to create in support of other officials a reform act on No Child Left Behind to fix the problems that have occurred.

He has proposed The Pathways to College Act, with bipartisan sponsorship, is a bill designed to aid low-income and first generation students in their transition to secondary education by focusing attention on the importance of school counseling in the college and career planning process. This bill will provide funds to high school districts to invest in school counseling services to establish a college-going culture.

#3

1. What is the status of your issue at the legislature? Is this a "good" year?

This is a bad year in terms of my issue on NCLB. They are talking about making a reform of it and a lot of people believe on both sides of the political sphere that is has not worked as efficiently as expected. Senator Bob Casey jr. is coming up with another bill called the pathways to college act to curb an understanding and reform the NCLB act.

2. Who is essential to the outcome?

Who are the stakeholders in this issue? Who are the allies you need to have on board because they increase the power you have to move the issue? Which decision-makers do you need to move (committee chairs, legislation sponsors, etc)?

To make this outcome happen, we need more support from the republican side and a big part of this process was when Rick Santorum switched sides to support this NCLB act reform and go against his own belief when he voted for the NCLB back in 2001.

3. Who else is working on this? Can you coordinate?

Only Bob Casey jr as the public official of Pennsylvania.

4. Who can you influence?

I would try and influence the republicans more since the republicans proposed the bill back in 2001 and a lot still believe it. It wouldn’t be hard to have people more educated with the problems this bill is causing through statistics.

5. What is the time frame?

There is no time frame.

6. When are key dates - meetings, committee hearings, deadlines, etc.

There are no key dates or meetings thus far this year.

Sources:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h107-1

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/basics.html

http://www.arizonaea.org/politics.php?page=282&sub_page=252

http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html

As a Pennsylvanian residing in the 2nd district, I am represented by three democratic congressmen: Rep. Chaka Fattah, Sen. Arlen Spector and Sen. Robert P. Casey.  Although each often votes with the party, some are more liberal than others.  In lobbying against such a debatable issue, one must look past the facade often created by politicians and find the real person underneath.   

Rep. Chaka Fattah has served in various parts of the government for 28 years.  After attending both the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University’s Kenneday School of Government, Fattah was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and then to the State Senate.  He has spent the last 16 years serving Pennsylvania’s 2nd district in the House of Representatives.  

He is in full support of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” stating last year that “Our nation’s core principles, as well as an overwhelming majority of the American people, support full and equal rights for all our citizens...For far too long the law, and administrative practice, have discriminated against LGBT Americans, and it is way past the time to end this discrimination.” He helped pass the House bill that would’ve allowed DADT to be repealed, had it not been filibustered in the Senate.

Last week, Judge Virginia Phillips of the District Court of California, after ruling that DADT was unconstitutional, ordered an injunction against the military’s policy.  Although the Obama administration is seeking a repeal, Rep. Fattah strongly supports it: “The ruling stands on sound Constitutional grounds, citing free speech and due process violations by the government in barring openly gay and lesbian members from the armed services. She also cites the need to end ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ as a critical step toward improving military morale, readiness and recruiting at a time when our men and women in uniform are fighting distant battles.” Rep. Chaka Fattah, while up for reelection next month, will most certainly continue to be an ally in the fight against DADT. 

Sen. Arlen Spector is less reliable as a liberal voter.  A Republican for the vast majority of his political career, Sen. Spector changed parties last year in hopes of reelection.  However, his voting record does not suggest a Democratic ideology.  In 1996, he voted to prohibit same-sex marriage and in 2002 to exclude sexual orientation in the definition of a hate crime.  Despite renouncing his previous position on many civil rights issues, Pennsylvanians did not buy his claim and he lost the primary to Joe Sestak, a legislator strongly in favor of gay rights.

It seems that the truth behind Sen. Spector’s political beliefs will be revealed during the Senate’s lame duck session, when ousted congressmen are no longer accountable to their constituents. He currently serves on the Committees of Appropriations and of the Judiciary, focusing on civil rights.   He has voted for some gay rights in the past, but for the former Air Force officer and Warren Commission member, a repeal of DADT is not a sure deal.

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. has served in the Senate since 2007.  His primary goal is the welfare of the American people, focusing on issues such as the economy, the environment and healthcare.  He is in strong support of a repeal, stating "As we continue to fight two wars, our national security depends on a strong and talented military.  And ending this discriminatory practice is the right thing to do for our military and for those who want to openly serve their country.” Although he does differ in his opinions on same-sex marriage, he is steadfast in his belief on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” After the November elections, Sen. Casey will become Pennsylvania’s senior senator.

There are currently are multitude of organizations supporting gay rights in this country.  However, one of particular interest is the Log Cabin Republicans, which initiated the current injunction against DADT by filing a lawsuit against the U.S. military.  The organization fights to ensure that the voice of the gay and lesbian community is heard in a party where is it typically ignored and that equality drives its action.  LCR has worked from the inside to prevent the passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment and other anti-gay legislation.  Despite the conservatism of their party, this group is fighting for the equality that all people deserve.

DADT Blog #1

For Blog #2, click here

For Blog #3, click here

For Blog #4, click here

Leon Werts

1.     Why did you decide to come out and vote?
“I wanted to vote for someone who has the same beliefs as me. “

3.     Do you vote every election day?
“I registered to vote resently, but the last election I voted was for the Presidential Elections.”

5.     Where have you heard the most campaign ads?
“I watch TV a lot so, I’ve seen them mostly on television.”

7.     Are you always sure of who you are going to vote for when you enter the voting booth?
“Yes, I am.”

10.  Did you learn about voting in school?
“No.”

My benchmark was done in keynote. My bill is the Stem Cell Enhancement Act of 2005. You can find it here.

My first quarter benchmark is a prezi that explains how the copyright law became a law. Hope you enjoy. Prezi