Once a drug dealer with little hope for his future, Roberto Rivera now works to reverse the negative trends facing at-risk youth by encouraging them harness their pain to create change. To wrap up four days of education-centered events, Rivera told the audience during the closing program of SXSWedu of his transformation from a “dope dealer to a hope dealer.”

“Pain, with the right context, can be converted into propane,” Rivera said.



Rivera spoke about the concept of “post-traumatic growth,” or the idea that people can be empowered by negative experiences. Kids who are mislabeled as lost causes often have the most to offer, Rivera argued.

“Young people deemed unreachable have a fire in their lives,” he said. “Those young people can transform the culture and climate in their schools.”

Using hip-hop as a framework to help kids understand the power of adversity, Rivera fights against systems like the school-to-prison pipeline by teaching students how to channel negativity into positive change.

“Hip-hop culture is the best case study in history of how to engage marginalized youth experiencing empowerment, post-traumatic growth and agency,” he said.

Rivera called the collective pain the nation is experiencing as the result of the Trump administration an opportunity for unprecedented change and growth.

“We can own our pain and the fire in our lives,” he said. “If we can own it, we can control it.”

In closing, Rivera asked the audience to visit www.fulfillthedream.com to share their stories of turning pain into power. His hope is to construct a national alliance of schools, community organizations and thought leaders that demonstrate best practices in social-emotional learning and social justice.

“If we want to heal the world, we have to feel the world,” he said.


Posted 2:14 p.m., March 9



Mayor Steve Adler leads panel on addressing Austin's racial inequities


Austin Racial Inequity Panel From left, Richard Reddick, associate professor at The University of Texas; Colette Pierce Burnette, president of Huston-Tillotson University; Austin Mayor Steve Adler; and Dave Mann, senior editor at Texas Monthly, participate in an SXSWedu panel Thursday on racial inequality in Austin.[/caption]

Austin Mayor Steve Adler said during an SXSWedu panel Thursday that his task force to address institutional racism must go beyond “having meaningful conversations,” and when it is expected to offer recommendations later this month, it must approach inequality in Austin as a systemic issue.


“We cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into a sense that we’re actually doing something to challenge and change the most underlying forces that exist here by agreeing to commit to random acts of equity, because random acts of equity make us feel good but they do not address what is the most systemic challenge,” Adler said.


The mayor was joined by Richard Reddick, associate professor of educational administration at The University of Texas, and Colette Pierce Burnette, president of Huston-Tillotson University. Dave Mann, senior editor at Texas Monthly, served as moderator for the panel, which was part of SXSWedu’s Policy Forum.


Burnette and Austin ISD Superintendent Paul Cruz serve as co-chairs of the task force, which Adler announced in November.


The three panelists agreed on a number of points: The task force is a positive first step in a difficult process; conversations that come out of the task force’s report will be uncomfortable but necessary; and voices from various racial, social and economic communities in Austin need to be involved.


Burnette said education must be a key component in addressing racism and inequity.


Reddick said the process also needs to include Austin residents who have only recently moved to the city and may be unaware of its historical segregation and inequity.


“It is systemic, institutional racism we’re talking about, and that has affected life chances of Austin residents for decades, ever since the conception of the city,” Reddick said.


Adler has cited recent controversy regarding racial bias and use-of-force at the Austin Police Department—specifically the February 2016 shooting death of African-American teenager David Joseph by an APD officer and the violent 2015 arrest of elementary school teacher Breaion King, also African-American—as motivation to create the task force.


Adler said the racial and social climate in Austin in not an environment where the city or its residents can afford to be neutral.


“You have to say something every time you have the opportunity,” Adler said. “You can’t be indifferent.”






Posted 1:10 p.m., March 9

Santa Fe mayor and immigration attorney talk how to resist anti-immigration policies


Since the Donald Trump administration took office in January, there has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the role of educators in resisting policies that could harm their immigrant students. Even in cities deemed sanctuaries against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raids, deciphering how to tread the line between acting as a protector and breaking the law has caused concern.

“As much as we are proud of the values we have, we are not in a bubble that protects us from a dangerous person that occupies the White House,” Javier Gonzales, mayor of Santa Fe, said today during a SXSWedu panel.



Gonzales and Allegra Love, an attorney and director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, have been on the forefront of combating President Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric in their hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, by empowering immigrant families in all spheres of life but particularly in the education and employment sectors.

“The more that we can promote social integration with teachers, community members and employers, to build that bond and relationship, will help [us] get through difficult times when you worry about what might happen out of Washington,” Gonzales said.

According to Love, the first order of business on day one of the Trump administration was to ensure the immigrant children she worked with felt safe and protected. But even Love feared for their future, as there seemed to be no way to predict what was coming next.

“I was down, worried and disoriented,” she said. “But I’ve been getting my courage back, and my staff is getting their courage back.”

Since then, Love and her staff at the Santa Fe Dreamer’s Project, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal representation to immigrant youth and their family members, have hit the ground running and are educating their clients about their rights and what to do in case of an ICE raid.

In general, the organization continues to debunk the falsehood that immigration hurts the economy.

“I think we are being hoodwinked to think that this is a drain on our resources to support these kids,” Love said. “Our dreamer friends, undocumented people—their progress creates wealth in our community. Not just money but cultural capital. Supporting them creates more opportunities for everybody across the board.”

Effective resistance starts with education, Love and Gonzales said. Simply by understanding how immigration truly works is the best way to fight against policies that seek to eliminate it.

“Educate yourself,” Love said. “People are reading headlines all the time and think they understand how our system works. My guess is that you don’t. There are a lot of myths, a lot of misunderstanding. An invitation to educate yourself is a really important thing."

Love said teachers should not associate protecting students with politics. Defying administrators who prohibit teachers from educating their students about their rights and safety is a moral obligation, she said.

“A lot of kids need to be seen,” she said. “If you are pretending something isn’t happening, you aren’t seeing them. I encourage you to be a little brave.”

In conclusion, Love urged the audience to tap into community resources to collectively support a pro-immigration agenda.

“Using agencies that are already successful to bring people together to start forging communal policy is going to be really important because we will outnumber [Trump] if we do it that way,” she said.



Posted at 5 p.m., March 8

Panel covers transgender student rights in K-12 education


Transgender Student Rights SXSWedu speakers participate in a panel Wednesday titled "Transgender Students Rights in K-12 Education."[/caption]

Less than 12 hours after a Texas Senate committee voted to move Senate Bill 6, the so-called Texas “bathroom bill,” to the full Senate floor, an SXSWedu panel Wednesday discussed how K-12 educators can create inclusive spaces for transgender students.


Panelist Johanna Eager with the Human Rights Campaign encouraged administrators and parents to use materials known as gender-support plans, available from Eager’s organization and other groups, that offer guidance on how to best support transgender youth in schools, particularly those who transition.


Eager said the materials include advice on a variety of topics, including how to best handle preferred pronouns and sex-segregated school facilities. She said a good first step is to understand that not everyone’s situation will be the same.


“It’s going to literally look different for every single student and family,” Eager said.


Among the panelists was 17-year-old Ezra Morales, a transgender student from Austin ISD who testified in opposition to SB 6 to the Senate committee. SB 6 would mandate that people use bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings that match the biological sex listed on their birth certificates, regardless of whether that matches their gender identities.


The controversial bill garnered six hours of invited testimony and more than 13 hours of public testimony ahead of the Senate committee’s vote, which took place about 5 a.m. Wednesday.


Morales said school administrators should ensure transgender students feel welcome among their peers. He also took exception to SB 6 supporters’ claims that the proposed legislation does not target transgender people but rather is meant to protect individual privacy, adding that he believes the bill’s backers have spread rhetoric that “is very damaging to students like me all across the nation and all across the world.” 






Posted 4 p.m. March 8

Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy & sociology at Temple University and founder of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, spent the first hour of SXSWedu yesterday discussing the cost of college and its worth in today's economic landscape. According to her research, the programs put in place that were intended to help low-income students reap the benefits of higher education are broken, leading to an astronomical student debt issue and a lack of credentialed adults. In order to fix this problem, Goldrick-Rab proposed some radical solutions to make college more affordable. To find out more, watch this video:





Posted 1:40 p.m., March 8

Here's how teachers can transform standardized tests in their schools


At a SXSWedu panel Wednesday titled “Now Trending: State Assessments Worth Taking," Paolo DeMaria, superintendent of public instruction for the Ohio Department of Education, Christa Krohn, instructional mathematics coach with the Orange School District in Ohio, and Jennifer Poon, director of the Innovation Lab Network, talked about implementing performance-based assessments in Ohio.

“Students walk away having internalized the content,” Krohn said. “When teachers see that, they are hooked, so they are willing to do the work.”

Assessments_SXSWedu Transforming state assessments was discussed Wednesday during a Policy Forum panel discussion at SXSWedu.[/caption]

Since the No Child Left Behind legislation was signed into law in 2002, standardized tests have become so narrowly tailored that many critics argue they no longer fairly reflect student achievement. With the Every Student Succeeds Act allowing up to seven states to apply and receive the ability to use innovative assessments in lieu of existing state assessments, teachers and schools now have the freedom to move away from the norm by working with their states to pilot and implement performance-based assessments.

In Ohio, districts like Orange are embracing performance-based assessments that promote a “link between engagement and deep learning.” Performance-based assessments measure a student’s ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned rather than simply internalize it.

DeMaria said while states can act as a catalyst to move an agenda forward, to truly reform assessment practices, teachers must act as advocates to demonstrate the need for change.

“You need to create a foundation where people are aware of [performance-based assessments], understand its power and demonstrate that it is working,” he said.

Krohn said the first step in transforming state assessments is a cultivating a supportive environment.

“Having an environment that is nurturing and supportive allows teachers to take that risk,” she said. “You can’t take the step forward until you have a support administrative team. I would also look to like-minded districts in the area to partner with.”

Krohn also referenced free resources available to teachers that can help begin the implementation process. One example is the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity, which provides technical consulting and support to schools and districts that have committed to adopting performance-based assessment. Then, she encouraged teachers to generate a cohort of passionate individuals who are willing to take the initiative to the state level.

Once state policymakers begin to recognize an impetus for change, they will react, DeMaria said.

"It takes leadership to step up and show that teachers want this to happen," he said. "We [the state] can be a facilitator and catalyst, but ultimately it takes practitioners."

 



Posted 4:29 p.m. March 7

Austin ISD trustee and board President Kendall Pace among panelists answering question, ‘Do school boards work?’


“Do school boards work?” That was the question of the hour during a panel discussion held Tuesday at SXSWedu. On hand to provide insight was Kendall Pace, president of the Austin ISD board of trustees; AJ Crabill, program specialist with the Texas Education Agency; Richard A. Carranza, superintendent of Houston ISD; and Dory Fenenbock, president of El Paso ISD.



Much of the conversation centered around the creation of Lone Star Governance, a TEA program focused on improving student outcomes by reforming governing bodies like school boards. Here are six takeaways from the discussion:

  • Too often school boards become distracted by managerial decisions, hiring and firing, and dealing with frustrated parents, Fenenbock said. There became a strong need in recent years to reinvent school boards to be more directly involved in improving student outcomes, which has become the focus of Crabill’s work at the TEA.

  • Crabill said changing student outcomes relies entirely on a shift in adult behavior. School boards only work if the members hold themselves accountable by collaborating to set student outcome goals and then monitoring their progress on a monthly basis.

  • Carranza called it an “economic imperative” for school boards to improve student outcomes. The degree to which children in Texas schools are educated can make or break the state’s economy over the next 15 years.

  • Because of the focus on school choice and the lack of funding for public education in Texas, innovation is often overlooked in public school systems. For this reason, HISD has made driving innovation a core goal, Carranza said.

  • Pace said the biggest impediment to school board progress is the tendency to place too much of a focus on interests that are not achievement-driven. When she joined the AISD board two years ago, her fellow trustees agreed to talk less about topics like bus routes and more about issues directly related to student outcomes like equity. This led to more trust and greater respect from the community.

  • All of the panelists voiced their belief that school boards are imperative for holding superintendents accountable. Carranza said by implementing Lone Star Governance in HISD, he has a better understanding of what his board members expect from him as superintendent.





Posted 3:37 p.m. March 7

Austin-area student journalists share how they spot fake news


Student journalists from Pflugerville, Round Rock, Manor ISDs ask audience to pick out true/false headlines in #sxswedu panel on fake news pic.twitter.com/FZ9NbZvtMV

Did Donald Trump tell Mexico he would trade them the state of Texas in exchange for support of a border wall?

No, the president did not do that. But it is one example of fake news stories that can trick young media consumers, according to a group of eight Austin-area high school students who participated Tuesday in an SXSWedu expo talk at the Austin Convention Center.

The students, who attend schools in the Pflugerville, Round Rock and Manor ISDs, are part of PBS NewsHour's Student Reporting Labs program that aims to encourage media literacy among high-schoolers by teaching them how to produce their own news segments, said Leah Clapman, managing editor of education for PBS NewsHour.

Student panelists asked audience members to vote by applause on a selection of news headlines and tweets to decide which ones were real and which were fake.

The students also shared their definitions of what constitutes fake news and how they go about identifying it.

Panelist Devin Deanda, a senior at Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock, said students sometimes do not realize fake news is not limited to the realm of news media. Deanda said advertisers can also post misleading or false information online or in social media in order to get viewers' attention.

"I think fake news is not always necessarily black and white," Deanda said. "It can be on a grayscale as well."

Pflugerville High School teacher and student newspaper adviser David Robb, who was also a panelist, said his students conducted a survey of 261 of their peers to see how well they could spot fake news.

Robb said results showed about 90 percent of respondents were somewhat confident or very confident in their abilities, which was in contrast to a Stanford University student study that found the majority of students — sometimes 80-90 percent — are unable to tell if a news story is legitimate. Robb said there may be a disconnect between how students rate their abilities and how good they actually are.



Posted 1:48 p.m. March 7

Watch SXSWedu's opening keynote on teaching marginalized youth


SXSWedu's opening keynote speech by Christopher Edmin, an associate professor of math, science and technology at Teachers College Columbia University in New York City, can now be viewed online.

Emdin's speech, "We Got It from Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service," challenged audience members Monday to end complicity in a system that he said harms African-American students and other marginalized youth by "extracting their culture” and denying their identities, vernaculars and personal approaches to learning.





Posted 11:41 a.m. March 7

Sara-Goldrick Rab kicks off SXSWedu Day 2 with the question, 'Is college worth the investment?'


 

Sara Goldrick-Rab SXSWedu keynote speaker Sara Goldrick-Rab discussed the cost of higher education Tuesday.[/caption]

Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy & sociology at Temple University, has centered her life's work around the question of whether college is worth the investment. According to her, the higher education system needs a total overhaul to more accurately reflect today’s socio-economic realities.

“We must do better because it is our moral obligation to do better for these young people—and older people who simply want an education,” she said.

Goldrick-Rab has conducted a variety of studies to substantiate her claim that financial support programs are broken. One study, in particular, followed Pell Grant recipients over the course of six years. Her study found the Pell Grant program, which was intended to cover 100 percent of the cost of college, now only covers about two-thirds of the cost of community college and one-third of the cost of a four-year public university. Consequently, about 66 percent of recipients take out loans in their first year of college but never graduate.

“The problem lies with the segment of people who borrowed because they had no choice, did not get a degree and now are trying to repay that debt with almost nothing to hold on to,” she said.

To combat the issue, Goldrick-Rab said society needs to realize student debt is a symptom of the greater problem of the price of college. She suggested bringing states back to the table to contribute more to higher education funding and to create incentives to encourage outside entities to provide scholarships. She also emphasized a need to prioritize affordable public education over school choice, which she says has led to the funneling of taxpayer dollars to elite schools rather than community colleges.









Posted 3:58 p.m. March 6

5 takeaways from Hutto ISD's two-way dual language program presentation


Hutto ISD dual language Educators from Hutto ISD discuss the implementation of a two-way dual language program.[/caption]

The two-way dual language program implemented at two elementary schools in Hutto ISD allows native English speakers and native Spanish speakers the opportunity to learn to read, write and speak in both languages. This afternoon at SXSWedu, Ray Elementary dual language instructional specialist Floridalia Zuniga-Gray and dual language teacher Victor Juarez spoke about the implementation of the program, its benefits and challenges. Here are five takeaways from the presentation:

  1. Founded in 2014, the program was born from the desire to accommodate the massive growth of English Language Learner students in Hutto ISD. Over the past 10 years, there has been a 300 percent growth in ELL students districtwide.

  2. Elements of the program include interactive word walls, dual-language classroom labels, "language of the day," and writing essays in both languages.

  3. A focus is placed on cross-cultural understanding. In addition to celebrating traditional American holidays, the school also celebrates events, such as Dia de los Muertos and Mexican Independence Day.

  4. Parents tend to enroll their ELL students due to a sense of urgency to master a second language, whereas parents of Spanish Language Learner students enroll for enrichment purposes, or to provide a challenge.

  5. Parent involvement is crucial to the success of the program. Most parents of SLL students are not fluent in Spanish, so resources are sent home with students to support learning outside of the classroom. Similarly, parents of ELL students are encouraged to maintain the usage of their native language at home, which is critical to the mastery of a second language.


 



Posted 1:35 p.m. March 6

Social-emotional learning is crucial for effective maker education, Ann Richards School representatives say


Since its inception in 2007, the Ann Richards school has been on the forefront of maker education, or project-based learning but not simply due to its arsenal of high-tech gadgets, representatives from the school argued during a SXSWedu panel held today entitled "Maker Ed: It's Not About What You Make." What sets the makerspace at Ann Richards apart from others is its integration of social-emotional learning, which teaches students to be compassionate problem-solvers.

Ann Richards SXSWedu Representatives from the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders and Austin ISD held a panel discussion on integrating social-emotional learning with maker education.[/caption]

The panelists referenced interdisciplinary projects performed across grade levels, which emphasize taking learning “off of paper.” The first major project for sixth-graders, for example, is known as the “animal enrichment project,” where students not only design a toy for zoo animals but also learn to empathize with the animals by paralleling their school experience with life in the zoo. By drawing comparisons between how sixth-graders at Ann Richards originated from different elementary schools across Austin ISD and how animals in the zoo came from a variety of habitats, students learn compassion, Sarah Stone, panelist and SEL specialist for AISD, said.

The discussion was well-received by audience members, who asked questions about the budget, parent support and lessons learned at the end of the session.





Posted 12:20 p.m. March 6

Opening speaker Christopher Emdin says marginalized students need a voice in their education


Opening keynote speaker Christopher Emdin provided a high-energy start to SXSWedu on Monday, telling a packed audience in the Austin Convention Center's fourth-floor ballroom that marginalized students in urban communities are poorly served by the American education system.

Emdin, an associate professor of math, science and technology at Teachers College Columbia University in New York City, titled his speech, "We Got It from Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service," and challenged the audience to end complicity in a system that he said harms African-American students and other marginalized youth by "extracting their culture” and denying their identities, vernaculars and personal approaches to learning.

“That should rattle you. That should shake you. And if it doesn’t, I’m worried about you,” he said.


Emdin said educators need courage "to have honest conversation" about the intersection of race and education, particularly in urban areas.













Other keynote speakers this week at SXSWedu, which continues until Thursday, include Sarah Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University; Tim Ferriss-author, entrepreneur and investor; and Brené Brown, founder and CEO of Brave Leaders Inc.



Posted 10:05 a.m. March 6

Teacher from Lake Dallas ISD wins the $10,000 Rather Prize


SXSWedu kicked off this morning with a presentation by newsman Dan Rather and grandson Martin on the second annual Rather Prize, an $10,000 award given to the educator or student with the best idea for how to improve public education in Texas.

Rather Prize Lake Dallas Elementary School teacher Katie Landaverde is the winner of the 2017 Rather Prize. Following the announcement Monday, she explained her idea to improve Texas public education to newsman Dan Rather and grandson Martin.[/caption]

The 2017 Rather Prize winner is Katie Landaverde, teacher at Lake Dallas Elementary School, for her idea to implement workshops targeted at elementary students and taught by high school students where students attend morning seminars on the topics of their choice. The goal of the program is to provide younger students the opportunity to explore their passion while simultaneously allowing older students to develop expertise by teaching the subjects of their interest.



“I felt strongly there was a way to pull everyone’s talents together,” Landaverde said following the announcement.

In a subsequent on-stage interview, Dan Rather asked Landaverde to explain the first two steps for implementation of the program in schools. Landaverde referenced the need for building a strong culture of leadership, followed by ensuring that teachers, staff and community members are willing to help with execution.

The Rather Prize was the result of Martin Rather’s desire to improve society by strengthening public education, Dan Rather said. He attributed his success as a reporter to his formative years as a student in Texas public schools.

“What you are looking at is a reporter who got lucky, and part of why is because I am a product of Texas public schools,” Dan Rather said.

Dr. Sanford Jeames, 2016 Rather Prize winner and health science coordinator at Eastside Memorial High School in Austin ISD, also spoke this morning of the implementation of the STEP Up Challenge, or Student Training Enrichment Program, at Eastside Memorial, which focuses on preparing students for college and careers.

Teachers from Austin, Leander and Houston ISDs were also top 10 finalists for the 2017 Rather Prize.