Dear Commons Community,

OLC’s ACCELERATE Conference will be in full swing today with workshops, presentations and a keynote address. Yesterday I was at meetings with the OLC Board of Directors.  In the evening, the Board had dinner with the OLC staff during which there was good spirit and acknowledgment that the staff had done a remarkable job this year.   

I will be doing a featured session today entitled,  Online Education’s Next Twenty-Five Years:   Will the Academy Lose its Sense of Purpose? I assure you that the panelists and I will provoke you to think critically about where higher education fueled by technology is heading.

Below is the abstract, time and place.  Please stop by if you are at the conference. I would love to see you!

Tony

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Featured Session

Online Education’s Next Twenty-Five Years:   Will the Academy Lose its Sense of Purpose?

Time: Wednesday 2:15 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: Southern Hemisphere 2

A panel of leading educators will speculate on what the next twenty-five years will bring to online education.  The discussants will consider both the near future (2020s) and more distant future (2030s and beyond) and will explore advances in adaptive technology, brain-machine interfaces, and artificial intelligence on teaching and learning.  These evolving technologies have the potential to change the traditional role of professionals in our colleges and universities to the point that educators will have to redefine their purpose as teachers, administrators, and researchers.

Moderator: Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Hunter College and Graduate Center, City University of New York

Panelists:

Elizabeth Ciabocchi, Vice Provost for Digital Learning at St. John’s University

Julia Lynn Parra,  Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University

Michael Torrence, President of Motlow State Community College

Dear Commons Community,

I am in Orlando to attend the annual Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) Accelerate Conference. Marking its 25th Anniversary, the theme of this year’s conference is Accelerating Online Learning Worldwide: The Next 25 Years!

Yesterday (as will today) will be taken up in meetings with the OLC Board of Directors.  Initial data provided to us indicate that the Consortium in on sound footing.  We are looking forward to hearing more today especially details on our financials.

I will be giving a featured session on Wednesday and an education session on Thursday.  Please stop by.

Tony

Cory Booker

Dear Commons Community,

Cory Booker, Democratic senator from New Jersey and a presidential candidate, has an op-ed in today’s New York Times, asking readers to keep an open mind on charter schools.  There has been precious little said about K-12 education during the first few months of the presidential nomination process so we should be thankful Booker is presenting his views on the issue.  He is right in asserting that not all charter schools are bad and that some provide important services to low-income, minority students.  His position essentially is “We can’t dismiss good ideas because they don’t fit into neat ideological boxes or don’t personally affect some of the louder, more privileged voices in the party.”

While his record on public education was uneven while he was mayor of Newark, Booker’s op-ed deserves a read and we would like to hear what other candidates have to say about K-12 schooling.

The entire op-ed is below.

Tony

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Stop Being Dogmatic About Public Charter Schools

By Cory A. Booker

Nov. 18, 2019

About 15 years ago, when I was living in Brick Towers, a high-rise, low-income housing community in Newark’s Central Ward, a neighbor stopped me and told me about how her child’s public school was failing its students, like many others in our area at the time. Desperate, she asked if I knew a way to help get her child into a private school. She knew, as all parents do, that a great education was her child’s primary pathway to a better life.

My parents knew this all too well. When I was a baby, they fought to move our family into a community with well-funded public schools. These neighborhoods, especially in the 1960s and ’70s, were often in exclusively white neighborhoods. And because of the color of my parents’ skin, local real estate agents refused to sell my parents a home. My parents responded by enlisting the help of activists and volunteers who then set up a sting operation to demonstrate that our civil rights were being violated. Because of their activism we were eventually able to move into the town where I grew up.

Fifty years later, access to a high-quality public education still often hinges on the ZIP code a child lives in, skin color and the size of the family’s bank account.

Parents in struggling communities across the country are going to extraordinary lengths to try to get their children into great public schools. There is even a trend of children’s guardians using fake addresses to enroll them in better schools in nearby neighborhoods or towns — living in fear of hired investigators who follow children home to verify their addresses.

While millions of families are struggling with this system, we have Republicans in Congress, the White House and state legislatures across the country making problems worse, undermining public education and attacking public-school teachers.

So it is largely up to Democrats — especially those of us in this presidential primary race — to have a better discussion about practical K-12 solutions to ensure that every child in our country can go to a great public school. That discussion needs to include high-achieving public charter schools when local communities call for them.

Many public charter schools have proved to be an effective, targeted tool to give children with few other options a chance to succeed.

For-profit charter school schemes and the anti-public education agenda of President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are hurting teachers, students and their families. Of course, we must fight back against these misguided and harmful forces. But we shouldn’t let the worst actors distort this crucial debate, as they have in recent years.

The treatment by many Democratic politicians of high-performing public charter schools as boogeymen has undermined the fact that many of these schools are serving low-income urban children across the country in ways that are inclusive, equitable, publicly accountable and locally driven.

When I was mayor of Newark, we invested in both traditional public schools and high-performing public charter schools. Following our efforts, the citywide graduation rate rose to 77 percent in 2018 from just above 50 percent a decade ago. Today, Newark is ranked the No. 1 city in America for “beat the odds” high-poverty, high-performance schools by the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

We refused to accept the false choice between supporting public-school teachers and giving parents options for their kids when they had none, and the city worked with our local teacher’s union to give our public school teachers a raise too. And we didn’t just blindly invest in good public charter schools, Newark closed bad ones too.

As Democrats, we can’t continue to fall into the trap of dismissing good ideas because they don’t fit into neat ideological boxes or don’t personally affect some of the louder, more privileged voices in the party. These are not abstract issues for many low-to-middle-income families, and we should have a stronger sense of urgency, and a more courageous empathy, about their plight.

Especially at this moment of crisis for our country, we must be the party of real solutions, not one that threatens schools that work for millions of families who previously lacked good educational options.

As a party, we need to take a holistic approach to improving outcomes for children who are underserved and historically disadvantaged. That must mean significantly increasing funding for public schools, raising teacher pay, fully funding the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, investing in universal preschool, eliminating child poverty — and yes, supporting high-performing public charter schools if and when they are the right fit for a community, are equitable and inclusive, and play by the same rules as other public schools.

As a coalition, we have to acknowledge that our goals for federal education funding will continue to face serious political opposition. Supporting well-regulated public charters, in the meantime, is a meaningful complementary solution. The promise of better schools some day down the road doesn’t do much for children who have to go to schools that fail them today.

The Democratic Party is at its best when we lead with the conviction, above all else, to help people. We fall short of that when we race to embrace poll-tested positions that may help us avoid being yelled at on the internet by an unrepresentative few but don’t reflect the impossible choices many low-income families face.

Our primary litmus test for supporting a policy should be whether it is a good idea that, responsibly implemented, can help those who need it. We must be the party that empowers people and stands with them, not against them for convenient political gain. That’s not just the way we will win. It’s the best way to govern.

Ana Navarro

Dear Commons Community,

Republican strategist Ana Navarro-Cárdenas wished a not-so-fond farewell to Roger Stone, the associate of President Donald Trump who is heading to prison. 

Stone on Friday was convicted on all seven counts he had been charged with, including witness tampering and making false statements to lawmakers.  As reported by the Huffington Post.

“The Sacred Heart nuns told me not to rejoice about other people’s grief and distress,” Navarro said on CNN on Sunday. “But I can’t be happier that this guy actually got convicted on all counts.” 

Navarro called Stone a racist, a misogynist and a jerk for his attacks on her and others, specifically naming Donna Brazile, Don Lemon and Roland Martin, among Stone’s targets.

“He’s attacked so many friends of mine in the vilest of forms – and guess what Donna Brazile, Roland Martin, Don Lemon and Ana Navarro have in common? We’re all people of color. He is a racist and misogynist who goes into intimidation, attacks, and frankly I hope he rots in jail and then in hell.” 

However, she admitted that might not happen ― because she predicted Trump will pardon Stone after next year’s election.

“He can pardon him,” she said. “But the entire world knows who this guy is. This guy is a convicted criminal now. Put that on your tombstone.” 

Don’t hold back, Ana!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I am traveling today to attend the annual Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) Accelerate Conference. Marking its 25th Anniversary, the theme of this year’s conference is Accelerating Online Learning Worldwide: The Next 25 Years!

The program and speakers are first-rate and include keynotes by Talithia Williams, associate professor at Harvey Mudd College and Ross Dawson, Chairman of the Future Exploration Network.  All of the details about the program are available at the Conference website.

Below is a welcome and overview from the Program Co-Chairs. I will be giving a featured session on Wednesday and an education session on Thursday.  Please stop by.

Tony

OLC Accelerate Welcome!

Dear Colleagues

We are excited to be able to outline some of the most exciting, innovative research and best practices in the field of digital learning today at our upcoming OLC Accelerate conference. This year we reflect back on the incredible changes that have occurred in the online learning space over the last two and a half decades as well as look forward at all of the new and upcoming technologies, tools, and pedagogical innovations that our colleagues worldwide have begun successfully implementing within their digital learning spaces.

OLC Accelerate will be held in Orlando, FL November 19-22, 2019 and we are excited to continue to expand the depth and breadth to our conference agenda with exciting programming, networking opportunities online and face-to-face with your colleagues, as well as a myriad of informal opportunities for OLC attendees to engage and connect with OLC staff and volunteers, and to learn how to become more involved in our organization in future years yourselves. Some examples of exciting items to be on the lookout for include:

• 500+ incredible presentations by speakers from around the world
• Exciting new presentation formats with highly-interactive, speaker-and-participant Gamified Sessions, interactive Discovery Sessions, Express Workshops, Education Sessions, and even a separate session type for Graduate Student Discovery Sessions.
• Exhibit hall featuring ~80 of your very favorite vendors, where you can engage with company entrepreneurs and experience firsthand innovative solutions that may help your organization enrich its digital learning processes and services. Preview the exhibit hall during our Tuesday pre-conference access day.
• Interactive and personal discussions with OLC Volunteers and staff during opportunities such as Talk-abouts and our Field Guide program
• Unmatched in-person as well as virtual networking with the OLC Accelerate community of online, digital, and blended learning peers and leaders. Informal opportunities like networking breaks, the exhibit floor, and the Discovery Sessions are ideal for exploring solutions to the challenges you and your institution face through discussions with others who have overcome those very same challenges.
• Leadership gatherings including the OLC Leadership Network Event, the OLC Digital Learning Research Summit, an IELOL Mastery Class, the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Advocacy) Leadership in Digital Learning Luncheon, and many others
• New for 2019: OLC Instructional Designer Summit (more details coming soon)

OLC Accelerate 2019 provides all attendees, both on-site and virtual, with an exceptionally collaborative, reflective opportunity to explore and share our best practices and innovations. We hope you will travel with us as we move toward Accelerating Online Learning Worldwide: The Next 25 Years!

Explore the site to learn more and Register today!

Conference Chairs, OLC Accelerate 2019

Sherri Restauri
Coastal Carolina University

Tracy Mullen Cosker
University of New Hampshire

Jennifer Mathes
Online Learning Consortium

Kate Jordahl
Online Education Initiative (FHDA)

The True Patriots – Marie Yovanovitch, Bill Taylor and George Kent

Dear Commons Community,

In her column today, Maureen Dowd praises the career diplomats as the true patriots while Donald Trump and the Republicans tried to smear their reputations during the impeachment hearings held this past week.  Here is an excerpt.

“Republicans may be winning the impeachment battle on Fox News but they are getting clobbered by the classy diplomats demonstrating true patriotism in the hearing room. Republican members of the Intelligence Committee visibly struggled to back up Trump on his demented conspiracy theory — belied by the consensus of the entire U.S. intelligence community — that it was Ukraine that meddled in the 2016 election to help Hillary, rather than Putin who meddled to help Trump.

Nancy Pelosi never spoke truer words than when she chided Trump, “With you, all roads lead to Putin.”

Ronald Reagan would be stunned to find Republican members of the House at war with the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. — all to bolster Trump’s tender ego. Their preference seems to be to allow Russian meddling again if that’s what’s necessary for Trump to prevail a year from now.

Despite Republican efforts to throw up a smokescreen, despite their complaints that they are being muzzled even as they pose questions, it is clear that the president was putting his own political interests — looking for dirt on Hillary and the Bidens — above national security and using shady henchmen to do it.

It’s laughable that Donald Trump was concerned about corruption in the Ukraine. Rather, the most corrupt president ever was determined to export his own corruption to Ukraine.”

In sum, the odorous, self-interested swamp is in the White House while the career men and women in the state department put patriotism and their country first.

Tony

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Republicans, the Real Chickens of Kiev.

By Maureen Dowd

Opinion Columnist

Nov. 16, 2019

WASHINGTON — When he was running in 2016, Donald Trump told me that he reminded himself of another presidential candidate — someone, Trump said, who was also tremendously good-looking, a former entertainer and a Democrat-turned-Republican.

The vainglorious Trump felt he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan.

It is true that, like Reagan, Trump has reshaped his party in his own image, fully inhabiting it. But Reagan’s great mission was to thwart the Evil Empire, taunting that he would put a Star Wars shield in the sky. He wanted democratic ideals to supersede authoritarian rule in the Soviet Union.

Trump’s more sinister and incomprehensible aim is to help the Russians whenever he can.

While Reagan’s legacy will be helping to tear down communism and that wall, Trump’s legacy will be turning Republican lawmakers into dupes assisting Russia as it undermines our democracy — and democracy around the world.

Privately, many Republicans say that they do not buy into all of Trump’s deeply disturbing, topsy-turvy policies toward authoritarian regimes. Trump began echoing the Kremlin talking points during his campaign, saying about Vladimir Putin’s Crimea annexation: “The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”

But G.O.P. pols go along publicly because they are recreants, slavishly trying to hold onto voters who are more intensely aligned with Trump than old-style Republicans.

Republicans may be winning the impeachment battle on Fox News but they are getting clobbered by the classy diplomats demonstrating true patriotism in the hearing room. Republican members of the Intelligence Committee risibly struggle to back up Trump on his demented conspiracy theory — belied by the consensus of the entire U.S. intelligence community — that it was Ukraine that meddled in the 2016 election to help Hillary, rather than Putin who meddled to help Trump.

Nancy Pelosi never spoke truer words than when she chided Trump, “With you, all roads lead to Putin.”

Reagan would be stunned to find Republican members of the House at war with the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. — all to bolster Trump’s tender ego. Their preference seems to be to allow Russian meddling again if that’s what’s necessary for Trump to prevail a year from now.

Despite Republican efforts to throw up a smokescreen, despite their complaints that they are being muzzled even as they pose questions, it is clear that the president was putting his own political interests — looking for dirt on Hillary and the Bidens — above national security and using shady henchmen to do it.

It’s laughable that Donald Trump was concerned about corruption in Ukraine. Rather, the most corrupt president ever was determined to export his own corruption to Ukraine.

The longtime civil servants made clear that history in Ukraine is still being written, that soldiers are dying in the “hot war” between Russian and Ukraine and that subjugating U.S. policy to Trump’s petty, paranoid actions may yet deprive us of a valuable ally.

Alluding to Rudy Giuliani and his indicted cronies, former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch said: “Ukrainians who preferred to play by the old corrupt rules sought to remove me. What continues to amaze me is that they found Americans willing to partner with them and working together, they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a U.S. ambassador. How could our system fail like this? How is it that foreign, corrupt interests could manipulate our government?”

Because Republicans are now dupes to dictators and sleazy foreign businessmen.

Republicans tried to minimize the former ambassador’s ordeal at the hands of her bosses, suggesting it was a matter for H.R. and noting that she now has a sweet gig at Georgetown University. Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley sarcastically riposted that Yovanovitch getting ousted at the pinnacle of her career no doubt felt “like a Hallmark movie.”

Trump told Ukrainian President Zelensky that “the woman was bad news” and added ominously that “she’s going to go through some things.” In another call, Trump introduced his favorite subjects — beauty pageants and Eastern European beauties — telling Zelensky: “When I owned Miss Universe, they always had great people. Ukraine was always very well represented.”

In an aria of oblivious self-destruction, the president further intimidated Yovanovitch just at the very moment that she was testifying about how she had felt intimidated by the president.

“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” he tweeted, seemingly blaming her for Black Hawk Down. “She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him.”

In testimony Friday afternoon, another State Department aide said that he too overheard Trump on a call with Gordon Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union, pressing for investigations and that Trump was reassured by his man in Kiev that Zelensky “loves your ass” and would do what it takes. Oh, high-level diplomacy.

Democrats know Moscow Mitch will squelch them in the end but hope they’ll get through to enough independents and suburban Republicans to deny Trump a second term.

No matter how many decent Americans come forward to expose his sordid behavior, will Trump be hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming while a celebratory Baby Trump balloon flies overhead?

The answer to that: Nyet.

John Bel Edwards

Dear Commons Community,

NBC News and the New York Times are projecting that Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards will win a second term as Louisiana governor, beating Republican challenger Eddie Rispone by 1.4 percentage points and delivering another blow in off-cycle elections to President Donald Trump.

Gov. Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, overcame the intervention of President Trump, who visited the state multiple times in an effort to help Mr. Edward’s Republican challenger and demonstrate his own clout.

It was the second blow at the ballot box for Mr. Trump this month in a Republican-leaning state, following the Democratic victory in the Kentucky governor’s race, where the president also campaigned for the G.O.P. candidate.

In Louisiana, Mr. Trump had wagered significant political capital to try to lift Eddie Rispone, a businessman who ran against Mr. Edwards in large part by embracing the president and his agenda. Mr. Trump campaigned for Mr. Rispone twice in the final two weeks of the race, warning Louisiana voters that a loss would reflect poorly on his presidency — the same appeal he made in Kentucky earlier this month to try to help Gov. Matt Bevin, who ultimately lost.

Of the three governor’s races this year, all in deep red states, Republicans won only one, in Mississippi. Republicans also lost control of both chambers of the state legislature in Virginia, where many Democratic candidates were sharply critical of Mr. Trump.  As reported by NBC News.

Edwards was up by over 19,000 votes with 96% of precincts reporting Saturday night, according to the Associated Press.

Edwards’ victory in a state that Trump carried in 2016 by nearly 20 percentage points highlights the limitations of nationalizing local races. Rispone, a wealthy businessman and long-time Republican donor, tied himself to Trump. He often railed against illegal immigrants on the campaign trail and portrayed Edwards as a “liberal, socialist-leaning governor.”

But Edwards, a conservative Democrat, managed to remain fairly popular by frequently breaking with national Democrats. He signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country, favored gun rights, and touted his willingness to work with Republicans, including Trump.

Edwards also earned a level of good will in his first term for his focus on local issues, such as ending the budget crisis created by his predecessor and expanding Medicaid.

Louisiana is the second reliably red state that voted for Trump to elect a Democrat as governor in the past month. Kentucky elected Attorney General Andy Beshear over GOP incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin, despite Trump’s campaign efforts in the state.

Edwards was a top target for the GOP as the Republican National Committee spent $2 million to defeat him and Trump visited the state three times in five weeks to support Rispone.

Before the polls closed Saturday, Trump tweeted multiple times encouraging voters to support Rispone.

‘Louisiana, 3 hours left, get out and Vote for @EddieRispone for Governor. Lower taxes and much more!’

Edwards narrowly missed the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright win in the October jungle primary, in which every candidate runs against each other on the same ballot regardless of party. He earned 46 percent of the vote, Rispone 27 percent and Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., roughly 23 percent.

Although Abraham endorsed and campaigned for Rispone in the runoff, it was not enough to push the Republican over the finish line.”

Congratulations to Governor Edwards!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Marie Yovanovitch was the American ambassador to Ukraine until May, when she was removed by President Trump after a smear campaign orchestrated by Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer. In a July 25 phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, Mr. Trump described Ms. Yovanovitch as “bad news,” adding, “She’s going to go through some things.”

Investigators have explored whether the president recalled her because she was an impediment to the shadow foreign policy promoted by Mr. Giuliani and other American officials. That “second channel” of diplomacy, as some witnesses have called it, pressured Ukraine to open investigations that would have benefited Mr. Trump politically.

Here are some highlights from her testimony yesterday compliments of the New York Times and  CBS News.

• Ms. Yovanovitch described how it felt to be bad-mouthed by Mr. Trump on the July 25 call: “shocked, appalled, devastated that the president of the United States would talk about any ambassador like that to a foreign head of state. And it was me. I mean, I couldn’t believe it.” A person who saw her reading the transcript told her that the color drained from her face, she said. Asked what the words “going to go through some things” sounded like to her, she said, “It sounded like a threat.”
• As Ms. Yovanovitch testified, Mr. Trump posted a tweet attacking her record as a diplomat in many troubled regions of the world, saying that “everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad.” Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the committee holding the hearings, read the tweet back to her in real time. “It’s very intimidating,” she said. “The effect is to be intimidating.” Our television critic wrote that it was a “remarkable fourth-wall-breaking moment” and a “real-time meta-confrontation.”
• Ms. Yovanovitch was unsparing in her criticism of the Trump administration. “Ukrainians who preferred to play by the old, corrupt rules sought to remove me,” she said. “What continues to amaze me is that they found Americans willing to partner with them and, working together, they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a U.S. ambassador.” She went on: “How could our system fail like this? How is it that foreign corrupt interests could manipulate our government?”

Ms. Yovanovitch is surely a victim in the sleaze Ukraine operations of President Trump and Rudy Giuliani!

Tony

Stephen Miller

Dear Commons Community,

80 members of the House of Representatives have now called on White House senior adviser Stephen Miller to resign after leaked emails published this week showed his affinity for white nationalism.  As reported by The Huffington Post and the Associated Press.

The Huffington Post contacted the office of every House member and asked whether Miller should resign. All told, 80 representatives, all Democrats, have said he should. 

“Hell yes,” responded Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.).  

“I feel pretty secure in my belief that flaming white nationalists should have no place in the White House, the halls of Congress or anywhere, for that matter,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). 

“A person with his hateful beliefs should not be making decisions at the highest levels of our government,” said Mark Takano (D-Calif.). “He should resign, and if he doesn’t, he should be fired.”

The widespread calls for Miller’s resignation echoed demands Thursday by leaders of the Black Congressional Progressive Caucus, Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, and the Asian Pacific American Caucus. 

“As documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Stephen Miller has embedded himself in white nationalist doctrine for years, including promoting racist propaganda from fringe sites like VDARE and InfoWars,” the Democratic caucus leaders said in a joint statement calling for Miller’s resignation.  

“And as the chief architect of the Muslim Ban and cruel family separation policies, Stephen Miller has spent the last three years turning his bigotry into policy – with President Trump’s blessing.” 

He should resign, and if he doesn’t, he should be fired. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.)

On Tuesday, the civil rights advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center published the first of a series of bombshell reports analyzing 900 emails Miller sent to former Breitbart writer Katie McHugh in 2015 and 2016. They show Miller, working at the time for then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), attempting to shape Breitbart’s political coverage, namely regarding stories related to race and immigration.  

In some emails, Miller informed Breitbart of stories published by white supremacist website VDARE and racist conspiracy theory website InfoWars — and then suggested how Breitbart might promote them. 

In another email, Miller recommended that Breitbart write about the deeply racist 1970s French novel “Camp of Saints,” which depicts brown immigrants — including Indians who “eat feces” — descending upon Europe like a plague, killing people and raping women. The novel is a favorite among neo-Nazis and other assorted fascists. 

In all 900 emails, SPLC reporter Michael Hayden noted he was “unable to find any examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is nonwhite or foreign-born.” 

Miller went on to work for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign before being selected as a senior adviser in the White House, where he’s often credited with crafting the administration’s cruel immigration policies. 

“Stephen Miller, Trump’s architect of mass human rights abuses at the border (including child separation & detention camps w/ child fatalities) has been exposed as a bonafide white nationalist,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Tuesday. “He’s still at the White House shaping US immigration policy. Miller must resign. Now.”

“Each day we allow a white nationalist to be in charge of US immigration policy is a day where thousands of children & families lives are in danger,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in another tweet. “This year alone, under Miller’s direction, the US has put almost 70,000 children in custody.” 

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted: “As I said earlier this year: Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. And now we have the emails to prove it. This type of racism and hatred has no place in our government. Miller needs to step down. Now.”

The White House did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on the calls for Miller to resign or whether the president might fire Miller. 

“Unfortunately, we know that President Trump, who said that there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ when white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, welcomes his racist views to help sow hate and division in America,” Takano told HuffPost. 

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who thinks Miller should resign, noted in a statement to HuffPost that the White House adviser “is damn lucky that there wasn’t someone like him in charge at Ellis Island when his great-grandfather sought refuge in this country after fleeing Eastern Europe to escape persecution by the Nazis.”  

“Having someone like him in a powerful position at the White House sends a very bad message to Americans and the world,” Wilson said. 

Having someone like Trump in the White House sends a very bad message also.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The following statement was released yesterday by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The statement Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age was revised and approved in October 2019, and replaced two former NCTE position statements, The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies, and The Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment. The NCTE’s Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age makes it clear that the continued evolution of curriculum, assessment, and teaching practice itself is necessary.

Literacy has always been a collection of communicative and sociocultural practices shared among communities. As society and technology change, so does literacy. The world demands that a literate person possess and intentionally apply a wide range of skills, competencies, and dispositions. These literacies are interconnected, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with histories, narratives, life possibilities, and social trajectories of all individuals and groups. We believe that active, successful participants in a global society must be able to do the following:

• Participate effectively and critically in a networked world
• Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, and across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities
• Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts
• Advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information
• Build and sustain intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought
• Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions
• Examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information
• Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives
• Recognize and honor the multilingual literacy identities and culture experiences individuals bring to learning environments, and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these differing variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, register)

Applied to learners of English language arts, today’s literacy demands have implications for how teachers plan, model, support, and assess student learning. We believe that learning is a lifelong process which invites students and teachers alike to benefit from reflecting on questions associated with the continued literacy demands. Understandings of the definition of literacies used in this statement have implications for learner agency, access, action, and opportunities. “

We would like to recognize the Revision Committee for this position statement, which includes: Shelbie Witte (Chair, Oklahoma State University, OK), Bill Bass (Parkway School District, MO), W. Ian O’Byrne (College of Charleston, SC), Detra Price-Dennis (Teachers College, Columbia University, NY), and Franki Sibberson (Dublin City Schools, OH).

It is with gratitude we also want to thank the following individuals for their feedback during the various stages of this revision: Sarah Bonner, Jennifer Dail, Patricia Dunn, Chad Everett, Danielle Filipiak, Frances Glick, Crag Hill, Ken Lindblom, Ernest Morrell, Amy Piotrowski, Kristin Ziemke.”

Good work on the part of the NCTE!

Tony