TEACHED Update: April 19, 2016

April 19, 2016

On the Loudspeaker: David Johns

Growing up in Inglewood, CA, David Johns had to travel hours by bus each day to access public schools that would expect and provide the means for him to excel academically. 

Now, as President Barack Obama's pick to lead the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, David's mission is to help ensure that all students have access to high-quality schools, whatever their zip code or genetic code. 

We got to follow Mr. Johns to several inspiring events in Washington, DC for this latest addition to our On the Loudspeaker interview series. Don't miss a word in the video here.

WATCH NOW

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#CodeOakland @ASU-GSV

We're sharing some "Oaklandish" thinking at theASU-GSV Summit in San Diego this week, where Loudspeaker Films' Founder Kelly Amis will do a Q&A after a screening of our award-winning short film Code Oakland (at 3:00 pm on Wednesday). 

This huge annual event brings together a multitude of innovators, entrepreneurs, educators and othersto discuss, debate and shape the future of education and technology. Check out the impressive list of speakers, which includes Bill Gates, Common, Sal Khan and one of Code Oakland's stars, Kimberly Bryant.

Code Oakland addresses lack of diversity within the tech sector and shows how Bay Area social entrepreneurs are working to change that by preparing students of color to not just join but become leaders of the tech industry. Watch the trailer here. 

Tickets for this conference are sold-out, but consider organizing your own screening of Code Oakland and tackling tech equity in your community. 

   HOST A SCREENING

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Oakland International Film Festival

The Loudspeaker team was honored to celebrate the West Coast Premiere of the newest TEACHEDshort film Think of Calvin in our home base of Oakland, CA at the 14th Oakland International Film Festival.

Think of Calvin was filmed in Washington, DC but much of its post-production talent is from Oakland: Editor ShakaJamal, Outreach Coordinator Fatima Nasiyr, and Composer Kev Choice all helped finish this provocative film about one family's encounter with racial profiling and its aftermath.

A whirlwind week of entertainment and activities accompanied the festival, with a highlight being a discussion of Oakland's nationally recognized work around African American Male Achievement,with OUSD's Chris Chatmon and Code Oaklandteen film star Isaiah Martin joining filmmakers on stage.

Watch the Think of Calvin trailer here. And click below to see photos from this amazing week. 

VIEW PHOTOS

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Uptown Film Festival

Next up: Think of Calvin will be featured at Uptown Magazine's first annual Uptown Short Film Festival. This film festival, set in the heart of Harlem, NY will showcase work from a diverse group of up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world.

If you are in New York, please join us May 13-15 for the East Coast premiere of Think of Calvinand a chance to meet Director Kelly Amis. As you may know, Think of Calvin was previewed last fall at the Atlantic's Race & Justice Summit; you can watch the extended clip and the panel discussion on C-Span here.

LEARN MORE

Want to host a screening? Contact Outreach Coordinator Fatima Nasiyr at fnasiyr@loudspeakerfilms.com.

Fatima Speaks: Access to the “Teaching Zone”

By Fatima Nasiyr

In Every Child Should Have Access to the “Teaching Zone”, TEACHED director and producer Kelly Amis interviews Carlet Harris, a young woman featured in our upcoming short film Think of Calvin, to gain perspective from a parent on the struggles of trying to ensure your child receives a decent education when you live in a low-income community. Why should anyone's child have to attend under-funded and under-resourced schools? And why should any child have to cope with a lackluster education just because of their zip code? How does this affect the student's, even the entire family's, future?

We are very grateful for our partnership with Education Post, which helps us share diverse voices On the Loudspeaker and encourage others to engage in critical dialogue on issues of equality and education.

To read our full piece featured on Education Post, go here. You can also listen to other voices we have featured On the Loudspeaker here, which includes interviews with prominent figures such as CNN correspondent Van Jones, performer and equal rights advocate John Legend, and --coming soon--Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp.

On the Loudspeaker: Vergara v. California

Court resumed this week in the Vergara v. California case, a statewide lawsuit of nine California public school children looking to strike down the laws that limit schools from often doing what’s best for kids when it comes to assigning who is teaching them.

The case is being lead by the organization Students Matter, a non-profit founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch, which is dedicated to promoting equal access to quality public education.

The Students Matter goal is to see a transformation of the teaching profession in California so that hard-working, effective teachers are rewarded and retained, and others who are not up to the job are not kept in the classroom and on the payroll. Ultimately, Students Matter seeks to create an opportunity for lawmakers, teachers, administrators, and community leaders to rethink the current system so it works rationally for teachers and students alike.

We are honored that the TEACHED Vol. I short films are included as trial exhibits in this potentially game-changing lawsuit. We have seen far too many amazing teachers booted from the classroom due to lack of seniority while others who are not able to manage a successful classroom remain for years, sometimes decades. We have even seen teachers who have abused children (with clear evidence to prove it) paid to leave because the system we currently have in place makes it nearly impossible to fire even them.

Some argue that efforts to rethink tenure and seniority are really about making it easier to fire older teachers (who are farther up on the salary scale) and replace them with younger "less expensive" teachers. Ironically, the polar opposite is the reality: when California's economic woes required laying off teachers over the last few years, teachers were pink-slipped according to seniority only, and because those who have been in the system for fewer years are lesser-paid, i.e. the newer, younger teachers, many more of them had to be laid off to save the required amount. For kids, that is a lose-lose situation.

Not only did California push out thousands of new-ish teachers who had devoted themselves to teaching (unlike many other professions, new teachers must pay for their own training in the form of a teaching credential, so it is a time and financial commitment before you ever get hired), it also convinced college students here who had been thinking about going into teaching to look elsewhere.

There is much to read on the Students Matter website to better understand this case; don't miss their timeline, trial tracker, short clips of the teacher's testimonies, their blog and their Twitter account for the lastest updates. People say that "as California goes, so goes the nation". If this case succeeds here (my guess is it will reach the U.S. Supreme Court), it could spark a national movement to transform the teaching profession.