Michael Kagan Profile picture
Nov 28, 2021 13 tweets 5 min read Read on X
18 months ago, CCSD received this report about special education in the Las Vegas Valley. It is damning, finding racial disparities, inadequate curriculum, teacher qualifications and funding, and organizational problems. THREAD 1/x

go.boarddocs.com/nv/ccsdlv/Boar… Image
Before highlighting some key failures, the elephant in the room: @GovSisolak and #NVLEG have not provided adequate funding for schools. They should not campaign on having fixed it (they haven’t). Nor should anyone criticize them without supporting the necessary taxes. 2/x Image
Inadequate funding means bloated class sizes, lower salaries for frontline staff, chronic staff vacancies, and (likely) more difficulty attracting and retaining the highly skilled educators who are desperately needed. It makes everything else harder, if not impossible. 2/x
Let’s start with race and school discipline. All kids with special ed plans (IEPs) are much more likely to be suspended from school. And black kids with IEPs are much more likely to be suspended than other kids with IEPs. 3/x Image
Disparate treatment of black kids in special ed starts with how they are identified and labeled. Black kids are more likely to be categorized as “emotionally disturbed” (ED). White kids are more likely to be identified with autism, a more sympathetic label. 4/x Image
ED is an unfortunate label (we should not call kids “disturbed”). But the label is in the law, and sometimes applying it is technically correct. But it can also reflect a failure to make the effort to fully evaluate for other disabilities. 5/x
The report highlights systematically inadequate qualifications of many key personnel in CCSD. That’s hard to talk about. But no curriculum or plan will matter if the district can’t hire staff with the right skill sets. 6/x Image
The report documents a general tendency by the district to pull kids out of general education more than it should, to resource room for part of the day of self-contained classes all day. The report says that failures to teach kids effectively in gen ed feeds this tendency. 7/x Image
Unfortunately, the report documents special ed kids in CCSD are between a rock and a hard place. Overcrowded and understaffed gen ed, or supposedly specialized education settings that actually aren’t designed to teach them much better. 8/x Image
The most damning criticism of CCSD @SuptJaraCCSD and the trustees is that they have actually not implemented programs designed to actually teach kids with common disabilities. Teachers are just left on their own to figure it out. 9/x ImageImage
This failure to actually have true special education curricular programs - even though there is extensive research in the field and legal mandates to offer them - is why the district just lost the Rogich lawsuit, about dyslexia, costing at least $456,000. thenevadaindependent.com/article/judge-…
Remember: A resource room is not a special education program. It’s just a room. I could call my kitchen pantry a resource room, but it still won’t be a good place to teach children. CCSD needs actual research-backed programs, and teachers to implement them. 10/x
I’ve just included some highlights here, from a long and complex report. It’s also now more than a year old. So the real question for state and district leaders: Has anything been done? 11/x

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More from @MichaelGKagan

Sep 9, 2021
Today’s agenda from @lindacavazos13 and the @CCSD_Trustees has a slate of governance policies that aim to stifle open dissent among trustees and give @SuptJaraCCSD powers that authoritarian leaders would appreciate. Some examples: 1/x
For example, in judging the performance of the Superintendent, there’s a proposal to allow the trustees to look only at evidence that the Superintendent agrees to. Richard Nixon might not have had to resign if he’d had the benefit of this governance policy. 2/x
And no public dissent from trustees when evaluating @SuptJaraCCSD. In a democracy, we do not insist on “one voice.” But in CCSD trustees should dissent on the evaluation of the chief executive only in closed session. Publicly, they must stand by their man, I guess. 3/x
Read 8 tweets
Jul 18, 2021
Into the legal weeds of DACA: The Biden Admin has reiterated that it intends to bolster #DACA by issuing a regulation after a notice & comment process. This will address PART, and only part, of Judge Hanen's legal critique of DACA which led to Friday's injection. THREAD 1/x
One of the legal objections to DACA has been that the Obama Admin issued it as a general policy statement (which can be done quickly), rather than giving the public notice and allowing comment, before issuing regulations. 2/x
FWIW, I explored the legal arguments with this notice & comment debate in a 2016 article. I don't think Judge Hanan is right about this, but there is clearly litigation risk here. And on this, Biden can address the problem fairly easily. 3/x scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewconten…
Read 7 tweets
Feb 7, 2021
Need to say something about how this @NickMiroff @mariasacchetti article is written. In a big scoop about ICE arrest and deportation policy, the article focuses on ICE AGENTS as the affected people, not immigrants who might be arrested and deported. 1/x

washingtonpost.com/national/new-b…
The first response is from “one distraught [ICE] official.” After a few paragraphs describing the evolution of the Biden policies, the article describes “ICE officials chafing at the new rules.” It’s clear in this narrative: ICE agents are the center of the story. 2/x
In the article, we hear from Biden and former Obama officials praising the policy, former Trump officials opposing, and, at the very end, an advocate for immigrant rights (but not an affected immigrant, so far as I know). 3/x
Read 5 tweets
Feb 5, 2021
There is a lot good in Pres. Biden’s order restoring the US refugee program today. Let me note a few items that stand out to me (possibly esoteric.) 1/x
The call to make the program accessible to victims of gender violence is important. As I am sure the WH knows, this will require further action by the AG to revoke and revise the Sessions/Barr mutilations of asylum and refugee law. 2/x
The interest in climate change migration is interesting, just in the sense of it being put on the agenda. I would note that there are many victims of violence who have also been excluded from refugee law. Biden should look at that, too. 3/x Image
Read 6 tweets
Nov 27, 2020
The @ClarkCountySch, @SuptJaraCCSD and @CCSD_Trustees have not yet withdrawn their proposed regulation to silence teachers from talking about their jobs. They should. But they won't be able to take back the authoritarian impulse that they have revealed. (THREAD 1/x)
If enacted, the regulation would be unconstitutional. I won't focus on that (@AriCohn has already done a great job at it). We should worry that @ClarkCountySch is not getting good legal advice. But my concern is what this says about district leadership, not its lawyers. (2/x)
The proposal would ban teachers and school staff from expressing opinions on school issues "that arise directly from their work," especially issues related to the person's specific job. Breathtaking. (3/x) Image
Read 8 tweets
Nov 4, 2020
Six broad, initial thoughts about how to defend immigrant rights in concrete law & policy, as it appears likely that Biden will be president and Rs will control the Senate. (Thread)
1. Trump’s electoral defeat is a true victory against racism and fear, but it is a defensive victory. It stems the bleeding, and maybe only temporarily. A very big battle, but not the war. Immigrants will remain under threat.
2. The Democrats’ failure to take the Senate means that hoping for large scale immigration reform legislation is, yet again, likely going to be fruitless. Worthy as it is, it may sap scarce political capital from achievable and also urgent goals.
Read 7 tweets

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