I spend a lot of time talking about the notion of “collaboration.” So whenever I have a good example of the value of collaboration, I try to highlight it.

Only one month after a Spot.Us-funded project was also published in the New York Times, we have another great example of what happens when various partners come together. I like this one in particular because it includes several media entities. I’m talking about The Bay Bridge Explained pitch on Spot.Us, which has been published online by the SF Public Press and distributed in print through McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama and the San Francisco Chronicle.

This explanatory/investigative story relied on the editorial expertise of the SF Public Press, the imagination and vigor of McSweeney’s, the distribution power of the Chronicle, and a little help from Spot.Us to pay for the reporter’s time and expenses. Take any partner away and the project would have lost some oomph.

This is why collaboration is powerful. It comes back to Jeff Jarvis’ insight “do what you do best and link to the rest.”

In the Analog World, Linking Equals Collaboration

With that quote, Jarvis declared a rule for the Internet. A news organization doesn’t need to cover an entire range of topics. They can go deep on one or two and link to other organizations covering satellite topics. Aggregation is an art and doing it well keeps readers coming back for more “tasty hyperlinks.” Meanwhile, you develop a thorough beat and niche.

This astute observation applies outside of hyperlinks. “Linking” in the analog world mans collaborating and partnering. There are things the SF Public Press does that Spot.Us doesn’t do very well. And vice versa. I like to compare our growth with that of the SF Public Press because the two organizations have kind of grown up together. We have a similar mission but we approach it very differently. What we share is a willingness to work with each other and to let each organization focus on its strengths. It has been a boon for both of us.

The San Francisco Panorama is obviously much larger than just the Bay Bridge project story, but this 15,000-word piece, complete with sidebars and info-graphics, does act as a nice centerpiece for this one-time-only newspaper. In fact, I’d call that an understatement. To be blunt: this is damn fine reporting!

The Story Behind the Bay Bridge Project

Dave Eggers identified the Bay Bridge as one of the largest unreported stories in the Bay Area, and on October 12 Spot.Us, the SF Public Press and McSweeney’s put up a pitch, “The Bay Bridge Explained.” We had no idea that two weeks later, with fundraising only going “less than okay” the bridge would be shut down, the result of cables that broke while cars were on the bridge.

I found out about the closed bridge because of a rush of contribution notifications (I get an email whenever somebody contributes to Spot.Us). The first two in a row I brushed off. I figured somebody must have tweeted their contribution and a friend followed up. Two more came in just a few minutes later. Okay, I thought to myself, this was connected to a popular Twitter user!

Turns out, it was several. Once news spread that the Bay Bridge was shut down, I called Michael Stoll at the SF Public Press to talk about writing a note and doing a link roundup.

I bring up this moment because it represented a very real and positive moment for Spot.Us. Funding was going okay for this pitch. Then the bridge went down and several bloggers pointed to the pitch. I think SFist drove the most traffic. Was it good timing? Certainly. The bridge required investigation before the incident, but the moment the bridge was closed, the Spot.Us pitch became a means for curious/discouraged commuters to do more than just complain — they could get involved. Even if all they donated was a single toll crossing (many individuals donated $5 or less), and the contribution was a result of frustration, I would argue that their contribution to the Spot.Us pitch was the act of an engaged citizen.

I forget which professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government makes a distinction between being a citizen and being a consumer (and argues that today more people are consumers), but I’d argue that the people who contributed to the Bay Bridge pitch were acting as citizens.

They were engaged. And their engagement allowed Spot.Us to help fund a fantastic piece of journalism.

Updates from stories in progress.

Interview with a desperate family. Reporting by Patrick Burke part of the American Apparel story.

These sisters both worked in American Apparel’s sewing department before the I-9 audit.  Now they’re looking for work and hoping for a way to avoid catastrophe for their family.  I conducted this interview, with translation help from Natalia Garcia, on 11/18/09.  Today, the 19th, I’m told that American Apparel CEO Dov Charney will be helping the Perez family, at least with this month’s rent.

A Desperate Family from Patrick Burke on Vimeo.

More than just a number: Theresa Rutheford – Part of the SF Public Press’ look into “SF city downsizing slashing worker’s paychecks.”

Supes will vote whether to restore funding for pink slipped workers next Tuesday.  Theresa Rutheford, a CNA at Laguna Honda, talked about how the cuts would effect her.UpdateFinal by monica.jensen

Inside the Alameda Courts: Day two. Part of the Crime Courts and Communities investigation with KALW. (Also see Day One).

Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg added another perspective on jury selection. He said that an experienced lawyer who tries the same types of cases will over time, start to come up with profiles of ideal jurors. Prosecutors, who are particularly prone to specialize, are great at this, he said. Weisberg added that in high-stakes, well-funded cases like lawsuits against big businesses, a defense attorney might even hire a jury consultant to research demographics. But ultimately, “lawyers know that there are a certain number of people that they won’t be able to get out of a jury,” he said. “That’s when they start using their questioning not to expose a bias in the juror, but to start to seduce the jurors into their way of thinking.”

New Jails, No Treatment, in California Prison Plan

With his first proposal rejected by a federal court, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week submitted a new, 130-page plan to cut California prisons’ inmate population by 42,000 in two years.

The proposal (PDF) would build new prisons and transfer inmates out of state, but comes amid a hefty budgetary slash to drug treatment programs that lawmakers had previously identified as an effective way of in keeping people out of prison.

Published: Parent and community groups fight uphill battle to reform public school food.

Tavon Frazier is a skinny 9-year-old squirming in front of his Styrofoam lunch tray. He’s eaten most of his chicken taco and his friends, all wearing the navy polo shirts of East Oakland’s Korematsu Discovery Academy, are wiggling around him, chewing on their flour tortillas and nibbling on baby carrots. Tavon didn’t stop at the salad bar on his way to the cafeteria table today. He says sometimes he’ll get applesauce when they have it, but mostly he doesn’t like vegetables, especially broccoli and carrots. His ideal cafeteria meal would be “donuts and cupcakes and a cake,” he says with a mischievous sideways grin.

9.30 am Yey! This a historical day – the first ever California Data Camp will happen here at Citizen Space downtown San Francisco. Also we’ll have an app contest to build web apps on the public data that has been released by the City of San Francisco. The event is organized by Spot.Us and California Watch, a journalism initiative of Center for Investigative Reporting.

So far, I’ve spotted people from DataSF, MAPlight.org, from Muni, O’Reilly media, Mother Jones, among the others, and citizens interested in data.

More about this event here: http://spot.us/pitches/272

10:00am: After introductions we are organizing ourselves in groups to discuss topics such as and talk about data, journalism, governance, openness. The hashtag for the event is #CAdata.

Folks involved in the DataSF App contest have gone upstairs to do code in peace. They will join us at the end of the day to present their work and the winners will get a $500 gift certificate to Apple and an iPod Touch. (Thanks to the sponsors!)

Susan Mernit organizing topics for the Bar Camp with her partner Andrew Hoerner.

More photos:

11.00am At the first workshop round, attending Citizen 2.0 workshop (two other sessions are going on at the same time)

We are talking about what kind of data people care about, also what data tells the story you want to tell? How to reach out to the community? Good tools? How to crowdsource data? Excerpts of the discussion:

- A tool for reaching people: SeeClickFix – you can report issues that matter to you. But how to make people to solve the problems reported on SeeClickFix? What would be the incentive/carrot?

- How about Wikipedia for crowdsourcing data – not only collecting data, but making the community judge what is relevant?

- How to get a critical mass in smaller towns to submit data?

Adriel Hampton giving an example of a successful campaign. A town was going to build an ugly parking garage, and Hampton was opposing it. He started a blog covering the garage project, got mainstream news coverage, partnered with a lady who would have lost her house because of the garage. At the end, the garage plan was changed.

Adriel Hampton on the right in the picture below, Rose Garrett on the left.

How do you get the message to City Hall, is it crucial to get coverage in the mainstream media, engage people?

- http://www.socialcompact.org/ – a service about economic data for unserved communities, tells about economic indicators etc.

Also mentioned in the discussion for collaborative technology PbWiki, MixedInk, NationBuilder, Act.Ly, GovLuv, Spatialkeg, Everyblock.

Tool for getting people sharing data: GoogleFusion – great stuff on healthcare and climate change

The big thing is to get people engaged, really wanting to work on the issue.

How about MySpace using for crowdsourcing data?

You can also work with the tools you have, e.g. at Mission Local, people are sending videos all the time with low end cellphones. No tech savviness needed.

Danah Boyd is one of the leading researchers on digital divide regarding social media.

A problem: Lot of important data is published on PDFs, and it is expensive and time consuming to convert these files into useful data formats such as spreadsheets etc.

Traditional partners to campaign, to advocate with:

Chambers of Commerce, churches, Rotary, schools, local events – somebody got most of his blogreaders by handing out event fliers.

How about local libraries letting use their computers for campaigning?

An idea at the session: We need an ideologically agnostic platform, not pushing one ideological approach, important especially when connecting on a local, neighborhood level.

A book called GroundsWell, telling how to deal with 2.0 world, tools how to find your space.

Conclusion: People are getting more engaged. So there’s hope for more shared data

Noon. My second session – DataSF (two other session are going on at the same time)

Cool people participating in the session: engineers, software developers, lot of people interested in transit data.

Jay Nash of DataSF in the picture below.

Jay Nath of DataSF speaking about the background of DataSF.

DataSF started from Obama’s call for transparency. Having one location for the data, like a catalogue. Washington DC did that.

Reached out for datagov.org to do collaboration.

Decentralized approach, good way to get data out there, but not yet ideal.

We don’t know what people want, what they find interesting, that’s why we need feedback and people requesting what kind of datasets they want to have. People can also vote for their favorite data set suggestion. The datasets that will be built are not always the most voted ones, though.

Changing the mindset in the governance is the most challenging part. Sharing is scary for some people. Sometimes it is a long process to get data out: legal review, figuring out how get the data through firewalls, etc.

In the picture below, Bill Allison of Sunlight Foundation leading a session.

Street sweeeping schedule was the most requested information. The data is on available on DataSF.

It is becoming more and more common for not so techsavvy people to take data and create something of it, as mashup tools like YahooPipes are available.

We are at infancy for open data. Different ways to apply the open data policy.

Somebody asks: “What is the best way for journalists to get hold of public data?”

An anwer: As a journalist, you have to advocate for an open data policy in your city. Another answer: Go straight to the IT person, less politics, more access.

In some cities, you can be charged $2 000 for a MySQL query.

Jay Nath: It is a culture shift, it takes time. This is an evolution.

MomMaps, an app to find kid friendly location in San Francisco is good example of a good, useful app. You can find kid friendly museums, parks and restaurants on the app.

Will somebody build an app based on street sweeping dataset?

Jay wondering if DataSF could use OpenID for registration and get people to participate.

EcoFinder is an app helping you find recycling locations in SF.

How to license the data, a standard like “attribution only”, maybe using Creative Commons kind of a system?

Question from the group: Could we subscribe for changes in the data sets on DataSF?

Here’s a link to TechLiminal’s blogpost about parallel session about data primer.

Craig Newmark says to the attendees: You are part of something bigger , a trend of something new. We are changing the ways how we govern ourselves.

Craig Newmark’s blogpost on DataCamp.

David Cohn of Spot.Us and Craig Newmark of Craigslist in the picture below.

2.15pm At a session about crowdsourcing, journalism, data

The main question in the session is: How to use crowdsourcing for journalism, data in journalism?

Sarah Granger in the picture below.

How can we create a virtual community to comment on issues, asks a journalist from KQED’s California Report. The programs get usually only a handful of comments.

Attendees at the session giving examples of good community engagement. Huffington Post Social News a good example of an attempt to build social network around news. David Cohn of Spot.Us mentions a citizen newspaper called BrooWaHa where the community organizes itself around topics and friend each other.  Inappropriate commenters are kicked out by the community.

I’m wondering: “Think why would you want to have comments on your publication? What is the value of the comments? What is the value of leaving a comment?”

Do we see avid discussions and commentary only on partisan publications?

“No, we see commentary also on the Wall Street Journal about finance and such”, an attendee in the session responses.

Another attendee comments: “Don’t you think that the Wall Street Journal is partisan?”

MAPLight.Org gets rid of their commentary – it was junk most of the time, and it just didn’t make sense the  the organization says.

Good sites for journalists to get data, or examples to use data:

The California Secretary of State – campaign finance analysis

The LA Times Datadesk a good example of a traditional news publication using data and creating interaction with the readers.

The user experience is important, hire the right people to make visualizations.

Conclusion: We need a Wikidata or DataWiki, a hub for databases. Organizations could share and submit their datasets there.

4.30pm In a session about data visualization and storytelling.

Useful links for data visualization:

Development Seed

Stumble Safely - find a safe way home

Twistory - combine your Twitter history with your calendar

IBM’s ManyEyes

Deep linking to YouTube video to an exact timestamp, hashtagging it (an article on Mashable)

A cool visualization of the locations of high interest mortgages in the US

Trendalyzer, a software for animation of statistics developed by a Swede, then acquired by Google

Linkfluence , and there a cool map on politics

Dan Brekke pf KQED with his laptop in the picture below.

5.15pm DataSF App contest participants presenting (links to the app presentations later, this is only a brief look into the apps)

Water saving app. The app would suggest water saving tips for sanfranciscans, based on their water consumption. An awesome idea! The challenge: how to get hold of the data of individual’s water consumption? Not publicly available.

Urban tree saving app. An app to request a tree on your street, and to flag down a suffering tree that needs maintenance. Based on SF city’s dataset of trees. I would name the app as Happy Tree. More information, and directions to the code here.

Augmented reality app for mobile showing crimes in the direction you are pointing your mobile to.

Josh showing the augmented reality app in the picture below.

Susan Mernit of Oakland Local/California Watch and Jay Nath of DataSF exploring the augmented reality app.

After School Special. An app about gaps between high and low income neighborhoods. The visualization shows what kids do after school in different neighborhoods in the city, it shows where public and private schools are located, where MacDonald’s are, where farmers markets are, etc. Here’s the link to the app: http://www.afterschoolsf.org/

BlueZones in SF. The app shows where the nearest blue zone (parking for diasabled) is.

The judges go and cuddle on a couch, meaning they discuss about the apps. The process takes only 5 minutes.

Judges at work in the picture below.

5.50 pm Honorary mention goes to the augmented reality app. Tree app is the winner! Yey! The guys behind the tree app are Scot Hacker and Chuck Harris. Hacker says he is a treehugger but the idea of an app to flag down trees is actually his wife’s

Picture of the happy winners. Hacker on left, Harris on right.

Corey working on her laptop.

Happy data enthusiasts.

Scott Hacker presenting his winner/killer app.

Robert Rosenthal of CIR talking about immersion journalism on the phone.

Judge Amy Garner observing the app contest, David Cohn (right) of Spot.Us and Bruce Wolfe (left) of Marin Institute doing the same thing.

Jail Break

In response to a recent order by three federal judges that California release 44,000 inmates from overcrowded state prisons, Beyond Chron looks back at how we got ourselves into this crisis in the first place. (Full story)

–Want to know how this will impact public health? So do we: Prison Health and Our Community: A Public Health Investigation

Bye, Bye Mirant Plant

The Mirant power plant, which has been spewing toxic pollutants into the Bay View- Hunters Point air for forty years is set to shut down no later than Dec. 31, 2010. To top it off, Mirant Portrero LLC will also pay up $1 million so the city can address childhood asthma and beautification in the region. (SFBG)

–Related pitch: Bay Area Toxic Tour

Oscar Grant Report Released

The report commissioned during the aftermath of the Oscar Grant shooting to analyze BART police conduct was released to the public Wednesday, August 18, 2009, exposing that police did not follow proper protocol in several respects last New Year’s Day. (SFAppeal)

–Related pitch: Forthcoming Oscar Grant Shooting Report Will Lift Veil on Transit Police Work

Crime Spotting goes Graphic

Interested in Oakland crime stats? Delve into Crimespotting.org data through graphs and analyses that chronicle Oakland crime—against people, property or both plus major drug offenses—in different neighborhoods and police beats. (A Better Oakland).

San Francisco followed Oakland’s lead, launching San Francisco Crime Spotting, an interactive map of SF districts, which includes new features like hour and day sorting. Check it out! (Tech Crunch)

Creating A More Open City

Journalists and residents alike now have easier access to San Francisco city data thanks to SFdata.org, a new web clearinghouse of data from departments like SFPD, Public Works, the Department of Health and the Municipal Transportation Agency which was created in attempt to broaden citizen engagement and collaboration. Learn more from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s guest post on Tech Crunch.

Where will this plastic in the LA River end up? (Photo: kqedquest)

Plastic Voyages

Two research vessels commissioned through Project Kaisei have already set sail for the North Pacific Gyre this summer to study the plastic soup’s impact on marine ecosystems and humans as well as assess possible methods for cleaning it up. (SFBG)

How do these expeditions compare to the anniversary voyage that Spot.us reporter Lindsey Hoshaw will go on with Captain Charles Moore? Ask her Friday morning between 11am and 12pm on our BlogTalkRadio show “Dissecting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

Come prepared for the discussion by reading up on all the updates Lindsey has provided on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch pitch page.

Hospital Food gets Healthier

School and city meal programs aren’t the only ones getting fresher. Stanford Hospital and Clinics just announced a new menu, developed by local chef Jesse Cool, which will feature local and organic ingredients to help heal patients with nutrients grown on the farm. (Institute of the Future)

–Related pitch: Sustainable School: What’s for Lunch?

Pothole Progress

While you may be thinking one measly pothole being filled isn’t huge news, I like to think that Spot.us had a small hand in making Oakland streets a little smoother for at least one kid riding his scooter. Remember the Cost of Potholes article that Sean Maher wrote for the Oakland Tribune a few months back with the help of Spot.us? Well, since its publication, it looks like the response time for filling potholes is speeding up. There’s even a call center where citizens can report cracks and crevices on their streets. (SFGate)

An Honest Look at Improving School Food

The reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act coming Sept. 30 has spurred a lot of talk about how to provide more nutritious school meals. Beyond Chron says the first step is honestly addressing the costs involved with healthier food, which the federal government might have to pony up. (Full story)

–Related pitch: Sustainable School: What’s for Lunch?

UC Execs Score Raises Amid $813 Million in Cuts

Looks like the University of California has followed the lead of national banks by quietly granting raises and bonuses to top officials while bankrupting the public, in UC’s case, through program cuts, layoffs and increases in student tuition. (SFAppeal)

Mass Layoffs at Kaiser Permanente

The hospital plans to cut 1,200 positions (or 2 percent of the workforce) in Northern California. (SFist)

SF Takes on Big Tobacco

Tobacco companies sued the city of San Francisco for banning tobacco products from pharmacies, arguing that  the city impeded their First Amendment rights. Huh? That’s what the lower court said, rejected the claim, but the tobacco companies appealed and fought the city attorney’s office this morning. Look out for the results tomorrow. (Calitics)

Social Spot: This Week’s Picks

• Mission Streetscape Community Design Workshop 4, Wed. Aug. 12, 6:30-8:30 pm. Tell the SF Planning Department what you think about designs and options in the new Mission Streetscape Plan. (Streetsblog)
• Meteor shower, the Perseids, Wed. Aug. 12. Best viewing time is late evening. Details here.
• Art & Soul Oakland, Aug. 15-16, 12 noon to 6 p.m. Visit their website for more info.
• The African Presence in Mexico at the Oakland Museum runs until Aug. 23. Details on the Oakland Museum’s website.
• kiss-in to protest gay harassment across the country, Sat. Aug. 15 at 11 a.m. in Union Square (SF Appeal)
• 2009 AVP Crocs Tour San Francisco, Bay Area’s Kerri Walsh is scheduled to appear at the volleyball comp this weekend in the SoMA on Piers 30 & 32. (SF Citizen)
• From the Ground to the Sky: A Neighborhood Vision Rises From the Concrete, Sat. Aug. 15, 11am-3pm: Neighborhood families will delve into “the possibilities of developing a full service, holistically planned community site with potential eco-friendly affordable housing, green space, education and job center” (Streetsblog)
• Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu “Guerilla-style” hula performances across San Francisco, Sat. Aug. 15, 10am-4pm (SF Appeal)

News Briefs from Fionnola

• Appearances aren’t everything as the devil’s in the details of a distinct imbalance at UC

Citing necessity, and before UC doled out big bonuses and stipends to the big wigs, UC’s spin doctors played bait ‘n switch on the average folk with ‘it’s the economy stupid” and tails of woe. Details.

• OAKLAND: Back-to-school FREE STUFF at Oakland fair on August 8 and 15

The fair attractions may not be free, however, if you wish to attend to be one of the first 400 fairgoer participants to get free back-to-school goodies, then there are three opportunities in Oakland.  Here are some details:

Kudos to SF School District helping teenage interns secure paid internships

So… the San Francisco School District does have a money tree at the district office after all? Doing some things right and filling a potential great void for young eager, willing and enthusiastic hopefuls, the San Francisco School District ponied up $150,000 to provide 246 teenage high school interns with a chance in a lifetime that didn’t include retail or fast food work.

As prospective employers in construction, legal, medical and other fields watered down their summer internship openings this year, the opportunities for new perspectives and a different direction from real life on-the-job work experiences dwindled for students until SFSD backfilled the potential losses. (sfgate story)

• California Higher Education – the stark present and future reality of budget cuts

Don’t count on that degree in hand just yet!

California – the model state of academic opportunity for everyone since its 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education is jolting from the ripple effects of state budget cuts that prospectively damage short and long term institutional outcomes. As students scramble to cope with higher fees and fewer programs and educators and administrators are furloughed and hit with pay cuts, these short term effects are a “dramatic shift” according to one UC Berkeley higher education expert, and a precursor to what some say could be an even worse case future scenario. (Oakland Tribune story)

Is this the future of the San Francisco Bay? Photo: liz_noise on flickr

Algae Bay

NASA has its eyes set on the San Francisco Bay to be a testing ground for producing large colonies of floating algae to sequester carbon, clean waste water and produce biofuel. (SFBG)

MUNI Collides Again

Just two weeks after the L-line MUNI crash at the West Portal, two MUNI streetcars collide at Market and Noe, this time with an SUV squashed between them. Any one scared yet? Don’t worry, MUNI officials assure you that every thing is A-Okay. (Examiner)

The Ghosts of Union St’s Past

Budding entrepreneurs should head to Union St. to set up shop. Just about every property between Gough and Fillmore is for rent, as one Curbed SF reader documented. (See his photo collage here)

Maybe Spot.us should continue an investigation into the vacant storefronts on Union St. once the Mission district is finished?

–Related pitch: The Stories Behind the Empty Storefronts in the Mission

From Environmental Disaster to the Next ‘Green Mecca’

In addition to a new 49ers stadium, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a United Nations global warming center planned for the Hunter’s Point shipyard — an attempt to create green-collar jobs and revitalize an area plagued by poverty and toxic waste. (SFAppeal)

–Related pitch: Bay Area Toxic Tour

Are you a fan of SF Appeal? If so, you may be interested in contributing to their Independent City Hall Reporting crowd funded through Spot.us!

What’s Next for California State Parks?

The $39 million blow to the California State Park system that state legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved in the finalized budget could mean closures, but also partnerships and corporate control. (SFist)

–Related Tip: I Heart California Parks

Local Labs Divvy Up Stimulus

Four Bay Area laboratories will rake in the last of the Department of Energy’s stimulus allotment for projects ranging from fusion energy research to the mathematical analysis of a smarter electric grid. (SFbizjournal)

Governor Okays New Death Row, Others Question Legality

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislative restrictions on building a new Death Row at San Quentin State Prison to cut costs and green light construction—but he may be asking for a lawsuit. (SFGate)

–Related pitch: Prison Health and Our Community: A Public Health Investigation

Social Spot: Event Picks

• SPUR Citizen Planning Institute Series Final Session: Local Government’s Role in Low Carbon Development, Thursday Aug. 6, 4pm. Registration Required (Streetsblog)
• SF Chef’s Food and Wine Festival, Aug 6-9, Union Square (SF Citizen)
• Critical Mass, Friday Aug. 7, 6pm: meet at Justin Herman Plaza (SF Appeal)
• East Bay Express Best of the East Bay Party, Friday Aug. 7, 5pm-midnight at the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland Living)
• San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Buddy Ride: learn the route from Downtown to the Bay View-Hunter’s Point, Sat. Aug. 8, 2pm (Streetsblog)
• Annual Laurel Street Festival, Aug. 8-10 in Oakland (Oakland Living)
• Aloha Festival, Aug. 8-9 10am-5pm on the main parade grounds of the Presidio (SF Appeal)
• Sunday Streets at the Beach: Second to last ride of the summer, this time from Golden Gate Park to the San Francisco Zoo along Ocean Beach, Sun Aug. 9, 10am-2pm (Streetsblog)

By Fionnola Villamejor

What Experts say making it essential that our local Bay Area school districts do to ensure the teaching and learning environment is emotionally stable and academically engaging instead of counterproductive is clear.

The challenges we face in Millbrae’s schools apply to all others. The lessons from DC and the testimony of experts apply to all school districts. Therefore, in combination with solid scientific based evidence, and DC efforts, we can look with precision on the areas in question and act accordingly.

INTERVIEW EXCERPTS

Excerpts from my July 10, 2009 interview with child and family psychologist Dr. William Coleman, Chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health follow below..

“Teachers often violate the #1 rule in teaching – Never humiliate a child in public.” – Dr. William Coleman.

“There is a superficial view of the child with a lot of impersonalization of children as they go through the system… and a standard of mutinized behavior by the teacher.”

In a nutshell, Dr. Coleman said effective education reform boils down to the following 4 areas:

1. Better professional development and trained teachers who engage with children to understand and accommodate for learning differences.

2. Positive teacher mentoring and role modeling support from principals, and possibly, retired teachers.

3. Smaller student teacher classroom ratios.

4. Better salaries – double overnight!

Teachers can be insensitive and make public pronouncements that are very humiliating to a child, often giving children reputations – reputations that are very hard to undo and prejudice other people against the child he said. This is called reputational bias. “It is permeated by and dictated by teacher behavior towards the child.” This modifies the child’s expectations and motivations of him or herself, said Dr. Coleman.

Ineffective teacher behavior is counterproductive and defeats efforts to teach and learn.

Teachers often yell – they want law and order and are authoritarian. This is difficult said Dr. Coleman as it’s intimidating and instead of learning, children get lost.

On the other hand and equally ineffective, “some teachers are lax or permissive and there’s very little structure with not much content delivered in the period” said Dr. Coleman.

By Fionnola Villamejor

While children at Meadows Elementary School in Millbrae greatly appreciated the peace and respect building messages, and the opportunity to learn new skills through the spring 2009 conflict resolution programs introduced at school, parents also realized that forging and implementing the same parallels and lessons among teachers at Meadows School was a necessity.

Parents realized some teachers and school district officials made unwise decisions for students that were injurious and counterproductive to students’ emotional, physical and social wellbeing. It was clear frustrated staff needed professional development and the tools to guide and help them make more wise decisions.

Among the disconcerting choices parents found some staff had made and signed off on by top school district officials was having young children kneel on the concrete yard when recess concluded. Other problematic decisions and behaviors of teachers were unstable psycho social and emotional environments created by some teachers ineffective teaching/learning practices. Parents found that some teachers frequently shouted, yelled, humiliated and intimidated children reducing them to tears. In one case, a teacher physically shoved furniture against the wall out of frustration in front of the whole class. The teacher later took a child to the hallway to make a pact, by initiating a hand-shake that the child wouldn’t tell.

Extracurricular tutoring  for many Meadows students is not uncommon to pull back from having fallen behind or to keep pace. Other children are discouraged from going to school because they feel disliked by their Meadows teacher. For these and other reasons, concerned parents were glad to have conflict resolution programs for their children, for Meadows teachers and to put the school year behind and distance themselves from bad teacher environments.

The question is, are we any closer to addressing ineffective teacher behavior and the disjointed teaching/learning environment in classrooms?

To answer these questions, we can perhaps take a closer look from a broader angle at how others are handling these key issues, problem areas and reasons for concern.

We can look for expert analysis and we can look at how another school district under scrutiny, is addressing similar problems.

On the East Coast, in the District of Columbia public schools, officials are focusing on education reform to address failures of ineffective teachers and ineffective teaching practices. DC schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is drawing national attention to her efforts to change how the DC school district operates, including taking on teachers, principals and unions to address the ineffectiveness of teachers and how it is one of the components driving academic failures.

A chunk of DC’s reform is tied to investment in human capital and professional development of staff, and so far, after two years of these comprehensive initiatives, DC schools’ test results released July 13, show positive results with the academic achievement gap significantly narrowed and math and reading test scores improved. (see below link to Washington Post news story)

What we’ve learned is DC’s investment in human capital by providing monetary incentives for teachers to improve their performance and increased funding for professional development programs for struggling ineffective teachers – these are two areas that experts say make dramatic differences and improvements to academic outcomes.

Then flipping back to the local level in considering that DCs steps are working in DC, what steps in those directions are we taking in Bay Area schools? I can report that Bay Area school officials from San Mateo to San Francisco and all districts in between are dragging their feet on publicly talking about how they monitor the teaching and learning environments in their schools.

School children are on summer break but district offices remain open. School district officials in San Mateo/Foster City, Burlingame, South San Francisco, Daly City and San Francisco school districts have not responded to my requests to discuss how they ensure healthy stable emotional learning and teaching environments are sustained in their schools.

As a Millbrae School District parent, I was shocked that even Millbrae’s chief administrative official and Superintendent Shirley Martin declined to be interviewed on the basis that she felt responding orally to questions would not allow her enough time to give thoughtful answers . It is fair to say, Superintendent Martin offered to accept a set of written questions from me, however, to be thorough as well as accurate, it is preferential to sit down in person. With respect, my request to interview the Superintendent still stands.

Additionally, in early July, President of the Millbrae Board of Education Caroline Shea said she wasn’t sure she could contribute information about monitoring the teaching/learning environments in classrooms. Shea said she would “do some investigative work.” Shea has been on the Millbrae School Board for sixteen years serving as its president at least three terms and added she believed it was the principal’s responsibility. I look forward to hearing back from Board President Shea.

Parents are a vital part of the school community and every parent I know wants children to succeed in school. With academic success our apparent common goal, it is incredibly difficult to understand why district officials aren’t yet inclined to have a conversation about their efforts to ensure stable and healthy teaching and learning environments exist in their districts for students. I remain hopeful and look forward to a response from all school districts mentioned.

Based on expert opinions, common sense, and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), it is reasonable for parents to expect that officials of our school districts ensure a healthy teaching and learning environment exists to prevent injury to our children. Spokesperson for the CTC Marilyn Errett recently told me they “counsel out” teacher candidates who do not demonstrate their ability to create such a teaching/learning environment. Once teachers are credentialed, it is the responsibility of the local school district to monitor teachers to ensure these optimal conditions are sustained.

Ms. Paula Kelly, third grade teacher at Meadows Elementary school said Principals are in charge of accountability. “We do our best from our side to help all students succeed” she said.

Experts agree, at the elementary levels, the single best predictor of academic success is the nature of the relationship between the child and the teacher. Since this is the case, it is therefore essential as parents, community members and journalists that we look closely at the process in the classroom and the methods of operation authorized by school district officials and how they ensure teaching and learning environments in classrooms are up to snuff.

By Fionnola Villamejor

Earlier this year, I had the privilege to co-chair  our PTA’s Conflict Resolution Committee at Meadows Elementary School Meadows Elementary School in Millbrae.

With financial assistance from our PTA, with full support and immense assistance from my co-parent PTA colleagues Sam Kelly, Diane Tong and Maureen McDermott, together in collaboration with Russell Brunson, Director of School’s Programs at the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, as a team, we successfully initiated and implemented a comprehensive set of conflict resolution, peace and respect building programs for Meadows Elementary School children in Millbrae.

We took a “whole-school” approach to foster a “ridicule free zone” at school and in classrooms. In advance, our committee hand-made visual wall-displays and placed them throughout the school. This truly helped energize our K-5 students and their anticipation of upcoming events.

For students, the programs consisted of a series of peace building assemblies designed to teach children self-esteem and how to resolve controversy respectfully. The assemblies involved a number of interpersonal communication exercises that generated excitement and joy for students as they reached out with enthusiasm to connect respectfully with one another. Following the variety of exercises and skill building sessions, we conducted a Peace-Poster art contest, using it as a tool to help students reinforce the program contents. This further energized everyone and reflected how our students thrived in this nourishing environment.

The sheer quantity and creative content in the art entries we received from Meadows’ students reflecting passion, creativity and retention of subject matter was astounding. The message was clear, children had engaged with the material, they were eager participants, predisposed to and enthusiastically inclined as stewards of peace.

As an aside, we later came to find out, among the final group of chosen art entries, one had been submitted by a student who had previously been labeled a ‘’bully”. Others had come from immigrant children who spoke English as a second language, and in other cases, chosen entries had come from children who had come to America from at-war Middle Eastern countries. Meadows’ Principal Molly Whiteley weighed in afterwards saying she sensed a definite improvement in the “school climate” as a result.

For Meadows staff, yard duty and parents we began and are still in the process of implementing the nationally renowned “Don’t Laugh at Me” program – a program designed to assist adults “nurture children’s emotional, social and ethical development.” While school district officials found it challenging to schedule enough Professional Development time for teachers to have full participation in the program, we look forward to continuing our efforts to ensure staff has equal opportunity to gain from the benefits of peace and respect building initiatives.

I am pleased to say this is just the beginning of an ongoing initiative supported by current Principal Molly Whiteley, past Principal John Schmella, Meadows PTA and Meadow Elementary school parents in continued collaboration with the PCRC. As school resumes for the 2009-2010 school year, our efforts will continue.