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Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Washington Teacher: The Controversy of IMPACT

The Washington Teacher: The Controversy of IMPACT

The Controversy of IMPACT

Written by Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson issued “You’re fired letters" this past week to 206 DC teachers. Before DC teachers knew of their own fate, the mainstream media had received a lengthy DCPS press packet on Friday, July 15 from the Office of the Chancellor (OOC) lauding teacher terminations and celebrating highly effective teachers eligible for merit pay. Bill Turque, staff writer for the Washington Post reported on the details of the DCPS firings as early as July 15. Turquewrote: “Of the 206 fired, D.C. officials said, 65 were rated ineffective this year and 141 were judged minimally effective for the second consecutive year, triggering dismissal.” An additional twenty-one teachers who were effective and/or highly effective were also terminated byDCPS because they could not find a permanent placement.

Friday's teacher firings are a continuation of Michelle Rhee's educational plan to terminate a significant share

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: This is What is REALLY Wrong in Public Education

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: This is What is REALLY Wrong in Public Education

This is What is REALLY Wrong in Public Education

Below is a post from a teacher, "No Confidence," from another thread but I read it and said bingo! (Emphasis mine.)

I think that the first change that could make some difference would be for teacher & administrators to understand the limits of their abilities to assess. At least the teacher could say, Sally is learning differently than many other kids I see and we don't know why. Johnny is refusing to do writing assignments and we don't know why.

Next I think that PD should include training about learning & developmental differences, with case studies, to

Why I’m Marching Forward [It's The Only Direction] | The Jose Vilson

Why I’m Marching Forward [It's The Only Direction] | The Jose Vilson

Why I’m Marching Forward [It's The Only Direction]

You’ve got to be wondering what a teacher like me is doing marching against the “reform” trends. For those of you unfamiliar with my background, I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Syracuse University. A year later, after 6-8 months of unemployment and a stint as a data entry person at an educational database firm, I went into the NYC Teaching Fellows program, an offshoot of Michelle Rhee’s New Teacher Project. On the surface, I’m a perfect candidate to follow the corporatist thinking about education, and should be easily molded into the dominant thinking from elites who ostensibly believe they’re going into education for the common good. All it takes is the right amount of fear, the right amount of frustration, the right amount of ignorance, and the right amount of failure to tip people into the hands of those who wish to rotate our profession backwards.

Fortunately for me, I lucked out. And if you’re reading this, I’m thinking the same goes for you.

You see, I teach at a school that, somewhere along the line, decided to value veteran leadership and collaboration. They fostered a culture of discussion and unity that stems from decades of hardship from a neighborhood and administration standpoint. As leaders changed and gangs ran the block, teachers fortified the

4LAKids -: FLORIDA CHARTER SCHOOLS’ MANY F’s GIVE AMMUNITION TO CRITICS: Charters were seven times more likely to receive F's on state's report card

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: FLORIDA CHARTER SCHOOLS’ MANY F’s GIVE AMMUNITION TO CRITICS: Charters were seven times more likely than regular public schools to receive F's on state's report card

Big Education Ape: 7-17-11 PM Privately run charter schools often let students down EDition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Published by Coopmike48 – 6 contributors today

Schools Matter: What school is all about

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Schools Matter: What school is all aboutWhat school is all aboutby skrashenSent to the Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2011In addition to influencing the medical literature (LA Times, July 16), J.K. Ro...

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Rupert Murdoch Says Obama Will Win

huffingtonpost.com - Carlsbad, CA -- Tonight at the "All Things Digital" conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch -- Chairman of News Corp, new WSJ owner, and longtime torchbearer for conservativ...

DianeRavitch

Privately run charter schools often let students down

lacrossetribune.com - There has been much chatter — on both the local and national level — about charter schools. There is also a lot of misinformation out there, too. Unlike their public counterparts, privately run cha...

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Blowing smoke on school reform

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - This NYT editorial "Hold the line on school reform," harks back to the days when they were calling for the invasion of Iraq to get rid of those "weapons of mass destruction." In other words, the T...

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Are They Learning?

nytimes.com - A cheating scandal in which scores of teachers and principals in Atlanta’s public schools falsified student test results has thrown the system into chaos and made its name synonymous with fraud. Th...

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Charter School Battle Shifts to Affluent Suburbs

nytimes.com - MILLBURN, N.J. — Matthew Stewart believes there is a place for charter schools. Just not in his schoolyard. Mr. Stewart, a stay-at-home father of three boys, moved to this wealthy towns...

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The Mind Of A Bronx Teacher 07/19 by Bronx Teacher

blogtalkradio.com - History will be made this Tuesday night, July 19, at 9 PM EDT. Join us as we welcome Matthew's mom, Karen Sprowal as she takes us through the Kafkaesque hell she went through as she took on Harlem ...

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PoliticsSee all

Can school reformer Joel Klein reform News Corp?

reuters.com - By Joseph Ax and Noeleen Walder NEW YORK | Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:12pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Joel Klein stepped down from running New York City's schools last year to head the education divisio...

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Rebekah Brooks, Former Rupert Murdoch Executive Arrested

abcnews.go.com - Rupert Murdoch's protégé Rebekah Brooks, who previously ran his British tabloids was arrested today in London in connection with the phone hacking scandal.Brooks' arrest comes as she "voluntarily a...

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nypost.com - The government gravy train just keeps rolling for the contractor at the center of the massive CityTime payroll scandal. Virginia-based Science Applications International Corp. won two more federal ...

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Cash Tempts the Ivory Tower’s Guardians

nytimes.com - LONDON — As a textbook example of how not to manage the relationship between private industry and the academy, Deutsche Bank’s agreement with two leading German universities to sponsor their joint ...

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Today only 2 CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS Yeah!

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALSAbramson Science and Technology Charter School *"Records show glaring faults at school with ties to Turkish charter network.”* Times-Picayune (LA) 7/15/2011 Inci Akpinar, the...

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Articles in the Blog Category

zhaolearning.com - A Bold Education Experiment: What We Should Learn From China World’s longest high-speed rail networks, fastest trains, fastest computer, second largest economy, and #1 standing in international tes...

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In Space Between Genders a 'Seahorse' Emerges

womensenews.org - As Nina transitions into Nick, he discovers the space between being a man and a woman. In this excerpt from his book, "Nina Here Nor There," he describes a similar journey undertaken by his friend ...

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School Tech Connect: Do Something Today!

schooltechconnect.com - Whether you're going to the SOS March or not, there's something very smart and productive you can do this week to help save our schools, and that is to contact your member of congress with a specif...

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