Mayor Mike Bloomberg of NYC with Mayor Boris Johnson of London
This afternoon, I posted the following joke on my Facebook:
If school was in session, Bloomberg wouldn’t close schools. Around lunchtime, he’d say, “Let them have shakes.”
I jest. Well, for the most part. Surprisingly, there was no announcement from our mayor on anything. NYC Educator might quip here that he’s probably having lunch somewhere in Bermuda, to which I’d laugh with my mouth agape. Then again, this earthquake business struck me in more ways than one. While I’m able to find a little levity in earth-shaking situations where no one really gets hurt, the earthquake came right after another jarring moment for me. After cleaning every crevice of my bathroom, I looked in my fiancee’s eyes and said, “I
SB 547 improves on California's current yardstick for measuring improvement in schools in important ways.
SB 547, which has passed the Senate, would use test scores as one of the major yardsticks for improving California schools, but it would also add other important factors including graduation rates. Shown here: Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif. (Robert Durell/ For The Times)
California's system for measuring improvement in schools was always better than the federal government's, and a bill by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) would enhance it in some long-overdue ways, perhaps providing a national model for school accountability.
SB 547, which has passed the Senate and deserves to become law, would still use test scores as one of the major yardsticks for improving schools, but it would add other important factors: graduation rates and the readying of students for college or careers.If implemented correctly, the bill also couldencourage schools to shift away from what has become an overemphasis on test-oriented "drill and kill" in basic subjects.
The lack of emphasis on dropout rates has been the shame of school accountability systems. The single-minded focus on testing actually gives schools an incentive to encourage their
I'm far too old and crabby to go on blogging late every evening. If I'm not in bed by nine, there's hell to pay at five in the morning. Three things:
1. @TFTeacher is going to be talking to Stephen Krashen Wednesday at 3:30 (Eastern? I forget) on BTR. Follow the link and listen on your computer thingy. Krashen is one of the smartest, funniest guys in academia, and he's also been out of the tower and in the trenches, fighting the good fight for over 100 years. Ok, I exaggerated the time frame. I'm going to steal the interview and embed it here for those of you can't make it in the middle of the day. That way I can basically claim the glory of the interview for myself.
The thing I like about Krashen is that he's articulate on the impact of poverty, the importance of libraries, and real take-aways from PISA and TIMSS, which everyone is always tut-tutting over. Arne Duncan has never once,
Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Tuesday at his weekly press conference that the Third Grade Reading Campaign to bring up Sacramento’s standard reading level will kick off Wednesday with a community resource fair and a press conference.
Sacramento County third grade reading proficiency rates are well below California standards, according to Stand Up, a nonprofit education program that is a featured initiative of Johnson. Statewide, 44 percent of third graders are reading at grade level, while Sacramento County is at 37 percent, based on the 2011 education statistics.
“When we think about Sacramento, our literacy rates are not what they need to be. We have far too many of our
I’m with you on this one, Fred. What if you pick a legislator to call each Tuesday? Provide the phone number, while you’re at it. I think we should also call the Editor in Chief at the Tribune, whose education coverage lately is an extension of the mayor’s pr dept.
Representative Kevin A. McCarthy (D) – Previous General Assembly (96th)
37th District
Springfield Office:
271-S Stratton Office Building
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-3316
(217) 789-6250 FAX
District Office:
8951 W. 151st St.
Orland Park, IL 60462
(708) 226-1999
(708) 226-9068 FAX
Cook County
Struggling to hang on to its businesses, sports teams and even the lives of its young children, Oakland is now set to lose the daily newspaper that bears its name. In November, the Oakland Tribune, founded 137 years ago, will become the East Bay Tribune, the Bay Area News Group announced Tuesday. The group described the name change as a "rebranding." The Fremont Argus, the Alameda Times-Star, the Hayward Daily Review and the West County Times — which are also owned by BANG — will also be called the East Bay Tribune. As part of the rebranding, the Contra Costa Times, the Valley Times, the San Ramon Valley Times, the Tri-Valley Herald, the San Joaquin Herald and the East County Times will simply be called The Times. The San Mateo Times "will be branded under the San Jose Mercury News[...]
(This is part one of a four-part series on the ethics and political theory of Ayn Rand, written exclusively for The Daily Censored, by Dr. Robert Abele, professor of philosophy at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area.)
Ayn Rand has become the darling of both neoliberals and, unfortunately, many young people today. The latter phenomenon has been due in large part to the intense promotion of her writings by the well-organized and well-funded Ayn Rand Institute.
Re: "Warning as children shun books in favour of Facebook," August 22
Since 1840, newspapers have been reporting on the decline of literacy among young people. It wasn't true 170 years ago, and there is no reason to believe it is true now.
The Telegraph notes that pleasure reading declines as children get older. This has been reported in every study of this kind ever done and there is widespread agreement among scholars that increasing demands of school play a large role.
The Telegraph reports that that technology-based reading is more popular. This is not a cause for alarm. My
The plaintiffs in the Lobato v. State school funding lawsuit ended presentation of their case with another story of a struggling school district, just hours before lawyers for the state will begin presenting their case with testimony from Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia.
Mapleton Superintendent Charlotte Ciancio was the final witness presented by the plaintiff-intervenors in the case, a group of parents from four districts, including Greeley, Mapleton, Rocky Ford and Sheridan. The districts aren’t plaintiffs.
The larger original group of plaintiffs in the case includes parents and several school districts, including Aurora and Jefferson County. Both sets of plaintiffs share the central claim that the state’s school funding system
Did you know it was illegal for teachers to negotiate with school boards over the new “hand books” districts are replacing union contracts with?
In the big picture, those on the front lines in classrooms around our state apparently don’t know enough about teaching to help guide dictatorial school boards to do the right thing and improve education.
If parents weren’t concerned about the ins and outs of collective bargaining, then maybe they should be real concerned about our schools being taken over by politicians and special interests who’ll soon be stuffing their
Two years after IEA Executive Director Aurdrey Soglin led the team that proposed legislation that made linking teacher performance reviews and evaluation to student performance (legislation that was passed by the General Assembly) a mandatory part of local bargaining, the leadership is getting around to explaining it to the membership.
And they’re working to consolidate local leaders around Senate Bill 7, the bill that took away seniority and tenure rights from teachers in Illinois.
Part of the problem is that local leaders are heading into collective bargaining with no clue about how this sellout by the state leadership is going to impact their negotiations.
The other part of the problem is that many members are just now realizing what our leadership has done, and
nytimes.com - New York State education officials released a new set of graduation statistics on Monday that show fewer than half of students in the state are leaving high school prepared for college and well-pay...
mvgazette.com - By MIKE SECCOMBEProf. Henry Louis Gates: “What happened to our people?” Since 1968, the black middle class in America has quadrupled, Henry Louis (Skip) Gates told a packed house at the Edgartown W...
nydailynews.com - Martin Shields/Getty As the Bloomberg Administration increases the stakes on standardized tests, reports that teachers and administrators are cheating on exams has tripled, according to city data. ...
blogs.edweek.org - It is a truism that when an attorney does not have the evidence, he or she argues the law. When lawyers do not have the facts or the law on their side, they tell a good story. Steve Brill's new boo...
icehousegang.com - As Hubert Humphrey might have said, the Ice House Gang is just pleased as punch to give a shout-out to a couple members whose writing dazzled in The New York Times this past Sunday. That is, our ow...
miller-mccune.com - Opinion: The widening circle of cheating scandals on standardized tests should fuel the movement to reduce the stakes these exams have on public education in the U.S.As the list of states and citie...
garyrubinstein.teachforus.org - A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I did my own analysis of the 1997 study which is always quoted by Rhee about how 3 effective teachers in a row vs. 3 ineffective teachers in a row is life changin...
educationgadfly.net - It’s silly season again, and I’m not referring to the Republican primaries. No, I’m thinking about the all-out battle for proponents and opponents of “reform” to stick a nasty label on the other si...
nytimes.com - Annual allegations of test-tampering and grade-changing by educators have more than tripled since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of New York City’s school system, outpacing a broader incre...
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com - Attorney General Eric Holder is sending poll watchers into a Mississippi county where white voters were previously found to have been intimidated by a Democratic official who is African-American.Th...
blog.angryasianman.com - Remember that story out of Baltimore about the Filipina nurses who were fired for speaking Tagalog? Corina Capunitan-Yap, Anna Rowena Rosales, Jazziel Granada and Hachelle Natano said they were fir...
preaprez.wordpress.com - Speaker Michael Madigan, Chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party and teacher pension killer. Two weeks before Labor Day and I’m back at work. Friday was an in-service Institute Day. Yesterday the...
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 4:45 pm, August 23, 2011 Photo Credits: Uribe and the Wiretapping Scandal The Washington Post published over the weekend a very comprehensive article providing significant information ...
democraticunderground.com - Source: ReutersLabor power AFL-CIO to form super PAC to engage beyond unions By Molly O'Toole Molly O'toole – 21 mins agoWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Powerful labor group AFL-CIO is forming a super PAC t...
dnainfo.com - MANHATTAN— Actor Ryan Gosling played the role of real-life superhero while helping break up a street fight in Astor Place.The Academy Award-nominated star is purportedly seen in a video intervening...
theatlanticwire.com - J.K. Rowling will be making money off of the Harry Potter books until the 23rd-century thanks to the twisted history of intellectual property law in the United States. Unfamiliar with how and why c...
blog.angryasianman.com - Yahoo! Movies just dropped the new teaser trailer for The Lady, the upcoming movie biopic based on the life of Burmese democracy leader, political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu...
nytimes.com - Even before Libyan rebels could take full control of Tripoli, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy said on state television Monday that the Italian oil company Eni “will have a No. 1 role in t...
nypost.com - Department of Education officials are attempting to whitewash missteps that allowed students to stew inside a toxic Bronx school for months, parents charged yesterday.Despite finding levels of the ...
mediaite.com - video Since news of the Virginia earthquake felt along the Eastern Seaboard broke earlier today, one thing that’s the media has watched rather closely is the safety and integrity of the North Anna ...
nytimes.com - ALBANY — The Cuomo administration is continuing to pursue a two-year-old disciplinary case against Jeffrey Monsour, a state employee at the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities who has...
washingtonpost.com - RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell has appointed Laura W. Fornash as Virginia’s new secretary of education. McDonnell’s office announced Fornash’s appointment Tuesday. Fornash had been interim secr...
northjersey.com - TRENTON -- Governor Christie signed legislation Monday that will make it a crime to posses, manufacture or sell "bath salts," a designer drug that was being sold in convenience stores, gas stations...
dailymail.co.uk - By Daniel BatesLast updated at 11:15 PM on 11th April 2011It was supposed to be a generous gift to finally sort out some of the nation’s worst performing schools.But six months after Mark Zuckerber...
nypost.com - Department of Education officials are attempting to whitewash missteps that allowed students to stew inside a toxic Bronx school for months, parents charged yesterday.Despite finding levels of the ...
Why I oppose Common Core standards: Ravitch (click picture)
Education historian Diane Ravitch, the leading voice in the movement opposing corporate-based school reform, has for several years said she has no definitive opinion on the Common Core State Standards. Now she has come out against them, in this post, which appeared today on her blog.
Translate Big Education APE
The Network for Public Education (click picture)
WE ARE MANY. THERE IS POWER IN OUR NUMBERS. TOGETHER, WE WILL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
Stop Closing Schools
Say NO to Privatization!
Who Supports democratic, free, Main Stream Public Schools?
A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.
Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal
Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below
SOS Save Our Schools
SOS Save Our Schools
contact your state legislators about school privatization
An Amazing Website: Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates
-
This is an astonishingly moving and candid website where teachers write a
personal letter to Bill Gates, explaining how his ideas and policies have
influen...
The Best Articles I’ve Written In 2013 — So Far
-
In addition to the thousands of posts I’ve written in this blog over the
past six years and my five books, I’ve also written over one hundred
articles for ...
SOMM - special screening tonight for wine lovers
-
*SOMM*
Written and Directed by Jason Wise
Special One-Night Engagement Wednesday, June 19th at 7:00pm
Tower Theatre
2508 Land Park Dr.
Sacramento, ...
Opinion poll: teacher leader certification
-
In my last blog post, I wrote about the Teacher Leader Certification
Academy in Riverside County, California. Their approach to teacher
leadership has much...
Is Michelle Rhee a Fraud?
-
Michelle Rhee looked the other way when presented with pretty strong
evidence that adults, not students, were responsible for the suspicious
erasures. Perh...
Harsh Words at Seattle Weekly about the Board
-
What does Adele say in her soundtrack song, Skyfall?
"This is the end. Hold your breath and count to ten."
I guess so for Director Michael DeBell who le...
The sweetest graduation
-
In this end-of-school season where one graduation ceremony blurs into the
next, 11-year-old Caleb Davy made one sweeter than all the rest. At John
Eaton El...
Closings put community schools in peril
-
Closings put community schools in peril
June 19, 2013
Melissa Mitchell
Understanding that the Chicago Public Schools district leadership and Board
of ...
Big Brother Writ Large in America
-
Spying on its citizenry reflects one of the most defining police state
characteristics. Post-9/11, America crossed the line. Unconstitutional mass
survei...
Florida Class Size Reduction Saved Teacher Jobs
-
In 2002, Florida approved a constitutional amendment that phased in maximum
class sizes for all grades K-12. This led to a frenzy of teacher hiring,
but th...
The Best Resources On Pre-School Parent Engagement
-
I have many “Best” lists on multiple aspects of parent engagement, but
thought with all the recent talk about expanding early education, a list on
pre-scho...
Closings, Speeches, Charter Study
-
In addition to lots of comments and questions about school-specific budget
cuts (see comments below previous posts), today's news includes coverage of
28 s...
Don't always believe what the web tells you
-
Yesterday I posted Success!! At least temporarily! in which I described my
wife's joy in having 23 bottles of Canada Dry Bitter Lemon delivered from
Amaz...
School Grading System a Farce
-
The school grading system in Louisiana is a farce. It results in the
stigmatizing and unfair condemnation of professional educators,
the constant uprooting...
Why So Serious? [On Demeanors In The Classroom]
-
“Why are you so serious all the time, Mr. Vilson?” The students just
finished giving me my student evaluations, something I thought I’d try this
year, bu...
The New Lemonade Stand
-
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Steve Gasser Recently, our
government in Alberta came out with the Framework For Student Learning and
the subtitl...
HUMILIATION WILL GET YOU NOWHERE
-
The Chicago Tribune continues to browbeat and humiliate any and all
Illinois legislators who dared to vote against the pension reform proposal
that the Tri...
Reflecting on Technology
-
Taking time to recharge our social, emotional, and physical "batteries"
just may make us better at our jobs. Principal Chuck Bloch reflects on how
technolo...
Don’t just test … Don’t just teach #BeABadAss
-
Back in 67, the year I was born, there were some bad ass young folks
speaking up all around the streets of America – this song represented the
resistance. ...
Another attack aimed at colleges of education
-
That great "revolutionary" thinker Arne Duncan, set the stage back in '09,
when he discredited all colleges of education, labeling them as "mediocre"
and c...
Debunking the ‘Reform’ Agenda
-
*By Thomas J. Gentzel, Executive Director, National School Boards
Association (NSBA)*
No human enterprise is perfect, and we all are capable of improving...
There Are Good Schools Out There
-
"The only innovative thing left to do in education reform is to stop innovating and find the experienced educators already succeeding."
The Common Core Loses This Teacher's Support
-
By attaching them to government initiatives such as high-stakes testing and teacher evaluation, the standards are being used as an instrument to standardize ...
On Teaching (Elliot Eisner)
-
Too few policymakers have ever taught in public schools. Even fewer can
articulate what it is about teaching young children, youth, and adults that
binds t...
Another Breakthrough! Hurrah!
-
Surprise surprise. Sunday’s NY Times had two very good editorials. More
surprising however is that one is about education! “There are many reasons
to im...
Newark's Charters: Perception Is NOT Reality
-
Apparently, the hue and cry in Newark against state control of the schools
(coming from the *elected* school advisory board, the *elected* city council,
th...
TP for CPS
-
As an organization, Last Stand for Children First, is thrilled to stand
behind the TP for CPS campaign. If you have extra toilet paper sitting
around t...
A New framework for Working and Learning
-
For many of us the rules of engagement at work are changing, from the
traditional approach of being told what to do by “bosses”, to a new more
egalitarian ...
Do Not Shake Hands with #commoncore
-
Some days it is terribly overwhelming to read the comments of despair and
desperation from parents who are trying to figure out how to help their
children ...
(Extra)Ordinary People
-
There’s an anecdote the Calhoun School’s Steve Nelson likes to share when
he speaks to teachers and parents about the purpose of education. “We
should th...
Poor Bastard on a Plane
-
Like a lamb to the slaughter… Last night I was with my family in the
Minneapolis airport, waiting for a flight back home to Washington, DC. Of
the many peo...
Angry Moms are Rising Up Against Common Core
-
Anne Gassel, co-editor of Missouri Education Watchdog was quoted in USA
Today about her opposition to Common Core. From* Include parents in
standards deba...
Voucher Schools: Inherently Unequal
-
*State Senator Tim Cullen is one of Wisconsin's finest. He consistently
provides reasoned, historical perspective on state matters. This is Sen.
Cullen'...
THE 99 CENTS STORE EDUCATION FOR THE 99%
-
In the old world from which most of our ancestors came, America served as a beacon, because unlike this stratified world of our origin, America was a place w...
What’s An Education Thought Leader?
-
The position of education thought leader is not a job that someone applies
for. There is no “thought leader certification”, nor is there a license
required...
Week 36: The end is, well you know…
-
Not much time is left now, and I thought I’d share pictures from Open
House, which technically happened in Week 35, but, oh well enjoy! Photo
Credit: The E...
We need you to speak up for our little DREAMers
-
Call this number: 1-866-632-6057 Just call it. Really. Just do it. You
call, and something amazing happens. You call, and the National Education
Associatio...
Massive Spending Plan Approved for UConn
-
The Connecticut General Assembly has given final approval to a plan to two
major spending initiatives for the University of Connecticut. One part
would p...
Moral Education
-
This is my fiction writing, and not related to student loans. However, the
sentiment, my deep care for my fellow human being most certainly influences
my w...
Baby-faced Blackmailers
-
NYC's youngest criminals
major in reading, writing
and extortion*New York -* Sometime on Thursday several elementary school
students, who thought they wer...
Principal removal and REAL parent empowerment
-
Last week, a Parent Revolution-backed petition drive collected enough
signatures to force out the well-respected principal of Weigand Avenue
Elementary Sch...
Test Teaching
-
On a recent road trip, I listened to the audiobook *Moneyball. *It made me
wonder if anyone has written on the clear connection between ideas
presented in ...
Nuestra Belleza Latina 2013, genera descontento
-
Univisión es la mayor cadena hispana de televisión en los EE.UU. Eso mismo
ha hecho que el reality show Nuestra Belleza Latina tenga tanta sintonía y
la ve...
Let’s Build a Lemonade Stand, Kids!
-
Students’ Response to School Budget Cuts Notes from the Field Submitted by
Angela Chan When I decided to teach, I believed that the betterment of our
natio...
Ayn Rand has become the darling of both neoliberals and, unfortunately, many young people today. The latter phenomenon has been due in large part to the intense promotion of her writings by the well-organized and well-funded Ayn Rand Institute. 
DianeRavitch
mikeklonsky
fklonsky
leoniehaimson
