Ravitch: A place where public education is working - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Ravitch: A place where public education is working - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Ravitch: A place where public education is working

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement that she just updated.

Dear Deborah,

As I travel the country, I am frequently asked to identify an urban distric

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Report from Fall CUE 2011

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Report from Fall CUE 2011:

Report from Fall CUE 2011

by alicemercer

Android Tablets

I can always count on Rushton Hurley to have a great presentation, this time he did not disappoint. It was a small workshop, but a nice mix of folks familiar with Android, folks who knew iOS, and a bunch who had experience with both. Everyone was excited by the possibilities, and we quickly dug into apps (which you can get to from the link on the sub-heading above). I’ll be doing a short 20 minute session on Android Tablets at ACSA this Friday.

Bernie Dodge’s Dodgepodge

This is a cool tools type session, that was nice because it had an organizing focus on four areas: The World and Other Worlds, Organizing Thoughts and Actions, Collaborating Across Distance and Time, and Tools for Creativity. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in a session like that with so many tools. I usually have one or two get me thinking of possibilities, and I concentrate on those. He shared a nifty little screen-sharing program, Quick

Pre-results post-mortem | EdNewsColorado

Pre-results post-mortem | EdNewsColorado:

Pre-results post-mortem

by Alexander Ooms

Alexander Ooms is a member of the board of the Charter School Institute, the West Denver Preparatory Charter School and the Colorado chapter of Stand for Children

Alan has asked bloggers for their thoughts on the election as part of a post-mortem. I find this rearview mirror perspective usually boringly obvious, as it’s far easier to ascribe cause once one knows the effect. So I’m sending in my quick thoughts in advance of the election results (although probably published afterwards). If I am wrong it will be painfully obvious and if right you’ll have to trust me that this was in early.

First is Prop 103. I thought the best summary was provided by Eric Sondermann. I just don’t see how this passes, and I doubt it is at all close. This initiative never had enough high-powered backers or an effective coalition, and faced a strong economic headwind. All true criticisms, but I also think a proposal as unspecific

The Occupations Report: 11/01 | Occupy Together #ows

The Occupations Report: 11/01 | Occupy Together:

The Occupations Report: 11/01

by Ella

We’ve recently seen this report posted and shared through social media, but we thought it might be helpful to have another place on the web it can be published and accessed daily. We’ll be posting the archives of this report soon. This Occupation Report is compiled by Rebuild the Dream.

This report includes updates from Occupy sites and related efforts across the country and the globe. It includes big wins, local organizing efforts, protests/events, police activity reports and calls to action where additional support from allies/general public may be needed.

For more updates from occupations around the country, listen to the Occupation America podcast athttp://soundcloud.com/occupation-america

Nationwide: Occupy Oakland has called for a GENERAL STRIKE tomorrow – thousands are expected to participate including Occupy sites across the country.

Occupy Atlanta: Occupy Atlanta held a press conference at 10 am at the Fulton County Court to address the

Agreement restores some non-teaching jobs at L.A. schools - latimes.com

Agreement restores some non-teaching jobs at L.A. schools - latimes.com:

Agreement restores some non-teaching jobs at L.A. schools

Non-teaching employees have ratified an agreement that restores well over 200 jobs at Los Angeles-area schools, but hundreds of others will remain without a job or will continue to work at reduced pay.

The agreement, announced Tuesday, settles for this year a contract dispute between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the California School Employees Assn., which represents such workers as office clerks, financial managers and library aides.

The deal means that every middle school will have at least one six-hour library aide. Middle schools also wi

L.A. Unified opens applications for magnet schools, other programs for 2012-13

The Los Angeles Unified School District began accepting applications for magnet schools and other programs for the 2012-13 school year Tuesday -- but forms will not be mailed home this year.

Instead, parents are being encouraged to apply online. The district created a new, web-based system at https://parentaccess.lausd.net/Dashboard.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fDefault.aspx that will provide access to a variety of online tools, such as enrollment and transfer forms, meal and medical programs, emergency card updates, magnet program applications and other services.

A limited number of English- and Spanish-language printed forms will be available the week of Nov. 1 at city libraries, schools and local district offices. Translations in other languages can be obtained from local schools or downloaded from the website.

Elimination of home mailings is expected to save the district about $250,000 this year.

“ACADEMICALLY WEAK STUDENTS” DON’T TEST WELL « Teachers Fight Back

“ACADEMICALLY WEAK STUDENTS” DON’T TEST WELL « Teachers Fight Back:

“ACADEMICALLY WEAK STUDENTS” DON’T TEST WELL

by alkleen

Months after Illinois officials closed a loophole used to keep academically weak 11th-graders from taking state exams, high school scores plummeted to the lowest level in a decade.

Why did those nasty state officials close that loophole ? Didn’t they realize that “academically weak students” don’t test well ? The various high school administrators certainly knew that.

I wonder who the “academically weak students” were ? Were they the students in special education ? The students who were chronically truant? Students on academic probation ? Limited English-speaking students?

Why did high school administrators from virtually every high school in Illinois decide not to test those students? Was it because they feared that their school’s test scores would be lowered ? Were they worried about the “academically weak students” self-esteem when those students saw their test scores?

Were the high school administrators wrong when they previously excluded the weak students from the

School Tech Connect: Pick Up The Phone

School Tech Connect: Pick Up The Phone:

Pick Up The Phone

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

I have a message from Glen Brown and Fred Klonsky that IEA has issued a firmer call to action. I'm posting it below. You can also look at Jim Reed's message---- and I'm going to tip my hat to him because the message is clear this time. You can almost imagine the executive director in the background advising him to take it down a notch.

Frick and Frack

I completely believe that they've come up with another plan that nobody's thought through, not even Frick and Frack, the Keystone Kops of pension analysis. And it would be in keeping with the legislative tradition for people to vote for this thing without having read a word of it.

I never did actually find out who these guys on the right were or what esteemed university they're from. We live in a state with Nobel laureates,

Yawn, Yawn, Go Away! Little Johnny Wants to be Engaged! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

Yawn, Yawn, Go Away! Little Johnny Wants to be Engaged! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!:

Yawn, Yawn, Go Away! Little Johnny Wants to be Engaged!

by Oldschoolteach

I sat with my small group today and listened to my students, and smiled. They had finished sharing their writing prompt about an imagined device that would make their lives easier. I listened to stories about a teleporter , a robot, and a pen, that can do the unimaginable. After they shared their stories, and asked each other questions, they began an animated conversation about how they could market their inventions through a partnership. I sat and listened to their imaginations go wild!

We have to engage our students, understanding that there is a difference

Because James Baldwin Educates Educators, Too | The Jose Vilson

Because James Baldwin Educates Educators, Too | The Jose Vilson:

Because James Baldwin Educates Educators, Too

by Jose

James Baldwin

Here’s James Baldwin, acclaimed writer and activist, on the purpose of education:

Since I am talking to schoolteachers and I am not a teacher myself, and in some ways am fairly easily intimidated, I beg you to let me leave that and go back to what I think to be the entire purpose of education in the first place. It would seem to me that when a child is born, if I’m the child’s parent, it is my obligation and my high duty to civilize that child. Man is a social animal. He cannot exist without a society. A society, in turn, depends on certain things which everyone within that society takes for granted. Now the crucial paradox which confronts us here is that the whole process of education occurs within a social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of

NYC Public School Parents: Today's scorecard on our schools: the news ain't pretty & the diagnosis bizarre

NYC Public School Parents: Today's scorecard on our schools: the news ain't pretty & the diagnosis bizarre:

Today's scorecard on our schools: the news ain't pretty & the diagnosis bizarre

by Leonie Haimson

We have had nine long years during which NY state and city education officials have relentlessly focused on high stakes testing, with school closings, grade retention, and teacher bonuses all linked to test scores. So according to data released today, what has been the

UFT Survey Finds Increased Class Sizes And Dwindling Budgets, Echoing National Trend:

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UFT Survey Finds Increased Class Sizes And Dwindling Budgets, Echoing National Trend

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Budget Cuts , Education , Education Reform , Recession , Michael Mulgrew ,New York City Department Of Education , P.S. 1 , Education News , Education Recession ,School Supplies , Schools , Science Class , Education News

NEW YORK -- By the end of this year, Seung Lee, a science teacher at lower Manhattan's P.S. 1, expects to have spent $500 from his own pocket on school supplies.

"And that's a conservative estimate," said Lee, who has taught at P.S. 1 for nine years. "I'm afraid to tell my wife."

Lee's nine classes are exploding, some with 32 students. "Every desk is full. There's no space for anything," he said.

All this complicates the lab work he hoped to pursue. While his recent lesson on earthworms proceeded, he lost the ability to delve into the material. "With 32 kids, you spend a lot more time making sure everyone is doing it right, but not necessarily learning."

P.S. 1 is located in Chinatown, and serves many students who speak English as a second language. Over the last few years, though, its budget has been