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Monday, February 6, 2012

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top 2-6 Early Evening Posts #ows #edreform


RheeFirst! » Michelle Rhee comes to Alabama #edchat #edreform

RheeFirst! » Michelle Rhee comes to Alabama:Michelle Rhee comes to Alabamaby adminOriginally posted on Blue in Alabama. Read the entire post here.“It was recently announced, and not very publicly, that Michelle Rhee, the HIGHLY controversial ex-Washington, D.C. superintendent was coming to the state of Alabama at the request of Dr. Bentley (yes the Michelle Rhee from the Waiting for Superman documentary). It’s still unclear who’s going to be footing the bill for her visit. Apparently she and her group StudentFirst ... more »

WTF Analysis: Why a charter school trumped a neighborhood school for space | school, charter, schools - News - The Orange County Register

Analysis: Why a charter school trumped a neighborhood school for space | school, charter, schools - News - The Orange County Register:District: Charter law forced school's closureMission Viejo’s award-winning Barcelona Hills Elementary School will close in June to allow the 5-month-old Oxford Preparatory Academy charter school to grow.By SCOTT MARTINDALE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTERMISSION VIEJO – Barcelona Hills Elementary is closing in June, but not because it's an underperforming school or because neighborhood parents are demanding sweeping changes.The 34-year-old ... more »

TEMECULA: Board surrenders charter to district

TEMECULA: Board surrenders charter to district:TEMECULA: Board surrenders charter to districtStoryDiscussionBy JENNIFER KABBANY For The Californian | Posted: Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:00 pm | 1 CommentFont Size:Default font sizeLarger font sizeRelated StoriesTEMECULA: Context founder wonders what's nextTEMECULA: Context charter school to closeThe remaining three members of Context Middle School's board voted to surrender the embattled school's charter to the Temecula school district at a short but fiery meeting Friday night.After the 3-0 vote, which came without discussion, sever... more »

Lost Malcolm X Speech Heard Again 50 Years Later : NPR

Lost Malcolm X Speech Heard Again 50 Years Later : NPR:Lost Malcolm X Speech Heard Again 50 Years Laterby GUY RAZ Last semester, Brown senior Malcolm Burnley took a narrative writing course. One of the assignments was to write a fictional story based on something true — and that true event had to be found inside the university archives."So I went to the archives and started flipping through dusty compilations of student newspapers, and there was this old black-and-white photo ... more »

Issue: Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:S.2051A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the reduced interest rate for Federal Direct Stafford Loans.Introduced Jan 31, 201260 ViewsH.R.3845 - Growth to Excellence Act of 2012To establish an alternative accountability model.Introduced Jan 31, 201261 ViewsS.2047 - Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2012A bill to authorize the Secretary of Education to make demonstration grants to eligible local educational agencies for the purpose of reducing...Introduced Jan 31, 2012135 ViewsS.Res.364A resolution ... more »

School choice: Don't choose to rob even more money from education - phillyBurbs.com : Guest Opinions: guest opinion, senate bill 1, education funding, pennsylvania schools,

School choice: Don't choose to rob even more money from education - phillyBurbs.com : Guest Opinions: guest opinion, senate bill 1, education funding, pennsylvania schools,:School choice: Don't choose to rob even more money from educationStoryComments (3)ShareSharePrintCreate a hardcopy of this pageFont Size:Default font sizeLarger font sizePosted: Monday, February 6, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 6:46 pm, Fri Feb 3, 2012.By JANE K. CURRY | 3 commentsGov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature have a legal obligation to support public schools. They ... more »

Arizona judge rules for teachers in pension suit. « Fred Klonsky

Arizona judge rules for teachers in pension suit. « Fred Klonsky:Arizona judge rules for teachers in pension suit.by Fred KlonskyIn a ruling that has implications for teachers in Illinois, an Arizona lower court judge ruled in favor of teachers and their pensions.The Arizona Times:A judge has struck down an Arizona law that increased the amount state employees must contribute toward their pensions as unconstitutional.Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Eileen Willett wrote in a Friday ruling that a state law that ... more »

Schooling in the Ownership Society: AUSL's clout-heavy "turnaround" schools among city's worst

Schooling in the Ownership Society: AUSL's clout-heavy "turnaround" schools among city's worst:AUSL's clout-heavy "turnaround" schools among city's worstby Mike KlonskyClout-heavy banker David Vitale, former AUSL board chairman, now runs the Board of EducationFounded and run by Chicago venture capitalist, Martin Koldyke, the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUS) has used its connections and political clout to become a powerhouse in the school turnaround business. Despite its schools ranking at or near the bottom of the system, AUSL has benefited from ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:WEEKEND QUOTABLESby Mike KlonskyChicago Mayor (right) with Krupp CEO Torsten GessnerRahm Emanuel“By combining transportation, infrastructure, and the best workforce in the world, Chicago is a destination for the greatest companies around the globe, and ThyssenKrupp is a perfect example of this.” -- City of Chicago press releaseBrian Jackson, ThyssenKrupp's lawyer"We look forward to having our day in court." --Chicago TribuneDeborah Meier "As we once reminded colleagues, Nazi Germany had a successful school system—so what?" --Bridging ... more »

Jerry Brown's call for fewer school tests conflicts with state's new education blueprint - Sacramento Bee

Jerry Brown's call for fewer school tests conflicts with state's new education blueprint - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:Jerry Brown's call for fewer school tests conflicts with state's new education blueprintShareBy Diana Lambertdlambert@sacbee.comPublished: Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 1BLast Modified: Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 - 2:12 pmWant to make a public school teacher cringe? Say the words high-stakes testing.Tests, test and more tests.Teachers unions rail against them. Parents complain about ... more »

Schools Matter: Jeff McQuillan: Books before bytes

Schools Matter: Jeff McQuillan: Books before bytes:Jeff McQuillan: Books before bytesby skrashenJeff McQuillan: "Books before bytes"re (Michael Hiltzik)Sent to the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 2012To the Editor:Kudos to Michael Hiltzik for his column ("Hyping tech will not help students," February 5) criticizing federal officials for overselling the benefits of technology to K-12 schools. As co-producer of the most popular educational podcast in the world (ESLPod.com's English as a Second Language Podcast), I'm no enemy of new technology.But our students ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-5 #edreform #ows

10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standards « Cooperative CatalystBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-23 minutes ago10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standards « Cooperative Catalyst:10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standardsfrom Cooperative Catalyst » 5 questions about everything by John T. Spencerwe’re creating shallow zombies in the name of high standardsOften, the proponents of the drill-and-kill testing environment hold up the banner of “high standards” as a rationale for excessive testing. I disagree with this ... more »

All Hands on Deck! | Connected Principals

All Hands on Deck! | Connected Principals:All Hands on Deck!by Larry FliegelmanIn the days of yore, the captain of a ship would have the Boatswain (or Bosun) use his pipe to make the “All Hands” call when he wanted the entire crew up on deck and ready for action. Everyone, no matter what their role, no matter when their last duty shift, no matter how busy on another project, were expected to stop what they were doing, assemble on deck ... more »

The Spectatorization of American Politics | Lefty Parent

The Spectatorization of American Politics | Lefty Parent:The Spectatorization of American Politicsby Cooper ZaleInteresting juxtaposition between two pieces from this past week, “Americans’ Political Views Not So Far Apart” from LiveScience.com and “Yes, Washington is in fact more partisan now” from The Signal. The first looks at polling since 1970 that purports to show no growing ideological divide between people in the U.S. The second shows just the opposite, but among U.S. politicians. If you believe these two statistical snapshots, ... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rules

NYC Public School Parents: Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rules:Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rulesby Leonie HaimsonToday, Rachel Monahan reported in the Daily News that the DOE is going forward with a contract for Joel Rose’s new company to run the School of One in NYC public schools.Joel Rose devised and ran the “School ... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rules

NYC Public School Parents: Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rules:Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a COIB ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rulesby Leonie HaimsonToday, Rachel Monahan reported in the Daily News that the DOE is going forward with a contract for Joel Rose’s new company to run the School of One in NYC public schools.Joel Rose devised and ran the “School ... more »

School Tech Connect: #Occupy The Unions #ows

School Tech Connect: #Occupy The Unions:#Occupy The Unionsby noreply@blogger.com (Tim)And I'm back. I can only tell you that I successfully closed the achievement gap, which as you know requires alot of firing, and a lot of dispersing urban black kids to other schools, and then getting the hell out of town before the studies show that you actually didn't close the achievement gap but made it worse instead.Anyhoo, the most interesting thing I read during my little social media vacation ... more »

10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standards « Cooperative Catalyst

10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standards « Cooperative Catalyst:10 Reasons the Tests Are Lowering Our Standardsfrom Cooperative Catalyst » 5 questions about everything by John T. Spencerwe’re creating shallow zombies in the name of high standardsOften, the proponents of the drill-and-kill testing environment hold up the banner of “high standards” as a rationale for excessive testing. I disagree with this premise entirely. Here are ten reasons most tests lead to lower standards:Extrinsic Motivation: Kids will work hard to ... more »

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: The New York Post Blows

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: The New York Post Blows:The New York Post Blowsby noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)Not too long ago I came across this article in the New York Post. This is about Christine Rubino, who taught at PS 203 in Flatlands, for posting “repulsive” comments on Facebook.Several thoughts came to my mind. One, is it not ironic how the Post (and of course News Corp.) the harbinger of freedom is quick to mock someone for defending their constitutional rights of freedom ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Afternoon Posts 2-5 #ows #edreform

The privatization trap - The 99 Percent Plan - Salon.comBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-3 minutes agoThe privatization trap - The 99 Percent Plan - Salon.com:The privatization trapFrom schools to prisons, outsourcing government's works typically ends with cronyism, waste and unaccountabilityBY MIKE KONCZALAn employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., waiting for the front gate to be opened. The detention center is operated on contract by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. (Credit: AP)TOPICS:THE 99 ... more »