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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top 2-23 AM Posts #soschat #edreform


Missouri Education Watchdog: Notice to DESE: SHOCKER! Apparently Common Core Standards Will Cost Missouri Money.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Notice to DESE: SHOCKER! Apparently Common Core Standards Will Cost Missouri Money.:Notice to DESE: SHOCKER! Apparently Common Core Standards Will Cost Missouri Money.by stlgretchenIn February 2011 Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro published a document stating Common Core standards wouldn't cost the state of Missouri any significant money. DESE published a document online entitled:COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDSWhat implications do the Common Core State Standards have for Missouri?The Department has prepared a frequently asked questions docum... more »

Modern School: Why Girls Don’t Go For STEM Careers

Modern School: Why Girls Don’t Go For STEM Careers:Why Girls Don’t Go For STEM Careersby Michael DunnGirl Scouts of Central Maryland host STEM event (Image from Flickr, by RDECOM)A new nationwide survey of 1,000 teen girls from the Girl Scout Research Institute suggests that girls are both interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers and have the confidence that they can succeed in these fields. The institute reports that nearly 75% of teen girls are already interested in ... more »

Bill Gates — Yes, Bill Gates — Calls Making Teacher Ratings Public “A Big Mistake” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Bill Gates — Yes, Bill Gates — Calls Making Teacher Ratings Public “A Big Mistake” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:Bill Gates — Yes, Bill Gates — Calls Making Teaching Ratings Public “A Big Mistake”by Larry FerlazzoI have little confidence in Bill Gates judgment on education issues, including on how to evaluate teachers. However, he did get one thing right in today’s guest column in The New York Times, which is headlined “Shame Is Not the Solution”:LAST week, the ...more »

“This is Little Rock, 1957. Chicago is the epicenter of the education justice fight in America.” « Fred Klonsky

“This is Little Rock, 1957. Chicago is the epicenter of the education justice fight in America.” « Fred Klonsky:“This is Little Rock, 1957. Chicago is the epicenter of the education justice fight in America.”by Fred KlonskyJesse Jackson and CTU President Karen Lewis. Photo: WBEZLate today, Wednesday, the Chicago school board voted unanimously to go ahead with all the proposed school closings and turn arounds.No surprise there.Did we think the release of data by Don Moore and Designs for Change would ... more »

Palm Beach County School Board Rejects Additional Mavericks Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Palm Beach County School Board Rejects Additional Mavericks Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:Palm Beach County School Board Rejects Additional Mavericks Charter Schoolsby Bob SikesIn the New Times yesterday Lisa Rab reported that Palm Beach county school district officials recommended that Maverick’s application for three new charter schools be denied. Today the school board agreed and voted 6-0 to deny the applications. No discussion. No debate and no representatives of Mavericks were at the board vote. Rab commented in an ... more »

Charter School Segregation Target Of New Report

Charter School Segregation Target Of New Report:Joy ResmovitsJoy.resmovits@huffingtonpost.comBecome a fan of this reporterGET UPDATES FROM JOY Like775Charter School Segregation Target Of New ReportequalFirst Posted: 02/22/2012 8:09 pm Updated: 02/22/2012 8:09 pmReactAmazingInspiringFunnyScaryHotCrazyImportantWeirdFollow Arne Duncan , Charter Schools , Education , Education Reform , Obama Administration , Charter School Accountability , Charter School Segregation , Education News , Gary Orfield , Myron Orfield , National Alliance For Public Charter Schools ,National Education Policy ... more »

Bill Gates: For Teachers, Shame Is No Solution - NYTimes.com

For Teachers, Shame Is No Solution - NYTimes.com:Shame Is Not the SolutionBy BILL GATESPublished: February 22, 2012RECOMMENDTWITTERLINKEDINE-MAILPRINTREPRINTSSHARESeattleEnlarge This ImageJohnny SelmanRelatedTimes Topic: Teachers and School EmployeesLAST week, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that teachers’ individual performance assessments could be made public. I have no opinion on the ruling as a matter of law, but as a harbinger of education policy in the United States, it is a big mistake.I am a strong proponent of measuring teachers’ effectiveness, and ... more »

School Tech Connect: No Big Surprises

School Tech Connect: No Big Surprises:No Big Surprisesby noreply@blogger.com (Tim)No big surprises at the CPS Board meeting tonight. If anyone thought they weren't going to vote in lockstep agreement on the "turnarounds," then that person was seriously deluded. Dissent is not the role of an appointed board.Mayor Adrian Fenty Rahm EmanuelI will say this much-- I've been awakened by this experience. I feel like I've been sleepwalking through the entire disaster that has descended upon my profession over the past ... more »

National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards: Listen up Washington State PTA | Seattle Education

National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards: Listen up Washington State PTA | Seattle Education:National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards: Listen up Washington State PTAby seattleducation2011This is a recent press release from the Pioneer Institute:STUDY ESTIMATES COST OF TRANSITION TO NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS AT $16 BILLIONCost far exceeds sums doled out in federal grants used to persuade states to adopt.BOSTON/WASHINGTON, D.C./SAN FRANCISCO – Aligning state and local educational systems ... more »

Conn. Gov Malloy Calls Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee‘Divisive’, Declines Joint Appearance

Connecticut Governor Malloy Calls Rhee ‘Divisive’, Declines A Joint Appearance:Connecticut Governor Malloy Calls Rhee ‘Divisive’, Declines A Joint Appearanceby cynthiaThe Connecticut Parents Union is a statewide community-based group led by Gwen Samuel, a parent with a child in the New Haven city schools. The group had arranged a March 14, 2012 meeting with the Governor of Connecticut, Daniel Malloy, as part of a rally planned for that day. But Governor Malloy decided not to attendonce he heard that Michelle Rhee ... more »

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Town says, "frack you" to Anschutz

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Town says, "frack you" to Anschutz:Town says, "frack you" to Anschutzby Mike KlonskyPhillip Anschutz, bankrolled the anti-public school propaganda film, Waiting for Superman. Now he's financing another film glorifying the so called, "parent trigger", a law which gives a group of parents the power to fire all their school's teachers and hand it over to a private management company. 20th Century Fox is preparing a September release for “Won’t Back Down” starring Viola Davis and ... more »

Bankstreet - Challenging the Politics of the Teacher Accountability Movement: Toward a More Hopeful Educational Future

Bankstreet - Occasional Papers:Challenging the Politics of the Teacher Accountability Movement: Toward a More Hopeful Educational FutureGuest editors Gail Boldt and Bill Ayers have asked 13 leading educators to address the politics of the teacher accountability movement in America. Who benefits and who is hurt? What is gained and what is lost? How can we move forward with a more hopeful and inclusive vision of our educational future?All of the contributors are motivated by an abiding commitment to democratic ideals ... more »

GET UP, STAND UP. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. | GoingPublic

GET UP, STAND UP. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. | GoingPublic:GET UP, STAND UP. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE“First they came for the……and then they came for me, but there was nobody left.” Most of us can quotePastor Martin Niemöller’s famous lines, at least some of them. At least the gist of it. Most of us give tacit voice to it’s message. We get it, so of course we’d like to think we would stand up ... more »

How Project-Based Learning Educates the Whole Child « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

How Project-Based Learning Educates the Whole Child « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:How Project-Based Learning Educates the Whole Childby ASCD Whole Child BloggersPost written by Thom Markham, a psychologist, educator, and president of GlobalRedesigns. His goal is to help young people gain the advanced skills and core knowledge necessary to prepare for the workforce, contribute to global progress, and work toward a sustainable future. He served as a director with Active Learning, Inc., an innovative motivational and ... more »

solidaridad: What Nury Martinez and Mónica García want to cut while privatized charter schools increase market share

solidaridad: What Nury Martinez and Mónica García want to cut while privatized charter schools increase market share:What Nury Martinez and Mónica García want to cut while privatized charter schools increase market shareby Robert D. Skeels * rdsathenePor que digamos: Mónica García y Nury Martinez de LAUSD ¡No a las recortes a nuestra escuelas adultos y nuestra escuelas publicas!PopoutPopout

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts 2-22 #SOSchat #p2 #edreform

“Mutual matching” off the table in Oakland - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schoolsBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-7 minutes ago“Mutual matching” off the table in Oakland - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:“Mutual matching” off the table in OaklandTuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 10:48 pm in initiativesTony SmithNo CommentsThere will be no mutual matching in OUSD this spring. Without the support it needed from the Oakland Education Association, the OUSD ... more »

RheeFirst! » “Dozens of East Bay teachers picketed on February 7, 2012 the Oakland appearance of education privatizer and union buster Michelle Rhee”

RheeFirst! » “Dozens of East Bay teachers picketed on February 7, 2012 the Oakland appearance of education privatizer and union buster Michelle Rhee”:More on what Michelle Rhee and Santorum’s super-donor Foster Friess have in commonby adminWritten by Karoli for Crooks and Liars. Read the entire post here.“Some readers have accused me of unfairly linking Michelle Rhee with the right-wing cabal’s aim to kill public education altogether. I ask them to consider Rick Santorum’s statement, Foster Friess’ very clear hatred of ... more »

#UCDavis Students Sue University Over Pepper Spray Incident « Student Activism

UC Davis Students Sue University Over Pepper Spray Incident « Student Activism:UC Davis Students Sue University Over Pepper Spray Incidentby Angus JohnstonNineteen students and former students at UC Davis have filed a federal lawsuit charging the university’s chancellor, chief of police, and other officials of violating their civil rights in the November 18 pepper spray incident that made headlines around the world.The lawsuit argues that “campus policies and practices” that led to the incident “offend both the state and federal ... more »

Setting The Record Straight On Teacher Evaluations: Scoring and the Role of Standardized Exams | Edwize

Setting The Record Straight On Teacher Evaluations: Scoring and the Role of Standardized Exams | Edwize:Setting The Record Straight On Teacher Evaluations: Scoring and the Role of Standardized Examsby Leo Casey(This is the first of two posts on the new teacher evaluations, focusing on the overall scoring of the evaluations and the role of standardized exams. The second post will take up the question of appeals.)The 2010 law that established a new framework for the evaluation of New York educators ... more »

Geezer Teachers - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Geezer Teachers - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:Geezer Teachersby Nancy FlanaganIt went by so fast on my Twitter feed this morning that I can't even remember whose tweet it was--but the gist was this: "Career teachers" are becoming a thing of the past. Ouch.Is that true? Certainly seems so, if the modal number of years' teaching experience in public schools is one-point-something.In 1987-'88, the most common level of experience among the nation's 3 million K-12 public ... more »

Common Core Standards Cost Exceeds RTTT Stimulus Funds | Truth in American Education

Common Core Standards Cost Exceeds RTTT Stimulus Funds | Truth in American Education:Common Core Standards Cost Exceeds RTTT Stimulus Fundsby James BellStates and Localities Projected To Shed Lots of Dollars for the National StandardsThe Obama Administration spent an unprecedented $4.35 billion in Stimulus money to create an incentive for states to join the Common Core Standards and compete in the Race to the Top competition.All but five states (Virginia, Texas, Nebraska, Alaska, and Minnesota) jumped on the Common Core bandwagon, ... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core Literature Standards Provide Less Common Understanding

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core Literature Standards Provide Less Common Understanding:Common Core Literature Standards Provide Less Common Understandingby AnngieYou would think that with the word "common" in its title, Common Core standards would be concerned with providing students across the country education on common (meaning -shared) resources. But a look at the Common Core Standards for language arts reveals that they actually move students away from classic literature that has been studied for generations and provides commonality to our experience, ...more »

All Education Matters: Do You Believe That Were You Misled or Misinformed about IBR (Income Based Repayment) by Your Lender?

All Education Matters: Do You Believe That Were You Misled or Misinformed about IBR (Income Based Repayment) by Your Lender?:Do You Believe That Were You Misled or Misinformed about IBR (Income Based Repayment) by Your Lender?by Cryn JohannsenThis past June, when the Texas heat was hotter than a blazing furnace, a borrower named Amy reached out to me about her student loans. Amy was struggling with her payments, and believed that defaulting was imminent. She was hot with anger and ... more »

The Hunger Strike: Weapon of Choice for the Oppressed | The Dissenter

The Hunger Strike: Weapon of Choice for the Oppressed | The Dissenter:The Hunger Strike: Weapon of Choice for the OppressedBy: Kevin Gosztola Wednesday February 22, 2012 10:03 am Tweet9 The above comes from VisualizingPalestine.org. The site creators say it uses “creative visuals to describe a factual rights-based narrative of Palestine/Israel.” In this case, we have a brilliant graphic showing past heroes for social justice who have gone on hunger strike and what happens to the human body as they carry ... more »

This Week In Education: Thompson: Charter Fines & Expulsions Create Dysfunctional System

This Week In Education: Thompson: Charter Fines Expulsions Create Dysfunctional System:Thompson: Charter Fines Expulsions Create Dysfunctional Systemby john thompsonRecent coverage on excessive disciplinary actions in charter schools in the Chicago Catalyst and the Washington Post should prompt soul searching for educators in both charter and neighborhood schools. One of the original purposes of charter schools was pushing the educational status quo to think anew. Traditionally, attendance and behavior were the third rail of school politics, and urban schools were especially ... more »

Student who jumped off high school roof was bullied, parents say - latimes.com

Student who jumped off high school roof was bullied, parents say - latimes.com:Student who jumped off high school roof was bullied, parents sayFebruary 22, 2012 | 9:01 am 62Days after their 15-year-old son died after jumping off of a third-story building at his high school, the parents of Drew Ferraro said they learned by reading his journal that he had been bullied by classmates in the last months of his life."There was name-calling, pushing down the hall, pulling his backpack, ... more »

“Mutual matching” off the table in Oakland - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

“Mutual matching” off the table in Oakland - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:“Mutual matching” off the table in OaklandTuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 10:48 pm in initiativesTony SmithNo CommentsThere will be no mutual matching in OUSD this spring. Without the support it needed from the Oakland Education Association, the OUSD administration says it’s run out of time to reach an agreement with union leaders and implement changes to its teacher transfer policies for the upcoming ... more »

Support PURE! » Chicago parents’ letter to the Board of Education on longer day

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Chicago parents’ letter to the Board of Education on longer day:Chicago parents’ letter to the Board of Education on longer dayby adminFebruary 22, 2012Dear Members of the Chicago Board of Education,Parents from community groups across the city have joined forces to help inform the Chicago Board of Education on what we view as necessary changes to the school day at CPS. Parents are concerned that Chicago Public Schools has set forth ... more »

‘Bake Sale Ban’ Rhetoric Swells Over Obama School Snacks Rules - Bloomberg

‘Bake Sale Ban’ Rhetoric Swells Over Obama School Snacks Rules - Bloomberg:‘Bake Sale Ban’ Rhetoric Swells Over Obama School Snacks RulesBy Stephanie Armour - Feb 21, 2012 9:01 PM PTLinkedInGoogle +1PrintQUEUEQEnlarge imageStudents eat lunch near vending machines at Jones College Prep High School in Chicago. Photo: Tim Boyle/Getty ImagesSpecial-education students at Tooele High School in northwest Utahwho rely on weekly bake sales to pay for field trips and supplies may have to go without.Federal regulators, fresh off a contentious nutritional ... more »

School Tech Connect: The Prescience of Rev. Calvin Morris

School Tech Connect: The Prescience of Rev. Calvin Morris:The Prescience of Rev. Calvin Morrisby noreply@blogger.com (Tim)Just to review...The administration came up with a plan to "turnaround" x number of neighborhood schools. They had a series of hearings marked by overwhelming opposition. Today, the board is going to approve all but one of those "turnarounds," and the one exception is still a very vague concept, and even it scatters an entire class of freshmen in a school where freshman applications are ... more »

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence Influences Governor Cuomo

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence Influences Governor Cuomo:Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence Influences Governor Cuomoby noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)I have had it. Enough of the kvetching, the bellyaching, the whining, the blaming. We are directing out anger, out outrage, our concern over the new evaluation system at the wrong people. Governor Andy, Uncle Mike, Mulgrew, Randi, they are all just pawns of some bigger entity, a bigger force.We must bequeath our anger, our collective ... more »

Reformy Platitudes & Fact-Challenged Placards won’t Get Connecticut Schools what they Really Need! « School Finance 101

Reformy Platitudes Fact-Challenged Placards won’t Get Connecticut Schools what they Really Need! « School Finance 101:Reformy Platitudes Fact-Challenged Placards won’t Get Connecticut Schools what they Really Need!by schoolfinance101For a short while yesterday – more than I would have liked to – I followed the circus of testimony and tweets about proposed education reform legislation in Connecticut. The reform legislation - SB 24 – includes the usual reformy elements of teacher tenure reform, ending seniority preferences, expanding and promoting charter schooling, ...more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Debunking turnaround claims of "unimaginable success"

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Debunking turnaround claims of "unimaginable success":Debunking turnaround claims of "unimaginable success"by Mike KlonskyAs hundred of protesters gather outside of CPS headquarters this morning to try and prevent the handing over of 10 more schools to AUSL, a private turnaround company, a new study is released which debunks claims made by the mayor and his CPS spin squad about the supposed overwhelming success of turnarounds.Turnaround schools have become a central piece of Arne Duncan's Race To The ... more »

Daily Kos: Education as "Politically Contested Spaces"

Daily Kos: Education as "Politically Contested Spaces":Education as "Politically Contested Spaces"byplthomasEdDFollowShare2 PERMALINK1 COMMENTSteve Strieker in The Answer Sheet confronts ths current state of education from the specific events of his home state:"In Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, teaching has been relegated from professional status to political fodder."He then builds to this conclusion:"In Walker’s Wisconsin, education is not a profession. It is politics...."With the current attack on public education, however, our next generation of professional educators will have t... more »

Obama Proposal May Address Growing Education Gap - Student Loan Ranger (usnews.com)

Obama Proposal May Address Growing Education Gap - Student Loan Ranger (usnews.com):Obama Proposal May Address Growing Education GapRecently, the New York Times reported on the growing education gap between low-income and affluent students. One study cited found that since the 1960s, the gap in standardized test scores has grown by about 40 percent.And the gap isn't limited to primary and secondary education. A separate University of Michigan study, also cited in the article, found that since the late 1980s, the ... more »

Chartering Equity: Using Charter School Legislation and Policy to Advance Equal Educational Opportunity | National Education Policy Center

Chartering Equity: Using Charter School Legislation and Policy to Advance Equal Educational Opportunity | National Education Policy Center:Chartering Equity: Using Charter School Legislation and Policy to Advance Equal Educational Opportunity Share6by Julie Mead, Preston GreenFebruary 21, 2012Guided by the assumptions that charter schools will be part of our public educational system for the foreseeable future; that charter schools are neither inherently good, nor inherently bad; and that charter schools should be employed to further goals of equal educational opportunity, including...more »

Modern School: Battle Lines Drawn: CTU Wants 30% Raise—What About You?

Modern School: Battle Lines Drawn: CTU Wants 30% Raise—What About You?:Battle Lines Drawn: CTU Wants 30% Raise—What About You?by Michael DunnHuck/Konopacki Labor CartoonsChicago Public Schools (CPS) is imposing a longer school day next year and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has responded with a request for 30% raises over the next two years, the Chicago Tribune reported last week. Their proposal also calls for reducing K-5 class sizes from 28 to 23 students and shrinking middle and high school class ... more »