Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-16 #soschat #ReclaimingReform

RheeFirst! » A parent’s excellent analysis: Learning from Rhee

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

RheeFirst! » A parent’s excellent analysis: Learning from Rhee:A parent’s excellent analysis: Learning from Rheeby adminWritten by Joshua Bujes. Read the entire post here.“Here’s what I took away from the lecture that might be useful going forward:…5. Her overt message is framed in such a way that it is impossible not to applaud (unless one looks under the covers): who would deny that education is important? who would deny that children need good teachers? who would deny that we live ... more »

Ensuring Critical Thinking in Project-Based Learning « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

Ensuring Critical Thinking in Project-Based Learning « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:Ensuring Critical Thinking in Project-Based Learningby ASCD Whole Child BloggersPost submitted by Andrew Miller, is a national faculty member for the Buck Institute for Education as well as for ASCD. He is also a regular blogger for Edutopia. Connect with Miller on Twitter @betamiller.Project-based learning (PBL) can create engaging learning for all students, but that depth of learning requires careful, specific design. Part of this engagement ... more »

As Cuomo declares victory on a teacher-testing agreement, Ravitch says it's a 'dark day' | Capital New York

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

As Cuomo declares victory on a teacher-testing agreement, Ravitch says it's a 'dark day' | Capital New York: As Cuomo declares victory on a teacher-testing agreement, Ravitch says it's a 'dark day' | Capital New YorkAndrew Cuomo. saebaryo via flickrRELATED STORIESA teacher-evaluation issue heads to Albany to kick off Cuomo's Year 2Former 'Times' editor: Campaign finance reform means TV reformThe BookCourt bestseller list, annotatedSavino: Cuomo 'needs' to raise some money for the state through taxesBY AZI PAYBARAH3:25 pm Feb. 16, ... more »

School Tech Connect: The Tribune is So Stupid... It Hurts The Brain!

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

School Tech Connect: The Tribune is So Stupid... It Hurts The Brain!:The Tribune is So Stupid... It Hurts The Brain!The Tribune editorial page is so idiotic. I won't link to it. Julie Woestehoff has been stepping on some very sensitive toes indeed to merit her own editorial.By the way, the straw man here that the Trib has created is the idea the critic's of Noble's discipline tax are opposed to school discipline.What sanctimonious a*sholes they are!Nobody is opposed to orderly ... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Program Placement - the reality

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Program Placement - the reality:Program Placement - the realityby Charlie MasThe District's program placement practice used to be something of a mystery. A committee, the Program Placement Committee, used to meet, discuss the program placement proposals, and make recommendations to the superintendent. Then the superintendent would decide which proposals to accept, which to reject, and which to amend. We didn't know who was on the committee, when they met, or what they discussed. I once requested ... more »

RICK SANTORUM SUGGESTS OPPOSITION TO PUBLIC EDUCATION: Some scary thinking + a scary picture!

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: RICK SANTORUM SUGGESTS OPPOSITION TO PUBLIC EDUCATION: Some scary thinking + a scary picture!:RICK SANTORUM SUGGESTS OPPOSITION TO PUBLIC EDUCATION: Some scary thinking + a scary picture!BY BRIAN MONTOPOLI | CBS NEWS | HTTP://BIT.LY/WRWHDW (Credit: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)Updated 12:47 p.m. ThursdayCampaigning in Idaho on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested that he is opposed to a public school system overseen by the government."We didn't have government-run schools for a long ... more »

NYC Public School Parents: My take on the teacher evaluation deal announced today in Albany

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

NYC Public School Parents: My take on the teacher evaluation deal announced today in Albany:My take on the teacher evaluation deal announced today in Albanyby Leonie HaimsonFrom what I can tell, the part of the deal that was struck between the city and the UFT seems to be a good one: an external arbiter for principal ratings, which is necessary considering the number of unfair "U" ratings we have seen from abusive principals in recent years.The rest of the deal ...more »

NYC Public School Parents: Panel discussion Saturday: Parents As Educators & Putting the Public Back into Public Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

NYC Public School Parents: Panel discussion Saturday: Parents As Educators Putting the Public Back into Public Education:Panel discussion Saturday: Parents As Educators Putting the Public Back into Public Educationby Leonie HaimsonI will be speaking on a panel Saturday morning, sponsored by Assemblymember Keith Wright and organized by the Urban League, as part of the Black and Puerto Rican caucus meeting in AlbanyThe details are below. It is unfortunate that I will be the only parent on the panel, but you ... more »

Parental Engagement Helps Lead to School’s Blue Ribbon Success | ED.gov Blog

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

Parental Engagement Helps Lead to School’s Blue Ribbon Success | ED.gov Blog:Parental Engagement Helps Lead to School’s Blue Ribbon SuccessPosted on February 16, 2012 by Guest BloggerArriving at Anchorage’s Chugach Optional Elementary School last month for a Blue Ribbon School celebration, I was greeted by an excited group of staff, students and parents. During our student-led tour, parent and teacher cooperation were on display amid colorful classrooms set up to resemble a comfortable home environment with couches, curtains and rugs.A ... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: School Choice Week in Chicago: Pay Fines or Be Scruntinized by Police Surveillance Cameras.

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 19 minutes ago

Missouri Education Watchdog: School Choice Week in Chicago: Pay Fines or Be Scruntinized by Police Surveillance Cameras.:School Choice Week in Chicago: Pay Fines or Be Scruntinized by Police Surveillance Cameras.by stlgretchenCharters are privately run government schools. In Missouri, they are under the same mandates and common core standards as traditional public schools. They are taxpayer funded which means the taxpayer is paying private companies to deliver education.Do they do a better job than traditional schools? Some do, some don't. But ... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Good Things at the Board Meeting

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Good Things at the Board Meeting:Good Things at the Board Meetingby Melissa WestbrookThe kids from Maple Elementary came and did a wonderful dragon dance to welcome in the new year. Great fun.Also, 38 more teachers were recognized for being board-certified. According to the Board, our district is 5th in the nation for the number of board-certified teachers. Good for all those teachers. (I will try to give a breakdown of where all these newly-certified teachers come ... more »

Modern School: Extrinsic Motivation: Chitown Charter Implements Stiff Fines for Student Infractions

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Modern School: Extrinsic Motivation: Chitown Charter Implements Stiff Fines for Student Infractions:Extrinsic Motivation: Chitown Charter Implements Stiff Fines for Student Infractionsby Michael DunnImage from Flickr, by Sebastian BergmannThe Noble Network, which runs 10 charter high schools in Chicago, raised nearly $200,000 last year (and $400,000 since 2008) from discipline penalties, the Chicago Tribune reported this week. The Network, which has been praised by Ed Deformer Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has been charging students $5 per violation for such trivial infractions as ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: The Pie-Crust Promises of Chris Cerf

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Jersey Jazzman: The Pie-Crust Promises of Chris Cerf:The Pie-Crust Promises of Chris Cerfby DukeAs Mary Poppins said: "Easily made, easily broken":The UFT has lost its lawsuit and the DOE says it will release the teacher data reports to the media within weeks, with all the major newspapers expected to print them. These reports, which rate 12,700 NYC teachers by means of numerical ratings of 1 to 100, are based solely on the 2010 test scores of their students, filtered through ...more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago area "most corrupt." So let's put mayor in charge of schools

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago area "most corrupt." So let's put mayor in charge of schools:Chicago area "most corrupt." So let's put mayor in charge of schoolsby Mike KlonskyA study being released today says the number of public corruption convictions in the Chicago area was higher than in any other federal court district in the entire country from 1976 through 2010.I've got an idea. Let's put the mayor in charge of the schools and make CPS a wing of City ... more »

The Opposite of Social Promotion... - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

The Opposite of Social Promotion... - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:The Opposite of Social Promotion...by Nancy Flanagan...is social demotion. In other words, public humiliation. Failure, writ large.Flunked. Held back. Retained. It's failure, no matter what you call it. Imposed by adults, some of whom honestly believe they're instituting a kind of academic tough love. Suffered by children who struggle with learning, for any one of a galaxy of reasons.And it seems to be all the rage, ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-14 #soschat #ReclaimingReform

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What is Going on with this MOU?Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-16 minutes agoSeattle Schools Community Forum: What is Going on with this MOU?:What is Going on with this MOU?by Melissa WestbrookI keep trying to get up from this computer but something new pops up.So the Action Report on the Creative Approach Schools has changed (but not the MOU). Here are the changes (the red is new):I move that the Seattle School Board approve the ... more »

FUBU for Teaching Standards [Future of Teaching] | The Jose Vilson

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 15 hours ago

FUBU for Teaching Standards [Future of Teaching] | The Jose Vilson:FUBU for Teaching Standards [Future of Teaching]by JoseExcerpt:I know there are a billion frameworks, most notably from Charlotte Danielson and Robert Marzano. I also don’t have faith in people who sell their products to districts who muck up any effort to improve the teaching profession with real research. Akin to what we do with students, Campbell’s Law comes into effect when we continually hammer in the idea that teachers should ... more »

Education Petition: Do not publish the unreliable teacher data reports! | Change.org

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 15 hours ago

Education Petition: Do not publish the unreliable teacher data reports! | Change.org:Do not publish the unreliable teacher data reports!Signatures30 out of 1,000PetitioningPublic editor of NY Times (+ 6 others)Created ByClass Size MattersAbout this PetitionPetition LetterPetition UpdatesWhy This Is ImportantThese reports, which rated 12,700 NYC teachers based solely on the 2010 test scores of their students, filtered through a complicated value-added formula, are seen by most experts as highly unreliable, based on false or incomplete data and include huge margins of ... more »

WTF Probe: NYC teacher had students write to inmate - Boston.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 15 hours ago

Probe: NYC teacher had students write to inmate - Boston.com:Probe: NYC teacher had students write to inmateFebruary 15, 2012E-mail|Print|Comments (0)Text size – +0 0 ShareThisNewNEW YORK—Investigators say a New York City teacher had her students make Christmas cards for an incarcerated felon.The special commissioner of investigation for city schools says Queens public school teacher Melissa Dean asked her fifth-graders to make holiday cards for someone who was lonely.The commissioner's report was issued Wednesday. It says Dean mailed the cards to ... more »

Interesting Interview With Charlotte Danielson | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 15 hours ago

Interesting Interview With Charlotte Danielson | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:Interesting Interview With Charlotte Danielsonby Larry FerlazzoI have to admit that I’m not well-versed in Charlotte Danielson’s work and her teacher evaluation framework, but it’s sure becoming very popular, very quickly.The New York Times “School Book” has just published an interesting interview with her: An Evaluation Architect Says Teaching Is Hard, but Assessing It Shouldn’t Be.I was particularly struck by this part:Q. When states design evaluation systems, like New ... more »