Big Education Ape BREAKING NEWS:

Emails Are Not Enough

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

There are times when an angry email is nowhere near sufficient. We have to start showing up at offices.

Nevertheless, I'd like my representative to know that these are the questions on my mind when I finally manage to get her attention for 15 minutes. (Why these two short paragraphs are highlighted in white is a Blogger mystery. Thank you, Blogger, for highlighting these paragraphs in white and making it immutable.)

Experience Counts

by David B. Cohen

Among the more bizarre trends in education reform debate has been the emergence of an argument that experience doesn’t really matter.  The problem appears to be that some researchers have not found ways to measure the importance of experience very effectively, and so, cheered on by cost-cutting and union-bashing allies, they tell us that after the first few years, teacher experience doesn’t matter.  They have the test scores to prove it, they say.
I’m not here to argue the opposite.  I’ve seen new teachers who have a skill set that rivals some of their veteran colleagues.  However, I’ve never met a teacher who didn’t believe they could still improve.  After all, we’re in the learning business.  With experience comes not only time to learn more content and more pedagogy, but also to learn more about children, psychology and brain neurology, about working effectively with peers, administrators,

brooklyn prospect charter finds a permanent home in the Immaculate Heart of Mary building

by joyce

Immaculate Heart of Mary School is merging with Holy Name School (and joining them in the building on Propect Park West in Windsor Terrace) and becoming St. Joseph the Worker. There has been a lot of speculation about what will happen to the IHM building futher south on Ft. Hamilton. The

Mind-Numbing Finger Wagging By the SF Chron.

by Michael Dunn

In her hit piece, “Mind-numbing protests meet pepper spray,” (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/14/12), Debra Saunders makes the University of California, Davis police out to be innocent victims of abuse by spoiled brat students, implying that their pepper spraying of students at point blank range was somehow justified. However, worse than the finger wagging, which activists have come to expect from the corporate media, are the numerous inaccuracies, exaggerations and omissions in her piece, including the reason why students were protesting: the 18% tuition hike for the 2011-2012 school year.

Let’s start with the most serious omission: students were seated and protesting nonviolently. They were doing nothing that was physically threatening to anyone, including the police. The 

Get Out There!

by Melissa Westbrook

Not that it has likely missed your notice but it's going to be a hopping weekend here in Seattle.

First up - good weather with Sunday being the best day at 73 degrees.

Second, big celebration starting at the Seattle Center in honor of the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair.  The kick-off event starts Saturday at 10:30 am with opening ceremonies in the Mural Amphitheater.   According to the Times, those ceremonies conclude at 4:30 p.m. with

"The Chair Spectacle": 200 community members in procession to the International Fountain with movement