Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Charter Fight Continues
Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Charter Fight Continues: The Charter Fight Continues by Melissa Westbrook [image: Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991] Over at the Washington Policy Center, their education person, Liv Finne, is claiming I am spreading "disinformation" about the support for charter schools in Washington State (specific to my column in the Washington Post). I have to smile. I don't have to spread anything. What I wrote was factually true. She does want to argue over why the two charter bills didn't make it out of committee. Her take is that th... more »
We say, “No deal on pension benefits.” « Fred Klonsky
We say, “No deal on pension benefits.” « Fred Klonsky: We say, “No deal on pension benefits.” by Fred Klonsky Are some in the union leadership preparing to cave on pension benefits? Tell them no. Rich Miller of Capitolfax is reporting: The Illinois Federation of Teachers told its members via e-mail late last night that its leaders believe a pension reform bill will surface this week. The teachers union claimed to its members that it has “offered to make compromises that would cost members more” and even said that its own proposal would “save the state billions of dollars.” How... more »
Bad News for TFA « Diane Ravitch's blog
Bad News for TFA « Diane Ravitch's blog: Bad News for TFA by dianerav Federal Court reaffirms ruling that alternate route teachers are not “highly qualified” and that it is wrong to concentrate them in districts with high-needs students. Diane Home › News & Comment › News › Press Releases & Kits NINTH CIRCUIT REAFFIRMS RULING THAT TRAINEE TEACHERS NOT INTENDED AS “HIGHLY QUALIFIED” UNDER NCLB Project: Renee v. Duncan Date: May 11, 2012 But Judges Dismiss Case Because Congress Temporarily Classified Them So SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals panel yesterday re-affirmed its September 2... more »
May Revise 2012 Watch Live 10 AM: Governor Brown to Release Budget Revision Monday 10AM : The California Channel
Governor Brown to Release Budget Revision Monday 10AM : The California Channel: Governor Brown to Release Budget Revision Monday 10AM May 11, 2012 WATCH LIVE SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. will release his revised budget proposal at a press conference in Sacramento on Monday. *May Revise - Governor's Budget [PDF] * Did you like this? Share it:
MUST READ: Charters, Privatization Of Education & The Gulen Schools In The US: Shar...
TAKE ACTION! 1. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast on May 13, 2012. 2. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post on March 27, 2012. 3. WATCH a video of me talking about Gulen charter schools. 4. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement"HERE.* 5. SIGN the petition calling for an investigation into Gulen charter schools. 6. DEMAND that your local, state, and federal representatives issue a public statement about their stance on this secretive and controversial religious cult's operati... more »
60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters « Diane Ravitch's blog
60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters « Diane Ravitch's blog: 60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters by dianerav I was curious to see how Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes would deal with the Gulen Charter schools in their program last night. The Gulen charters are the largest charter chain in the United States, with something like 135-140 charters. Few people realize that the Gulen charter chain is far larger than the KIPP chain. They focus mainly on math and science. Some of the Gulen charters get high test scores. That seems to seal the deal for 60 Minutes. Stahl was very impressed with the sch... more »
ALEC and Association of charter schools use public funds to bust teacher unions. « Fred Klonsky
ALEC and Association of charter schools use public funds to bust teacher unions. « Fred Klonsky: ALEC and Association of charter schools use public funds to bust teacher unions. by Fred Klonsky The American Legislative Exchange Council was behind many of the stand-and-kill laws like the one that led to the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida. When this became known, funders and many corporate sponsors publically fled from their affiliation with ALEC. Interestingly,* not the The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). * NACSA is a long-time member of ALEC. NACSA... more »
Shanker Blog » Growth And Consequences In New York City's School Rating System
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Shanker Blog » Growth And Consequences In New York City's School Rating System: Growth And Consequences In New York City’s School Rating System by Matthew Di Carlo In a *New York Times* article a couple of weeks ago, reporter Michael Winerip discusses New York City’s school report card grades, with a focus on an issue that I have raised many times – the role of absolute performance measures (i.e., how highly students scores) in these systems, versus that of growth measures (i.e., whether students are making progress). Winerip uses the example of two schools – P.S. 30 and P.S. 179 ... more »
Schools Matter: Corporate Education Reform: the Status Quo That "never works and never dies"
Schools Matter: Corporate Education Reform: the Status Quo That "never works and never dies": Corporate Education Reform: the Status Quo That "never works and never dies" by Jim Horn ht to Stan Karp. From NewJerseynewsroom.com: BY PAT SUMMERSNEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM If the growing groundswell against the country’s so-called “education reformers” has a philosophical leader, it is Dr. Diane Ravitch, a gray-haired, soft-spoken and mightily armed education historian and author. Earlier this week in New Brunswick, Ravitch — now research professor of education at NYU and author most recent... more »
PRIVATIZED Recovery School District grapples with discipline policies | NOLA.com
Recovery School District grapples with discipline policies | NOLA.com: Recovery School District grapples with discipline policiesPublished: Monday, May 14, 2012, 7:30 AM Updated: Monday, May 14, 2012, 8:31 AM [image: Sarah Carr, The Times-Picayune] By Sarah Carr, The Times-Picayune Follow It started to feel like a routine: Every few weeks, the New Orleans schools would suspend Gwendolyn Lawson's niece, who is now in the ninth grade. Sometimes the offenses were serious, including physical fights the teen had instigated. But other times -- such as when the girl stormed out of ... more »
The Remaking of Philadelphia Public Schools: Privatization or Bust - COLORLINES
The Remaking of Philadelphia Public Schools: Privatization or Bust - COLORLINES: The Remaking of Philadelphia Public Schools: Privatization or Bust by Julianne HingShareThis | Print | Comment (5) Friday, May 11 2012, 9:19 AM ESTTags: Philadelphia, privatization, school reform 38 174 Philadelphia’s public school system is on the brink of insolvency, and the city has no choice but to dismantle what’s left of its public education system and hand over schools to private operators, according to school district leaders. But it turns out the quickest way to bring the wrath of an outraged ... more »
Hechinger Report | Student surveys to be used to rate teachers in pilot program — even in kindergarten classes
Hechinger Report | Student surveys to be used to rate teachers in pilot program — even in kindergarten classes: Student surveys to be used to rate teachers in pilot program — even in kindergarten classes by Sarah Butrymowicz Kindergartners in Georgia — many of whom don’t yet read — could soon play an important role in deciding which teachers get raises or get fired. Under a new pilot program, 5-year-olds will be guided through a survey that includes such statements as “My teacher knows a lot about what he or she teaches” and “My teacher gives me help when I need it.” As the youngs... more »
Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s” Corporate Advocates spent $2.2 Million and counting to support Malloy’s bill - Wait, What?
“Education Reform’s” Corporate Advocates spent $2.2 Million and counting to support Malloy’s bill - Wait, What?: “Education Reform’s” Corporate Advocates spent $2.2 Million and counting to support Malloy’s bill * * Over the first 120 days of the 2012 Legislative Session, corporate lobby groups spent over $2.2 million (and counting) in their effort to pass Governor Malloy’s “education reform” bill. These numbers reveal that corporate reformers outspent those supporting district schools by at least two to one. Under Connecticut law, corporations and organizations must report how muc... more »
Modern School: More Cuts for Cali, Even With Tax Increase
Modern School: More Cuts for Cali, Even With Tax Increase: More Cuts for Cali, Even With Tax Increase by Michael Dunn Gov. Brown Squeezing Blood From a Turnip In January, Gov. Jerry Brown told Californians that if they didn’t pass his tax increase initiative in November, he would have no choice but to slash over $5 billion from public education. Since then, tax revenue has been much lower ($3.5 billion) than anticipated, prompting Brown to threaten much deeper cuts, even if his tax initiative passes. The tax initiative would impose a regressive sales tax on all Californians, inclu... more »
The Company Owned By Walker’s Billionaire Friend, Whom He Told On Camera That He Would Divide And Conquer Wisconsin’s Unions, Paid No Income Taxes For 2005 Through 2008 « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!
The Company Owned By Walker’s Billionaire Friend, Whom He Told On Camera That He Would Divide And Conquer Wisconsin’s Unions, Paid No Income Taxes For 2005 Through 2008 « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!: The Company Owned By Walker’s Billionaire Friend, Whom He Told On Camera That He Would Divide And Conquer Wisconsin’s Unions, Paid No Income Taxes For 2005 Through 2008 by millerlf *Billionaire Walker donor pays no state corporate income tax**Diane Hendricks gave $500,000; her Beloit firm pays $0 income tax* *Institute for Wisconsin’s Future May 2012* Beloit billionaire... more »
Attempts in Milwaukee to Put Schools in Unsafe Buildings for Profit « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!
Attempts in Milwaukee to Put Schools in Unsafe Buildings for Profit « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!: Attempts in Milwaukee to Put Schools in Unsafe Buildings for Profit by millerlf *Bad Players, Shady Business Deals.* By Harriet Callier [hcallier@live.com] 09May2012 Milwaukee Community Journal *Welcome to new (Unsafe, Emotionally Challenging) School where “Gun Safety Will Be Practice **at all times around the children.” Dieter insists on putting a school into this building because **‘it pays!’ He explains that he made some bad choices in other business deals with this b... more »
FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Monday, May 14, 2012
FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team: Education Headlines *Monday, May 14, 2012* Questions, debts abound as Episcopal school faces closure in Roseville Share Read more here:Parents are angry and Roseville City School District officials have plans to sue after St. John's School trustees announced the small private school is broke and will close at the end of the month. Pink slips loom for nearly 500 LAUSD plumbers, other skilled workersNearly 500 plumbers, electricians and other skilled craftsmen will get pink slips next month from Los Angeles Unified, a cost-cutting mov... more »
Media Fawning a Little Less When It Comes to Edu-Giving :: Frederick M. Hess
Media Fawning a Little Less When It Comes to Edu-Giving :: Frederick M. Hess: Media Fawning a Little Less When It Comes to Edu-Giving A number of years ago, in my 2005 book *With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education*, I pointed out that media coverage of education foundations tended to be wide-eyed and sycophantic. At that time, I analyzed the coverage of the five leading edu-foundations by the *New York Times*, *Los Angeles Times*, *Washington Post, Chicago Tribune*, Newsweek, and The Associated Press between 1995 and early 2005. Researchers cod... more »
Zaid Jilani: Charter Schools Association Is Using Taxpayer Money to Support ALEC's Radical Agenda
Zaid Jilani: Charter Schools Association Is Using Taxpayer Money to Support ALEC's Radical Agenda: Charter Schools Association Is Using Taxpayer Money to Support ALEC's Radical Agenda [image: Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991] The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a powerful corporate front group that works to pass Big Business-written laws in state legislatures. Following the outcry over the group pushing "Stand Your Ground" laws, at least 15 major corporations, foundations, and other organizations have decided to end their funding commitments to AL... more »
Layoffs by seniority contested | Thoughts on Public Education
Layoffs by seniority contested | Thoughts on Public Education: Layoffs by seniority contested - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess Administrative law judges have ruled that San Francisco Unified and Sacramento City Unified exceeded their authority to protect teachers at high priority, low-performing schools from districtwide layoffs this year. Both districts have targeted extra resources for teacher training and strategies in hopes of stanching the turnover of teachers and reversing the dismal test scores at some of their most troubled schools. ... more »
Daily Kos: Injustices of Stop and Frisk
Daily Kos: Injustices of Stop and Frisk: Injustices of Stop and Frisk by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) is the title of this lead editorial in today's *New York Times*. Perhaps some statistics are relevant: according the the ACLU the number of stree stops have risen from about 97,000 in 2002, the year Mayor Bloomberg took office, to 685,724 in 2011, and with pace this year of even more. We already know that there more stops made of black men than there are black men in the city. The city has repeatedly argued that the program helps to keep guns off the street. But the N.Y.C.L.U.... more »
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES: WEEKEND QUOTABLES by Mike Klonsky Rupert Murdoch (left) with his boy, Joel Klein.Joel Klein's email dump *For me, the other interesting point is that they are so afraid of any criticism. They are especially afraid of Deborah Meier, me and Jonathan Kozol. They refer to columns by Deborah Meier and myself–she an educator with decades of experience, I a historian with a long view–as “moronic” and “idiotic.” They refer to Jonathan Kozol and me as “deranged crackpots.” How can anyone take these mean-spirited, ignorant, arrogant people se... more »
The Innovative Educator: Separate and Unequal
The Innovative Educator: Separate and Unequal: Separate and Unequal by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen) Guest post by Nikhil Goyal, A 16 Year Old Out to Put a Dent In the Universe | Cross posted at Nikhil Goyal This Sunday’s New York Times features a hard hitting piece entitled ‘Why Don’t We Have Any White Kids?’ as part of the series “A System Divided.” It delves into the racial schisms of Explore Charter School, a K-8 school in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Of the school’s 502 students from kindergarten through eighth grade this school year, 92.7 percent are black, 5.7 percent are Hispan... more »
Why we’re getting the homework question wrong - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
Why we’re getting the homework question wrong - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: Why we’re getting the homework question wrong by Valerie Strauss This *was written by Vicki Abeles, a mother, activist, and filmmaker. She directed the documentary “Race to Nowhere.”* By Vicki Abeles Hayley Eaton was always an academic achiever. Like many American teens, college was uppermost in her mind, as well as that of her parents and guidance counselors. She signed up for all the available AP and honors courses at her high school and performed well. She didn’t flinch when homework meant... more »
Jersey Jazzman: Gulen Criticism Goes Mainstream
Jersey Jazzman: Gulen Criticism Goes Mainstream: Gulen Criticism Goes Mainstream by Duke Last night, 60 Minutes moved the concern about Gulen schools away from tin-foil hat country and into the mainstream: Interesting; unfortunately, once again, CBS News misses the point when it comes to "high-performing" charter schools. Take, for example, Bergen Arts and Sciences here in Jersey. Typically, as Lesley Stahl reports, they try to distance themselves from Gulen, but Bergen A & S is a Turkish school nonetheless. I wrote about the school this past December; is it really that "impr... more »
Waivers for Waivers? What California Wants | California Progress Report
Waivers for Waivers? What California Wants | California Progress Report: Waivers for Waivers? What California Wants by jeffson *By Peter Schrag* You don’t have to look far to understand why California, like many other states, wants a waiver from key provisions of NCLB, the ten-year-old federal No Child Left Behind law. If we don’t get it, it may start to cost us. But what California wants is unique. We want not only a waiver but also a waiver from the conditions U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has imposed for getting a waiver. Is that reasonable, or is it chutzpah? From the s... more »
Schools Matter: Freedom of Information Request for Pearson Tests
Schools Matter: Freedom of Information Request for Pearson Tests: Freedom of Information Request for Pearson Tests by Judy Rabin When the pink slime was discovered in the meat by large corporate processing plants and we realized what was actually in our food, there was outrage and it was banned, 1,2,3. Well, it's time the public demands to know what is being fed to children in those standardized tests. But before we let anyone see the holy, secret documents, we should demand that each and every politician be required to take the high school exit exam in his or her state -- or pe... more »
A Science Teacher's View: The Backward-Engineered Common Core Science Standards - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
A Science Teacher's View: The Backward-Engineered Common Core Science Standards - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: A Science Teacher's View: The Backward-Engineered Common Core Science Standards by Anthony Cody *Guest post by Chemtchr.* Last Friday afternoon, Achieve's "Next Generation Science Standards", as they're calling their Common Core, finally became available. Their "public comment" interval ends June first. I'm going to argue this Common Core was specifically designed to narrow the scope of education to skills that can be (relatively) easily tested. I describe... more »
Failure to Launch Learning « InterACT
Failure to Launch Learning « InterACT: Failure to Launch Learning by David B. Cohen Photos courtesy of Tom Collett. [image: rocket]*“Last week, our class launched a rocket.” * **Sounds fun, doesn’t it? I wish my class launched a rocket. When I was a kid, we did have some great experiential and project-based learning experiences – but no rockets. Unfortunately, that sentence about rocket-launching isn’t quoted from an actual student or teacher, nor did it orginate from an actual classroom. It’s simply a random, isolated sentence on a worksheet, used by third-graders to prepare ... more »
Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-13-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
*UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE* *BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS* *BEFORE NOON HONEST!* What Do NAEP Scores Mean? by dianerav [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Every once in a while, a new set of test scores is released by the National Assessment Governing Board, the federal agency that supervises the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Just a few days ago, the NAEP scores for science were released for 4th and 8th grades, and once again there was woe and gnashing of teeth in the land ( http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/10/31naep_ep...more »