Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break
A webinar with Deborah Meier and Nancy Carlsson-Paige : Early Childhood Educators Say “No!” to Standards and Tests | Seattle Education
A webinar with Deborah Meier and Nancy Carlsson-Paige : Early Childhood Educators Say “No!” to Standards and Tests | Seattle Education: A webinar with Deborah Meier and Nancy Carlsson-Paige : Early Childhood Educators Say “No!” to Standards and Tests by seattleducation2011 Save Our Schools is hosting a webinar on Friday, June 1st at 6:00 PM PST with Deborah Meier and Nancy Carlsson-Paige on young children and the new regiment of testing as well as the emphasis on standardized curriculum that is being pushed by Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education for the Obama administration. To fo... more »
Save Our Schools June 1st Webinar | | Save Our SchoolsSave Our Schools
Save Our Schools June 1st Webinar | | Save Our SchoolsSave Our Schools: 'via Blog this'
Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst « Parents Across America
Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst « Parents Across America: Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst Thursday, May 31, 2012 For more information contact: Leonie Haimson: 917-435-9329; leonieh@parentsacrossamerica.org Julie Woestehoff: 773-538-1135; juliew@parentsacrossamerica.org Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst *Report card exposes flaws in corporate agenda and failures to push through legislation in many states this year* Parents Across America (PAA) unveiled a report card today that gave Michelle Rhee’s education lobbying organization, StudentsFirst, failing... more »
New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores - latimes.com
New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores - latimes.com: New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores * * [image: Eval] A coalition of Los Angeles teachers, parents and community members Thursday unveiled a proposal to use student test scores as one measure to evaluate teachers -- a controversial element that many teacher unions have fought. The proposal was aimed at breaking what coalition members called a troubling stalemate over a new teacher evaluation system between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union, United T... more »
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Skip the serious face, Arne
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Skip the serious face, Arne: Skip the serious face, Arne by Mike Klonsky *How do we as a teaching profession create a climate in which everyone is clamoring to come into schools like this ... where this is a badge of honor?" *-- Arne Duncan Serious face... Arne Duncan looks so intense, like he's seriously listening and looking for answers. Don't be fooled. He's not. He's done these "listening tours" before. They make for great photo ops. ** H*ow do we get more Tamara Raifords “clamoring” to teach in low-performing schools? he asks some New Haven Tea... more »
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained: Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained by Charlie Mas Folks who watch school board meetings have probably heard students from The NOVA Project speak to the board about how their school is funded. You may wonder what the heck they are talking about. They are NOT talking about the 15% reduction in funding that the state grants to Alternative Learning Experience schools. This has nothing to do with decisions made at the state level. Instead, they are talking about how the District unfairly under-funds NOVA, along w... more »
2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator - Principal Apportionment (CA Dept of Education)
2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator - Principal Apportionment (CA Dept of Education): 2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator spreadsheet and instructions. ------------------------------ - 2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator (Version 2011 1.0) (XLS; 2MB) *Prior to using the estimator the following instructions and assumptions should be reviewed.* This tool is intended to help local educational agencies (LEA) estimate their Principal Apportionment payments for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Th... more »
Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time | The Forum for Education and Democracy
Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time | The Forum for Education and Democracy: Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time by Pedro Antonio Noguera *by Pedro Antonio Noguera* *Special to CNN 'In America' blog May 24, 2012* For the Past 25 years I have been working as an educator, researcher and policy advocate. I am also the parent of four children who have attended public schools. In each of these roles I have tried to improve public education and advance the educational rights of children, particularly t... more »
All Education Matters: Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign
All Education Matters: Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign: Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign by Cryn Johannsen Occupy Student Debt Campaign recently released a lengthy statement about their mission. They differentiate themselves from other groups - who are, in my view, reformist - quite well in this manifesto. I applaud their efforts, and encourage you to get involved with supporting and promoting their collective activism. The group truly understands a horizontal approach to attacking this monstrous problem. More than any... more »
FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, May 31, 2012
FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team: Education Headlines *Thursday, May 31, 2012* Charter Oak Unified seeking voter approval for $47 million bond measureHoping to raise $47 million to further improve school buildings and buy new computers for classrooms, Charter Oak Unified School District will ask voters next week to continue paying higher property taxes. Union leader won't 'sit in the corner, purse my lips and not talk to the district.'The real action at Tuesday's San Diego school board meeting occurred outside the district's auditorium when teachers union chief Bill...more »
Missouri Education Watchdog: Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing?
Missouri Education Watchdog: Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing?: Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing? by Anngie Everyone knows the image of a series of falling dominos. It's a basic lesson in physics on inertia and gravity, combining linear impulse with angular momentum. I offer this video as a more advanced physics lesson using dominos to demonstrate how today's story may play out. Popout Notice how tiny the first domino is. He must hold it with a tweezers. And note how large the 13th domino is. It weighs 100 lbs yet it is knocked down in the... more »
Using Language to Maximize Learning — Whole Child Education
Using Language to Maximize Learning — Whole Child Education: Using Language to Maximize Learning by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers [image: ASCD Annual Conference] *Post submitted by whole child blogger Paulina Malek, a senior majoring in magazine journalism at Temple University. She hopes to report on poverty, race relations, and animal rights issues in the future.* Educators often worry that what they teach goes in one ear and out the other, but the right language can help produce a more engaged and efficient classroom, said Jenny Edwards in her ASCD Annual Conference session "How to Ta... more »
Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work
Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work: Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work by admin The book is called “Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education” and includes a chapter I wrote, ” ‘Just parents’ challenge Mayor Daley, Arne Duncan and Renaissance 2010.” From the publisher: *A collection of empowering stories bringing together the voices of teachers, parents, and educational activists fighting market-driven educational policies* Lost amid the heated debate over educational polic... more »
Schools Matter: Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking
Schools Matter: Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking: Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking by P. L. Thomas With the release of the National Education Policy Center's 2011 Bunkum Awards, I feel the need to join in the spirit of NEPC's excellent work to highlight the gradual unmasking of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Recently, I charactericed NCTQ's assault on teachers and teacher education as a central player in the bully politics of education reform. Since then, the evidence is gathering, exposing NCTQ as partisan politics masked as scholarly evaluati... more »
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally: Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally by Mike Klonsky *Matt Farmer* is a lawyer and a Chicago Public School Parent. Watch him cross-examine Hyatt Hotel heiress and CPS board member *Penny Pritzker* in his May 23rd speech to 4,000 union teachers at the Auditorium Theater. Popout BTW, Pritzker is also national finance chairperson of the Obama campaign. She is one of three cousins who manage their dynasty’s financial empire, which includes the Hyatt hotel chain, casinos and many other ventures. But accor... more »
Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy - Wait, What?
Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy - Wait, What?: Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy by jonpelto *Jumoke Charter School, with no non-English speaking students or any experience with English Language Learners, to take over neighborhood school where 40 percent of the students go home to households in which English is not the primary language.* One of the most contentious aspects of Governor Malloy’s “education reform” proposal was the section granting Malloy’s Commissio... more »
A scary (and telling) school voucher story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
A scary (and telling) school voucher story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: A scary (and telling) school voucher story By Valerie Strauss If you are wondering where the new rush to implement school voucher programs in state after state may be taking us, consider these developments from Louisiana. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (Mike Carlson - Associated Press)Gov. Bobby Jindal recently signed a new law that sets up the largest voucher program of any state in the country. It is part of a series of “reforms” that Jindal says will expand school choice for families and critics s... more »
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards: NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards by Mike Klonsky For Immediate Release Thursday, May 31, 2012 Contact: Jamie Horwitz (202) 549-492, jhdcpr@starpower.net** *BUNKUM AWARDS FOR SHODDY EDUCATION RESEARCH ANNOUNCED* Grand Prize Winner Compares Charters Schools to Cancer – Where Cancer is a Good Thing National Education Policy Center for the First Time Awards a “Get a Life(time) Achievement Award” to an Individual – Dr. Matthew Ladner, an Advisor to Jeb Bush’s Advocacy Organization *Boulder, Colo. --* The N... more »
Big Education Ape - Morning Wink 5-31 AM Posts #soschat #edreform
*BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS* SRC budget vote to draw protests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 8 minutes ago SRC budget vote to draw protests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: SRC budget vote to draw protests by Benjamin Herold by Benjamin Herold for the *Notebook *and *WHYY/NewsWorks* After months of maneuvering, the School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on a $2.55 billion operating budget for the 2012-13 school year, including a projected $218 million gap that will likely be plugged through deficit borr... more »
SRC budget vote to draw protests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook
SRC budget vote to draw protests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: SRC budget vote to draw protests by Benjamin Herold by Benjamin Herold for the *Notebook *and *WHYY/NewsWorks* After months of maneuvering, the School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on a $2.55 billion operating budget for the 2012-13 school year, including a projected $218 million gap that will likely be plugged through deficit borrowing. But first, parents, advocates, and labor unions – angry at deep cuts to schools this year and fearful of a new “transformation blueprint” that would radically... more »
HechingerEd Blog | Study looks ‘under the hood’ of new teacher-evaluation systems
HechingerEd Blog | Study looks ‘under the hood’ of new teacher-evaluation systems: Study looks ‘under the hood’ of new teacher-evaluation systems by Sarah Garland More and more states are adopting new teacher-evaluation systems in response to a growing consensus that improved teacher quality can spell improved student achievement. The idea is that measuring how teachers perform in the classroom will help schools take the first steps toward helping them get better. But so far, there’s little consensus on the best ways to make those measurements. Many states are moving quickly to la... more »
What a TFA Teacher Learned about Tenure « Diane Ravitch's blog
What a TFA Teacher Learned about Tenure « Diane Ravitch's blog: What a TFA Teacher Learned about Tenure by dianerav I liked a blog I read this morning. It was written by a TFA teacher who came into teaching with a low opinion of tenure. He (and I think it is a he because of the name of his blog) came into teaching sympathetic to the Michelle Rhee claim that tenure is only for the lazy and that real teachers don’t care about it. But after three years of teaching, he expected to win tenure. Unfortunately, the Bloomberg administration was pressuring principals and superintendents to ... more »
The People Shall ... Reinventing Schools as the Commons - Bridging Differences - Education Week
The People Shall ... Reinventing Schools as the Commons - Bridging Differences - Education Week: The People Shall ... Reinventing Schools as the Commons by Deborah Meier Dear Diane, One more word about *The New Jim Crow*. Looking back, I wonder how many of my students had someone in their immediate family in prison or on parole or who was an ex-felon, without rights. Probably most. But it was never a topic of conversation. That's the worst of it for me. Schools should be at least the one place where the great questions of life are on the table. And children have such questions as ... more »
NYC Educator: If Not Now, When?
NYC Educator: If Not Now, When?: If Not Now, When? by Miss Eyre My school's intrepid guidance counselor and I spent yesterday making phone calls to parents--about attendance, Regents tutoring, and classes that students are still failing. As you can imagine, there's a pretty strong link between that first item and the last one. And while I'm sorry to keep harping on this subject, I can't deny that trying to cajole parents into doing their legal duty to educate their children is starting to wear on me and my guidance counselor partner in all this. One young lady whose guardian was... more »
Notorious P.H.D. - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher
Notorious P.H.D. - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: Notorious P.H.D. by Nancy Flanagan A long-time, much-valued reader of *Teacher in a Strange Land*, Carl Rosin of Radnor, Pennsylvania, sent me one of those Emperor-has-no-clothes stories this weekend: The school board in nearby Tredyffrin-Easttown--citing a budget shortfall--is proposing that the most expensive teachers (those with a Ph.D.) be demoted to part-time. Lest readers assume this is a know-nothing school district where pointy-headed intellectualism is derided by the deer-hunter crowd, T/E is a top-pe... more »
Geaux Teacher!: NEW: DEFENDERS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
Geaux Teacher!: NEW: DEFENDERS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: NEW: DEFENDERS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) *IMPORTANT INVITATION:* All readers of The Louisiana Educator are invited to immediately join our new data base of email contacts that I am naming *The Defenders of Public Education*. We need you now! It is 100% free! It is 100% confidential! Just send an email using your preferred email address, and zip code to: * louisianaeducator@gmail.com*. Your zip code will be used to list you and I hope many others according to legislative district so that ... more »
The in box. “No one is grandfathered. No one is protected. Act now.” « Fred Klonsky
The in box. “No one is grandfathered. No one is protected. Act now.” « Fred Klonsky: The in box. “No one is grandfathered. No one is protected. Act now.” by Fred Klonsky From Roger Sanders. *CALL NOW AND DEMAND THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTE NO ON SB 1673* *888-412-6570* *Today there are 70,000 retired teachers and dependents enrolled in the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program that will lose benefits if this bill passes. They will have to choose between current cost of living benefits at a meager 3% or health insurance. If you choose to keep your health insurance, you must agree... more »
Middle class tuition break at UC, CSU | Thoughts on Public Education
Middle class tuition break at UC, CSU | Thoughts on Public Education: Middle class tuition break at UC, CSU - by Kathryn Baron by Kathryn Baron Four Republican legislators crossed party lines in the Assembly on Wednesday, providing the two-thirds vote needed to approve a bill that would create a middle class scholarship program for the state’s public college and university students. AB 1501 is part of a two-bill package called the Middle Class Scholarship Act introduced by Assembly speaker John A. [...] Lawsuit over ‘nonsense’ EL program - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess by ... more »
American Students Are Not Failing « Diane Ravitch's blog
American Students Are Not Failing « Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] American Students Are Not Failing by dianerav It has recently become a humdrum narrative: Our schools are failing, we must reinvent the schools, we must fire the principals and the teachers and start over, we must race to the top, we must have vouchers and charters, we must turn public education over to the business people who tanked the economy in 2008, we must….do something, anything. Fortunately there are sane people in the world, even in the United States. One of them... more »
School Tech Connect
School Tech Connect: Let My People Go by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) I think we could all use a little levity. Popout Just Let Them Go Already noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) at School Tech Connect - 10 hours ago I think we could all use a little levity. Let My People Go noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) at School Tech Connect - 11 hours ago I think we could all use a little levity. Squirrel Duty noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) at School Tech Connect - 14 hours ago I'm busy with the General for a few hours; meanwhile, Jim Broadway has the best updates for what happened in Spring... more »
Standardized Testing Gone Nuts – An Update from Bridgeport, Connecticut - Wait, What?
Standardized Testing Gone Nuts – An Update from Bridgeport, Connecticut - Wait, What?: Standardized Testing Gone Nuts – An Update from Bridgeport, Connecticut by jonpelto It was only a month ago that, fresh off the 2012 state-wide Connecticut Mastery Tests, Bridgeport’s $229,000 part-time superintendent of schools, Paul Vallas, announced that Bridgeport’s students would be given yet another battery of standardized tests at the beginning of June. Despite a massive school budget deficit, in which Vallas was forced to lay-off teachers and other school personnel, it was announced tha... more »
Pass / Fail : ACLU sues Central Valley school district, says they're failing ESL students | 89.3 KPCC
Pass / Fail : ACLU sues Central Valley school district, says they're failing ESL students | 89.3 KPCC: ACLU sues Central Valley school district, says they're failing ESL students The American Civil Liberties Union announced a lawsuit Wednesday against the Central Valley's Dinuba Unified School District, claiming the district is failing its ESL (English as a Second Language) students. About a quarter of California’s students spend time during the day on an English-learner curriculum because they speak another language at home. The ACLU claims the program the Central Valley’s Dinub... more »
What parents say testing is doing to their kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
What parents say testing is doing to their kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: What parents say testing is doing to their kids By Valerie Strauss This *was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.* ** By Carol Corbett Burris The politicians who believe in using tests to judge schools and teacherswill tell you that their efforts are designed to help our nation’s children. How odd it is, then, that they never ask pa... more »
solidaridad: Ron Gochez Lucha para defender su trabajo en Santee Canal 22 May 30 2012
solidaridad: Ron Gochez Lucha para defender su trabajo en Santee Canal 22 May 30 2012: Ron Gochez Lucha para defender su trabajo en Santee Canal 22 May 30 2012 by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene *Ron Gochez, maestro de historia en la escuela Santee, esta luchando para defender su trabajo en ese plantel educativo.* PopoutThe fact that they are trying to do this to one of the best teachers in our district speaks volumes to the dirty political machine that is Los Angeles. PLAS will have an entire angry community to contend with if they try to carry out this travesty. We need a thousand Ro... more »
Schools Matter: Wireless internet: A good investment for schools?
Schools Matter: Wireless internet: A good investment for schools?: Wireless internet: A good investment for schools? by skrashen Is wireless internet a good investment for schools? Sent to Seattle Times, May 30, 2012 Re: “Seattle construction levy may include wireless Internet for all schools,” May 28, 2012. By the time voters in Seattle decide whether they want to spend $11.5 million (that’s about $200 per student) largely to install wireless internet in Seattle schools, wireless connections as we know them now will be different and maybe even obsolete. Remember ethernet? The c... more »
Some Thoughts on Public Schooling and Segregated Cities | Re:education in Baltimore
Some Thoughts on Public Schooling and Segregated Cities | Re:education in Baltimore: Some Thoughts on Public Schooling and Segregated Cities by Edit Barry Cities cleave along racial and ethnic lines, and every city I’ve ever lived in proves it. When I grew up in Manhattan, there was Harlem, which was black. And East Harlem, which was Hispanic. And the Upper East and Upper West sides, which was where I and most of my friends lived. I’m white and they were, too. Over the years, I watched the formerly Jewish Lower East Side, where my grandpa used to own a textile shop with a handful o...more »
Louisiana Educator: Vouchers without Classrooms
Louisiana Educator: Vouchers without Classrooms: Vouchers without Classrooms by Michael Deshotels I hope my readers will read the article linked here by Barbara Leader of the Monroe News Star. It describes the first of many atrocities we can expect as Louisiana's new voucher program is implemented. Please help me check the regulations on this in either Act 2 or in Dept. regulations, but I thought that a private school would not be allowed to offer more than 20% of their seats to voucher students. This article seems to indicate that the student population in this small religious s... more »
English learners lawsuit could affect California school districts - latimes.com
English learners lawsuit could affect California school districts - latimes.com: English learners lawsuit could affect California school districts State officials are neglecting their legal obligation to ensure English learners are receiving an adequate and equal education, says a lawsuit filed Wednesday by advocates that include the ACLU of Southern California. The focus of the litigation is a small school system near Fresno, but the ramifications are much wider, with the potential to affect English learners statewide and to compel the California Department of Education to aggres... more »
theseattlejournal.com » The MOU and Why We Sue
theseattlejournal.com » The MOU and Why We Sue: The MOU and Why We Sue By Kate Martin | 0 comments ADDED MAY 30, 2012, UNDER: EDUCATION *The District Observer is a series at The Seattle Journal covering issues related to Seattle Public Schools.* *This article was written by Jack Whelan.* On June 22, there will be a hearing to decide whether the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding Creative Approach Schools between the district and the SEA, the local teachers union, is legal. This MOU grants the superintendent the right to waive any Board policy while approving the transformati... more »
Geaux Teacher!: TEACHERS' LETTERS TO OBAMA
Geaux Teacher!: TEACHERS' LETTERS TO OBAMA: [image: Visit Me on Facebook:] TEACHERS' LETTERS TO OBAMA by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) I have posted a recent resolution to President Obama from the American Federation of Teachers and an Open Letter to President Obama written in April by the President of the National School Boards Association. In November of *2009* TEACHERS began an initiative of writing letters to Obama. This action was led by National Board Certified Teacher Anthony Cody. It is important to note that TEACHERS were the leaders in recognizing the vag... more »
Madigan hands HB 1673 over to the GOP. But this is a Democratic Party heist. « Fred Klonsky
Madigan hands HB 1673 over to the GOP. But this is a Democratic Party heist. « Fred Klonsky: Madigan hands HB 1673 over to the GOP. But this is a Democratic Party heist. by Fred Klonsky It’s a classic case of Three-card Monty. Or which shell has the pea? Yesterday HB 1673 had two major provisions: A shift of the pension obligation from the state to local school districts. And an attack on retiree pensions. GOP House Leader Tom Cross didn’t like the obligation shift and promised no Republican support. Democratic Governor Pat Quinn wanted the attack on pensions. Democratic Party Chai... more »
UTLA, Warren Fletcher, LAUSD - Perdaily.com
UTLA, Warren Fletcher, LAUSD - Perdaily.com: IF UTLA PRESIDENT, WARREN FLETCHER, CAN'T GUARANTEE TRANSPARENCY, INTEGRITY AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY, EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST A CIRCUS by John Dixon by Leonard Isenberg ** [image: Warren Fletcher.jpeg] *(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)* *The following post is by retired teacher* *John Dixon. There are only a couple of things that he says that I take exception with:* *- There is nothing "controversial" about the motions that somehow disappear, unless you think pro... more »
