Big Education Ape - Morning in Review AM Posts
Modern School: Who Is Profiting From the Common Core Standards?
Modern School: Who Is Profiting From the Common Core Standards?: Who Is Profiting From the Common Core Standards? by Michael Dunn Common Core Standards (CCS) is one of the fastest growing Ed Deforms, with over 30 states already having adopted them in hopes of winning relatively small Race to the Top grants from the Obama administration. The basis for the “reform” is the presumption that all U.S. children should be learning the same things and all American teachers should be accountable for teaching the same things. While this might seem a no brainer, it turns out that standards we...more »
Missouri Education Watchdog: Turner Decision Sends MO Legislators Back To the Drawing Board
Missouri Education Watchdog: Turner Decision Sends MO Legislators Back To the Drawing Board: Turner Decision Sends MO Legislators Back To the Drawing Board by Anngie In an unusual ruling yesterday judge David Lee Vincent III ruled in favor of the Clayton School District saying that students did not have the right to transfer to accredited districts for free. The ruling hinges on the last two words in that sentence. Judge Vincent said that the Hancock Amendment, which prevents the state from creating unfunded mandates, makes it impossible for school districts to comply with the stud... more »
Column: Teach black and Hispanic students differently – USATODAY.com
Column: Teach black and Hispanic students differently – USATODAY.com: Column: Teach black and Hispanic students differently By Richard Whitmire Updated 16h 3m ago - Comments - - - - - - In late March, a panel of 10 education experts gathered in Washington to nominate four most-improved urban school districts for a national education prize. What should have been a routine review of student data, however, suddenly took a new direction. - [image: In Tyler, Texas: Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance.] 2003 photo by Mario Villafuerte, Getty Ima... more »
Misreading the Achievement Gap: A Tale of Bi-Partisan Failure | Education | AlterNet
Misreading the Achievement Gap: A Tale of Bi-Partisan Failure | Education | AlterNet: Misreading the Achievement Gap: A Tale of Bi-Partisan Failure It's not student achievement, but student equity that should concern us, says this Professor of Education. *May 2, 2012* | *Photo Credit: John Steel | Shutterstock.com* LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest Education headlines via email. It took about twenty years, and then another secondary ten years, but the hysterical and misleading *A Nation at Risk* under the Reagan admi... more »
Louisiana Educator: A Day In the Field
Louisiana Educator: A Day In the Field: A Day In the Field by Michael Deshotels I spent a whole day yesterday visiting schools and talking to principals and teachers. I was able to visit the high poverty school featured recently in the national blog *Teacher in a Strange Land.* What a treat! Last year this school was considered a failing school and was close to being taken over by the state. Most children were performing as very low levels and some suffered from neglect, abuse and handicaps. All the students are high poverty. Instead of being taken over, the school was allowed to ... more »
Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?] « School Finance 101
Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?] « School Finance 101: Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?] by schoolfinance101 [image: DON'T SELL OUT AMERICA] *…Directly Publicly Subsidized, Limited Public Access, Publicly or Privately Authorized, Publicly or Privately Governed, Managed and Operated Schools* Let’s break it down: *Directly publicly subsidized* Charter schools are directly subsidized by a combination of (primarily) state and local tax dollars (state dependent) transferred to charter schools on the basis of their enrollments. This funding is... more »
Blue Jersey:: NJDOE Coup d'Etat
Blue Jersey:: NJDOE Coup d'Etat: NJDOE Coup d'Etat by Jersey Jazzman A couple of bombshells dropped out of the NJ DOE yesterday. First, from Kevin Shelley at the Courier-Post: CAMDEN - A secret Department of Education proposal called for the state to intervene in the city's school district by July 1, closing up to 13 city and charter schools.But while reserving the right to exercise his "statutory authority," Gov. Chris Christie has no plans to enact the DOE scenario, according to his spokesman. "It never made its way to the governor's office," said Michael Drewniak. No one from ... more »
A Lose-Lose Deal: Timid Leadership Yields Half-Baked Policies :: Frederick M. Hess
A Lose-Lose Deal: Timid Leadership Yields Half-Baked Policies :: Frederick M. Hess: A Lose-Lose Deal: Timid Leadership Yields Half-Baked Policies *by Frederick M. Hess • May 2, 2012 at 8:44 am Cross-posted from Education Week* Print Send RSS [image: Share] Share Readers may know that I'm currently finishing the manuscript of my *Cage-Busting Leadership* book for Harvard Education Press, with the crack assistance of Whitney Downs (who coauthored this post). Writing the book has made it clear that one major problem with leaders failing to take advantage of the operational freedoms ... more »
Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform by Valerie Strauss This was *written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. The item was first published on May 1. In their blog, Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critiq... more »
USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles | Truth in American Education
USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles | Truth in American Education: USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles by Shane Vander Hart A balanced article by Greg Toppo of USA Today. Here’s a not so balanced excerpt as I wanted to point out the CCSS critics: Also in February, Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless issued research calling into question whether the Common Core would have much of an effect. He noted that state standards have done little to equalize academic achievement within states. The reaction, he says, was “like... more »
Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy? | Get Schooled
Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy? | Get Schooled: Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy? by Maureen Downey [image: In poor rural counties, there is not much for teens to do with an extra day off, a fact that worries health officials. (AP Image)]In poor rural counties, there is not much for teens to do with an extra day off, a fact that worries health officials. (AP Image) A big question about four-day school weeks — a budget solution that several Georgia systems adopted to cut
OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools
OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools: OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 10:11 pm in Uncategorized1 Comment It’s election week for the Oakland teachers union, and that has extra significance this year. Betty Olson-Jones, the Oakland teachers union president since 2006 (since I’ve been covering Oakland schools!), has reached her term limit. She’ll be succeeded by Mark Airgood or Trish Gorham, who are running to replace her. Olson-Jones has endorsed Gorham — as well a... more »
Blue Jersey:: Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure
Blue Jersey:: Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure: Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure by A New Jersey Farmer *Cross-posted at A New Jersey Farmer*Are we really going to have to go through this every time a so-called education reformer gets kicked in the head by politics? Evidently so. Case in point? The Passion of Perth Amboy Superintendent of Schools Janine Walker Caffrey as related by the Gospel of Tom Moran in Sunday's Newark Star-Ledger. When we last left the story, Moran was singing Caffrey's praises as someone who was trying to get rid of ineffective teachers in h... more »
Schools Matter: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry
Schools Matter: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry by P. L. Thomas At *The New Republic*, "Making the Grade" poses this about the difference between college professors (notice that term "professor," as in "one who professes") and K-12 teachers: "The vast majority of states have long granted public school teachers tenure. The way it works is simple: After a certain number of years, teachers qualify—'virtually automatically' in most states, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality—for a form of job protection that makes it extremely diff... more »
The Educated Reporter: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools
The Educated Reporter: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools by Emily Richmond The latest installment in the *Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s* ongoing series examining suspicious test scores has cast a pall on the federal “Blue Ribbon Schools” program, which recognizes campuses that demonstrate dramatic improvement among at-risk students. As part of its “Cheating Our Children” investigation, the AJC previou... more »
NYC Educator: Not My Job, Man
NYC Educator: Not My Job, Man: Not My Job, Man by NYC Educator That's essentially the DOE policy on Facebook and social networking. They recommend you not friend your students. No, wait, they STRONGLY recommend you not do so. I recommend the same, to tell you the truth. But my motivations are quite different. I think it's a bad idea because it's entirely possible your Facebook comments could be printed out and sitting on the principal's desk the next time you get called in for a friendly chat. Do you really want to explain why you chose that particular string of obscenities? Did y... more »
UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4) - Perdaily.com
UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4) - Perdaily.com: UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4) by Leonard Isenberg [image: UTLA Large.jpeg] *(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) * *While no union wants to go on strike, it must be the real threat of a strike that causes management- in this case LAUSD- to bargain in good faith. The fact that UTLA has never organized its rank and file and sees itself as an adjunct of LAUSD makes it a de facto non-union that adds insult to injury by collecting monthly dues for services as a... more »
Geaux Teacher!: One Community, One School District -
Geaux Teacher!: One Community, One School District -: One Community, One School District - by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) Got this notice from Hanna Wilems in Baton Rouge. A group of parents have orchestrated a well-organized attempt to break a few schools (magnet types I believe) away from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. If you click on the link to the web site you will see a fantastic brochure that *One Community, One School District *has put together with excellent support for retaining the schools within the EBRPSS. April 18 Hannah Dober Wilems ...more »
Daily Kos: Something to consider about May 2
Daily Kos: Something to consider about May 2: Something to consider about May 2 by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) On this date in 1933, Hitler banned unions in Germany. When we read anti-union rhetoric from various sources, which unfortunately includes some supposed Democrats when they talk about education, we should remember that tyrants do not like unions because they provide a way for ordinary workers to organize as a substantial economic and politic force. Without unions employers of all sorts are often able to put downward pressure on wages and benefits. Without unions, most unio...more »
Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps" | National Education Policy Center
Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps" | National Education Policy Center: Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps" Share by Paul Thomas May 1, 2012 - Paul Thomas - Achievement Measurement - School Reform and Restructuring It took about twenty years, and then another secondary ten years, but the hysterical and misleading *A Nation at Risk* under the Reagan administration successfully kicked off three decades of public school accountability. In the beginning, the hysteria revolved around several points that were factually inaccurate, but publicly ef... more »
Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money | Scathing Purple Musings
Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money | Scathing Purple Musings: Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money by Bob Sikes If Florida’s legislators are ever shamed into ending their charter school favoritism, *Miami Herald*reporters Kathleen McGrory and Scott Haisson will have played a role. The two investigative journalists were joined by colleague Shiaa Sen last weekend in a story which exposed the policy of double-dipping federal grant money by declaring two schools exist withi... more »
Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients by larrycuban The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems (CMS) and private insurers have identified numerous pay-for-performance measures, confirmed in large part by evidence-based medicine, and implemented them in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. For example, there are process measures for hypertension and heart disease where, for example, periodic readings of patient’ blood pressure and blood sugar levels a...more »
NYC public school teachers get robust new social media guidelines Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC
Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC: NYC public school teachers get robust new social media guidelines NYC public school teachers get robust new social media guidelines By Tami Abdollah | 12:07 p.m. | Add your comments [image: Facebook's Influence In Consumer Consumption Of News Growing] Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The Facebook website is shown on a laptop. The growing use of social media has led school districts across the country to examine their policies for teacher-student contact online. New York City put out its first social media guidelines for public school teachers this week urging tea... more »
NYC Public School Parents: Cuomo's Lone School Board Appointee to Education Reform Panel
NYC Public School Parents: Cuomo's Lone School Board Appointee to Education Reform Panel: Cuomo's Lone School Board Appointee to Education Reform Panel by Patrick J. Sullivan Governor Cuomo's new blue-ribbon school reform commission has been criticized for its lack of parents, teachers and school board members. But as Gotham Schools pointed out here, Cuomo did appoint one school board member, Eduardo Marti, my colleague on the NYC citywide school board, a.k.a the Panel for Educational Policy. As is typical for the eight-member mayoral bloc on the Panel, Marti has generally remai... more »
LAUSD issues notice of violations to Birmingham charter school, first step in revoking charter - LA Daily News
LAUSD issues notice of violations to Birmingham charter school, first step in revoking charter - LA Daily News: LAUSD issues notice of violations to Birmingham charter school, first step in revoking charter By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer Posted: 05/01/2012 05:38:51 PM PDT Updated: 05/01/2012 06:54:01 PM PDT Birmingham Community Charter High School has until May 23 to respond to concerns that it mishandled admissions, expulsions and claims of racial bias as it fights to prevent Los Angeles Unified from retaking control of the campus. The LAUSD board issued a notice of violations ... more »
BLAMING TEACHERS « Teachers Fight Back
BLAMING TEACHERS « Teachers Fight Back: BLAMING TEACHERS by alkleen A Golden Chalk Award goes to Paul Easton an English teacher at New Trier High School. He managed to get the Chicago Tribune to publish his opinion piece in the editorial page. I’ve been trying to do so for some time without success. His piece sums up a great deal of what I have been saying about the Tribune. The following is the editorial: “I’m ceaselessly amazed at how the oligarchic Tribune editorial board can on one hand call public teachers as lazy, union-protected unprofessionals and – sometimes using the... more »
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Cuts Ties to ALEC | MyFDL
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Cuts Ties to ALEC | MyFDL: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Cuts Ties to ALEC by Rebekah Wilce [image: Teacher's Certificate]The national certifying body for teachers in the United States, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), participated in the Education Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until April 2012. In an official statement sent to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) today, NBPTS spokesperson Brian Lewis said, “Given recent events, the new NBPTS ... more »
Schools Matter: A Cog in the Wheel of Charters in Connecticut
Schools Matter: A Cog in the Wheel of Charters in Connecticut: A Cog in the Wheel of Charters in Connecticut by Judy Rabin Finally, a modicum of sanity in the insane asylum of education deform has emerged in Connecticut over turnaround schools. It appears Senate Democrats did their homework and stopped drinking the ALEC Kool-Aid. Instead, they are proposing charter schools should not be a solution for any school turnaround plan because they only lead to further privatization and are no better than public schools. Charter school advocates in Connecticut are "stunned and angry." ...more »
celebrate asian pacific american heritage month
celebrate asian pacific american heritage month: *celebrate asian pacific american heritage month* Hey, it's May. And you know what that means. It's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Originally established by a Congressional Resolution as Asian American Heritage Week in 1978, APAHM is a celebration of the contributions and accomplishments of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Yay. I don't know about you, but for me, it's pretty much always APA Heritage Month -- and I'm always celebrating. I guess this is just the month when everybody else is supp... more »
Modern School: It May Be May Day, But My Students Trump All Else!
Modern School: It May Be May Day, But My Students Trump All Else!: It May Be May Day, But My Students Trump All Else! by Michael Dunn Today Fred Klonsky wrote, “It may be May Day, but I’ve got kids to teach.” He admitted that he could have used a personal day to join the National General Strike called by OWS for today, but insisted that “I’ve got kids to teach.” He admitted that he will take the day off later this week to go to Springfield to lobby on behalf of his union, but today he has 4th grade paper mâché projects. I don’t begrudge Fred for blowing off the General Strike. ... more »