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Thursday, May 31, 2012

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 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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 54 minutes ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 58 minutes ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 59 minutes ago
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?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
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 »

Floridians Critique Jebucation | Truth in American Education

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Floridians Critique Jebucation | Truth in American Education: Floridians Critique Jebucation by Shane Vander Hart [image: Staff]From State Impact: (Jeb) Bush views his policies as tough love. But Orlando’s Linda Kobert has another name for it: Jebucation. Kobert founded the non-profit group Fund Education Now with her neighbors, Christine Bramuchi and Kathleen Oropeza. The moms say they are organizing the French Resistance against Bush’s policies in his home state through e-mail and social media such as Twitter. They cite research from Arizona State University and others which shows ... more »

I Don’t Win Unless You Win, Kid | The Jose Vilson

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
I Don’t Win Unless You Win, Kid | The Jose Vilson: I Don’t Win Unless You Win, Kid by Jose “It doesn’t matter anyway because y’all gonna win before 2:20 anyways.” The three adults stare at each other in frustration. “It’s true, y’all do.” This was one of those times that truly tested this patience thing everyone says I have. It’s the word of a student who’s devolved into playing defense where there are no offenders, walking a tightrope of trouble, playing around with what he thinks is sufficient work to get by. Unfortunately, what happens in all those cases is that kids often underes... more »

Jeb Bush “Doesn’t Really Care” About Criticism | Scathing Purple Musings

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 13 hours ago
Jeb Bush “Doesn’t Really Care” About Criticism | Scathing Purple Musings: Jeb Bush “Doesn’t Really Care” About Criticism by Bob Sikes The media is not as fawning as it one was for Jeb Bush and his years as the nation’s most influential education reformer. He used to draw solo pieces. But not in today’s* State Impact* article by John O’Connor. The former Florida governor had to share the page with three Florida moms who played a big part in defeating him on a key charter school initiative he wanted this spring. Linda Kobert, Christine Bramuchi and Kathleen Oropeza foundedFund Ed... more »

NON UNION TEACHERS LEARN A TOUGH LESSON « Teachers Fight Back

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 13 hours ago
NON UNION TEACHERS LEARN A TOUGH LESSON « Teachers Fight Back: NON UNION TEACHERS LEARN A TOUGH LESSON by alkleen Teachers, administrators and staff at four Chicago charter schools are being laid off because test scores didn’t “measure up”, and the New York based company that manages the schools is being replaced. Supporters of the publicly funded, privately run charter schools say the overhaul shows the flexibility of charters, which can hire and fire staff quickly when scores don’t measure up because teachers aren’t members of a union. I’m sure at least some of the fired teach... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Broward Board Says 'No' to FCAT

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 13 hours ago
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Broward Board Says 'No' to FCAT: Broward Board Says 'No' to FCAT by Mike Klonsky Broward County, the nation's 6th largest school district, has put their T-Party governor on notice. They hate FCAT and Florida's preoccupation with standardized testing. The School Board unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday opposing standardized testing as the primary means for evaluating schools, students and teachers. *"This is destroying public education, destroying the teaching profession and destroying children," School Board member Robin Bartleman said. "The ... more »

Modern School: Brookings Study Indicates Public Education Not So Bad After All

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 15 hours ago
Modern School: Brookings Study Indicates Public Education Not So Bad After All: Brookings Study Indicates Public Education Not So Bad After All by Michael Dunn We're #11 Mofo! And Proud of It! The 10th Brown Center Report (Brookings Institution), which analyzed PISA and other common standardized test scores, debunked two common myths: that the U.S. once led the world in math and science education scores and that it has been declining ever since. In reality, the U.S. has never led the world on international achievement tests, according to the report. The report also found that some... more »



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