Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-23-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2



UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


If I have to take one more of these frigging standardized test, 
I think my head will explode!

GO TO 

"Hey hey. Ho ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!

Thousands of CTU members march up Michigan Avenue to CPS Headquarters after a rally at the Auditorium Theatre. | Scott Stewart~Chicago Sun-Times.
That was the thunderous sound of 5,000 red-clad Chicago union teachers marching past CPS headquarters at Adams & Clark. Just when Rahm thought is was safe to come out of his office after last weekend's NATO Summit fiasco, he once again became the target of working class venom. Speaker after speaker denounced Rahm's ongoing war on teachers. His contract offer was denounced as an "insult."  On every issue, they offered counters to his reform agenda of privatization, charter schools, longer school day,and test-based teacher 

Don’t Talk To Me About Personal Responsibility If …

No, not this again.
“This kid never takes personal responsibility for anything that they ever do. I’m standing there wondering why this kid is literally sleeping in my class, so I walk up to him and tell him to get out of my classroom! The nerve of him to try to get one over on me. I get paid whether or not they do well, but for them to sit there and do nothing? Get out!”
Does she even wonder why … nevermind. I inquire a bit more. She replies,
“Well, he comes in with those stupid cream cheese sandwiches from next door and he thinks he’s going to eat 



CEC 20 resolution supporting boycott of the field tests!


The Community Education Council in District 20 in Brooklyn called a special meeting and unanimously passed a resolution in support of the boycott of the field tests.  Here are articles about this growing movement: GothamSchoolsWSJSchoolBook.Bravo!

Resolution:  In Support of Parents Boycott of Stand-Alone Field Tests

WHEREAS, our children have just spent six days in April taking New York State standardized tests in English and Math, which was nearly double the time 

Meanwhile, Down In Springfield

My heart may have been with the CTU tonight, marching down in the loop against Rahm; however, my butt was on the couch. I was watching the very sad budget debate in the Senate tonight. On the one hand, they're cutting the crap out of everything; on the other hand, they're paying the bills. And by they, I mean the Democrats. The Republicans once again haven't put out a budget, and they won't, because if they put out a budget, people will see that they don't want to have any public programs at all.

I have often criticized Sens. Lightford and Steans, and I will do so again. But tonight, they kicked ass. But this is 

Reynolds teachers strike heads toward fourth day

The Reynolds teachers strike heads into a fourth day as negotiators failed to reach agreement during an all-day bargaining session Wednesday.

L.A. Times, Sacramento Bee sue for officers’ names in UC Davis pepper-spray case

Pepper-spray
The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee filed suit Wednesday against the University of California Board of Regents demanding the release of officers’ names removed from a critical report on the controversial pepper-spraying of UC Davis students.
The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, contends that when university officials agreed in a court settlement last month to redact all but two names they “failed to represent the interests of the press and public,” 



Tenure Hypocrisy Update

When we last left Dr. Janine Walker Caffrey, the Queen of Gutting Tenure, she was demanding that her due process rights be respected by appealing to the ACTING Commissioner to stop her firing by the Perth Amboy school board.

Here's today's chapter of this continuing soap opera:
The dispute between the Perth Amboy Board of Education and the schools superintendent appears to be heading to the state Office of Administrative Law, following the state education commissioner’s latest ruling. 
[...]
For the second time this month, acting state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf ruled 

Memorial Sunday Fun: Me and TFT!

Talk about a Memorial Weekend party!
Jersey Jazzman is the quickest draw in the edublogosphere. Made a stupid comment or tweet -- a Kinsley gaffe?-- Jersey will call you out within minutes on his blog.
Jersey doesn't hold back and he knows his stuff.
This will be an informative, interesting, possibly musical show!
This Sunday, May 27, 8:00 EDT/5:00 PDT. And you can call in and say hi! How cool is that?

TFT does a great show; I really am looking forward to it, and it would be great if some of the regular readers of this blog call in so we can chat.

We all need to do more of this kind of stuff, if only to convince each other we're not just howling at the moon.

See you Sunday!

What does a real teachers union look like? This is what it looks like.

Following a huge rally at the Auditorium Theater, 5,000 Chicago teachers march down Michigan Avenue to CPS headquarters.

The Zombie Al Shanker “Quote”

The one sure sign of an empty educational agenda without real ideas?
Trotting out the apocryphal quote attributed to Al Shanker: “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of children.”
It does not matter how many times this false attribution is killed and buried, the zombie quote comes back to life again and again in the hands of the union-bashing right. When you are guided by ideological dogma, the truth of the claim is unimportant.

LAUSD settles sexual harassment claims against former superintendent Cortines: $200,000 plus benefits



The Los Angeles Unified School District will pay a school district manager $200,000 in cash, along with lifetime benefits, to settle sexual harassment allegations against a former superintendent.

It started two summers ago when senior LAUSD facilities manager Scot Graham and his male partner accepted an invitation from then-Superintendent Ramon Cortines to spend the weekend at Cortines’ Kern County ranch.

Graham says Cortines made inappropriate verbal and physical advances, but Cortines has since said that what happened was "consensual spontaneous adult behavior."

Two months ago, nearly a year after Cortines retired, Graham’s lawyer told the school district he planned to file a


Individual school districts can now compete for federal grants in Race For The Top; good news for LAUSD?


For the first time ever, individual school districts may apply for the Obama Administration’s highly competitive Race to the Top grants — and that could mean good news for Los Angeles Unified.

LAUSD has wanted the money, but it couldn’t get the respect. Just last year, Gov. Jerry Brown refused to support its joint application with public school districts in Long Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento.

A change in the rules means districts that want their reform policies to line up with the Obama administration’s


Bill Introduced: H.R.5789 SLICE Act

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to implement a certain interim final or final rule regarding nutrition programs under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966.

Bill Introduced: S.3173 A bill to allow funds under title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to be used to provide training to school personnel regarding how to recognize child sexual abuse.

A bill to allow funds under title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to be used to provide training to school personnel regarding how to recognize child sexual abuse.

Bill Introduced: H.R.5546 State and Local Funding Flexibility Act

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide States and high-need local educational agencies with flexibility in using Federal funds provided under such Act, and for other purposes.

Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-23-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2










Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-22-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 16 hours ago
*UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE* If I have to take one more of these frigging standardized test, I think my head will explode! *GO TO * *National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing* College Is No Guarantee of Success by Duke Professional blind squirrel Campbell Brown finds a nut: Hardly reassuring words when you look at the reality. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, about 53.6 percent of men and women under the age of 25 who hold bachelor’s degrees were jobless or underemployed last year, the most in at least 11 years. According to the Pew... more »







Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-21-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2