UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS

BEFORE NOON HONEST!

NY's sorry results for NAEP science, released today

by Leonie Haimson

Some observations from the just-released NAEP Grade 8 Science Report Cards of 2011, as opposed to the results in 2009:

The percentage of NY students who were identified as proficient or advanced fell from 31 to 29 percent.

The average score remained the same, at 149, while the national average rose from 149 in 2009 to 151 in 2011 -- NY state appears to be losing ground to the nation as a whole.

NY state ranked 26th out of 46 participating states in 2009, but 34th out of 50 in 2011. Once again, our state appears to be losing the race.

Ignoring statistical significance and looking merely at average scores 2009 vs. 2011, 39 states showed

Blatant Tenure Hypocrisy Update

by Duke

It just couldn't get worse, could it?

The battle between the Perth Amboy Board of Education and the superintendent of schools has become so unwieldy that board members on opposing sides could become involved in a separate legal dispute over a comment made during a closed-session meeting.

Board member Kurt Rebovich Jr. is considering his legal options in response to alleged threatening remarks made to him during the board’s private meeting on Monday.

Rebovich said that board member Israel Varela said: “I will go after you just the way I went after Joseph Vas, and I will not let you live and breathe.”

Rebovich, who took the comment as a threat, said he is working with his personal attorneys to explore his legal options, such as ethics or criminal charges.
Vas is the former Perth Amboy mayor serving federal prison time on corruption charges.

Rebovich said the comments were made in front of other board members, as well as the board

Willing Ignorance of Pundits on Education

by Duke

Let's start with Tom Moran, a pit bull who just won't let it go:

The Perth Amboy school board voted again to place Superintendent Janine Caffrey on leave, a move that will stall reform of the schools, waste taxpayer money and lead inevitably to a lawsuit that Caffrey is almost certain to win.

The reason she’ll win is that this move to fire her is based on flimsy grounds and political cat-fighting. Caffrey had the temerity to refuse to make patronage hires,she says, and to cooperate with a state investigation into board president Samuel Lebreault’s improper attempt to get free or reduced-priced lunch for his kids. [emphasis mine]

In the world of Tom Moran's op-ed page, "she says" is as good a confirmation of the truth as anyone needs! After all...

George Bush: "he says" there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Richard Nixon: "he says" he isn't a crook.
OJ Simpson: "he says" the bloody glove doesn't fit.
Barry Bonds: "he says" he never used steroids.
Bill Clinton: "he says" he never had sex with that woman.

Have I made my point yet? Just because "she says" something doesn't make it so. It is your job, Tom, to get off

Book banning, book burnings. Same symptoms, same system.

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now. — Sherman Alexie
Resist Arizona Book Burnings and Racist Attacks on Ethnic Studies everywhere

Resist Arizona Book Burnings and Racist Attacks on Ethnic Studies everywhere

A week or so ago someone on the Southern California Immigration Coalition mailing list reprinted both an old letter and a recent essay from celebrated scholar and author Rodolfo Acuña regarding the neocolonialism and program of cultural suppression in Arizona. I had been wanting to repost them here, but with my schoolboard run and all theother activism I'm neck deep in, I've been too busy to even consider it.
For whatever reason I kept thinking about the Tucson book banning all day and at the same time I kept picturing the Säuberung (maybe because I recently accompanied my

ALEC Board to Vote on Anti-Common Core Standards.

by stlgretchen

So what's your bet on the vote?

There's a big vote tomorrow regarding common core standards:

It's not a vote by the taxpayers to determine if they want them in their states.
It's not a vote by local districts to determine the educational direction for their students.
It's not a vote to rescind the standards by the state boards.
It's not a vote by state legislatures to refuse funding for the unfunded mandates created by the standards.
It's not a vote by Congress to refuse funding for the unfunded mandates.

Those would be the reasonable and constitutional votes by the entities if the rule of law had been followed