James Baldwin said it best:
"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."
A Big Education Ape Nite Cap
Daily Kos: Romney Horse Wins Spot on Olympic Dressage Team
Daily Kos: Romney Horse Wins Spot on Olympic Dressage Team: Romney Horse Wins Spot on Olympic Dressage Team by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) GLADSTONE, N.J. — Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, who plan to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in London this summer, now have a personal rooting interest in the event.Jan Ebeling, Mrs. Romney’s longtime riding tutor, and his horse Rafalca, co-owned by Mrs. Romney, earned a berth on the United States Olympic dressage team on Saturday. Those are the two opening paragraphs of this New York Times story, posted this evening.So I wonder. Do... more »
Oakland School Closures: Sign the petition! | Dailycensored.com
Oakland School Closures: Sign the petition! | Dailycensored.com: Oakland School Closures: Sign the petition! by Danny Weil “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.” ~ Mark Twain People’s School for Public Education... *People’s School for Public Education* http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/i-support-the-lakeview-sit-in/ Every child deserves a quality neighborhood public school. The district has the power to keep Lakeview, Santa Fe, Marshall, Max... more »
Visioning Many Educational Paths | Lefty Parent
Visioning Many Educational Paths | Lefty Parent: Visioning Many Educational Paths by Cooper Zale Angelajean and I founded our Daily KOS “Educational Alternatives” group because we both believe that our youth (and their families) would be much better served in their development if they had a wide range of educational options. Currently there are very few such options available to most young people, particularly those from families without the economic means to have sufficient discretionary income to spend on private schools. I wanted to restate the group’s goal, to hopefully recruit... more »
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Pro-Charter Campaign Started
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Pro-Charter Campaign Started: Pro-Charter Campaign Started by Melissa Westbrook [image: DON'T SELL OUT AMERICA] A bit tepid, their website. It's called - big surprise - "Yes on 1240". (Interestingly, a web designer I know told me "No on 1240" domain name is taken - very clever. Only I don't think anyone would want it because, as the designer pointed out, it would read in the URL "noon1240".) There are several things to note about this website: There is *NO* link to the actual initiative. Why wouldn't you want people to be able to read what yo... more »
The future is now, in Louisiana, if corporate reformers get their way « Parents Across America
The future is now, in Louisiana, if corporate reformers get their way « Parents Across America: The future is now, in Louisiana, if corporate reformers get their way by leoniehaimson Louisiana’s Governor is the radical right-winger Bobby Jindal, and its State Superintendent John White, trained under the Voldemort of education reform, Joel Klein. It has a state board of education whose most recently elected member is the state director of TFA, who ran a campaign funded by billionaire Bloomberg. Today, Diane Ravitch wrote about the philosophy behind Jindal and White’s privatizatio... more »
Portland's high dropout rate reveals illusion of success at big high schools (Diplomas denied, Part 1) | OregonLive.com
Portland's high dropout rate reveals illusion of success at big high schools (Diplomas denied, Part 1) | OregonLive.com: Portland's high school dropout rate runs high at alternative schools (Diplomas denied, Part 1) by Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian [image: dropgraphic1.jpg] Portland Public Schools turns out more than 1,100 dropouts every year, largely because leaders have hidden that rampant failure from those best positioned to prevent it, an analysis by The Oregonian has found. That consigns one of every three young people who enter a Portland high school to a life of reduced ea... more »
This is what democracy looks like. « Fred Klonsky
This is what democracy looks like. « Fred Klonsky: This is what democracy looks like. by Fred Klonsky During the final weeks of the Illinois legislative session I sent dozens of emails and made dozens of phone calls to my state House Representative Toni Berrios. Yesterday I received a postcard from her in which she, or most likely someone on her staff, responded by writing the word, “pension.” This is what democracy looks like in Illinois. For Matt Farmer: JC Brizard has dreams of Eddie Cochrane. by Fred Klonsky
Open Letter to President Obama, Time to Do What's Right for our Schools - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
Open Letter to President Obama, Time to Do What's Right for our Schools - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Open Letter to President Obama, Time to Do What's Right for our Schools by Anthony Cody Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody As the summer approaches, it is time for teachers to once again let President Obama know where we stand on his education policies. Two and a half years ago we wrote letters. Last summer we marched in front of the White House. This August the Save Our Schools convention will gather activists once again, to build a platform of principles for ... more »
Are Compliant Teachers Exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher
Are Compliant Teachers Exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: Are Compliant Teachers Exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome? by Nancy Flanagan *My last blog, on the preponderance of male voices and thinking running the ed-policy show, hit several nerves. Among the most interesting points made here, on Twitter, Facebook pages and blogs, was the assertion made by an Indiana teacher who calls himself Horace Mann. "Horace" suggested that both male and female teachers were subject to a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, eager to please their bosses and ma... more »
The financialization of education: the next economic crisis | Dailycensored.com
The financialization of education: the next economic crisis | Dailycensored.com: The financialization of education: the next economic crisis by Danny Weil Sometimes one cannot believe the news, not for fear of it being misinformation or disinformation, but for the startling and unsettling horror stories that appear more than occasionally these days. This one is especially morbid. Marian Wang, a reporter for *Nation for Change*, wrote an excellent article about a grieving father and his struggles to pay his dead son’s student loans ( http://www.nationofchange.org/grieving-father-s... more »
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Petitions May Start Appearing Near You
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Petitions May Start Appearing Near You: Charter Petitions May Start Appearing Near You by Melissa Westbrook The judge in Superior Court heard the challenge to Initiative 1240 yesterday and rejected most of WEA's reasoning (with a few tweaks). Stand for Children issued a statement saying all the changes from the WEA had been rejected but apparently they don't bother to keep up with what actually happens in court. They say they will use a combination of volunteer and paid signature gatherers (but there is no legal way to find out how ma... more »
Missouri Education Watchdog: Showing Initiative Used to be a Good Thing - Maybe Not So Much Anymore
Missouri Education Watchdog: Showing Initiative Used to be a Good Thing - Maybe Not So Much Anymore: Showing Initiative Used to be a Good Thing - Maybe Not So Much Anymore by Anngie Initiatives -another name for newly formed, soon to be mandatory, programs that you are probably not going to like. On C-Span this week Hillary Clinton and S.M. Krishna, Indian External Affairs Minister, gave a joint press conference on the issue of U.S.-India Relations. In the press conference, Hillary mentioned Obama's "Knowledge Initiative". For those unfamiliar, you can find more about it on the... more »
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Hedge-fund school reformer Griffin says 'ultra-wealthy' have too little influence
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Hedge-fund school reformer Griffin says 'ultra-wealthy' have too little influence: Hedge-fund school reformer Griffin says 'ultra-wealthy' have too little influence by Mike Klonsky Griffin You wouldn't think that Mitt Romney could saunter into Barack Obama's home town and raise millions in one night and walk away unscathed. But that's exactly what he did. Here's how. Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, Chicago's second richest man (behind Sam Zell) and a major player in Chicago's corporate-style school reform, raised thousands for both Barack Ob... more »
Nothing here about hoping to be granted a seat at the table. « Fred Klonsky
Nothing here about hoping to be granted a seat at the table. « Fred Klonsky: Nothing here about hoping to be granted a seat at the table. by Fred Klonsky I lifted this entirely from the blog Tuttle SVC: Note to the AFT & NEA Glenn Greenwald: Throughout the Obama presidency, one of the most vocal and demanding factions in the Democratic Party base has been activists for gay and lesbian equality. They repeatedly protested at Obama events and even at the White House, complained loudly about Obama’s broken promises, and even threatened to boycott Obama’s re-election campaign by withh... more »
Reblog Diane Ravitch – How Idiotic is VAM? Very. « Continuing Change
Reblog Diane Ravitch – How Idiotic is VAM? Very. « Continuing Change: How Idiotic Is VAM? Very. by gatorbonbc Reblogged from Diane Ravitch's blog: One of my favorite bloggers is Anthony Cody. Anthony is an experienced teacher of science in California. I always learn by reading his blog “Living in Dialogue.” He recently offered his column to a teacher in Florida to explain how his or her evaluation was affected by “value-added modeling” or VAM. The idea behind VAM is that teachers should be evaluated based on the rise or fall of their students’ test scores. Read more… 469 more wor... more »
Group meets to protest upheaval in Algiers charter schools | NOLA.com
Group meets to protest upheaval in Algiers charter schools | NOLA.com: [image: nola.com] Group meets to protest upheaval in Algiers charter schoolsPublished: Friday, June 15, 2012, 9:24 PM Updated: Friday, June 15, 2012, 9:24 PM [image: Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune] By *Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune * Turmoil in the *Algiers Charter Schools Association* drew dozens of people to a meeting on Friday designed to seek ways of pushing back against unfolding changes. They protested *moves by interim managers to shake up the network's principal corps* by transferring some campus le... more »
Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee: Vouchers can make me rich | PennLive.com
Michelle Rhee: Vouchers can level playing field | PennLive.com: There are two things that I think could happen among the big business community in Pennsylvania that would potentially change the education game. Michelle Rhee, with StudentsFirst, is an education reform advocate. 06/12/2012 DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News The first is a simple one: Advocate for the policies that you want to be in place in your own life. I guarantee you that you don’t run your organization anything like the way public school systems run their organizations. Let me give you an example. Right now, we don... more »
Diane Ravitch on education & the election; Lori Wallach on leaked trade memo
Diane Ravitch on education & the election; Lori Wallach on leaked trade memo: Diane Ravitch on education & the election; Lori Wallach on leaked trade memo *CounterSpin (6/15/12-6/21/12)* [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Listen: [mp3] [RealAudio not avalailable] Note: Please feel free to download the mp3 by right-clicking the mp3 link and choose the "Save Target As" function. This week on CounterSpin: With candidates from both parties supporting corporate-minded education reform to varying degrees, and with media often skittish about stepping outside the box of th... more »
The wrong and right way to learn a foreign language - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
The wrong and right way to learn a foreign language - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: The wrong and right way to learn a foreign language By Valerie Strauss This *was written by linguist Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, is an educational researcher and activist. He has written hundreds of articles and books in the fields of second language acquisition, bilingual education, and reading.* By Stephen Krashen In a recent issue of the Washington Post Express, Andrew Eil, a staffer who works at the U.S. State Department on internation... more »
Florida PTA Supports Resolution Efforts Against High Stakes Testing; Meanwhile, Gerard Robinson’s Meltdown Continues | Scathing Purple Musings
Florida PTA Supports Resolution Efforts Against High Stakes Testing; Meanwhile, Gerard Robinson’s Meltdown Continues | Scathing Purple Musings: Florida PTA Supports Resolution Efforts Against High Stakes Testing; Meanwhile, Gerard Robinson’s Meltdown Continues by Bob Sikes From Orange County’s (Orlando) PTA Councils: Florida PTA, along with our parent National PTA, supports recent Resolution efforts against high-stakes testing. PTA’s long-standing position is, in summary. PTA opposes the use of a national, mandated, standardized test as the sole criterion for measuring a school ... more »
Jersey Jazzman: It's Not About Reform; It's About the Reformers
Jersey Jazzman: It's Not About Reform; It's About the Reformers: It's Not About Reform; It's About the Reformers by Duke Exactly one year ago today, I wrote something I have thought, from time to time, about taking back. This was right after Derrell Bradford announced he was leaving E3 to start B4K, NJ's premiere anti-tenure lobbying shop. I thought it was important to point how ridiculous it was for Bradford to have any power to move education policy: Derrell is a spectacularly unqualified member of Christie's task force in charge of screwing teachers eliminating tenure. He live... more »
The Gates Foundation, a smart ALEC and more charter school abuses | Seattle Education
The Gates Foundation, a smart ALEC and more charter school abuses | Seattle Education: The Gates Foundation, a smart ALEC and more charter school abuses by seattleducation2011 There was so much to report this week that I decided to break down the update into two parts. So on to Weekly Update, Part 2: As I stated in a previous post, there was an Innovation Schools bill that passed through Olympia this year and was heralded by both sides of the aisle as a step forward in school innovation and was also seen as a way to sidestep the issue of charter schools. What many did not realize i... more »
Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky
Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky: ' Saturday coffee. by Fred Klonsky The joke each June as school ends is that every day is Saturday. This is not quite true since it takes a week or two for my internal clock to reset. To stop waking up at 5AM. To stop making me sleepy at 9:30 PM. Years ago I would build something the first week of summer break. Like a planter box. I’m no handyman. But with a drill and a saw I can build things that have straight lines and corners. This is a perfect skill for building planter boxes for our backyard. And once I had built one, I was done for the summer.... more »
Reformers vs. Democracy « Diane Ravitch's blog
Reformers vs. Democracy « Diane Ravitch's blog: Reformers vs. Democracy by dianerav One thing reformers don’t like is to hear from teachers or parents or the public. We see the same pattern repeated again and again. Reform can only be successful when power is consolidated in the hands of the mayor, preferably when the mayor has a puppet board appointed by him and that serves at his pleasure. (See New York City.) Reform can only be successful when it is rammed through the Legislature with a minimum of public notice and a minimum of public hearings. Fast action means no public delibe... more »
Blue Jersey:: Tenure Agonistes
Blue Jersey:: Tenure Agonistes: Tenure Agonistes by A New Jersey Farmer *Great post from a couple days ago - promoted by Rosi*I understand at this point that Governor Christie is competing only against himself, but how many misleading, incomplete ideas can one person have? If he had more than his ALEC talking points we might be able to have a conversation, but his comments yesterday were truly, amazingly wrong. In case you missed them: The Christie push came at one of his town hall meetings, this one before more than 600 people in a Haddonfield middle school. He again invoked the ... more »
Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics
Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics: Hey Bridgeport; Vallas Has Your Credit Card and He’s Going Wild (Part I of II) by jonpelto Faced with a 1.5 percent school budget deficit this year, Bridgeport’s Mayor Bill Finch traded the democratic rights of his constituents for a $3.4 million “loan” from Stefan Pryor, Governor Malloy’s education commissioner. Meanwhile, few are even aware that Paul Vallas, Bridgeport’s part-rime, interim superintendent of schools, is locking the tax... more »
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 6-16-12
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: BELVEDERE MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER DEFENDS HIS TEACHING AFTER ROCKY SUPERINTENDENT VISIT smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 14 hours ago By Tami Abdollah, Pass / Fail, KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/M7VWac Tami Abdollah/KPCC :: Superintendent John Deasy walks through an economics classroom at Los Angeles High School during a surprise visit. Jun 12, 2012 :: Remember Carlos Tejada? He's the 7th-grade teacher whose classroom Superintendent John Deasy angrily walked out of during a surprise visit to Belvedere Middle School in C... more »
This Week's Answer Sheet 6-16-12 - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post
The Answer Sheet - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post: [image: Answer Sheet] Has Title IX, now 40 years old, harmed male athletics? Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago A new report on Title IX, the landmark civil rights law passed 40 years ago that barred gender discrimination in education for all students, says that a great deal of progress in improving educational opportunities for girls has been made, but more work needs to be done. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [... more »
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 6-16-12 #SOSCHAT
Diane Ravitch's blog: *LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG * *Diane Ravitch's blog* [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Idaho Has A Great Teacher dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 13 minutes ago I got a comment from an elementary school teacher in Idaho. She sounds like the kind of teacher I would want for my grandchild, who starts first grade this September. She knows what matters most. She reminds me of Mrs. Ratliff, the high school English teacher whom I wrote about in my last book. I [...] A Parent’s Advice to the CTU dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 hou... more »
This Week's Education Research Report 6-16-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Education Research Report: This Week's Education Research Report Early learning about spatial relationships boosts understanding of numbers Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 22 hours ago Children who are skilled in understanding how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects also have an advantage when it comes to learning the number line and solving math problems, research at the University of Chicago shows. The work is further evidence of the value of providing young children with early opportunities in spatial learning, which contributes to their abilit... more »
Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN
Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN: Top Content Rank1[image: Are you attending ISTE12? Who else will be there?]Are you attending ISTE12? Who else will be there? Posted by Thomas Whitby on May 16, 2012 2[image: Skype in the Classroom]Skype in the Classroom Posted by Liz Anderson on May 27, 2012 3[image: Who Else Dreams About Creating a New Reality for Public Education?]Who Else Dreams About Creating a New Reality for Public Education? Added by Nikki Stansfield on June 3, 2012 4[image: BYOD in the 21st Century]BYOD in the 21st Century Added by Marc-André Lalande on June 6, 2012 5... more »
NYC Educator: Something Worth Considering
NYC Educator: Something Worth Considering: Something Worth Considering by NYC Educator Please take a few minutes to watch this, and feel free to comment on it. If anything, it would appear the "reform" movement is exacerbating the situation. Popout
Florida Charter School’s Aren’t Being Held Accountable | Scathing Purple Musings
Florida Charter School’s Aren’t Being Held Accountable | Scathing Purple Musings: Florida Charter School’s Aren’t Being Held Accountable by Bob Sikes A memorable exchange took place in February 2011 between two powerful Florida senators during a committee debate on Senate Bill 736, which ushered in Florida’s new teacher-evaluation system. Nan Rich, a Sunrise Democrat, suggested it might be more prudent to wait for the results of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded pilot program to develop effective teachers in Hillsborough County public schools before surging blindly forwa... more »
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning Programs Taskforce and Its Work
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning Programs Taskforce and Its Work: Advanced Learning Programs Taskforce and Its Work by Melissa Westbrook When you get asked (or you apply) to be on one of these committees, it's always important to remember that it's not about you. Being on a committee means trying to be part of a team and find like-minded options and solutions to bear on the problem you are trying to solve (or at least help). Many times it means biting your tongue and yes, even sometimes, going along to get along. It has been my experience that a key to succ... more »
Education: The Past, the Present and the Future « Cooperative Catalyst
Education: The Past, the Present and the Future « Cooperative Catalyst: Education: The Past, the Present and the Future by Paula White Recently I read an article from District Administrator magazine entitled, “The Three New Pillars of 21st Century Learning” What happens when our basic assumptions about schooling no longer apply? and it began: *The textbook, The lecturer and the classroom are three pillars of modern-day schooling that date back hundreds of years. Each was invented to solve a problem. The t... more »
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: “Learning 2 Spell” Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 hour ago Learning 2 Spell is a new free site that provides a series of spelling tests that learners can take. Teachers or parents can enroll individual children and track their progress. There’s a limited amount of content on the site now, … Continue reading → Research Studies Of The Week Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be a... more »
School Tech Connect: Good Advice From Monty Neil
School Tech Connect: Good Advice From Monty Neil: Good Advice From Monty Neil by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) Monty Neil just advised everyone in this testing webinar to see *From August To June. * Haven't seen it myself but it's on my list now. Popout
OUR Children OUR Classrooms: Is teacher churn undermining real education reform in D.C.?
OUR Children OUR Classrooms: Is teacher churn undermining real education reform in D.C.?: Is teacher churn undermining real education reform in D.C.? By Mark Simon, Friday, posted in The Washington Post, June 15, 5:02 PM I suppose the leaders of D.C. Public Schools want me to be happy that social studies teacher Kerry Sylvia won’t be coming back to Cardozo Senior High next year. The sound bite sounded appealing when DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced recently in her new strategic plan that one way to improve graduation rates is to focus on teacher talent — to remove bad ... more »
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-15-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-14-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-13-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-12-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-12-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-11-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-10-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-9-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-8-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-7-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-6-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-5-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-4-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-3-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-15-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-14-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-13-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-12-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-12-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-11-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-10-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-9-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-8-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-7-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-6-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-5-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-4-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-3-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2