BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS
“You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat!” - Arlington, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators
“You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat!” - Arlington, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators: “You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat!” “You're gonna need a bigger boat!” -Police Chief Brody, *Jaws* Three able men are shoveling chum out into the water to attract the menace terrorizing their beaches. Suddenly an image begins to take form beneath the water, circling the small fishing vessel. They assess they are looking at a 25-foot, three ton tiger shark. Police Chief Martin Brody exclaims, “You're gonna need a bigger boat!” A patently ... more »
The Future of Public Schools in Arizona? « Diane Ravitch's blog
The Future of Public Schools in Arizona? « Diane Ravitch's blog: The Future of Public Schools in Arizona? by dianerav Robin Hiller of Tucson’s Voices for Education writes that while it is true that charters in Arizona represent 25% of all schools in the state, they enroll only 9% of the state’s children. The 25% number is misleading, because we have charters that have 17 students and public high schools that have 3,000. In 2008, Arizona had 1,480 ‘traditional’ K-12 and 477 charter schools. But according to the Arizona Dept of Ed and reports from each county’s superintendent’s off... more »
AJC investigation: Dropouts in Georgia far higher than reported. Can we fix it? | Get Schooled
AJC investigation: Dropouts in Georgia far higher than reported. Can we fix it? | Get Schooled: AJC investigation: Dropouts in Georgia far higher than reported. Can we fix it? by Maureen Downey In a front page Sunday investigation, *the AJC shares its discovery *– learned through open records requests — that 30,751 students in the Class of 2011 left high school without a diploma, nearly double the 15,590 initially reported. The jarring difference owes to new federal requirements for counting dropouts, requirements that now put the onus on systems to track students who disappear.... more »
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-19-12 Diane Ravitch's blog
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] What Happens to Charters That Recruit Needy Children? by dianerav When the charter idea was first proposed, in 1988, the idea was that charters would enroll the students who were failing, for whatever reason, in regular public schools. The charters would enroll the dropouts, the about to dropout, the students who were unable to function in a regular environment. The charter would come up with workable ideas and share them with the public school, to make the public schools better. Things haven’t worked out t... more »
Daily Kos: State of the Unions (and Professional Organizations): On Equity
Daily Kos: State of the Unions (and Professional Organizations): On Equity: State of the Unions (and Professional Organizations): On Equity byplthomasEdDFollow 3 PERMALINK1 COMMENT [image: Parents Stand With CTU (CLICK ON PICTURE)] Union bashing is nothing new, but in the past decade, that union bashing has bled over into political, public, and media demonizing teachers through a nearly compulsive focus on themythological "bad" teacher. This mantra of "bad" teacher, and the concurrent claim that we must immediately identify the best teachers, poses a significant contradiction in ... more »
Study: Students from middle-income families incur higher student loan debt | Get Schooled
Study: Students from middle-income families incur higher student loan debt | Get Schooled: Study: Students from middle-income families incur higher student loan debt by Maureen Downey One of the working research papers being presented at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver this weekend deals with the disproportionate share of student debt that falls on students from families earning between $40,000 and $59,000. Here is the official release on the paper by Jason N. Houle of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Young adults from middle incom... more »
Daily Kos: A personal reflection
Daily Kos: A personal reflection: A personal reflection by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) When I was still in the classroom I would often offer my Saturday morning reflections, in part fueled by stepping back from another week with adolescents and how that shaped my view on things in the world, political and personal. Tomorrow my former co-workers report back to school, something last done in that school without me a decade past. My reflections tend to be shaped by other things nowadays. They are also far more frequent, and perhaps in greater depth - in part because I have more ... more »
Missouri Education Watchdog: Will Home Schooled and Private Schooled Students Have to Take Common Core Assessments?
Missouri Education Watchdog: Will Home Schooled and Private Schooled Students Have to Take Common Core Assessments?: Will Home Schooled and Private Schooled Students Have to Take Common Core Assessments? by stlgretchen What happens when "choice" schools can't choose their own assessments due to legislative action? What kind of choice is that for students and parents? They will have the same education from either traditional public or "choice" schools. There is some concerning news coming from Florida regarding private school testing requirements that
“Spend nothing unless absolutely necessary” | The G Bitch Spot
“Spend nothing unless absolutely necessary” | The G Bitch Spot: “Spend nothing unless absolutely necessary” by G Bitch So familiar, it sends a chill: “Spend nothing unless absolutely necessary,” Gov. George F. Drew advised the Florida legislature in 1877, and lawmakers took his advice to heart, abolishing the penitentiary, thus saving $25,000, and abandoning a nearly completed Agricultural College, *leaving the state without any institution of higher learning, public or private*. Alabama’s Redeemers *closed public hospitals* at Montgomery and Talladega and Louisiana’s were “so eco... more »
Why Billionaires And Hedge Funders Are Setting Up Education Non-Profits | Scathing Purple Musings
Why Billionaires And Hedge Funders Are Setting Up Education Non-Profits | Scathing Purple Musings: Why Billionaires And Hedge Funders Are Setting Up Education Non-Profits by Bob Sikes
6 Reasons Teachers Unions Are Good for Kids | Alternet
6 Reasons Teachers Unions Are Good for Kids | Alternet: 6 Reasons Teachers Unions Are Good for Kids Our schools need teachers unions as much today as they ever have. *August 17, 2012* | Photo Credit: Matt Gibson / Shutterstock.com Once upon a time, labor unions enjoyed a fair amount of political legitimacy among both the public and political elites. While it is true that unions were always a source of concern for capitalist elites and union-busting was always with us, the public generally considered unions mainstream. They had a political voice because regular working- and ... more »
Special needs kids staying in traditional schools - SFGate
Special needs kids staying in traditional schools - SFGate: Special needs kids staying in traditional schoolsCHRISTINA HOAG, Associated PressUpdated 2:21 p.m., Saturday, August 18, 2012 - [image: In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, Matthew Asner walks his son Will, 9, who is autistic, to the Nestle Avenue Elementary School in the Tarzana district of Los Angeles. Public school districts are seeing higher proportions of children with special needs due to declining enrollment and charter schools that do not accept as many kids with disabilities, especially mo... more »
Two important Chicago area meetings this week. « Fred Klonsky
Two important Chicago area meetings this week. « Fred Klonsky: Two important Chicago area meetings this week. by Fred Klonsky *Glen Brown, PREA President Erin Breen and John Dillon at the Springfield Capitol on Friday.* *Glen Brown, who publishes the blog, Teacher/Poet/Musician, and I will be speaking*at the special meeting of the North Suburban chapter of Illinois Retired Teachers Association ((IRTA) on Thursday, August 23rd beginning at 7PM. The meeting will take place at the Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette Avenue in Wilmette. All who concerned with the pension issue and... more »
Schools Matter: Six Degrees of Insanity: Education "Reform"
Schools Matter: Six Degrees of Insanity: Education "Reform": Six Degrees of Insanity: Education "Reform" by P. L. Thomas Popular culture's six degrees of separation (a claim that each person is separated from any other person by six connections) spawned a film of that name and a trivia game, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. The current education reform movement, hell-bent on accountability, has recently moved into a phase that has not been recognized nearly as well as its pop-culture cousins: Six Degrees of Insanity. Starting in the early 1980s, this accountability movement began by f... more »
Truth about Policymakers? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Truth about Policymakers? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Truth about Policymakers? by larrycuban *I read Rick Hess’s books and blog. He is clear, crisp, and provocative in his positions. A former social studies teacher and professor, he is Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He frequently comments on parental choice, educational philanthropy, accountability, teacher unions, and scads of other hot topics in the federal, state, and district policy arena.* *Recently, he wrote two posts on his Educa... more »
EDMC's 'Art Institute' For-Profit College Forces Out Arts Professor for Refusing to Adopt E-Textbook | Dailycensored.com
EDMC's 'Art Institute' For-Profit College Forces Out Arts Professor for Refusing to Adopt E-Textbook | Dailycensored.com: EDMC’s ‘Art Institute’ For-Profit College Forces Out Arts Professor for Refusing to Adopt E-Textbook by Danny Weil Forget about academic freedom or even democratic decision making if you work for one of the for-profit gulags they call ‘universities’, or ‘institutes’ or ‘academies’. They are little more than low paid sweat shops where what gets produced are useless diplomas, not education, and the diplomas come at an exorbitant price. It should be noted that E... more »
Christine Rubino Gets The Shaft.southbronxschool.com
http://www.southbronxschool.com: Christine Rubino Gets The Shaft by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher) This will be the first of hopefully many documents from the files of the Christine Rubino case. Tonight's inanity is how mediator Randi Lowitt and DOE "attorney" Jeffrey Gamils team up on Christine for not having an attorney at the opening of her hearing. Long story short, Christine changed attorneys, as is her right, at the last minute. The arbitrator had no problem having a hearing without an attorney representing Christine, and the DOE "attorney" seemed to have
An Urban Teacher's Education: Two Items for Those of Us Living in the Pacific Northwest
An Urban Teacher's Education: Two Items for Those of Us Living in the Pacific Northwest: Two Items for Those of Us Living in the Pacific Northwest by James Boutin There are two things I've been trying to promote recently for concerned citizens in the Pacific Northwest. So please, if you agree that either of these are worth promoting, share on Facebook, Twitter, and everything else. 1) At the SOS Conference in DC a few weeks ago, the Washington State delegation decided it would be a good idea to generate a listserv focusing on education related news items from around the Pacific N... more »
Cultural Miseducation: Knowledge, Power and Ethnic Studies | MyFDL
Cultural Miseducation: Knowledge, Power and Ethnic Studies | MyFDL: [image: User Picture]Cultural Miseducation: Knowledge, Power and Ethnic StudiesBy: Michelle Chen Friday August 17, 2012 8:36 pm [image: Tweet]Tweet [image: digg] [image: stumbleupon] Julio Salgado *Originally posted at CultureStrike* This summer, Tucson students, educators, and activist did something rebellious: they celebrated books. These weren’t just any books, of course. They were the books that had been deemed contraband by school authorities, vilified as tools of a curriculum that promotes ethnic hatred. I... more »
Educator Musing: Parent Revolution Robbing School District
Educator Musing: Parent Revolution Robbing School District: Parent Revolution Robbing School District by Educator Musing 'Trigger' parents sue Adelanto School District http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/adelanto-33801-sue-trigger.html Parent Revolution backed an expensive lawsuit against the Adelanto School District to impose a charter the parents claim to not want. Now Gabe Rose of Parent Revolution is consulting with attorneys to do it again. This small school district may not be able to stand against the big league juggernaut funded by wealthy foundations. This is so wrong... more »
Speed, Violence and Testing Culture | educarenow
Speed, Violence and Testing Culture | educarenow: Speed, Violence and Testing Culture Posted on August 17, 2012 | Leave a comment I continue to think about Paul Thomas’s recent post, *Time As Capital: The Rise of the Frantic Class.* Essentially Paul is arguing that “busyness,” the frantic pace of our culture, takes away the time needed for the kind of reflection that can free us. Being busy insures the lack of time needed to ask questions such as, why am I so busy? What am I doing with my life? What is truly important to me? Thomas shows that this busyness functions to continue to... more »
To Build Community, an Economy of More Gifts and Less Money | Lefty Parent
To Build Community, an Economy of More Gifts and Less Money | Lefty Parent: To Build Community, an Economy of More Gifts and Less Money by Cooper Zale For many years now I’ve been uncomfortable walking into a big crowded shopping mall and feeling the energy of the place. It generally feels like most people are there for entertainment, shopping for stuff they don’t really need. Four years ago I remember people joking about how it is very much a contemporary American cultural practice to “Shop ’til you drop” (STYD), but since the Great Recession, I rarely hear that any more. Good rid... more »
Finally People are Talking About Medicaid | First Focus
Finally People are Talking About Medicaid | First Focus: [image: First Focus - Making Childen and Families the Priority] Finally People are Talking About MedicaidBy Lisa Shapiro August 9, 2012 As a Medicaid advocate for almost two decades, I’ve done a lot of writing and other agitating about the uninsured and the importance of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the poorest kids in our country. Over the years, my colleagues and I have worked hard to raise awareness about Medicaid and CHIP to be sure that all kids are able to get the medical care they n... more »
Imagine That: Ex-charter students swell St. Louis, KC enrollment - SFGate
Ex-charter students swell St. Louis, KC enrollment - SFGate: Ex-charter students swell St. Louis, KC enrollmentHEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated PressUpdated 11:08 a.m., Saturday, August 18, 2012 [image: Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991] KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Enrollment has swelled in unaccredited St. Louis and Kansas City public schools as about 5,000 students from shuttered charter schools find a new place to get an education. Years of declining enrollment, spurred by families moving to the suburbs or enrolling child in private, parochial or charter schools, me... more »
Parent Trigger Charter School Effort Ends in California | Scathing Purple Musings
Parent Trigger Charter School Effort Ends in California | Scathing Purple Musings: Parent Trigger Charter School Effort Ends in California by Bob Sikes From the *Los Angeles Times*: Board members for the Adelanto Elementary School District voted 3-1 to accept the parents’ petition for an overhaul at Desert Trails Elementary School, where more than three-fourths of sixth-graders fail to read and do math at grade level. But they rejected the parents’ preferred choice for change, a charter campus, after concluding there was insufficient time to start one up for the current school y... more »
Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal - latimes.com
Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal - latimes.com: Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandalEducators say John Allen asked Crescendo principals to show teachers the state standardized test. L.A. Unified was going to suspend him, but the board voted to fire him and close the campuses. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crescendo-20120818,0,5414088.story [image: John Allen] Two separate investigations into the cheating scandal blamed Crescendo's founder and chief executive, John Allen, who was driven, as one official said, by a desir... more »
Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky
Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky: Saturday coffee. by Fred Klonsky Popout *“It’s a new day, Klonsky,”* wrote a friend in an email to me this morning. *“You’re in an IEA video.”* I had to laugh. *“Nah,”* I wrote back. *“It is just testimony to how few members the IEA bothered to mobilize yesterday. I was a desperate choice.”* It was only over the past couple days that the IEA encouraged people to attend the special session that the Governor called. And even then they made is clear in *bold type *that they would make no special efforts, no busses and no financial support. Any member ... more »
History Repeats Itself in the Classroom « Diane Ravitch's blog
History Repeats Itself in the Classroom « Diane Ravitch's blog: History Repeats Itself in the Classroom by dianerav A reader comments on an earlier post written by a teacher who taught in Hartford: *I have seen this teacher’s story played out in so many schools in NYC.* *She asks who will subject themselves to teaching in the most challenging of communities?* *I often had that same concern. I agree. At a point in the not so distant future, teachers will be retiring and schools will need to staff the classes.* *There will be teachers available to teach in high needs schools, but de... more »
Nearly Half the Teachers in New York City Are Denied Tenure in 2012 - NYTimes.com
Nearly Half the Teachers in New York City Are Denied Tenure in 2012 - NYTimes.com: Many New York City Teachers Denied Tenure in Policy ShiftBy AL BAKERPublished: August 17, 2012 - FACEBOOK - TWITTER - GOOGLE+ - E-MAIL - SHARE - PRINT - REPRINTS - Nearly half of New York City teachers reaching the end of their probations were denied tenure this year, the Education Department said on Friday, marking the culmination of years of efforts toward Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s goal to end “tenure as we know it.” Connect with NYTMetro [image: Metro Twitter Logo.]... more »
Team Vallas, Bridgeport’s illegal board; where is the documentation? - Wait, What?
Team Vallas, Bridgeport’s illegal board; where is the documentation? - Wait, What?: Team Vallas, Bridgeport’s illegal board; where is the documentation? by jonpelto It seems that every day we learn about some other consultants that have been brought in by Paul Vallas to work in Bridgeport’s Public School System. Many of these people are his friends, colleagues or actually work for his private consulting company. At the same time, we continue to hear about new contracts for textbooks, software or various other products or services. And yet it has become painfully clear that neither... more »
Florida’s EOC Requiremment Imperils Private School and Voucher Students While Amendment 8 Looms | Scathing Purple Musings
Florida’s EOC Requiremment Imperils Private School and Voucher Students While Amendment 8 Looms | Scathing Purple Musings: Florida’s EOC Requiremment Imperils Private School and Voucher Students While Amendment 8 Looms by Bob Sikes Florida Governor Rick Scott followed through on his promise to be more open and created *Project Sunburst*, a web site which would publish the emails he receives and sends as governor. One email easily catches the eye of education policy observers across the state. It’s from a director of students affairs at a Florida private school. Dear Governor Sco... more »
What Readers Said About CNN and Randi Kaye « Diane Ravitch's blog
What Readers Said About CNN and Randi Kaye « Diane Ravitch's blog: What Readers Said About CNN and Randi Kaye by dianerav I taped an interview with Randi Kaye of CNN Newsroom on Friday August 17. I was invited to do this interview in response to her earlier interview with Michelle Rhee. I went to CNN assuming I was invited to express my differences with Rhee, who gets far more airtime than I to present her agenda of attacking US education, smearing teachers, calling for an end to tenure and seniority, and demanding merit pay, charter schools, vouchers, for-profit charter schools, ... more »
Due Process for all « Deborah Meier on Education
Due Process for all « Deborah Meier on Education: Due Process for all by debmeier “Tenure does not afford any advantages in pay or job assignments, or guarantee permanent employment. Its most important benefit is to grant teachers certain protections against dismissal without justification, including the right to a hearing before an arbitrator. Teachers and their unions embrace tenure as an important defense against indiscriminate or politically tinged hiring and firing.” notes Al Baker, NY Times, Friday, August 17 titled Correction re PRRAC by debmeier Correction for those inte... more »
The Weekly Update: The Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation and vouchers. A few of my favorite things. | Seattle Education
The Weekly Update: The Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation and vouchers. A few of my favorite things. | Seattle Education: The Weekly Update: The Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation and vouchers. A few of my favorite things. by seattleducation2011 *The Weekly Update for the news you might have missed.* We’ll start with this commentary on the Gates Foundation and how it has lost its way. A non-profit *can* have too much money. Reforming Gates Gates Foundation Headquarters in Seattle In my last post I wrote about the pattern at the Gates Foundation of abusing the idea of “resea... more »
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-18-12 Diane Ravitch's blog
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] CNN Interview: What They Dropped Out by dianerav I just watched my interview with Randi Kaye. I am happy to say that the editors clipped out her opening question, in which she tried to use NAEP scale scores as “grades” for the U.S., , which they are not. A scale is a trend line. It is better to see scores go up than down. The scale itself is an artificial construct (as all scales are). It is not aligned with any standards. You can’t say that a 300 is good or bad, you can only say that it is higher than 350 ... more »
‘Florida DOE Has Abdicated its Accountability Role to Pearson | Scathing Purple Musings
‘Florida DOE Has Abdicated its Accountability Role to Pearson | Scathing Purple Musings: ‘Florida DOE Has Abdicated its Accountability Role to Pearson by Bob Sikes Within a blistering critique of Gerard Robinson’s tenure as Florida’s education commissioner, Osceola school board member Jay Wheeler make an astonishing observation about the role that testing giant Pearson plays in Florida’s education system. Writes Wheeler in *Around Osceola:* Additionally the Florida Department of education has abdicated its role for accountability to a sole source for profit testing company for al... more »
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