Jersey Jazzman: Why Do Teachers Hate America?

Jersey Jazzman: Why Do Teachers Hate America?:

Why Do Teachers Hate America?

by Duke

Our American Education Conversation

A Play in One Act

by Jersey Jazzman

(curtain opens)

TEACHER: "I'm tired of being blamed for so many of our society's problems! I'm tired of my union being called "thugs!" We teachers are doing a good job! Why does everyone think our unions and tenure are so bad? Those teachers who died in Newtown are heroes, and they belonged to unions, and the senior ones had tenure! They were career teachers who dedicated their lives to education; they literally gave their lives to their students!

"Most teachers are good people trying to do a hard job. Stop attacking us!"

REFORMYIST: "You're reprehensible! Why do you hate America?"

(lights down - curtain)

THE END

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT - Perdaily.com

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT - Perdaily.com:

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

There is an awareness that the war against teachers at the top of the salary scale, about to vest in lifetime health benefits, or who just stand up for high academic standards for all is not going to stop unless teachers and those who support them do something about it.

Since Miramonte, LAUSD has used this regrettable and avoidable event to defame teachers, while giving a pass to the administrators that turned a blind eye to this and other crimes that they allowed to take place as long as there was blind support for the LAUSD cult of power.

COME TOGETHER AND SUPPORT TEACHERS...AND YOURSELVES.

Saturday December 22 

4459 Eagle Rock Blvd

Eagle Rock Ca  90041

from 6 to midnight

Holiday Fundraiser to Support Teachers

and Raise Awareness of Unfairly Targeted Teachers

aka Teacher Jails aka Rubber Rooms

Join Us as we get together to support 

teachers and stand in solidarity to seek 

fairness and justice for  those who work 

with our children on a daily basis.

Come together to learn and share what 

never seems to make it into the 

mainstream media.

Pizza and Burgers at 

Northeast L.A.

Eagle Rock All Star Lanes

Saturday December 22 

4459 Eagle Rock Blvd

Eagle Rock Ca  90041

from 6 to midnight

(on Eagle Rock Blvd near 

the York Blvd Intersection)

$10.00 Donation 

Raffle Included

Music and Karaoke to follow

food and mix and mingle

Dont miss it. 

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch:

Lenny@perdaily.com

 En Español

School Tech Connect: Reading Between The Gun Control Lines

School Tech Connect: Reading Between The Gun Control Lines:

Reading Between The Gun Control Lines

When I was a young pup, I used to go to the NEA Representative Assemblies and wonder at why on earth the delegates would be arguing over positions related to all of these "outside" issues--- it frustrated me as a young person. I used to think that education was this thing that you could isolate, and that there was no need to vote about statements regarding poverty, women's rights, gun control, criminal justice, or whatever. Whatever the issue was, it seemed to me, sooner or later the NEA-RA would vote on it.

It all seemed so crazy lefty to me.  It all sounded like something the Rob Reiner character on The Archie Bunker Show would have come up with, and I couldn't stand that guy's mustache. It really bothered me. It still does, in fact.

Then time passed, and I grew up, and I started to see how everything plays out in the classroom and that while I might want to work in a vacuum, I don't. There's an entire speech that goes with this paragraph, but I'm sure you already can guess most of it.

So, I'm interested to see that Michele Rhee has chimed in on gun control. Go ahead, read the whole thing.

I'm pleased to say that I agree with her. I, too, am opposed to SB 59 in Michigan. However, the truth of the matter is that you really 

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book? | Truth in American Education

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book? | Truth in American Education:

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book?

by Shane Vander Hart

I was introduced to Dr. Rozlyn Linder’s blog today by a friend.  She the K-12 District Literacy Specialist in Douglasville, GA and an avid advocate of the Common Core State Standards.  Today she opined that those of us who are critics of the Common Core, in particular, the ELA standards are uninformed and we need to read the standards.

She wrote:

As a proponent of the critical analysis shift demanded by Common Core I regularly speak out about the divergence from teaching the canon and centering all instruction on works of fiction. As I read blogs and posts I have finally come to realize that there is a serious misconception about what it means to teach skills rather than text. Battle lines are being drawn that demand that teachers get on fictions side or the oh, so, awful side of informational text. This fierce call to battle is misguided and ironically built on a failure to read—the actual Common Core standards.

I agree.  Read the standards.

The topic of concern for many of us is the chart 

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards | The IDEA Blog

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards | The IDEA Blog:

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards

Posted by Dana Bennis on Dec 18, 2012 - 06:15 AM

This is a guest blog post by Susan Sandler, who works at the Sandler Foundation and leads funding related to education policy as well as other areas.  Previously, Susan spent 17 years working for racial justice in education as an organizational leader, policy advocate, researcher, professional development provider, school therapist, teacher, and activist.  Susan is a member of the boards of directors for the Center for American Progress and El Puente.

Do the common core standards discourage teachers from making connections between academics and students’ lives?  When I first read the guiding materials for the standards, that’s what I thought it was saying.  I understood it to say that the proper way to teach students to read  was to ask them to leave at the classroom door everything they experienced and lived, so it wouldn’t interfere with analyzing the text.

But then I gave the materials more of a “close reading,” and I realized that I had misunderstood.  I was deeply concerned that many people would draw the same false conclusion that I had about the common core standards.  So I co-authored an article(requires subscription to view full text) to help get the word out.

My co-author, Zaretta Hammond, and I explain that whenever we think and learn we are always accessing and building on what we already know, and the more powerfully we make those connections, the better we learn.  And that means that everyone of 

January 15, 2013 Screening Committee Notice - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

January 15, 2013 Screening Committee Notice - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

1430 N Street, Suite 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-319-0827
Fax: 916-319-0175

SBE Screening Committee Members

Ilene Straus, Chair
Carl Cohn, Member
Bruce Holaday, Member
Aida Molina, Member

December 17, 2012

Meeting Notice:
Screening Committee of the State Board of Education

Tuesday, January 15, 2013, commencing at 1:00 p.m.

State Board of Education Conference Room
California State Board of Education Office
1430 “N” Street, Room 5111
Sacramento, California
916-319-0826

The purpose of this meeting is to review applications and conduct interviews of candidates for appointment to the Title I Committee of Practitioners and Advisory Commission on Special Education.

Agenda

1. Call to order
    
2. Welcome and Introductions
    
3. Interviews for Title I Committee of Practitioners
    
4. Public Comment
    
5. Interviews for Advisory Commission on Special Education
    
6. Public Comment
    
7. Adjournment

---

ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY
THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE Office, 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone at 916-319-0705; facsimile at 916-319-0175.

---

For more information concerning this agenda, please contact Lisa Hopkins, Office Technician, California State Board of Education, at 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone at 916-319-0826; facsimile at 916-319-0175.This agenda is posted on the State Board of Education's Web site.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asperger's Syndrome

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asperger's Syndrome:

Asperger's Syndrome

by Melissa Westbrook

The Newtown shooter was said to have Asperger's Syndrome which is on the spectrum of autism.  These people are considered the high-functioning end of that spectrum (even as they face very real and distinct challenges.)

One thing to make clear - Asperger's is NOT mental illness.  It is a neurobiological condition.  While some mental illness, like schziophrenia, does have a biological basis, Asperger's is not defined in that category.

After saying that, based on my own personal experience with Asperger's, I suspect the shooter DID have mental health issues in addition to his Asperger's.  It may have been depression, anxiety or bio-polar.

From news reports, it seems clear that he was did have a diagnosis of Asperger's and his high school knew about it.  His mother had to come to the school sometimes if he was having issues.  But all reports were that he kept to himself, that staff watched over him, the other kids were generally nice to him and that there was no evidence he was bullied.

(Indeed, Aspies are far more likely to be bullied or be victims of crime than be violent.  They can get easily 

Schools Matter: Education Reform, 1844

Schools Matter: Education Reform, 1844:

Education Reform, 1844

by Storm

An audio recording of this excerpt from "New England Reformers" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1844) read by Douglas Storm.

The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the efforts for the reform of Education. The popular education has been taxed with a want of truth and nature. It was complained that an education to things was not given. We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English rule was, 'All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men. The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of the planet through a 

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook:

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook

by Sam

As policymakers prepare to find the best way to respond to the tragedy in Newtown, educators and parents across the country are left to wonder – what can we do to make our schools safe?

The lessons of Sandy Hook Elementary School can help us answer that question in two ways – one that is uncomfortable, and one that is essential.

The uncomfortable truth of Sandy Hook is that there is nothing we can do to guarantee that our children are safe. Short of placing an iron dome over our school buildings or turning them into police bunkers, the only thing we can do is create spaces for children that are as safe and supportive as possible.  And so while it is encouraging that national policymakers are intent on addressing the larger aspects of American culture that make acts of mass violence like this all too common, the only things individual schools and communities can do are the sorts of things 

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core

by Anthony Cody

We learned this morning that:

The two national teachers' unions have won $11 million to build an online warehouse of instructional tools for the Common Core State Standards. Student Achievement Partners, whose founders led the writing of the standards, is also a grantee. It will work with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association and their teachers to build the tools and post them on Student Achievement Partners' website.

Here we go again.
When No Child Left Behind came along in 2002, our unions were, for the most part, quiet about what was about to happen to our schools. We have learned since then the damage that can be done by ill-conceived reforms. NCLB has done the following things:

1. Resulted in thousands of schools being declared failures for low test scores.
2. Coerced schools and teachers into narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test.

Schools Matter: With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

Schools Matter: With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

by Jim Horn

How does the growth of charter schools depend upon the Rotten Common Core?  See below.

Thanks to Stan Karp:

Latest Newark ‘performance report:’ blueprint for more closures/charters?

A new report & presentation from Newark State District Supt. Cami Anderson may lay the groundwork for more school closings, charter expansion, co-locations and staff firings. Anderson has already closed twelve schools during her 18-month tenure, leased district facilities to charters over the objection of the local school advisory board, and negotiated a new teachers contract that provides for “turnarounds” in up to 10 schools in each of the next three years. According to an NJ Spotlight story, Anderson said the new school performance report, “didn’t change any of her own reform strategies for the district, but rather helped ‘sharpen our goals.’

The new report was developed by the Parthenon consulting group, a Boston-based global management firm that identifies investment opportunities in education. Last summer, Parthenon executive Rob Lytle made a presentation on "private equity investing in for-profit education companies” to an elite group of investors in NYC. He told them the coming implementation of the common core standards and assessments would create a lucrative opportunity: “Think about the upcoming rollout of new national academic standards for public schools, 

Daily Kos: Your rights end at the point of my nose

Daily Kos: Your rights end at the point of my nose:

Your rights end at the point of my nose

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

no rights are absolute.  At some points the Constitution makes that clear - in the 5th (and 14th) Amendment you can be denied the most basic rights of life and liberty via due process of law.
Rights are often in conflict.  And because an assertion of an unlimited and unrestricted right on behalf of one party inevitably means the diminishment of the rights and liberty of another, all rights are restricted in some circumstances.
The right to keep and bear arms as an individual, even if I do not believe should be based on the 2nd Amendment, which speaks not of individuals but of the people collectively, nevertheless would be guaranteed as an unenumerated right on the 9th Amendment (although Right-wingers do not like the 9th because of Roe v Wade).
You may have the right to freely swing your arms, but I have the right to keep the shape of my nose, so the limits of that freedom for you are at the point of my nose.
Those who insist upon their rights being absolute and unfettered even at the expense of the liberty and safety of others are to my mind sociopathic.  That applies to those who assert unfettered personhood for corporate 

Sorry Todd. Did I say “worst?” I meant “wurst.” « Fred Klonsky

Sorry Todd. Did I say “worst?” I meant “wurst.” « Fred Klonsky:

Sorry Todd. Did I say “worst?” I meant “wurst.”

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
How in the world is this “one of the worst” pension bills? Bills in the past completely eliminate the COLA, transition the whole system to 401k’s, eliminate all health insurance, and ravage the system as a whole. This is the FIRST bill to take a progressive approach (in that people with smaller pensions face less of an impact), the first bill to place responsible limits on maximum pensions, and the first one to fully maintain health insurance.
Regardless of how we got here (which I agree is purely the state’s fault), there is NO other way out besides cuts. We just raised the income tax 66% and it didn’t make the slightest dent. Approaching it from a purely revenue standpoint, I’m curious to see how much taxes would have to be raised across the board to cover our liability… 100%? 200%? Even a 300% increase is not out of the question.
Todd

Sorry Todd. Did i say this was the worst pension bill ever?
I meant to say it was the wurst bill. Meaning Nekritz, Cassidy, Gabel and the rest of the gang of 21 put in it all the scraps and left-overs that nobody else thought was possibly edible.
No. It doesn’t completely eliminate our COLA. But other pension bills thought they could play bait and switch 

Diane in the Afternoon 12-18-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Karen Lewis Reacts to the Kerfuffle

by dianerav

As readers of the blog know, I posted a tribute yesterday to “The Hero Teachers of Newtown.”
Soon after, the vice-president of Teach for America responded with outrage on Twitter and said that the post was “reprehensible” and should be retracted. I had no idea what he was offended by, but not long after I received many Tweets and comments on the blog from his followers, chastising me for daring to….well, I am not sure why they were upset. Some thought I slandered TFA, though the post didn’t mention TFA. Some thought I slandered non-union teachers, because I praised the Sandy Hook teachers and said they belonged to a union. Some alleged that I politicized the massacre by acknowledging (as many others have) that teachers have been 

Breaking News: Governor Snyder Vetoes Bill to Allow Guns in Schools

by dianerav

Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan vetoed a bill that would have allowed guns in schools.
His reason was that the bill did not have a provision allowing schools to opt out if they didn’t want guns in their buildings.
Presumably the next legislature, if so inclined, could make that fix. Let’s hope not. Guns don’t belong in

Katie Osgood Comments on the Twitter Debate

by dianerav

There has been a raging Twitter debate about whether my post “Hero Teachers of Newtown” disrespected Teach for America (which was not mentioned in the post) and non-unionized teachers. Some claim that I “politicized” the tragedy by pointing out that all those who died were members of a teachers’ union and many had tenure. Let us not forget that the political attacks on teachers, on tenure, on public schools, and on unions have been intense these past three years. I think the post is self-evident and speaks for itself. But others have useful comments. Here is Katie Osgood:
What a ridiculous debate. Diane’s post was a beautiful reminder of the work that teachers REALLY do every day. It points out that the slander and misinformation regarding unions, tenure, testing, evaluation, and teacher quality of EdReformers everywhere is completely unfounded and cruel.
What the teachers at Sandy Hook did was indeed heroic. But I would also like to point out that those 20 

Why Austin ISD Dropped IDEA Charter

by dianerav

A parent in Austin sent the following account of events there, along with a link to the newspaper story.
 Dear Diane,
I thought you might be interested in the vote of Austin ISD last night – not to renew the IDEA contract.  It was standing room only – many of the students you met at Eastside Memorial made incredibly impassioned pleas for the Board to “give our school back to the community”.  Here’s a short article someone sent to me late last 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-18-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Last night’s Twitter Kerfuffle by dianerav Last night I posted a tribute to “The Hero Teachers of Newtown,” briefly describing each of them , noting that they were members of a union, they were career educators, and that the attacks on career educators and unions should stop. Shortly after, a TFA officer demanded on Twitter that I retract the post, calling it reprehensible. I was baffled. The post made no reference to TFA. Someone then wrote on the blog that I was casting aspersion on non-union teachers, w... more »

Twisted Truths & Dubious Policies: Comments on the NJDOE/Cerf School Funding Report « School Finance 101

Twisted Truths & Dubious Policies: Comments on the NJDOE/Cerf School Funding Report « School Finance 101:

Twisted Truths & Dubious Policies: Comments on the NJDOE/Cerf School Funding Report

by schoolfinance101

Yesterday, we were blessed with the release of yet another manifesto (as reported here on NJ Spotlight) from what has become the New Jersey Department of Reformy Propaganda.  To be fair, it has become increasingly clear of late, that this is simply the new model for State Education Agencies (see NYSED Propaganda Here), with the current US Dept of Education often leading the way.
Notably, there’s little change in this report from a) the last one or b) the Commissioner’s state of the schools address last spring.
The core logic of the original report remains intact:

1. That NJ has a problem – and that problem is  the achievement gap between low income and non-low income kids;
2. That spending money on these kids doesn’t help – in fact it might just hurt – but it’s certainly a waste;

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

RTTT fund, I3 grants among those targeted for federal audits

Federal auditors will focus attention in 2013 on selected recipients of grants issued under the Race to the Top competition, Vocational Rehabilitation State Grant Program and the Investing in Innovation fund.

Federal auditors will focus attention in 2013 on selected recipients of grants issued under the Race to the Top competition, Vocational Rehabilitation State Grant Program and the Investing in Innovation fund.

In its semiannual report to Congress, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education said the 2013 work plan is aimed at “promoting educational excellence and opportunity for all students” and “includes specific work pursuant to numerous department programs impacting its mission to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”

Part of the office’s work is tied to making sure the U.S. Department of Education is conducting its own oversight of federal funds correctly. The agency recently? found that the department failed to recover $415 million of questionable expenses due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Of 93 external audits reviewed by OIG and issued between 2007 through 2010, they found that 90 percent – or 84 – of them had not been resolved within six months, and 35 of those 84 audits, or 42 percent, were still unresolved as of January 2012.

In addition to carrying out investigations into fraud, waste and abuse launched as a result of whistle blowers or 

Schools Matter: The Mental Health Issue Not Being Discussed: Doping of Children and Young Adults

Schools Matter: The Mental Health Issue Not Being Discussed: Doping of Children and Young Adults:

The Mental Health Issue Not Being Discussed: Doping of Children and Young Adults

by Jim Horn

With Fox News now fronting for the NRA's misleaders on the horrific child killing in CT, we can expect to see a new push to identify any child that may be suspected as problematic and to "treat" them with prescription drugs. 

In fact, Dr. Nancy was on NBC News last evening talking about the lack of mental health care.  Indeed.  What Dr. Nancy did not mention is that most of the young shooters from the past 15 years of gun-crazed carnage had received what passes now for mental health care: a prescription drug cocktail supplied by Big Pharma. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What I fear is that this latest incident, when combined with search for any solution other than gun control, will exacerbate the doping of children, rather than having us examine what we have already done to kids in order to keep them compliant in schools that allow nothing else.

The piece below was posted in July 2012 at psychiatricfraud.org: