Nite Cap UPDATE
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
Black History Month: James Meredith and Ole Miss
No Trust For Principals
Carol Burris, who I will henceforth refer to as America's Principal™, has a clever piece out today about what's it's like to be trained as a teacher evaluator in our brave, new, reformy world.
The trainers went on to explain why we were there. We would have four sessions to prepare for Calibration Day. We would learn “the tool,” and watch teaching videos for two days. Day Three—the pre-test. Day Four—Calibration Day and the Calibration Event. We would see a video of a teacher, use the rubric to rate her, and then try to sync up with the Master Coder.
“If you miss one or two, you might not be misaligned,” one of the Ambassadors reassured
Byron Sigcho on UNO
As promised, some video of the ed policy event of the season: Byron Sigcho and Steve Serikaku''s presentation on the charter school movement and UNO in particular. The event was on February 9, 2013, at the Rogers Park Branch Library.
This clip is Byron's talk about UNO. It was riveting. Look, this talk is 40 minutes long; you're not going to see the whole thing in your pajamas before bed. It's the sort of talk you gather your group for-- sit around a projector and watch, take notes, and discuss.
Go full screen. This is America. You're still allowed to go full screen. You may or may not want to read my mea culpa below prior to watching.
Byron spends a couple minutes giving the neoliberal context around the privatization movement; he launches into his UNO analysis at about 1:45.
Popout Byron Sigcho on UNO Charter Schools from Tim Furman on Vimeo.
Mea Culpa. As has been much noted, I do not know how to hold a camera, to begin with. Will someone show
This clip is Byron's talk about UNO. It was riveting. Look, this talk is 40 minutes long; you're not going to see the whole thing in your pajamas before bed. It's the sort of talk you gather your group for-- sit around a projector and watch, take notes, and discuss.
Go full screen. This is America. You're still allowed to go full screen. You may or may not want to read my mea culpa below prior to watching.
Byron spends a couple minutes giving the neoliberal context around the privatization movement; he launches into his UNO analysis at about 1:45.
Popout Byron Sigcho on UNO Charter Schools from Tim Furman on Vimeo.
Mea Culpa. As has been much noted, I do not know how to hold a camera, to begin with. Will someone show
Washington may ease up on high school senior project requirement
Proposed legislation would allow students enrolled in AP classes, Running Start and similar programs to graduate without completing a culminating project.
School Closings: Chicago Union Mobilizes Entire Teacher Corps to Fight Hit List
...while the UFT leaves each school to fight for themselves.
Note the message from Karen Lewis below.
Don't use the phrase closing schools. Use Hit List. Don't think because your school is not on the list that this is not coming to you soon.
Can you imagine our UFT union leadership sending us such a message!!
In fact Rahmbo and Bloomberg are out to close and privatize as many as they can feasibly accomplish. With
Note the message from Karen Lewis below.
Don't use the phrase closing schools. Use Hit List. Don't think because your school is not on the list that this is not coming to you soon.
Can you imagine our UFT union leadership sending us such a message!!
In fact Rahmbo and Bloomberg are out to close and privatize as many as they can feasibly accomplish. With
The Ultimate Goal in School?
My friend, Gail Richmond, posted the below photo, which was shared by a parent. In class, apparently the lesson was that some of us are not being all that we can be. Therefore, it was time to start doing some goal setting! Children, if your RIT score is not high enough, you need to apply yourselves and reach the new number. If you don’t, Pearson will tell your teacher, your school, and your parents that you are not “proficient,” but merely “emerging.”
My goal is to be a Pearson child!
As many have commented, whatever happened to what I want to be when grow up? What my hopes and
My goal is to be a Pearson child!
Officials reassess state tests in wake of attendance disruptions
ALBANY — As state exams near, education officials are growing increasingly anxious about the large swath of city students whose schooling has been interrupted this year by Hurricane Sandy and the ongoing school bus drivers’ strike.
Speaking to members of the Board of Regents at their monthly meeting today, Chancellor Merryl Tisch said she thought students with disabilities who have not been able to get to school should not have to take the state’s
Speaking to members of the Board of Regents at their monthly meeting today, Chancellor Merryl Tisch said she thought students with disabilities who have not been able to get to school should not have to take the state’s
Remainders: Pathos and humor in kids’ depictions of bus strike
- Children’s depictions of the city’s school bus strike include both humor and sad stories. (Times)
- A teacher says good conversation followed when his principal created a safe space. (Ed on the Plate)
- A science teacher argues for ditching textbooks and making lessons interesting instead. (TED)
- A Caucasian teacher says he’d like guidance for teaching about Black History Month. (NYCDOEnuts)
- There are many different players in New York City’s tumultuous world of education politics. (WSJ)
- Survey data show that teachers are often less satisfied with their schools than parents are. (SchoolBook)
- Like many educators, city teachers had to sign loyalty oaths during World War I. (Dana Goldstein)
- Here’s Diane Ravitch’s wish list for Obama’s State of the Union take on education. (Answer Sheet)
- A new online tool allows users to rank city schools by their state math and reading scores. (DNAInfo)
- Whoever said schools oughtn’t teach Latin never tried to break news of a pope’s resignation. (Daily Intel)
ACLU files federal lawsuit against Wisconsin for violation of first amendment in Capitol building
Wisconsin’s ACLU says that Michael Kissick has refrained “from exercising his First Amendment rights in the Capitol for fear of being ticketed or arrested” and he is suing the Wisconsin DOA with their help. I love to sing in the Capitol rotunda, but like Kissick, I am no longer a singer [he quit in September 2012]. For me it’s the security cameras everywhere and the cops taking photos and looking people up on the net to get a facial recognition match and keeping a list. It’s seeing people dragged out for taking a picture, or shoved to a wall, or shoved to the ground, or chased by cops for nothing that I can understand. Those were all separate incidents –
Tales of Desegregation: East Carolina University
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| Laura Marie Leary (Elliott) was the first Black student to attend East Carolina University in 1962. She graduated in 1966. |
Elliott, originally from Vanceboro, N.C., set out in 1962 to do nothing more than simply further her education. “I was a 17-year-old kid. I wanted to make my parents proud,” she said.
Fish with Fur: Natural Selection of Teachers
About five years ago I read Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by David Tyack and Larry Cuban (Harvard, 1995). It’s a great historical overview, written before the Dark Times, and I recommend it. The thing that still sticks out most for me from that book is their argument that education reform, small– or large-scale, cannot be successful without a great degree of support and compliance from teachers. Ultimately, we are the ones who run this place. We don’t get to decide Read more […]
State of the Union Speech Tomorrow Night
President Obama will be delivering his State of the Union speech tomorrow night. Here's what Diane Ravitchwould like him to say about public education.
What would you like to hear President Obama say?
What would you like to hear President Obama say?
Couple donates $100K to LAUSD's Aviation Mechanics School at Van Nuys Airport
VAN NUYS - An embattled mechanics school at Van Nuys Airport got a supercharged boost on Monday with a major gift from a San Fernando Valley aviation firm. Si and Betty Robin, owners of Sensor Systems, Inc. of Chatsworth, gave $100,000 to the LAUSD's Aviation Mechanics School.
Diane in the Evening 2-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog
Diane Ravitch's blog: Gerald Coles Replies to Critics: Obama’s Second Term by dianerav I posted Gerald Coles’ predictions about President Obama’s second term. Many commenters responded. This is Coles’ response to those who raised questions: With respect to the suggestion that the “federal govt. should get out of the classroom entirely,” I think that’s a complicated issue, given, for example, the federal government’s role in ending LEGAL segregation of schools. While issues of curriculum and what should and should not be discussed in the classroom do caution against a A Reader... more »
Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters by Dale Mezzacappa More than 40 percent of shuttered school buildings in 12 cities were ultimately reused as charter schools, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study of 12 big cities that have undergone substantial downsizing of their traditional districts. The reasons, according to the report: the buildings are most suited as schools, public policy that encourages charte... more »
