Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, February 4, 2013

SPECIAL SCRAP THE MAP EDITION!!!! Step up and show your support for Seattle Teachers! « Diane Ravitch's blog

Step up and show your support for Seattle Teachers! « Diane Ravitch's blog:


Step up and show your support for Seattle Teachers!

Wednesday, Feb. 6th, 2013 is the National Day of Action to support Garfield High School and the other MAP test boycotters who are facing possible 10 Day Suspensions without pay for refusing to force students to take an unfair, counterproductive and bad standardized test.
Information about the Day of Action can be found here: http://scrapthemap.wordpress. com/2013/02/02/national-day- of-action-to-support-seattle- map-test-boycott/
Share the Facebook Day of Action page here by going here: https://www.facebook.com/ events/366568146775772/
Sign the Support the Seattle Teachers Petition here:
https://www.change.org/petitions/seattle-public-schools-support-seattle-teachers-refusing-to-administer-the-map
Call, email, and write to Seattle Public Schools Superintendent José L. Banda to let him know that you support the boycott:
Superintendent José L. Banda  superintendent@seattleschools.org
Office of the Superintendent  (206) 252-0180
MS: 32-150
P.O. Box 34165
Seattle, WA 98124-1165

Read more about this historic boycott in Garfield teacher Jesse Hagopian’s op-ed in the Seattle Times here:http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2020158085_jessehagopianopedxml.html
And various resolutions and letters of support can be found here: http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/solidarity-statements-2/ and http://brianpjones.tumblr.com/post/41098555088/educatorssupportghs andhttp://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/29/seattles_teacher_uprising_high_school_faculty




SUPPORT THE MAP BOYCOTT ON WEDNESDAY

Wear Red to Support Ed this Wednesday, Feb. 6th.




Scrap the Map! list of actions that day.   In Seattle actions will take place at participating schools, including Garfield, Orca, Chief Sealth, and Center School.  Scrap the Map Facebookpage.https://www.facebook.com/events/366568146775772/

How to opt your child out (from our friends at the Seattle Education blog).   Flyer on other actions.


MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-4-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Is This What Bill Gates Means by Good Education? by dianerav Last week, Bill Gates wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in which he explained how to solve the world’s biggest problems. The article was titled, modestly, “My Plan to Fix the World’s Biggest Problems.” The answer is simple: Measurement. To prove his point in education, he pointed to the Eagle Valley High School, near Vail, Colorado. He said that the school adopted his recommendations about measuring teacher quality, and test score... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ingraham PTSA Speaks on MAP

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ingraham PTSA Speaks on MAP: Ingraham PTSA Speaks on MAP by Michael Rice January 29, 2013 Dear Superintendent Banda, The board of the Ingraham High School PTSA respectfully requests that the district suspend all MAP testing at the high school level, effective immediately. Our PTSA represents the diverse community of parents, teachers, and students at Ingraham. We want our teachers to have the support they need to teach our students and effective tools to measure academic progress. An overwhelming majority of the teachers at our school have expr... more »


Big Surprise: Yet Another Ed Reform Turns Out to be Bogus | Mother Jones

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Big Surprise: Yet Another Ed Reform Turns Out to be Bogus | Mother Jones: Big Surprise: Yet Another Ed Reform Turns Out to be Bogus —By Kevin Drum | Mon Jan. 28, 2013 8:55 AM PST 59 - - *WOW! Who Knew?* Do high schools with higher standards get better performance from their students? If you require everyone to take college prep classes, will more kids go to college? The San Jose school district has long been a poster child for this notion, but guess what? It turns out it was all a crock: San Jose Unified has quietly acknowledged that the district overstated its accompl... more »