Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Big Education Ape Nite Cap 4-28-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2



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



NYC Educator: Unity Loyalty

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 6 minutes ago
NYC Educator: Unity Loyalty: Unity Loyalty by NYC Educator There's a thread on Gotham Schools that's interesting not so much for its content, that Mulgrew won, but rather for its comment thread. Particularly interesting is the Unity fan, one "Les Vegas." Les has strong opinions about MORE. .*..you were running a slate of unqualified candidates, several with radical practices.* This is a theme that comes up whenever anyone has the temerity to oppose the Unity stranglehold on power. They're unqualified and incapable. I remember Unity calling New Action, "No Action" back in the eig... more »

3 Things That Show Strength, Not Weakness | Connected Principals

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 32 minutes ago
3 Things That Show Strength, Not Weakness | Connected Principals: 3 Things That Show Strength, Not Weakness by George Couros cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by phalinn As a student, I had a specific notion of what a principal should be and in my head they were similar to the “Wizard of Oz”; a person that hid behind the curtain but had all of the knowledge in the world. I would say that when I became a teacher, that notion carried over. They would always have the answer and be the place where the “buck stops”. Working closely with my last couple of principals though, I sa... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Ouch. These Common Core Meetings Didn't Go So Well for School District Officials

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 35 minutes ago
Missouri Education Watchdog: Ouch. These Common Core Meetings Didn't Go So Well for School District Officials: Ouch. These Common Core Meetings Didn't Go So Well for School District Officials by stlgretchen Concerns about the Common Core adoption and implementation keep surfacing about the lack of transparency in the process and the lack of any pilot studies providing research based documentation of CCSS proponent claims. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent by the states who must adhere to the mandates drawn up by the two private trade organizations, the National Gove... more »

Ed Notes Online: 500 Rally at Tweed to Protest Testing Policy Organized by Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and TOFT

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 35 minutes ago
Ed Notes Online: 500 Rally at Tweed to Protest Testing Policy Organized by Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and TOFT: 500 Rally at Tweed to Protest Testing Policy Organized by Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and TOFT by ed notes online A Young MOREFriday many of us in MORE attended one of the best rallies we've been part of on the steps of Tweed which were packed with parents, teachers and children protesting high stakes tests with many MORE tee-shirts in the crowd. Change the Stakes has emerged out of a committee set up by GEM 2 years ago and has grown into a powerful parent advo... more »

Colorado Student Activists: Join us May 10th | United Opt Out National

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 48 minutes ago
Colorado Student Activists: Join us May 10th | United Opt Out National: Colorado Student Activists: Join us May 10th by admin Post navigation← Previous COLORADO STUDENT ACTIVISTS: JOIN US MAY 10TH Posted on April 28, 2013 April 28th, 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WHAT: Students standing up for our education WHEN: May 10th, 2013 from 1:30 – 5:00pm WHERE: West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol On a student retreat in March, student leaders in Colorado decided that more actions needed to take place to fix our public school system. From there, three student leaders went to Washington D.C... more »

Research on Reforms Our mission is to contribute to the improvement of the New Orleans Public Schools

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 48 minutes ago
Research on Reforms: Our mission is to contribute to the improvement of the New Orleans Public Schools by conducting research on reforms, and publishing research findings, so that successful reforms can be replicated, and failing practices can be eliminated. Our organization goals and our mission are founded upon the premise that effective education policies and practices: 1. Promote equal access and quality education for all students, 2. Are research-based and data-driven, and 3. Reflect an understanding of how children learn and how schools become effectiv... more »

Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al. | deutsch29

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al. | deutsch29: Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al. by deutsch29 Corporate reform thrusts ahead with little regard for what is legal or even decent. Privatizers are just fine with forcing those whose lives they callously damage to spend both money and time in litigation in order to gain what they were legally entitled to in the first place. I’m sure Eli Broad would be proud. He probably offers *Make the “Non-talented” Waste Their Resources on Needless Litigation* as a course at his (We ... more »

Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) It must be. After all, Sally Quinn, wife of former legendary editor of the *Washington Post* Ben Bradlee and author of the "On Faith" part of the paper, wrote that U.S. military should put religious freedom at the front. There are others here for whom tracking the Dominionists in America, including what they are doing in the military, is their main focus. Thus you could - and should - have read Death by Domin... more »

Diane in the Evening 4-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Dayne Sherman: Jindal’s War Against the People of Louisiana by dianerav Dayne Sherman is going to a rally at the state capitol in Baton Rouge on April 30. The people of Louisiana are waking up to Jindal’s war against the common weal. Now, says Sherman, even the Legislature is turning against Jindal. Four big issues stir public antipathy: *First, we have to repeal the tax give-aways passed under Jindal. Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) has a bill to do this very thing. We now give away an extra 2 billion... more »

Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten by Timothy D. Slekar Thanks to Sara Wottwa for the image collections below. You can read about these images on her blog at http://nocommonsenseeducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/kindergarten-comparison.html . Kindergarten (Pre Common Core) [image: CAM00512-1] Common Core Kindergarten [image: Mikey's Kindergarten Experience] It’s never too early to start getting your five-year olds ready for college and careers! Someone has to ... more »

No Rich Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
No Rich Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com: No Rich Child Left BehindBy SEAN F. REARDON Here’s a fact that may not surprise you: the children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores, on average, than poorer students; they also have higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions, higher graduation rates and higher rates of college enrollment and completion. Whether you think it deeply unj... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
NYC Public School Parents: Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents: Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents by Leonie Haimson Van White, the attorney handling the class action lawsuit of parents whose child was punished for opting out of the state exams in the Rochester area, is looking for information from New York state parents, to be sent to him at van.white@thelegalbrief.com. More specifically, he would like to hear from parents if their children opted out of thes... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week: Seattle Schools This Week by Melissa Westbrook *Monday, April 29th* Special meeting of Audit& Finance. One thing on the agenda - potential RIF presentation by HR head, Paul Apostle. Also, if you wish to speak at the School Board meeting on Wednesday, you can start calling/writing at 8 am on Monday. *Tuesday, April 30th* Charter Commission Meeting in Bellevue from 10 am - 5 p.m. at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Agenda. Open to the public (and people do come and go). They will be having an Executive Session first thing unti... more »

Florida approves online-only public university education - Yahoo! News

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Florida approves online-only public university education - Yahoo! News: Florida approves online-only public university educationBy Bill Cotterell | Reuters – Sat, Apr 27, 2013 *Con Academy * *Browse Con Academy library of over 3,100 educational videos...* TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Public university students in Florida next year will be able to start working toward college degrees without actually going to college, under a law Governor Rick Scott signed on Monday in front of educators and business lobbyists. The state-run University of Florida plans to start a series of onlin... more »

Obama’s big second-term education problem

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Obama’s big second-term education problem: Obama’s big second-term education problem Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 28, 2013 at 12:48 pm 0 Comments More [image: President Obama and Arne Duncan (ed.gov)] President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (ed.gov) President Obama has a big problem in his second term in terms of education policy: his first term. Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, pushed hard in their first term to have a major impact on changing public schools with a larger-than-ever federal role in school policy issues that affected every single cla... more »

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Bribing New York City Department Of Education Employee In Furtherance Of $2.7 Million Fraud Parent Advocates

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org: Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Bribing New York City Department Of Education Employee In Furtherance Of $2.7 Million Fraud Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that NELSON RUIZ pled guilty today to defrauding the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”) out of approximately $2.7 million and to bribing a DOE employee in furtherance of the fraud scheme. RUIZ pled guilty in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl. Pree... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Teachers Punished When They Question Authority

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Jersey Jazzman: Teachers Punished When They Question Authority: Teachers Punished When They Question Authority by Duke One of the friends of this blog is teacher/blogger @rratto; he's reposted and retweeted me more times than I could count, which I very much appreciate. So this is hardly an unbiased opinion on my part; nevertheless, the story he is telling at his blog is shocking and disturbing: It all began Wednesday evening with the following “tweets”; [image: tweet ccss] My initial tweet was an editorial comment based on a Common Core standard (which includes a similar example ... more »

Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky: Sunday reads. by Fred Klonsky [image: 2013_04_27_CM9] *Photo: Chicagoist.com Friday’s Chicago Critical Mass bike ride in support of keeping all Chicago public schools open. * *Did you watch the game?** ‘‘Grueling,’’ *Hinrich said in summing up the Bulls’ Game 4 victory at the United Center.* ‘‘It was just one of those games that everyone is going to be talking about for a while.’’* *One year moratorium* on virtual charters. *Family wealth* is still the greatest predictor of school success. *Life in Rahm’s Chicago.* Alderman’s sister gets a key post in CP... more »

Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not? | Dangerously Irrelevant

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not? | Dangerously Irrelevant: Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not? by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod) Mike Wiser at The Quad-City Times reported today on the controversy here in Iowa around connecting student test scores to teacher evaluations (aka ‘value-added modeling’ or ‘VAM’). Last week I shared the research and prevailing opinion of scholars supporting why this should not be done. In the article, notes that ‘teacher accountability has to be be part of it, or it’s not reform.’ This is consonant w... more »

Short Notes: Disempowerment Is A Cooperative Act | The Jose Vilson

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Short Notes: Disempowerment Is A Cooperative Act | The Jose Vilson: Short Notes: Disempowerment Is A Cooperative Act by Jose Vilson [image: Sabrina Stevens at TEDxNYED, Brooklyn Tech] Sabrina Stevens at TEDxNYED, Brooklyn Tech A few things: - The Atlantic’s John Tierney joins in the chorus of the annoyed in this essay about the Atlanta / Washington DC cheating scandals and its ramifications for education reform. [The Atlantic] - Michael Doyle makes a clear argument for the village raising the child. [BHS Doyle] - Florida’s investigating K-12 Inc. Hate to use the wo... more »

Rhee, Stargel Got Some ‘Splainin’ to do About Those Parent Trigger Petition Signatures | Scathing Purple Musings

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago
Rhee, Stargel Got Some ‘Splainin’ to do About Those Parent Trigger Petition Signatures | Scathing Purple Musings: Rhee, Stargel Got Some ‘Splainin’ to do About Those Parent Trigger Petition Signatures by Bob Sikes Yes, they did: 9 No, they didn’t: 9 (Updates as responses arrive) Kathleen McGrory’s story that appeared in the *Miami Herald *on Friday included revelations that two people on the list of Parent Trigger supporters Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst submitted to Lakeland Senator Kelli Stargel never signed the petition. One confirmed that she did. Scathing Purple Musings... more »

Remarks by The President at The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner | The White House

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago
Remarks by The President at The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner | The White House: Remarks by The President at The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner by The White House Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C. 10:14 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. (Laughter.) How do you like my new entrance music? (Applause.) Rush Limbaugh warned you about this -- second term, baby. (Laughter and applause.) We’re changing things around here a little bit. (Laughter.) Actually, my advisors were a little worried about the new rap ent... more »

Duncan Protest Planned at AERA – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Duncan Protest Planned at AERA – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: Duncan Protest Planned at AERA by Jim Horn For the first time since I can remember some members of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)—the largest association of educators and educational researchers in the world—are taking a public stand at AERA’s annual meeting in San Francisco against the corporatization, standardization and privatization of education. [image: reclaimaera-thumbnail]Sadly, the leadership of AERA has invited Arne Duncan, who represents and supports the technocratic, dehumaniz... more »

Nancy Kaffer: School reform dangerous if you don't understand value of education | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Nancy Kaffer: School reform dangerous if you don't understand value of education | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: Nancy Kaffer: School reform dangerous if you don't understand value of education There’s a fight brewing over the heart and soul of public education. In one corner, we have Gov. Rick Snyder, who says he believes that the point of an education is to connect the student with a job. It’s not a crazy notion — it worked for Snyder, after all; the governor amassed a slew of degrees at an astonishingly young age, and rode his academic success to the top of three fields. An... more »

Common Core goals come under fire - NewsandSentinel.com |

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Common Core goals come under fire - NewsandSentinel.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information - Parkersburg News and Sentinel: Common Core goals come under fireStandards are being eyedApril 28, 2013 By EVAN BEVINS , The Marietta Times Save | Post a comment | Standards are being eyed MARIETTA - Three years after Ohio adopted the Common Core educational standards and a little more than 15 months from the start of the first year in which students will be tested on them, the standards are coming under fire at the national, state and local levels. "It's basically a pow... more »

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] NYC Parent Meeting on inBloom and Student Privacy Tomorrow by dianerav This notice just in: “Parents, do you know your child’s confidential, personal school records are going to be shared with a corporation called inBloom Inc? This highly sensitive information will be stored on a data cloud and disclosed to for-profit corporations to help them develop and market their “learning products” The data will include your child’s names, address, photo, email, test score... more »

Daily Kos: I could justify fighting in Afghanistan — until the Boston bombing

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Daily Kos: I could justify fighting in Afghanistan — until the Boston bombing: I could justify fighting in Afghanistan — until the Boston bombing by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) So says Thomas Gibbons-Neff in this piece in today's *Washington Post*. WHy should we care that he says that? 13 at the time of the September 11 attacks that justified our going into Afghanistan, he served two tours there as a Marine rifleman. His family home is a few blocks from the blast site in Boston. As he writes, When a relative told me, his voice brimming with anger, that he wanted to kill th... more »

Nearly 12% of Sac City students chronically absent, UC Davis study finds - Education - The Sacramento Bee

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Nearly 12% of Sac City students chronically absent, UC Davis study finds - Education - The Sacramento Bee: Nearly 12% of Sac City students chronically absent, UC Davis study finds lkalb@sacbee.comPUBLISHED SUNDAY, APR. 28, 2013 *"Poverty proved to be a major facet of the problem."* Thousands of Sacramento City Unified School District students consistently fail to take the most basic step toward learning at school – showing up for class. A sobering report on chronically high absenteeism in the district found 11.7 percent of the students miss at least one out of every 10 school days.... more »

Parents struggle with funding the high cost of college educations - The Denver Post

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Parents struggle with funding the high cost of college educations - The Denver Post: *Parents struggle with funding the high cost of college educations* Brian Kerr and his wife, Julie, oversee studying by their quadruplets at their home in Littleton last week. The quadruplets, from left, are Chrissy, Clare, John and Catherine. After having already paid for their two older daughters to go to college, Brian and Julie Kerr now have their 17-year-old quadruplets, juniors in high school, beginning to look at college. (*Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post*) Brian Kerr admits that whe... more »

Education programs funding - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 19 hours ago
Education programs funding - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress: Bill Introduced: S.758 Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation Act Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 7 minutes ago A bill to establish a comprehensive literacy program. Bill Introduced: S.756 Helping Schools Protect Our Children Act of 2013 Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 7 minutes ago A bill to allow funds under title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to be used to provide training to school personnel regarding how to rec... more »

More on the RESPECT Blueprint: Attracting the Desperate and the Naive – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 19 hours ago
More on the RESPECT Blueprint: Attracting the Desperate and the Naive – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: More on the RESPECT Blueprint: Attracting the Desperate and the Naive by Jim Horn [image: RESPECT chart] *“. . . attracting a high-performing and diverse pool of talented individuals to become teachers and principals is a critical priority” (p. 5). * For all the Arne-talk about attracting the best and the brightest, the chart from p. 24 of this Orwellian version of teacher respect shows us a different vision. Click on it to enlarge (my red inserts). ”Beginning teachers”... more »

I need to set the record straight | Opine I will

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 19 hours ago
I need to set the record straight | Opine I will: I need to set the record straight I teach my students that their reputation is the most important asset they own. Your reputation is determined by your actions, your deeds, and also how you are viewed by others. Therefore, it is vital that you understand that your reputation ultimately defines you. Success is not judged by how much you make, but rather, real success is judged by your character and how others view your actions and deeds. I believe this with my heart and soul. Unfortunately, my character was questioned by an unprove... more »

RPNPS Voices: Scenes From The Uptown Rally and March Today

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 21 hours ago
RPNPS Voices: Scenes From The Uptown Rally and March Today: "Rogers Park Neighbors For Public Schools" Scenes From The Uptown Rally and March Today Here's a bit of a slide show from today's event in Uptown. It was a terrific rally and march--- we made banners, listened to the Stewart band, had a press conference, and marched around the various parts of Uptown that are struggling to survive. "The stations of gentrification," is how I referred to it. Stewart Elementary, The Men's Hotel, the former Hull House, and Stockton Elementary. Karen Zaccor and Stavroula Harrisis from North... more »

Mexico’s border schools deal with an influx of English-speaking students | The Raw Story

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 22 hours ago
Mexico’s border schools deal with an influx of English-speaking students | The Raw Story: Mexico’s border schools deal with an influx of English-speaking students by The Christian Science Monitor [image: Temp Headline Image]Schoolchildren scamper across the border to waiting parents in the Mexican town of Palomas in May 2009.(Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor/File) Elementary students at Lamberto Hernández School in this northern Mexican city were long gone by the time teachers sat down recently to learn about the growing population of English-speaking students in their c... more »

Bush Foundation Hides Behind Parent Revolution in Faux Parent Group Flap | Scathing Purple Musings

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 22 hours ago
Bush Foundation Hides Behind Parent Revolution in Faux Parent Group Flap | Scathing Purple Musings: Bush Foundation Hides Behind Parent Revolution in Faux Parent Group Flap by Bob Sikes Two separate revelations this week further unmasked the political scam that has become Florida’s Parent Trigger legislation. The first involves evidence that the petition that Michelle Rhee furnished Lakeland Senator Kelli Stargel is filled with people who never signed it. *Scathing Purple Musings* reported on the other that concerns the existence of a faux parent group called The Sunshine Parents... more »

Education in America: right or privilege? – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 22 hours ago
Education in America: right or privilege? – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: Education in America: right or privilege? by Kuhio Kane So, is schooling in America a right or privilege? Do we hold sacrosanct our hopes and wishes that what still remains is a free and public right to education in America? Or, has the division of inequity in America, driven by the leverage gained by banks too big to fail who are responsible for the shaping of opportunity create education as privilege? I was told recently that schooling in America is a right because it is taxpayer funded. I... more »

Cage-Busting Skunks Disrupting the Status Quo - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 22 hours ago
Cage-Busting Skunks Disrupting the Status Quo - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: Cage-Busting Skunks Disrupting the Status Quo by Nancy Flanagan ** *"When you wage war on the public schools, you're attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You're not a conservative, you're a vandal."* ~Garrison Keillor~ This is a blog about innovation--that is, innovation in public education. More specifically, creating catchy memes to push "pioneering" thinking while simultaneously attacking the "status quo" (painted as bad, very bad) in American education. Und... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Why do the media nearly always frame education issues as the UFT vs. the Mayor; and Ben Chapman's response

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
NYC Public School Parents: Why do the media nearly always frame education issues as the UFT vs. the Mayor; and Ben Chapman's response: Why do the media nearly always frame education issues as the UFT vs. the Mayor; and Ben Chapman's response by Leonie Haimson [image: Corporate Media = Corporate Lies] One of my particular gripes is how the politics of education in NYC is usually framed by the media in simplistic terms as a battle between the teachers union vs. the mayor, without any reference to the views of parents, advocates or other members of the community. This is especially ... more »

Students organizing Georgia integrated prom: Governor’s silence is ‘political suicide’ | The Raw Story

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
Students organizing Georgia integrated prom: Governor’s silence is ‘political suicide’ | The Raw Story: Students organizing Georgia integrated prom: Governor’s silence is ‘political suicide’ by Arturo Garcia [image: Georgia Governor Nathan Deal via Wikimedia Commons] Two of the student organizers of the first integrated prom for a Georgia high school told Democracy Now anchors Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez that Gov. Nathan Deal’s (R) reluctance to back them could come back to haunt him politically. “It really shocked me,” Wilcox County High School student Brandon Davis said in an... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Schools Circus Update

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Schools Circus Update: Perth Amboy Schools Circus Update by Duke So what's new in Perth Amboy, The Reformiest District in New Jersey™? The superintendent of the city's schools says that a board member is lying about where he lives, the most recent salvo in an ongoing public-education battle. *Janine Caffrey said at a school board meeting Thursday night that the state is investigating whether Israel Varela lives on Lewis Street in the city or 40 miles away in Hunterdon County*. School board members are required to live in the school district. *"He needs... more »

Bennett: #commoncore because Exxon-Mobile said so. – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
Bennett: #commoncore because Exxon-Mobile said so. – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: Bennett: #commoncore because Exxon-Mobile said so. by Timothy D. Slekar Thanks to Bob Sikes for bringing us a new defense for the common core. It seems that the Sun Sentinel was present at the Broward Workshop’s State of Our County forum on April 12 and got the pleasure of listening to Tony Bennet defend the federally imposed/market driven common core curriculum. You know the #commoncore? - The standards that are really a curriculum that will usher in an era of testing never before ... more »

Diane in the Evening 4-27-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Parent: I Am Fighting Against the Testing Mania by dianerav I received an email from a parent in Long Island who has decided to join the campaign against high-stakes testing. She blames Common Core for her children’s unhappiness with school, but Common Core is just the latest manifestation of the testing obsession embedded in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. She blogs, writes letter, button holes elected officials. She is fighting for her children and for all other children. With more parents like h... more »