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CORPORATE ED REFORM
Newark's Students Fight Back Tomorrow!
First things first: if any of the yahoos on talk radio or in the press decide to make a big stink about these kids cutting classes tomorrow, remind them of this:
This past week, pro-voucher forces in New Jersey bussed kids in from local Catholic schools to rally in support of a school voucher bill.
Quote Of The Day: “I Was Tired Of Giving In”
There’s an excellent review of a new biography of the late Rosa Parks in The New York Times, including this great quote:
What Then Must We Do?
My new book, What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution is beginning to hit bookstore shelves, and should be available to ship online next week. In the meantime, here’s an interview with Laura Flanders exploring the themes of the book:
You can read the transcript of the interview here. And mark your calendars for May 12th, when I’ll be answering your questions in the FDL Book Salon.
Sunset High School principal and dad protests large class sizes
A 4-foot by 7-foot sign in the back of Sunset High School Principal John Huelskamp's truck tells drivers along NW Cornell Road that 52 kids in a class is too many
Grassroots Report: Indiana Grassroots Member Writes Her Senators
This letter was written by North East Indiana Friends of Public Education co-founder, Donna Roof, who will be sharing ideas this coming Saturday (April 13, 2013) about how to organize a grassroots group. Please join us. You can find more information here.
Here is a moving letter to our senators from NEIFPE .
Dear Indiana Politician:
I am a public school teacher. I am a breast cancer survivor. I dreamed as a little girl of the day I would be a teacher. I never dreamed as a woman that I would one day be a cancer survivor. So now I am both and proud that I am.
I write to you today as both, for you see there are times these days that my role as an educator are more challenging, more stressful, more worrisome than my days as a cancer patient/survivor. I never ever in my
UCLA report: public school suspension policies do more harm than good
A report released Monday by UCLA's Civil Rights Project finds that suspensions affected as many as one-in-nine students beyond the elementary level. The report, titled "Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools" looked at U.S. Department of Education data for 26,000 schools across the country.
Researchers found that while suspension rates for Asian and white students remained largely unchanged between 1973 and 2010, suspension rates for African-American and Latino students doubled.
The study's co-author, Dan Losen, said the findings reminded him of his elementary school teaching days in Massachusetts 25 years ago.
"When I started teaching I was sending kids to the principal’s office right and left for all sorts of things," Losen said. It was mostly, he said, because he didn’t have good classroom management skills, and little training on
National Urban League Calls Attention to Financial Aid Issues From African-American Perspective
Tapped by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to contribute to the Reimagining Aid Delivery & Design (RADD) project, the National Urban League (NUL) has released “Education Transforms Lives: Postsecondary Affordability Survey and Focus Groups,” a survey paper that largely discusses the views of African-Americans on financial aid and college access. The paper is intended to bring the views of African-Americans to the Gates Foundation-sponsored effort to shape reform of the U.S. college financial aid system, according to NUL officials.
“We know that we bring a needed voice to the conversation—on behalf of students who—due to income level, financial aid literacy, and historic underrepresentation—are most in need of higher education financial aid and
Student Loan Rate Set to Rise, Despite Lack of Support
On Tuesday, student advocacy groups are releasing an issue brief charging that the government should not profit from loans, while more and more students bear a crushing debt burden.
Slight Dip in Number of Children Eligible for New York City’s Gifted Schools
The decrease comes after a change to the tests given by the Department of Education, which has been trying to address a surge in the number of students who qualified.
CourseSmart E-Textbooks Track Students’ Progress for Teachers
Educators from nine universities are testing technology from a Silicon Valley start-up, CourseSmart, that allows them to track their students’ progress with digital textbooks.
Another Nice Review Of My New Book
Empowering Self-Driven Learners is the latest positive review of my new book, Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation.
It’s written by educator Julie Dermody and appears in Middleweb.
Tin foil hatters unite!
PPP decided to poll people across the nation on 20 conspiracy theories. Did you know that 6% of voters believe Osama bin Laden is still alive? Or that 4% of voters say they believe “lizard people” control our societies by gaining political power? I find this one disturbing: 13% of voters think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, including 22% of Romney voters I find this one comforting (in comparison to the anti-Christ one, anyway): 20% of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, 51% do not Check out the rest of the results right here. You just finished reading Tin foil hatters unite!! Consider leaving a comment!Visit bluecheddar.net for more news and opinion. You can contact blue cheddar through twitter or facebook. Blue Cheddar is a progressive blog
“How Code-Switching Explains The World”
How Code-Switching Explains The World is a great NPR story discussing code-switching, which they describe as:
In one sense, code-switching is about dialogue that spans cultures. It evokes the conversation we want to have here.
Linguists would probably quibble with our definition. (The term arose in linguistics specifically to refer to mixing languages and speech patterns in conversation.) But we’re looking at code-switching a little more broadly: many of us subtly, reflexively change the way we express ourselves all the time. We’re hop-scotching between different cultural and linguistic spaces and different parts of our own identities — sometimes within a single interaction.
It’s made for an IB Theory of Knowledge class discussing language. It includes some excellent videos, including
Keeping Your Child's Data Safe and Private
Former Beaverton school board member, parent, electrical engineer, and member of Oregon Save Our Schools, Lisa Shultz (purple sweater, far left), testified today to the House Education Committee in Salem regarding HB 2666: Data Privacy.
Lisa has been following the escalation of the collection, sharing, and selling of our children's and teachers' data
What GOP Education Committee Chair Tells Schools that Can't Cut Anymore: "The Pockets are Empty"
By Jud Lounsbury Republican State Senator Luther Olsen told the Oshkosh Northwestern over the weekend that if he’s asked for more money from schools that have already cut to the bone, he will tell them, “the pockets are empty.”* *Unless you’re a roadbuilder or are wealthy and looking for a tax cut.
Blogger Shines Light On State Fee Flim-Flam
Hat tip to the blog Jake’s Economics TA Funhouse for pointing out how the Walker administration is hanging on to obscure fees collected from phone and cable bills - – monies that could be returned to local governments to fund library or school communications services: This cut meant You just finished reading Blogger Shines Light On State Fee Flim-Flam! Consider leaving a comment!Visit bluecheddar.net for more news and opinion. You ca