Big Education Ape: Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-26-13 #thankateacher #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

All Education Matters: AirForce Times: Many Vets Charged Out-of-State Tuition, Driving Them Into Debt

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 21 minutes ago

All Education Matters: AirForce Times: Many Vets Charged Out-of-State Tuition, Driving Them Into Debt: AirForce Times: Many Vets Charged Out-of-State Tuition, Driving Them Into Debt by Cryn Johannsen During a time in which service members face continued battles abroad, while most Americans falsely presume that the war, for instance, in Afghanistan is winding down, they are facing another hurdle at home - according to a* recent article*, published in the *AirForce Times *by Rick Maze, many public colleges and universities charge student veterans out-of-state tuition. However, the ... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Privacy Issues and Your Child's Future

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 47 minutes ago

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Privacy Issues and Your Child's Future: Privacy Issues and Your Child's Future by Melissa Westbrook I have a two-fold purpose to this thread. One is to continue to provide food for thought about what your child's generation faces in terms of privacy. Yes, I know, just as many say "advertising is all around them so who cares if it's in their test materials", I'm sure there are those of you who will shrug. Whether we like it, think it's just the wave of the future or what, the fact is that things are going to be different for our children. Two is t... more »

solidaridad: @TCFKSM: Jason Stanford rightly states "Time to Stop Waiting for Superman"

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 47 minutes ago

solidaridad: @TCFKSM: Jason Stanford rightly states "Time to Stop Waiting for Superman": @TCFKSM: Jason Stanford rightly states "Time to Stop Waiting for Superman" by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene First published on @TCFKSM on May 26, 2013 ------------------------------ *"According to Whitmire, Rhee and Fenty should have paid heed to the "fears" of African Americans, but not because there were any actual race issues during Rhee's tenure. Racism in DC is all done now--all that racism and "experimentation" is history and happened 1960s and 1970s. According to Whitmire, black people in D... more »

Diane in the Evening 5-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 47 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Why Does a Low-Income School in Tampa Beg for Books? by dianerav Here is a low-income school in Tampa that put out a public appeal for books. It needs $3,000 for books. The superintendent makes $263,000 a year. *LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all* mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Haimson Rebuts Bloomberg, Walcott b... more »

Prince William father learns how to opt out of standardized test - The Washington Post

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Prince William father learns how to opt out of standardized test - The Washington Post: Prince William father learns how to opt out of standardized test Courtesy of Greg Barlow - Austin Barlow (from Left), Karen Barlow, Greg Barlow and Christian Barlow, during a recent trip to the Outer Banks. By Michael Alison Chandler, Sunday, May 26, 2:47 PM E-mail the writer Greg Barlow did not want his fourth-grade son to take the Standards of Learning math test, but he did not know what would happen if he refused. Would his son get a failing grade? Would it go on his permanent record? Barlow re... more »

Ten minute drawing. Dennis Van Roekel on “safe passage routes.” | Fred Klonsky

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Ten minute drawing. Dennis Van Roekel on “safe passage routes.” | Fred Klonsky: Ten minute drawing. Dennis Van Roekel on “safe passage routes.” by Fred Klonsky [image: DVR] Click on image to enlarge.

How we could fix public education, and why it won’t happen | PWC Education Reform Blog

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

How we could fix public education, and why it won’t happen | PWC Education Reform Blog: How we could fix public education, and why it won’t happen by pwceducationreform How we could fix public education, and why it won’t happenMay 26, 2013 — pwceducationreform *This week, I saw a donation stand for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). The stand was located between the in and out doors of a grocery store, and the older veteran standing there must have felt chilled. I gave him a donation, and on the way out, I offered to get him a cup of coffee. He looked like he wanted one, but he... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Comptroller John Lui's letter to the Commissioner and Regents about inBloom

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago

NYC Public School Parents: Comptroller John Lui's letter to the Commissioner and Regents about inBloom: Comptroller John Lui's letter to the Commissioner and Regents about inBloom On May 21st, Comptroller John Lui sent a letter to Commissioner John King and the NY Board of Regents urging King to halt NYSED's plan to share personally-identifiable student data with inBloom, Inc. Lui's letter comes just weeks after 4 of the 9 states participating in inBloom are planning to pull out of the project due to privacy concerns. See the letter below along with a press clip covering the news. ... more »

With inBloom, the student as data stream - Opinion - The Boston Globe

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago

With inBloom, the student as data stream - Opinion - The Boston Globe: First-grader, or cloud-based data stream? By Joanna Weiss WE HAVE nearly a month of school left, but the end-of-year activities are already piling up: field days and fairs, concerts and art shows, ways to placate fidgety kids who know they’ll be leaving their classrooms soon. And it’s worth considering the kinds of classrooms many of them will leave: state-of-the-art, digitized. In my daughter’s elementary school, the chalkboards have disappeared, replaced by smartboards with digital bells and whistles, plus lapt... more »

2013 K-12 Student Protests | Students United for Public Education

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago

2013 K-12 Student Protests | Students United for Public Education: 2013 K-12 Student Protests Featured below are students at the K-12 level who have protested against issues regarding their education in 2013. Issues vary from boycotting standardized testing, budget cuts, mass school closings–just to name a few! We expect the list to grow as the struggle continues. If you know about a protest that is not featured, please contact us at SUPEcontact@gmail.com so we can add it to the list! Solidarity! *COLORADO* *Denver* March 14: Students walk out of class to protest TCAP tests [image: S... more »

My release of the John White, Alan Seabaugh taped conversation | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago

My release of the John White, Alan Seabaugh taped conversation | Crazy Crawfish's Blog: My release of the John White, Alan Seabaugh taped conversation *Posted on May 26, 2013* 0 [image: thrown me something] I have been getting requests to release the taped conversation between Alan Seabaugh and John White discussing the manipulation of VAM, or the Value Added Modeling system devised by the state to evaluate teacher performance to serve a few of Seabaugh’s constituents. I did not receive the full 14 minutes that Tom Aswell received, just 3 or so minutes of some of the more interestin... more »

Choosy Kids Choose Choice | EduShyster

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago

Choosy Kids Choose Choice | EduShyster: Choosy Kids Choose Choice by edushyster2012 *A wealthy Colorado county strives to become the choiciest place in America* It’s one of the great unfairnesses of our time: why are kids on the wrong side of the excellence gap getting all of the “choice”? Now, thanks to the bold innovativeness of one Colorado county, kids on the right side of the excellence divide may soon have all of the choices they can choose from. Welcome to Douglas County, the wealthiest county in all of Colorado—and soon to be the choiceiest. When we last visited this scenic l... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Karen Lewis and the New, Shrewd Unionism

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago

Jersey Jazzman: Karen Lewis and the New, Shrewd Unionism: Karen Lewis and the New, Shrewd Unionism by Duke *Great minds, thinking alike.* This was a very bad week for Chicago's children. On Wednesday evening, the *unelected* Chicago Board of Education approved the largest school closing plan in history. 50 schools will be shuttered in a pattern that is clearly racially biased: *black students account for 40% of the CPS population, but 88% of the students who are being displaced are black*. It obviously makes the elites who run CPS uncomfortable to point out such things, but it is ... more »

StudentsFirst's Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee returns to Michigan as education reform group makes mark | MLive.com

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago

StudentsFirst's Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee returns to Michigan as education reform group makes mark | MLive.com: StudentsFirst's Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee returns to Michigan as education reform group makes mark LANSING, MI -- StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee will serve as a keynote speaker at next week's Mackinac Policy Conference, addressing business and political leaders from across Michigan, where her controversial education reform group has quickly become a major player. "Michelle will continue to drive the discussion about education, making sure that busin... more »

Ed Notes Online: Dear Mr. Condon: On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago

Ed Notes Online: Dear Mr. Condon: On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line: Dear Mr. Condon: On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line by ed notes online Hi Norm, My mother (a NYC resident) will be going to the post office this week to mail her letter (pasted below). Although she will include her name and address on the letter I redacted both in this email. .......Elementary school teacher in the Bronx It's great to see entire families involved in battling the ed deformers: Mr. Richard J. Condon Special Commissioner of Investigation 80 Maiden Lane - 20th flo... more »

Thinking About Schools: "... but NOT the federal state" ... - John Dewey

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago

Thinking About Schools: "... but NOT the federal state" ... - John Dewey: "... but NOT the federal state" ... - John Dewey A little colony, the members of which are probably mostly known to one another in advance, settle in what is almost, or quite, a wilderness. From belief in its benefits and by tradition, chiefly religious, they wish their children to know at least how to read, write, and figure. Families can only rarely provide a tutor; the neighbors over a certain area, in New England an area smaller even than a township, combine in a “school district.” They get a schoolhous... more »

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-26-13 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] Teacher: What Happens in an IDEA Charter High School by dianerav In response to an earlier post about the IDEA charter chain, which won a $29 million Race to the Top grant just months ago, a teacher writes: I taught at an IDEA secondary school during the school year 2011-2012. When I began, one of the phrases scarred in teachers’ and students’ minds is “No Excuses”. I understood this to mean that students should not give any excuses because the teachers equip them ... more »

Why Memorial Day is confused with Veterans Day

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Why Memorial Day is confused with Veterans Day: Award-winning Virginia teacher: ‘I can no longer cooperate’ with testing regime by Valerie Strauss Ron Maggiano is a social studies teacher at West Springfield High School in Fairfax County. In 2005, he won the Disney Teacher Award for innovation and creativity, and in 2006, he won the American Historical Association’s Beveridge Family Teaching Prize … Continue reading → Why Memorial Day is confused with Veterans Day By Valerie Strauss, Published: May 26, 2013 at 5:00 amE-mail the writer 3 Comments More [image: Washington, DC - May,... more »

solidaridad: Cheryl Ortega: Logan St. School Celebrates 125th Birthday

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

solidaridad: Cheryl Ortega: Logan St. School Celebrates 125th Birthday: Cheryl Ortega: Logan St. School Celebrates 125th Birthday by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene [image: Logan Street Elementary School LAUSD] [image: Logan Street Elementary School LAUSD] [image: Logan Street Elementary School LAUSD] Posted by Cheryl Ortega, May 23, 2013 at 10:46 am on Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch *Saturday, June 1, 2013, 10:00 AM* 1711 W, Montana St LA 90026 In 1888 children came to Logan St. School in horse-drawn wagons. In a wooden building on the corner or Montana and Logan St. classes began in the o... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Teacher Advises Students of their Constitutional Rights. He Now Faces Possible Disciplinary Action.

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Missouri Education Watchdog: Teacher Advises Students of their Constitutional Rights. He Now Faces Possible Disciplinary Action.: Teacher Advises Students of their Constitutional Rights. He Now Faces Possible Disciplinary Action. by stlgretchen A teacher is in trouble after advising students of their Constitutional rights before they were to complete a school survey: A Batavia High School (Illinois) teacher's fans are rallying to support him as he faces possible discipline for advising students of their Constitutional rights before taking a school survey on their behavior. Stud... more »

Turning Around Failing School Districts: How Many Examples Do Policymakers Need?? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Turning Around Failing School Districts: How Many Examples Do Policymakers Need?? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Turning Around Failing School Districts: How Many Examples Do Policymakers Need?? by larrycuban David Kirp’s new book, *Improbable Scholars*, tells the quarter-century story of the Union City (NJ) victory in creating a successful, largely minority and poor school district as measured by test scores, college admissions, parent surveys, teacher accounts–take your pick. It is a story where stable city and district leadership, over the course of a gene... more »

In native schools, hope and fears about new nationwide standards | Hechinger Report

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

In native schools, hope and fears about new nationwide standards | Hechinger Report: In native schools, hope and fears about new nationwide standards by Sarah Butrymowicz [image: In native schools, hope and fears about new nationwide standards] PIÑON, Ariz. — A dozen students had sacrificed their spring break to gather at Arizona’s Star Charter School to prepare for the upcoming state standardized test. On a sunny Thursday morning in March, they sat doing math problems on worksheets or computers instead of surfing the web or playing video games. Nearly 100 percent of the pre-kinderg... more »

Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky: Sunday reads. by Fred Klonsky [image: class picture] *Third grade. Bella Vista Elementary School. Monterey Park, California. 1958. I’m third row, fourth from the left.* *Karen Lewis is on the Smiley and West Show this week.* Chicago’s public radio station dropped the show a while ago leaving little programing that specifically addresses listeners in a third of the City and of importance to all of the City. But Smiley and West are carried locally by WPCT, Progressive Radio, 820 AM. *An open letter to Bill Gates* from an overwhelmed teacher. *Woke up this ... more »

An Urban Teacher's Education: Test Teaching

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

An Urban Teacher's Education: Test Teaching: Test Teaching by James Boutin On a recent road trip, I listened to the audiobook *Moneyball. *It made me wonder if anyone has written on the clear connection between ideas presented in the book and the focus of public education on standardized test scores. A good portion of *Moneyball* discusses a man named Bill James's obsession with the way general managers in Major League Baseball were using statistics to make poor decisions about where to spend their money. Among the problems he noticed were: - baseball statisticians have long rec... more »

ILLINOIS TEACHER ELLIE RUBENSTEIN QUITS ELOQUENTLY- SHE NAILS IT (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

ILLINOIS TEACHER ELLIE RUBENSTEIN QUITS ELOQUENTLY- SHE NAILS IT (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com: ILLINOIS TEACHER ELLIE RUBENSTEIN QUITS ELOQUENTLY- SHE NAILS IT (VIDEO) by Leonard Isenberg [image: Ellie Rubenstein.jpg] (Mensaje se repite en Español) *The following post and video was taken directly from the Huffington Post. Let me know if your situation at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) sounds disturbingly the same. At perdaily, we are getting teachers from Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento, and all over the United States telling us the same story a... more »

solidaridad: UCLA IDEA: Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 23 hours ago

solidaridad: UCLA IDEA: Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality: UCLA IDEA: Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene UCLA IDEA is often quite good on issues, even though they represent an only slightly left-of-center viewpoint. UCLA as a whole sometimes does excellent work, like their study on how so-called school choice and charter school industry has brought back Jim Crow with a vengeance. They (namely IDEA) also sometimes works with right-wing groups funded by the Broad Foundation, like ICS. Now that I've returned to UCLA, I k... more »

Daily Kos: a few random thoughts on teaching and learning

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Daily Kos: a few random thoughts on teaching and learning: a few random thoughts on teaching and learning by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken) let me grant for a moment that there should be some standard/goals we want for our students if we truly want to leave no child behind there would be only two grades Meets standards/goals/expectations Does not YET meet standards/goals/expectations the only "penalty" for not YET is to work with the child to help her/him reach it assignments/assessment should have as their goal helping students achieve those "Meets" criteria which means there is no ... more »

Republished: A Look Back from the Middle | Lefty Parent

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Republished: A Look Back from the Middle | Lefty Parent: Republished: A Look Back from the MiddleMay 25th, 2013 at 12:24 [image: Eric Profile]Republishing a recollection from our son Eric’s own writings about his development, “A Look Back from the Middle”, written in 2009, calling out some of the key developmental threads of his older youth after leaving school at fourteen and pursuing the unschooling path… There was a period; in fact, it was the entire span of time between so long as I can remember and age twenty one. One might observe that this period serves as one definition of t... more »

Why We Need Schools To Uplift Their Communities Now More Than Ever | Education on GOOD

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Why We Need Schools To Uplift Their Communities Now More Than Ever | Education on GOOD: Why We Need Schools To Uplift Their Communities Now More Than Ever [image: we.future] As Helen Keller said, "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." That's why on Wednesday, when Chicago Public Schools decided to shut down 50 public schools, along with either combining or putting others in a turnaround model, even the casual observer could see the absolute failure of our current public education system and its wayward reforms. Closing 10 percent of the Chicago Publ... more »

Cleaning Up John White’s Mess | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Cleaning Up John White’s Mess | Crazy Crawfish's Blog: Cleaning Up John White’s Mess by crazycrawfish [image: Time to start eliminating the mess. . .] Time to start eliminating the mess. . . John White is likely to be gone by the end of June but Louisiana will still have its work cut out cleaning up the messes he will leave behind. Some of those messes off the top of my head are: - Unmonitored, standardless voucher program is an utter failure and a poorly performing mess from what little White has permitted us to see - The Course Choice program is fraught with fraud which ... more »

Ohio school district considers teaching creationism and ‘Agenda 21′ conspiracies | The Raw Story

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Ohio school district considers teaching creationism and ‘Agenda 21′ conspiracies | The Raw Story: Ohio school district considers teaching creationism and ‘Agenda 21′ conspiracies By Eric W. Dolan Saturday, May 25, 2013 14:34 EDT [image: [Intelligent design in school via Shutterstock]] Topics: ACLU ♦ american civil liberties union Like Raw Story on Facebook - 137 - - - - - [image: Print Friendly and PDF] - [image: Email this page] The American Civil Liberties Union this week warned school officials in Ohio not to adopt policies that advanced creationism... more »

Diane in the Evening 5-25-13 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: A True Act of Courage and Integrity by dianerav I earlier posted about the 21 teachers who resigned their positions at Weigand Elementary School to protest the ouster of their principal Irma Cobian. That was 21 out of a teaching staff of 22. Not one of them knows if he or she will have a job next year. Theirs was an act of courage and integrity. They Parent Activist Says He Was Offered Money to Promote Trigger Law by dianerav A parent who supported Parent Revolution’s efforts to turn his school into a charter says ... more »

The in box. NEA’s Dennis Van Roekel on Chicago’s school crisis. | Fred Klonsky

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

The in box. NEA’s Dennis Van Roekel on Chicago’s school crisis. | Fred Klonsky: The in box. NEA’s Dennis Van Roekel on Chicago’s school crisis. by Fred Klonsky NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. For weeks now, teachers, parents and community leaders have been protesting Chicago Public Schools’ plan to close 50 schools in what will be the largest single wave of school closures in U.S. history. The media coverage has been dramatic, but what you see in the eyes of educators who are so adamantly opposed to this plan is the same thing you see in the eyes of educators all across this nati... more »

GRADUATION DECORUM | Teachers Fight Back

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

GRADUATION DECORUM | Teachers Fight Back: GRADUATION DECORUM by alkleen There seems to be a new movement to end all the raucous behavior at school graduations. It seems people might finally be fed up with the hooting and hollering from the audience when names are read. This ridiculous behavior has been going on for years now and rarely has anyone had the nerve to stop the boorish behavior. Just like all other forms of school related discipline, this problem could be handled very simply if school administrators weren’t so afraid to offend anyone, especially parents. Many years ag... more »

Teacher: Walk in My Shoes Before You Criticize | Diane Ravitch's blog

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Teacher: Walk in My Shoes Before You Criticize | Diane Ravitch's blog: Teacher: Walk in My Shoes Before You Criticize by dianerav Enough! She is responding to Lisa Myer’s “A Teacher’s Letter to America.” By the way, that post went viral. It has been read by more than 30,000 people on this site alone and posted on Facebook more than 10,000 times. Whenever an article appears about schools or teaching, the comments that follow are often rants against both. Whence comes this rage? Why do so many people blame their teachers for whatever ails them? It doesn’t help that Race to the Top... more »

Dogs for Excellence | EduShyster

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago

Dogs for Excellence | EduShyster: Dogs for Excellence by edushyster2012 The fortune that billionaire heiress Leona Helmsley left to the dogs is now funding education reform groups. When last we encountered billionaire hotel heiress Leona Helmsley, she had ascended to the great hotel in the sky, leaving $12 million to her beloved Maltese, Trouble. In fact Helmsely loved dogs so much that she left the bulk of her for fortune, now valued at between $5-$8 billion to the care and welfare of dogs. So you might be surprised to learn that these days Mrs. Helmsley’s vast fortune isn’t going ... more »