Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

PSAT for 6-4-13: Dump inBloom in Illinois! Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » PSAT for 6-4-13: Dump inBloom in Illinois!:

PSAT for 6-4-13: Dump inBloom in Illinois!

psat_logo

Today I’m sharing an action alert from Stop Common Core Illinois as a follow-up to yesterday’s blog:

ACTION ALERT: Let’s dump inBloom student data collection in Illinois!

Posted on June 3, 2013 by 
Ok Illinois we’re not being loud enough! We are one of only THREE states not dumping InBloom!
Today call The ISBE at (217) 557-6763!
Listen friends we can talk about CC and data tracking, but unless we fight we won’t rid our state of this! You, yes YOU have to pick up the phone and call! Don’t expect everyone else to do it. 
If you don’t want your child tracked with InBloom then call!! TODAY!
Use their contact form: http://webprod1.isbe.net/contactisbe/
Page three of this document has your local regional office:http://isbe.net/regionaloffices/pdf/roedirectory.pdf
Go to their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Illinois-State-Board-of-Education/136022251779
Go to the boards next meeting:
http://www.isbe.net/board/pdf/2013_board_meetings.pdf
(it’s in Naperville!)
Tweet them:
https://twitter.com/ISBEnews
Again don’t just sit on this! Call, write, tweet, and MAKE SOME NOISE! Tell them we want out of InBloom!!!
Christopher Koch got our state in Common Core and the data tracking with RTTT…let him know what you think! (Call one of these numbers and ask for him…it’s the main office number: 866/262-6663 • 217/782-4321)
Here’s a list of the board members: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/board/

A tale of two alma maters: which is worse on public education???

UCNUseesawI’m usually up in the air about which of my two alma maters to be more proud of or embarrassed about.
As a resident of Hyde Park, I’m usually most offended by the U of Chicago’s muscling around and over the neighbors it considers less desirable and replacing local businesses with more generic establishments. And let’s not even talk about the U of C charter schools and their Tim Knowles, a member of Rahm Emanuel’s education transition team who most recently assured the Tribune that “the city is going to be responsive. They’re not going to be deaf” to the schools on the closure list. Mmm hmm.
But then there was this excruciatingly tone-deaf letter to the Tribune last week by a Northwestern education prof named Diane Whitmore Schatzenbach who tossed the ball of shame right back into NU’s court. She wrote:
….the best research suggests that these closings are unlikely to cause long-term harm to