Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, October 7, 2013

10-7-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:





Mark Zuckerberg: Bill Gates Was My Hero
Down at the end of the NY Times suck up piece to Bill Gates today is this:“When I was growing up, Bill Gates was my hero,” Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, said in a speech at a conference last month. He added: “I think he’s one of the greatest visionaries that our industry has ever had."No wonder Zuckerberg grew up to be a sociopath.

Joel Klein On Student Success
He's so full of it.The so-called personalized learning he's talking about is created by algorithms on his Asus/Amplify tablets.Nothing personalized about that.Even if the tablets worked, rather than melted, which apparently they don't, since the first district that bought them has had serious issues with them.Do you know what we need for student success?This kind of school system.That's something


Can You Imagine A School Chancellor Who Promoted This Kind Of School System?
An article by Kathleen Cashin and Bruce Cooper for a new style of education reform (reposted in full because it's now behind a paywall):Remaking Schools as Socioemotional PlacesBy Kathleen M. Cashin and Bruce S. Cooper Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.What do children do in school when they are treated like objects to be shaped, controlled, and rewarded—or punished—for what they said

Common Core Is Making Kids Hate School And Learning
This came up more than once at today's school meetings - kids are really starting to hate school and there has been a lot more acting out this year than in previous years.Both math and ELA teachers who are teaching the new Common Core curriculum materials say students hate the new lessons and have grown disengaged with the learning process already (and it's only October!)Guidance counselors are sa

Taking Cuomo On Over His Education "Death Penalty" Policies
Fred Dicker reported in the NY Post that Andrew Cuomo is looking to avoid "a head-on clash with de Blasio and the “progressive,’’ or left-of-center, wing of the Democratic Party that de Blasio represents."Dicker says it's because Cuomo knows such a contingent would be crucial to his chances in 2016 if he runs for president.As Cuomo revs up his "death penalty" for schools polici

Mayor Bloomberg Spends $1 Million In Cash For Cory Booker's Floundering Senate Campaign
Wall Street shill Cory Booker, ostensibly a "rock star politician" who is supposed to be entering the national stage as one of the great future hopes of the Democratic Party, needs Mike Bloomberg's money to dispense with a Tea Party opponent who should be 50 points down but is suddenly within 12.The Times reports Bloomberg is putting $1 million of his own money in on Booker's side, runni

Fred Dicker: Cuomo Won't Give De Blasio Tax Hike, But Will Find Pre-K Money For City
Interesting piece in today's Dicker column:Gov. Cuomo, fearing a clash with a Mayor Bill de Blasio over the poll-leading Democrat’s tax-the-rich plan to fund a universal pre-K program, has directed his staff to explore “alternative options’’ to let the city raise the money without an income-tax hike, The Post has learned. “The last thing the governor wants is a clash with a Mayor de Blasio,’’ a Cu

Daily News Shills Play Fast And Loose With Facts On Charter Schools
The neo-liberals at the Daily News have an editorial today supporting Eva Moskowitz's walk across the bridge protest for charter schools.As usual with the DN, they play fast and loose with the facts:The innovative approaches, longer school days and longer school years they offer — almost always carried out by teachers working outside the union contract — are undeniable. Just one example: On the to
Washing Away The Reformers
Here's a comment I left on a Capital NY article about the Common Core test scores:The processes to determine proficiency are political decisions made by humans in the NYSED and at the Board of Regents.  NYSED Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch would have people believe these so-called proficiency rates were given down from the mount and are objective, scientific measures of what studen
10-6-13 Perdido Street School
Perdido Street School: Science Teacher Complains Common Core Turns Him Into Literacy Teacher, But He Still Supports The CCSSA common complain with the Common Core - no matter what subject a teacher teaches, he/she must become an ELA teacher and teach informational texts:At the beginning of the school year, I start off my class with a quote. In my best orator voice, I exclaim, “We need to teach our