Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break
Fund This: Social justice and public education in the spotlight in Curtis Chin's Tested
Documentary feature examines race, class and public education in New York City. My friend is working on a documentary feature that's winding down its fundraising campaign and could some help... Tested, directed by Curtis Chin, follows a diverse group of 8th graders from throughout New York as they prepare for an-all important test that will get them into one of the city's few elite public scho
EduShyster Crashes Jeb Bush’s Party
Some party! EduShyster crashed it and couldn’t find many happy events. Hanna Skandera, one of the shrinking number of Jeb’s Chiefs for Change, was a no-show. Tony Bennett, ex-Indiana chief, ex-Florida chief, was not sure whether to lecture on A-F grading systems. Rahm Emanuel insisted he was not a reformer, maybe just a passerby. Was anyone happy? Sounds more like a wake than a party. Are the
Going Green in the Golden State
California was proud to welcome Andrea Falken, director of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS), and other federal, state, and local officials and stakeholders for the start of the West Coast leg of this summer’s inspired Education Built to Last Facilities Best Practices Tour. A long-time supporter of green school facilities, California State Superintendent of Public Instruct
Career-Based HS Program Getting $7.8 million to Expand
Nearly $8 million in new public and private revenue is enabling The California Center for College and Career expand a program that links career and technical education with college preparedness. The Linked Learning District Initiative is currently providing technical assistance and coaching to high schools in LA Unified and eight other districts offering career-based learning and workplace experi
Making Instagram Videos With English Language Learners
Last week, I posted the vocabulary videos made by some of English Language Learners using Twitter’s Vine video app. Today, we tried doing the same with Instagram’s video feature, and we all liked it a lot better. It gives you fifteen instead of seven seconds and, if you make a mistake in one “scene” you can easily erase that scene instead of having to start all over again. Like Vine, it will auto
Proposed peanut policy at Lyndhurst schools upgraded to full elementary ban
With a proposed policy waiting to be ratified, the Lyndhurst Board of Education modified the pending policy to be a complete ban on tree nut products for students in Kindergarten through 8th grade. Members supporting the change cited the opinion of elementary school principals, who believe the logistics of the proposed peanut classroom policy for school lunches can't be adhered to with assurances.
John McDonogh Part 2
The John Mcdonogh story is one of obvious lies, reckless endangerment and exploitation of children, and utter disregard for the input of parents and community members. John McDonogh is a bridge from our past, to our present and a window on what the future of our education system will look like, statewide and nationwide, if we continue to allow corporations and politicians (more interested in makin
SACS2013ALL Software Update
Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) financial reporting software used by local educational agencies in preparing budgets, interim reports, and year-end financial reports to the California Department of Education (CDE).
Help A Child Feel Supported: Build an Inclusive Library
CTQ blogger and elementary teacher Justin Minkel writes about the moment he realized that his classroom library of books wasn't inclusive enough to reaffirm every student's identity: "Based on 200 Read Alouds, 50 guided reading books, and the 500 titles in my class library, same-sex couples and families did not exist, with the sole exception of Heather Has Two Mommies...For children of gay an
Washington Heights elementary school, parents cancel standardized Test
Brief article about parents at a early education school in NY pulled their kids out of the state mandated testing.
Want to Have a Healthier Society? Bring Back Home Economics
Many of us are pretty reliant on convenience foods, but making everything from scratch doesn't have to take more time, and it's nearly always healthier. So why don't we have home economics classes anymore? Over at Mother Jones Tom Philpott dives into the fast food industry's calculated destruction of the American Home Economics Association in order to produce "generation upon generation of pe
Michelle Rhee’s Empty Harvest
T.S. Eliot had it wrong. October is the cruelest month. Far crueler than Spring’s “lilacs out of a dead land” Eliot wrote about in “The Waste Land” is a harvest season of failed crops. All that work and hope for this? “This” we confront is the empty yield from promises made by people in leadership positions. In economic terms, the failures are obvious. Despite a generation of pledges to advance Am
"Number of new jazz bands formed” as a measure of success in student-run school by Sam Levin
by Samuel Levin, founder of The Independent Project at Monument Mountain High School, originally posted at wgsi.org/blog as "Are Student-Run Schools the Way to Go?" Three years ago I designed and implemented a school-within-a-school at my public high school in Western Massachusetts. We called it The Independent Project. This school within a school was entirely run by its students. The pi
Statement on Corbett’s Relase of 45 million: “The governor is no friend to Philadelphia public schools.”
The Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools fully welcomes any additional funding for Philadelphia public schools and applauds Governor Tom Corbett’s decision to finally release $45 million in federal funds for Philadelphia Schools. We also applaud the many parents, students, teachers, and activists who rallied tirelessly to demand this money from the governor. However, it is importa
Dallas ISD releases termination letter for Playboy-posing former teacher
Dallas ISD has confirmed that Cristy Deweese, a former teacher who had posed for Playboy’s website, was fired. According to an Oct. 10 termination letter received by the Dallas Morning News, Deweese was let go six days after the News first reported that her nude modeling was causing a stir with some students and at least one parent. The 21-year-old posed for Playboy before the district hired her.
Glenda Ritz Sues Governor Mike Pence for Violating State Constitution
Governor Mike Pence, in his continuing efforts to make sure that the duly elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz is stripped of her constitutional authority as chair of the state board of education, has encouraged the state board to hold secret meetings when Ritz was not present. At a recent meeting, the Pence board voted to transfer authority over the A-F grading system fr
@ASCD forgets some “facts” about #commoncore
Yesterday this PDF produced by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) was printed and I found it in my mailbox. I’m not sure how it got there but my sense is that since I have been critical of the Common Core’s mandated high stakes assessments someone was trying to help me see that Common […]
Glenda Ritz Sues Indiana State Board Over A-F Accountability
A-F school accountability is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by Indiana Superintendent Glenda Ritz against the state board of education over open meetings. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.
Kishimoto signals intent to give Steve Perry a 2nd Hartford school
Despite their consistent failure to educate its fair share of non-English speaking students, students who go home to households in which English isn’t the primary language and students who need special education services, thanks to the majority on the Hartford Board of Education, Achievement First, Inc. is already moving forward with plans to “open” a […]The post Kishimoto signals intent to give S
The Rise of the Bicycle in the 21st Century
Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten is no stranger to controversy. His 2009 documentary Bananas!* went after the the Dole Food Company for using a pesticide that caused sterility in workers at a banana plantation in Nicaragua. When the fruit distributor came after him with a defamation lawsuit, he documented the case in his next film, Big Boys Gone Bananas!*. Now his latest film, Bikes vs. Cars,
NCLB Waiver Approved for Puerto Rico
Three states, plus the Bureau of Indian Education, are still waiting for a response from the U.S. Department of Education on their waiver requests. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.
How to make a viral video: Read the Viral Video Manifesto
How to make a viral video: Read the Viral Video Manifesto by Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe (McGraw-Hill, 2012) Do you want to know how to make a viral video? Well, you can’t go wrong listening to the “Diet Coke and Mentos” guys (Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe) who have done it over and over. The “Diet Coke and Mentos” guys have given a definitive guidebook to the very challen
Some Wise Advice on Figuring Out What You Want to Do
Two of GOOD's interns recently asked how do you figure out what you want to do? Back in 1990 Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson's delivered Kenyon College's commencement speech and warned graduates that "creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement." Gavin Aung Than's visualization of Watterson's speech is a poignant reminder for us all th