All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
Amazing video: Tennessee student rips CCLS, data and teacher eval by test scores.
All I can say is “wow” after watching this video. This young man tells the true origin of the Common Core, rips apart “data” and hammers teacher evaluation by test scores. Could a student who becomes part of the Common Core generation make this type of argument in 5 years? Or will our children’s only […]
NEA, AFT, Common Core, and VAM
I have been wondering about “the unions”– the two major national teachers unions– the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). I have been told that ”the unions” are the major forces on the side of classroom teachers in this fight against the corporate takeover of American public education. I want that to […]
Open Letter to My Local Teacher’s Union
Dear President Elizabeth Davis, First and foremost, I wish to extend warm felt congratulations to you, and Ms. Candi Peterson. I wish both of you a successful term as President and General Vice President of the Washington Teacher’s Union. My name is Angel L. Cintron Jr., and I’m a third year DCPS teacher at Charles […]
YESTERDAY
From Spellings to Duncan: Using NAEP as Policy Propaganda
From Spellings to Duncan: Using NAEP as Policy Propaganda. via From Spellings to Duncan: Using NAEP as Policy Propaganda.
Learning and Teaching in Scarcity: How High-Stakes ‘Accountability’ Cultivates Failure | Alternet
Learning and Teaching in Scarcity: How High-Stakes \’Accountability\’ Cultivates Failure | Alternet. via Learning and Teaching in Scarcity: How High-Stakes \’Accountability\’ Cultivates Failure | Alternet. via Learning and Teaching in Scarcity: How High-Stakes ‘Accountability’ Cultivates Failure | Alternet.
Why I Teach, Where I Teach
Education reforms has truly damaged our ability to understand how chronic poverty affects a student’s ability to learn. Although I can agree with the underlying premise of Rhee’s rhetoric – poverty isn’t an excuse to setting high expectations for students – I can’t help but feel frustrated with how the “no excuses” slogan has hijacked any […]
NOV 07
NAEP? Nope: Why (Almost) Everyone Will Misread (Again) Data on Gaps
NAEP? Nope: Why (Almost) Everyone Will Misread (Again) Data on Gaps. via NAEP? Nope: Why (Almost) Everyone Will Misread (Again) Data on Gaps.
Schools Matter: Union Leadership as Political Sleight of Hand
Schools Matter: Union Leadership as Political Sleight of Hand. via Schools Matter: Union Leadership as Political Sleight of Hand.
NOV 06
The Two Sides of Education Reform in Washington, D.C.
Education reform is failing traditional D.C. public middle schools located east of the Anacostia River. Although certain popular education debates, i.e. discussions centered on the merits of school choice, common core, teacher evaluations, etc., may dominate the education policy world; The failures, or shortcomings, of education reform throughout D.C.’s high poverty neighborhood public middle scho
NOV 05
A new author in our midst, @angelclintonjr
I’ve come to know this rather insightful fellow via social media since coming back to DC Public Schools. Mr. Angel Clinton, Jr. is a colleague, a middle school teacher, in the great Ward 8 in our nation’s capital. Here’s a link to his author page and bio. As you might be able to tell, his […]
Are Common Core and Testing Debates “Two Different Matters”?
Are Common Core and Testing Debates \”Two Different Matters\”?. via Are Common Core and Testing Debates “Two Different Matters”?.
If I were a student, I would ask my…
If I were a student in a high poverty public school, I would pose the following questions to my teachers, guidance counselor, principal, and parents/guardians. This piece is not intended to score cheap education reform or political points. After a few years experience teaching in a high poverty public middle school, this piece simply reflects some of my […]
NOV 04
Teachers: Never Forget How Much You Matter
Whether you teach at an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, or an alternative school, this message is for you. This message is for ALL teachers, regardless of your school’s zip code or socio-economic status. This message is for ALL teachers, from first year teachers to teachers one year removed from retirement. This […]
Election night in Douglas County, CO #dougco @dianeravitch
Tim and I have a special episode for you all this evening. We’re chatting with a panel of good people from Douglas County on the eve of a potential rescue of their local school board from a bunch of Koch-heads. Fingers crossed! Are they nervous?!? Find out. Tagged: colorado, douglas county, election, school board
Evidence? Randi Weingarten Ignores the Evidence
In Evidence? Secretary Duncan, You Can’t Handle the Evidence, I note that Duncan simply refuses to acknowledge the abundant evidence that Common Core is a failed standards/testing paradigm. Now Randi Weingarten appears to be traveling down the same misleading path with Will States Fail the Common Core?: Without standards aligned to what kids need to succeed in college, career […]
An Open Exchange with AFT President Randi Weingarten
On October 26 and 27, 2013, I exchanged a number of emails with American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten. I had planned to write a post about Weingarten, which I did on October 27. My post took the form of an open letter to her. I sent it to her for her response […]
NOV 03
Thirty-five More LDOE Files: A Number of 2012 Test Score Reports
Once again, I have spent time on the LDOE website, seeking information that was once publicly available in pre-Serling Louisiana. My first excursion yielded 95 files, c. 2011-13; my second, 88 files, c. 2007. Here are today’s finds: 35 files, c. 2012. Lots of test results in this set: BESE Meeting Minutes April 18, 2012 Comparison Between Current […]
My Local Teachers Union President and Superintendent Stand Against Common Core and PARCC
On Friday, November 1, 2013, I had the following letter in my school mailbox from St. Tammany Federation of Teachers President Elsie Burkhalter. In it, both Burkhalter and St. Tammany Schools Superintendent Trey Folse publicly support the St. Tammany School Board resolution to opt out of both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the associated PARCC (Partnership […]
Raising Questions: Ideas for Empowering Educators to Advocate for Students
Am I teaching content to students, or am I teaching students how to access and learn content? This is the fundamental question that guides my teaching practice on a daily basis. If I decide that I am teaching content to students, it means that the material I am teaching is more […]
Join us At the Chalk Face at 6PM EST while we chat with the NJ teacher subjected to yet another Christie tirade
Listen here, at 6PM EST. I doubt any reasonable person would disagree with this educator from NJ on her perspective. Tagged: angry, christie, new jersey, NJ, teacher, tirade
Guest column: S.C. schools have poverty problem | The Greenville News | greenvilleonline.com
Guest column: S.C. schools have poverty problem | The Greenville News | greenvilleonline.com.
NOV 02
Another Small Library: Eighty-eight More LDOE Documents
Yesterday, I posted 95 documents, the result of my searching files not obviously available on the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) website. Today, I returned to the site to locate documents from 2007, the time that Paul Pastorek became state superintendent and Paul Vallas, Recovery School District (RSD) superintendent. It is a terrible experience to have […]
NJ Governor Screams at Teacher: ‘Do Your Job!’
The New Jersey teacher in the photo below had just asked Chris Christie the following question: Why do you continue to spread the myth that our schools and teachers are failing? His reply? “You people! Just do your job!” What does he mean by “you people?” UPDATE: Make sure you listen to The Chalk Face […]
To My Students: ‘I Love You and Believe in You’
The following is a guest post from my friend, Meg Norris, who has an important message for her students. (Grab a Kleenex. I did.) To My Students, I did not return to the classroom this year and I want to apologize. I am truly sorry for having left you. It was the hardest decision I […]
Outright hatred coming from 5th graders. This is urban school reform manifest.
I am familiar with a group of fifth graders who are in real crisis. This isn’t some manufactured, fake, phony crisis like A Nation at Risk or something. This is real. I see a classroom of children at ten and 11 years of age so filled with rage and hate and anger that their entire […]