Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

SPECIAL Mid Day Banana Break 11-5-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2 #edreform


Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break



ED Pulse Poll Results: Which Type of Parent Support for the Common
ED Pulse Poll Results: Which Type of Parent Support for the Common Core Would Be Most Useful? November 5, 2013 by Kit Harris, ASCD Research ASCD continually seeks to provide solutions to the challenges that face educators of all levels. Recently the ASCD SmartBrief ED Pulse poll sought to develop a short list of useful tasks for parents to implement in their daily routine to enhance what is b

ENDA And America’s Journey Towards Justice For All
This week the Senate will very likely a pass a bill prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination in the workplace. The President and a majority of the American people support it. Only the GOP stands in the way of an important step towards justice for all. The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity It passed the Senate


Common Core implementation lacking, Weingarten says
Common Core implementation lacking, Weingarten says ... students reach ambitious new standards, AFT President Randi Weingarten told reporters on Nov.
De Blasio vets union boss to take over NYC education
Bill de Blasio is considering hiring teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten as the next NYC schools chancellor, sources tell me. Weingarten — who was head of ...

The school data problem: what we have vs. what we need | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 5 at 2:00 pm It’s the backbone of the modern school reform: data. And a lot of it, it turns out, isn’t any good. Here’s a post about about the problem of the data we have vs. the data we need, by Jack Schneider, an assistant professor of education at the ...read moreThe post The school data problem: what we have vs. what we need | The Answer Sheet appeared first on NPE
NC Teachers, Among the Best in Nation, Under Fire | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Imagine this weird scenario: a state that has more Nationally Board Certified Teachers than any other state in the nation; a state where 96% of the teachers are rated proficient; a state where the legislature is coming up with every trick in the book to demoralize and harass their excellent teachers. That is North Carolina. ...read moreThe post NC Teachers, Among the Best in Nation, Under Fire | D

Dougco school board race could determine district’s future - Decision Day
Check back this evening as returns start to be reported — we’ll be updating the post all night with results and responses from the campaigns and other stakeholders. With four seats on Douglas County’s seven-member board up for grabs, the direction of the district’s schools hangs in the balance. Douglas County School District and its board have attracted national attention for taking an aggressi



Former Dallas ISD teacher to appear on Jeopardy!
John Pearson (Facebook) John Pearson, who taught in Dallas ISD for 10 years, will be in the Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament starting next week. Pearson left … [visit site to read more]


A City Education: We Can Only Overcome Bullying if We Do it Together
Through A City Education, City Year corps members share their experiences working as tutors and mentors in schools in hopes of closing the opportunity gap and ending the dropout crisis. I made the decision to go to a high school where I knew almost nobody. It was the largest school I had ever seen. The buildings were huge and beautiful and there were hundreds of students. I thought I’d find myse


NEWS: At an election voting site, a pep talk and a work day for teachers
Blended learning teachers at I.S. 88 on Election Day. From left, Jared Cohen, Margherita Gallina, Principal Aileen Altman-Mitchell and Emily Gordon. As one of about 700 school buildings to double as a voting site today, M.S. 88 saw democracy in action on its first floor, where Brooklyn voters cycled through hallways and into a gymnasium to fill out their ballots. But it was business as usual up on
NEWS: Casting ballots a final exam for two aspiring education mayors
For the two leading candidates for mayor, voting this morning was something of a final exam — even though neither cast his vote at a school. “I feel like I’m taking a standardized test,” Democrat Bill de Blasio said as he filled out the ballot at a library near his home in Park Slope. (De Blasio has pledged to “put the standardized testing machine in reverse” if he’s elected.) In Brooklyn Heights

Bill De Blasio's Schools Chancellor Remains Unknown Even As Victory Takes Shape
NEW YORK -- The outcome of Tuesday's mayoral election may be largely a foregone conclusion, as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (D) is expected to trounce former transit director Joe Lhota (R). But major questions still hang over certain aspects of an impending de Blasio administration, among the more notable of these: Who will he put in charge of the nation's largest school district? Many a New Yo

Study says 60% of Milwaukee city workers would leave if residency rule ends
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McTeacher’s Night Buys Silence, Harms Kids’ Health
McDonald’s has pledged not to market branded foods to children in elementary schools. Yet a new report released by Michele Simon and Corporate Accountability International describes how educational fundraisers like McDonald’s McTeacher’s Night violate the spirit of the pledge – and worse – buy silence when it comes to junk food marketing and children’s health. During McTeacher’s night, schoolteach


PSAT for 11-5-13: Sign MTAS inBloom petition
Please take a minute to sign and share the More Than a Score petition about the national database of student records run by inBloom (known in IL as the IL Shared Learning Environment or ISLE). This initiative is proceeding without parental input or consent, and gives us grave concerns both about the excessive emphasis on data collection in our school districts and the sharing of private, sensitive


Proposal to change Pa. charter school rules runs into resistance
by Mary Wilson for NewsWorks Some education advocates are criticizing a Pennsylvania Senate proposal to revamp how public charter schools start, expand, and receive funding -- because it would remove a check on the growth of the alternative schools. A plan before a key legislative committee would allow charter schools to increase their enrollment without the approval of the school district that fi


Bruno: Nobody Likes Good News About Education
After Politifact rated as “mostly false” Diane Ravitch’s claim about rising student achievement until NCLB, Andy Rotherham reluctantly came to her quasi-defense: Of all the false claims she’s lobbed out over the past few years, I’m not sure why they chose to go after her on that one where she’s more or less right.  She overstates the case and the specifics but is correct on the larger point. The