Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, January 11, 2013

Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform? | The Nation

Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform? | The Nation:


Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform?




ATEACHERS FOR EDUCATION REFORM
PART OF THE GROWING AL-ALEC PRIVATIZATION NETWORK
الشركات استيلاء التعليم العام




In late November, a small crowd of Columbia University and New York University students organized byStudents For Education Reform (SFER) marched from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) building in downtown Manhattan to the steps of the Department of Education building, demanding that public school teachers reach an agreement with the Bloomberg administration over new evaluation standards. Hanging in the balance is $450 million worth of state aid that will be withheld from city public schools by Governor Cuomo if a deal is not reached by January 17. Students sporting red and green Christmas hats called on teachers to “Make a deal!” and “Compromise!” in a spectacular show of misplaced activist spirit.
The “compromise” would place teachers at the mercy of a counterproductive test-based system, allowing up to 40 percent of their evaluative ratings to come from the standardized test scores of their students. It's even worse than it sounds though, because New York state requires that “teachers rated ineffective on student performance based on objective assessments must be rated ineffective overall,” as education historian Diane Ravitch explains, “a teacher who does not raise test scores will be found ineffective overall, no matter how well he or she does with the remaining 60 percent. In other words, the 40 percent allocated to student performance actually counts for 100 percent.”
SFER, a student network that has exploded on more than 100 college campuses across the country since it 

Seattle Ballard High School teachers have followed suit: No MAP test! | Seattle Education

Seattle Ballard High School teachers have followed suit: No MAP test! | Seattle Education:


Seattle Ballard High School teachers have followed suit: No MAP test!

Tony Bennett: Partisan Republican | Scathing Purple Musings

Tony Bennett: Partisan Republican | Scathing Purple Musings:


Tony Bennett: Partisan Republican

StateImpact Indiana reporter Elle Moxley provides this quote from outgoing state schools superintendent Tony Bennett:
Bennett starts his new job as Florida Commissioner of Education Monday. But he says he’s not worried about state lawmakers dismantling the education system he built with Gov. Mitch Daniels.
“I think we have a huge amount of political will in [Gov. Mike Pence's] office around education reform,” says Bennett. “I think the fact we have a supermajority in the House and Senate speaks highly to that.”
So Bennett is admitting he owes his Indiana success to his fellow republicans and  partisan politics. There’s no mystery that Florida would not have it’s testing first, privatization via charter school model without the republican 

School Tech Connect: This Ought To Be Interesting...

School Tech Connect: This Ought To Be Interesting...:


This Ought To Be Interesting...

...but I suspect that it will just be sad. 

My lakefront liberals are having a meeting to defend the flat tax. God love 'em. 


Before I forget to make the point, it occurred to me that gay marriage in Illinois seemed like such a martian concept only ten years ago. And yet gay marriage advocates know how to do things. You keep pushing and rallying and organizing, and talking talking talking about gay marriage until one day you find yourself at the altar with some guy. Or gal. Whatever. Gays are like Churchill: 
  Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Strangely, gays are also like Gandhi: 
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then they realize 

UPDATE: AND THE WINNER IS ...2013 Golden Globe Nominations Announcement: BEST MOTION PICTURE – CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS:


2013 Golden Globe Nominations Announcement



 BEST MOTION PICTURE – CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS



http://peopleforourpublicschools.org/






EdVantages Academics


“Charter schools pay off for CEO’s family.” Dayton Daily News (OH), 12/15/2012 
A Dayton Daily News investigation found that a company managing several taxpayer-funded charter schools in the area is a lucrative family business whose husband-and-wife management team makes more than $400,000 a year.

The nonprofit, EdVantages, manages seven charter schools in Ohio, including schools in Trotwood, Middletown and Springfield. By law, these are public schools, but CEO Myrrha Pammer-



EdChoices



Tim King and Norm Donohoe, who ran a chain of taxpayer-funded charter schools across small-town Oregon from their headquarters in Clackamas, scammed the state out of $17 million and must repay that plus $2.7 million more, the state said in a court filing this week...

King and Donohoe, who were the director and president, respectively, of a nonprofit they named EdChoices, submitted false, incomplete and misleading records about how many students were 

AND THE WINNER IS ... NOT YOU!!!




CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal
Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below
  


CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

If you don't find yours today
Keep checking

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Be sure to check out two other Great blogs:



Ohio superintendent, community support portrait of Jesus hanging in public school | Pam's House Blend

Ohio superintendent, community support portrait of Jesus hanging in public school | Pam's House Blend:


Ohio Superintendent, Community Support Portrait of Jesus Hanging in Public School


Jackson City School District Superintendent Phil Howard finds support at school board meeting where hundreds boo those expressing that the portrait’s presence violates the U.S. Constitution.
Yes, it’s time again for an episode of “Might Makes Right” and “Majority Rules.” The trouble began when the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent Superintendent Phil Howard a letter pointing out that a portrait of Jesus (on display in the public school since 1947, donated by a Christian student group) was an “egregious violation of the the First Amendment.” Read and weep at the defense of the portrait:
Superintendent Phil Howard addressed a crowd of hundreds who attended the school board meeting at Jackson High School Tuesday night, saying the board fully supported his decision to 

Schools Matter: Support Seattle Teachers in Their Campaign of Conscience

Schools Matter: Support Seattle Teachers in Their Campaign of Conscience:


Support Seattle Teachers in Their Campaign of Conscience

From Monty Neill at FairTest:


*Support Seattle Teachers’ Boycott*

Show your support for the teachers’ boycott of the MAP tests.

The teachers have set up a petition, which you can sign at

https://www.change.org/petitions/seattle-public-schools-support-garfield-high-school-teachers-refusing-to-administer-the-map?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign 

Please circulate it widely!

The teachers wrote me:

“We would love for people to write letters to our superintendent and school board showing their support: Email addresses are: superintendent@seattleschools.org <mailto:superintendent@seattleschools.org>, schoolboard@seattleschools.org <mailto:schoolboard@seattleschools.org>.”

Already many groups are passing resolutions in support of the teachers: get your local union, education, parent, student or community group to pass one and send it to the super and the board.

There is also a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SolidarityWithGarfieldHighSchoolTestingBoycott. Please like and share it.

All this is important. This is the first schoolwide boycott since Chicago more than a decade ago. That one was the final part of a push that forced the city to drop its awful tests. Alfie Kohn reported that a boycott in Japan compelled that government to drop a set of national tests. And a boycott in Britain caused the government to overhaul though not end its testing, but the battle did not end there. Since then teachers and parents have won a reduction in testing in England and Wales completely opted out of the tests (Scotland had never adopted them).

So, yes, boycotts can be powerful.

We need such actions to roll back the testing juggernaut. When the Seattle teachers win, that will help us all. I expect those who want test-driven schools will also be pushing hard for the district to stand firm and defeat the teachers.

Our voices will be very important, perhaps not as important as parent and community people in Seattle (where the union has voted support for the boycott), but still an important, perhaps critical piece of the battle.

So send your letter to the super and board, sign the petition, like the Facebook page, and spread the word.

-- 
Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate to FairTest: https://secure.entango.com/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

Big Education Ape Nite Cap 1-11-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2


James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."

A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAP



Pass / Fail : Feedback: Here's what you think about the state's changes to standardized tests | 89.3 KPCC

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 minutes ago
Pass / Fail : Feedback: Here's what you think about the state's changes to standardized tests | 89.3 KPCC: Feedback: Here's what you think about the state's changes to standardized tests by Vanessa Romo [image: An empty classroom]*Credit: BES Photos/Flickr (cc by-nc-nd)* State school officials say standardized tests as we know them — the multiple choice kind that require Scantron forms and No. 2 pencils — are not working for teachers or students. What we need, California Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson said last week, is to move away from memorization-driven tests. He's prop... more »

CEO Patricia Levesque’s Misleading Defense of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education | Scathing Purple Musings

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
CEO Patricia Levesque’s Misleading Defense of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education | Scathing Purple Musings: CEO Patricia Levesque’s Misleading Defense of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education by Bob Sikes Within her response to Mississippi parent advocate, Nancy Loome, Foundation for Excellence in Education CEO, Patricia Levesque included this: Loome notes that we take funding from for-profit providers. In fact, *more than 90 percent of the Foundation’s budget comes from family foundations or philanthropic organizations*dedicated to improving students’ ... more »

Diane in the Evening 1-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: Maine Rejects Gulen Charter School by dianerav I wrote earlier that the governor of Maine was angry about the rejection of four of five charter applications by the state authorizing committee. He said he wished they would just “go away.” Two of those rejected charters were for-profit online corporations that have hired well-connected lobbyists, their usual method of operation. A third was a Gulen charter, here described by Sharon Higgins, who runs a website called “Charter School Scandals” and follows the expansion of the Gulen network. Sharon writes: ... more »

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools | K-12 News Network

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools | K-12 News Network: No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools by admin On December 30, 2012, President Obama said he doubted arming school police with guns will prevent future school shootings, but then January 11, 2013′s EdWeek hints that he may yield to local law enforcement officers and communities if it has “bipartisan” support. While President Barack Obama said recently that he would be skeptical that more guns would be an answer to school safety, his administration is considering paying to add police officers to secure public s... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Newark Parents Fight School Closings

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Jersey Jazzman: Newark Parents Fight School Closings: Newark Parents Fight School Closings by Duke I've just received a copy of a remarkable letter from a parent group in Newark: Parents Unified for Local School Education (PULSE). The letter is reprinted below; here's the story: Newark, like so many other urban districts, just went through a round of neighborhood school closings. The pattern seems to be the same in every city: an autocratic mayor or a conservative governor comes in and disenfranchises the local citizens (see New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, etc.). ... more »

Connected Educators: 122 Awesome Twitter Accounts | My Town Tutors

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Connected Educators: 122 Awesome Twitter Accounts | My Town Tutors: Connected Educators: 122 Awesome Twitter Accounts Posted on January 10, 2013 by mmolloy ***If you are a teacher who tutors, for a limited time, you can register for FREE using promo code:usteachers. “Teachers are great tutors!” Teachers keep 100% of the profits! If you are a teacher PLEASE join! We need great teachers who tutor to be the #1 resource in America for parents looking for tutors!* The feedback from teachers has been incredible to our top 10 twitter accounts for teachers. We would like to continue to prov...more »

Common Core State Standards: A New Foundation for Student Success — Whole Child Education

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Common Core State Standards: A New Foundation for Student Success — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG [image: Klea Scharberg]Common Core State Standards: A New Foundation for Student Success January 11, 2013 by Klea Scharberg This Hunt Institute video discusses the rationale behind the development of the Common Core State Standards. "These standards now being implemented by more than 44 states across the nation were built upon strengths and lessons learned in states. They were informed by other top performing countries and grounded in research and evidence," says the Hunt... more »

Hopes for the New Year: Begone Ghosts of Reform Past! - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Hopes for the New Year: Begone Ghosts of Reform Past! - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Hopes for the New Year: Begone Ghosts of Reform Past! by Anthony Cody The first few weeks of 2013 have greeted us like a trip with old Marley revisiting school reforms of the past. In the very first weeks, we have Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst lobby announce letter grades for states based on their adherence to her favorite pillars of reform policies. John Merrow provided us with a reprise of her greatest hits as the head of DC schools, along with some news regarding the cheating t... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: GET in Danger in the Legislature

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Seattle Schools Community Forum: GET in Danger in the Legislature: GET in Danger in the Legislature by Melissa Westbrook David Goldstein over at The Stranger Slog lays out the case for the GET (Guaranteed Education Tuition) program. The legislators who are talking it down are - no surprise - some of very legislators who have turned on their own party, Rodney Tom and Steve Litzow along with Ross Hunter. (And, as Goldy points out, some live in some of the most expensive areas of Washington State.) *GET is Washington's prepaid tuition program, a variant of the federally sanction... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Kahlenberg on so-called 'High-flying, high-poverty schools'

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Kahlenberg on so-called 'High-flying, high-poverty schools': Kahlenberg on so-called 'High-flying, high-poverty schools' by Mike Klonsky Don't miss *Richard Kahlenberg's* provacative piece in American Educator (Winter 2012-2013) which examines the roles of poverty and racial segregation and their impact of student learning. Kahlenberg takes on those who exaggerate the effect of "high-flying, high-poverty schools" or those [like Michelle Rhee--m.k.], who consider poverty to be mainly an "excuse" made by bad teachers who fail to produce high standard... more »

Show us the money: “Master Class” for private equity investors in public education | Parents Across America

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Show us the money: “Master Class” for private equity investors in public education | Parents Across America: Show us the money: “Master Class” for private equity investors in public education by pureparents Even when people recognize how hard corporations are working to take over public education, they still wonder – is there really that much money to be made in education? Maybe the hedge funders are really doing all this just to help children. It’s a natural question given the fact that teachers are modestly paid and schools are mostly underfunded, hardly one’s idea of a lucrativ... more »

The letter from the teachers at Garfield High School regarding the MAP test | Seattle Education

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
The letter from the teachers at Garfield High School regarding the MAP test | Seattle Education: The letter from the teachers at Garfield High School regarding the MAP test by seattleducation2011 December 21, 2012 To Whom It May Concern: We, the Garfield teachers, respectfully decline to give the MAP test to any of our students. We have had different levels of experiences with MAP in our varied careers, have read about it, and discussed it with our colleagues. After this thorough review, we have all come to the conclusion that we cannot in good conscience subject our students to... more »

Friday Ratings Madness: Quality Counts, Students First & Funding Fairness « School Finance 101

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Friday Ratings Madness: Quality Counts, Students First & Funding Fairness « School Finance 101: Friday Ratings Madness: Quality Counts, Students First & Funding Fairness by schoolfinance101 [image: Slide1] It’s been a fun week for grading the states. First we had the wacky ratings from Students First which graded states largely on the extent to which they had adopted the preferred policies of that organization. Then we had the old-standard Education Week Quality Counts. When it comes to their finance rating system, little has changed in recent years. These two reports, of course,... more »

Blue Jersey:: QoTD: 19-year-old Socialist School Board Member Talks Some Sense

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Blue Jersey:: QoTD: 19-year-old Socialist School Board Member Talks Some Sense: QoTD: 19-year-old Socialist School Board Member Talks Some Sense by Rosi Efthim [image: SOCIALIST NOBLE] A 19-year-old pharmacy clerk named Pat Noble defeated an incumbent to win a seat on the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education, and was seated this month. He is the founder of the Socialist Party of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, ran as a socialist for his seat and plans to bring a progressive, socialist set of ideals to the schools board.And he sounds like a breath of fresh air: "You rea... more »

Slam-Dunk! Touch-down! Goal!!!! Taxpayers come through for American’s highest paid CEO - Wait, What?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Slam-Dunk! Touch-down! Goal!!!! Taxpayers come through for American’s highest paid CEO - Wait, What?: Slam-Dunk! Touch-down! Goal!!!! Taxpayers come through for American’s highest paid CEO by jonpelto Don’t let the *residue* of the Great Recession get you down. While it is true that America’s middle-class is on the ropes, unemployment remains high, sending a kid to college costs more than most people save in their entire lives, child poverty in Connecticut has gone up 50% in the last decade and the state is facing a $1 billion dollar budget deficit next year, Connecticut’s taxpay... more »

The Common Core and Gingerbread Curriculum | Truth in American Education

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
The Common Core and Gingerbread Curriculum | Truth in American Education: The Common Core and Gingerbread Curriculum by Shane Vander Hart [image: gingerbread-man]I like gingerbread. I think it is delicious. So this post is by no means to be critical of gingerbread lovers. This is a gingerbread friendly zone. I just learned that their is a Common Core gingerbread curriculum. I had a friend email me this story from the *DeerPark-North Babylon Patch*about a second grade class at William E. DeLuca Elementary School in North Babylon, NY partaking of these lessons. Working in small g... more »

Louisiana Educator: Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana!

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Louisiana Educator: Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana!: Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana! by Michael Deshotels The education reformers in Michigan and Ohio were told that Louisiana had achieved almost a miracle in student achievement by taking over low achieving schools using a State Recovery School District (RSD) and converting these schools into semi-autonomous charter schools. The news out of Louisiana was so good according to reform activists, that other states should hurry to copy this plan and also produce stunning resul... more »

Jake Frackson – RE-SENSITIZING SCHOOLS Student Voice

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Student Voice: Jake Frackson – RE-SENSITIZING SCHOOLS by admin Originally posted: http://jakefrackson.wordpress.com/ Raising a child has become a whole new adventure with the advent of the internet. Because of the inundation of information that came with it, teachers, parents, and all others involved in the up-bringing of children have been given an increasingly stressful job. Not only is there an influx of information, there is also a whole new on-slot of inappropriate subject matter to try to negotiate. With so much content, and so few ways to censor it, raising a child really ... more »

Garfield High School teachers say “NO!” to high stakes testing | Seattle Education

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Garfield High School teachers say “NO!” to high stakes testing | Seattle Education: Garfield High School teachers say “NO!” to high stakes testing by seattleducation2011 *In an unprecedented move, and hopefully the first of many around the country, Garfield High School teachers have taken a stand against high stakes testing which in Seattle is the MAP test.* *Here is a portion of the press release:* “Our teachers have come together and agree that the MAP test is not good for our students, nor is it an appropriate or useful tool in measuring progress,” says Kris McBrid... more »

ATeachers for Education Reform - Part of AL-ALEC Privatization Network

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Teachers for Education Reform: BREAKING NEWS *ATEACHERS FOR EDUCATION REFORM PART OF THE GROWING AL-ALEC PRIVATIZATION NETWORK* *الشركات استيلاء التعليم العام* TFER BLOG | WHAT'S THE TEACHER PIPELINE?*JANUARY 10, 2013* From the moment a person decides to be a teacher to when they retire, there are a number of points along the journey that can help or hinder their likelihood of success and the success of their students. At Teachers for Education Reform, we're focusing on four points along that journey that make up what is called the "Teacher Pipeline." Read More... *Beware of As... more »

Journal of Educational Controversy Blog: Testimony at U.S. Senate Hearing Links High-Stakes Testing to the School-to-Prison Pipeline

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago
Journal of Educational Controversy Blog: Testimony at U.S. Senate Hearing Links High-Stakes Testing to the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Testimony at U.S. Senate Hearing Links High-Stakes Testing to the School-to-Prison Pipeline *Editor: In a post below we announced that the U.S. Senate had planned to hold hearings on the school-to-prison pipeline problem. Monty Neill, Executive Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), argued at the hearing that high-stakes testing has been a contributing factor leading to the school-to-prison pipeline. Below is his test... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Commission report on school closings means uphill battle for Rahm

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Commission report on school closings means uphill battle for Rahm: Commission report on school closings means uphill battle for Rahm by Mike Klonsky *"Closing high schools highly correlates to drop out rates and spikes of violence. Hopefully they learned their lesson about that." *-- Karen Lewis Parent and community voices from Chicago's targeted neighborhoods are ringing out so loudly against school closings, that the mayor's "reform" strategy -- replacing public schools with privately-run charters, has now

UPDATE: FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, January 11, 2013

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago
FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team: *California sheriff: Youth who shot classmate felt he'd been bullied* Education Headlines *Friday, January 11, 2013* Taft student in critical condition following campus shooting; teen suspect heldThe suspected shooter, a 16-year-old boy who law enforcement has not named, is in custody. The victim, who authorities also declined to identify, was in critical but stable condition Thursday afternoon after being airlifted to Kern Medical Center and undergoing surgery. Taft teacher and campus supervisor hailed as heroesSheriff Donny Youn... more »

Modern School: The Right to an Education or The Obligation to Be Sorted for Capital

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Modern School: The Right to an Education or The Obligation to Be Sorted for Capital: The Right to an Education or The Obligation to Be Sorted for Capital by Michael Dunn The Left is fond of extolling the virtues of a free public education system, particularly the delusion that it increases social mobility and promotes liberty. Aside from the fact that few people move up in social class, regardless of their success in school, the system is not truly free. It is a taxpayer subsidy to business that ensures there are sufficiently educated workers to do the jobs employers want done an... more »

For Chicago Charter, Special Sauce Now Available ‘To Go’ | EduShyster

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
For Chicago Charter, Special Sauce Now Available ‘To Go’ | EduShyster: For Chicago Charter, Special Sauce Now Available ‘To Go’ by edushyster2012 *A leaked document from the Noble charter chai**n reveals a key ingredient in secret sauce* Today we turn our attention to secret sauce™. Otherwise known as the elixir of excellence, this mystery ingredient is precisely what allows academies of innovation to produce miraculous results with the exact same students stifled by our achievement-gap widening public schools. But from whence does this secret sauce come? And is this condiment of ou... more »

Schools Matter: Is the Testing Fever Breaking? When Teachers Let Their Conscience Speak

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Schools Matter: Is the Testing Fever Breaking? When Teachers Let Their Conscience Speak: Is the Testing Fever Breaking? When Teachers Let Their Conscience Speak by Jim Horn This is not the first time our nation's schools have been mired in an "orgy of tabulation" (Harold Rugg phrase). During the heyday of eugenics, schoolmen were obsessed with measuring and sorting, just as they are today in the neo-eugenic era of KIPP's psychological and cultural sterilization programs. The last time we went down this road, it took an economic depression and a World War to break the grip of th... more »

Rhee vs. QC: How StudentsFirst's Report Card and Quality Counts Differ - State EdWatch - Education Week

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
Rhee vs. QC: How StudentsFirst's Report Card and Quality Counts Differ - State EdWatch - Education Week: Rhee vs. QC: How StudentsFirst's Report Card and Quality Counts Differ by Andrew Ujifusa **With the release this week of two different K-12 state rankings, one from *Education Week* and one fromStudentsFirst, it's been a bonanza for people who like (or at least are compelled to write about) "report cards" on education. Naturally enough, there have been some comparisons between the two. For example, Motoko Rich, an education reporter at *The New York Times*, noted that both Edu... more »

UPDATE: Joy Resmovits: Obama's Education Approval Stats + Education Rankings, Anti-Common Core Alliance: Ed Today

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago
Joy Resmovits: Education Rankings, Anti-Common Core Alliance: Ed Today: Obama's Education Approval Stats by Joy Resmovits All week long, you've heard about how states are doing on education. Now it's the president's turn to be graded. HuffPost/YouGov asked the American public what they thought about Obama's performance in the education arena. And they think he's doing fine. First, HuffPost/YouGov this week asked a representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama has handled the issue of education? Thirty-nine percent indicated they a... more »

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Vouchers Do Not Reduce Educational Inequity by dianerav Vouchers were once thought to be a dead issue in US education. Voters have turned them down again and again. The public dislikes them so much that even Republicans are afraid to use the V word. Instead, voucher programs–always enacted by legislation, not by voter referendum–are always called, euphemistically, “opportunity scholarships.” When GOP governors like Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana promote vouchers (er, excuse What’s ... more »

With more money to spend, Brown launches K-12 funding reform | EdSource Today

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
With more money to spend, Brown launches K-12 funding reform | EdSource Today: With more money to spend, Brown launches K-12 funding reform ** January 11th, 2013 | Add a Comment | By John Fensterwald Share on twitterShare on facebookShare on emailShare on google_plusone More Sharing Services Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday proposed an unfamiliar budget for public education in the state – one with actual increases. His 2013-14 spending plan for K-12 schools includes a revision of his plan to reform the state’s convoluted, inequitable school finance system that lawmakers and a coalition ... more »

School Tech Connect: I Cannot Write About Education Tonight

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
School Tech Connect: I Cannot Write About Education Tonight: I Cannot Write About Education Tonight by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman) Way too tired. There's a lot going on-- I'd write about it but sometimes when you're fighting City Hall it's better to say nothing. I'm going to write about technology instead. It's time for a national conversation about the failure --yes, sadly, failure-- of our nation's packaging industry to design a peel-off-and-pull technology that works. It has been almost a half century since men walked on the moon and yet today we can't even access the ch... more »

Garfield High teachers won't give required test they call flawed | Local News | The Seattle Times

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Garfield High teachers won't give required test they call flawed | Local News | The Seattle Times: Garfield High teachers won't give required test they call flawed Teachers at Seattle's Garfield High are refusing to give district-required tests known as Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, saying they are flawed exams that waste time and don't help teachers or students. Teachers at Seattle's Garfield High are refusing to give district-required tests known as Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, saying they are flawed exams that waste time and don't help teachers or students. By... more »

Still don’t know much about history

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Still don’t know much about history: Still don’t know much about history Posted by Valerie Strauss on January 11, 2013 at 4:00 am - [image: Smaller Text] [image: Larger Text] Text Size - Print - Reprints - Share: - - - More » [image: his]Why do so many students find history boring? Here’s why, from David Bernstein, a nonprofit executive who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., and has two sons, ages 7 and 15. *By David Bernstein* When I took high school history in the early 1980s, the job of the history teacher was to provide a steady stream of facts, and the job... more »

Schools Matter: The move to all-computer testing = start of a boondoggle

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Schools Matter: The move to all-computer testing = start of a boondoggle: The move to all-computer testing = start of a boondoggle by skrashen Sent to the Los Angeles Daily News, January 10 The move to all-computer testing (“State schools chief proposes replacing paper Scantron tests with computer-based ones,” January 8) is the start of a huge boondoggle. After every student is connected, the set-up will be declared obsolete and need to be upgraded or replaced. The schools will cheerfully pay up, eager for the "newest" technology, and computer companies will cheerfully accept the... more »

Florida Lawmaker Proposes Amendment to Require Teacher Salaries Meet National Average | Scathing Purple Musings

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Florida Lawmaker Proposes Amendment to Require Teacher Salaries Meet National Average | Scathing Purple Musings: Florida Lawmaker Proposes Amendment to Require Teacher Salaries Meet National Average by Bob Sikes From WTXL in Tallahassee: *TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)–*Florida teachers pockets may be getting a little fatter by 2015. Hoping to put that in the lawbooks..this upcoming legislative session. Senator Joseph Abruzzo, (D) 25, Palm Beach, Florida proposed a constitutional amendment that would require teacher’s salaries to meet national salary levels. Abruzzo’s amendment says th... more »

NYC Educator: It's Not Value-Added! It's Growth Model!

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
NYC Educator: It's Not Value-Added! It's Growth Model!: It's Not Value-Added! It's Growth Model! by NYC Educator The latest round of negotiations to bring junk science to New York City is about to begin, and boy do they have surprises for us! One is that yes, your Regents exams will indeed be used to determine whether or not you are fit to keep your job. I'd previously been under the impression that since these tests were not designed to determine whether or not we add value, they would not be used for that purpose. Boy was I wrong! It turns out the city can make up some pre-test, ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: The Fights Teachers Unions SHOULD Have

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Jersey Jazzman: The Fights Teachers Unions SHOULD Have: The Fights Teachers Unions SHOULD Have by Duke More like this! The New Jersey Education Association, which doesn’t even represent the teachers of Newark, is worried about the specter of computers replacing teachers. The union has gone to court to shut down Merit Prep and another charter school that is also using a blended learning approach. The union’s lawsuit argues that charter schools can’t emphasize online instruction until the New Jersey state legislature evaluates and approves it. “Should we be experimenting with stude... more »

UPDATE: SB 1. Easy to remember. Easy to say no and Harold Levy seminar. « Fred Klonsky

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Back story to the Harold Levy seminar. « Fred Klonsky: SB 1. Easy to remember. Easy to say no. by Fred Klonsky [image: 618-03571318] Senate Bill 1. Democratic Senate President John Cullerton says, “Hang ‘em all and we’ll figure out who is guilty later.” Senate Bill 1 combines his forced choice pension grab, (Force pensioners to choose between cost of living raises or health care) and Nekritz’s- Oh, everything else bad you can think of. Thanks to Cullerton, we retirees don’t have to keep remembering what the number of the bill is. It’s #1. Easy. Cullerton’s legal theory is that if you... more »

Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for CA schools - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for CA schools - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools: Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for CA schools Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 4:31 pm in No Comments *AP Photo by Rich Pedroncelli* Today, the governor unveiled his first budget proposal for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The plan would increase K-12 spending levels by $2.7 billion next year. It would also, as expected, overhaul the funding formula for school districts. Brown’s proposed funding formula would lift a number of spending restrictions that have long been in place for sp... more »

Reinventing Teachers’ Unions Rethinking Schools

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
Rethinking Schools: Volume 27, Issue 2 Volume 27, Issue 2 VOLUME 27, ISSUE 2 — WINTER 2012-2013 Reinventing Teachers’ Unions Are we on the cusp of a new social justice unionism for teachers? Last year, Wisconsin teachers grabbed international attention with a takeover of the state capitol. This fall, the collaborative nature of the successful Chicago Teachers Union strike—and the breadth of parental, student, and community support—heartened and inspired education activists everywhere. What can we learn? Where do we go from here? Editorial: New Teachers' Union Movement in the Making ... more »

LAUSD & NYC TAKE NOTE, PERDAILY GOES NATIONAL (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago
LAUSD & NYC TAKE NOTE, PERDAILY GOES NATIONAL (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com: LAUSD & NYC TAKE NOTE, PERDAILY GOES NATIONAL (VIDEO) by Leonard Isenberg [image: Francesco Portelos.jpg] *Take a half hour and watch the following coast-to-coast interview that New York City incarcerated and yet uncharged teacher Francesco Portelos did with me this morning. Also take a moment to check out his blog. In the national teacher witch hunt that has put the teaching profession under siege - a fact that never seems to make it into the corporate controlled mainstream media - we hope the following interview...more »

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 1-10-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 21 hours ago
*Nite Cap UPDATE**UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE* * * Levy's seminar by Mike Klonsky My brother Fred's blog carries a post which included a self-revealing letter from former N.Y.C. Chancellor Harold Levy for his upcoming private seminar for investors on making money on education. Levy has since become a Wall Street lawyer who now works for Palm Ventures in Greenwich, Conn. He's one of the high rollers in corporate school reform. He's alsochairing The Capital Roundtable’s ENCORE full-day conference – Private Equity Investing In For-Profit Education Companies, Here's some back-story to ... more »

Kimble's Corner: The Real History of Labor in the United States

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 23 hours ago
Kimble's Corner: The Real History of Labor in the United States: The Real History of Labor in the United States by Representative Kimble Recently, it came to my attention that Chicago Teachers Union Boss Karen Lewis had made some extremely disturbing comments about labor history. Here they are, but I warn you they're not for the faint of heart: *”The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just - off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.“I don’t think we’re at that point. The key is that they think nothing of killing us. ... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Updates from Garfield Teacher Action Against MAP

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 23 hours ago
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Updates from Garfield Teacher Action Against MAP: Updates from Garfield Teacher Action Against MAP by Melissa Westbrook Just back from the well-attended press conference. First up, the district response (partial): Seattle Public Schools expects our teachers to administer all required tests, pursuant to our policies and procedures. Last fall, during an annual report to the Board on Nov. 28, it was agreed that the District would review the effectiveness of MAP testing. We look forward to hearing from our principals and teachers as part of that pr... more »

Joy Resmovits: Rhee Report Card Backwards? Denver School Board Drama: Ed Tonight

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 day ago
Joy Resmovits: Rhee Report Card Backwards? Denver School Board Drama: Ed Tonight: Rhee Report Card Backwards? Denver School Board Drama: Ed Tonight by Joy Resmovits *Is Michelle Rhee doing it wrong?* Over at governing.com, Mark Funkhouser writes about "education and the inputs-outcomes trap." Taking a look at Rhee's StudentsFirst state policy report card, he argues that Rhee's approach here is backwards: "You don't start by deciding which policies are best; you start with outcomes and work your way back to see which policies are connected to good results." That is, Rhee is looki...more »





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