Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 1-15-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

LAUSD's Crenshaw High to become three magnet schools

Vanessa Romo | January 15th, 2013, 8:14pm

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy, seen here in a file photo, told Crenshaw parents "the quality of instruction is not what it needs to be.”

LA Unified voted Tuesday to revamp Crenshaw High School – one of the worst performing schools in the district. But the plan has some parents and teachers up in arms.

Crenshaw’s 1,500 students will be split into three separate magnet schools. While officials are still working out the details, they told parents last month that the mag

SF Forum 1/19/13 UPWA SF Forum Public Education, Privatization And The NEA, SEIU And AFT

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

Saturday January 19, 2013 2:00 PM
518 Valencia St./16th St.
San Francisco, CA

Public Education, Privatization and The NEA/CTA, CWA and AFT/CFT -

What Can Education Workers And Students Do To Defend Public Education?

Panel Members:

Lenny Isenberg, UTLA Teacher fighting Against Rubber Rooms and Privatization

Jack Garson, Retired OEA Teacher And Activist In Public Education Movement

Danny Weil, Former Teacher and Journalist of Truthout and Daily Censored on Privatization of Education

Madeline Mueller, Professor City College Of San Francisco

SF Martin Luther King Middle School UESF Teachers & SEIU Staff

Over the last thirty years there has been a coordinated effort by rightwing neoliberal ideologues and billionaires such as the Walmart family (Walton Foundation), Eli Broad (Broad Foundation), Bill Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Donald Fisher (Gap

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts & Articles On Education Policy

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 minutes ago

Here are some recent useful posts on education policy: I’m adding these next three posts to A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report: Gates’ Teacher Effectiveness Study: Surprised? is by Renee Moore. Gates … Continue reading →

This Is A Really Nice Collection Of Infographics

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 minutes ago

Black and white and read all over: 27 Guardian graphics from its history is a very nice collection of infographics from The Guardian. It will certainly be on a year-end “The Best” list. You might also be interested in The … Continue reading →

Additional Resources On The Inauguration

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 36 minutes ago

Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About President Obama’s Second Inauguration: Here’s an interactive on the inauguration from The Associated Press. Having a ball: Parties for POTUS, now and then is from The Washington Post. Inauguration … Continue reading →

Wow, This May Be The Best Interactive On Climate Change I’ve Seen

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 hour ago

The Guardian has just published an interactive infographic that lets you see the temperature change over the past one hundred years in most locations in the world. Just type in your city and country and, voila, you see it graphed … Continue reading →

Short, Sweet & Effective Advice On Helping Students Motivate Themselves

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 hour ago

As regular readers know, I have a deep interest in helping students develop intrinsic motivation (see my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves and my upcoming book — in March — Self-Driven Learning). The New York Times today ran a short … Continue reading →

Question For The Town Hall

There's no way I can make this pension town hall tomorrow night--- it's right here in my neighborhood but I'm already double booked.

I'm posting because I'd like to ask that if someone else can go ---- this question needs to be put to Steans for sure and yes, I'm afraid, Cassidy as well:

If you vote for a reduction in benefits, and if it passes, and if the governor signs it, and then if the Supreme Court later strikes it down---- will you resign at once? Because you're wasting everyone's time.

MORE: Rally to Demand a Member-Wide Vote this Thursday at the UFT

This was posted at MORE on Jan. 14 and below that is the downloadable leaflet on scribd

(when it is up and running) if you want to share it with people in your school.

You can read the Jan. 12 MORE post here:

MORE Statement on the Pending Evaluation Agreement Between the DOE and the UFT

I will be at the rally early with leaflets for people to give out and any help would be

appreciated. And then there is the after DA event at a local bar where we will

drown our sorrows or celebrate our joy.

RALLY TO DEMAND A MEMBER-WIDE VOTE THIS

THURSDAY AT THE UFT

Join MORE this Thursday to demand a member wide vote on our new evaluation system at 52 Broadway NYC UFT Headquarters on Thursday 1/17 beginning at 3:30 for a rally before the Delegate Assembly (DA). All educators and concerned citizens are encouraged to come and have their voices heard.

The indications are very strong the UFT leadership will reach an evaluation agreement with the Department of Education in just a few days and present it the Delegate Assembly without membership input nor education around finer aspects of the deal.This agreement will radically change our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions without any input from the almost 76,000 teachers of the United Federation of Teachers. This is outrageous!We will send out a digital version of our flier soon-please sign up to email below. We will have copies at DA for distribution starting at 3:30. Bring signs, fliers, poster-oak tag, markers, clipboards, and pens, we will need volunteers to gather names, emails, and phone #’s All UFT chapter leader and delegate should Vote NO so that they can bring back the agreement to their chapters for a full vote.

Stay up to date with the latest details by joining our email list by request at more@morecaucusnyc.org or follow us at Twitter.com @morecaucusnyc

What About Me, Mrs. M?:He's Not the Child He Could Have Been!

by Lisa Mims

After a trying morning with one of my students, I approached his desk. In a quiet voice, I let him know that I was disappointed in the behavior he had been exhibiting. At least I thought I was being quiet. I forgot that my students can hear everything I say when I am NOT talking to them.

One of the boys in my class leaned over to me and said, "What about me, Mrs.M? What about me?", I smiled inwardly. No, I grinned inwardly. You know why? Because this kid, this kid that leaned over,

Poorly Supported Assertions Undermine Report on ‘High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools’

Poorly Supported Assertions Undermine Report on ‘High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools’:

Poorly Supported Assertions Undermine Report on ‘High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools’

by Server

Poorly Supported Assertions Undermine Report on ‘High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools’

Review of Failure Is Not an Option

Contact:
Mark Paige, (508) 910-9037, mpaige@umassd.edu William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/akgwcur
BOULDER, CO (January 15, 2013) – A recent report attempts to identify common attributes of successful schools. But, according to a review of the report, it fails to provide sound support for its assertions, and it ignores information found in its own pages about the essential need to address student poverty if education outcomes are to improve.
The report, Failure Is Not an Option: How Principals, Teachers, Students and Parents from Ohio’s High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools Explain Their Success, was written by Carolin Hagelskamp and Christopher DiStasi and published by the organization Public Agenda.
It was reviewed for the Think Twice think tank review project by Mark Paige, a professor at the University of

H.R.209: To authorize the appropriation of funds to be used to recruit, hire, and train 100,000 new classroom... OpenCongress

H.R.209: To authorize the appropriation of funds to be used to recruit, hire, and train 100,000 new classroom... OpenCongress:

Bill Introduced: H.R.209 To authorize the appropriation of funds to be used to recruit, hire, and train 100,000 new classroom paraprofessionals in order to improve educational achievement for children.

To authorize the appropriation of funds to be used to recruit, hire, and train 100,000 new classroom paraprofessionals in order to improve educational achievement for children.

Bill Introduced: H.R.86 Cybersecurity Education Enhancement Act of 2013

To authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a program to award grants to institutions of higher education for the establishment or expansion of cybersecurity professional development programs, and for other purposes.

Bill Introduced: H.Res.10 Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Bill Introduced: H.R.112 METRICS Act

To enable States to implement integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems.

If Every Other Word Out Of Your Mouth Is “Common Core”, You’re The Problem | The Jose Vilson

If Every Other Word Out Of Your Mouth Is “Common Core”, You’re The Problem | The Jose Vilson:

If Every Other Word Out Of Your Mouth Is “Common Core”, You’re The Problem

by Jose Vilson

Oh come on now! Really, Kentucky? REALLY?!

Do me a favor and stop it. Just stop it, you.
Yes, you.
You’re ridiculous now. Every other word out of your mouth is “Common Core.” That’s enough out of you.
I’m all for people having a voice, a seat at the table, and entitlements to opinions and such, but you’re not going to sit there and use the words “Common Core” 58 times in a meeting and not have me either burst out laughing,

New Board Executive Director Appointed - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education)

New Board Executive Director Appointed - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates Governor's
Nominee to State Board of Education Executive Director Post

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today congratulated Karen Stapf Walters on her nomination by Governor Jerry Brown to the position of Executive Director of the California State Board of Education:

"It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Karen Stapf Walters on her nomination to direct the Board of Education," Torlakson said. "For many years, she has been a leading voice in education in California, and I look forward to working with her in this new role."

Superintendents' Symposium

ACSA Superintendents’ Symposium is an important conference for all of California's school Superintendents. Attend this important conference, and to explore ways to engage your leadership skills for a new era.. This is the best time to look at the Governor’s Budget and for superintendents to get together to review the state-of-the-state and the state-of-the-district. The Symposium planning committee is developing an outstanding program for the 2012 Superintendents’ Symposium. This conference is a “MUST” for all California superintendents. Please consider either allocating your registration fee out of your current budget or building
your symposium expenditures into your next year’s budget.

Superintendents' Symposium Resources

2013 Superintendents' Symposium Registration Brochure
Download this brochure for earlybird registration information on the 2013 Superintendents' Symposium New Superintendents' Workshop, Executive Leadership Center and Leading the Leaders.

Daily Kos: Why Not Ask Teachers How They Would Improve Our Schools?

Daily Kos: Why Not Ask Teachers How They Would Improve Our Schools?:

Why Not Ask Teachers How They Would Improve Our Schools?

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

crossposted from Our Future.
We were sitting in a Starbucks in Arlington, Va. It was our first meeting. Previously, Iowa governor Tom Vilsack and I had talked by phone and exchanged blog posts on education. His campaign staff had reached out to a number of educational bloggers, as he was seriously considering running for president and thought education was a good issue for him. Since he was going to be in my neighborhood, we agreed to get together.
At one point I mentioned that the governors had just had a meeting on education, and he nodded. I remarked that each had brought a business leader to the meeting. The governor nodded again. And then I asked, “Why didn’t you bring a teacher?”
The governor was surprised, and acknowledged he had never thought of it.
That was in 2005. The nation’s governors had a meeting to talk about education and the voices of teachers had not been included.

Contact Mayor Bloomberg today at 1-888-833-7428. « Fred Klonsky

Contact Mayor Bloomberg today at 1-888-833-7428. « Fred Klonsky:

Contact Mayor Bloomberg today at 1-888-833-7428.

by Fred Klonsky

Popout

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools: The Best Way To Destroy Your Community

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools: The Best Way To Destroy Your Community:

Charter Schools: The Best Way To Destroy Your Community

by Duke

Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

There is a heck of a fight brewing in East Brunswick, NJ, over a "Hebrew immersion" charter that wants to move to an industrialized zone some residents say is inappropriate for a school. The school, Hatikvah, was granted a variance by the local zoning board, but that was overturned by the township council.

Supporters of the school say the fight isn't really about zoning; it's about whether the school itself should exist. They probably have a point, but so what? Even though the school drains local resources, many of its students don't live in town, and residents never had a say in its approval anyway.

Darcie Cimarusti, the Mother Crusader, has more:

Case in point, Hatikvah International Academy Charter School. Hatikvah was approved in 2009 and opened in 2010, amidst a legal challenge from the East Brunswick School District claiming that Hatikvah didn't reach 90% enrollment, as required under New Jersey's charter school law.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Updates and Events

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Updates and Events:

Updates and Events

by Melissa Westbrook

In what is an interesting coincidence of stories, I learned today that Rainier Beach High School, after three long years of work, is on the cusp of receiving their endorsement to be in IB school. Good for them. That now makes three Seattle public high schools with IB; Ingraham, Chief Sealth and RBHS.

What is the coincidence is that tonight, at 7 p.m., the Lakewood/Seward Park Community Club is having a forum about education featuring discussions of the RBHS IB program and charter schools.

Guess who is going the charter school presentation? Bree Dusseault.

Lakewood/Seward Park Community Club
4916 S. Angeline St

Also of interest, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth March this Saturday, January 19th. It starts at MLK, Jr. Park

Diane in the Evening 1-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Philly Youth Do Zombie Flash Dance to Protest Closings

by dianerav

Members of the Philadelphia Student Union performed a Zombie flash dance in front of school district headquarters to protest school closings. The district leadership insists it needs to save money by closing

Matt Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige to Garfield Teachers!

by dianerav

This is a personal message from actor Matt Damon and early childhood educator Nancy Carlsson-Paige, addressed to the teachers of Garfield High:
We are writing to support all of the teachers at Garfield High School. We admire your strong and unified stand against the district mandated standardized test. Teachers, students, and parents do not have to accept practices that are harmful to them and to the whole meaning and purpose of education. We know it takes courage to risk your jobs in order to stand for what you know is right. But your example holds the promise of

Why Students Need Financial Literacy

by dianerav

This post was written by Ohio teacher Brian Page @FinEdChat

The curriculum ladder

As teachers, we are all feeling the squeeze of tough economic times. States have cut education funding for a number of reasons. We are taking the cuts personally because we live a profession that strikes at the core of our

DC Cheating Scandal: The Plot Thickens

by dianerav

John Merrow is still trying to get to the bottom of the DC cheating scandal.
During his investigation, he discovered that Michelle Rhee hired a data coach who lives in California to advise her at $85 an hour or $1500 a day when he visited DC. This data expert reported to Rhee’s assessment director.
Merrow heard from confidential sources that the data expert had written a four-page memo expressing his concerns about possible cheating. Merrow spent months trying to track down the memo. He knows that it exists

Charters for Mississippi?

by dianerav

Here is the latest from Mississippi, which is considering charter legislation.
Running through the comments of advocates for charters is the claim that charters will improve achievement for the lowest performing students.
They need to know three things:
1. There is no evidence that charter schools know how to improve student achievement.
2. If the governor and the legislature truly believe that deregulation improves achievement, why not deregulate all

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Blasts Rhee Report Card

by dianerav

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch tore apart Rhee’s shoddy report card, recognizing tat it is nothing more than an effort to foist her personal political preferences on the nation’s schools.
Unfortunately the newspaper admires some of her bad ideas–like evaluating teachers by test scores–and is unaware that her IMPACT program in DC hasn’t made a difference. And it accepts her mistaken notion that teachers are the problem, not poverty, not inequitable resource, not overcrowded classes, not bad policies like

Rhee: “Dozens and Dozens” of Schools Made Gains…Or Did They?

by dianerav

In the Frontline documentary, John Merrow confronted Michelle Rhee with statistics from certain schools showing dramatic increases in test scores followed by equally dramatic declines. And they had this exchange:
JOHN MERROW: What’s your reaction to those numbers? That the gains are phony.
MICHELLE RHEE
Yeah. I mean, I—again, I—I feel like when you look at a situation like that does it call things into question? Absolutely. And should those things be investigated? A hundred percent. No—there’s no doubt about it. // But I can point to, you know, dozens and dozens of schools where, you know, they saw very steady gains over the course of the—the years that we were there, or even saw some dramatic gains that were maintained. So I think,

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Read Gary Rubinstein’s Open Letters to “Reformers” by dianerav Many people have written to ask for a link to Gary Rubinstein’s “open letters to ‘reform’ leaders.” Those who read them say they are brilliant, and indeed they are. As you may know, Gary was one of the first alums of TFA. He became a career teacher. He teaches mathematics at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He blogs regularly and whatever he writes is worth reading. He is one of the best informed and reasonable critics of corporate-style... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: An assault weapons ban for Arne's Army?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: An assault weapons ban for Arne's Army?:

An assault weapons ban for Arne's Army?

by Mike Klonsky

Arne bought 27 of these military-order, Remington Model, 870 police 12/14P Mod GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - Parkerized choke: modified sights: Ghost ring rear, WILSON COMBAT shotguns in 2010.

Arne Duncan using his bully pulpit to call for an assault weapons is a hopeful sign. For one thing, while he's busy rallying the gun-control troops, he's got no time to think of new ways to close neighborhood schools, or to fire teachers in mass. That alone could save some young lives here in Chicago. Plus he'll be too busy to come up with new and "improved" standardized tests to put on top of this year's pile.

But it also got me wondering. Do we we also need to call for an assault weapons ban on Arne? Remember the

The Missing Memo | Taking Note

The Missing Memo | Taking Note:

The Missing Memo

by John Merrow

What follows is the story of a missing memo, numerous attempts to unearth it using the Freedom of Information Act, confidential sources, apparently lost email, and new questions about Michelle Rhee’s decision not to investigate widespread erasures on an important standardized test during her first year in Washington, DC.

Readers of this blog know that our Frontline film, “The Education of Michelle Rhee,” has stirred up the conversation about Chancellor Rhee’s tenure in Washington, DC. Debate continues about the ‘wrong to right’ erasures on the DC-CAS, and about the quality and depth of the investigation of those erasures. (Read more about these reactions, including my response, here.)

Erasures matter. The DC-CAS is a diagnostic tool whose wrong answers reveal where students are weak (say, multiplying fractions), so that teachers can provide the necessary catch-up instruction. If adults change answers, then the weaknesses are not discovered or remediated. If you believe, as I do, that education is a civil right, then those cheaters are denying children a basic civil right.

As the film documented, the new Chancellor extracted written guarantees of gains from her principals

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

MORE: Rally to Demand a Member-Wide Vote this Thursday at the UFT

Poorly Supported Assertions Undermine Report on ‘High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools’

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates Governor's Nominee to State Board of Education Executive Director Post

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Superintendents' Symposium

Superintendents' Symposium Resources

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates Governor's
Nominee to State Board of Education Executive Director Post