Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 5-15-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2





Nite Cap UPDATE
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


CORPORATE ED REFORM



Judge’s Reversal of Bullying Ruling Upheld by State Education Chief

Cerf agrees that conflict between two students didn’t meet anti-bullying law’s criteria.

Guest Post: Stanford Ed School Dean Claude Steele on Stereotype Threat in Academics

EWA's 66th National Seminar, held at Stanford University, took place earlier this month. We asked some of the journalists attending to contribute posts from the sessions. The majority of the content will soon be available at EdMedia Commons. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing a few of the posts, including the ones from our keynote sessions. Nanette Asimov, higher education reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, is today's guest blogger.

Consider this mystery: Black students and other subjects of negative stereotyping, like girls in math class, typically score lower than their peers on exams—even if they are demonstrably smart and grew up in privileged 

Education and a Path to the Middle Class

Education and a Path to the Middle Class 

by Jack Gardner
The future of America’s middle class looks clouded right now. With a steady decline in median household income, a growing number of Americans dropping out of the workforce, and approximately 6 million young Americans largely disconnected from mainstream society (not in school, unemployed), the facts are alarming. When you factor in a contentious political environment that appears paralyzed, there is a growing perception that a middle class lifestyle will be unachievable for many Americans.
As bad as the picture looks – and arguably the threat to the middle class is America’s greatest long-term challenge – there are a number of actions we can take to help address the problem, to include adopting a fiscal policy that grows the economy and generates middle class jobs. But the most significant action we can take to advance the health of the nation’s middle class is to dramatically improve the skill level of our workforce. And on a grand scale. To do this, we not only need to revitalize and refocus our public education system. but also need to establish a direct link between education, the development of relevant skills, and the contemporary job 

Bill Introduced: S.897 Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act

A bill to prevent the doubling of the interest rate for Federal subsidized student loans for the 2013-2014 academic year by providing funds for such loans through the Federal Reserve System, to ensure that such loans are available at interest rates that are equivalent to the interest rates at which the Federal Government provides loans to banks through the discount window operated by the Federal Reserve System, and for other purposes.

Lessons from Finland and Wisconsin – @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter

by PLThomasEDD – Many of us who are lifelong educators find clinging to our optimism a difficult challenge. But two recent pieces may signal hope, a light at the long and dark tunnel of corporate education reform built on false claims and flawed solutions. While I urge you to read and share widely the two ...read more

Pennsylvania launches full frontal assault on Education at all levels. – @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter

by Timothy D. Slekar – Great news all around for corporate reformers. Now we have Ronald (I have no clue) Tomalis put in charge of destroying PAs higher education system and Dr. WIlliam E. (never been a teacher) Harner in charge of carrying out the Broad mission of public education reform through scorched earth policy ...read more

Monty Neill: Building Effective Campaigns for Testing Reform – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher

by Anthony Cody with a guest post from Monty Neil, the Executive Director of Fair Test –  Part three of a three part series. – It will take public education, incessant pressure, and massive public resistance to win reforms to our current damaging test policies. We need to define clear, widely supported goals. And we need ...read more

Latino Activists Declare Victory Over Texas Ethnic Studies Law


By Roque Planas, Huffington Post Latino Voices
They fought the law, and they won.
texas state capitolThe Texas activist organization known as Librotraficante celebrated a victory last week over state lawmakers that wanted to put the squeeze on ethnic studies.
Conservative State Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) raised a fury among Latino activists and professors with a proposal to exempt ethnic studies and other college classes from counting toward the fulfillment of state history requirements, but gained little support for the effort. With just two weeks to go before the Texas legislative session winds to a close, Senate Bill 1128 has yet to get voted out of the Senate High Education Committee.
“Logistically speaking, it would be very difficult for it to pass at this point,” Logan Spence, a spokesman for 

“Pro-English” Group Launches Campaign Against Immigration Reform

Pro_English
By Buzz Feed
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham is the first target of a new broadcast ad campaign from an anti-immigration reform group with reported ties to the white nationalist movement.
The minute long radio ad campaign by ProEnglish, comes at a particularly bad time for opponents of comprehensive reform: last week the Heritage Foundation was forced to sack a researcher for his racially tinged comments about Latinos and there are growing questions about the anti-reform movement’s connections to radical population growth groups.
Click HERE or on the picture to read the full story.

What's Happening In New York City's Schools? Leonie Haimson speaking in NW Bronx on Saturday



What's Happening In New York City's Schools?

Guest Speaker:Leonie Haimson
of Class Size Matters

High-Stakes Testing
Charter Schools
Class Size Increases
School Closures

Are Our Kids Getting Hurt?


Where: Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club

304 West 231st St., Bronx (betw.Tibbett & Irwin)  

When: Saturday, May 18,  12:30 PM 


the truth about standardized tests



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Pennsylvania launches full frontal assault on Education at all levels.

From the Notebook: Ronald Tomalis will step down as Pennysylvania’s education secretary at the end of the month, Gov. Corbett announced today in a statement. He is to be replaced by Cumberland Valley schools chief William Harner. Tomalis, who served as the state’s top education official for two years, will become a special adviser to […]

NY: Calling on You to Stop Field Testing

In three weeks, students at over 3,600 schools in New York State will receive a nasty surprise. They mistakenly believe that, for this school year at least, they are done taking tests. When they least expect it, the number 2 pencils and bubble sheets will reappear. When I was in elementary school, June brought Field […]

Trust a Teacher. By John Stoffel

An assumption exists that teachers are against high-stakes testing because they don’t want to risk evaluation. It continues that if teachers are not evaluated by testing data, they will have no incentive to do their job well. If teachers fail to do their job, then a generation of young children faces a bleak future. What […]

Parenting with ADHD

parenting with adhdToday I’m writing for Momsrising in support of National Women’s Healthcare Week. Why do women need their own healthcare week you might ask? Head shaking—because if mom gets sick who will remember that you only like your macaroni and cheese with rotini pasta? Or that the reason you refuse to wear those perfectly nice pants is a matter of pride (those buttons are hard!) rather than outright defiance.
Women. Y’all need us healthy. But what is a woman/mom to do when her illness cannot be cured? I’m a lateish 30s, stay-at-home mom with ADHD. I wasn’t diagnosed until my mid-twenties, long after college, long after I had successfully managed a department of people at a retail store and shortly after I started working in a 

Once Again, Chris Christie Is a Massive Fraud

Absolutely unbelievable
Gov. Chris Christie has warned potential investors there is no guarantee the state will make its required pension payments in future years, an admission that underscores a looming financial crisis he and future governors face as retirement costs are expected to explode before the decade ends.
The disclosure, buried in a 156-page bond prospectus for investors, also casts doubt on one of the key commitments Christie and leading 
The teachers union in San Jose’s Evergreen elementary district, where contract talks have been stalled since October, is talking about what to expect in a labor strike.  

Thirteen people were cited with unlawful assembly after disrupting a UC Regents meeting in Sacramento.  

Let’s Build a Lemonade Stand, Kids!

Students’ Response to School Budget Cuts
Notes from the Field
Submitted by Angela Chan

When I decided to teach, I believed that the betterment of our nation depends on growing compassionate and caring citizens, and on creating an engaged citizenry that must include even those who live in the poorest communities.  As a public and as a nation, we have determined education to be so important to the common good that we would collectively fund it for all children.  I thought, what better way to invest my life and energy than to be a public servant, to do the important work of educating our young, and not just to do this work anywhere, but to commit to those communities and schools with the least resources.
The last few years of budget cuts to public education has shaken my belief that our country and political leaders 

Thompson Tries to Draw a Line Between Him and Bloomberg on Education

In a 23-minute speech on Wednesday, William C. Thompson Jr. laid out his vision for education.

Did I Have a Dream or Did The Dream Have Me?

"Did I have a dream, or did the dream have me?" Peart, Neil, from the song Nocturne off of Vapor Trails 2002.

There I was the other night about 3 AM, lying in my bed, my cat sleeping ever so peacefully at my
feet, my wife with the cold cream covering her face and the curlers covering her hair, sawing wood ever so unquitely. Me? I'm lying wide awake, in a cold sweat, and not knowing if I had a dream, the dream had me, or was whisked away to some other dimension and made part of a vision. All I know is the setting was my school.

Was it all just fantasy? Reality? A warning? Or some combination thereof? All I am sure of is it took place in 

North, South, East, West NPE News Briefs are the BEST ← from The Network for Public Education

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education: *NPE News Briefs* * * * * 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 103 Next » The pieces are all starting to come together. ..and the picture ain’t good | Crazy Crawfish’s Blog MAY 14 2013 by Crazy Crawfish – Thanks to Lefty, Dave Lefkowith, John White’s data scam is starting to take on a clearer shape. I just got another document from good ole Lefty from another new vendor called Cambium Education and Sopris Learning. It appears John White is planning to provide all of our student data to yet another inBloom-like vendor ... read more → **Broad Foun... more »


Social and emotional learning gaining new traction under Common Core | EdSource Today

Social and emotional learning gaining new traction under Common Core | EdSource Today:


class at aspire
Third graders in Michelle Flores’s class at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy in Sacramento. Photo: Michelle Flores
SACRAMENTO – School is nothing if not an intensely social experience, which is why teacher Michelle Flores posed this question to 24 third graders at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy: “When someone makes a mistake, what do we say?”
“That’s cool,” the third graders responded in unison. “We are experts at making mistakes,” said Flores, who incorporates social and emotional instruction, including the idea that making a mistake is not cause for embarrassment, into academics at the charter school using an approach called Responsive Classroom.
As California teachers begin to strategize about how to meet the Common Core standards, some educators say that explicit instruction in social and emotional competence – teaching students how to regulate their emotions, problem-solve, and disagree respectfully, among other abilities – should be a key part of the equation. The ability tocollaborate, to see others’ perspectives, and to persevere in solving problems is required of students in the Common Core. Social and emotional learning provides the interpersonal skills students need to perform these intellectual tasks, said Nancy Markowitz, an education professor and director of the Collaborative for Reaching and Teaching the Whole Child at San Jose State University.
“Social and emotional learning skills are foundational to children’s ability, and teachers’ ability, to implement and be successful in the Common Core standards,” Markowitz said. California is one of 


Last Stand for Children First: Last Stand for Children First Makes Endorsement in Chicago Teachers Union Election

Last Stand for Children First: Last Stand for Children First Makes Endorsement in Chicago Teachers Union Election:


Last Stand for Children First Makes Endorsement in Chicago Teachers Union Election



Internal union politics is probably the last place that an education group like ourselves should be getting involved.  However, sometimes a candidate or a group of candidates come along that you have no choice, but to proclaim your admiration and support for.   In the Chicago Teachers Union election, The Coalition to Save Our Union is just such a group.

We do not like activist teacher's unions.   They bother us and bring visions of future class warfare or something.   Karen Lewis seems to have the Chicago teachers protesting something every single week.  We would much prefer a different type of leader, someone like Tanya Sanders-Wolff who knows that you don't have to open your mouth to let your voice be heard.

While CORE is all about confrontation, TCTSOU is more about compromise.   When the current teachers 

Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations - Assessment Information (CA Dept of Education)

Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations - Assessment Information (CA Dept of Education):


Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations

Addresses accessibility and accommodations for students who are English learners and students with disabilities who are taking Smarter Balanced assessments.






Draft Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations Framework

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has released its draft Accessibility and Accommodations Framework for public review and comment. This framework explains the conceptual underpinnings of the approach that is expected to be used by Smarter Balanced to address accessibility tools and accommodation options for students taking Smarter Balanced assessments.
Feedback on the framework will be collected until June 14, 2013. Consolidated feedback on behalf of organizations is especially encouraged.
Instructions for Submitting Feedback
  1. Download the DRAFT Accessibility and Accommodations Framework, May 13, 2013 version (DOC).
  2. Annotate the framework document using the Comments feature in Microsoft WORD.
  3. Save your annotated file with your first and last names appended to the end of the file name (e.g., A&A Framework_JohnSmith.docx).
  4. Upload your annotated document using the feedback submission form External link opens in new window or tab..

Retirement Heist: The Kabuki Puppet Theater of Absurd Greed | Reclaim Reform

Retirement Heist: The Kabuki Puppet Theater of Absurd Greed | Reclaim Reform:


Retirement Heist: The Kabuki Puppet Theater of Absurd Greed

Pension theft in Illinois simply has puppets with Illinois legislative names and union names mouthing the words and following the steps.
The Kabuki Puppet Theater of Absurd Greed.

puppets scissors
Since a unilateral political decision to cut public pensions is definitely illegal, unions and their leaders must be part of the cast of characters. This is essential for an effective retirement heist. All future ease of theft and destruction require it.
We could convince the union that unless we reduce our retiree and employees costs we will be unable to continue to operate… thus creating significant hardship for their members. If the union didn’t agree, it would be tough to cut their benefits… So Pittman suggested a strategy he called ‘Creeping Take Aways.’ Using this approach, Varity ‘would progressively introduce minor reductions and usage controls rules into the medical benefits plan.’ These were ‘designed to be insufficient to warrant incurring the legal cost and trouble to have the benefits reinstated.’ A few years later, Varity could take an ax to the benefits, provoking the union to sue. In court, the company would say that because the union hadn’t objected to the earlier cuts, it tacitly agreed that the company had the right to cut their medical coverage unilaterally.” – Retirement Heist by Ellen E. Schultz