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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 7-9-13 #neara13 #RYH4Ed #BATsACT #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE



UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


CORPORATE ED REFORM

Dues Clues: Covering How Unions Spend Teachers' Money

Teachers unions are still a political powerhouse in many states, and even in right-to-work states where they have less influence unions still collect dues money from teachers and spend it on a variety of activities. As part of the EWA Summer School Webinars, we'll talk with reporters from The Hechinger Report and GothamSchoolsabout their joint project examining where teachers' unions are focusing their substantial resources. 

We're also going to share something new with reporters - the EWA Story Lab, a formula for getting started on digging into the financial activities of teachers' unions in your own community. You'll come away with a solid blueprint for localizing the issue for your own readers, as well additional teachers' union story ideas you are encouraged to take and make your own.

The webinar will be held Thursday, July 11 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Sign up now to reserve your spot!

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.


I have tons of stories from Aspen, but only one I’d like to share in this space. After former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, US diplomat Richard Haass, and Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy went at it onstage (verbally), everyone started to clutter around their favorite. While I didn’t see too many people around Haass, the room was evenly divided between Albright and Eltahawy. After her va

The Star’s series on child hunger in Indianapolis has made an important point: Our community needs to do more to address the issues of poverty and food insecurity in our city. However, social programs and charity will go only so far unless we face the underlying cause of these problems. Low-wage, no benefit jobs are holding our city back and trapping working families in a cycle of poverty. I work


as one can read in the Washington Post, in a story titled McDonnell’s corporation, wife allegedly benefited from $120,000 more from donor. Here is the beginning of the article: RICHMOND — A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people wi
  Anthony Bryk, the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, said higher education leaders need “to be problem- and user-centered.” WASHINGTON — In order to improve persistence among diverse groups of students, higher education leaders should shun rhetoric and instead research and attack the root causes of failure. Those were some of the key points that Anthony S. Bryk


WASHINGTON -- On the eve of a major vote that would help some 7 million college students pay a lower interest rate on their new loans, Senate Democrats have failed to coalesce around a single proposal. On July 1, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford loans doubled to 6.8 percent because of the expiration of a 2007 law that gradually lowered that rate. Wednesday's procedural vote on a p



This is a wonderful video, and great, engaging English practice!

Over 30,000 California prisoners started refusing meals on Monday morning in what might become the biggest hunger strike in California prison history, according to California's corrections department. So far, corrections officials have acknowledged that prisoners in two-thirds of the 33 prisons across the state, along with all of the out-of-state private prisons in the system, have missed at lea


Chinese students look at a newspaper outside an employment fair in Hefei, in east China's Anhui province.; Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images Dozens of  Chinese teenagers aboard the Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco on Saturday were headed to a summer English program in a religious school in the San Fernando Valley. Though it seemed unusual to those outside the education field, experts said a gr
Walmart on Tuesday threatened to abandon three planned stores in Washington, D.C. if the city enacted a so-called “living wage” bill targeting big-box stores. The Large Retailer Accountability Act was passed in the D.C. Council in late June by a 8-5 vote. If enacted, it would require...


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by Diane Ravitch – Mercedes Schneider here reviews the controversial NCTQ report. Having reviewed the members of the board, she concludes that NCTQ is uniquely unqualified to pass judgement on the nation’s colleges of education. NCTQ is not a research organization. It is not a think tank. It is not a professional organization. It is ...read moreThe post Schneider on NCTQ Report: “Put on Your Hip B
by Chris Cerrone – This week in Albany the Network Team Institute is meeting again to move New York’s Common Core agenda forward.  Some of the activity is based around  “modules”   which basically script out entire units, lessons, and even homework. As an educator and parent I am very concerned about this push of ...read moreThe post Oscar winning lessons or B-Movie scripts? CCSS | Schools Matter
by Jim Horn – Registration information here for entire conference, July 11-14.  From the website: Calling all critical Teach For America (TFA) alumni and students, teachers, and community members impacted by TFA! Join us to organize resistance to TFA’s role in market-based educational reform. During this national assembly, you’ll have an opportunity to hear an overview of ...read moreThe post Form
1. Chicago Board of Education Disrupts Peaceful Student Speak-Out In June, Chicago Public Schools introduced a new per-pupil funding new system in which school budgets will be cut between $200,000 and $4 million. As a response to the massive budget cuts, Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools took action at the June 26 Board of Education meeting. ...read moreThe post From Austin to Charle
by Robert D. Skeels – “The education industry represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control… represents the largest market opportunity… the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada.” — Montgomery Securities prospectus quoted in Jonathan Kozol National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)’s dubious reputation for manufacturing “research” ...read moreThe post N

Parents Can!



Badass Teachers Association

This is for every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuses to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning.

Chicago School Closings And The Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection

Chicago School Closings And The Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection:


Chicago School Closings And The Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection



“They’re really in bed now with conservative elements nationwide,” said Mike Klonsky, a Chicago public schools activist and professor at DePaul University, in an interview with Mint Press News. “Anything that has to do with corporate-style school reform, you’ll probably see Joyce’s name in it.”

A Mint Press News investigation reveals the veracity of Klonsky’s statement — and then some.


President Barack Obama left, talks with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel right, after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
President Barack Obama left, talks with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel right, after arriving at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
The Windy City is is undergoing a tumultuous historical moment, with the uprising of the Chicago Teachers Union occurring alongside the ongoing restructuring and privatization of the Chicago Public Schools system.
Most recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel oversaw the closing of 50 public schools, many of which will be replaced by charter schools. A bulk of the 550 laid-off teachers will be replaced by Teach for America contractors, many of whom teach in charter schools.
“Statewide enrollment in charter schools has surged from 6,152 students in 2000 to 54,054 this school year — with most of them in Chicago — according to the Illinois State Board of Education,” an April Chicago Tribune editorial explained. “The first charter school in Illinois opened in 1996. Now there are 132 campuses operating under 58 charters.”
A thus-far underreported story of the retooling of CPS concerns a foundation close the epicenter of it all: the Joyce Foundation.
Joyce is a major liberal foundation. President Barack Obama sat on its board of directors from 1994 to 2002, as did Valerie Jarrett, his former senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement .
A look at major organizations dedicated to restructuring U.S. education turns up a slew of current and former upper-level Joyce staff and board members.
Between 1995 and 2012, the Joyce Foundation spent $135.58 million on education reform.
“They’re really in bed now with conservative elements nationwide,” said Mike Klonsky, a Chicago