Supporters Rally At Hearing Over Sacramento School Closures « CBS Sacramento

Supporters Rally At Hearing Over Sacramento School Closures « CBS Sacramento:

Supporters Rally At Hearing Over Sacramento School Closures

Famililes are saying the closures disproportionately affect lower-income communities, while the district claims it was only shuttering underenrolled schools

Steve Zimmer (LAUSD) on Why Class Size Matters Choosing Democracy:

Choosing Democracy: Steve Zimmer (LAUSD) on Why Class Size Matters:

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Steve Zimmer (LAUSD) on Why Class Size Matters

UTLA: 85% of teachers rate superintendent below average | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

UTLA: 85% of teachers rate superintendent below average | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

UTLA: 85% of teachers rate superintendent below average

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | July 11th, 2013, 6:18pm

Tami Abdollah / KPCC

UTLA President Warren Fletcher in 2012. He says the union's teachers aren't happy with the superintendent's performance.

L.A. Unified's teachers' union has again come out swinging at the superintendent, releasing a survey showing 85% of teachers gave Superintendent John Deasy a below average or poor job performance rating.

“The district is not headed in the right direction,” said United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher.

Criticism of L.A. Unified's superintendents has ebbed and flowed from UTLA leadership for more than a decade. Much of the criticism comes at budget time, when the superintendent proposes a spending plan and the teachers union criticizes those initiatives. Most recently, Fletcher and Deasy went head to head over the teachers' union's criticism of the Deasy-led program to serve breakfast in the classroom. Deasy won that skirmish.

The 25-question survey, sent out this spring, asked unionized teachers whether Deasy is spending L.A. Unified's money wisely, evaluating teachers fairly and abiding by the teachers union contract. The final question asked them to rate Deasy’s overall 

The Bridgeport Mess: Vallas Camp Is Right on Merits, Not on Law :: Frederick M. Hess

The Bridgeport Mess: Vallas Camp Is Right on Merits, Not on Law :: Frederick M. Hess:

The Bridgeport Mess: Vallas Camp Is Right on Merits, Not on Law

by Frederick M. Hess  •  Jul 11, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Cross-posted from Education Week

Yesterday, a Superior Court judge ruled that Bridgeport Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas must resign his post immediately. It was the latest development in a saga that's stretched over the past few weeks, and that will continue as Vallas appeals that decision. The problem? Vallas lacks the administrative certifications required by Connecticut law.

It's summer and people have other things on the their minds, so I'll just make two points. First, on the substance, I think this was an unfortunate decision. I tend to agree with Connecticut's governor, Democrat Dannel Malloy, who opined, "Do I think that someone who was superintendent of Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans is qualified to be a superintendent in the state of Connecticut? The answer is yes." For what it's worth, I think it's bizarre that we'd allow paper credentials from programs with lackluster reputations disqualify a candidate with an extensive track record. Seems to me like it makes a lot more sense to just judge Vallas on what he's done, his skills, and his temperament. I think Vallas is an impressive guy and that it'd be a bad thing if he were actually pushed out of office. More generally, I have problems with the underlying logic of administrative license. If you're interested, I spelled the reasoning out at some length, a decade ago, in "A License to Lead?".

Second, however, whatever I happen to think of the law, it is in fact the law. If Connecticut statute or 

The Reflective Practice of Teaching — Whole Child Education

The Reflective Practice of Teaching — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

The Reflective Practice of Teaching

July 11, 2013 by Kenneth Bernstein

As a teacher, I cannot imagine not reflecting as a regular part of my teaching practice.

Part of this is because as a shy person who was also an extravert, I had to think about how to interact with other people. I would even as a child take time to step back and reflect—What had I done and why? Had it achieve what I wanted? Why or why not? Was what I wanted an appropriate goal?

From this I began to learn that reflecting after the fact was insufficient: I needed to think about the "why" before I did an action, and to some degree I needed to be able to be metacognitive, that is, to be able to observe and reflect even as I was acting and speaking, to take in and process visual and auditory cues such as tone of voice and body language.

I was fortunate that, when relatively late in life I decided to become a school teacher, I wound up in a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Johns Hopkins University which required that we reflect constantly, in all of our courses. Recently I had occasion to clean out some of the accumulated boxes and folders of papers of a lifetime (I am now 67 and we were literally running out of space in our basement). Forty-year-old financial records are no longer necessary, nor are teaching materials more than ten years old. In the process I re-encountered many papers I had written in the MAT program, as well as all of the notebooks I have kept since I was 15. In a few cases I was able to match up notebooks written at the same time as papers and reflections 

What A Bunch of Maroons!: Senate student loan interest rate bill fails on procedural vote

Senate student loan interest rate bill fails on procedural vote

Video: Senators failed to overcome a procedural hurdle, leaving student interest rates on subsidized student Stafford loans at 6.8 percent. w/ Lyrics

By Jenna Johnson, Published: July 10 E-mail the writers

A Senate bill that would restore a low interest rate on one type of federal student loan for another year failed to clear a procedural hurdle Wednesday, sending the issue back to the negotiating table as lawmakers try to reach a consensus before the August recess.

The bill would have also bought lawmakers more time to craft a long-term strategy for setting interest rates for all federal education loans.

Video

Interest rates for some college loans backed by the government doubled as of July 1, setting up a fight on Capitol Hill and a push to get rates cut before classes begin in the fall.

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FACT CHECKER | Sen. Elizabeth Warren says that the federal student loan program will earn $51 billion in 2013. It depends on the math.

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The vote was mostly along party lines, with 51 in favor and 49 opposed, well short of the 60 “yes” votes need to advance the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) met for hours with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday to discuss a resolution to the matter, but even those intense discussions were not enough to get the bill unstuck.

The proposal at the center of Wednesday’s vote addressed only subsidized Stafford loans, which are mostly used by low- and middle-income students. For two years, the rate has been 3.4 percent instead of the standard 6.8 percent. That rate expired July 1. The bill would have restored the 3.4 percent for another year.

There was also a heated debate at a weekly luncheon for Democratic senators Tuesday, during which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and mostly Republicans. That bill proposes scrapping a set interest rate for all major federal education loans and, instead, setting the rate each year based on the market. The bill does not set a formal cap on how high those rates could go. Warren has said this system will lead to the government continuing to profit off student loans.

Manchin and some of the bill’s co-sponsors insisted on Tuesday afternoon that a formal cap is not needed because of other safeguards in place. They said all students need swift interest rate relief.

 *Sixteen Tons (Original Mix)

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Merle Travis

Report Card: Sacramento school plaintiffs allege faulty data behind closures

Report Card: Sacramento school plaintiffs allege faulty data behind closures:

Sacramento school plaintiffs allege faulty data behind closures

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

A witness in the lawsuit seeking to block Sacramento City Unified from closing seven elementary schools testified today that the district overstated capacity of some campuses when it decided which ones to close.

The testimony came during a hearing in which affected families asked U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to block the closures until their case is resolved or they reach agreement with the district.

Much of the morning session was devoted to how much plaintiffs' witness Jesus Hernandez would be allowed to say about his written analysis that district closures in poor and minority neighborhoods constituted a case of intentional discrimination.

The suit, brought by plaintiffs' attorney Mark Merin, complains that the district chose schools in minority neighborhoods in lieu of a committee's recommendations to close some campuses in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Mueller said Hernandez could answer questions about enrollment at the affected school sites but not

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/report-card/2013/07/sacramento-school-plaintiffs-allege-faulty-data-behind-closures.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

Daily Kos: The Reflective Practice of Teaching

Daily Kos: The Reflective Practice of Teaching:

The Reflective Practice of Teaching

byteacherkenFollow

• 
  

The following was written for the blog of the Whole Child Initiative of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, where it went live today.  You can see the originalhere

               

As a teacher, I cannot imagine not reflecting as a regular part of my teaching practice.

Part of this is because as a shy person who was also an extravert, I had to think about how to interact with other people. I would even as a child take time to step back and reflect—What had I done and why? Had it achieve what I wanted? Why or why not? Was what I wanted an appropriate goal?

From this I began to learn that reflecting after the fact was insufficient: I needed to think about the "why" before I did an action, and to some degree I needed to be able to be metacognitive, that is, to be able to observe and reflect even as I was acting and speaking, to take in and process visual and auditory cues such as tone of voice and body language.

I was fortunate that, when relatively late in life I decided to become a school teacher, I wound up in a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Johns Hopkins University which required that we reflect constantly, in all of our courses.  Recently I had occasion to clean out some of the accumulated boxes and folders of papers of a lifetime (I am now 67 and we were literally running out of space in our basement). Forty-year-old financial records are no longer necessary, nor are teaching materials more than ten years old. In the process I re-encountered many papers I had written in the MAT program, as well as all of the notebooks I have kept 

The End of Your Career Book Club, Part III: Influence, Inspiration and Instruction - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

The End of Your Career Book Club, Part III: Influence, Inspiration and Instruction - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

The End of Your Career Book Club, Part III: Influence, Inspiration and Instruction

By Nancy Flanagan on July 11, 2013 6:42 PM

Thanks to all those who read through my list and Claudia Swisher's list of books that shaped our beliefs and careers--and commented or shared their own seminal works. It's good to see overlap; we are not alone!

This third and final blog is our dialogue about favorite books. If you haven't read the previous two blogs, they're right below, here and here. Once again, we invite you to jump right in with your own selections, or perhaps critiques of recommended books.

Nancy says:

Great list, Claudia! The first thing I noticed was that most of your books were practice-based, a great collection for someone who teaches in the secondary language arts field, and many of mine were about the bigger education stage, where practice meets policy, leadership and power. I have only a small collection of books that deal with teaching music; there aren't that many music education books out there, and most are cookbooks full of techniques for tuning the french horns or conducting 20th century literature. Useful, but not inspiring or influential.

I was pleased to see Nancie Atwell's In the Middle on your list--I loved it when I read it, even though I never taught anything remotely close to a reading workshop. She understood the 

Nite Cap 7-11-13 #BATsACT #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2 #HEREPASTJUNE

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

TODAY

Teachers union gives poor grade to L.A. schools Supt. Deasy - latimes.com

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The Purpose of Charter Schools in 21st Century America | Reclaim Reform

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by mike simpson / 10h 

Organizing Resistance to Teach for America | Seattle Education

Organizing Resistance to Teach for America | Seattle Education: Organizing Resistance to Teach for AmericaFree Minds, Free People ConferenceOrganizing resistance to Teach for America and its role in privatizationCalling critical Teach For America (TFA) alumni, those impacted by TFA in their communities, and students of TFA teachers: Lets organize!Free Minds, Free People is a national conference co

by mike simpson / 10h 

Principaling in a Rural School (Gerald Carter, Larry Lee, and Owen Sweatt) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Principaling in a Rural School (Gerald Carter, Larry Lee, and Owen Sweatt) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Principaling in a Rural School (Gerald Carter, Larry Lee, and Owen Sweatt)With all of the focus on principal leadership, attrition, and staying power, here’s a picture of an administrator who had an unlikely career path to the principalship and has stayed the course whi

by mike simpson / 10h 

Daily Kos: Charles M. Blow has some questions for us to consider

Daily Kos: Charles M. Blow has some questions for us to consider: Charles M. Blow has some questions for us to considerbyteacherkenFollowThere is an African proverb that goes something like this: Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.  That line jumped out at me as I read the column Charles M. Blow has up for the Thursday New York Times.  It is ti

by mike simpson / 10h 

A rare day in education when we can say something's working | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

A rare day in education when we can say something's working | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com: Posted: 2:00 a.m. Thursday, July 11, 2013A rare day in education when we can say something's working COMMENT(5) 0 1 1 7Previous PostsEOCT results: New higher math standards present challenge to Georgia studentsJuly 10, 2013Cutting Georgia's dropout rate would save millions in health-care costsJuly 10, 2013The

by mike simpson / 10h 

Feds search Oakland charter school in criminal investigation - Inside Bay Area

Feds search Oakland charter school in criminal investigation - Inside Bay Area: Feds search Oakland charter school in criminal investigationBy Doug Oakley Oakland TribunePosted:   07/10/2013 07:07:33 PM PDTUpdated:   07/10/2013 10:00:32 PM PDT OAKLAND -- The FBI and IRS have opened a criminal investigation into a charter school whose former director allegedly funneled $3.8 million from the school

by mike simpson / 11h 

YESTERDAY

The Educated Reporter: Getting It Right on Preschool For All

The Educated Reporter: Getting It Right on Preschool For All: Getting It Right on Preschool For AllEWA's 66th National Seminar was recently held at Stanford University, and we asked some of the education reporters attending to contribute blog posts from the sessions. Today's guest blogger is Suzanne Bouffard of the Harvard Education Letter. The full podcast of the session can be found here. Stream

by mike simpson / 18h 

Rahm Emanuel and St. Vincent DePaul | Reclaim Reform

Rahm Emanuel and St. Vincent DePaul | Reclaim Reform: Rahm Emanuel and St. Vincent DePaulPosted on July 10, 2013by kenprevitiSt. Vincent DePaul was a Catholic priest who fed, clothed, educated and housed poor children. The religious organizations he created still perform his good works. READ HERE.(Disclosure: As a child on the South Side of Chicago on a bitterly cold day, my mother took me on the

by mike simpson / 19h 

John White: “I’ll Just Tell Them Reforms Are Working.” | deutsch29

John White: “I’ll Just Tell Them Reforms Are Working.” | deutsch29: John White: “I’ll Just Tell Them Reforms Are Working.”July 10, 2013I have learned that if John White writes something it must be true.Gotcha. Today among the letters to the editor at nola.com is an entry from John White. Despite his history of lying, hiding data, hiring non-educator, overpaid, pro-reform-minded TFA spawn and other

by mike simpson / 20h 

Press Conference & Court Hearing: Neighborhood School Closure Civil Rights Lawsuit Moves Forward

Press Conference & Court Hearing: Neighborhood School Closure Civil Rights Lawsuit Moves Forward: Press Conference & Court Hearing: Neighborhood School Closure Civil Rights Lawsuit Moves ForwardJuly 10, 2013 at 3:23pm Press Conference & Court HearingNeighborhood School Closure Civil Rights Lawsuit Moves ForwardSACRAMENTO, CA – This Thursday, July 11, students, parents, community member

by mike simpson / 21h 

Teach For America's Civil War

Teach For America's Civil War: Teach For America's Civil WarJAMES CERSONSKYJULY 9, 2013This summer, alumni and current teachers are launching the first ever national campaign against the organization.Twenty-four years running, the rap on Teach for America (TFA) is a sampled, re-sampled, burned-out record: The organization’s five-week training program is too short to prepare its recruits to teach,

by mike simpson / 21h 

NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education

NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education: TODAYAudit Reveals Systemic, Widespread Problems In Louisiana’s School Voucher Program | CenLamarby Lamar White, Jr. Mr. Varney obviously didn’t bother to read the audits. It was far easier for him to take Superintendent White’s word for it, shine up some fuzzy math, and recite a litany of conservative talking points on “school choice” than

by mike simpson / 21h 

Daily Kos: status on Leaves - waiting and hopeful

Daily Kos: status on Leaves - waiting and hopeful: status on Leaves - waiting and hopefulbyteacherkenFollowIt has been a while since I offered an update on my wife's dealing with cancer.  A number of people have asked that I at least periodically offer updates, even if there is no positive news.  So allow me to describe the general situation and where we are specifically.There are good days and ba

by mike simpson / 22h 

Ethical Literacy Lessons to Ponder This Summer: Tolerance for Ambiguity — Whole Child Education

Ethical Literacy Lessons to Ponder This Summer: Tolerance for Ambiguity — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGEthical Literacy Lessons to Ponder This Summer: Tolerance for AmbiguityJuly 10, 2013 by Paula MirkOur seventh annual Ethical Literacy Conference was smaller than usual, yet we came away from it with bigger ideas and a stronger sense of success than in past conferences. Our ability t

by mike simpson / 23h 

solidaridad: @TCFKSM: Sign BAR’s Petition: Anti-Racist Educators Should Not Issue Ghetto Passes To Teach For America

solidaridad: @TCFKSM: Sign BAR’s Petition: Anti-Racist Educators Should Not Issue Ghetto Passes To Teach For America: @TCFKSM: Sign BAR’s Petition: Anti-Racist Educators Should Not Issue Ghetto Passes To Teach For AmericaFirst published on TCFKSM on July 10, 2013.'If this is how "anti-racism education" works - giving cover to organizations and policies that hurt people of color more than anybody e

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Nite Cap 7-10-13 #neara13 #RYH4Ed #BATsACT #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2 #HEREPASTJUNE

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 CAPTODAYDr Cintli: Raza Studies Now Conference at Santa Monica College July 13Dr Cintli: Raza Studies Now Conference at Santa Monica College July 13: Raza Studies Now Conference at Santa Monica College July 13Press Release - Please post and forwardThe Associa

by mike simpson / 23h

2nd Banana 7-6-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post 

2nd Banana 6-29-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post 

2nd Banana 6-22-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post 

2nd Banana 6-15-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

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2nd Banana 6-1-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

2nd Banana 5-25-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

2nd Banana 5-18-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

2nd Banana 5-11-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

2nd Banana 5-4-13 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

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