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CORPORATE ED REFORM
Redemption for Educators!
Redemption for Educators! August 26, 2013 by Melanie Olmstead Educators may bear the brunt of school performance criticisms, but the public's opinion of educators is on the rise, with the majority of Americans believing that educators teach students well and keep them safe. This post has been generated by Page2RSS
Bloomberg Semds Hooward Wolfson On NY1 To Attack Bill De Blasio
First former UFTer Randi Weingarten attacked de Blasio today, now Howie Wolfson, one of the slimiest people on the face of the planet (and also a former UFT consultant) attacked de Blasio as well:Just in case it wasn’t already clear from the barbs on his Twitter feed, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson is not a fan of Bill de Blasio’s vision for the city. During an appearance tonight on NY1, the man who
Education Reform Sociopaths: Diagnosis and Cure
When people are told craziness by elected officials and have it repeated on established media outlets on a regular basis, reality recedes and craziness becomes the norm. Does your state have elected officials who display sociopathic behavior? Florida has a super red majority in both the senate and house along with a Republican Tea Party appeasing governor. Illinois has a super blue majority in bot
Webinar Tuesday 27 August: ROOT CAUSES OF CHRONIC STUDENT ABSENCES INCLUDE STUDENT HEALTH AND SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT
A webinar from WestEd, the California Department of Education and Attendance Works will showcase examples of schools, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and mental health agencies working together to help children get to school. WestEd writes that high levels of chronic absence can be a sign that families and students face significant health, social, and economic challenges. Tuesday, August 27,
School Bullying Prevention Efforts Falling Short, State Audit Says
By Jane Meredith Adams | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/144aNcl You Read it Here First: CALIFORNIA STATE AUDITOR SAYS SCHOOLS SHOULD MEASURE IF ANTI-BULLYING PROGRAMS ARE WORKING: Cites LAUSD ... http://bit.ly/15bdyfd August 26th, 2013 :: Responding to concerns that schools should do more to stop bullying, a new state audit found that most schools do not track whether their
MEETINGS BREED: More meetings for LAUSD Board
by Rick Orlov, L.A. Daily News from Rick Orlov’s Tipoff: Playing chicken at City Hall | http://bit.ly/17fzcjl Richard Vladovic officiated last week over his first full meeting as president of the Los Angeles Unified board, announcing assignments to seven standing and ad hoc committees that will have members trekking down to district headquarters at least three times a month. Yet even as he
Get Schooled: Feds block vouchers in Louisiana districts under deseg orders
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a petition in federal court blocking school vouchers for Louisiana students. As the AJC reported: The U.S. Justice Department sued Louisiana on Saturday to stop the state from distributing school vouchers in any district that remains under a desegregation court order. Republican Gov. ...
Churn, Churn, Churn, Is Not Good for Kids or the Teaching Profession
This is one of the most depressing articles I have read lately. It is a straightforward article about high teacher turnover in charter schools. It begins with quotes from a 24-year-old teacher in YES Prep in Houston, who is just starting his third year in the classroom, and he is already planning to move on. The principal of his charter school is 28. The New York Times reporter Motoko Rich points
The Leveraged Buyout of America
Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money? In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke dated June 27, 2013, US R
DPS opens school year with more kids, new programs - BACK TO SCHOOL
Students in the Denver Public Schools, where enrollment is expected to grow about 5 percent over last year, trooped back to school Monday, some of them to nine new schools.Gust Elementary teacher Angie Bonato works with her fourth graders on the first day of school Aug. 26.Denver students brought up the rear of the back-to-school parade, given that most Colorado pupils are already hard at it. Some
Dallas ISD was short nearly 16,000 students today — but it’s better than last year’s showing
Students arrive at Dallas ISD's new Billy Earl Dade Middle School on Aug. 26, 2013. (Louis DeLuca, DMN staff photographer) Dallas ISD started the school year on Monday with 143,412 students — nearly 16,000 … [visit site to read more]
The in box. Glen Brown in the Springfield Journal-Register.
My friend and blogger Glen Brown writes to the Springfield Journal-Register: It is a matter of public interest when current policymakers attempt to rob public employees of their Constitutionally guaranteed contracts, for punishing and victimizing public employees through a breach of contract instead of addressing the state’s inadequate revenue system and underfunding of the public pensions is a f
Remainders: A list of who could be the new mayor’s chancellor
Among names being imagined for the city’s next chancellor: John King, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. (DNA Info) Education historian Diane Ravitch has endorsed Public Advocate Bill de Blasio for mayor. (GS in Brief) Liza Featherstone: School libraries allow for reading for pleasure, so we need to preserve them. (AMNY) Chicago schools opened today with police escorts for children walking through new zones.
On tape, President Ford describes assassination try by Manson follower
A federal judge Monday approved the release of videotaped testimony by President Ford, later used in the trial of Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme, who tried to assassinate him in Sacramento 37 years ago.
The school segregation battle isn’t over | Salon.com
Young black activists like nine-year-old Asean Johnson are fighting school closings that discriminate against them BY STACIA L. BROWN It was hard to know what to expect of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on Saturday. Commemorative events always fall short of the original article. They seek to replicate a zeitgeist it is ...read moreThe post The school segregation battle isn’t over
Pennsylvania: Waivers Arrive, Punishments Follow | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Blogger Yinzercation reports that Pennsylvania finally got its waivers from No Child Left Behind’s irrational goals of 100% success, only to face the equally punitive regime crafted by the Obama administration. ATP (Adequate Yearly Progress) will be replaced by SPP (Student Performance Profile). Three of the four new measures are based on standardized tests. No ...read moreThe post Pennsylvania: W
Microsoft’s lesson on what not to do with teachers | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 26 at 4:02 pm Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been spending billions of dollars on education reform for years, first with a small-school initiative that he declared had failed after spending $2 billion, and in more recent years with expensive experiments on how to evaluate teachers with the purpose of ...read moreThe post Microsoft’s lesson on what not to do
House Education Panel Could Take Up School Research Next | Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Alyson Klein and Guest Blogger Sarah Sparks Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a totally partisan bill to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the next education item on the panel’s to-do list could well be the renewal of a much lower-profile and less-controversial piece of legislation: the Education Sciences ...read moreThe post House Education Panel Could Tak
Immoral Monday in Chicago | Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog
Mayor cancels walk with students after confronted by protesters Mayor Rahm Emanuel was scheduled to lead a group of children from Cather Elementary School on the West Side to a nearby community center for after-school programs after classes let out this afternoon. But after protesters from the grassroots group Action Now turned up at Cather ...read moreThe post Immoral Monday in Chicago | Mike Klo
In Chicago, Campaign to Provide Safe Passage on Way to School
With the closing of 47 elementary schools and concern that children would have to traverse crime-ridden blocks to get to their new buildings, the city deployed about 1,200 workers along routes to watch over them.
At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice
Charter networks are developing what amounts to a youth cult in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable, even desirable.
Youth at the Head of the Classroom
Charter schools are developing what amounts to a youth cult in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable, and even desirable.
As We are Talking about Teachers
Is this NY Times article about short-term teachers the future for teachers? I can only say, I hope not.As tens of millions of pupils across the country begin their school year, charter networks are developing what amounts to a youth cult in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable and, at times, even desirable. Teachers in the nation’s traditional public schools have an average
SEA Rejects District Offer
From SPS Communications:We value the contributions, skills, and dedication that our educators bring to Seattle Public Schools’ students on a daily basis. Their leadership and passion drive the success of our district and community. While we are disappointed that members of the Seattle Education Association did not approve our proposal, we are hopeful that we will reach an agreement that is in the
Seattle Schools Shows Improvement on State Tests
From SPS Communications (bold mine): Seattle Public School students again made significant academic gains during the 2012-2013 school year, Superintendent José Banda announced today. The preliminary scores released by the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) show Seattle students outperforming the state average in multiple subjects.[1]In 2013, Seattle students met o
Struggling System, Part Two
From SPS Communications:Student Information System now live, Waiting List Moves will begin August 31 We want all families, including those with students on wait lists, to know what to expect as we implement a new, improved student information system. The system is live as of August 26. However, we must carefully check current capacity at schools before we begin moving waiting lists. We expect to
When It Comes to Public Education, Are You a 'Jeffersonian' Or An 'Expressionist?'
A conservative think tank is offering an online quiz to help parents identify their educational priorities – and to demonstrate that diverse groups have more in common in their expectations for schools and students than many people might think. There’s quite a bit of interesting fodder for discussion in the new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, based in Washington, D.C. (Before diving
2. "Just" a Teacher?: The Perception of our Profession!
Added by Lisa Mims on July 6, 2013
Malloy’s strange electoral strategy…
Maybe it is unquenchable desire to alienate key constituencies within the base of the Democratic Party. Or maybe it is just his feeling that he always knows best. But last week, in the contested race for the Mayor’s job in New Haven, Governor Malloy, the titular head of the Connecticut Democratic Party, endorsed the Democratic […]The post Malloy’s strange electoral strategy… appeared first on Wait
The school segregation battle isn’t over | Salon.com
Young black activists like nine-year-old Asean Johnson are fighting school closings that discriminate against them BY STACIA L. BROWN It was hard to know what to expect of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on Saturday. Commemorative events always fall short of the original article. They seek to replicate a zeitgeist it is ...read moreThe post The school segregation battle isn’t over
Pennsylvania: Waivers Arrive, Punishments Follow | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Blogger Yinzercation reports that Pennsylvania finally got its waivers from No Child Left Behind’s irrational goals of 100% success, only to face the equally punitive regime crafted by the Obama administration. ATP (Adequate Yearly Progress) will be replaced by SPP (Student Performance Profile). Three of the four new measures are based on standardized tests. No ...read moreThe post Pennsylvania: W
Microsoft’s lesson on what not to do with teachers | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 26 at 4:02 pm Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been spending billions of dollars on education reform for years, first with a small-school initiative that he declared had failed after spending $2 billion, and in more recent years with expensive experiments on how to evaluate teachers with the purpose of ...read moreThe post Microsoft’s lesson on what not to do
House Education Panel Could Take Up School Research Next | Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Alyson Klein and Guest Blogger Sarah Sparks Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a totally partisan bill to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the next education item on the panel’s to-do list could well be the renewal of a much lower-profile and less-controversial piece of legislation: the Education Sciences ...read moreThe post House Education Panel Could Tak
Immoral Monday in Chicago | Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog
Mayor cancels walk with students after confronted by protesters Mayor Rahm Emanuel was scheduled to lead a group of children from Cather Elementary School on the West Side to a nearby community center for after-school programs after classes let out this afternoon. But after protesters from the grassroots group Action Now turned up at Cather ...read moreThe post Immoral Monday in Chicago | Mike Klo