Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 10-2-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

CORPORATE ED REFORM

The Charter School Mistake

The Charter School Mistake Diane RavitchDate of Source: Tuesday, October 1, 2013Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles has more charter schools than any other school district in the nation, and it's a very bad idea.Billionaires like privately managed schools. Parents are lured with glittering promises of getting their kids a sure ticket to college. Politicians want to appear to be champions of "school

by Duane Campbell / 0min 

An Introduction to My Rubber Room Friends and Die, Wesley Crusher, Die!

Twenty days (Instructional days) so far. One hundred and sixty days to go. At least for this year. They really spread out the teachers who are in the Rubber Room. No more mass warehousing them, like 100 to a room. Why let anyone talk to one another and give each other ideas. That's why I am all alone at 4360 Broadway between 186th St and 187 St in Manhattan. I am the only one there. I could h

4 by noreply@blogger.c... / 7min 

More on LAUSD: Bond Money, Aquino, Broad, and (Again with) Pearson

Yesterday, I wrote a post on some of the conflicts of interest and obvious profiteering posed by the involvement of Deasy, Apple, Pearson, and Gates in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) iPad fiasco. In this post, I examine more of the situation as I reflect upon issues raised by the June 2013 Los Angeles Daily News article cited in my previous post. LAUSD Votes 6-0? Let me begin with

2 10min 

THE L.A. SCHOOLS’ EXCELLENT iPAD ADVENTURE

By Michael Hiltzik, LA Times business columnist | http://lat.ms/18RAP5z Arne Duncan explains why Johnny can't read. Does he know he's the problem? (Bryan Bedder / Getty / October 2, 2013) October 2, 2013, 2:42 p.m.  ::  ... Well, maybe not so excellent. In the latest installments of the Los Angeles Unified School District's $1-billion marketing venture with Apple Inc. -- excuse me, I

4 by smf / 11min 

Give 73,000 Creative Kids a High Five on Saturday, Oct 5

Lets foster the creativity of kids around the world. The Global Cardboard Challenge has over 73,000 kids in 41 countries taking part, and this Saturday is a global flashmob to go our and play, celebrating the 2 year anniversary of the flashmob we did for Caine in the Caine's Arcade short film (www.cainesarcade.com). Over 500+ events worldwide, 16 events locally in LA, from Skirball and SMMoA to ou

6min 

District defends teacher firing - Merced Sun-Star

District defends teacher firingMerced Sun-StarThe Sacramento City Unified School District has gone to court to uphold the firing of a veteran McClatchy High School teacher who got in a fight with a student during a physical education class. Jerry Glaviano said he battled the student out of self ...

33min 

State education officials don't routinely check for cheating on Oregon standardized tests

Officials in states that rely on standardized testing should be scouring statewide data for red flags and irregularities, national experts say, rather than waiting for someone to blow the whistle.

by Nicole Dungca | n... / 0min 

Get Schooled: High school: Can't we make it better?

I am not happy with high school. At least from what I have seen so far. And it’s not just my local high school where my twins are freshmen and where classes, even science and math, have 30-plus kids.   I have been talking to metro Atlanta teens at every ...

2 1min 

Roger Tilles warns of 'dangerous' overemphasis on education testing

Newsday - ‎2 hours ago‎

One of the region's top education policymakers warned a Port Washington gathering Wednesday night that what he termed a "dangerous" overemphasis on testing threatened to undermine a statewide movement toward high-quality Common Core academic ...

Ann Evans de Bernard: When isschool reform not reform?

Ct Post

- ‎7 hours ago‎

Connecticut has received some amount of attention lately for the so-called school reform movement being sponsored and directed by Gov.

Madison teachers union ratify contract for 2014-15

77Square.com

- ‎1 hour ago‎

Madison School District teachers and staff will be covered under a collective bargaining agreement through the 2014-15 school year, pending approval by the Madison School Board.

Bill would allow UW schools, technical colleges to authorizecharter schools

Wisconsin State Journal

- ‎4 hours ago‎

All University of Wisconsin System campuses, state technical colleges and educational service agencies would be able to authorize charter schools under a bill to be discussed by a legislative committee Thursday. The proposal comes as an amendment to SB ...

De Blasio backers push Walcott to hitcharter schools

New York Post

- ‎1 hour ago‎

City Council members urged the schools chancellor to throw in the towel now on controversial space-sharing arrangements between schools Wednesday in preparation for a likely Bill de Blasio mayoralty.

Why NC tax money shouldn't pay for school vouchers

News & Observer

- ‎7 hours ago‎

The “Opportunity Scholarships” legislated by the General Assembly and approved by the governor are a mistake for several reasons.

Michigan Senate hearing onCommon Corefocuses on tests,state education ...

MLive.com

- ‎3 hours ago‎

LANSING -- The Michigan Department of Education does not have an exact cost for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, two state Senate committees heard Wednesday, but education officials are limited in what actions they can take ...

It’s Official – Brown signs AB 484: CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS SWITCHING TEST PROGRAM FROM STAR TO MAPP

By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources http://bit.ly/16HATsF Thursday, October 3, 2013  ::  Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday officially ushered in California’s transition to new computerized student testing when he signed into legislation authorizing the use of the Common Core-aligned assessments. The governor also approved several other education bills, including one

1 by smf / 18min 

One Teacher's Perspective: Turn This Ship Around

One Teacher's Perspective: Turn This Ship Around:

Turn This Ship Around

My good friend, Fr. Joe Zimmerman, chimes in this week with his own review of Diane Ravitch's new book,Reign of Error. Zimmerman blogs at ivyrosary.blogspot.com.

Diane Ravitch has bitten off a lot to chew. She aims to change the direction of ten years of national education policy. She attacks No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration program which she originally promoted. But she attacks with equal vigor the Race to the Top program of Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Author of fourteen books on education, she has been awarded the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize sponsored by the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and like Moynihan, takes opinions from both sides of the political spectrum seriously.

Reign of Error will surely distress wealthy backers of charter schools and vouchers, starting with with Bill Gates. Today (October 2, 2013) USA Today has an article (p. 8a) by Laura Vanderkam titled “Focus on Teacher Performance: Tougher Common Core highlights importance of well-

10-2-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

Leaves on the Current - going ahead with the Stem Cell Transplant

Today my wife met with the transplant surgeon.  There was nothing disqualifying in the medical tests although two were redone just to be certain. She has talked with her spiritual adviser. She has considered the concerns offered by others. She has prayed about it. Today she signed the paperwork for an autologous stem cell transplant. She will get shots Saturday and Sunday to stimulate more stem ce

8 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 5min 

9-29-13 TeacherKen Daily Kos: Diane Ravitch calls this "Best Interview Yet"

Daily Kos: Diane Ravitch calls this "Best Interview Yet": Diane Ravitch calls this "Best Interview Yet"I suggest you take just about five minutes to listen to her talk with Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition on NPR take a listen here: and in case the embed does not show up on your computer, try this link and click on play. and you will understand why 1.  her book has just hit #10

by mike simpson / 20h 

10-2-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman:

New Depths of Sanctimony From Arne Duncan

Anthony Cody listens to Education Secretary Afren Duncan, and discovers our Reformy Czar slathers himself in sanctimony the way a 13-year-old boy douses himself in Axe Body Spray: Secretary Duncan: Also inhabiting this bubble are some arm chair pundits who insist our efforts to improve public education are somehow doomed to fail, either because they believe the government is incapable of meani

22 by Duke / 51min 

9-29-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman: Eli Broad's Made MenBack in the spring of 2012, I pointed out that being a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy Book Club was a great way to get on the gravy train to Reformyville. Penny MacCormack and Mike Miles - both graduates of Broad, just like NJDOE Commissioner Chris Cerf - were making big consultancy bucks: Last week, ACTING Commissioner Chris Cerf of the NJ DOE ha

by mike simpson / 4h 

Alleged scheme to divert millions of dollars to for-profit companies- The Washington Post

Alleged scheme to divert millions of dollars shorted Options students, teachers say - The Washington Post:

Alleged scheme to divert millions of dollars shorted Options students, teachers say

By Emma Brown, Updated: Wednesday, October 2, 6:17 PM E-mail the writer

Educational services for at-risk students at Options Public Charter School suffered as the District school’s leaders allegedly diverted millions of taxpayer dollars to for-profit companies they ran, according to current and former teachers and a lawyer for the school.

Basic classroom supplies were sometimes scarce and the required special education services for students — most of whom have disabilities — were sometimes lacking, according to the 

Close down our most vulnerable children’s futures as the NYSE flourishes. Why? | Reclaim Reform

Close down our most vulnerable children’s futures as the NYSE flourishes. Why? | Reclaim Reform:

Close down our most vulnerable children’s futures as the NYSE flourishes. Why?

Posted on October 2, 2013by Ken Previti

The Stock Market is flourishing as the government is shut down. Flourishing.

All of the “Government Is Broke” wailing is the dictated script of the Kabuki Theater of Absurd Greed. All of the scapegoats at a local, state and federal level are lined up as the usual suspects. But hold on! Don’t blame students, test scores, schools, teachers, unions, pensions for closing down the government.

The hirelings (elected legislators) of 

Milton Friedman: Godfather of Privatization and Vouchers | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Milton Friedman: Godfather of Privatization and Vouchers | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Milton Friedman: Godfather of Privatization and Vouchers

Filed under: Privatization,Vouchers — millerlf @ 6:32 pm 

Public Schools: Make Them Private

by Milton Friedman Feb. 19, 1995

Milton Friedman, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976.

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Executive Summary

Our elementary and secondary educational system needs to be radically restructured. Such a reconstruction can be achieved only by privatizing a major segment of the educational system–i.e., by enabling a private, for-profit industry to develop that will provide a wide variety of learning opportunities and offer effective competition to public schools. The most feasible way to bring about such a transfer from government to private enterprise is to enact in each state a voucher system that enables parents to choose freely the schools their children attend. The voucher must be universal, available to all parents, and large enough to cover the costs of a high-quality education. No conditions should be attached to vouchers that interfere with the freedom of private enterprises to experiment, to explore, and to innovate.

This article appeared in the Washington Post on February 19, 1995. Reprinted by permission of the author and the Washington Post.

Introduction

Our elementary and secondary educational system needs to be radically reconstructed. That need arises in the first instance from the defects of our current system. But it has been greatly reinforced by some of the consequences of the technological and political revolutions of the past few decades. Those revolutions promise a major increase in world output, but they also threaten advanced countries with serious social conflict arising from a widening gap between the incomes of the highly skilled (cognitive elite) and the unskilled.

A radical reconstruction of the educational system has the potential of staving off social conflict while at the same time strengthening the growth in living standards made possible by the new technology and the increasingly global market. In my view, such a radical reconstruction can be achieved only by privatizing a major segment of the educational system–i.e., by enabling a private, for-profit industry to develop that will provide a wide variety of learning opportunities and offer effective competition to public schools. Such a reconstruction cannot come about overnight. It inevitably must be gradual.

The most feasible way to bring about a gradual yet substantial transfer from government to private enterprise is to enact in each state a voucher system that enables parents to choose freely the schools their children attend. I first proposed such a voucher system 40 years ago.

Many attempts have been made in the years since to adopt educational vouchers. With minor exceptions, no one has succeeded in getting a voucher system adopted, thanks primarily to the political power of the school establishment, more recently reinforced by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, together the strongest political lobbying body in the United States.

1. The Deterioration of Schooling

The quality of schooling is far worse today than it was in 1955. There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children. The reason is partly the deterioration of our central cities,