Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, December 6, 2013

National Awareness Day about Public Schools - California Teachers Association

National Awareness Day about Public Schools - California Teachers Association:

California Educators to Take Part in National Awareness Day About Public School Needs Monday

Media Contacts Listed at End of Each Event
Events in San Diego, LA, SF, San Jose, Sacramento

(AFT)



BURLINGAME – California’s educators, students and parents are taking part in several events Monday, Dec. 9, as part of a national day of awareness about the need for community-driven, student-centered support and solutions for our public schools.
All event themes call attention to issues affecting education – income inquality, a state program helping at-risk students succeed, the hazards of corporate tax breaks, and about those seeking to profit from public education, like Michelle Rhee. A San Jose event will highlight the impacts from a CTA-backed reform law – the Quality Education Investment Act – that’s helped turn around one high-poverty school. And CTA’s innovative Institute For Teaching education grant program for school change will be noted.
CTA is joining the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and other unions and community groups in this “National Day of Action: Raise Your Hand for Our Schools and Our Solutions” awareness day. Fixing opportunity gaps in American education are a key focus.
“On this day, parents, students, educators and community leaders are raising their hands and voices to demand more opportunities for our students,” said Dean E. Vogel, president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association, the largest state affiliate of NEA. “Public education shouldn’t be guided by corporate executives, entrepreneurs or philanthropists. And it’s time to look harder at the issues that prevent all students from getting the education opportunities they deserve.”
Here are details about several California school awareness events planned on Monday, Dec. 9:
LOS ANGELES: CTA Vice President Eric Heins will give a speech partly about the day’s call to action to local educators and school board members at 5 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel at LAX, 9750 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles, 90045. He will also discuss the positive results of CTA’s Institute For Teaching grant program for teachers and schools. Contact: Frank Wells, 562-708-5425.
CULVER CITY: A media availability concerning CTA’s efforts to create a fair teacher evaluation system in the state with CTA Vice President Eric Heins is from noon to 1 p.m. Monday at the CTA Regional Resource Center, 6095 Bristol Parkway, #100, Culver City, 90230. Heins will be meeting with members of the union’s Teacher Evaluation Workgroup. Contact: Frank Wells, 562-708-5425.
POMONA: CTA Secretary-Treasurer Mikki Cichocki-Semo will give a speech to local teachers and school board members about the national day of awareness and about CTA’s milestone this year of celebrating150 years of advocacy for students and schools. She will also highlight CTA’s innovative Institute For Teaching school grant program. Her speech is at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Fairplex Hotel, 601 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, 91768. Contact: Frank Wells, 562-708-5425.
SAN JOSE: Students, teachers and administrators will celebrate the community-driven academic success at Cesar Chavez Elementary, 2000 Kammerer Ave., San Jose, 95116. This remarkable, high-poverty school in the Alum Rock Union School District receives extra funding for proven reforms like smaller class sizes, better teacher training and other measures from the CTA-backed Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) of 2006. A noon news conference in the school library with dedicated teachers, administrators and parents will include students joining in, on cue, as everyone raises their hands to support the inspired school and its mission, which is also supported by the business community. New research about how QEIA is improving student learning will be discussed. There are about 400 QEIA-supported schools in the state – including these success stories in LivermoreChula VistaSacramento and in Los Angeles County. The state’s achievement goal for all California schools is an Academic Performance Index (API) score of 800. The API score for Cesar Chavez  is 823 – a gain of 200 points since 2006. Note to media – Spanish speakers will be available for interviewsContact: Mike Myslinski, 408-921-5769.
SAN FRANCISCO: A community coalition including United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) members will march to call attention to corporate tax breaks hurting communities and schools, and the need to invest more in City College of San Francisco. Supporters will gather at Ninth and Market streets at 4:30 p.m. Monday, then march at 5 p.m. to Fifth Street. A 5:30 p.m. rally and candlelight vigil will be held at 865 Market St. Contact: Matthew Hardy at UESF at 415-513-3179.
SACRAMENTO: Sacramento-area educators will leaflet outside the offices of Students First, the lobbying and education reform group founded by divisive public education critic Michelle Rhee. Teachers will call attention to proven education reforms like smaller class sizes and investing more in schools and community partnerships. Rhee’s proposed policies would weaken teachers’ voices in advocating for students. The leafleting is from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 825 K Street in Sacramento, 95814. Contact: Claudia Briggs at 916-296-4087.
SAN DIEGO: Educators are seeing the impacts of the nation’s widening income gap in their classrooms as poverty rises. To highlight this issue, the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) is hosting a free screening Monday night of the award-winning “Inequality for All” documentary about income inequality featuring Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. The screening is at 6 p.m. at Lincoln High School, 4777 Imperial Ave., San Diego, 92113. Contacts: SDEA President Bill Freeman at 619-283-4411 or Bill Guy, 619-709-0028.
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Rally Against the MMAC on Monday! | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Rally Against the MMAC on Monday! | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Rally Against the MMAC on Monday!

Filed under: MMAC,Privatization — millerlf @ 6:45 pm 
PLEASE SPREAD FAR & WIDE!
Stop the Education Grinches!
Monday, December 9th, 2013
4:00 pm – Action at the MMAC – 756 N Milwaukee Street
4:45 pm Dinner and Strategy Session 260 E. Highland, Suite 300
Dear Friend,
Join parents, students and teachers as we descend upon the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (MMAC) to sing holiday education carols and deliver a giant holiday card signed by hundreds of community members to MMAC President Tim Sheehy to remind him that it’s not too late to get off the naughty list!
RSVP to take action. Don’t let the MMAC privatize, dismantle, and profit off of our children
Our schools face budget cuts, under-resourcing, oversized classes, and further charter expansion, so we will present our holiday “wish list” which includes fully funded schools that put students first, an end to the privatization of public education, and democracy & economic security for our communities.
President Sheehy and his privatization profiteers have a plan to steal our schools and sell them off to the highest bidder. But we can stop them!

Immediately following the action we will gather for dinner and a strategy session on how we can work together to reclaim the promise of public education for every Milwaukee student.
See you there!
Jennifer Epps-Addison
Executive Director
Wisconsin Jobs Now
This event is sponsored by the Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover – a coalition of community, labor, parent and student groups. OnDecember 9th, similar actions will take place in 30 cities across the country as part of the national effort to reclaim the promise of public education.

12-6-13 Ed Notes Online

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Poverty plays role in ho-hum global ranking of US students, educator says - CSMonitor.com

Poverty plays role in ho-hum global ranking of US students, educator says - CSMonitor.com:

Poverty plays role in ho-hum global ranking of US students, educator says

'Things like poverty ... really matter,' Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, says in assessing results of international student achievement tests. To do better, the US needs to value public education more, she adds.

By David CookStaff writer / December 6, 2013
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten speaks at the St. Regis Hotel on Dec. 4, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
Michael Bonfigli/ The Christian Science Monitor
Enlarge

Randi Weingarten has served as president of the American Federation of Teachers, a 1.5 million-member union, since 2008. Ms. Weingarten was the guest at the Dec. 4 Monitor Breakfast.
The Monitor: What do the results indicate from the latest achievement tests for 15-year-olds worldwide?
Weingarten: "What does it say that the United States is pretty much in the middle of the pack on mathematics, science, and English?... No. 1, it says that things like poverty ... really matter."
How can the US boost test results? 
"The countries that outcompete us ... deeply respect and value public education. [The US also needs to be] preparing teachers, supporting teachers [and parents who] are really engaged, not just told what to do."
What do you think of the ruling in Detroit's bankruptcy case that public pensions are not protected?
"The ruling is very troubling morally and ... it is wrong legally and obviously it will be appealed.... The deferred wages that people expected ... all of a sudden they don't have."
What is the significance of the rollout of Common Core State Standards in 45 states andWashington, D.C.?

"The governors and the state [education] chiefs were right about saying let's figure out a set of 

The Search for a New SCUSD Superintendent Begins With These Requirements | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

The Search for a New SCUSD Superintendent Begins With These Requirements | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Home


The Search for a New SCUSD Superintendent Begins With These Requirements


Last night a group of teachers, parents, students and community members met at the offices of Sacramento City Teachers Association to voice our ideas about what we qualities we would  like in a superintendent for Sacramento City Unified. We have a common interest in who fills that role and all want to be active participants in the search for a new superintendent. This will be a team effort.  Last time the district searched for a superintendent , community meetings were held but the results were ignored. The consultants only looked in one applicant pool-the Broad Academy. We want this time to be different.

These were  the top qualities desired in a superintendent voiced at the meeting:

  • Education experience--someone who has both classroom teaching and school administrative experience.

  • Public finance experience--someone who will focus on budget transparency. Someone who will support citizen oversight and budget input. How they view the Local Control Funding Formula is critical. Monies generated by students in poverty, special education or English language learners should go to those students.

  • Connection with the Sacramento and familiarity with our diverse community--someone with knowledge of the history of the district and education in California.

  • Belief in public education-someone supports the values of public education and believes in making the system work. Someone who supports educational equity, not just a few "priority schools". Every child should have an excellent neighborhood school. Someone that supports qualitative measures of  school success, not just a quantitative ones.

  • Stewardship--someone who will keep what's working in the district. Someone who recognizes bottom line fundamental needs and ensures they are met. Someone who will work to restore services like schools nurses and custodians.

  • An inclusive administrative style--we want policies that come from bottom up not dictated from the top down.  Someone who will work with the team of teachers, parents, students and community . Someone who regards teachers as professionals and partners, not adversaries.  Supports actual student engagement not just lip service. We need an inspirational leader.

  • Humility--someone that can admit when they've made a mistake and change course for the good of the district and students.


The group who met last night will stay in communication and work to involve others in the community and in interested groups to get involved. SCTA is willing to send members out to facilitate meetings. We hope to engage the public through social media. Once we have input from all interested parties, the list of qualities/requirements for our new superintendent will be presented to the SCUSD board.  We will reach out to the press to influence the process and take the discussion to a wider audience.  We may also work to develop a questionnaire for the candidates.  There is a tentative six month timeline for the search.

We have to be mindful that some of the outcomes we desire cannot come about without a change in board governance. The coherent governance system that has been put into place by the board has eliminated much public input.  It has done away with board committees and keeps the board from directing staff.  It also reduces interaction between the board and superintendent. We can put pressure on the board to discuss those changes.

We also need to remember that school board elections are coming up in November 2014. We have the ability to influence the makeup of the school board through the democratic process and we need to be involved!

Nite Cap 12-6-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2


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

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Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 12-5-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2
Nite Cap UPDATEUPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATECORPORATE ED REFORM Timeline of Nelson Mandela's lifeHistory of South Africa's iconic first black president, who successfully fought against apartheid despite long jail term75 2h Language Parents for Second Language AcquisitionLanguage Parents for Second Language Acquisition Stephen Krashen International Journal of Foreign Language Education, 7(3): 2 Lonsd
Nelson Mandela - Social Justice Hero. Beloved Rabble Rouser - Education Remembers
Nelson Mandela: Social Justice Hero. Beloved Rabble RouserA tribute to Nelson Mandelaby Lily / 41min State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Comments on Death of South African LeaderSACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson issued the following statement today after the death of anti-apartheid leader and former South African President Nelson Mandela:"With the passing of Ne
NYC Public School Parents: King and Tisch finally coming to hear from NYC parents next week!
NYC Public School Parents: King and Tisch finally coming to hear from NYC parents next week!: King and Tisch finally coming to hear from NYC parents next week!Commissioner King and Merryl Tisch, head of the board of Regents, are finally coming to hear from NYC parents on their controversial education agenda, after already appearing at 14 forums in the rest of the state.  Unfortunately, they have g
PISA, Christmas, and Truth | Reclaim Reform
PISA, Christmas, and Truth | Reclaim Reform: PISA, Christmas, and TruthPosted on December 5, 2013by Ken PrevitiPISA scores have again caused an avalanche of media talking heads screaming their propaganda about whatever they have been paid to scream by the Corporate Education Industrial Complex.Don’t believe results that omit the main factor in the numbers – poverty. Poverty with all its related de
Nite Cap 12-5-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2
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 mark as readIs ASCD Embracing Market-Driven Education Reform? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week TeacherIs ASCD Embracing Market-Driven Education Reform? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Is ASCD Embracing Market-Driven Education