Nite Cap UPDATE
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
CORPORATE ED REFORM
It's a Cold World
This morning my students were all huddled in a vestibule waiting for me to come out. None of them wanted to spend a single extra minute outside. They were horrified to see me, not precisely because of my lack of personal charm, but rather because that meant they were going to have to face that long, cold walk to the trailer.It was so cold that no matter how many times the custodians salted the thr
Portland Public Schools teachers contract: District has concede key sticking points, union president says sides "really close"
The district has offered to back off a health insurance cap it has been trying to enact for years, and also to allow the union to retain language that places a contractual limitation on workload.
Supt. Deasy creates "advisory committee" outside Brown Act to inform on LaMotte district
Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy speaks during a press conference at South Region High School #2 in Los Angeles, California February 6, 2012. Deasy earlier informed parents at a community meeting that the district is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School in the wake of the arrests last week of two teachers on lewd conduct charges. Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt, who worked
Attendance low Tuesday; District must make up at least one snow day already
Attendance was lower than usual Tuesday, one of the coldest days in recent memory, with just 64 percent of students attending elementary and middle schools and 45 percent in high schools. "It wasn't a wasted day," said District spokesman Fernando Gallard. Attendance rates at different schools varied widely, ranging from near perfect to numbers in the 30s. Average daily attendance for las
Paulus-Vallasitis: the deadly disease that infects public schools
Paul Vallas is not content with crippling and killing public schools. Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisiana, Haiti and Bridgeport, Connecticut have all suffered from the same deadly bacteria, Paulus-Vallasitis, that Vallas carries. As the titular head of those school systems, Vallas has been graded a Z, which is much, much lower than an F. In Connecticut Vallas is still dinking around and extracting a
Dump Citizens Inited
I'm U.S. Senator Al Franken, and I started a petition to the United States Congress and President Barack Obama, which says:We, the undersigned, have had it. Corporations are not people. Elections should not be auctions. And we refuse to let our democracy be put up for sale. We are standing together to call for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.Citizens United was a disaster. I
The Cthulhu Is Coming From Inside The House
Daniel Jose Older has written a lovely long essay on the work of the author HP Lovecraft, a vicious racist who was perhaps the most influential horror/sci-fi writer of the early 20th century. Older gets it exactly right when he says we read Lovecraft not in spite of his racism but because of it, and I just want to take a few words to echo and expand on that analysis. (I was going to livetweet the
The CORE Waiver--the End of Local Control
Coalition member Lori Jabloski gives us some of the details of the CORE waiver that Sacramento City Unified is a part of with a consortium of districts who applied to the US Dept. of Ed for relief from the requirements of NoChildLeftBehind. This is an unprecented set of policies that would end the local control of our school district. The waiver would take SCUSD out of the state of California a
The Koch Brothers' Dark Money Network Keeps Growing
On-the-Money: The Koch Brothers’ Dark Money Network Keeps Growing (via Moyers & Company) This is the first installment of a new feature at Moyers & Company, as producer Gail Ablow shares her must-read money and politics stories every week. Koch-Backed Political Coalition, Designed to Shield Donors, Raised $400 Million in 2012: Mattea Gold… Republished with Permission From:
Hanna Skandera’s Reforms Cause More Than ‘Discomfort’
Education Secretary-Designate Hanna Skandera recently wrote an editorial to the Albuquerque Journal stating more untruths, vague ideas, and plenty of blame against those who are questioning her initiatives. She suggests that there will be some “discomfort” during her period of reforms. I suggest that discomfort isn’t the problem; what we’re fighting against is the actual […]
School Readiness for State's Youngest Learners
State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Co-Sponsoring Legislation to Expand Access to School Readiness for State's Youngest Learners
National School Counseling Week
Information regarding National School Counseling Week, February 3-7, 2014, sponsored by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).
15 Months in Virtual Charter Hell: A Teacher's Tale
One major phenomenon that has blossomed as part the corporatization of education in the two most recent presidential administrations is that of virtual charter schools - schools with no mortar and brick buildings, or building of any kind. The teachers and students communicate in virtual space. In some cases these schools receive as much public funding per student as would a traditional public s
San Diego’s Cindy Marten is No Hero Superintendent
On the very day that I posted my view that San Diego is the best urban district in the nation, Mario Koran wrote in Voices of San Diego that Cindy Marten does not believe in hero superintendents. He writes: Spoiler alert, San Diegans: Cindy Marten isn’t a hero who has swooped in to save your children. If that sounds a little bristly, consider this: She doesn’t think students need saving. “The idea
2. Is online education of any help for the economic recovery
Added by Emily Parker on January 4, 2014
4. How do you think will "Edutainment" affect the education scenario?
Posted by Kerry Watson on January 3, 2014
5. How do you think online learning is helping people around the world?
Posted by Emily Parker on October 7, 2013
To Be a Hero
Our dear friend and frequent commentator KrazyTA writes: What times we live in when— “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.” [May Sarton]
LA Unified staff received free iPad before contract
; Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC Los Angeles Unified School District employees received free iPads from the global curriculum company Pearson as part of a 2012 conference sales pitch - and one of them later served on a district team that selected Pearson and Apple for a contract to provide every student and teacher with a tablet, according to testimony Tuesday. “I’m not sure the exact numbers, but I
Live tweets: LAUSD meeting to decide fate of vacant LaMotte seat
Marguerite LaMotte; Credit: via lamotte.laschoolboard.org Follow along as L.A. Unified board members weigh how to fill the seat left by Marguerite LaMotte, who died last month. RELATED: UPDATED: Longtime LA school board member Margueritte Lamotte dies unexpectedly Adolfo Guzman-Lopez will be tweeting from the board room live in the feed below. LaMotte was a staunch supporter of teachers - taking