Opt Out Orlando – 3 Super-moms making a difference!
Leslie Postal in the Orlando Sentinel… “Frustrated her children’s school went “just insane” with test preparation, Sandy Stenoff decided last spring that she’d had enough. The Orlando mother had her third-grader skip FCAT, Florida’s key standardized test. It was a difficult decision, she said, even for a parent who had recently joined with two other moms to be the founding force behind Opt Out Orl
New documentary takes on standardized testing, Common Core…
Jaime Franchi in The Long Island Press… “The documentary Standardized: Lies, Money, and Civil Rights: How Testing is Ruining Public Education, the brainchild of producer and former teacher Daniel Hornberger, is a powerful artistic translation of this both cerebral and passionate battle. It stars real-life parents, teachers and experts from across this country testifying as to how schools are bein
Common Core – Students getting sick as a result of anxiety over tests…
Rebecca Klein in The Huffington Post… “Standardized tests are really stressing New York students out. Like, really stressing them out. According to a recent survey conducted by The New York State Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a vast majority of parent and teacher respondents said that students have been more stressed out over test-related issues than in previous years. The survey shows that 7
“What I’m Learning as a Teacher in Finland…”
Tim Walker at The Teachers,net Gazette… “These days, people often ask if I’m experiencing culture shock. It’s a legitimate question. Just a few months ago, my family and I moved from Boston to Helsinki, Finland. To be honest, the culture shock isn’t so dramatic—especially since my wife is a Finn.But I’m definitely experiencing classroom shock—a shifting of my pedagogical mindset—as I settle into m
Asking for pay to go up, Fairfax teachers dress down…
T. Rees Shapiro in The Washington Post… “… Teachers say their frustration stems from the fact that Fairfax, regarded as one of the nation’s premier school systems, now lags in average salary behind other school divisions in the Washington region. The average Fairfax teacher could earn about $7,500 more per year working over the county line in Arlington and about $6,900 more over the Potomac in Mon
St. Paul teachers union considering strike vote
Mila Koumpilova in The Pioneer Press… “St. Paul public school teachers might soon be asked to vote on a strike, the union says. Leaders of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers said they will decide Monday whether to put a strike to a membership vote after eight months of often contentious contract talks. The union and school district reportedly made progress in nearly 12 hours of negotiations Thu
Teachers’ jobs are getting harder, compensation is stagnant…
Lynn Bonner and Jane Stancill in The News & Observer… “North Carolina’s teacher pipeline is leaking at both ends. Public school teachers are leaving in bigger numbers, while fewer people are pursuing education degrees at the state’s universities. It may be too soon to predict a shortage, but the trends could spell trouble for public school classrooms…” Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.c
White students get better teachers in L.A., researcher testifies…
Howard Blume in The Los Angeles Times… “Black and Latino students are more likely to get ineffective teachers in Los Angeles schools than white and Asian students, according to a new study by a Harvard researcher. The findings were released this week during a trial challenging the way California handles the dismissal, lay off and tenure process for teachers. In the study, professor Thomas J. Kane
Tennessee teachers push back on evaluation process…
Lucas L. Johnson II in The Boston Globe… “When Tennessee was competing for a half-billion dollars in federal education money, teachers agreed to allow the state to ramp up its use of student test scores for evaluating educators. But since winning the $500 million Race to the Top competition in 2010, teachers say the state has gone too far in using student test scores to assess their performance…”