All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
What Teach for America Says When It Talks to Itself
As I was researching my “Bill Pays to Help Arne” post, I came across a discussion site, Wall Street Oasis, where those hoping to Make It Big on The Street are able to connect in order to solve issues related to their career ambitions. The site has a link for Teach for America (TFA). The link includes a […]
Advertisement: Attend our school and avoid the #CommonCore
Here is a two-sided advertisement flyer inserted into a local newspaper from a Rochester, New York private school. Do you get the feeling that more private schools will be reacting to the anti-Common Core sentiment to draw more students into their programs? Sadly I have heard many teachers and parents who love public education, but […]
Dialing 911 for Math Homework Help?
By far, this is the cutest audio clip I’ve heard in a while. Even though it’s illegal to call 911 for anything other than a life-threatening emergency, this little four-year old boy dials 911 because he needs help solving subtraction (“take away”) problems. I can’t help but laugh at the mom’s reaction towards the end […]
Please give us the status of Malcolm X in DC. #DCPS @hendersonkaya
We have been nice. We have been doing everything suggested mandated by the District. Now, what do you plan to do? Close us or not? Here’s the problem. I am new to this school, but I’m not new to the issues at play here. I’ve been dealing with this for quite some time. To put […]
A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives
A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives. via A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Student Slang 102
As a follow-up to the first version, here are a few more slang words and phrases that students use throughout the school day: jonin’: This term has replaced “dissin’ / dissing” from yesteryear’s slang. Example: Student-to-student: “Your sneakers are dirty.” Student reply: “I know you’re not jonin’! dry: This term describes something or someone […]
YESTERDAY
Gates Is Funding USDOE Conferences and “Innovations”
What corporate reformers manage to devise continues to amaze me. I know. It shouldn’t. But it does. During my perusal of the latest Gates grants, I stumbled across a find that makes me tilt my head slightly to the right in contemplation of its creepy import: The US Department of Education is taking Gates money. […]
JAN 30
The only education policy consideration that matters.
Every decision in education, whether it be made by: A classroom teacher, a principal, a district administrator, state or federal officials, corporate leaders or philanthropists, should apply the following consideration: “Would you want your own child to learn under this policy?” Connect with Chris Cerrone on twitter: @Stoptesting15 Filed under: CHRIS CERRONE: The "Parentucator"
Response to Obama’s Early Childhood Education Plan
President Obama promised us something in his State of the Union address that I think is bad news for our kids. Here is the excerpt, with my reply underneath: Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee […]
JAN 29
ALEC’s Extensive Plans for Education Restructuring in Your State
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (established 1973) offers corporate America the opportunity to shape legislation that serves its profit-garnering interests and to do so in statehouses around the country. To accomplish this controlling of the legislative process, ALEC provides forums (conferences that double as posh vacations for legislators and their families) in which both […]
Social Studies isn’t English Language Arts’ Annoying Relative.
More and more, it seems that educational resources support two core courses: English Language Arts and Mathematics. In my opinion, this is a dangerous trend in education, today. At a time when students must prepare to live within a global society, education curriculum and instructional resources are ignoring other critical subjects. As a result, the education […]
Wisconsin education legislation: Faith-based ideology trumps evidence
The headline yesterday in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinal; Bill would close failing Wisconsin public schools, cut voucher payments Take a look and what you find is the same old “accountability mythology” being proposed. How does the Wisconsin legistalure plan to hold schools accountable? By assigning A-F letter grades to public schools. How do schools […]
An Open Apology, with Explanations: Math, Behaviorism, and “Grit”
While I haven’t really made any sort of public declaration, I have begun in 2014 to address in my public work something with which I have become more uncomfortable throughout 2013: The antagonism in the education reform debate. Thus, I want to address a series of tensions that have been created by recent blogs of […]
JAN 28
How “School Choice” Has Failed Louisiana (Especially New Orleans) Parents
Advocates of the privatization of American public education have proclaimed the week of January 26, 2014, as “school choice week.” As such, they are celebrating the creation of their own lucrative bureaucracy, one that is anything but controlled by parents. In short, “school choice” is a misnomer. “School choice” would be better named “forced choice,” […]
What We Know (and Ignore) about Standards, Achievement, and Equity
What We Know (and Ignore) about Standards, Achievement, and Equity. via What We Know (and Ignore) about Standards, Achievement, and Equity.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
JAN 27
@PARCCplace : More bang for the buck?
The PARCC folks and Common Core cheerleaders like to talk about the next generation of standardized testing. Are these new tests worth the $29.50 per student cost? In my state of New York that would triple the cost of the current 3-8 testing program. Of course we will also need to seriously upgrade technology in […]
NY State Senator George Latimer is my new Hero!
Although NY State Senator George Latimer isn’t a professional educator by trade, his perspective, vis-à-vis CCSS implementation, is spot on! This video is definitely worth watching, a few times. You have to love how he “slaps” the table for added emphasis!Filed under: ANGEL CINTRON, JR.: I Think, Therefore I Teach Tagged: ccss
Bad Journalism, Test-Mania, and High Education: “A Flabbergasting Reality”
About thirty years after the fabricated “the sky is falling” moment in public education—A Nation at Risk—we may be witnessing a similar dismantling of higher education in the U.S., as John Marcus overstates: On weekend mornings all this winter, anxious high school juniors and seniors will file into school cafeterias to sweat through the SAT, […]
JAN 26
A parent “release” form for testing #optout from #DougCo Colorado
I think this is pretty hastily written and there are legal implications to it. No alternative activities? If your child is in attendance they WILL be tested? And, the punishments to teachers and schools for low test participation are hardly clear, or as clear as they indicate. Case in point, there are no quotes of […]
Dcps Impact 3.0?
If DCPS is serious about investing in the 40 lowest performing schools, which I believe it is, then it must reassess current aspects of IMPACT 2.0. During the coming negotiation rounds between the Chancellor and the WTU President, the following questions demand discussions: How has IMPACT 2.0 faired in the 40 lowest performing schools? What […]
The Same One Hour 10,000 Times Is Not 10,000 Hours: Practice, Math, and Utter Failure
Speaking against testing isn’t an uphill battle; it is an upmountain battle—something like Pike’s Peak. But one of the most powerful and disturbing examples of just why traditional testing is such a failure to real learning is found in math classes—where behaviorism is both embraced and misused on a daily basis. We’ve all had this […]
Richard Sherman’s GPA and “Thug” Label: The Codes that Blind
Richard Sherman\’s GPA and \”Thug\” Label: The Codes that Blind. via Richard Sherman’s GPA and “Thug” Label: The Codes that Blind.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Doge Duncan, without comment.
Much reforms!Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face Tagged: doge, Duncan, reform
JAN 25
Should a parent go to jail for This?
Today, I learned about two “education theft” cases where a parent, Kelley Williams Bollar, served nine days in jail, and a set of parents, Hamlet and Olesia Garcia are facing up to seven years in prison. I’m ashamed I wasn’t aware of this problem before today – January 25th. However, now that I’m aware this practice exists, I’m […]
Would I Lie to You?
Reblogged from An Antique Teacher:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q9zF8OsR_8&w=660&h=495] This week, a very personable "professional developer" from BOCES came to my school to "guide" the K-6 teachers in the use of the Tri-State Quality Rubric - a rubric that is to help us all align our lessons to the CCSS and is to be used as a "learning tool". […]
Dear Hanna: Where Are You?
Dear Education Secretary-Designate Hanna Skandera: I have to admit, I’m starting to get the feeling that you don’t want to talk to me. Or anyone else, for that matter. Just in case you’re not quite sure who I am, here’s a quick reminder. I’m the guy that has already personally seen education reform (as your […]
Duncan’s Bizarro World, Where Lie Is Truth and Truth Is Lie
Superintendent of Montgomery County (MD) Joshua Starr is rightfully disturbed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s recent comment: What these two places also had in common was a succession of leaders who told educators, parents and the public the truth about educational underperformance and who worked closely with educators to bring about real changes. In order […]
Shooting Ourselves in the Foot UPDATED
Shooting Ourselves in the Foot * No one, myself included, expects a profession to hold lockstep to only one voice—including teachers. But Help teachers improve their craft, an Op-Ed by a public school teacher, calls for helping teachers become better educators, but in fact, perpetuates the worst aspects of the education reform movement. In the end, this […]