Schools Matter:
Union Leadership that Teachers and Children Can Believe In--Really!
Schools Matter All Week
Only 43 to Go: Oklahoma Becomes Second State to Ditch Common Core
http://www.newsok.com/article/4888114
Opt Out Proves to Be Good Option in Waco
kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen
Union Leadership that Teachers and Children Can Believe In--Really!
from the Globe, where the editorial board's head is about to explode:NORTHAMPTON — Don’t make the mistake of talking about “teacher training” to Barbara Madeloni.“Oh, please don’t use the word training,” she chided a reporter. “We educate teachers. We don’t train them. We train dogs. And I love dogs.”Beacon Hill better get used to that sharply pointed, confrontational style. The 57-year-old for
Inigo Montoya challenges common core testing program
Comment on Ed Week blog, ELLs Test-Drive New English-Language Proficiency AssessmentsPosted at: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-thelanguage/2014/06/wida_field_testing_new_english.htmlInigo Montoya: You keep using that word.I do not think it means what you think it means. ... (from: The Princess Bride). We are told that ELLs are about to "test drive" the "New English-Langu
Authentic reforms from Dr. Krashen. Address poverty, and ensure access to books to preempt summer learning loss!
Providing more access to interesting reading material by investing in public libraries and librarians is an excellent way to deal with summer learning loss. — Dr. Stephen D. Krashen Yesterday morning at teacher sent me a Dr. Edward Haertel paper discussing the unreliability of Value Added Measures. I saw an interesting figure in the paper regarding "summer learning loss" that started me
Arne and the summer slide
Posted on: http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2014/06/05/the-impact-of-the-summer-slide/ Arne Duncan has suggested that year-round school is the solution to the summer slide. Thanks to the common core, year-round school will make things worse. Research tells us that those living in poverty have the least access to books. Students living in poverty also show the most summer loss, and those who re
Shelby County to Launch Classroom Camera Project to Collect and Share Video of Kindergarten Students
The Gates Foundation reporter of record, Jane Roberts, has a celebratory piece on how video capture will be used to evaluate kindergarten teachers in 26 Shelby County Schools. Will they call this ill-advised excuse for more surveillance, "Cameras for Kindergartners?"The State Department of Education should have learned by now that parents and teachers will not allow this kind of third p
Opt Out Guidance for NY Parents and Pearson Field Tests
from We Love Montessori at GW:The GW Elementary School was selected to participate in the NYS Field Test program in Math on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11th. GW Elementary School 3rd graders will be given this test that is to be administered over the course of 40 minutes.A field test is an exam that the company PEARSON (READ this article from WNYC’s blog) and other test developers give to “try out” new questi
More Money For On-Line Testing?
Posted as a comment on "Ed. Groups Urge More Federal Spending for Common-Core Tests," at: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/06/more_federal_funds_for_common-.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS3More money to support the biggest boondoggle in the history of education? There is zero research supporting the value of on-line testing, and no plans to do even small scale studies. The am
JUN 05
KIPP Links, Including Research and Commentary
A reader in California asked for some links, and here is the result I will share with you, too. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, not even for SM. A start, nonetheless.One thing you should note from this first link below is that non-profit charters schools are a myth, thanks to some handiwork by Clinton before he left office.http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/04/americas-top-corporate-ed
Marshall Tuck's white male friend Dax Shepard 'splains that cultural sterilization isn't "real racism"
When I taught in the Los Angeles Unified Schools, I openly opposed the Vietnam War and was critical of the system’s race policies. Fortunately, I was never threatened with dismissal, I belonged to a union. — Professor Rodolfo F. Acuña Students Protesting Marshall Tuck's racist decision to kill Ethnic Studies. Photo by Robert D. Skeels. Eli Broad's California State Superintendent of Public Instru
JUN 04
Weingarten Twisting in the Wind Over Common Core Embrace
Randi Weingarten has tried every strategy that her posse of lawyers can come up with to maintain her loyalty to corporate education plutocrats who made her, while pretending to represent the interests of children, parents, and public schools. She has gone so far as to get herself arrested in protest of school closures, while behind the headlines continuing her undying support of Common Core, test
The Pearson Teacher: From Sage on the Stage to Technician in the Mechanism
When Bill Gates came to Memphis in 2009 with $90 million to grease the hinges on every bureaucratic door within a hundred miles, the schools became the laboratory for every self-serving thought disorder that the aging crackpot could come up with. The latest bad dream brings together Common Core, Pearson, Windows tablets, and the Gates dream of making schools entirely teacher proof. Teachers will
JUN 03
Utica Citizens Say No to Another Cash Draining Corporate Charter
Locals collect 1,400 signatures for petition against another charter.
Parent Insists Her Child Will No Longer Be Pearson Lab Rat
There was a time not so long ago when the post-test curriculum could take hold after the March madness of state testing, when teachers could do a few of the interesting units and projects that once engaged children from September through February. Now school after test time is increasingly filled with even more rigorometry and grittiness in order to be ready for next year's tests and in getting re
Common Core's Emphasis on Computers May Be Undermining Thinking and Learning
NYTWhat’s Lost as Handwriting FadesBy MARIA KONNIKOVAJUNE 2, 2014PhotoCreditMichael MabryContinue reading the main storyShare This PageContinue reading the main storyRECENT COMMENTSRvincent1 8 minutes agoI teach in higher education and I have noticed over the years that handwriting legibility of students is decreasing at a steady pace as...Michael Branagan 8 minutes agoMy microbiology classes back
This should settle the bilingual education debate.
Sent to Education Week, June 2, 2014Lesli Maxwell is right: Things have changed dramatically since the dismantling of bilingual education in California caused by the passage of Proposition 227 ("Proposal to restore bilingual education in California advances," May 28). The most important change is that there is more evidence than ever that bilingual education works, that bilingual educat
MAY 31
Steve Hinnefeld Reviews Hoosier School Heist: Unions Unite NOW
by Doug MartinSteve Hinnefeld has posted a review of my book Hoosier School Heist on his blog, School Matters. Please read his review and check out his other pieces, too. Here is an excerpt from Steven's review: "Martin has a Ph.D. in literature, has taught in universities and published a book of Walt Whitman criticism. He can turn a phrase, and he can bring out the drama in a right-vs.-wr