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
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Budget vote: Another reason to get rid of mayoral control of the schools
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Budget vote: Another reason to get rid of mayoral control of the schools: Budget vote: Another reason to get rid of mayoral control of the schoolsWGN'S WALTER "SKIPPY" JACOBSON says he's seen everything now that the board has decided to hire more press secretaries as a way of dealing with the current fiscal crisis at CPS. Note to "Skippy: All the king'
Common Core: What it is, what it isn't and why it's political | Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Common Core: What it is, what it isn't and why it's political | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Common Core: What it is, what it isn't and why it's politicalBy Laura Waters for NewsWorks on Jul 24, 2014 03:39 PMShare on emailMore Sharing ServicesCOMMENTS (2)PRINTPhoto: Image from CCSS videoCommon Core is designed to eliminate the varying standards from state-to-state. What a week for adversar
Educators Defeat Attempt to Strip Teacher Licenses Over Test Scores | NEA Today
Educators Defeat Attempt to Strip Teacher Licenses Over Test Scores | NEA Today: Educators Defeat Attempt to Strip Teacher Licenses Over Test ScoresJuly 24, 2014 by twalker By Luke TowlerSchool districts continue to make high-stakes decisions about teacher performance based on how well students perform on state mandated tests, despite mounting opposition across the nation. Yet no state has tied
Magnolia Charter troubles in LAUSD highlight larger concerns
Magnolia Charter troubles in LAUSD highlight larger concerns: Magnolia Charter troubles in LAUSD highlight larger concernsTroubles encountered by the charter school operator, Magnolia Public Schools (MPS),at two of its eight charters in the LA Unified School District highlight a murky governance issue that legislatures in California and elsewhere have been slow to address.Should a parent company o
Michelle Rhee’s High-Priced PR | Taking Note
Michelle Rhee’s High-Priced PR | Taking Note: Michelle Rhee’s High-Priced PRby JOHN MERROW on 24. JUL, 2014 in 2014 BLOGS, MICHELLE RHEEIn just one year[1] Michelle Rhee spent about $2 million to buy the public relations services of Anita Dunn [2] and SKDKnickerbocker. It’s a continuing relationship that goes back to early in Rhee’s Chancellorship in Washington, and it’s probably the best money R
7-24-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Thoughtful Post about Native American Students by Our New SuperintendentI was just browsing the web, looking up Larry Nyland's background. His LinkedIn page has a very long list of accomplishments and awards. Impressive.At the state level I have had the opportunity to serve as: - Superintendent representative on the Washington State Educational Coordinating Cou
To Fight for Public Schools Is to Fight for Democracy | Diane Ravitch
To Fight for Public Schools Is to Fight for Democracy | Diane Ravitch: To Fight for Public Schools Is to Fight for DemocracyFriends, when a small group of parents and educators formed the Network for Public Education in 2013, we had a singular goal: to mobilize the allies of public education against the powerful forces supporting privatization and high-stakes testing. To advance that goal, we hope
BATs Descend on DOE Will Sec Duncan Be There?- Badass Teachers Association
Badass Teachers Association: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 20, 2014More Information Contact:Marla Kilfoyle, General Manager, BATsMelissa Tomlinson, Asst. General Manager, BATscontact.batmanager@gmail.comBadass Teachers’ Association - http://www.badassteacher.org/The Badass Teachers’ Association (BAT), an activist organization of over 50,000 teachers, will be holding a rally in Washington D.C. to p
7-24-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD
LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): Morning Read: Judges rule against LAT on teacher IDsMorning Read: Judges rule against LAT on teacher IDs Judges rule against letting public see LAUSD teachers’ performance The public has no right to know the names of Los Angeles Unified School District teachers in connection with their job performance rat
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 7-24-14
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOHNSON AND McKENNAWritten by The Red Queen in L.A. in her blog | http://bit.ly/1jXu8JB "The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything." Thursday, 24 Jul 2014 :: DID YOU KNOW THERE’S A
7-24-14 @ The Chalk Face
@ THE CHALK FACE: About the radio showJoin Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursd
How We Won School Discipline Reform in Massachusetts | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity
How We Won School Discipline Reform in Massachusetts | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: How We Won School Discipline Reform in MassachusettsPosted on: Wednesday July 23rd, 2014By Tom Mela, Massachusetts Advocates for ChildrenThis guest post was written by Tom Mela, Senior Project Director at Massachusetts Advcoates for Children (MAC). Left to ri
Judges rule against letting public see LAUSD teachers' performance - LA Times
Judges rule against letting public see LAUSD teachers' performance - LA Times: Judges rule against letting public see LAUSD teachers' performanceL.A.Unified Supt. John Deasy contended that releasing names would lead to resentment and jealousy among teachers, spur "unhealthy" comparisons among staff, cause some instructors to leave the nation's second-largest school system, and interfere
Why Neo-Plessyism Failed to Improve Chicago Schools | John Thompson
Why Neo-Plessyism Failed to Improve Chicago Schools | John Thompson: Why Neo-Plessyism Failed to Improve Chicago SchoolsThe market-driven school reform movement intentionally uses test, punish, choice, and no-holds-barred competition to sort and separate students and educators. They scoff at the social science that explains the need for trusting relationships and diversity in schools, as they use
Education “reform’s” new Ann Coulter: A reeling Michelle Rhee passes the lead to Campbell Brown - Salon.com
Education “reform’s” new Ann Coulter: A reeling Michelle Rhee passes the lead to Campbell Brown - Salon.com: Michelle Rhee passes the lead to Campbell BrownExclusive: As Rhee's efforts flounder, new links emerge between a group she founded and a new face, Campbell BrownJEFF BRYANT Share 550 216 0 TOPICS: MICHELLE RHEE, ANN COULTER, CAMPBELL BROWN, EDUCATION, EDUCATION REFORM, EDITOR'S PICK
Morning Wink 7-24-14 AM Posts #edchat #edreform
BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTSLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-24-14 Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: FAIRTEST: The Weekly Round-Up on Resistance to TestingParents, educators, students and activists in many communities are using the “quiet” summer months to plan campaigns that will build the assessment reform mov
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-24-14 Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: FAIRTEST: The Weekly Round-Up on Resistance to TestingParents, educators, students and activists in many communities are using the “quiet” summer months to plan campaigns that will build the assessment reform movement’s power once schools reopen. Across the country, more and more media outlets are reporting on the impact grassroots
7-24-14 The Whole Child Blog — History for Its Own Sake, and For All of Our Sakes
The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: History for Its Own Sake, and For All of Our SakesPost written by Kerry Dunne and Christopher Martell Recent national media attention on attempts by school districts to fold history and social studies into broader humanities programs has brought attention to the role of history education in today schools. This begs the question: Is the study of history
7-24-14 Jersey Jazzman
Jersey Jazzman: The Merit Pay Virus Keeps SpreadingI just noticed that the controversial teachers contract in Paterson, NJ was approved by the local union by a slim margin:PATERSON — By a narrow margin, the Paterson teachers’ union has approved its new labor contracts, but some members question the way the voting was conducted, saying not everyone got a chance to cast a ballot. About 53 percent of
7-24-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy
Wait What?: Wait What? A call for action – A request for helpWhether the voters of Connecticut get the option of voting for a candidate other than Dannel “Dan” Malloy or Tom Foley/John McKinney depends on whether we collect a sufficient number of signatures by the August 6th 2014 Deadline to get on the November Ballot! We have less than two weeks to reach our goal and […] The post A call for actio
7-24-14 Answer Sheet
Answer Sheet: The problem with how we talk about poverty and kidsEllie Herman has had a very interesting career. For two decades she was a writer/producer for television shows including “The Riches,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Chicago Hope” and “Newhart.” Her fiction has appeared in literary journals, among them The Massachusetts Review, The Missouri Review and the O.Henry Awards Collection. In 2007
7-24-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Our overall scores are unspectacular because of our high rate of child poverty. (WSJ)Test Scores, Students and LearningOur overall scores are unspectacular because of our high rate of child poverty.Published in the Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2014.When researchers control for the effect of poverty, American scores on international tests are at the top of the world. Our overall sc
7-24-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: “Doctor” Carter blames his secretary. And the Chicago, AUSL connection.Each day. This guy has given me blog posts for a week. This is the story of Terrence P. Carter and the New London, Connecticut school system. Carter was about to be hired to be the new superintendent when the real reporters at the
7-24-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy© 2012 Shutter Stutter, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts on educational policy issues: The Teacher Dropout Crisis is from NPR. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Importance Of Teacher (& Student) Wo
7-24-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness
the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): What ‘No New Federal Spending’ Really Means | AlternetWhat ‘No New Federal Spending’ Really Means | Alternet1 by plthomasedd / 1h hide // saveThe Charter Sham Formula: Billionaires + Flawed “Reports” + Press Release Media = Misled PublicLate in 2013, I shared my own ex
7-24-14 Curmudgucation
CURMUDGUCATION: Racing to the Bottom: The New School Leadership ChallengeAs the assault on public education continues, school leaders face an unprecedented challenge-- how to win the race to the bottom without being too obvious about it.Occasionally, somebody notices that a district is becoming too successful in trashing its own mission. Just this week in Indianapolis, members of the school board
7-24-14 Perdido Street School Week
Perdido Street School: Did Cuomo Break The Law By Tampering With The Moreland Commission?The answer is, maybe:Cuomo's camp contends his office had the right to guide the panel under the language of the 1907 Moreland Act, which allows the governor to investigate any executive branch agency or related entity. While past governors have used the statute to examine the inner workings of government and
Shanker Blog » Not All Discipline Disparities May Be The Result Of Implicit Bias
Shanker Blog » Not All Discipline Disparities May Be The Result Of Implicit Bias: Not All Discipline Disparities May Be The Result Of Implicit BiasPosted by Esther Quintero on July 24, 2014Over the past few months, we have heard a lot about discipline disparities by race/ethnicity and gender — disparities that begin in the earliest years of schooling. According to the Civil Rights Data Collection
Race to the Top, Wasn't :: Frederick M. Hess
Race to the Top, Wasn't :: Frederick M. Hess: Race to the Top, Wasn'tby Frederick M. Hess • Jul 24, 2014 at 8:34 amCross-posted from Education WeekWe've just marked the fifth anniversary of Race to the Top, the Obama administration's signature education initiative. When launched, the $4.35 billion competition drew bipartisan cheers and was lauded as an example of getting school reform right. Fiv
Guidance shows light at end of teachers’ bleak tunnel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet
Guidance shows light at end of teachers’ bleak tunnel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: Guidance shows light at end of teachers’ bleak tunnelby Alisha Kirby(District of Columbia) Much of the disproportionally high rate of teacher turnover in hard-to-staff schools serving high-poverty students can be attributed to a lack of quality induction p
The Difference Between Johnson and McKenna – redqueeninla
The Difference Between Johnson and McKenna – redqueeninla: The Difference Between Johnson and McKennaWritten by redqueeninla in EducationDid you know there’s an election in three weeks?If you do not live in LAUSD’s first district, you might be excused from awareness of it, though not if you drive anywhere within that district. You’d have to be blind (inadvisable if driving) to have overlooked the
Parsing the Common Core Reform Spin | Missouri Education Watchdog
Parsing the Common Core Reform Spin | Missouri Education Watchdog: Parsing the Common Core Reform SpininShareParse the language of the PR spin and you will see the CCSSI and reformers have no clothes. They make assumptions that need to be challenged. Like CCSS word problems they make no sense.The Common Core proponents in their PR campaigns have been very clever. They use language and questions
Feds Investigating Civil Rights Implications of School Closures in Newark | janresseger
Feds Investigating Civil Rights Implications of School Closures in Newark | janresseger: Feds Investigating Civil Rights Implications of School Closures in NewarkPosted on July 24, 2014 by janressegerIf you are middle class or rich, you are not likely to discover that anybody is planning to punish your child’s school by closing it. School “reform” via “turnaround” happens in school districts like
NYC Educator: Land of a Thousand Rubrics
NYC Educator: Land of a Thousand Rubrics: Land of a Thousand RubricsI've been attending curriculum development workshops all week. We're looking at Common Core, without which no sentient being can function, and one of our sub-categories is rubrics. Yesterday we created some of our own.I'll be frank. I have never liked rubrics. The first time I saw them was when a new, two-day, four-composition Eng
YESTERDAY
Looking Forward to L2L 2014 - Woodbridge, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators
Looking Forward to L2L 2014 - Woodbridge, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators: Looking Forward to L2L 2014Once again ASCD leaders from around the world are traveling to the Leader to Leader conference to be held this weekend. Leader to Leader (L2L) is our annual professional development event for those dedicated education professionals who ser
Nick Kristof offers An Idiot’s Guide to Inequality
Nick Kristof offers An Idiot’s Guide to Inequality: Nick Kristof offers An Idiot’s Guide to InequalitybyteacherkenFollow 1 Comments / 1 Newin his column in Thursday's New York Times.His guide has five principles which I will list here - these are his exact words, each followed by additional text:First, economic inequality has worsened significantly in the United States and some other countries.
ASCD Educore - About Educore
ASCD Educore - Channels - About Educore: HOW TO USE EDUCORE™WATCHEduCore™ hosts a variety of videos to help you understand the instructional shifts of the CCSS and how to use EduCore™ resources. These videos can be viewed independently and discussed in a professional learning community (PLC) or as a faculty.READYou can find relevant up-to-date articles and papers about the CCSS on EduCore™, as we
Update On the “100 Summer Interns” Story | Crazy Crawfish's Blog
Update On the “100 Summer Interns” Story | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:Crazy Crawfish's BlogZesty Louisiana Education PoliticsUpdate On the “100 Summer Interns” StoryPosted on July 23, 20140It took some detective work, and reviewing of records from other agencies, but I was able to locate 16 summer interns and 14 student workers on LDOE’s payroll for a total of 30 student workers employed this summer. T
Passion and Purpose | WagTheDog
Passion and Purpose | WagTheDog: Passion and PurposeDavid Coleman has made it perfectly clear there is no “room” in the Common Core for such trivial matters as students’ thoughts, feelings, and personal reflections.Coleman may claim his emotionless Common Core will improve the career readiness of students but there is ample evidence that what employees think and feel has a direct impact on worker
Why I am Suiting Up And Showing Up for the BATS Rally (and You Should Too) - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform
Why I am Suiting Up And Showing Up for the BATS Rally (and You Should Too) - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: Why I am Suiting Up And Showing Up for the BATS Rally (and You Should Too)BY PEGWPEN · JULY 23, 2014By Morna McDermottUnited Opt Out administratorThe BATS are holding an event at the steps of the US Dept. of Education this coming Sunday and Monday. There are
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 7-23-14
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: FIRE BURNS GREEN DOT CHARTER SCHOOL CAMPUS …as ‘Mystery Drone’ hovers overheadFire has Animo South Los Angeles Charter High looking for a new location before school starts Aug.12 - School called total loss after massive fire. By Howard Blume and Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1A7SRzM Antwan Shepard sprays his house with water as s
Nite Cap 7-23-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT
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 CAP7-23-14 Seattle Schools Community ForumSeattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Downtown School - Is the Fix In?I make no secret of the fact that I had been pushing for the district to consider applying to take over the empty Federal Reserve buil
