Sunday, January 5, 2014

Game On. R U Ready? CO + UOO March 28th – 30th, 2014 | United Opt Out National

Game On. R U Ready? CO + UOO March 28th – 30th, 2014 | United Opt Out National:

GAME ON. R U READY? CO + UOO MARCH 28TH – 30TH, 2014

In the spirit and perhaps mirth that is characteristic of our little organization, United Opt Out, we are creating a set of trade-able and collectible activism game cards of our admins and all of the guests for our spring action in Denver, CO. We’re releasing ourselves now and two of our guests, Mark Naison and Denisha Jones.

In subsequent days ahead, we’ll be releasing one new card a week, so be sure to follow updates and collect them all.

These cards will be playable, in that we’re going to give each “character” some attributes in case you want to have a home version of United Opt Out to enjoy all the time.

So, check it out to see some of the folks who will be here – and more game cards to follow each week! Join UOO in Denver with other national activists to work alongside our Denver activists who have said, “GAME ON.”

Details to follow soon.

Education after Bloomberg | Al Jazeera America

Education after Bloomberg | Al Jazeera America:

Education after Bloomberg

by Mathangi Subramanian @ajam January 3, 2014

The former mayor’s greatest legacy is creating a mass movement against education reform

Topics:: Education; Michael Bloomberg; New York

education protest Bloomberg — People protest during a Panel for Educational Policy meeting at Brooklyn Tech High School in 2012 before a vote on whether to close or partially close 23 schools that the New York City Department of Education considered failing.

Now that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has left office, speculation is rife about his legacy, particularly on education, a signature issue during his three-term mayoralty. But experts searching for clues as to the administration’s impact on education in test scores, dropout numbers, graduation rates and countless other measures are missing the real story. Although New York under Bloomberg became the nation’s most data-driven education department, his lasting effects are not numbers but people: specifically, a cadre of student activists who are the most fearless and effective voices for American educational equity since the postwar desegregation fight.

Since Bloomberg took office in 2002, a plethora of New York City youth-led movements have coalesced in direct opposition to some of the administration’s signature initiatives, such as closing failing schools, encouraging the growth of charters and slashing budgets. Campaigns by student-led groups like Urban Youth Collaborative, the Dignity in Schools Campaign and the Respect for All coalition have achieved many victories, including the preservation of free student subway cards, the rewriting of the citywide school discipline code to limit suspensions and the adoption and implementation of Chancellor’s Regulation A-832, an anti-bullying policy. While many of these

Boston Teacher Ratings discriminate | JD2718

Boston Teacher Ratings discriminate | JD2718:

Boston Teacher Ratings discriminate

JANUARY 5, 2014 PM31 9:08 PM

I missed this article in the Boston Globe – The Boston Teachers Union is grieving the evaluation process – claims pattern of discrimination against Black teachers, against men, and against older teachers.

They are asking for adverse consequences to be rescinded. Notice that this includes both dismissals, and teacher improvement plans. I believe in NYC we have not preserved the right to challenge a D rating that would lead to improvement plan type consequences for the following year.

Also note, the BTU is not waiting for statistical proof. They are moving on the first indications that there is discrimination. Also note, every anti-public school reform of the last dozen years, anywhere in the country, has hit Black kids and Black teachers the hardest. And many have hit older teachers disproportionately.

Boston Teachers Union contests ratings

By James Vaznis GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 11, 2013

The Boston Teachers Union has filed a grievance with the School Department over its teacher

Data, Portfolios & the Path Forward for NYC (& Elsewhere) | School Finance 101

Data, Portfolios & the Path Forward for NYC (& Elsewhere) | School Finance 101:

Data, Portfolios & the Path Forward for NYC (& Elsewhere)

Posted on January 5, 2014

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As the new year begins, I’ve been pondering what I might recommend as guiding principles for the path forward for education policy in New York City under its new Mayor, Bill de Blasio, who is often referred to on Twitter as BDB. So here are my thoughts for the way forward, from one BDB (Bruce D. Baker) to another.

Note that I had drafted much of this content last spring when convening with a group of scholars to discuss the path forward for NYC education policies. Not being as well versed in the specifics of NYC education policies, but having at least written academically about some, I kept my ideas broad, and applicable to many educational settings across the U.S.

My recommendations fall into two broad categories:

Develop a robust, balanced, least intrusive system of indicators for evaluating New York City Schools and then use that information appropriately

NYC BOE policies of the past ten years have been rife with data abuse (though at times, merely in an effort to comply with state required data abuse). School closures have been based on ill-conceived measures of “school failure” which do little more than target the city’s neediest student populations, imposing on them repeated disruptions.

New York City’s teacher performance reports, albeit better than many, apply the worst form of statistical reductionism to quantify teacher “quality,” taking noisy statistical estimates of the association between teachers-of-record and assigned students test score gains (applying only the most convenient statistical corrections) in limited curricular areas and grades, and assuming levels of precision and accuracy that are completely unwarranted.

Such data abuse – on both counts [school closures and teacher ratings] – is reprehensible.

Right-sized (NOT BIG) data can indeed be useful for guiding decision-making in large, complex

Teacher Quartering: Four Reasons Why Teachers Avoid, or Leave, High Poverty Urban Public Schools | Ward 8 DC Teacher

Teacher Quartering: Four Reasons Why Teachers Avoid, or Leave, High Poverty Urban Public Schools | Ward 8 DC Teacher:

Teacher Quartering: Four Reasons Why Teachers Avoid, or Leave, High Poverty Urban Public Schools

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Teaching within a high poverty urban public school is challenging, to say the least. Time and again, I hear education policy experts claim that high poverty urban schools don’t have enough effective or high quality teachers “at the helm.” Part of this is due to the misuse of VAM-based models, but another aspect of this phenomenon is the propensity for working conditions to drive effective or high quality teachers out of high poverty urban public schools. In fact, at times, it feels as if teaching within a challenging or “struggling” school is akin to some form of medieval quartering. At each end of a teacher’s limb is a rope that’s attached to a “horse”, or stress-producing trigger, which, collectively, rips the teacher apart at the limbs. In my humble opinion, here are four stress-producing triggers that may cause high poverty urban public school teachers to avoid teaching in the most challenging schools, or leave the profession altogether.

Rope #1: Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings

The first rope, or stress-producing trigger, is attending mandatory meetings and PDs (professional development), which often occur throughout the school day and week. Before you misread my intention, let me publicly state that meetings are extremely beneficial and

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Sunday, January 5, 2014