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Friday, March 21, 2014

46 States Tied to Common Core in 2009?? | deutsch29

46 States Tied to Common Core in 2009?? | deutsch29:



46 States Tied to Common Core in 2009??

March 22, 2014

In June 2009, the National Governors Association (NGA) held an education symposium in which NGA outlined its plans for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money. Twenty-one governors attended; so did US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The following information is included a part of that June 2009 report:
At the Symposium, Secretary Duncan made an important announcement regarding these [ARRA] funds: $350 million of the Race to the Top (RTTT) funds has been earmarked to support the development of high-quality common assessments.With 46 states and three territories already signed on to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association-led initiative to develop a set of common core standards that are fewer, clearer, and higher, this announcement was greeted  enthusiastically by Symposium participants. [Emphasis added.]
That’s fishy: In June 2009, NGA reported that 46 states and three territories had already signed on to the NGA- and CCSSO-led Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
CCSS would not be finished for another year (June 2010).
RTTT would not be announced for another month (July 2009).

Charge Of The Light Brigade



Little Rascals - Charge Of The Light Brigade


Behind the Test – Kicking off my new blog series. #BehindTheTest | Continuing Change

Behind the Test – Kicking off my new blog series. #BehindTheTest | Continuing Change:



Behind the Test – Kicking off my new blog series. #BehindTheTest



I have recently considered doing a regular pod cast on education. I debated a name for this new series. Tonight, I decided on a name. While listening to my favorite podcast, a 1930′s radio show entitled, ‘Behind the Mike’ I decided to call my show ‘Behind the Test’.
I hope to dive deep into this recent obsession with high stakes testing in schools. To start off this announcement, I will share a tweet by a friend today. She is opting her child out of testing.
Retweeted  (@MSGunderson): My son, who is in 8th grade and opted out, asked me to write this on his forearm in protest. http://t.co/HlkPnPfND5
This is the state of testing in education today.
Read the writing on the wall … on the arms … behind the test.
First podcast tomorrow, March 22nd. #BehindTheTest
.
Behind The Mike:

3-21-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:









Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: Lost in translation? Do foreign jokes work in English? – video is from The Guardian. You might also be interested in my New York Times post on using jokes as an English language-learning activity. Language learning: what m


March’s Best Tweets — Part Four
Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can






3-20-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Learning About The Spring SeasonToday’s the first day of Spring, and I’ve just updated The Best Sites For Learning About The Spring Season. Additional suggestions are welcome.by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h YESTERDAYI’m Interviewed In Podcast “Parent Involvement Versus Parent Engagement: Is There Really a Difference?”I was a guest d

NPE, Twitter Storm, Trend #1: Demand Congressional Hearings on $tandardized Tests | Reclaim Reform

NPE, Twitter Storm, Trend #1: Demand Congressional Hearings on $tandardized Tests | Reclaim Reform:



NPE, Twitter Storm, Trend #1: Demand Congressional Hearings on $tandardized Tests

Network for Public Education twitter storm
The Network for Public Education, NPE, demands Congressional Hearings on high stakes standardized tests.
We are taking our message to Twitter because while we lack access to paid media, we have thousands of passionate educators, students, parents and citizens across the country who care deeply about our schools, and are truly concerned about the colossal waste of resources now being directed to standardized tests. We hope to raise awareness among the public, media and elected representatives around our call for Congressional hearings into the abuse of standardized tests,” NPE Executive Director Robin Hiller said.
Read the full background and description of what needs to be done HERE on the NPE site.
Read the full text for the need for Congressional Hearings HERE.
Susan DuFresneThis is a first for the NPE. With the organizational help of the amazing Susan DuFresne and over 500 original Twitter participants, the nation noticed and was informed for several hours about the need to hold Congressional Hearings into the high stakes standardized tests that are profiting private corporations and multinational investors hundreds of millions of dollars from our tax monies in nearly every state. Private profit from our public school dollars.
The pressures and abuses heaped upon our children by these newly created industries NPE, Twitter Storm, Trend #1: Demand Congressional Hearings on $tandardized Tests | Reclaim Reform:

K-12 News Network | March 14, 2014: Remarks at the Association of Children’s Librarians Annual Institute

K-12 News Network | March 14, 2014: Remarks at the Association of Children’s Librarians Annual Institute:



March 14, 2014: Remarks at the Association of Children’s Librarians Annual Institute

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On March 14, 2014, I was invited to speak to the Association of Childen’s Librarians of Northern California at their annual Institute in the beautiful San Francisco Main Public Library.
2014ACLconf
Here’s the substance of the talk I gave. In re-arranging my address to the ACL for publication here, I decided to flip the order and put the call to action first and the reasoning behind it afterwards. Enjoy!
CALL TO ACTION: Five key ways children’s librarians can support STEAM learning and creativity/collaboration/communication/critical thinking in the classroom.
City librarians can:

Testing: From Bad to Worse | Live Long and Prosper

Testing: From Bad to Worse | Live Long and Prosper:



Testing: From Bad to Worse

This month third grade students in Indiana have had their instruction interrupted so that they could take the ISTEP Applied Skills tests, and the Indiana IREAD-3 test.
Next month the second part of the ISTEP will be administered (testing window: April 28 through May 13).
A YEAR’S WORTH OF TESTING
Last school year (2012-13) I asked a friend who teaches third grade in one of our public schools how much time was spent on testing. He thought about ISTEP, IREAD-3, Acuity, DIBELS, and some other locally chosen tests (See here for a list of state assessments) and came up with this response…
Actual time spent on doing the tests = 54 hours, add an extra 20 hours for DIBELS…
Add another 25 hours for test prep. This would be test strategies, getting familiar with the format but primarily a huge chunk of review for the tests or trying to quickly cover a topic in case it’s on the test but we have not had the chance to teach it yet.
That’s about 100 hours devoted to testing or test prep…and doesn’t include what I would consider to be appropriate classroom assessments such as reading comprehension tests, math quizzes, spelling tests, and content area chapter tests.
The school day for elementary students in our district is about 6 3/4 hours. 

6 Reasons why the Common Core Standards are a big fail: The facts down and dirty | Seattle Education

6 Reasons why the Common Core Standards are a big fail: The facts down and dirty | Seattle Education:



6 Reasons why the Common Core Standards are a big fail: The facts down and dirty

Photos of students with their grades posted in the hallway of Beechwood Pre-K-5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania per their test scores with students with the highest tesst scores on top and going down from there. The Wall of Shame for most students. Teachers now put up similar "data boards" in their classrooms. It's all part of the CCS plan.
Photos of students with their grades posted in the hallway of Beechwood Pre-K-5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania per their test scores with students with the highest test scores on top and going down from there. The Wall of Shame for most students. Teachers now put up similar “data boards” in their classrooms. It’s all part of the CCS plan.
The Common Core Standards:
  • Dumbs down education by teaching to the test and the narrowing of curriculum.
  • Requires millions of dollars to provide books, teaching plans, handouts, tests and homework sheets. (See below.) This does not include the necessary upgrading of a school and District’s tech system, the cost of computers, downtime of librarians and teaching staff to proctor the exams and of course, class time.
  • Does not allow for the development of creative and critical thinking skills.
  • Is high stakes. Low test results could lead to teachers being fired, schools closed or converted into charter schools per Race to the Top requirements. Chicago (Rahm 

NYC Educator: They Need to LIKE Us

NYC Educator: They Need to LIKE Us:



They Need to LIKE Us

There is this pernicious philosophy that runs from the top of the AFT all the way down to the deep thinkers at Revive NYSUT.  This philosophy has really flourished right here in our own UFT, where in 2005 we decimated seniority privileges and enabled a mayoral school-closing spree.We need to get a seat at the table. Otherwise they won't like us.

Now, of course, when NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi declares the IDC a detriment to progress, Revive ringleader Andy Pallotta detects "nothing negative" in their relationship with teachers. Who cares if they push bills that enable and promote charters at the expense of our public schools, our public school children, and our union members?

We have to make nice. Then, maybe we can get invited to some gala luncheon after they take yet another step toward decimating union. And besides, if we don't support them, maybe they won't like us.

Diane Ravitch says mayoral control is a tool so folks like Bill Gates, Eli Broad and the Walmart family can do whatever they wish. We've just lived through a decade of mayoral control. We've been to school closing hearings. We've stood with entire communities, people who spoke passionately about their schools. We watched Joel Klein and his minions play with their blackberries and ignore us. We watched almost every comprehensive high school disappear to be replaced by charters and little academies, often as not with no union presence.

But we got our seat at the table. So, when mayoral control came up for renewal, we pushed for changes, failed to get them, and then supported 

Repay schools their stolen property taxes now, while times are good | EdSource Today

Repay schools their stolen property taxes now, while times are good | EdSource Today:



Jennifer Bestor
Jennifer Bestor
Should California schoolchildren be the state’s interest-free lenders of first resort? Most people would say no. Yet they are.
Should California, in opposition to the equitable school financing principles outlined in Serrano v. Priest, take the most stable, reliable, local funding – property tax – out of the poorest schools? Most people would say no. But we have.
Was Proposition 98 designed to enable money to flow away from education? Most people would say no. So why has Prop. 98 been shoved into the alien role of “guaranteeing” that schools will be “made whole” despite massive incursions into their funding?
Ten years ago, Sacramento sidestepped a financial crisis. It made California schoolchildren its powerless bankers. It took an enormous $5 billion chunk of their property taxes, predominantly from the poorest schools, to service the state’s debts. Sacramento promised – falsely, it turned out – it would repay the funds, that Prop. 98 would force it to do so, completely and promptly. No one said boo.
Over that decade, the value of the lost $5 billion in property taxes has grown to $7.6 billion. Prop. 98,  requiring that the state meet its “guaranteed” level of K-12 spending, has been suspended twice. We are now in the sixth year in which the state has not paid schools promptly, deferring a sizable portion of base funding until after the end of the school year. These interest-free deferrals have cost individual California schoolchildren heavily as schools have had to incur borrowing cost








 School funding reforms spark push to get parent input

Participants share ideas about San Diego Unified School District's Vision 20/20 strategic plan and the Local Control Funding Formula at Crawford High School.  Credit: Alex Gronke, EdSource Today
Participants share ideas about San Diego Unified School District’s Vision 20/20 strategic plan and the Local Control Funding Formula at Crawford High School.
Credit: Alex Gronke, EdSource Today
California’s new school funding law has sparked a major push to get input from parents, at least in most school districts being tracked by EdSource in diverse parts of the state.
Those districts have held – or plan to hold over the next few weeks – public forums that go significantly beyond what is prescribed in the law and its central feature, the Local Control Funding Formula.  The funding formula targets additional funds to districts based on the number of low-income students, English learners and foster children attending their schools.
California State PTA President Colleen You saidher organization is “very encouraged” by what has occurred so far, although she said that across the state, efforts by school districts to engage parents has been “uneven.” “One of the keys will be to see what happens when districts start sharing the drafts of their accountability plans,” she said. “Until then it is speculative to know whether it will make a difference.”
Under the law, districts are required to draw up a Local Control and Accountability Plan by July 1. What is less clear is how the input districts are receiving will shape those plans and influence how districts decide to spend the extra money they will get.
“My hope is that the meetings are meaningful and that we are in fact embarking on a new era of 


Nite Cap 3-21-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2
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 CAPCT News Junkie | OP-ED | Politicians Underestimate Common Core Opposition at Their PerilCT News Junkie | OP-ED | Politicians Underestimate Common Core Opposition at Their Peril: OP-ED | Politicians Underestimate Common Core Opposition at Their Pe