Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 3-25-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2


Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


CORPORATE ED REFORM




What’s Going On In The Florida House? Did Someone Say Ethics? Charter School Concerns?
FloriDuh is up to it again … Read more here: http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/floridas-most-obvious-charter-school-conflict-of-interest-to-date/

I suggest that you will want to read Charles M. Blow
in a column for the Thursday New York Times titled Crimea and Punishment. Blow manages to do a number of things well in this column.  For example, he does a very good job of pushing back against Mitt Romney's comments on Face the Nation, writing The refused-to-be-vanquished insist on being vindicated. But as is the case in many of these circumstances, the dance between diplomacy and force, between

NYC: Emergency Rally Thursday at Noon
Emergency meeting on Thursday on behalf of the 97% of New York State students who are not in charter schools: Anyone who can make it tomorrow should do so. The state budget is hitting crunch time, with the Charter lobby spending millions on behalf of privatization and the 3% in charters, while firmly controlling both the Governor and the State Senate. Support must be given to Speaker Silver and t

Berkeley teachers pull down 3.5 percent raise 
Momentum Is Building for Museum on Women
An effort to build a national women’s history museum has been helped by a declaration of support from the House majority leader and the ascension of women to key posts in the Senate.    
Parents United founder named one of Philly’s “most powerful people”
Philadelphia Magazine’s April 2014 issue If rabble-rousing is a sport, looks like Parents United for Public Education is a champion! April’s Philadelphia Magazine names Parents United founder Helen Gym one of its 75 most powerful people in Philadelphia and one of the top 10 movers and shakers in civics. Here’s what they had to say: ” . . as co-founder of Parents United for Public Education, she’s


Uniform standards urged for reclassifying English learners | EdSource Today
Uniform standards urged for reclassifying English learners | EdSource Today: Uniform standards urged for reclassifying English learnersMarch 26th, 2014 | Add a Comment | By John FensterwaldSchool districts have discretion in determining when English learners can be reclassified as proficient in English, meaning they no longer need help in gaining fluency. But the different criteria that districts
Charter school report was wrong | UTSanDiego.com
Charter school report was wrong | UTSanDiego.com: Charter school report was wrong The growth of charter schools in San Diego was greatly exaggerated in a report issued three months ago by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, according to the organization that issued a corrected study on Wednesday.The group released a report in December claiming that the San Diego Unified School Distri
ONE Common Core Story: Melissa Wilkins "Deer Creek Parent: My Education Experience"
Melissa Wilkins "Deer Creek Parent: My Education Experience"
Another Defender of Eva Shows His Ignorance and Bias southbronxschool.com
http://www.southbronxschool.com: Another Defender of Eva Shows His Ignorance and BiasMy mother used to tell me two things;"Never argue with meshugah people and always wear clean underwear in case the New York Post drives a bus over you and all the lackeys that read that paper talk about what a poor mother I am for sending you out of the house in dirty underwear."Unfortunately, I did not
Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video | Continuing Change
Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video | Continuing Change: Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – VideoMarch 26, 2014Educationchicago, chicago schools, opt out, rousemary vega, schools,teachers, testing, unitedoptout      Rate ThisChicago has got it going on …By it – I mean a huge ‘Opt Out’ movem
Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name | Reclaim Reform
Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name | Reclaim Reform: Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s namePosted on March 26, 2014by Ken PrevitiPoliticians in Florida are dysfunctional, petty and cruel.When the story of the infliction of a mandated high stakes testing on a dying, blind, brain damaged child with cerebral palsy, Ethan Rediske, finally r
Coop’s Childhood Part 5 – Burns Park & Divorce | Lefty Parent
Coop’s Childhood Part 5 – Burns Park & Divorce | Lefty Parent: Coop’s Childhood Part 5 – Burns Park & DivorceMarch 26th, 2014 at 16:06While the events of the U.S. civil rights movement and theVietnam War were roiling the larger society, the first big event that I was privy to in our little family’s cataclysm was in early April of 1964 around my ninth birthday, bearing helpless witness to m
Nite Cap 3-26-14 #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 CAP3-26-14 The Whole Child Blog — Don't Settle for the Okey-Doke in a Third Narrative of American Education — Whole Child EducationDon't Settle for the Okey-Doke in a Third Narrative of American Education — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLO


Uniform standards urged for reclassifying English learners | EdSource Today

Uniform standards urged for reclassifying English learners | EdSource Today:



School districts have discretion in determining when English learners can be reclassified as proficient in English, meaning they no longer need help in gaining fluency. But the different criteria that districts use and wide disparities in reclassification rates among districts have prompted Sen. Alex Padilla, D-San Fernando Valley, to call for consistency .
Padilla discusses his bill during a televised hearing Wednesday of the Senate Education Committee.
Padilla discusses his bill during a televised hearing Wednesday of the Senate Education Committee.
His bill, SB 1108, requires the California Department of Education to recommend uniform reclassification criteria, based on best practices, to the State Board of Education and encourages the board to adopt the changes. The bill also would recognize reclassified students as a subgroup for the Academic Progress Index so that the state would be able to track how well these students do over time on the state’s standardized tests.
SB 1108 passed its first hurdle Wednesday with a 5-1 vote in the Senate Education Committee and now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee. It was endorsed at the committee hearing by representatives of several organizations advocating for English learners.
As Padilla noted in an interview, the 1.3 million Reclassified Fluent English Proficient students, as they are called, are nearly as numerous as the 1.5 million English learners in California. Together they make up 45 percent of the state’s students. So what happens to reclassified students ­– the curriculums and services they receive as English learners, how they are reclassified and how well 

Charter school report was wrong | UTSanDiego.com

Charter school report was wrong | UTSanDiego.com:



Charter school report was wrong






 The growth of charter schools in San Diego was greatly exaggerated in a report issued three months ago by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, according to the organization that issued a corrected study on Wednesday.

The group released a report in December claiming that the San Diego Unified School District had a 35 percent increase in charter school enrollment — giving it the designation of having second-highest growth in the nation — in the 2012-13 academic year.
In fact, charter school attendance in San Diego Unified increased by 7 percent, the alliance now says.
The report received widespread coverage by the media, including a front-page article in U-T San Diego.
Katherine Bathgate, senior communications manager at the National Alliance, apologized for the error, which she attributed to “a miscounting of charter schools within the district between two years.”
Bathgate said researchers failed to count three independent-study 

ONE Common Core Story: Melissa Wilkins "Deer Creek Parent: My Education Experience"


Melissa Wilkins "Deer Creek Parent: My Education Experience"



Another Defender of Eva Shows His Ignorance and Bias southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:



Another Defender of Eva Shows His Ignorance and Bias

My mother used to tell me two things;
"Never argue with meshugah people and always wear clean underwear in case the New York Post drives a bus over you and all the lackeys that read that paper talk about what a poor mother I am for sending you out of the house in dirty underwear."
Unfortunately, I did not heed her advice for I got into a Twitter thingy with someone that just might be meshugah. The Twitter thingy was concerning Mayor De Blasio "claiming" that pre-K would curb students suicide as written by the Post.The meshugah person was Michael Benjamin a self appointed "corruption crusher"and inane mouthpiece of Eva Moskowitz and charters, and a sometimes columnist of the New York Post.

Mikey says about himself;
"corruption crusher & thought-leader giving voice to unplugged opinions and perspectives."
We here at SBSB are quite sure he looks the other way at the reams of students being creamed out of charters, the big bucks Eva is making, and the lack of any accountability that charters of fought for.

I should have foreseen the impending doom and my mother's prophecy when I received  this Tweet from 

Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video | Continuing Change

Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video | Continuing Change:



Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video



Rate This

Chicago has got it going on …



By it – I mean a huge ‘Opt Out’ movement. Parents have figured out that their children are taking too many standardized tests. They have figured out that the high stakes attached to those tests are destroying their schools and robbing their kids of a true education. And, they have had enough.
Take a look at this video of Chicago parent, Rousemary Vega, at today’s Chicago Board of Education meeting. She opted her child out of testing and now she is speaking up for Chicago teachers who are being threatened with disciplinary action.
She questions the Board: “I opt my children out of ISAT testing and the teachers get in trouble for it?” Then she speaks up and tells the truth, to a crowd of applause: “You shouldn’t punish teachers for standing up for our children. They are the ones who know what is going on in the classrooms.”
It is no wonder that Rousemary is what we fondly call a BADASS MOM. She has had it with these so called reforms that led to the closing of her own children’s neighborhood  Chicago ‘Opt Out’ Mom Speaks up for Teachers and Kids at Chicago Board of Ed Meeting – Video | Continuing Change:

Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name | Reclaim Reform

Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name | Reclaim Reform:



Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name

ethan_2
Politicians in Florida are dysfunctional, petty and cruel.
When the story of the infliction of a mandated high stakes testing on a dying, blind, brain damaged child with cerebral palsy, Ethan Rediske, finally received full national attention, Ethan had just died. His mother, Andrea, had previously written a simple and clear letter prior to his death requesting that the insane demands by the Florida Board of Education and the State of Florida cease. The letter was included in the news coverage.
Ethan’s mom was then slammed by some members of the press for even attempting to opt-out of the test. Less than a month after Ethan’s death, Florida Secretary of Education Pam Stewart sent a letter to all of the state’s teachers demeaning Ethan’s mom without mentioning Ethan or Andrea by name. A law, Ethan’s Law, was introduced in order to simply exempt children such as Ethan from being subjected to bizarre demands such as these mandated tests. Ethan’s Law, or Ethan’s Act, was named as a memoriam for the child who lost his life during this mindless, state endorsed abuse. Read HERE for details.
Today, even that small bit of honor and remembrance was snatched from Ethan’s mom, dad and family.
The law will be included in a larger bill, HB 7117 – but without Ethan’s name attached. As a matter of fact, the bill is even more restrictive than the original as to which children may   Ethan’s Law: Florida’s petty legislators refuse to use Ethan’s name | Reclaim Reform: