8-17-14 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.:

I support Carlos Rosa for 35th Ward Alderman.

State Representative-elect Will Guzzardi and State Senator Willie Degado with candidate Carlos Rosa.

by Fred Klonsky / 46min 

8-16-14 Fred All Week 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.: Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacherCPS bans parent Rousemary Vega.6 by Fred Klonsky / 15h Movement in Hinsdale D86- From HHSTA District 86 Negotiations Moving Forward. Teachers association and board of education work toward an agreement HINSDALE, IL. — August 15, 2

by mike simpson / 9h 

To Amanda Ripley: A Second TIME Article on Rhee is Long Overdue | deutsch29

To Amanda Ripley: A Second TIME Article on Rhee is Long Overdue | deutsch29:

To Amanda Ripley: A Second TIME Article on Rhee is Long Overdue

August 17, 2014

Michelle Rhee has failed as a test-driven education reformer.

Rhee taught for three years (1992-95) in Baltimore as part of Teach for America (TFA). By her own admission, her first year was terrible. She taped students’ mouths and made them bleed, and she dropped a student off after a filed trip at an unverified residence. For her second and third years, she taught as part of a team. Her students’ test scores were very low (Rhee’s first year: 20th percentile in reading and math on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills–CTBS; second year: reading, 15th percentile, and math, 38th percentile; third year, with notably fewer test taker than other district schools: reading, 45th percentile, and math, 55th percentile).

Contrast this to Rhee’s bragging that she raised 90 percent of student scores to the 90th percentile.

All of the above on Rhee is documented in chapter four of my book, A Chronicle of Echoes. The origins, mission, and funding of TFA are documented in chapter three.

Following her TFA stint, Rhee decided to “found” a teacher-training nonprofit, The New Teacher Project (TNTP), in order to train “great” teachers– which she herself never was according to her own definition of “great” as one who produces high student test scores. She was with TNTP until 2007. Information on the origin and claims of Rhee’s TNTP are documented in chapter sixteen of Echoes.

Then comes her time in DC.

Three and a Half Years as Chancellor Rhee

New York City Chancellor Joel Klein recommended Rhee as DC chancellor. A lawyer by trade, Klein himself was appointed as chancellor by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Klein’s accomplishments include lying about his “poor” upbringing; giving free public school space to hedge-funded charter schools; creating a “leadership academy” that was a joke for its “products, including Principal Andrew Buck, who refused to provide teachers with textbooks and bordered on illiterate as evidenced by his written communications with teachers.

Klein also groomed a number of protégés for positions of leadership nationwide. Their agenda was the common one for education privatizers, the centerpiece of which was making the entire life of a school system hinge upon standardized testing outcomes.

I discuss Klein in detail in chapters one and two of Echoes.

Rhee was not a Klein protégé. According to Rhee, she and Klein had “known each other for some time and worked closely together.” Apparently Klein had employed thousands of uncertified teachers in NYC, and Rhee (during her time at TNTP) had To Amanda Ripley: A Second TIME Article on Rhee is Long Overdue | deutsch29:

How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends | Bob Braun's Ledger

How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends | Bob Braun's Ledger:

How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends

David Hespe–stretching the law until it breaks

New Jersey and local school officials have been involved in a conspiracy to evade laws governing the operation of charter schools in order to allow the wholesale “charterization” of public schools in Newark, the state’s largest city. State Education Commissioner David Hespe allowed the city’s charter schools to ignore legally-mandated lotteries while, at the same time, he secretly amended the charters of those privatized schools as an after-the-fact method of justifying the elimination of lotteries.

Amending those charters, according to documents obtained by this site, occurred long after Cami Anderson, the state-imposed school superintendent, required parents throughout Newark to apply for placement of their children through a so-called “Universal Enrollment.” The plan, at the time she demanded parents follow it, was illegal because it did not require a random selection process for charter schools.

Although the law and regulations may appear to be complicated, this much is clearly true: In February of this year, when Anderson required parents to sign up for the “One Newark” plan–leading to the charterization of the city’s schools–all charter schools in the city were bound by law and regulation to provide a random admissions process. The “One Newark” plan is NOT a  random admissions process, as Anderson herself has admitted. It is based on a “secret” and privately-funded algorithm she will not reveal–but one she admits favors certain groups over others, a clear violation of the law and regulations.

Christie and Anderson, breaking the law together

The requirement that the process be random unquestionably continued to be in effect even after Anderson began How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends | Bob Braun's Ledger:

http://www.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Michael Agona's Conflicted Appeal Interest

The Crack Team was able to obtain the transcript of Lydia Howrilka's U-rating appeal as well as the decision brought forth by the Chancellor's Committee chaired byMichael Agona. 

Some takeaways.

No one from the prosecuting side seemed organized. Not only did they seem not prepared, but extremely disorganized as well.

We learned a F-status former principal, Dr Rosa Maria Leon, was brought in to work with Lydia but according to Lydia never did. Lydia's principal, Arisleyda Ureña contradicted Lydia.

For those who are wondering who Dr Leonis;

...was born and raised in Spanish Harlem. Having been an English language learner student herself, Dr. Leon’s mission was to understand the process of second language acquisition so that students are able to become English proficient, and at the same time, progress academically. Dr. Leon completed her Bachelor’s Degree at Hunter College followed by three Master’s Degrees: Bilingual Education (First graduating class in NYC), Reading Specialist, and Administration and Supervision. She then continued her education by graduating from Fordham University with a Doctoral Degree. Her Doctoral dissertation is based on a longitudinal study following a bilingual class from Kindergarten to the 4th grade to determine factors that contribute to the successful acquisition of English proficiency and academic success. This dissertation may be obtained from the Fordham Library.

One can be hard pressed to see how Dr Leon has a background in high school social studies, but right now that is neither here no there.

But, as a consultant, or F-status as well as a former principal, one can wonder if she has had or http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Girl Scout national proficiency badges| Connections to Common Core Standards

Program | Connections to Curriculum Standards:

Program Connections to State
(and National) Curriculum Standards

The content of all Girl Scout national proficiency badges and journeys have been correlated by grade level to national Common Core Standards, 21st Century Skillsstandards, Financial Literacy education standards, and curriculum such as Health and PE, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies learning objectives for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Common Core Standards, developed and approved in 2010 by a bipartisan group of governors and educators, provide a shared framework for learning and teaching objectives specifically for English Language Arts and Mathematics for most US students. The 21st Century Skills standards focuses on blending subject-skills with life and career skills; information, media, and technology skills; and other key skills necessary to develop multidimensional abilities to succeed in the new century. Financial Literacy standards correlate to national personal finance education.

To find out how badges and journeys support state and national curriculum standards, use the drop-down menus to choose the badge or journey series, then choose the grade level and your state (or national standard).

Program | Connections to Curriculum Standards:

Experts: K-12 Population Shift Toward Students of Color Will Shed Light on Resource Inequalities - Higher Education

Experts: K-12 Population Shift Toward Students of Color Will Shed Light on Resource Inequalities - Higher Education:

Experts: K-12 Population Shift Toward Students of Color Will Shed Light on Resource Inequalities

 by Ronald Roach 

Deborah Santiago is chief operating officer and vice president for policy at the Washington-based Excelencia in Education advocacy organization.

For the first time ever, non-Hispanic Whites are projected to make up less than 50 percent of the U.S. K-12 public school population. The National Center for Education Statistics has estimated that minorities will comprise 50.2 percent of students in public school classrooms in the 2014-15 academic year.

The shift comes as the nation’s public schools have enrolled surging numbers of non-White Hispanic children in recent years. Non-White Hispanic children will account for 25.8 percent of American public K-12 students this school year and 28.5 percent in the 2019-20 academic year. In 2009-10, 22.8 percent of American students were Latino, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Non-Hispanic Whites are projected to make up 49.8 percent this year and 46.9 percent in 2019-20 of American public school students. African-American enrollment in public schools will be 15.4 percent this year and 15 percent in 2019-20. Among American public school students, Asians will make up 5.2 percent this year and 5.3 percent in 2019-20; Native Americans will be 1.1 percent in 2014-15 and 1 percent in 2019-20.

The population shift is bringing forth challenges, such as higher poverty rates among students and the need for more English-language instruction for children of immigrant families. Low-income students of color, in particular, attend schools that are highly likely to be segregated by race, reflecting U.S. housing patterns, and the schools tend to have fewer high-quality teachers than those in affluent areas, experts say.

“Certainly we know that there is still a great deal of segregation for Latinos, African-Americans and other groups. And they tend to be in school districts that don’t have the high-quality teachers or resources available,” says Deborah Santiago, the chief operating officer and vice president for policy at the Washington-based Excelencia in Education advocacy organization.

In thinking about and discussing the issues emerging with the changing school population, Santiago prefers “to say this is an amazing opportunity rather than challenge to make the kind of investments in education that we fundamentally need” in the U.S.

“This framing of students of color as the majority is an opportunity to do the real systemic change that we’ve only been doing around the edges,” she says. “There are opportunities to make sure that we have high expectations and that we have quality teachers. … We need to make sure that we are as diligent as we have been in the past to make sure this cohort of students is college ready.”

Dr. Patricia Gandara, the co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and a member of the White House Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, told the Associated Press that public schools will have to confront poverty as an issue in order to help their students reach their potential.

About one-fourth of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line and many poor Hispanic children live with the instability of their families not having legal status, she said. The focus on teacher Experts: K-12 Population Shift Toward Students of Color Will Shed Light on Resource Inequalities - Higher Education:

8-17-14 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

About the radio show

Join 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 Thursday at 7PM EST.

Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.

Michelle Rhee has failed as a test-driven education reformer. Rhee taught for three years (1992-95) in Baltimore as part...

Michelle Rhee has failed as a test-driven education reformer. Rhee taught for three years (1992-95) in Baltimore as part of Teach for America (TFA). By her own admission, her first year was terrible. She taped students’ mouths and made them bleed, and she dropped a student off after a filed trip at an unverified residence. […]

3 by deutsch29 / 22min 

David Berliner @ the Chalk Face offers some words of wisdom.

I paraphrase, check the audio: If you’re going to be a profession of sheep, then you’ll be run by wolves. Great conversation.

1 by Shaun Johnson / 56min 

All Week 8-16-14 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE : All Week @ 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 archiv

by mike simpson / 9h

8-17-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:

  Wait What?

 Pelto/Murphy 2014 

You call this a Democracy?

During the next week or so, Connecticut’s Secretary of State will determine whether the Jonathan Pelto/Ebony Murphy ticket will appear on the 2014 ballot for governor. Over the last eight weeks, hundreds of volunteers sent countless hours collecting more than the 7,500 signatures necessary to ensure that voters have an option other than voting for […] The post You call this a Democracy? appeared f

by jonpelto / 7min 

8-16-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:  Wait What? All Week Pelto/Murphy 2014 Giving voters more choices…should be as American as the Fourth of July – Ralph NaderFirst there was the “social justice” lobbyist who wrote a piece in the Hartford Courant instructing people not to sign a Pelto/Murphy 2014 ballot petition because it might hurt Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s re-election chances. More recently, a Journal Inquirer ed

by mike simpson / 8h 

Official leading shooting probe pledges solidarity with Ferguson community | MSNBC

Official leading shooting probe pledges solidarity with Ferguson community | MSNBC:

Capt. Ronald Johnson (R) of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was appointed by the governor to take control of security operations in the city of Ferguson, greets demonstrators on Aug. 16, 2014 in Ferguson, Mo. 

Scott Olson/Getty

Official leading shooting probe pledges solidarity with Ferguson community

 FERGUSON, Missouri – The state highway patrol official now leading the investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown pledged solidarity with the local community Sunday at a rally honoring the slain teenager.

“This is my neighborhood. You are my family. You are my friends. And I am you,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson said to loud applause from the large group gathered at the Greater Grace Church here. 

Johnson, who is African-American, sought to temper the unrest that has occasionally spun into violence since August 9 when Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot multiple times and killed by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer. Wilson has been placed on administrative leave.

"This is my neighborhood. You are my family. You are my friends. And I am you," Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson said to loud applause from the large group gathered at the Greater Grace Church.http://on.msnbc.com/1sNPKeA

Johnson and the state highway patrol took over the investigation into the incident after critics and community members questioned whether the Ferguson police could adequately manage the probe. 

“When this is over – I’m gonna go to my son’s room, my black son, who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to the side, who’s got tattoos on his arms … But that’s my baby,” Johnson said to cheers from the crowd.

Sunday’s rally, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s advocacy group National Action Network, filled the church and spilled out into the parking lot. Other civil rights leaders including the Rev. Martin Luther King III, who said “today and forever people will be talking about Michael Brown,” also attended. 

“When this is over, I’m gonna go to my son’s room, my black son, who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to the side, who’s got tattoos on his arms … But that’s my baby.”

MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL CAPTAIN RON JOHNSON

Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the Brown family, appeared onstage as well, flanked by members of the National Bar Association and eventually, Michael Brown’s parents Lesley Brown and Michael Brown, Sr.

“Your community deserves transparency,” said Crump. “There is nothing that can justify the execution style murder of Lesley’s child in broad daylight by this police officer.”

Crump touched on a recurring theme throughout the event – that authorities in Ferguson and certain segments of the mainstream media were part of a concerted effort to “smear” the character of the late teen.

“They tried it with Trayvon [Martin], now they trying to do it with Michael,” said Crump.

Ty Pruitt, a cousin of Michael Brown, greeted the crowd with the now familiar “Hands up, don’t shoot” refrain, popular with Ferguson protesters. “[Michael] was a son. He was an uncle, a nephew. He was Official leading shooting probe pledges solidarity with Ferguson community | MSNBC:

Just like the Crayons in our logo, NPE recently became more colorful | Cloaking Inequity

Just like the Crayons in our logo, NPE recently became more colorful | Cloaking Inequity:

Just like the Crayons in our logo, NPE recently became more colorful

I am honored to serve on the Network for Public Education Board of Directors. The Network for Public Education is an advocacy group whose goal is to fight to protect, preserve and strengthen our public school system, an essential institution in a democratic society. Our mission is to protect, preserve, promote, and strengthen public schools and the education of current and future generations of students. We will accomplish this by networking groups and organizations focused on similar goals in states and districts throughout the nation, and share information about what works and what doesn’t work in public education. For more information about NPE, visithttp://www.networkforpubliceducation.org.

We recently welcomed Xian Barrett, Jitu Brown, Carol Burris and Kennet Santana to the NPE Board of Directors

Xian Barrett is the Vice President of Engagement of New Voices Strategies. In Chicago, Barrett founded a citywide youth-led social justice organization, brought students to New Orleans for service learning and organized sister-city events with Japanese schools. Xian Barrett is the kind of teacher that we all dream our children will have. His philosophy of teaching is, “before the students lose interest in your instruction, ask them what they are passionate about and work with that—their learning belongs to them.”

Xian previously taught Law, History and Japanese Language and Cultures in the Chicago Public Schools. He has received numerous teaching awards, including being selected as a 2009-2010 U.S. Department of Education Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellow. He is a founding member of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators and former political director of the Chicago Teachers Union. He believes strongly that only by hearing and acting upon the voices of educators, parents and students can we improve our educational system and world.

Jitu Brown is the national director for the Journey for Justice Alliance, a network of 30 grassroots community based organizations in 23 cities organizing for community driven school improvement. He was formerly the education Just like the Crayons in our logo, NPE recently became more colorful | Cloaking Inequity:

NYC Public School Parents: The evidence accumulates not to trust data from NY State Education Department

NYC Public School Parents: The evidence accumulates not to trust data from NY State Education Department:

The evidence accumulates not to trust data from NY State Education Department

On Friday afternoon I got a call from the Daily News reporter Stephen Rex Brown, who told me that the NY State Education Department had provided him with data purporting to show that this spring, more than 22,000 NYC kids opted out of the NY state ELA exams and more than 26,000 the math exams  – out of a total of 66,000 statewide.   Here is the data straight from NYSED:

ELA	2013		2014
Region	Count		Count	% State Non-Participation
State Wide	13120		55564
Nassau	1605		6493	11.7%
Suffolk	1316		8866	16.0%
Westchester	399		8827	15.9%
NYC	6003		22656	40.8%
Rest of State	5505		8722	15.7%
Math	2013		2014
Region	Count		Count	% State Non-Participation
State Wide	15164		65617
Nassau	1978		12876	19.6%
Suffolk	1806		18888	28.8%
Westchester	456		1645	2.5%
NYC	4358		26949	41.1%
Rest of State	10924		5259	8.0%

As you can see, the number of “non-participating” NYC students appears to have ballooned four times or more since 2013, so it was unlikely to be explained away by truancy or simple absence.   

As much as I would have liked to believe the opt out figures were this high, I expressed skepticism to Stephen– and explained that I thought the numbers of students opting out  had been far higher on Long Island and Westchester than in NYC.  In the suburbs, in general, parents are more organized, enjoy well-funded public schools with high college-going and graduation rates, and have erupted in justified incredulity  when the state tried to convince them their schools were failing and their kids were not “college and career ready.” 

Stephen also told me that the state was holding firm, despite the fact that the city was arguing that less than 2,000 students had opted out, according to their data.

The next day, Brown’s article appeared in the Daily News, but the story had now changed:

State Education officials were scrambling to determine Friday why test data appeared to show more than 20,000 city students did not take math and English exams…. The figures were more than triple the previous year’s numbers. State officials suspect there was an error in the way a large group of city students were coded in the state database of third- through eighth-graders who took the tests.

My response to all this: with such erratic and unreliable information, how can anyone trust any of the test score data from NYSED?

I admit to being discouraged by the sadly ritualistic appearance of Mayor de Blasio and the Chancellor Farina, celebrating the small increase in scores in the city based on these highly faulty and unreliable exams as evidence of progress.   The Mayor was even moved to give credit to Bloomberg for his support of Common Core and his supposed “investment in our schools”, though school budgets have been cut to the NYC Public School Parents: The evidence accumulates not to trust data from NY State Education Department: