CORPORATE ED REFORM
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Why I Won't Be Debating Charter Schools for the Next Couple of Months
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Why I Won't Be Debating Charter Schools for the Next Couple of Months: Why I Won't Be Debating Charter Schools for the Next Couple of MonthsLately at the blog, my observation is that much of the discussion around charter schools is about whether they are useful, not useful, take resources from other public schools, etc.I'm not going to be talking about those issues
Best and Brightest Teacher Bonus, by the numbers | Tampa Bay Times
Best and Brightest, by the numbers | Tampa Bay Times: Best and Brightest, by the numbersFlorida's Best and Brightest teacher bonus came under challenge by the Florida Education Association last week. Among the concerns: The program unfairly benefits new teachers, who need not meet the requirement of a "highly effective" performance evaluation.Data released by the Florida Department of Ed
Preschool Common Core Dialogic Reading: Can’t Mother Goose Fly Alone?
Preschool Common Core Dialogic Reading: Can’t Mother Goose Fly Alone?: Preschool Common Core Dialogic Reading: Can’t Mother Goose Fly Alone?Yes. Mother Goose can fly alone! She doesn’t need any help from dialogic reading, which is like close reading for preschool. This formulaic reading exercise was created by Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst an experimental psychologist who is director of the Brown Ce
Peg with Pen: Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools
Peg with Pen: Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools: Gaslighting & Turnaround SchoolsI am currently working in a turnaround school. A turnaround school is a public school that has been deemed "failing" by policy makers. The policy makers inflict draconian, fascist measures on such schools in an effort to turn them around - aka - increase test scores. If they don't increase test sco
Why Standardized Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers (and Teacher Education Programs) | VAMboozled!
Why Standardized Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers (and Teacher Education Programs) | VAMboozled!: Why Standardized Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers (and Teacher Education Programs)David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Emeritus here at Arizona State University (ASU), who also just happens to be my former albeit forever mentor, recently took up research on the use of test s
The Problem With Definitions » Missouri Education Watchdog
The Problem With Definitions » Missouri Education Watchdog: The Problem With DefinitionsThe now infamous Bill Clinton quote “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is,” comes to mind when you look at how changing definitions of formerly well understood words can create chaos. The definition of a high school diploma used to have a fairly common understanding. The definition of a good schoo
CURMUDGUCATION: Outsourcing Subs: A Big Fat Philly Fail
CURMUDGUCATION: Outsourcing Subs: A Big Fat Philly Fail: Outsourcing Subs: A Big Fat Philly FailLast summer, reaction abounded over Philly schools' plan to outsource its substitute teaching to the temp company Source4Teachers.In July, some quick googling told me this about the company:S4T has run into trouble in some of the markets it has moved into. With typical complaints about the service inclu
Community schools model the way to go in Philly
Community schools model the way to go in Philly: Community schools model the way to go in PhillyBy Randi Weingarten and Jerry T. JordanWhen we walked into Kimrenee Patterson's classroom at South Philadelphia High School, the students were excited, engaged, and immersed in study to prepare for a career in early childhood education.A small group of students were learning about infant reflexes by sim
Five 2015 victories that put cracks in the ‘testocracy’ | I AM AN EDUCATOR
Five 2015 victories that put cracks in the ‘testocracy’ | I AM AN EDUCATOR: Five 2015 victories that put cracks in the ‘testocracy’Never in U.S. history have more students, parents, and teachers engaged in acts of resistance to standardized tests. During the 2015 testing season, over 620,000 public school students around the U.S. refused to take standardized exams, according to a report by the Nat
Reformers Continue to Spin Failed Accountability Schemes - Living in Dialogue
Reformers Continue to Spin Failed Accountability Schemes - Living in Dialogue: Reformers Continue to Spin Failed Accountability SchemesBy John Thompson.The Education Post’s Peter Cunningham sent out a mass email saying,Meanwhile, Chalkbeat Tennessee explores the ‘healthy tension between accountability and instructional freedom’ triggered by Duncan’s signature reform program, Race to the Top, and a
When “Montessori-style” teaching is viewed as derogatory | @ THE CHALKFACE
When “Montessori-style” teaching is viewed as derogatory | @ THE CHALKFACE: When “Montessori-style” teaching is viewed as derogatoryWhen working with children from high-poverty backgrounds, the argument for their style of education largely goes as follows, and I paraphrase:By the early grades, they’re already behind, so we need to play catch-up. There’s really no time for childhood shenanigans. We
Schools Matter: Rigged Trade Deals, Corporate Core Standards, and Human Commodities
Schools Matter: Rigged Trade Deals, Corporate Core Standards, and Human Commodities: Rigged Trade Deals, Corporate Core Standards, and Human CommoditiesEvery so often the corporate foundations and the billionaires need to reach way down in their nasty bag of tired tricks to come up with another smelly old chestnut aimed to infuriate teachers and raise the worry levels of the general public. Their
School Finance Reality vs. the Money Doesn’t Matter Echo Chamber | School Finance 101
School Finance Reality vs. the Money Doesn’t Matter Echo Chamber | School Finance 101: School Finance Reality vs. the Money Doesn’t Matter Echo ChamberAn eclectic mix of politicians, philanthropists, conservative (and not-so-conservative) think tanks and a select few scholars have, for decades, created an echo chamber for the claim that more money will not help improve America’s schools. The claim
NYC Spends $1 Million To Fire OWS Teacher And Failed | PopularResistance.Org
NYC Spends $1 Million To Fire OWS Teacher And Failed | PopularResistance.Org: Teacher won his job back — and $260,000 in back pay The city has lost a four-year, $1 million battle to fire a teacher arrested in the Occupy Wall Street protests.David Suker, a US Army veteran who taught at-risk youths in The Bronx for 14 years, was removed from the classroom in December 2011. He was charged with riling
NYC Educator: Common Core: Children as Work Product
NYC Educator: Common Core: Children as Work Product: Common Core: Children as Work ProductIt's always interesting to get other points of view. Fortune has a piece about how business got schooled, and it's interesting on multiple levels. Of course, those of us who've seen Common Core as a top-down corporate takeover of public education are interested in seeing business fail here. That's the main po
School Testing 2016: Same Tests, Different Stakes : NPR Ed : NPR
School Testing 2016: Same Tests, Different Stakes : NPR Ed : NPR: School Testing 2016: Same Tests, Different StakesIt has been a high-stakes year for high-stakes standardized tests.The debate over renewing the big federal education law turned, in part, on whether annual testing would remain a federal mandate. Republicans initially said no, Democrats said yes. Ultimately the overhaul passed with te
NEA president on what teachers do all day - Business Insider
NEA president on what teachers do all day - Business Insider:A teacher explains what teachers really do all dayIn a speech at a Campaign for America's Future event, National Education Association president and teacher Lily Eskelsen Garcia gave a rousing explanation for what the teaching profession entails.After starting the speech by saying teachers needed to educate politicians on what the typica
The Top 10 Politics K-12 Blog Posts of 2015: Yes, ESSA Dominates - Politics K-12 - Education Week
The Top 10 Politics K-12 Blog Posts of 2015: Yes, ESSA Dominates - Politics K-12 - Education Week: The Top 10 Politics K-12 Blog Posts of 2015: Yes, ESSA DominatesIt's that magical time of year when we revisit the ten most-read blog posts on Politics K-12 in 2015. This year, nearly all of them came in one big avalanche, at the end of the year.That's because it's been less than a month since Presid
Top 10 education data stories of 2015 - The Hechinger Report
Top 10 education data stories of 2015 - The Hechinger Report: Top 10 education data stories of 2015Most popular Education By The Numbers stories of this yearr my year-end post, I’m highlighting the 10 most popular Education By The Numbers stories of 2015. They’re listed in the order of the number of times readers viewed them on our website, The Hechinger Report.Thank you to everyone who has read a
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Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90) | deutsch29
Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90) | deutsch29: Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90)I am in the process of carefully reading the 1,061-page Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the December 10, 2015, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and writing a series of posts that will form a digest of those 1,061 pages.As previously noted, it
DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...
DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...BAN KI-MOONMany times we allow stereotypes to rule our perceptions of others, whether it's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. We allow these perceptions to cloud our judgment, and we make decisions based on these misconceptions. We believe if it is true of on
The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids | Seattle Education
The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids | Seattle Education: The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing KidsKindergarten children will be taking the MAP test this year in Seattle, cruel as that might sound, and preschoolers will be evaluated for “kindergarten readiness” through “evaluations” per the mayor’s “Preschool for All” program.With the focus on standards, learning and being evalu
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/27/15
CORPORATE ED REFORMBill Gates keeps pushing Common Core, with big money (and a bid to get Charles Koch to like it) - The Washington PostBill Gates keeps pushing Common Core, with big money (and a bid to get Charles Koch to like it) - The Washington Post: Bill Gates keeps pushing Common Core, with big money (and a bid to get Charles Koch to like it)You can say this about Bill Gates: When he likes s
