Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board | deutsch29

Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board | deutsch29:

Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board

A group of 40 organizations, including many that are chiefly test-score-driven, corporate-reform- bent, is launching an effort to prompt the 2016 presidential contenders who are saying little about educational issues (as though they all met together and agreed, “Let’s just not talk much at all about American public education”) to agree to a nine-point plan to supposedly improve the teaching profession.

The campaign is called Teach Strong (#teachstrong) and is led by Center for American Progress (CAP). Amazingly, the teacher temp agency, Teach for America (TFA), is also in on this nine-point push, even though TFA president Elisa Villanueva Beard told Washington Post that TFA has no plans to modify its instant-oatmeal, five-week “great, very rigorous pretraining” of its turnstile teachers.

This coalition is a real corporate reform nest (e.g., Education Trust, Council of Chief State School Officers, National Council on Teacher Quality, Relay Graduate School of Education, The New Teacher Project, Education Post) plus education groups that have origins outside of corporate reform but who want (ahem) “a seat at the table” bad enough to go along with corporate reform, including both national teachers unions. (Click image to enlarge):

So, what is focus of the Teach Strong campaign? Why, its that same global competitiveness that gave us untested Common Core, but instead of focusing on Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board | deutsch29:

Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem | gadflyonthewallblog

Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem | gadflyonthewallblog:

Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem

Good news! Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just admitted there are significant problems with the nation’s charter schools!

Bad news! She has no interest in solving them! In fact, she thinks charters are just great.

Here’s Clinton criticizing charter schools:

Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.

And all over the country, teachers, parents and students rejoice. Someone actually notices our problem!

Charter school scandals seem to hit the paper with the regularity of a grandfather clock. Charters cut student services and boost overhead to produce profit. Chartersrack up debt and then sell it for a profit. Charters fudge the paperwork so they get Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem | gadflyonthewallblog:

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: How Will Your Students Remember You?

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: How Will Your Students Remember You?:

How Will Your Students Remember You?

I have taught for 30+ years, and over the years, I have connected with former students.

On the street, their jobs, emails, and visits. Last year, 3 siblings surprised me with a visit. I had each of them in my classroom. One had graduated from college and was working in D.C, one was in college, and one had just graduated from high school.They not only thanked me, but they talked to my students, gave them some of their wisdom and let them know how fortunate they were to have me.:) A student from one of my 3rd grade classes in the 80's, found me on Facebook, and remembered her experience in my classroom.

Hearing about the impact I have had on their lives makes me proud. Proud as in "I am so happy that I have made a difference", not "look what I've done."

Presently, I work with one of my former 5th grade students, she is a para in my classroom.She told my husband that I was good, because I was the only teacher she still remembered.

Here are some things I have done over the last thirty years that I believe has affected the relationship I had with my students.

I was not mean.
This does not mean I never raised my voice, or laid them out. It doesn't mean that I never let loose with sarcasm,(I have really become a lot better at controlling this!). It means what it saysDIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: How Will Your Students Remember You?:

Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System | VAMboozled!

Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System | VAMboozled!:

Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System

For a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, the newspaper sent 12 current candidates for the Houston Independent School District (HISD) School Board a series of questions about HISD, to which seven candidates responded. The seven candidates’ responses are of specific interest here in that HISD is the district well-known for attaching more higher-stakes consequences to value-added output (e.g., teacher termination) than others (see for example here, here, and here). The seven candidates’ responses are of general interest in that the district uses the popular and (in)famous Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) for said purposes (see also here, here, and here). Accordingly, what these seven candidates have to say about the EVAAS and/or HISD’s teacher evaluation system might also be a sign of things to come, perhaps for the better, throughout HISD.

The questions are: (1) Do you support HISD’s current teacher evaluation system, which includes student test scores? Why or why not? What, if any, changes would you make? And (2) Do you support HISD’s current bonus system based on student test scores? Why or why not? What, if any, changes would you make? To see candidate names, their background information, their responses to other questions, etc. please read in full the article in the Houston Chronicle.

Here are the seven candidates’ responses to question #1:

• I do not support the current teacher evaluation system. Teacher’s performance should not rely on the current formula using the evaluation system with the amount of weight placed on student test scores. Too many obstacles outside the classroom affect student learning today that are unfair in this system. Other means of support such as a community school model must be put in place to support the whole Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System | VAMboozled!:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/9/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

State lets Cash revamp five schools without union OK - City & Region - The Buffalo News

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by mike simpson / 7min 

Search firm creates the profile for LAUSD's next superintendent - LA School Report

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by mike simpson / 1h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Let's Play Teacher

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What Did Hillary Clinton Really Mean on Charter Schools? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

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Testing, Charters and Strikes, oh my! Video of panel with Jesse Hagopian, Wayne Au and Dora Taylor | Seattle Education

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Boston Charter Schools - Mayor Marty Walsh Reverses Position on 'School Reform'

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Vote of No Confidence in Nyland Coming?

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Anatomy of a School Board Election: When Big Money Wins, Kids Lose | Kaplan for Kids

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American Education Week to Celebrate the Nation's Public Schools and Educators - NEA Today

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WTU contract negotiations team - Written by Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's hidden corruption tax

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Xavier University's Way to Keep Higher Ed from Becoming the Next Victim of Corporate Ed Reform | John Thompson

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Selling the Common Core - Bill and Melinda Gates' Audacious Plan to Control Public Education   - Wait What?

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Shrinking Possible | EduShyster

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What’s Innovative about Charter Schools?

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As School Meals Have Gotten Healthier, 1.4 Million Students Drop Out of School Lunch Program

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Congress Ought to Do Something Radical, Take ESEA Back to Its Original Purpose: Equity | janresseger

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“Edu-speak” is a disease that undermines efforts to improve U.S. schools - The Hechinger Report

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Where have all the teachers gone? By Jean Jaykus and AnneMarie Surfaro-Boehme - Wait What?

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Walton Foundation sustains local funding for Teach For America with new grant - LA Times

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L.A. Board of Education will weigh Broad charter-expansion plan - LA Times

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Teacher’s Rant On Why She Quit Goes Viral As Thousands Relate To The ‘Demanding’ Job - Yahoo News

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College Professors Begin Revolt Against Common Core

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Recess Is Not a Privilege | Laura Hanby Hudgens

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Behind The Shortage Of Special Ed Teachers: Long Hours, Crushing Paperwork : NPR Ed : NPR

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Is it time to update NAEP? - The Hechinger Report

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L.A. schools swapped 'zero tolerance' for 'restorative justice.' Is it working? - CSMonitor.com

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YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/8/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMTime to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?: Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. RicciottiJoseph A. Ricciotti is a retired education and fellow public education advocate and commentator.  His latest article, Time to end standardized testing mania first appeare

by mike simpson / 23h