Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/1/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

NYC Public School Parents: Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal

NYC Public School Parents: Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal:Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 revealA few days ago I posted Part I of this saga, about how NYSED officials delayed for a year and half the release of their FOILed emails to the Gates Foundation, Wireless Generation/Amplify, and inBloo

by mike simpson / 1h 

Marie Corfield: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?

Marie Corfield: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?My blog has been quiet of late. Due to some health problems, I've had to scale back a bit on my workload. Nothing life-threatening, mind you, just enough for me to reprioritize for a little while. But I'm on the mend, and there's no better day to start back

by mike simpson / 2h 

CURMUDGUCATION: The Best Lobbyists

CURMUDGUCATION: The Best Lobbyists: The Best LobbyistsMost industries are the subject of reports about the effectiveness of the various players. Why would the lobbying industry be any different? Let me introduce you to Bloomberg's quarterly report on theBest-Managed Lobbyists in the government sector.We're going to look at the third-quarter report from 2015, and it starts by laying out the challen

by mike simpson / 2h 

Children are more than test scores: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms

Children are more than test scores: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reformsIn 2014 Dean Paton Executive Editor of YES magazine wrote an important piece about the roots of privatization taking over our public schools. Two years later it is well worth the read people.htt

by mike simpson / 3h 

4LAKids - Ref Rodriguez: LOCAL LAUSD BOARD MEMBER FOCUSED ON MIDDLE SCHOOLS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Ref Rodriguez: LOCAL LAUSD BOARDMEMBER FOCUSED ON MIDDLE SCHOOLS: Ref Rodriguez: LOCAL LAUSD BOARDMEMBER FOCUSED ON MIDDLE SCHOOLSby Sheila Lane, Los Feliz Ledger Contributing Writer | http://bit.ly/1Opf58zDecember 30, 2015  ::  Ref Rodriguez, the newly elected Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board Member for District 5, faced what he

by mike simpson / 4h 

#NPE16NC Early Bird Conference Registration Now Open!

#NPE16NC Early Bird Conference Registration Now Open!: REGISTRATION FOR NPE 2016 CONFERENCE IS NOW OPENRegister now and take advantage of our ‘early bird’ reduced rates for NPE’s 3rd Annual National Conference, And Justice for All: Strengthening Public Education for Each Child, which will take place April 16 – 17, 2016.REGISTER HEREOn Friday night, April 15, 2016, education advocates from around t

by mike simpson / 5h 

2016 New Year’s prediction – Governor Dannel Malloy will resign in the next 385 days. - Wait What?

2016 New Year’s prediction – Governor Dannel Malloy will resign in the next 385 days. - Wait What?: 2016 New Year’s prediction – Governor Dannel Malloy will resign in the next 385 days.As the newly crowned head of the Democratic Governors Association, Dannel Malloy will spend 2016 crisscrossing the United States to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidates and his preferred presidential con

by mike simpson / 5h 

Arne Duncan: Testocracy Tsar. Educational Alchemist. Corporate lackey. | The Progressive

Arne Duncan: Testocracy Tsar. Educational Alchemist. Corporate lackey. | The Progressive: Arne Duncan: Testocracy Tsar. Educational Alchemist. Corporate lackeyArne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education is set to resign at the close of the 2015, ending his tenure as one of the most destructive forces against public education in history.“He’s done more to bring our educational system, sometimes ki

by mike simpson / 5h 

Howard Blume: A Balanced Account of the Berkeley Study of L.A. Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Howard Blume: A Balanced Account of the Berkeley Study of L.A. Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog: Howard Blume: A Balanced Account of the Berkeley Study of L.A. ChartersHoward Blume has written a very informative and fair account of the study of charters in Los Angeles conducted by Bruce Fuller and other researchers at Berkeley.The study, which is linked in the article, says that students in charter

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: US Students Lead in Browsing

CURMUDGUCATION: US Students Lead in Browsing: US Students Lead in BrowsingThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is the group that administers that nifty PISA test-- the one that periodically leads to breathless headlines of "Oh Nos!! Our students don't test as well as Estonia!" But the OECD is more than just a test (and attendant PR)-- they've also been taking a look

by mike simpson / 8h 

What everyone else knows about your child | Seattle Education

What everyone else knows about your child | Seattle Education: What everyone else knows about your childSo, there is the NSA which is creepy (an unconstitutional) enough spying on every citizen in this country who has an email account or cell phone, but what about all the people who know about your child’s personal information?With every policy that goes through our city, state and national legisl

by mike simpson / 8h 

6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016 : NPR Ed : NPR

6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016 : NPR Ed : NPR: 6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016  Claudio Sanchez is the senior member of the NPR Ed team, with more than 25 years on the education beat. We asked him for his list of the top stories he'll be watching in 2016.1. The New Federal Education LawThe long, grueling fight to overhaul the 14-year-old No Child Left Behind law is over, but that'll tur

by mike simpson / 8h 

JCTA President Defends Teachers' Unions Against Bevin's Criticism

JCTA President Defends Teachers' Unions Against Bevin's Criticism: JCTA President Defends Teachers’ Unions Against Bevin’s CriticismThe president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association says Gov. Matt Bevin’s assertion that teachers’ unions hinder schools’ success is unfounded and irresponsible.Bevin, a Republican, lashed out teachers’ unions on Tuesday at an event in West Louisville to suppo

by mike simpson / 8h 

Indiana What’s Next? Education Stories To Watch In 2016 | StateImpact Indiana

What’s Next? Stories To Watch In 2016 | StateImpact Indiana: What’s Next? Stories To Watch In 2016Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.Follow Hoosier School Heist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoosierSchoolHeistTwe

by mike simpson / 8h 

YESTERDAY

HAPPY NEW YEAR - All You Need is Love

HAPPY NEW YEAR - All You Need is LoveLove, Love, Love.Love, Love, Love.Love, Love, Love.There's nothing you can do that can't be done.Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.It's easy.Nothing you can make that can't be made.No one you can save that can't be saved.Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.It's easy.All you

by mike simpson / 20h

NYC Public School Parents: Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal

NYC Public School Parents: Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal:

Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal

A few days ago I posted Part I of this saga, about how NYSED officials delayed for a year and half the release of their FOILed emails to the Gates Foundation, Wireless Generation/Amplify, and inBloom Inc. about their plans to share personal student data with these private corporations. Some of those emails were finally released to our lawyers on December 11, 2014, the day after John King announced his resignation as Commissioner.  Part II  is below, with excerpts from the their emails sent in 2011. Part III with more emails will follow soon!

When my FOIL was finally responded to I received hundreds and hundreds of pages with printed out emails to and from NYSED and the Gates Foundation mostly; offering all-expense trips for various meetings about teacher evaluation, data collection, and other issues, as well as a pile of contracts and agreements.  It took weeks just to sort them and start to look through them.  Sadly there were no emails from Merryl Tisch’s account, as I had asked for; and no emails from most of the state officials whose communications we had FOILed.  But we did find out some juicy details; here are some excerpts:

1/6/2011: The first email that refers to the incipent inBloom project is sent to John King, then 

Stacey Childress led the inBloom project for Gates Foundation

Deputy Commissioner, from Stacey Childress, who led the data-sharing project for the Gates Foundation.  She asks to schedule a “time to talk” about the “intersections between your RTTT instructional improvement plans and a project we are working on Gates.”

1/25/11:  Joe Scantlebury, Senior Policy Officer of the Gates Foundation, thanks Commissioner Steiner and Deputy Commissioner King for joining a call this morning; he adds that “the foundation is supportive of your interest to implement your P-16 data NYC Public School Parents: Part II of the inBloom saga: what NYSED emails to the Gates Foundation from 2011 reveal:

Marie Corfield: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?

Marie Corfield: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?:

NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?

My blog has been quiet of late. Due to some health problems, I've had to scale back a bit on my workload. Nothing life-threatening, mind you, just enough for me to reprioritize for a little while. But I'm on the mend, and there's no better day to start back up than New Year's Day.

This week marks the end of the current NJ legislative session. Newly elected officials will soon be sworn in, but there's a bill coming before the Assembly Education Committee next week that has me scratching my head. 

A4779, sponsored by Ams. Reed Gusciora (D-15) and Asw. L. Grace Spencer (D-29) says: 

a. The Commissioner of Education shall declare an educational state of emergency for a school district in which, for at least 75 percent of the schools in the district, 65 percent or more of the students in the school to whom a State assessment was administered have not achieved proficiency in the English language arts/literacy subject area of the State assessment. 

b. Upon declaring an educational state of emergency pursuant to subsection a. of this section, the commissioner is authorized to distribute supplementary State aid to the school district, which shall be in addition to the State aid payable to the district pursuant to P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-43 et al.) or any other law. The supplementary State aid shall be used for the specific purpose of establishing a mandatory after school program for students in grades kindergarten through three, the duration of which is two and a half hours from the end of the school day, which is designed to increase student proficiency in English language arts and literacy. The supplementary aid shall also be used for establishing voluntary literacy programs for students in other grades, including after school programs and summer programs. 

c. When an educational state of emergency is declared for a school district, the executive county superintendent of schools shall hold a public meeting of interested stakeholders for the district including, but not limited to, parents, Marie Corfield: NJ's literacy solution: longer school day for kindergarteners?:

CURMUDGUCATION: The Best Lobbyists

CURMUDGUCATION: The Best Lobbyists:

The Best Lobbyists

Most industries are the subject of reports about the effectiveness of the various players. Why would the lobbying industry be any different? Let me introduce you to Bloomberg's quarterly report on theBest-Managed Lobbyists in the government sector.

We're going to look at the third-quarter report from 2015, and it starts by laying out the challenges of the current DC.

For lobbyists, Washington is growing more complex and more competitive. Lobbyists say their clients are more sophisticated. Clients expect more, despite there being fewer opportunities to influence legislation. Competition, lobbyists say, is intense–and growing. 

Bloomberg notes that (in a sign of These Tough Times) that out of 1300 lobbying groups, only 22 are Bloomberg certified awesomesauce proficient performers who exceed expectations.

To be influential, firms need to be savvy about how they use information to get ahead. “There was a time when personal relationships were the only thing that mattered,” Greg Nickerson of the #1 ranked Washington Tax & Public Policy Group tells us  (page 4). “Those days are gone.” 

So what does the report tells us about these days. Well, there's a list of the top ten issues for which lobbies were filing 9that's out of 79 possibilities). Budget is #1, followed by taxes. Number ten on the list? Education. So we're still in the lobbying world's top 10. Which begs the question-- why are CURMUDGUCATION: The Best Lobbyists:

Children are more than test scores: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms

Children are more than test scores: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms:

My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms

In 2014 Dean Paton Executive Editor of YES magazine wrote an important piece about the roots of privatization taking over our public schools. Two years later it is well worth the read people.http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/the-myth-behind-public-school-failureHis is a brief history of education reform since 1980.

However the roots of privatization go back over a hundred years. We can't separate commerce from wealth and power. What if there is a method to the insanity of returning to the same failing policies over and over again?
In the nineteenth century America’s academic elites feared American students were not college-ready. Thus in 1892 The National Education Association created the Committee of Ten to create uniform college admission requirements based on new content standards using common entrance exams.  From the beginning the standards established America’s wealthy, powerful and connected were never rooted in principles of democracy or morality, but on content knowledge measure through uniformed testing. 
Now let us include standards obsession with our history of school inequity. In 1896 four years after America’s love for standards found itself further supported by Plessey v Ferguson. Establishing segregation as the law of the land for nearly 6 decades. In 1954 Brown v the Board of Education ends jurisprudence segregation. For the first time in public education history the wealthy, the powerful and the connected status quo found their policies threatened. Hiding behind their trusted mantra of “standards and exam uniformity” gave cover to “de facto” segregation. Now standards and testing uniformity policies continued to make our public schools segregated and unequal places of learning.
I have come to accept that after 124 years inequity in our public schools “equity” was never the Children are more than test scores: My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms: