Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Monday, January 4, 2016

ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch

ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:





About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on ourPRWatch.org site.
(Until it was disbanded in April 2012, ALEC also operated a Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which adopted such "model" bills as the "Stand Your Ground" bill or "Castle Law" doctrine and the voter ID Act. Later in 2012, ALEC launched the "Justice Performance Project" (JPP) in place of the Public Safety and Elections Task Force. The bills associated with the JPP in task force materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and posted by ALEC appear to continue ALEC's modus operandi of promoting the financial interests of the corporations and special interest groups that fund it, such as the American Bail Coalition, according to PRWatch.[1])
This article is about ALEC's Education Task Force. Corporations can join this task force for $2,500 a year.[2] For model legislation crafted and adopted by the Education Task Force, go here. For task force directories and meeting agendas, go here.ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:

2015 States and Nation Policy Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Scottsdale, Arizona conference:[3]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[3]
  • "The Future of Blaine Amendments"
  • "God and Man Disinvited at Yale?"

2015 Annual Meeting Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the San Diego, California conference:[4]
Presentations and panel discussion to be held at the conference included:[4]
  • "Legislative Roundtable: Educational Savings Accounts"
  • "Doing Less With Much Less and Getting More: Transforming American Higher Education"

2015 Spring Task Force Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Savannah, Georgia conference:[5]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[5]
  • "Impact of Charter Schools on Rural Southern Counties"
  • "Public Charter School Model Bills"
  • "Biometrics Applications in Education"
  • "Bringing the Concepts of Free Markets to Educational Content Purchasing"
  • "North Carolina - Digital Learning"
  • "The Great State of Texas - Overview"
  • "College and Career Readiness, Building a Global Workforce"
  • "Course Choice"

2014 States and Nation Policy Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Washington, DC conference:[6]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[6]
  • "19th Edition Report Card on American Education"
  • "Charter School Working Group Update"
  • "Educational Savings Accounts - Education Reform Today"
  • "Public Charter School Act"
  • "States' Role in Protecting Student Information"
  • "Public Charter Schools Funding Act"

2014 Annual Meeting Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Dallas, TX conference:[7]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[7]
  • "Restoring Primacy to Public Higher Education: Federal Student Financial Aid Programs and the Law of Unintended Consequences”
  • "Review and Update: ALEC's Education Principles"
  • "Fiscal Notes Calculator"
  • "Report Card on American Education 19th Edition"
  • "Standardized Tests: A Study On Education Control Systems"

2014 Spring Task Force Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed at the Kansas City, Missouri conference:[8]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[8]
  • "Education Reform Presentation: The Best Course on Course Choice"
  • "Review and Update ALEC's Education Principles"
  • "Digital Learning Presentation: 1:1 Devices vs. High Quality Computer Assisted Instruction"
  • "Model Policy Discussion and Voting: Sunset Review"
    • "Credit Articulation Agreements Act"
    • "Inclusive College Savings Plan Act"
    • "Founding Principles Act"
    • "Online Learning Clearinghouse Act"
    • "The Public School Financial Transparency Act"
    • "Higher Education Scholarships for High School Pupils Act"ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:
Posted by at

Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education

Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education:

Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education

Diane Ravitch. 
Let’s state a simple fact: there is NO EVIDENCE that Common Core will improve education or test scores. It was launched in 2010. It has been tested in many states, and test scores have collapsed. Why the stubborn insistence that it will raise American test scores compared to the rest of the world or prepare all students for college and career? There is no evidence for this stubborn belief. If businessmen acted this way in their own corporations, every one of their products would be untested. Their gasoline would cause engines to explode, their buildings would collapse, their software would be fraught with bugs, and their hardware would melt. And they wouldn’t understand why. They would keep insisting that we have to keep doing the same things over and over. At least their customers would have a choice, unlike American parents and children, who are forced to endure Common Core despite their protests.

First, our schools are NOT failing. Test scores on the NAEP are at their highest point ever, for all groups of students, including whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Scores on NAEP rose steadily since the 1970s until NCLB went into effect; then the rate of gains slowed. But in 2015, the NAEP scores went flat or declined, when the full force of NCLB , Race to the Top, and Common Core converged. Repeat, our schools are NOT failing, but our policymakers have rained chaos and disruption on them since 2001.

Second, we have heard this claim about “our failing schools” since 1983, when the Reagan-era report “A Nation at Risk” was published to moaning and groaning. We have been warned again and again that the schools were harming our economy. Yet our economy has grown since 1983. The biggest harm to our economy has come not from our schools but from major corporations outsourcing jobs to other countries where labor is cheaper, not better.



Third, the article repeats the same tired litany about our terrible international scores, but those scores prove nothing, zero, zilch. Our nation has had low international scores since 1964, when the first international test was given, and those scores had no effect upon the economy. In fact, our economy has surpassed those nations with higher scores on TIMSS and PISA. The scores of 15-year-olds on standardized tests do not predict the future.

Fourth, there is no evidence whatever that the Common Core standards will improve education. None. It has been tried nowhere before it Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education:
Posted by at

About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29

About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29:

About That Fortune Article on Common Core…

marshmallow
I have been reading Peter Elkind’s January 01, 2016, article in Fortune on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Elkind’s work is a study in foolishness. Basically, he demonstrates the unfounded faith that powerful individuals whose lives only skirt the worlds of whose with children in public schools have placed in a set of rushed, contrived standards to cure all that ails American public education. Whether such ailments are real or contrived becomes irrelevant; CCSS is the needed fix.
Nevertheless, truth regarding CCSS leaks out from among Elkind’s words. Consider this statement in regards to billionaire Bill Gates’ trying to convince billionaire Charles Koch to support CCSS (a failed effort on Gates’ part):
This extraordinary tête-à-tête is just one example of how the war over Common Core has personally engaged—and bedeviled—some of America’s most powerful business leaders. Hugely controversial, it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.
CCSS is hugely controversial, if for no other reason than its rushed-and-hushed creation. And surely one must wonder about the motives behind Gates’ continued push of what is little more than a Gates latest-and-greatest pet project.
Had CCSS been developed and implemented with sense– one grade level at a time, About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29:


Posted by at

Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times

Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times:

Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave


The principal at a Success Academy charter school who created a “Got to Go” list of difficult students is taking a personal leave of absence, a Success Academy spokeswoman said on Monday.
Critics of Success Academy, the high-performing New York City charter school network, have said its high test scores are partly a result of weeding out underperforming and disruptive students. The existence of the list, reported by The New York Times in October, appeared to support the accusations.
At a news conference that month, Success Academy’s founder, Eva S. Moskowitz, said the list was an anomaly and that it existed for only three 
days in 2014 before the principal, Candido Brown, was chastised for it. Mr. Brown apologized, saying he was doing what he thought was needed to fix an unsafe school and that the list was his idea alone.
Still, nine of the 16 students on the list eventually left the school, Success Academy Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times:

Posted by at

California’s list of poor schools posted again | The Sacramento Bee

California’s list of poor schools posted again | The Sacramento Bee:

California’s list of poor schools posted again


Facing a lawsuit threat, the state Department of Education has changed its position on posting a list of low-performing schools whose students could be transferred to schools with higher academic test scores.
A state “open enrollment law,” enacted in 2010, requires the department to list 1,000 “low-achieving schools” by Jan. 1 of each year and allows parents of children in those schools to move them to other schools.
Late last year, the department, which is directed by state schools Sept. Tom Torlakson, posted a notice on its website that it would not release a list of the schools because the “academic performance index” on which the list was based had been suspended.
That action, which was not announced publicly, drew fire from state Sen. Bob Huff and school improvement groups, which threatened to sue.
Last week, just days before Jan. 1 deadline, Torlakson’s department altered its notice and posted the previous 1,000-school list, based on 2013 tests, that parents could use to exercise their open enrollment option. Here is a link to a spreadsheet of the list.
However, the department also warned that those seeking to use the list “should know that many changes have occurred since the creation of the list” and “caution should be used when reviewing the list or making any decisions based on the list…”
Bill Lucia of EdVoice, who had been one of the critics and suggested that legal action might ensue, said Monday that with the revised posting, “For now, we will be telling students and districts to use the last list as the legally operational list from which eligibility derives for utilizing the authority of an interdistrict transfer under the open enrollment act.”
Another section of the 2010 law also allows parents of children in low-achieving schools to petition to take control via charter.
Posted by at

Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools

Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools:

Who Needs “Education” Anyway?

5749305_orig.jpg
I’m telling you – these guys just keep letting the cat out of the bag.
Jamie Merisotis, who makes $619,334 a year as CEO of the Lumina Foundation, recently suggested in this article that we combine the U.S. Department of Education with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor and the talent recruitment functions of the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security into one, super “Department of Talent.”
“The net result,” Merisotis writes, “would be an agency actually aimed at the true outcome of the policies inherent in the current disconnected mess—talent—rather than an agency that is focused on processes and tools like “education,” “training,” “visas,” and so on.”
And yes – he actually puts “education” in quotes.
According to Merisotis, this new super-department “could develop and implement strategies for high-quality, locally managed workforce development programs…Ideally, there would be a coordinated approach that seamlessly relates K-12 standards to learning outcomes frameworks for education and training beyond high school.”
In other words, it would do what our current Department of Education is busy doing: turning our local public schools into Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools:
Posted by at

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/4/15


CORPORATE ED REFORM


 RIP JOE BOWER

 His Blog – For the Love of Learning 




There was little due diligence on new education law, but there will be plenty for indigestion — Opinion — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine
There was little due diligence on new education law, but there will be plenty for indigestion — Opinion — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine: There was little due diligence on new education law, but there will be plenty for indigestion“Nothing to see here, move along now!” is the mantra of our state and federal bureaucrats with regard to the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, which replaced No Child
by mike simpson / 1h 
Black Boys in Crisis: Is Punishment Too Harsh? | The Edvocate
Black Boys in Crisis: Is Punishment Too Harsh? | The Edvocate: BLACK BOYS IN CRISIS: IS PUNISHMENT TOO HARSH?It’s no secret that Black men are considered the trouble makers of society. In America’s prison systems, black citizens are incarcerated at six times the rates of white ones – and the NAACP predicts that one in three of this generation of Black men will spend some time locked up.Do these nu
by mike simpson / 1h 
Does the Education Platform of the Washington State Democrats Mean Anything to Our Legislators? | Seattle Education
Does the Education Platform of the Washington State Democrats Mean Anything to Our Legislators? | Seattle Education: Does the Education Platform of the Washington State Democrats Mean Anything to Our Legislators? During the busy holiday season, The Spokesman Review ran an article about a newly formed PAC called Act Now for Washington Students.The goal of this group is to sway legislators into taki
by mike simpson / 2h 
CURMUDGUCATION: The Merit Pay Lie
CURMUDGUCATION: The Merit Pay Lie: The Merit Pay LieEvery profession accepts merit pay. All people in the Real Working World accept having their income tied to their job performance. Why should teachers be any different?That's the standard line. Only it isn't true. Here's a quick report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This particular piece only covers 2006-2009, but it's unlikely that the sta
by mike simpson / 2h 
November ballot measures could have huge impact on LAUSD - LA School Report
November ballot measures could have huge impact on LAUSD - LA School Report: November ballot measures could have huge impact on LAUSDCalifornia voters may face difficult decisions regarding the future of education in the state in November as the state ballot could feature several propositions that would have an enormous impact on the educational landscape.So far only one ed-related measure has bee
by mike simpson / 2h 
Badass Teachers Association: USDOE Threatens Low-Income Families And America’s Opt Out Parents! | PopularResistance.Org
USDOE Threatens Low-Income Families And America’s Opt Out Parents! | PopularResistance.Org: USDOE Threatens Low-Income Families And America’s Opt Out Parents!Above Photo: From Badassteachers.blogspot.com.As much as corporate education reformers (and we will include the USDOE in this category) want you to believe that standardized testing is used to help children, educators know the truth.  What th
by mike simpson / 3h 
Argument preview: New threat to public employee unions : Friedrichs v. California Teachers Assoc
Argument preview: New threat to public employee unions : SCOTUSblog: Argument preview: New threat to public employee unionsAnalysisNext Monday, January 11, when the Supreme Court returns from its holiday recess, it will devote an expanded argument to a case that has made unions which represent government workers deeply fearful for their financial future and their public stature.  A significant blo
by mike simpson / 3h 
Education Department Threatens Low-Income Families and America's Opt Out Parents! - LA Progressive
Education Department Threatens Low-Income Families and America's Opt Out Parents! - LA Progressive:Education Department Threatens Low-Income Families and America’s Opt Out Parents!As much as corporate education reformers (and we will include the US Department of Education in this category) want you to believe that standardized testing is used to help children, educators know the truth. What the US
by mike simpson / 4h 
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Speaking of Testing...
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Speaking of Testing...: Speaking of Testing...A couple of items to consider.From Seattle Opt Out:KINDERGARTEN PARENTS IN SEATTLE: Do you know that today, Jan. 4, the testing window for MAP opens in schools that are choosing to administer it? Most of the parents we've encountered WERE NOT INFORMED of this. Many have been confused about what is happening--principals
by mike simpson / 4h 
NYC Public School Parents: Part IV of the inBloom saga through FOILed emails: inBloom is born, faces increasing controversy, and dies
NYC Public School Parents: Part IV of the inBloom saga through FOILed emails: inBloom is born, faces increasing controversy, and dies: Part IV of the inBloom saga through FOILed emails: inBloom is born, faces increasing controversy, and diesThis post, the final one with excerpts from the emails I FOILed from NYSED, documents the rise and fall of inBloom; through their communications to officials a
by mike simpson / 4h 
Teachers are not failing the economy. Policymakers are failing public schools and society - Kappa Delta Pi Record
Economic Dominance with Political Incompetence - Kappa Delta Pi Record - Volume 50, Issue 1: Teachers are not failing the economy. Policymakers are failing public schools and societyAbstractJump to sectionGrowth Competitiveness IndexOverall CompetitivenessOther IndicatorsReally?The fraudulent claims by policymakers and pundits that the United States is losing its economic competitiveness due to a
by mike simpson / 5h 
Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson
Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson: Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa JailOklahoma imprisons women at double the national rate. About 80 percent of them are locked up for nonviolent offenses. We don't just incarcerate a higher percentage of women than any other state. We're number one in the entire country.The time is right for Okla
by mike simpson / 5h 
Fred T. Korematsu was a national civil rights hero - Curriculum | Fred T. Korematsu Institute
Curriculum | Fred T. Korematsu Institute: SHORT BIOGRAPHY:Fred T. Korematsu was a national civil rights hero. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing th
by mike simpson / 5h 
Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower. | EduBloggers
Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower. | EduBloggers: Sad News as we lose a great education blogger and educator Joe Bower.Joe Bowed died yesterday. His Blog – For the Love of Learning From CBC-Canada comes, Popular Red Deer teacher Joe Bower mourned on social mediaCondolences are pouring in on social media for a popular Red Deer teacher who died over the weekend, wi
by mike simpson / 6h 
Save Our Schools March – It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!
Save Our Schools March – It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!: It’s Time to March Again ~ July 8-10!Save Our Schools: Coalition for ActionMarch & RallySave the Date: July 8-10, 2016Many thousands of us gathered on July of 2011 for the Save Our Schools March and Call to Action. We assembled to state our grievances about the state of public education and to share our visions for the future. In
by mike simpson / 6h 
Meet John King, Acting Secretary of Education | ED.gov Blog #AskJohnKing
Meet John King, Acting Secretary of Education | ED.gov Blog: Meet John King, Acting Secretary of EducationEvery New Year offers the chance for each of us to set new personal goals to make us healthier, happier, or more productive. In 2016, I hope you’ll join me as I recommit myself to ensuring that every child in America—regardless of background or circumstance—has access to an excellent education
by mike simpson / 6h 
SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes – Missouri Education Watchdog
SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with Loopholes – Missouri Education Watchdog: SOPIPA Goes Into Affect January 2016 with LoopholesThe endless data gathering on up-and-coming American voters continues with very little to slow it down. I think it is important to use that term rather than students, because that is part of the end game. We have a monster trying to recreate its master, a government
by mike simpson / 7h 
Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools | VAMboozled!
Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” Schools | VAMboozled!: Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” (Paper #6 of 9): VAMs as Tools for “Egg-Crate” SchoolsRecall that the peer-reviewed journal Educational Researcher (ER) – published a “Special Issue” including nine articles examining value-added measures (VAMs). I have reviewed the next of nine
by mike simpson / 7h 
4LAKids - Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAY
4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAY: Arne in the rear view mirror: HOW ARNE DUNCAN RESHAPED AMERICAN EDUCATION AND MADE ENEMIES ALONG THE WAYby Perry Bacon Jr, NBC News' Meet The Press | http://nbcnews.to/1JTfLgT U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visits with 9-year-old Nadia Garcia
by mike simpson / 7h 
School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency | The Star-Telegram
School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparency | The Star-Telegram: School district apps: Concerns about privacy, transparencyMark Hoffer Star-Telegram/Mark HofferData about students, parents and education is a hot commodity, raising privacy questions about how much information is too much.Tens of thousands of Tarrant County parents, students, teachers, and community members use school
by mike simpson / 7h 
Today is the deadline: effective family engagement practices - The Washington Post
Today is the deadline - The Washington Post: Today is the deadline: effective family engagement practices  If you are interested in submitting comments to the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on a draft policy statement on the implementation of “effective family engagement practices from the early years to the early grades,” today is the deadline. Following is the draft polic
by mike simpson / 7h 
This Week In Education: Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder"
This Week In Education: Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder": Update: The Return Of "Broader, Bolder"Back in the day, there used to be an advocacy organization called Broader, Bolder that was a counterpoint to some of the education reform ideas being promoted by EEP, DFER, and others.In 2008, I named it one of the year's big winners in education. Arne Duncan signed onto the
by mike simpson / 8h 
Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages? | EduShyster
Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages? | EduShyster: Are Charter Schools the New Subprime Mortgages?A new study warns that we may be headed towards a charter school *bubble*…EduShyster: It’s unusual to see the words *hair-raising* and *academic study* in tandem, but your new study merits that marriage. You and your co-authors make the case that, just as with subprime mortgages, the federa
by mike simpson / 8h 
Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink | janresseger
Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink | janresseger: Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to ShrinkHere is what Wikipedia says about Grover Norquist:  “Grover Glenn Norquist…  is an American political advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases…. A Republican, he is the pr
by mike simpson / 8h 
How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards - Fortune
How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards - Fortune: How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core StandardsWhen Exxon Mobil, GE, Intel, and others pushed for the education standards, they incurred the wrath of Tea Party conservatives and got a painful lesson in modern politics.In February 2014, two of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates and Charles Koch, dined togeth
by mike simpson / 8h 
We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician : NPR Ed : NPR
We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician : NPR Ed : NPR: We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top PediatricianDiagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are up around 30 percent compared with 20 years ago. These days, if a 2-year-old won't sit still for circle time in preschool, she's liable to be referred for evaluation, which can put her on track for early i
by mike simpson / 8h 
Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools
Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools: Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public SchoolsLansing — The debt payments of Detroit Public Schools — already the highest of any school district in Michigan — are set to balloon in February to an amount nearly equal to the school district’s payroll and benefits as the city school system teeters on the edge of insolvency.Detroit Publ
by mike simpson / 8h 
The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths - Quartz
The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths - Quartz: The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience mythsAre you a visual learner who writes notes in a rainbow of different colors, or do you have to read something aloud before it will sink it? Chances are, you’ve been asked a similar question at some point in your life, and
by mike simpson / 8h 
How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief - LA Times
How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief - LA Times: How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief On his first day back as the head of the nation's second-largest school system,Ramon C. Cortines paid an unlikely visit to the headquarters of United Teachers Los Angeles. The union had a tense relationship with former Supt. John Deasy, and was pushing
by mike simpson / 9h 
ASD views show politics key to successful school reform
ASD views show politics key to successful school reform: ASD views show politics key to successful school reformTennessee’s Legislative Black Caucus Calls On State-Run School District To “Stand Down" | Nashville Public Radio http://bit.ly/1RlTaQkThe Achievement School District was in the news again last month when the Tennessee Black Caucus joined the Democratic Caucus in calling for a morato
by mike simpson / 9h 
Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools - Editorials - Ohio
Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools - Editorials - Ohio: Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schoolsThis is the year that improved oversight, transparency and accountability come to charter schools in Ohio. State lawmakers finally have taken action to repair a governing system that has become the object of national ridicule, charter schools, many operated by for-profit management f
by mike simpson / 9h 
Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program
Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program: Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher programU.S. investigated treatment of students with disabilitiesOnce again, WI public schools outperform taxpayer-funded voucher schools « Education Votes http://bit.ly/1RlPSwlThe U.S. Department of Justice has closed a long-running investigation into whether the Milwaukee
by mike simpson / 9h 
Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities
Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities: Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary CitiesCharles Butt, the Texas billionaire magnate behind the H-E-B supermarket chain which forbid the open carry of firearms law that went into effect January 1, 2016, opposes school choice, funds anti-school choice lobb
by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Schools: What's Happening, What's Next
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Schools: What's Happening, What's Next: Charter Schools: What's Happening, What's NextI'll start with what I think is coming next.  A big fat fight in the legislature - one that will take time and energy away from the work of McCleary.  (Despite what Republicans think, a one-pager to the Supreme Court with some dates and thoughts on funding are unlikely to
1 by mike simpson / 17h 
Major education issues to watch in 2016 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource
Major education issues to watch in 2016 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource: Major education issues to watch in 2016 – and predictions of what to expectA safe New Year prediction: EdSource writers won’t sit around Monday mornings wondering if there’s anything to write about. Especially because it is an election year, 2016 will be interesting and intense. Here are nine big issues to foll
1 by mike simpson / 19h 
Good-bye Joe | Cooperative Catalyst
Good-bye Joe | Cooperative Catalyst: Good-bye Joe Tonight, my friend Joe Bower passed away after a massive heart attack a few days ago. He died with his family all around him.Joe was one of the first educators I interacted with via social media. During many late night chat sessions he taught me to question many of my basic assumptions about education.Why do we give grades to students anyway? Does
4 by mike simpson / 19h 
New York Plays the NCLB Testing Game | deutsch29
New York Plays the NCLB Testing Game | deutsch29: New York Plays the NCLB Testing GameOn January 02, 2016, I wrote a post about former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s departure from the US Department of Education (USDOE).In that post, I included a letter dated December 22, 2015, written to state superintendents by Ann Whalen, whose temporary title is, “Delegated the authority to perform th
11 by mike simpson / 22h 
Who closed the Bronx’s high schools? by Lynne Winderbaum | JD2718
Who closed the Bronx’s high schools? by Lynne Winderbaum | JD2718: Who closed the Bronx’s high schools? by Lynne Winderbaumby Lynne Winderbaum, retired ESL teacher, JFK HS, and former Bronx High School UFT District RepI wrote an intro piece on the destruction of the large high schools in the Bronx last week – Lynne, a chapter leader than district rep through this process, has much more to say – Jo
1 by mike simpson / 23h 
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/3/15
CORPORATE ED REFORMWhy did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? | Reclaim ReformWhy did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? | Reclaim Reform: Why did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? Roberta Rebb was a genuinely good person and an excellent teacher who had taken early retirement for health reasons. Most people ask how
15 by mike simpson / 23h 










Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)