Ed Notes Online: Ding, Dong, Tisch Ends 2 Decades of Destruction as Regent - Memo from NYSAPE

Ed Notes Online: Ding, Dong, Tisch Ends 2 Decades of Destruction as Regent - Memo from NYSAPE:

Ding, Dong, Tisch Ends 2 Decades of Destruction as Regent - Memo from NYSAPE

http://www.nysape.org/nysape-pr-board-regent-candidates.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 6, 2016

More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
Jessica McNair (315)-368-7550; themcnairfamily@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) www.nysape.org

Two Vacant Seats on the NYS Board of Regents - Candidates Needed

Chancellor Tisch & Vice Chancellor Bottar are both stepping down from the Board of Regents, after serving on the Board for twenty years. It was during Tisch’s term as Chancellor and Bottar’s term as Vice Chancellor that the students of New York State suffered the damaging effects of the failed Regents' Reform Agenda, which included the implementation of the flawed Common Core standards and modules, and an increased focus on high-stakes testing, including a disastrous new teacher evaluation system based on student test scores.

Both also supported the dangerous NY Education Department plan to share a wealth of personal student data with inBloom Inc. without parent notification or consent, which was eventually blocked by an act of the Legislature.

Now, the statewide coalition New York State Allies for Public Education and Opt Out Central NY are calling on candidates to apply for these seats, including one at large candidate to replace Tisch and one from Judicial District V, Bottar’s current seat, which covers Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga & Oswego Counties. Applications are due by mid-January; click here for more information.

“Under the leadership of Chancellor Tisch and Vice Chancellor Bottar, we have seen a myopic focus on high stakes tests, massive collection of personal and sensitive information about children and families, and the theft of local control from elected school boards,” said Lisa Rudley, NYSAPE founding member and Westchester County public school parent.

In response to the Regents’ failed test-centric agenda, Central New York school districts within Judicial District V had some of the highest opt out rates from the state exams, signaling the public’s discontent with the Regents' test and punish agenda.  For example, the 2015 state math tests were refused by 77% of students in New York Mills, 73% in Sauquoit, and 70% in Whitesboro.

“Parents are rightfully concerned with the negative effects of the test and punish agenda ushered in under the watch of Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Vice Chancellor Bottar and they are refusing to participate in a system that they feel is unfit for their children,” said Jessica McNair, Opt Out CNY co-founder, Oneida County public school parent and educator.  “Until and unless we obtain a Board of Regents representative who is responsive to the experience and input of parents and other stakeholders, and the Board as a whole changes course, parents will continue to opt out of high stakes assessments at both the state and local levels to protect their children and their public schools.”

“Parents want state leaders to support their children’s schools, not set them up for failure and threaten them with a state takeover.  Both Regents Tisch and Bottar failed to act in the best interest of students, and ignored the concerns repeatedly brought forth to them by the constituents they are supposed to serve,” said Tonya Wilson, Onondaga County public school parent.

There are no specific qualifications to serve as Regent, but New Yorkers should be represented by Regents who understand that the path the majority on the Board is currently pursuing is punitive.  New Regent board members should offer positive, research-based child-centric solutions instead.  Click here to apply to become a Regent and/or be endorsed by NYSAPE and Opt Out CNY.

NYSAPE, a grassroots organization with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state are calling on parents to continue to opt out by refusing high-stakes testing starting on the first days of school. Go to http://www.nysape.org/resources.html for more details on the how to be part of #OptOutNY201

 ###

Leonie Haimson

Executive Director
Class Size Matters

124 Waverly Pl.

New York, NY 10011
phone: 212-529-3539
leonie@classsizematters.org

leoniehaimson@gmail.com 

Follow on twitter @leoniehaimson

Make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters 

Subscribe to our newsletter for regular updates on class size and related issues at http://tinyurl.com/kj5y5co

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Ed Notes Online: Ding, Dong, Tisch Ends 2 Decades of Destruction as Regent - Memo from NYSAPE:

Christie as federal prosecutor: Part One–FBI agents as props carrying empty boxes of “evidence” | Bob Braun's Ledger

Christie as federal prosecutor: Part One–FBI agents as props carrying empty boxes of “evidence” | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Christie as federal prosecutor: Part One–FBI agents as props carrying empty boxes of “evidence”

They say it all: Pictures of FBI agents hauling what media outlets in 2009 called “boxes of evidence” away from the home and office of former New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Doria (D-Hudson). The pictures are all anyone—especially Republican voters in New Hampshire—need to know about the personal and professional integrity of presidential candidate Chris Christie. Well, there is one thing more: they need to know those boxes were empty—because the whole raid on Doria’s home and office,  part of a what was termed a “massive crackdown on corruption” was pure theatre, pure fiction, pure lies, pure politics.

Christie’s tenure as US Attorney for New Jersey, the chief federal prosecutor,  was nothing less than a corruption of a fundamental American value—that the extraordinary powers of the criminal justice system should never be exploited for personal , political gain.

He used his years as US Attorney to pave his way to the New Jersey governorship and now Christie is running for president. He has tried to resuscitate his failing campaign by exploiting the fear provoked by terrorism in Paris and San Bernadino. He has tried to enthrall at least some people in New Hampshire with his contentions that he alone has actually fought terrorism as a federal prosecutor—indeed, he has said, he prosecuted “two of the most important terrorism cases in the world.”

He is lying. The two cases Christie describes were not terrorist conspiracies at all but FBI stings. Entrapment by any moral definition.   Pure theatre.  Pure fiction.  Pure lies.  Pure politics.

But the people of New Hampshire and, maybe the people of the country—God protect the nation if he wins the nomination—need to understand more about his tenure as federal prosecutor before they vote. And that brings us back to the Christie as federal prosecutor: Part One–FBI agents as props carrying empty boxes of “evidence” | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Report gives children’s services in California more low grades than high ones | EdSource

Report gives children’s services in California more low grades than high ones | EdSource:

Report gives children's services in California more low grades than high ones

FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

Aimee Perez, left, dresses as a doctor as she gives a check-up to Chelsea Conway during their preschool class at Land School in Westminster, Calif. Preschool education received a grade of B- in the 2016 California Children's Report Card.

California earned poor marks for several services it provides for the well-being of children, including those dealing with trauma, abuse and other mental and behavioral challenges, according to a report issued Wednesday by the advocacy organization Children Now.

The 2016 “California Children’s Report Card” also gave low marks to state services for infant and toddler care, teacher training and evaluation, obesity prevention and nutrition, and foster youth education. The state got highest marks for providing health coverage to children under the Affordable Care Act, as well as relatively high ones in other areas such as linking the high school curriculum to career pathways, introducing Common Core academic standards and Next Generation Science Standards, after-school and summer learning, and targeting state funds at children with the highest needs.

he report card, released annually for more than two decades, issued letter grades (A through F) for how the state is doing in 31 key education, health and child welfare areas that are aimed at the neediest student populations. The goal is to encourage state lawmakers and educators to increase investments in these areas.

The grades are not based on any standardized assessments, but reflect the views of the organization based on its interpretation of data and reports from a wide range of sources.

“California is a wealthy state, with more assets than most to devote to its children’s well-being,” the report said. “It’s time to put more of our resources to work for kids, by investing in quality programs to help lift them out of poverty and set them on the road to success.”

Nearly half of the state’s 9 million children come from poor or low-income families. Yet many don’t have comprehensive access to services that canReport gives children’s services in California more low grades than high ones | EdSource:

Some districts exempt students in special ed from vaccination law

CREDIT: JANE MEREDITH ADAMS/EDSOURCE TODA

California now has one of the strictest vaccination laws in the country, but ambiguity in its wording has left school districts deciding on their own whether to grant special education students a de facto exemption.

The California Department of Public Health and the California Department of Education have not yet issued guidance on how to apply the vaccination law to special education students. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students who qualify for special education services, such as speech therapy or small group instruction, must receive those services. Failure to comply leaves districts vulnerable to lawsuits from parents.

At the same time, beginning July 1, the state law will require all kindergarten, transitional kindergarten and 7th-grade students to be vaccinated against 10 communicable diseases before they are allowed to attend school, unless they have a medical condition that makes them unable to do so. Under the new law, parents can no longer refuse to vaccinate their children in public or private schools and child care centers based on their personal beliefs.Some districts exempt students in special ed from vaccination law

solidaridad: School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!

solidaridad: School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!:

School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!

From the Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations group on Facebook. The photograph is from a LAUSD public school with a Proposition 39 charter colocation on its campus. The privately managed charter corporation, with its extra funds donated by right-wing plutocrats, has resources to provide arts and other activities for students that public school students are denied. Here a performance at the charter school in which the children listen to a song about loving everyone—while the public school children look on through a chain link fence.

School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 is the tacit reinstitution of Plessy v. Ferguson. Join the struggle to end the lucrative charter industry and return education to the realm of public commons governed by the public.solidaridad: School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!:

Schools Matter: Guest Post: Relay Graduate School of Education: A Policy Brief

Schools Matter: Guest Post: Relay Graduate School of Education: A Policy Brief:

Guest Post: Relay Graduate School of Education: A Policy Brief

Posted by the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools on January 6, 2016 
This year the Philadelphia School District used training videos on classroom management from The Relay Graduate School of Education as part of its New Teacher orientation. The principals of Blaine and Kelley Elementary School (recent turnaround schools) are enrolled in Relay’s principal training program.

Relay Graduate School of Education is a teacher/principal training program based in New York and founded by people who had little experience or training in education. The school has opened a Philadelphia/Camden branch and has a partnership with Mastery Charter in the Philadelphia region. Since it appears to be extending its reach inside the Philadelphia School District we felt the need to explore Relay’s history and influence.

Kate Peterson, a graduate student at Arcadia University, has looked into Relay’s founders and programs. Her findings are posted below. We want to thank Kate for her thorough research and for allowing us to post it.


Relay Graduate School of Education Policy Brief

by Kate Peterson
January 2, 2016

Relay Graduate School of Education is a stand-alone school based in New York City. It began as Teacher U in 2007, when Dave Levin, co-founder of KIPP Public Charter Schools, and Norman Atkins, co-founder of Uncommon Schools, decided to develop a program that would supply their charter schools and others with high-quality teachers, which they deemed as scarce. They partnered with the founder of Achievement First, Dacia Toll, to create their program. Receiving $10 million from Larry Schools Matter: Guest Post: Relay Graduate School of Education: A Policy Brief:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/6/15

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YESTERDAY

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Receivership: Union battle & Common Core assessments | WBFO: Receivership: Union battle & Common Core assessmentsAs receivership plans for 15-of Buffalo's most struggling public schools could mean changes to the school day, the teachers union is planning to fight the new rule. WBFO's Focus on Education Reporter Eileen Buckley says one city school teacher calls receivership 'union busting'.

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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/5/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM El Dorado CountyBoard hires Ed Manansala, a former superintendent of St. Hope schools | The Sacramento BeeEl Dorado County education board taps new schools chief | The Sacramento Bee: El Dorado County education board taps new schools chiefEd Manansala was named Tuesday as the new El Dorado County superintendent of schools, replacing a predecessor who resigned in November after

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