CURMUDGUCATION: Fordham Provides More Core Testing PR

CURMUDGUCATION: Fordham Provides More Core Testing PR:
Fordham Provides More Core Testing PR

The Fordham Institute is back with another "study" of circular reasoning and unexamined assumptions that concludes that reformster policy is awesome.  

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a right-tilted thinky tank that has been one of the most faithful and diligent promoters of the reformster agenda, from charters (they run some in Ohio) to the Common Core to the business of Big Standardized Testing.

In 2009, Fordham got an almost-a-million dollar grant from the Gates Foundation to "study" Common Core Standards, the same standards that Gates was working hard to promote. They concluded that the Core was swell. Since those days, Fordham's support team has traveled across the country, swooping into various state legislators to explain the wisdom of reformster ideas.

This newest report fits right into that tradition.

Evaluating the Content and Quality of Next Generation Assessments is a big, 122-page monster of a report. But I'm not sure we need to dig down into the details, because once we understand that it's built on a cardboard foundation, we can realize that the details don't really matter.

The report is authored by Nancy Doorey and Morgan Polikoff. Doorey is the founder of her own CURMUDGUCATION: Fordham Provides More Core Testing PR:

Toni Morrison Speaks To Me About Racism [The Work] | The Jose Vilson

Toni Morrison Speaks To Me About Racism [The Work] | The Jose Vilson:

Toni Morrison Speaks To Me About Racism [The Work]

For Lent, I’ve given up.

Actually, that’s not true at all. If anything, I’ve re-dedicated myself to loving in spots that I shouldn’t, and letting go in spaces where I wouldn’t. The issue with many racists is that they’re heavily-armored in pushing some of us to the edge. In turn, some of us internalize this hatred and push it upon those we should love more often. Whenever I’m in a collective, EduColor included, our most powerful work is when we give each other space to heal and grow. It makes the work we do where it’s not as safe more authentic and more empowered.

How does one get liberated without that sense of love?

“The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It 

Toni Morrison Speaks To Me About Racism [The Work] | The Jose Vilson:

NYC Public School Parents: Looking for volunteers for a Citizen's Oversight Committee on DOE wasteful contracts

NYC Public School Parents: Looking for volunteers for a Citizen's Oversight Committee on DOE wasteful contracts:

Looking for volunteers for a Citizen's Oversight Committee on DOE wasteful contracts

As part of the reforms promised after the scandal with the $1.1 billion Computer Specialists contract erupted, DOE officials  promised to post more complete information about proposed contracts (called the RA's) at least a month ahead of the Panel for Educational Policy vote, to allow for more public vetting.

The DOE contract page now includes more  information about these contracts as well as some brief information about contracts to be voted on in March and April.

http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/documents/Contracts/default.htm

• February 24, 2016 Agenda - a 4 page list of  contracts to be voted on at the Feb. 24 PEP  - items #1 through #20, including many multi-million dollar professional development contracts.

• February 24, 2016 Look Ahead for February 24, 2016 Meeting  - a 2 page document showing which categories of contracts the above list of contracts belong to - competitive sealed bid, vs. RFP, vs. Multiple task award contract process etc

• February 24, 2016 Look Ahead for Future Meetings - a 5 page document with brief descriptions of contracts to be voted on March 23 and April 20,  2016.

• February 24, 2016 RA's - the full 55 page document that describes in more detail contracts that will be voted on Feb. 24 and that Patrick Sullivan posted online so that people can comment on them individually and as a whole at  http://nycpublicschoolcontracts.blogspot.com/

Because there will be  many pages of information made available in advance, we are looking to crowd source comments from volunteers as part of a Citizen Oversight Committee -- to help screen and vet these contracts and glean information and concerns that could then be communicated to elected officials and members of the PEP.  Yet as you will see, some of thee contracts to be voted on in two weeks, especially those related to preK vendors, still lack critical information.

There is also a new document, highlighting changes in DOE procurement, which will be voted on at the Feb. 24 PEP as well posted here.  We NYC Public School Parents: Looking for volunteers for a Citizen's Oversight Committee on DOE wasteful contracts:

CALPADS Update FLASH #114 - California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) (CA Dept of Education)

CALPADS Update FLASH #114 - California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) (CA Dept of Education):

CALPADS Update FLASH #114

Fall 1 Amendment Window Deadline Has Been Extended.

FALL 1 DEADLINE EXTENDED

Due to the delay in the availability of the preview of Fall 1 data, which includes the Unduplicated Pupil Count (UPC) that will be used in 2015–16 Second Principal Apportionment (P-2), the California Department of Education (CDE) has extended the Fall 1 deadline to March 18, 2016. The Fall 2 deadlines remain the same. The deadlines are summarized below:

Submission		Original Deadline	New Deadline
Fall 1	Last Day of Amendment Window	February 19, 2016	March 18, 2016
Fall 2	Certification Deadline	March 4, 2016	No Change
Fall 2	Last Day of Amendment Window	April 8, 2016	No Change

The preview of Fall 1 data will be made available later this week. While the preview reflects the data that LEAs can view within CALPADS and which they certified in Certification Report 1.17 – FRPM/EL/Foster Youth – Count, the preview also shows: (1) aggregate counts of students enrolled in County Offices of Education (COEs) whose enrollments will be attributed back to the district of geographic residence based on their Student School Transfer Category; and (2) of the total enrollment, the number of students (free or reduced-price meal eligible, English learner, and foster youth) who will count toward the district’s UPC which is used in determining the LEA’s supplemental and concentration grant funding under the Local Control Funding Formula. Since addressing issues identified as a result of reviewing these data requires communication between COEs and school districts, the CDE is extending the Fall 1 deadlines to provide additional time for any necessary updates to be made.

When the Fall 1 preview data are made available, accompanying explanations will be provided in a FLASH.

Questions:   CALPADS/CBEDS/CDS Operations Office| calpads@cde.ca.gov | 916-324-6738

Last Reviewed: Thursday, February 11, 2016

A new political strategy: throw online charters overboard to save the rest of the school privatization industry.| Alternet

Online Public Schools Are a Disaster, Admits Billionaire, Charter School-Promoter Walton Family Foundation | Alternet:
Online Public Schools Are a Disaster, Admits Billionaire, Charter School-Promoter Walton Family Foundation
A new political strategy: throw online charters overboard to save the rest of the school privatization industry.

 For the second time in three months, the Walton Family Foundation—which has spent more than $1 billion to create a quarter of the nation’s 6,700 public charter schools—has announced that all online public school instruction, via cyber charter schools, is a colossal disaster for most K-12 students.

“If virtual charters were grouped together and ranked as a single school district, it would be the ninth largest in the country and among the worst performing,” co-wrote Walton’s Marc Sternberg and Marc Holley, respectively the foundation’s director of educational giving and its evaluation unit director, in a recent Education Week commentary. “Online education must be reimagined. Ignoring the problem—or worse, replicating failures—serves nobody.”

Last fall, the giant foundation, which has pledged to spend its second billion to expand charter public schools nationally between now and 2020, simultaneously released three detailed comissioned studies finding more than two-thirds of America’s 200,000 charter students receiving all of their instruction over the Internet were barely learning the basics.  

“The majority of online charter students had far weaker academic growth in both math and reading compared to their traditional public school peers,” their experts’ press release said, after noting that kindergarten-through-high school students need to be in classrooms with live teachers, not occasional faces on computer screens. “To conceptualize this shortfall, it would equate to a student losing 72 days of learning in reading and 180 days of learning in math, based on a 180-day school year.”

Stanford University’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, or CREDO, which calculated the semesters of lost learning, looked at virtual charter schools in 18 states. It found enrollments had nearly doubled between the 2009-'10 and 2012-'13 school years, documenting a rapidly growing corner of the charter school industry, which presents itself as an alternative to traditional public schools.

“Based on even modest funding levels of $6,000 per student, 65,000 students [in 18 states] represents a public investment of $390,000,000 annually,” CREDO’s report said. With 200,000 students in 200 online schools in 26 Online Public Schools Are a Disaster, Admits Billionaire, Charter School-Promoter Walton Family Foundation | Alternet:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/11/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Educational Malpractice – The Child Manufacturing Process | Creative by Nature

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AFT’s Weingarten: Malloy budget ‘really horrible’ for education | The CT Mirror

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Obama to nominate John B. King Jr. to officially take the role of education secretary - The Washington Post

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Mad Scientists Take on Education – Save Maine Schools

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State-run New Orleans School Scores 7.2 on ACT in 2015 (You Read It Right) | deutsch29

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National teachers’ union leader seeks to smother Detroit protests - World Socialist Web Site

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Maine Governor Paul LePage's Latest Stunt: Naming Himself Education Commissioner - The Atlantic

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Middle School Families - You Need to Agitate for McCleary

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Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization

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CURMUDGUCATION: Risk and Rules

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Laura H. Chapman on Gates’ Efforts to “Transform” Teacher Training | deutsch29

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Louisiana Educator: Possible Massive Fraud in New Orleans RSD Charters

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Ohio Charter School Regulation: The Flimflam Continues | janresseger

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2/11/2016 – State Leaders Need To Back Away From School Takeover Agencies

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Schools vs. Elections as Sites for Controversy - Bridging Differences - Education Week

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MA Charter School Fight Heats Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

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Ed Notes Online: The Bernie/Hillary Battle: Commentary from the Left (New Politics) and Mainstream (Politico)

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The Ugly “Good Teacher” Discussion Few Are Confronting – the becoming radical

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Where Do Presidential Candidates Send Their Own Children to School? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

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Let's Teach Children That Politics Isn't Warfare

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1 by mike simpson / 9h 

California initiative would shut down charter schools - Watchdog.org

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1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Charter schools and private schools don’t work without public schools - Winston-Salem Journal: Columnists

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‘Steps to College’ draws thousands to Mexican Consulate in Sacramento | Vida en el Valle

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A CPS funding pop quiz | Ben Joravsky on Politics | Chicago Reader

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YESTERDAY

State Takeovers of Low-Performing Schools: A Record of Academic Failure, Financial Mismgmt & Student Harm

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5 by mike simpson / 20h 

As the the LAUSD charter schools conflict escalates, here’s what you need to know | 89.3 KPCC

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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/10/16

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3 by mike simpson / 23h