Sunday, August 4, 2019

Book Review: A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice | deutsch29

Book Review: A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice | deutsch29

Book Review: A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice

Kate Phillippo, associate professor of cultural and educational policy studies at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education, published a book in March 2019, entitled, A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice.

Kate Phillippo

In her book, Phillippo offers details from the experiences of 36 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) eighth graders who attended one of two middle schools and who were vying for acceptance in a CPS high school of their choice.

Phillippo’s term, “competitive school choice,” is apt for two reasons: 1) the most prestigious and most preferred schools tended to be selective admissions (SA) schools, and 2) in general, CPS does not have enough places at schools that its eighth-grade students would actually choose to attend.

Let the games begin. (Indeed, one student likened CPS’ high school choice to “The Hunger Games.”)

In this “contest without winners,” students’ high school fates (and possibly, subsequent college and career fates) depend heavily upon their test scores and core subject grades from their seventh-grade year. If a student has an CONTINUE READING: Book Review: A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice | deutsch29

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4)

ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4)

This has not been a great week in the US, but here we are again. Read some pieces about education if you can; otherwise, just go curl up with loved ones.

Testing Craze Is Fading in U.S. Schools. Good. Here’s What’s Next.

At Bloomberg, Andrea Gabor takes a look at testing and what may come after.

Why Do White Reformers Keep Making This Obvious Mistake?

I Love You But You're Going To Hell adds some historical perspective to the issue. As is often the case with education reform ideas, we have been here before.

When Do Not-for-profit and For-profit Mean the Same Thing?

Mitchell Robinson on Eclectablog takes a look at how easily Michigan profiteers skirt the laws forbidding for-profit charter schools.

Top 7 Ways Technology Stifles Student Learning in My Classroom

At his blog, Steven Singer enumerates the problems of classroom tech.

Fake Play and Its Dangerous Alignment to Standards and Data

Nancy Bailey talks about the most critical of issues-- play and the littles.

China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns.

MIT Tech Review looks at one more scary thing the Chinese are up to. If you want to be further alarmed by the company profiled here, I've written about them before-- here and here.

Charter operator: Viral graduation speeches were acts of ‘dishonesty and deceit,’ could cost students their diplomas

Chalkbeat looks at a charter school having trouble with that pesky old First Amendment

For-profit colleges — but not their student 'customers' — have a friend in Betsy DeVos

Even at The Hill, they've noticed where Betsy DeVos's loyalties lie.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE

ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4)

by Peter Greene / 21min

This has not been a great week in the US, but here we are again. Read some pieces about education if you can; otherwise, just go curl up with loved ones. Testing Craze Is Fading in U.S. Schools. Good. Here’s What’s Next . At Bloomberg, Andrea Gabor takes a look at testing and what may come after. Why Do White Reformers Keep Making This Obvious Mistake ? I Love You But You're Going To Hell adds som

Segregation: Who's The Worst?

by Peter Greene / 21min

A new study of segregation in charter schools has been released. Authored by Julian Vasquez Heilig, T. Jameson Brewer, and Yohuru Williams, " Choice without inclusion?: Comparing the intensity of racial segregation in charters and public schools at the local, state and national levels " concludes that "national, state, and local data indicate that the charter industry has a segregation problem in

AUG 01

Should A Teacher Be Secretary of Education

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

This is part of the value of having a clown car full of candidates for a Presidential primary: the contest becomes a primary of ideas, and certain notions gain traction by spreading across the field of candidates. Not that gaining traction means those ideas will ultimately prevail (a widespread notion among the 2016 GOP field was that Donald Trump was unfit to be President ), but it's still an in

Eight Weeks of Summer: Moving Forward

by Peter Greene / 3d

This post is week 8 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators . I've been doing the eight week challenge because why not? This is the final prompt, and like any good exercise, it calls for some reflection. Here's prompt #8: What will you keep from the #8WeekofSummer Blog Challenge moving forward? I've been trying to answer these from the perspective of my previous non-retired tea

JUL 30

Why Charter Schools Must Waste Money

200+by Peter Greene / 5d

Back in March, the Network for Public Education, a public education advocacy group, released a study showing that the Department of Education has spent over a billion dollars on charter school waste and fraud . Education Next, a publication that advocates for charter schools, offered a reply to that report. The rebuttal to the rebuttal just appeared in the Washington Post , but there is one porti

JUL 29

Mayor Pete Doesn't Get It (And If He Does, That's Even Worse)

400+by Peter Greene / 6d

In 2016, Hillary Clinton staked out what was supposed to be the safe territory on the charter school issue-- to be against for-profit charters, but in favor of non-profits. That qualified as enough of a break with the corporate Democrat orthodoxy that DFER felt the need to reassure wealthy donors that the Clinton's could be counted on to betray unions. But a position that depends on distinguishing

JUL 28

ICYMI: Post Jet Lag Edition (7/28)

24by Peter Greene / 7d

All righty. We are slowly getting back into the swing of things (two year olds do not seem to respond to jet lag well). So my reach might not be quite as far as usual, but I've still got some things for you to look at this week. This supreme court case made school district lines a tool for desegregation. A critical piece of history about how school district lines were set up to be a tool for-- or

JUL 27

FL: Next Surveillance State Deadline Approaching

200+by Peter Greene / 8d

In the wake of the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the great state of Florida decided to make a giant leap forward in establishing a surveillance state , proposing a data base that would collect giant massive tanker cars full of

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Criminalizing Child Behavior at School

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Criminalizing Child Behavior at School

Criminalizing Child Behavior at School

An audiotape and police report has surfaced about an incident that occurred at Van Asselt Elementary School earlier this year. Here's the story as the Seattle Times reported it.

Basically, a teacher was threatened with bodily harm by a 5th grade student who is less than 5 feet tall - only threatened but it appears he leaned into her using foul language - after she denied his request to leave the classroom. There was no weapon involved. It ended up with her calling the police after he was sent to the office.

Before anything else I want to make clear - the teacher should not have called the police. I'll say that again - she should not have called the police. That the student was African-American (as is established in the police report) makes it much worse because of the disproportionality that we know exists for black children. The teacher was a white woman.

I note that this story has gone national, with the story appearing in Education Week. I also see that the Seattle Times - which has no stated policy on when they allow comments and when they don't - has no comment section for this story.

I also want to make clear that we are going to have a civil conversation. Since this situation is so deeply upsetting, I am going to turn on comment moderation to keep things civil.

There are calls for this teacher to be fired. That might seem an easy call but she is part of a union.

But the Number One action that should happen - and that means before school starts - is that every single person who works in the CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Criminalizing Child Behavior at School

How to spot a student loan scam - CBS News

How to spot a student loan scam - CBS News

How to spot a student loan scam

As many families deal with college financing this summer, the Better Business Bureau has reported an increase in fraudulent texts, emails and voicemails about loans.

The Federal Trade Commission says consumers who suspect that they're the target of a student loan scam should file a complaint at ftc.gov and contact their lenders directly. But to keep consumers from ever falling victim in the first place, CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger joined "CBS This Morning" Tuesday to share tips on how to spot a scam.

"These calls, or texts, or emails, they are promising to eradicate your student loans," Schlesinger said. "If you are sitting there with $30,000 worth of loans, that is going to catch your attention." She added that the scammers are especially active this time of year, targeting students who have just graduated or parents who are preparing to send their kids to college in the fall.

A lot of the calls reference "changes" between the Obama administration's rules and a new set of rules, Schlesinger said, and try to get you to pay money to get them to release the loans. If a consumer does call back, the scammers ask for credit card information and upfront payments.

"Paying any upfront fee – or even a monthly fee – is illegal," Schlesinger said. "That is your biggest red flag. You don't have to pay any more to change the terms of your student loans, you can do that directly with the government."

The scammers often also try to get you to divulge your federal student aid ID number, Schlesinger said. If they have the number, they can go into the federal system and change things – and they can also use it to further swindle you during future calls.

If you do fall victim to one of these scams, "take a deep breath," Schlesinger said. "There are a lot of places you're going to have to do some work: the FTC complaint line, so ftc.gov, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education... you [also] must go into the system and change that ID number that you have been assigned, because you don't want anyone messing with your file."

That doesn't mean that every loan service is a scam. "There are certainly private student lenders who are willing to look at your total loan portfolio, and perhaps refinance them… but they would never call like that, and they'll also never charge you an upfront fee," Schlesinger said.

If you are looking to consolidate or change the terms of your loan, Schlesinger said, you can go to the federal aid website. But she warned that changing the terms could mean paying for a longer time, and paying more interest – so it's worth being "very careful."

For a list of legitimate companies the Department of Education works with click here.

How to spot a student loan scam - CBS News

5 Ways to Spot a Student Loan Scam — NerdWallet - https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/?p=157811 by @briannamcscribe on @NerdWallet

Avoiding Loan Scams | Federal Student Aid - https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/node/920

Better Business Bureau’s top five scams targeting college students | News | parkerpioneer.net - https://www.parkerpioneer.net/news/article_9dfeebe4-b551-11e9-abcd-73cc644f694e.html

Schools Matter: If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude…

Schools Matter: If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude…

If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude…

The esteemed Professor Diane Ravitch wrote about one of the newest revelations on the Michael Kolhaas dot org website. She writes:

"He says that [Nick] Melvoin as a member of the board was privy to the LAUSD legal strategy in its perennial struggle with the charter lobby. He says that Melvoin shared this strategy with the charter lobby."

This is very serious.

I don’t have time to look into this closely, but if this Nick Melvoin—an attorney—was sharing confidential information with the opposing party in litigation, then he has likely violated a number of The State Bar of California’s Rules of Professional Conduct. At issue are several parts of Rule 8.4 Misconduct (e.g. 8.4(a), 8.4(c), 8.4(e)), Rule 1.11, and others—particularly those governing conflicts of interest and the duties of honesty and candor.

I strongly encourage people to visit How to File a Complaint Against an Attorney on The State Bar of California’s CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude…

Our Children Are Not Safe - LA Progressive

Our Children Are Not Safe

I made the mistake of reading the El Paso shooter’s manifesto.

At one point he concedes that an immigrant is someone willing to do a job no US citizen is willing to do, but then he immediately engages in a screed about the contempt he holds for the children of immigrants.

And upon reading those words all of the nightmarish images trapped behind my eyelids spilled forth.

Families bombarded with chants of “build that wall!” And “send them back!”

I made the mistake of reading the El Paso shooter’s manifesto.

Families torn apart by detention and deportation.

Children without toys or books, in soiled clothes, stunted developmentally, scarred psychologically, tortured physically and CONTINUE READING: Our Children Are Not Safe - LA Progressive

The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About Gun Control | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About Gun Control | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

THE BEST RESOURCES FOR TEACHING & LEARNING ABOUT GUN CONTROL

The shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton this week have, once again, brought the issue of gun violence (and white supremacy terrorism – see resources on racism here.) to public attention again.

I have many lists lists of resources related to gun violence here.

I have previously posted one on gun control, but it’s time to post a completely revised and updated one.

Here are some resources to begin with:

Guns In America is from TIME.

How To Reduce Shootings is from The NY Times.

After Parkland, a New Surge in State Gun Control Laws is from The NY Times.

Gun Deaths in America is from Five Thirty Eight.

Gun Violence, Gun Control, Gun Rights: Where We Go from Here (with Lesson Plan) is from KQED.

The Lowdown | Gun Violence, Gun Control, Gun Rights: Where We Go from Here Lesson Plan is from PBS.

Gun laws in the US, state by state – interactive is from The Guardian.

Where Congress Stands on Guns is from ProPublica.