Commissioner names panel of experts to screen new chancellor | GothamSchools

Commissioner names panel of experts to screen new chancellor | GothamSchools

Commissioner names panel of experts to screen new chancellor

by Anna Phillips

State Education Commissioner David Steiner has named the panel of education experts that will help him decide whether to allow magazine executive Cathie Black to become the next schools chancellor.

Without a background in education, Black needs a waiver from the state that will let her bypass the prerequisites: that she have a degree in education and several years of teaching behind her. Though the final decision rests with Steiner, the panel will play a role in reviewing the city’s case for why Black is qualified and making a recommendation.

Reviewing the list of panel members, New York University Professor Pedro Noguera said the commissioner had covered his bases.

“Steiner’s aware that this is very controversial,” Noguera said. “So if you think about it, instead of just him making the decision he can say, ‘Look, I got a group of very reputable people in education who agreed with me.’”

“That doesn’t mean he’s going to agree with whatever they recommend but he’s got a good group to back him

Bill Gates on School Budgets: Cut Wisely, Change Pay Schemes - State EdWatch - Education Week

Bill Gates on School Budgets: Cut Wisely, Change Pay Schemes - State EdWatch - Education Week

Bill Gates on School Budgets: Cut Wisely, Change Pay Schemes

by Sean Cavanagh

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he knows that the nation's schools are struggling financially, and could be for years to come. But he argues that states and districts need to continue to press to create new merit pay models, and that they should consider allowing larger class sizes—if those classes are taught by effective teachers.

In a speech today, the business icon and philanthropist also urged school officials to avoid making cuts such as furloughs and reducing school days and school years, which he says amount to "one-time" fixes that hurt students academically.

Gates, speaking at the Council of Chief State School Officers' annual policy forum in Louisville, Ky., called for moving away from systems that pay teachers based on seniority or obtaining master's degrees, which he says haven't been show to raise student achievement.

"There's simply no profession in existence that I can think of where seniority is a primary determination" in

Queens Teacher: Boro Leaders Oppose Choice of DOE Head

Queens Teacher: Boro Leaders Oppose Choice of DOE Head

Boro Leaders Oppose Choice of DOE Head

by Queens Teacher

Elected officials, civics chastize mayor for secrecy in selecting media exec who lacks ed credentials

By Anna Gustafson

Queens legislators and residents criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s choice to replace outgoing city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, saying Heart Magazines Chairwoman Cathleen Black does not have the right background in education and the process of selecting a leader for the country’s largest school system was not transparent.

“Mayor Bloomberg is putting the education of millions of New York City children into the hands of someone who has no background in education,” state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck) said. “Parents and educators

The Answer Sheet - Kohn: What 'ready to learn' really means

The Answer Sheet - Kohn: What 'ready to learn' really means

Kohn: What 'ready to learn' really means

This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including "The Schools Our Children Deserve," "The Homework Myth," and the forthcoming "Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling." He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn. This post appeared on Kohn's Huffington Post page. By Alfie Kohn The phrase “ready to learn,” frequently applied to young children, is rather odd when you stop to think about it, because the implication is that some kids aren’t. Have you ever met a child who wasn’t ready to learn -- or, for that matter, already learning like crazy? The term must mean something much more specific -- namely, that some children aren’t yet able (or willing) to learn certain things or learn them in a certain way. Specifically, it seems to be code for “prepared for traditional

University of California Regents Approve Fee Hike, Salary Boosts « Student Activism

University of California Regents Approve Fee Hike, Salary Boosts « Student Activism

University of California Regents Approve Fee Hike, Salary Boosts

by Angus Johnston

The regents of the University of California approved an eight percent hike in undergraduate student fees yesterday, as expected. The tally was 10-5, with student regent Jesse Cheng and California’s Lieutenant Governor among those voting in opposition.

Yesterday’s hike is the fourth in three years at the university, and it brings total fees to more than $12,000 — a 224% increase over the last decade. Just one regent voted in opposition to last year’s fee increase.

Also on the regents’ agenda yesterday were the approval of a number of new administrative hires. One of those,

The Answer Sheet - Was Harry Potter's Hogwarts education any good?

The Answer Sheet - Was Harry Potter's Hogwarts education any good?

Was Harry Potter's Hogwarts education any good?

By Valerie Strauss

How well would Harry Potter do on the SAT? The question has been raised by a Harvard research fellow about just how fine an educationHarry Potter and his friends received at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Samuel Arbesman, research fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, wrote on his blog:

“When it comes to the world of Harry Potter, no doubt many children think the idea of learning witchcraft and wizardry at Hogwarts seems wonderful. Unfortunately, the magical world of education in J.K. Rowling’s books is terribly broken.....

“At Hogwarts, while they learn about spells and potions, they completely neglect the fundamentals. They are made to write essays on the history of magic but are never taught to write. They take Arithmancy, but never learn mathematics.”

I beg to differ.

The array of Hogwarts courses -- required and elective (below) -- has a creative breadth not seen in many a school here in the No Child Left

The Big Education Ape Daily

The Big Education Ape Daily

The Big Education Ape Daily

California Isn't Going to Default

californiaprogressreport.com - Printer-friendly versionSend to friendBy Robert Cruickshank All week long, comments by financial analyst Chris Whalen - where he predicts California will "default" - have been getting a lot of trac...

coopmike48

Big Education Ape: Schools Matter: Learning About KIPP: Lesson 2, Kipp Crusaders

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Number 2 of 3 posts, based on a book chapter published this fall in a volume edited by Dr. Philip Kovacs: The Gates Foundation and the Future of US Public Schools (Routledge Studies in Education an...

coopmike48

“Parent trigger” policy and a model for disguise « Failing Schools

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - I received an article from a list server a few days ago that goes a little something like this:The Radical School Reform You’ve Never Heard Of With ‘parent trigger,’ families can forcibly change fa...

coopmike48

Report card on state’s high school seniors shows only 40% proficient in reading « Parents 4 democratic Schools

parents4democraticschools.wordpress.com - Catalyst Notebook :: In the News: Report card on state’s high school seniors shows only 40% proficient in reading.Catalyst writers and editors share their perspectives, analyses and the news behind...

coopmike48

Chicago Public Schools Blog « Parents 4 democratic Schools

parents4democraticschools.wordpress.com - Awards: Imagination Theater Gets CIS Chicago Thanks – District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog.by Alexander RussoCICS is everywhere, and apparently Imagination Theater is doing a great job helping...

Fight Back Today! Sproul Plaza at 10am « occupy california

Fight Back Today! Sproul Plaza at 10am « occupy california

Fight Back Today! Sproul Plaza at 10am

by *

8 % fee hike. Fees are now “tuition.” New executive bonuses and covert raises passed at a closed door session. UCOP is backing an itchy-fingered pig. We all got beaten and pepper sprayed yesterday. CUE/IBT is still without a contract. Operational Excellence is still in full effect. Ethnic studies is on the chopping block once again. 12 % drop in Latin@ admissions and cuts to critical resources for students of color. UCPD is harassing students and workers, citing them for flyering and chalking benign slogans. We could go on forever. Are we going to take this sitting down?

Fuck no. [Today] we ride on these fools. Be at Sproul Plaza [today], Friday, November 19 at 10 am sharp. Don’t be late. Let’s get it!

University of Sussex Occupation Ends

by *

from DefendSussex:

This 5 day occupation of Fulton building has come to an end!
It was a statement to this coalition government that the events of Nov 10th were by no means isolated.We have used this time and space to organise, mobilise and prepare for the 24th of November. This national day of action will see resistance on an unprecedented scale.
We have galvanised other universities and educational establishments to take similar action, and we are grateful for the many messages of support that we have received.
We stand firm on our request that our universities’ management speak ou

This Week In Education: Reform: Against Reform Complacency... And Teacher Tenure

This Week In Education: Reform: Against Reform Complacency... And Teacher Tenure

Diversity: Getting Over "Color Blindness" [image: 20x200-mount-ideal42-700] We're going to have to get over the notion that color blindness is ideal (or even achievable) if we're going to make schools and the rest of the world really diverse, according to this recent Miller-McCune article ...

Reform: Against Reform Complacency... And Teacher Tenure [image: Comment_stage_6] This guy isn't going to get invited to *any* of the cool holiday parties if he keeps talking trash about reformers (for complacency) *and *educators (for holding onto tenure too long): "If everyone wants to throw money at ...

Events: Duncan Clears His Media Calendar [image: 55747158-26132039] Look! Over there! EdSec Arne Duncan has nothing public on his schedule for next week besides a Tuesday NASA event in the LBJ Auditorium. See below. It might have something to do with Thanksgiving. *MONDAY, NOV. 22* ...

AM News: TFA's Seige Of Seattle Finally Prevails [image: News2] Improving Lousiana's schools, starting with teachers NPR: University of Louisiana-Monroe raised admissions standards; made students take more courses in the subjects they'd be teaching, like science; and tripled the amount of time ...

Paranoia? Hey, sometimes someone is really chasing you. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Paranoia? Hey, sometimes someone is really chasing you. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Paranoia? Hey, sometimes someone is really chasing you.

by Fred Klonsky

I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist.

Okay. I do believe that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll.

And I laughed aloud when Mos Def said when he was on Bill Maher’s show that he still didn’t believe that we walked on the moon .

But, really. Don’t you think this

3 very weak arguments for using weak indicators « School Finance 101

3 very weak arguments for using weak indicators « School Finance 101

3 very weak arguments for using weak indicators

by schoolfinance101

This post is partly in response to the Brookings Institution report released this week which urged that value-added measures be considered in teacher evaluation:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2010/1117_evaluating_teachers/1117_evaluating_teachers.pdf

However, this post is more targeted at the punditry that has followed the Brookings report – the punditry that now latches onto this report as a significant endorsement of using value-added ratings as a major component in high-stakes personnel decisions. Personally, I didn’t read it that way. Nowhere did I see this report arguing strongly for a substantial emphasis on value-added measures. That said, I actually felt that the report based its rather modest conclusions on 3 deeply flawed arguments.

Argument 1 – Other methods of teacher evaluation are ineffective at determining good versus bad teachers because those methods are only weakly correlated with value-added measures.

Or, in other words, current value added measures, while only weak predictors of future value-added, are still

Schools Matter: Learning About KIPP: Lesson 2, Kipp Crusaders

Schools Matter: Learning About KIPP: Lesson 2, Kipp Crusaders

Learning About KIPP: Lesson 2, Kipp Crusaders

by Jim Horn

Number 2 of 3 posts, based on a book chapter published this fall in a volume edited by Dr. Philip Kovacs: The Gates Foundation and the Future of US Public Schools (Routledge Studies in Education and Neoliberalism):

. . . . KIPP Crusaders

In an interview posted at the weblog, Open Education, on December 11, 2008, David Socol makes the case that KIPP and TFA embody the zeal of well-heeled colonialist missionaries on a crusade to save the souls of indigenous urban poor children by converting them to middle class values and middle class mindsets. The history of missionary efforts is replete, or course, with examples that good intentions offer no immunity from very bad results, with the conversion process often lapsing into indoctrination, exploitation, cultural genocide, or other bad outcomes that would never be accepted in more civilized settings with less primitive souls to save. Socol (2008) makes the same point when he angrily suggests that

Senators seek probe into education rule making process | Reuters

Senators seek probe into education rule making process | Reuters

Senators seek probe into education rule making process

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BANGALORE | Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:00am EST

(Reuters) - Two Republican senators have asked the U.S. Education Department to investigate the alleged leaking by department officials of proposed rules aimed at tightening regulation of the industry.

In a letter to Kathleen Tighe, the department's inspector general, Senators Richard Burr and Tom Coburn said publicly available documents show the department may have leaked the proposed 'gainful employment' rules to short sellers and others who support the department's position.

Education Department spokesman Justin Hamilton said the department has operated with "transparency and integrity" throughout the rule making process.

The for-profit education sector, a major recipient of taxpayers' money, has been criticized for failing to prepare students for job and leaving them with