ASCD Inservice: Project "Boys" (1965)

ASCD Inservice: Project "Boys" (1965)

Project "Boys" (1965)

"A disproportionate number of the boys were poorly motivated for school and for life in general . . . . Our girls, on the other hand, presented minimal problems by comparison." This isn't a quote pulled from the latest "boy crisis" magazine cover story; it begins the article "Project 'Boys'" (PDF), which appeared in the September 1965 Educational Leadership.

Not only were boys, by and large, behind girls academically in author Kathryn Y. Hazeur's school in Wilmington, Del., but their hygiene and social skills were wanting, too: "The appearance of boys as far as grooming was concerned was not good, and the boys cared little about the impressions they made on others." Girls were taking on all of the leadership positions, from Safety Patrol to Student Council.

The school faculty discussed the issue and decided that boys were underexposed to positive male role models. The vast majority of school faculty were women, and the community was "essentially matriarchal . . . . The male image in the

Queens Teacher: Less Tenure Granted

Queens Teacher: Less Tenure Granted

Less Tenure Granted

by Queens Teacher

New Guidelines Make Teacher Tenure Less Automatic in New York City
By FERNANDA SANTOS

In most schools across the country, tenure is not something to be gained, but something to be lost. Virtually every new teacher earns it, including in New York City, where all a principal has had to do to give a teacher guaranteed lifetime employment is to check a box on a computer program.

No longer. Under guidelines released Monday, principals are directed to base their decisions on an elaborate system that measures teachers’ success in and outside the classroom, including student performance on standardized tests. The principals then have to explain their recommendation in three paragraphs.

The goal, education officials said, is to change the longstanding culture in which tenure is virtually automatic, a

Schools on the Brink | California Progress Report

Schools on the Brink | California Progress Report

Schools on the Brink

by christine

By Brian Leubitz

As Jerry Brown continues with his listening tour on the budget, the fact that education will see a big portion of the cuts now seems like a fait accompli. The only remaining question, or so it seems, is how deep, and how the districts will deal with those cuts. There are no additional administrative efficiencies to save teachers, and our counseling, arts, and athletic programs have already hit bone, the next round will be job cuts to core curriculum teachers.

"It is abundantly clear that we will be looking at another round of cuts from the state," said Wayne Joseph, superintendent of the Chino Valley Unified School District. "The amount of cuts remains to be seen, but it is fiscally prudent for any district to try to plan for the worst-case scenario.

read more

When California Rejected A Bad Tax Deal

by christine

By Robert Cruickshank

Over the last week, President Barack Obama's deal on the tax cuts - where he caves in to right-wing hostage taking and agrees to deficit-exploding tax cuts for the rich in order to get a few more months of unemployment benefits - has gotten a lot of criticism from progressives, who correctly see it as a very bad deal.

Many of those critics are here in California. And that is fitting, because we have faced this situation before - and we made the correct choice, to reject a bad deal designed to promote right-wing goals and instead keep fighting for progressive solutions.

read more

The performance of Denver’s charter schools « Education News Colorado Opinion & Commentary

The performance of Denver’s charter schools « Education News Colorado Opinion & Commentary

The performance of Denver’s charter schools

Posted by Alexander Ooms Dec 14th, 2010.

The movie Waiting for Superman, and the recent signing of a district and charter compact, has energized an intense debate about the quality of charter schools compared to their traditional school peers. Local opponents of charters have focused much of their criticism by emphasizing a national statistic quoted in Superman which is based on a patchwork, multi-state CREDO study that concluded just one in five charter schools outperform traditional schools.

The question of charter school performance is vital. However this line of critique is largely irrelevant. The overwhelming majority of education policy and practice is not national, but local — charter results in Dayton and Detroit have little to do with school decisions in Denver. And in Denver, the very same CREDO study explicitly stated — and further analysis of more recent performance data confirms — that charter schools are doing far better than their traditional school peers.

Indeed, school districts across Colorado would be well advised to look at Denver’s model with an eye to replicating its success.

It’s helpful to quickly revisit the essentials. A central premise of charter schools is simple: encourage innovation and a variety of school models. Measure outcomes. Expand the good schools, and change

California is failing its teachers, says report Central Valley Business Times

Central Valley Business Times

California is failing its teachers, says report

SACRAMENTO
December 14, 2010 6:32am

• Gloomiest job outlook in years

• ‘California’s teaching workforce is running on empty’

Budget cuts of more than $20 billion from California’s schools over the past three years have made it tougher for teachers to help students meet increasing expectations for academic achievement and have badly damaged the state’s ability to recruit and prepare new teachers needed for the future, according to a yearly report on California’s teaching workforce by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.

“California’s teaching workforce is running on empty,” says Margaret Gaston, president and executive director of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in Sacramento. “The fiscal crisis has so severely

The Answer Sheet - The 'Parent Trigger' doesn't help schools or parents

The Answer Sheet - The 'Parent Trigger' doesn't help schools or parents

The 'Parent Trigger' doesn't help schools or parents

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Larry Ferlazzo, who teaches English at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California, and prior to that, a community organizer for 19 years. He is the author of Building Parent Engagement In Schools and writes two blogs, including one onEngaging Parents In School. He is a member of the Teacher Leaders Network.

By Larry Ferlazzo
Building genuine parent engagement is a critical element of improving our schools. Two-way “conversation” and not the all too common one-way “communication” between schools and parents needs to bedeveloped through strategies such as teacher home visits to build

The Bizarre, Misleading Editorial From The NY Times

The Bizarre, Misleading Editorial From The NY Times

The Bizarre, Misleading Editorial From The NY Times

by Chad Aldeman

This morning’s New York Times features an editorial that is entirely too casual with statistics. It begins fine:

Searching for solace in bleak unemployment numbers, policy makers and commentators often cite the relatively low joblessness among college graduates, which is currently 5.1 percent compared with 10 percent for high school graduates and an overall jobless rate of 9.8 percent.

They have that right: A college degree is an insurance policy against unemployment. It’s not a guarantee of future riches, but, statistically, every year of education leads to higher wages and lower unemployment. It continues:

A college education is better than no college education and correlates with higher pay.

Yep, so far so good. Then it gets strange:

But as a cure for unemployment or as a way to narrow the chasm between the rich and everyone

Schools Matter: Watching Big Brother Makes Him Very Nervous and Angry

Schools Matter: Watching Big Brother Makes Him Very Nervous and Angry

Watching Big Brother Makes Him Very Nervous and Angry

by Jim Horn

From Michael Moore:

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A statement from Michael Moore)

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Friends,

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

This Week In Education: AM News: Public Blames Parents Most Of All

This Week In Education: AM News: Public Blames Parents Most Of All

AM News: Public Blames Parents Most Of All

by Alexander Russo

Obama Signs Child Nutrition Bill Into Law: The $4.5 billion measure increases the federal reimbursement for free school lunches by 6 cents a meal at a time when many school officials say they can't afford to provide the meals... RI ed chief: Closing troubled school an option: Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist says closing a troubled high school where the entire teaching staff was fired, and later rehired, is an option if things don't improve... Education fills big space on Brown's chalkboard: As the governor-elect prepares to take office, California's schools are confronted by a lack of funding that threatens to further harm pupils and a controversial reform movement that could dramatically reshape how classrooms are run... Parents Blamed Most Often For Failing Education System, Poll Finds: An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system... Menino to focus solely on education in speech: Mayor Thomas M. Menino will use his final major policy speech of the year today to push a contentious plan to close or merge 18 city schools... US sues school over denial of Muslim pilgrimage: The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion... More states let students opt out of P.E. classes: Despite concerns about obesity among young people, the number of states that allow students to waive physical education classes has grown.

Schools Matter: The $hared No Labels Goals of the Corporate Party

Schools Matter: The $hared No Labels Goals of the Corporate Party

The $hared No Labels Goals of the Corporate Party

by Jim Horn

From the website:

The No Labels movement was born out of support for these shared goals, and we are committed to helping our nation remain true to these values that we all profess in an environment, [sic] which encourages fact-based discussions.

We are not labels – we are people.
We must put our labels aside,
And put the issues and what’s best for the nation first.
A promising future awaits us.

It sounds so right, doesn't it. Yes, I am ready. Yes, we can can our democracy. The shared goals we all agree on? Replacing the old-school goal of a nation serving as a beacon for democratic living and the spread of democracy will be, first and foremost, world economic hegemony and cutting away the social net at home for our corporate benefit (my underlining). I am feeling the power surging through us:

The US must Remain the World’s Premier Economic Power- Most Americans realize that

The Real Lessons of PISA - Bridging Differences - Education Week

The Real Lessons of PISA - Bridging Differences - Education Week

The Real Lessons of PISA

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

When the results of the latest international assessment—the Program for International Student Assessment, orPISA—were released, our national leaders sounded an alarm about a national "crisis in education." Our students scored in the middle of the pack! We are not No. 1! Shanghai is No. 1! We are doomed unless we overtake Shanghai!

President Obama and Secretary Arne Duncan warned ominously that our nation was having a "Sputnik moment." We have fallen behind the global competition in education, they cried, evoking comparison with the Soviet Union's launch of a space satellite in 1957. At that time, the media and the politicians predicted that the Soviets would soon rule the world, and we know how that turned out.

Now the politicians would like to use the latest test scores to promote their "reform" agenda for the schools: more charter schools, more reliance on competition and free-market strategies, more testing, more use of test

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

A few comments on the Gates/Kane value-added study « School Finance 101

schoolfinance101.wordpress.com - A few comments on the Gates/Kane Value-added study (My apologies in advance for an excessively technical, research geeky post, but I felt it necessary in this case) Take home points 1) As I read it...

SchlFinance101

The Magical Populism of Michelle Rhee

huffingtonpost.com - Black Friday set off the sale of trinkets, capes, and magic wands, and Michelle Rhee bought a few of the latter. Before Thanksgiving, I would have pegged her for a neoliberal overbearing contessa. ...

TheJLV

Bloomberg, Cathie Black, Bill Gates, and the Condescension of the Oligarchy

huffingtonpost.com - Despite their insistence that nothing matters more than the quality of teaching, the oligarchy of corporate reformers and billionaires that is currently driving education policy in this country has...

leoniehaimson

Edublog Awards Announced This Week

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org - Dec 13 2010 Larry Ferlazzo Voting for the Edublog Awards (vote here) will end on Tuesday the 14th of December (11:59 PM EST USA)! – Click here to check the time voting finishes in your local time!...

Larryferlazzo

The Answer Sheet - Willingham: What causes performance decline across grades?

voices.washingtonpost.com - My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?”By Daniel Willingham An “absolute wake u...

DianeRavitch