Last Stand for Children First: Ryan Wilson on poverty and other excuses

Last Stand for Children First: Ryan Wilson on poverty and other excuses

Ryan Wilson on poverty and other excuses

by Last Stand for Children

G'day! When you've been in the education reform game for awhile you start noticing trends. You see all these figjam teachers who know why the little ankle biters aren't learning right and you know what--it's never their fault.

I don't know how often I've been touring a school and asked a teacher about their dismal test scores and they immediately come the raw prawn with me telling me that their students are poor, or still learning English as a second language, or have learning disabilities that leave them unable to meet or exceed on standardized tests at their grade level. They immediately expect me to just rack off and defer to their low opinion of their own students.

I like to think all the students can learn if properly motivated and if not most can be

The Best Resources For Learning About The Role Of Private Foundations In Education Policy | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Learning About The Role Of Private Foundations In Education Policy | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Big Marker” Looks Good For Online Conferencing Big Marker lets you create an online conference, and is free. It seems pretty straight-forward and usable. I’m adding it to The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration.

The Best Resources For Learning About The Role Of Private Foundations In Education Policy Several major foundations, including Gates and Walton, are playing an increasing large role in education policy. I thought that readers might find a short list of related resources useful, and I would appreciate additional suggestions. Here are my ...

Meeting and greeting the next Chicago mayor. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Meeting and greeting the next Chicago mayor. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Meeting and greeting the next Chicago mayor.

by Fred Klonsky

Our family was proud to host a meet and greet for Miguel Del Valle on Sunday afternoon. A large turn-out of friends and neighbors filled the place. People opened their check books and asked challenging questions ranging from the issue of closing neighborhood schools (he’s against it), to the militarization of city high schools (he’s

Modern School: National Guard Can’t Save California’s Schools

Modern School: National Guard Can’t Save California’s Schools

National Guard Can’t Save California’s Schools New California schools chief Tom Torlakson declared a “state of financial emergency,” saying, “The law won’t allow me to call in the National Guard, so I’m saying to every Californian: ‘Your schools need your help and they need it now.’” Well, they ...

Fox News Makes You Dumber You are probably already dumb, or lazy, if you enjoy watching Fox News or consider it an accurate source of information. Or maybe you just enjoy hearing angry men raving inanely about matters they know little about. Therefore, it should be no surprise ...

Gates’ Boy Deasy to Run LAUSD Bill Gates protégé John Deasy is set to replace Ramon Cortines for superintendent of LAUSD. Deasy has a sleazy history of associating with felons. He has a bogus doctorate degree. He flees from low income districts when the going gets tough. And best ...

The Answer Sheet - How to be taken seriously as a reformer (don't be an educator)

The Answer Sheet - How to be taken seriously as a reformer (don't be an educator)

How to be taken seriously as a reformer (don't be an educator)

This was written by Gregory Michie, who teaches in the Department of Foundations, Social, Policy and Research at Concordia University Chicago. He is the author of "Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students" and co-editor of "City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row." By Gregory Michie In the current upside-down world of education policy, there's one foolproof strategy for being taken seriously as a reformer: Make sure you're not an educator. Urban districts nationwide, with Chicago leading the way, have hired those with business or legal backgrounds to head their school systems. Major voices in the reform conversation such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and philanthropist Eli Broad have never been teachers. And when Oprah wants to talk about schools, she invites Bill Gates or Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg -- all the while reminding her audience how much she loves

Banned student play will go on!

Two high school principals who banned a student-written play critical of New York City reform -- and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former chancellor Joel Klein -- have reversed themselves and will allow the work to be staged after all. The play, titled “Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)” and based on the Greek tragedy "Antigone," was written by 14 students from two New York City schools -- Jamaica High and Queens Collegiate, which share the same building.

School Tech Connect: The Things People Say

School Tech Connect: The Things People Say

The Things People Say

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Okay, that was a nightmare of film reviewing but I found it. 

Here’s where Robin Steans of Action Illinois makes the claim about teacher effectiveness being twenty times more important than poverty.

Popout

I’m not trying to demonize her; she’s an effective advocate for the things she believes in, and she wants effective

Honoring the Dead « Student Activism

Honoring the Dead « Student Activism

Honoring the Dead

by Angus Johnston

Who died yesterday in Tucson?

A trial-level federal judge, John Roll, on the bench for twenty years. A lawyer who gave up the much higher salaries of the private sector for the rewards of sitting behind a bench doing justice every day.

A congressional staffer, Gabe Zimmerman. Not just any congressional staffer, but a director of public outreach. The guy whose job it is to meet with constituents, wrangle local issues, set up events like the one he was attending yesterday morning.

A nine-year-old kid, Christina Taylor Green, just elected to her lets-pretend school council. A kid who jumped at

Respecting your Adversary | Lefty Parent

Respecting your Adversary | Lefty Parent

Respecting your Adversary

by Cooper Zale

In response to my piece yesterday attempting to call out the dysfunctional rhetoric of both sides in the current Congressional debates, the most incisive criticism I received on the Daily KOS version of my post was essentially that I was making a false equivalency between the critique of conservatism from progressive voices like MSNBC and the critique of progressives from conservatives like Fox News. The former being based on a mostly responsible analysis of the facts while the

So what was precalculus, again? « JD2718

So what was precalculus, again? « JD2718

So what was precalculus, again?

by jd2718

As the first math teacher in a brand new school (9 years ago), I’ve had a bunch of time to consider that question. It’s sort of a mess.

There is no branch of mathematics called “Precalculus” (there is Algebra, there is Geometry, there is Trigonometry. Hmm, there’s not really Calculus, except for The Calculus, but there is Analysis. Maybe we

Queens Teacher: Money Drives Education "Reform"

Queens Teacher: Money Drives Education "Reform"

Money Drives Education "Reform"

by Queens Teacher

The Ultimate $uperpower • Supersized Dollars Drive Waiting for ‘Superman’ Agenda
By Barbara Miner


In 1972, two young Washington Post reporters were investigating a low-level burglary at the Watergate Hotel and stumbled upon a host of unexplained coincidences and connections that reached to the White House.

One of the reporters, Bob Woodward, went to a high-level government source and complained: “The story is dry. All we’ve got are pieces. We can’t seem to figure out what the puzzle is supposed to look like.”

To which the infamous Deep Throat replied: “Follow the money. Always follow the money.”

Sidestepping Democracy

For nearly 40 years, “follow the money” has been an axiom in both

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links.

by Fred Klonsky

Nine year old Christina Greene was among those killed in the Tucson Massacre.

A Facebook page dedicated to all the victims of the Tucson Massacre can be found here.

“The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district, when people do that, they

The Wall.

by Fred Klonsky

REGION: Teacher pensions less generous than other public workers

REGION: Teacher pensions less generous than other public workers

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By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: Saturday, January 8, 2011 9:30 pm | (4) Comments | Print

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Four former North County school administrators collect annual pensions of more than $200,000 a year and roughly 108 local educators receive pensions of more than $100,000 a year, according to numbers from the California State Teachers' Retirement System.

The hefty retirement pay is because those employees had higher salaries to begin with and worked for more years. Many paid into the state retirement system for four decades.

The former administrators whose pensions top $200,000 annually are:

-- Ken Noonan, who retired as Oceanside Unified School District superintendent in 2007. His pension last year was $249,011.

-- Larry Maw, who retired as San Marcos Unified School District superintendent in 2005. His pension was $229,326.

-- Dave Cowles, who retired as Vista Unified School District superintendent in 2006, His pension was $223,632.

-- Sherrill Amador, who retired as president of Palomar College in 2004. Her pension was $218,511.

Retired county Superintendent Rudy Castruita topped them all with a pension of $281,034 last year. Each year, retired educators get a 2 percent bump in their pensions as a cost-of-living increase.

Educators in North County and throughout the state get lesser retirement deals than most city and public safety employees whose pricey pension packages have made headlines and increasingly drawn the ire of taxpayer advocates in the past few years.

Some former public school employees still draw big money in retirement ---- four in North County pull in pensions of more than $200,000 per year ---- but even those top earners don't get the benefits enjoyed by public safety workers and other city employees.

"Teachers have a more modest formula, and it has been fixed for a number of years now," said Jack Dean, vice president of the nonprofit California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which pushes for pension reform.

In addition to the lower scale, educators must also pay 8 percent of their annual salaries toward their retirement. In several cities, police and firefighters contribute nothing toward their pensions.

Nevertheless, the California State Teachers' Retirement System ---- the system that administers teachers' pensions ---- is facing an estimated $40.5

America ignores education funding at our own peril

America ignores education funding at our own peril

Robert Reich

Sunday, January 9, 2011

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MORE EDUCATION

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Over the long term, the only way we're going to raise wages, grow the economy and improve American competitiveness is by investing in our people - especially their educations.

Yet we're falling behind. In a recent survey of 34 advanced nations by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, our kids came in 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. The average 15-year-old American student can't answer as many test questions correctly as the average 15-year-old student in Shanghai.

I'm not one of those who believe the only way to fix what's wrong with American education is to throw more money at it. We also need to do it much better. Teacher performance has to be squarely on the table. We should experiment with vouchers whose worth is inversely related to family income. Universities have to tame their budgets for student amenities that have nothing to do with education.

But considering the increases in our population of

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/08/INBM1H3V02.DTL#ixzz1AYPXkc3I

Teacher finds two dimes in bottom drawer of desk | theteachingwhore

Teacher finds two dimes in bottom drawer of desk | theteachingwhore

Teacher finds two dimes in bottom drawer of desk

by theteachingwhore

Port Steven, ALABAMA (TWP)

News spread quickly this week that Mona Richards, a Port Steven Middle School art teacher, had found two dimes in the bottom drawer of her desk. The riches immediately set Richards planning for her retirement.

“This twenty cents helps out a lot after all those thousands I spent getting my master’s degree,” said Richards. She added, “That master’s degree got me a salary increase of $53.27 a year over someone with a bachelor’s degree. With this twenty cents, I’m sure I can pay off that debt in eighteen years.”

Richards was looking for a loose tissue because her entire box had just been used up by a small child with a large nose and sinusitis when she discovered the dimes. At first, she didn’t recognize them for what they were, she said.

“I thought they were some sort of game token. My check is direct-deposited, and then after the student loan payment comes out, my son’s college tuition, the payment for the graduate school program, and some cash for

Lake Oswego announces task force to save schools targeted for closing | OregonLive.com

Lake Oswego announces task force to save schools targeted for closing | OregonLive.com

Lake Oswego announces task force to save schools targeted for closing

Published: Saturday, January 08, 2011, 8:00 PM Updated: Saturday, January 08, 2011, 10:48 PM

By Everton Bailey Jr., The Oregonian
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Everton Bailey Jr./The OregonianAbout 100 city residents gathered in the council chambers of Lake Oswego City Hall on Saturday to share issues and projects they felt city officials should focus on for the year. The possible closure of schools to combat an estimated multimillion dollar school budget shortfall was the chief concern.

LAKE OSWEGO -- City councilors are hoping a new collaborative group with education officials will help produce alternatives to a controversial budget proposal that targets some Lake Oswego schools for closure.

Mayor Jack Hoffman announced during a city council community roundtable meeting on Saturday that an eight-person task force has been formed to brainstorm ways to lessen a projected school budget shortfall that could reach as high as $8 million dollars next year.

A recent proposal by a citizens advisory committee calls for shutting down three Lake Oswego elementary schools, saving the district about $1.6 million. A follow-up proposal could also ax a junior and high school, which is estimated to save at least another $2.4 million.

The formation of