Duncan Takes to Twitter to Answer Your Questions | ED.gov Blog

Duncan Takes to Twitter to Answer Your Questions | ED.gov Blog:

Duncan Takes to Twitter to Answer Your Questions

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

(Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood)

During the past week, thousands of Twitter users submitted questions to Secretary Duncan for his first-ever #AskArne Twitter Town Hall, and the difficult task of choosing the questions for Arne fell to the event’s moderator, journalist John Merrow. Merrow monitored #AskArne tweets throughout the week and even gave one last look through the steady stream of questions just moments before the camera went live.

Merrow asked Secretary Duncan tough questions covering a broad range of topics, including: standardized testing, cheating, performance pay for educators, and whether Arne truly listens to teachers.

Many Twitter users asked Arne about testing, and whether students are taking too many tests at school.

@pureparents: #AskArne: What specifically will you do to decrease the amount of and emphasis on standardized testing in the US?

Secretary Duncan answered:

@usedgov: Where you have too many tests, or are spending too much time on test prep, that doesn’t lead to good results. #AskArne

@usedgov: Fill-in-the-bubble tests should be a tiny % of what we’re doing. I’m a big fan of formative assessments–more helpful to teachers. #AskArne

A few Twitter users such as Richard wondered if Arne listens to teachers.

@Thanks2Teachers: #AskArne Do you truly LISTEN to the voices & concerns of teachers and parents? Hope this isn’t a hollow public relations exercise.

Duncan explained to Merrow:

@usedgov: I listen to teachers daily, in visits to schools, in mtgs @ ED and through our teaching ambassadors. Visited hundreds of schools. #askarne

Several Twitter users inquired about the Secretary’s stand on school vouchers:

@thefooshshow: #AskArne Heritage Fndn sz vouchers most viable way to *dismantle* pub #education. Will u unequivcbly take v off table?

Duncan responds:

@usedgov: Duncan: I will never support school vouchers. They take $ away from public system. I want great PUBLIC schools in this country. #AskArne

(Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood)

During the town hall, Secretary Duncan noted that he’s still a Twitter “novice” and he looks forward to future chats and to engaging with teachers online. If you missed the town hall, you can watch the archived video here, and you can see a more comprehensive list of questions and answers through ED’s Twitter page.

To keep up-to-date on all things ED, follow @ArneDuncan,@usedgov, @ED_Outreach, @EDPressSec on Twitter, orclick here to see all of ED’s social media accounts.

How Rhee manages to keep suddenly silent on Erasuregate

How Rhee manages to keep suddenly silent on Erasuregate:

How Rhee manages to keep suddenly silent on Erasuregate * * * * Posted: 1:10PM, August 24, 2011

Readers comment on NYT Rhee and cheating article Posted by Guy Brandenburg on GFBrandenburg Blog. Read the original here. We have excerpted Guy’s piece and added some visuals to underscore some of the comments by readers. *“Here are a few comments that ran in the New York Times in response to ...

The reform movement is already failing Written by Diane Ravitch for Reuters. Read the entire article here. *“In my nearly four decades as a historian of education, I have analyzed the rise and fall of reform movements. Typically, reforms begin with loud declarations that our education ...

Anti-teacher union ''reformers'' hoisted on own petard Written by Randy Shaw for BeyondChron. Read the entire article here. *“Recent data shows anti-union school “reformers” hoisted on their own petard. After insisting that test scores should be the chief measure of schools, a flurry of recent test ...

How badly did Arne Duncan want to talk to Matt Damon? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

How badly did Arne Duncan want to talk to Matt Damon? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

How badly did Arne Duncan want to talk to Matt Damon?

by Valerie Strauss

It turns out that people in the Obama administration made several attempts to reach actor Matt Damon just before he spoke at last month’s Save Our Schools rally in Washington D.C., blasting education policies that focus on high-stakes standardized tests.

According to two people familiar with the efforts, the administration tried to arrange a meeting with Damon and government officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, before the July 30 march. The sources declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Read full article >>

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Money Can't Buy Me Love

by Nancy Flanagan

A recent consulting contract took me to Lake George, New York, to lead a group of educators in refining a graduate course on teachers as leaders. I've been wading around in teacher leadership -a concept that means decidedly different things to different people--for a couple of decades now, reviewing the literature, poking at theoretical models and trying to figure out how seminal ideas shape the field.

I have a large collection of favorite resources on teacher leadership--books, websites, articles, cartoons, blogs, even an iTunes playlist. This summer, I had to add a new artifact to view: the StudentsFirst.org website. An example of what hundreds of millions will buy you in media presence and influence, a place where compelling messages about teaching and learning go to be politically compromised, twisted to a kind of educationalNewspeak.

The veteran teacher leaders who visited the website were shocked. "Saving good teachers" has a whole different

IEA leaders gear up to sit at the pension table. Worried? I am. « Fred Klonsky's blog

IEA leaders gear up to sit at the pension table. Worried? I am. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

IEA leaders gear up to sit at the pension table. Worried? I am.

by Fred Klonsky

This from IEA Communications Director Charlie McBarron:

The drive to change state pension benefits for active employees, which was stopped last May when IEA members and staff helped halt SB512, the “pension reform” bill, is about to begin anew.

Proponents had said they wanted input from unions before reintroducing the bill, or another proposal, but virtually nothing has happened. That’s about to change. Here’s what we hear:

Principal Apportionment - Allocations & Apportionments (CA Dept of Education)

Principal Apportionment - Allocations & Apportionments (CA Dept of Education):

Principal Apportionment

Distribution of funds for local educational agencies (LEAs) in support of the public school system. Includes elementary school, high school and unified school districts; charter schools; and county offices of education.

---

Fiscal Year

• Fiscal Year 2011-12
  Apportionments certified in fiscal year 2011-12.
• Fiscal Year 2010-11
  Apportionments certified in fiscal year 2010-11.
• Fiscal Year 2009-10
  Apportionments certified in fiscal year 2009-10.
• Fiscal Year 2008-09
  Apportionments certified in fiscal year 2008-09.
• Fiscal Year 2005-06 to 2007-08
  Apportionments certified in fiscal years 2005-06 to 2007-08.

PASE Listserv

The purpose of the California Department of Education PASE contacts listserv is to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) and other interested parties important information, such as notifications regarding software releases, key deadlines, reminders of due dates for submission of data, and any other pertinent topics related to the Office of Principal Apportionment and Special Education (PASE) and the Office of Charter Apportionments and District Reorganization.

To Subscribe:

If you would like to subscribe to the PASE listserv, send a "blank" message to
join-pase-contacts@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

To Unsubscribe:

If you would like to unsubscribe from the PASE listserv, send a "blank" message to
unsubscribe-pase-contacts@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

Other Fiscal Information

• Schedule of State Controller's Warrants for the State School Fund (Revised 23-Feb-2011)
• Assembly Bill 1389-Redevelopment Agency Pass-through Payments
• Class Size Penalty Estimator (New 24-Aug-2011; XLS; 3MB; 56 pp.)
  To be used as an estimate. Uses 2010-11 P-2 Revenue data for calculations.

Resources

• Calendar of Key Deadlines
• Staff Contact List
• Class Size Penalties - CalEdFacts
  Part of California Department of Education's information and media guide about education in the State of California. For similar information on other topics, visit the full CalEdFacts.

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Creating your own "parent involvement constitution" | EdNews Parent:

Creating your own “parent involvement constitution”

Laura Barr | August 24, 2011 | 0 Comments

The correlation between parent participation and student achievement is obvious. I have read decades of research that shows when parents are involved in their child’s education students have:

• Higher test scores

• Better school attendance

• Increased motivation

• Better self-esteem

• Decreased use of drugs and alcohol

• Lower suspension rates

Yet, after I mark off the days for fall break, Martin Luther King Jr. day, President’s day, César Chavez day, spring break, teacher work days and teacher conferences for three different schools, I ask myself, “How

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A Back to School Call to Action

by National Partnership for Women and Families

Fall can be a challenging time for any working parent. Summer is over. Kids are headed back to school – and flu season is around the corner. When a child starts coughing and sneezing or spikes a fever, many parents are filled with dread. But for parents whose jobs do not offer paid sick days, these fears are compounded by worries about how they will care for a sick child and make ends meet. That’s why this is also a good time of year toraise awareness about the need for a common sense paid sick days standard in this country.

More than 44 million workers in the United States are in jobs that don’t provide paid sick days to deal with their own illnesses. Millions more don’t have paid sick time they can use to care for a child. This is despite ample evidence demonstrating the many ways parental access to paid sick days improves the long-term physical and academic health of children – and, conversely, the very real threat the lack of access to paid sick days poses to the health of our children, our schools and our communities. It’s an issue that affects all children and parents.

Caring parents want to protect their children’s health by staying home to speed their recovery and making sure

Highlights from Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Highlights from Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Highlights from Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall

By Michele McNeil on August 24, 2011 3:33 PM | No comments | No recommendations

During a 30-plus-minute, rapid-fire Q & A between Arne Duncan and moderator John Merrow, we learned that 10 days of testing is too much, merit pay for teachers should be voluntary, and the U.S. Secretary of Education is a Twitter "novice."

For Duncan's first-ever Twitter town hall, thousands of folks sent questions to the EdSec using the #askarne hashtag, and many were outright "hostile," Merrow said. But PBS' education correspondent and the president of Learning Matters managed to get in more than a dozen substantive questions about testing, cheating, teacher merit-pay and charter schools.

Here are highlights from the town hall:

• Duncan is a Twitter "novice" who doesn't follow a single teacher. (Uh oh, will he be updating his "follows" list?)

• Duncan says "every single governor" has said we need NCLB waivers. Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry has expressed interest, @edpresssec later confirmed.

• As for NCLB waivers given in exchange for adopting Duncan's reforms, the

This Week In Education: Media: How SchoolBook Aims To Get More Folks Involved

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Media: How SchoolBook Aims To Get More Folks Involved

by Alexander Russo

Everybody who creates an education site wants super active readers and commenters, but not everybody knows how to get and keep them (or how to get them to do anything more than comment randomly). One of the most interesting things that SchoolBook is going to do to address this challenge is make use of a database of commenter/experts created by Minnesota Public Radio / American Public Media. Another strategy they're planning on using is to get folks involved via text and cell phone voicemail messages, not just smartphone and Internet-based interactivity, since many folks (esp. low-income and immigrant) rely on regular cell phones. Read below for some more details based on a phone conversation with WNYC's John Keefe.

WNYC has been working with APM's 100,000-member Public Insight service for about a year, and aims to make it a big part of its new education site, SchoolBook. Put simply, Public Insight is an effort to create relationships with regular people -- not necessarily listeners/readers -- beyond the usual one-off journalist-source relationship. How it works, according to WNYC's John Keefe, is that it sends an email or text to folks who've

Shanker Blog » Certainty And Good Policymaking Don't Mix

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Certainty And Good Policymaking Don’t Mix

by Matthew Di Carlo

Using value-added and other types of growth model estimates in teacher evaluations is probably the most controversial and oft-discussed issue in education policy over the past few years.

Many people (including a large proportion of teachers) are opposed to using student test scores in their evaluations, as they feel that the measures are not valid or reliable, and that they will incentivize perverse behavior, such as cheating or competition between teachers. Advocates, on the other hand, argue that student performance is a vital part of teachers’ performance evaluations, and that the growth model estimates, while imperfect, represent the best available option.

I am sympathetic to both views. In fact, in my opinion, there are only two unsupportable positions in this debate: Certainty that using these measures in evaluations will work; and certainty that it won’t. Unfortunately, that’s often how the debate has proceeded – two deeply-entrenched sides convinced of their absolutist positions, and resolved that any nuance in or compromise of their views will only preclude the success of their efforts. You’re

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BY RANDY SHAW/BEYOND CHRON – REBLOGGED FROM DICK AND SHARON’S LA PROGRESSIVE | HTTP://BIT.LY/QZJJJJ

Michelle Rhee​

August 23, 2011 - Recent data shows anti-union school “reformers” hoisted on their own petard. After insisting that test scores should be the chief measure of schools, a flurry of recent test results has refuted claims that non-union charter schools exceed unionized public ones. First, last July saw the Atlanta schools testing scandal explode, over five years after the local teachers union raised alarm bells the district ignored.

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The Hijacking of a Dream: The Need too Reclaim Dr. King’s Legacy | Dailycensored.com

The Hijacking of a Dream: The Need too Reclaim Dr. King’s Legacy | Dailycensored.com:

The Hijacking of a Dream: The Need too Reclaim Dr. King’s Legacy

Written by Solomon ComissiongDaily Journal (Opinion), Media, War and PeaceAug 24, 2011

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The Hijacking of a Dream: Why We Need to Reclaim Dr. King’s Legacy

By: Solomon Comissiong

On August 28, 2011, the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial will take place on the National Mall in Washington DC. Having the dedication of this memorial on the 48^th anniversary of the March on Washington, is clearly a symbolic gesture—paying homage to one of the many defining moments in the great civil rights leader’s life. However, the planners/corporate contributors of this event, along with many of the politicians that will be in attendance, are symbolic themselves—they are symbols of everything Dr. King was, and would be opposed to—if he were