Tuesday, December 11, 2012

by alkleen

Illinois retired teachers need to continue to fight the media and powerful interest groups that are trying to convince the public that the average retired teacher’s pension is quite lucrative. We need to have a blockbuster public relations campaign and or some extremely influential periodical. A best-selling book that shows a retired teacher in financial difficulty would be ideal. We need to get everyone in Illinois feeling sorry for Illinois retired teachers. What better way than to produce a best-selling book that would be loosely based on a troubled retired teacher ? We need a modern-day Harriet Beecher Stowe to write a potential best seller that would do for Illinois retired teachers what “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did for the anti-slavery movement.
I suggest someone help me to write a book about my own situation. The book would be titled, “Uncle Al’s Cabin”. My real financial situation is very modest. My pension after 22 years of public teaching is only $26,000 a year. I had 17 years in private schools and only get a pension of $2,4000 a year. That’s correct, $200 a month. I should get $900 a month from Social Security for all my many extra jobs I worked throughout my lifetime, but NO, because I have a public pension I don’t get what I should from Social Security. My secondary insurance is

Florida Parent Groups United in Urging Scott to Reject “Political Applicants” for Ed Commissioner | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Parent Groups United in Urging Scott to Reject “Political Applicants” for Ed Commissioner | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida Parent Groups United in Urging Scott to Reject “Political Applicants” for Ed Commissioner

by Bob Sikes

et al.

Jeff Solochek has this in Gradebook:

Nine parent leaders representing advocacy organizations across Florida sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott today urging him to reject all three of the finalists for the education commissioner job. The group appeals to the governor’s recent attempts to build relationships with parents and other education stakeholders, saying this is a chance for him to show he is concerned and was listening.
“We are confident that you have had far too many conversations with the parents and teachers of Florida to ignore the fact that Tony Bennett, Charles Hokansan and Randy Dunn apparently endorse an extreme reform agenda that does not represent our vision of public education,” the

The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time? | EduShyster

The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time? | EduShyster:

The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time?

by edushyster2012

Today’s topic is civil rights. As in those things that you are not supposed to violate. Unless, of course, you are part of an effort to crush the achievement gap—otherwise known as the civil rights issue of our time—in which case you may apparently violate civil rights with impunity.

The first stop on our tour is Fall River, Massachusetts, where the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has just announced an investigation into allegations that the city’s schools are suspending black and Latino students at a disproportionate rate. According to the ACLU, the Fall River Public Schools suspended 18% of all students in the last school year. And as Dan Losen of the Office of Civil Rights explains, even suspending a

Charter networks win Race to the Top-District

Charter networks win Race to the Top-District:

Charter networks win Race to the Top-District

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 11, 2012 at 2:26 pm

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Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

Charter school networks are now official “districts,” at least by the rules of the Department of Education’s Race to the Top-District competition, which just announced that 16 applicants had each won a share of nearly $400 million in the latest sweepstakes.

A news release issued by the department quoted Secretary Arne Duncan as saying:

Districts have been hungry to drive reform at the local level, and now these winners can empower their school leaders to pursue innovative ideas where they have the greatest impact: in the classroom.

Among the winners (a complete list is below) are these charter networks:

KIPP DC, Washington, D.C.

* Harmony Science Academy (Harmony Public Schools), Texas, consortium leader
(consortium members: Harmony School of Excellence, Harmony School of Science-Houston, Harmony Science Academy-Austin, Harmony Science Academy-Brownsvill

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below

Giving teachers more power helps in turnaround of Boston schools | HechingerEd Blog

Giving teachers more power helps in turnaround of Boston schools | HechingerEd Blog:

Giving teachers more power helps in turnaround of Boston schools

by Jackie Mader

Six low-performing Boston schools participating in a pilot program that gives teachers more training, support, and leadership roles are showing higher growth on state tests than other low-performing city schools according to a report released Monday by the non-profit Teach Plus.
The T3 Initiative program, a collaboration between Boston Public Schools and Teach Plus, began training and placing groups of experienced teachers with track records of raising student test scores in a set of three failing schools in 2010, after a dozen city schools were deemed underperforming by the state in 2010 for chronically low test scores. The pilot expanded to three more schools the following year.
The report, an evaluation by Teach Plus of its own program, shows that at the first three schools to use the program, the percentage of students earning advanced or proficient scores on their state tests increased by nearly 13 percentage points in English language arts on average over the course of two years, and 16.5 percentage points in math on average. The second group of schools saw similar growth at the middle and high school level over the course of one year.
In addition to training and hiring new teachers, the six schools in the T3 Initiative, provided health and wellness

Pension Call Tuesday. Send your legislator a holiday card with a pension message. « Fred Klonsky

Pension Call Tuesday. Send your legislator a holiday card with a pension message. « Fred Klonsky:

Pension Call Tuesday. Send your legislator a holiday card with a pension message.

by Fred Klonsky

So you’ve called your IEA Regional office and made a reservation on the bus to Springfield, January 3rd.
Or, you just can’t make it to Springfield (you better have a real good excuse), but you want to do something.
Here’s the plan.
Send the sponsors of of the Nekritz bill a holiday card.
Rep. Elaine Nekritz - Daniel Biss - David Harris - Chris Nybo, Kelly Burke, Kelly M. Cassidy, William Cunningham, Robyn Gabel, Ann Williams, Linda Chapa LaVia, William Davis, Sara Feigenholtz, Jehan A. Gordon, Greg Harris, Elizabeth Hernandez, Charles W. Krezwick, Karen May, Deborah Mell, Cynthia Soto,Michael J. Zalewski and Cory Foster
Something Christmassy, Hanukkahish. A touch of Kwanzaa. It could even be a card celebrating Jerry Seinfeld’sFestivus (the holiday for the rest of us).
Make sure your card has a message appropriate to the season. No not the holiday season!
The pension cutting season!!
Mail the two cards to these folks around the 23rd of December so they all arrive about the same time.
Share your message here, if you like.
Let’s make it a contest.
The best message will win.
I’m the judge. My decision will be final.
The winner will receive a copy of Diane Ravitch’s The Life and Death of the Great American School System.

CDE Responds to Auditor's Report - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education)

CDE Responds to Auditor's Report - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education):

California Department of Education Responds to California State Auditor Report

SACRAMENTO—The California Department of Education responded today to the report issued by the California State Auditor.

"The Department has taken a number of steps that address issues raised in today's report by the State Auditor," said Communications Director Paul Hefner. "Prior to the report's release, the Department installed upgraded software that restricts employees from posting content to social media Web sites without authorization. The first supervisor named in the report has received additional training. In addition, while the Department was evaluating information provided by the Auditor, the employee involved voluntarily left employment with the Department."

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

New Interim Administrator Appointed for Inglewood Unified School District

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today appointed La Tanya Kirk-Carter to serve as interim Administrator of the Inglewood Unified School District after accepting the resignation of Administrator Kent Taylor.

"This change is in the best interests of taxpayers, students, and employees of the Inglewood Unified School District," Torlakson said. "I'm confident that our work to address the district's troubled finances will proceed without interruption."

Taylor stepped down after the California Department of Education (CDE) learned of financial commitments he had made without the required CDE approval and prior to the completion of a financial review and plan to restore the district to fiscal health.

Kirk-Carter previously served as Assistant Superintendent of Business Services at the district. She will serve in an interim capacity until a new permanent administrator is named.

The state took over the district in September under legislation passed at the request of the district that provided up to $55 million in emergency state loans to help the district meet its financial obligations. The legislation required the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to assume all the legal rights, duties, and powers of the governing board of the district.

Inglewood Unified School District is the ninth school district in California to request an emergency loan, thus triggering the state takeover, since 1990. Since then, local governance has been returned to four of these districts.

Sandra Stotsky: Why Did Colorado Trade in a Silk Purse for a Sow’s Ear? | Truth in American Education

Sandra Stotsky: Why Did Colorado Trade in a Silk Purse for a Sow’s Ear? | Truth in American Education:

Sandra Stotsky: Why Did Colorado Trade in a Silk Purse for a Sow’s Ear?

by Shane Vander Hart

The Heartland Institute has a news article on their site that highlighted meetings related to the Common Core State Standards that took place in Colorado on December 6th – one with the Colorado State Board of Education and the other with a panel discussion convened by the Pioneer Institute. The money quote belongs to Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas. See the excerpt below:

Federal grants pushed 45 states to adopt both the Common Core math and English language arts standards, which lay out what children should know in every grade.

One Common Core adoptee, Utah, formally withdrew from helping develop a set of tests related to the standards in August. Leaders in Indiana and South Carolina have also

Classic Literature–A Bipartisan Issue

by Shane Vander Hart

Even the Huffington Post is noting the concern about the Common Core ELA Standards being light on classic literature for high school seniors. They write:

But the new guidelines are increasingly worrying English-lovers and English teachers, who feel they must replace literary greats like The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye with Common Core-suggested “exemplars,” like the Environmental Protection Agency’s Recommended Levels of Insulation and the California Invasive Plant Council’s Invasive Plant Inventory.

Jamie Highfill, an eighth-grade English teacher at Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville, Ark., and 2011 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, told the Washington Post she’s already had to drop short stories and a favorite literary unit to make time for essays by Malcolm Gladwell from his social behavior book The Tipping Point.

“I’m struggling with this, and my students are struggling,” Highfill told the Post. “With informational

Schools Matter: Open letter to David Welch, Eli Broad, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and their Students Matter Astroturf

Schools Matter: Open letter to David Welch, Eli Broad, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and their Students Matter Astroturf:

Open letter to David Welch, Eli Broad, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and their Students Matter Astroturf

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"And not merely pride of intellect, but dulness of intellect. And most of all, the deceitfulness; yes, the deceitfulness of intellect" — Leo Tolstoy

David Welch, Eli Broad, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher propagate lies

David Welch, Eli Broad, Theodore J. Boutrous, Theane Evangelis Kapur, Theodore B. Olson, Enrique A. Monagas, and Joshua S. Lipshutz:
Your Students Matter website explicitly states "When it comes to education quality, numerous studies show that teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement."
Can you please produce even one peer reviewed study from a legitimate source that backs up that assertion?
As a person closely associated with top academicians in the field of education research and policy, I am not aware of any study that makes such a brazen and strident claim.
Indeed, even Eric A. Hanushek, an economist who shares your unfortunate politics and world view, has found that teachers account for no more than 13% of student achievement. A far cry from the declaration on your website, which, in the absence of any factual basis, is mendacious at best.
Since you're billionaires, businessmen, and attorneys it's safe to assume your knowledge on issues of pedagogy and education policy is negligible. With that in mind, I'll do you a favor and clarify your grossly erroneous statement, albeit even the correction is lacking nuance and context. What some initial studies have shown is that teachers are the largest of in-school factors impacting student achievement. I refer you to the aforementioned Hanushek findings to put that into some context.
I understand that neither your law firm, nor the astroturf public relations 501(c)(3) you created to disseminate misinformation, are interested in facts. That said, I felt a moral obligation to let you know that many community members are not fooled by your propaganda.
I taught bilingual catechism, primarily at St. Teresa of Avila Church, for a dozen or so years. One of the things we had to teach young children about was the definition of a lie. This idea was simple enough for 7-9 year olds to comprehend: "when you say something that you know is untrue, it's a lie." Sadly that concept is seemingly too complex for high powered litigators like yourselves to grasp.
Advocating public education and social justice
Robert D. Skeels
Candidate for District 2, Los Angeles Unified School District

An independent look at the Common Core State Standards Initiative CCSSI Mathematics

CCSSI Mathematics:

2012-12-10

Mathematical tools – Part 3

On the morning of June 20, 1944, two weeks after D-Day, New York high school students sitting for the Plane Geometry Regents exam were asked to do the following construction:

The task posed almost 70 years ago was not difficult, but it also wasn’t rote. It required the test-taker to make connections and to solve a problem: to apply basic construction techniques to notions of similarity and its theorems. Additionally, it required visualization skills: before actually drawing the lines and arcs necessary to complete the construction, students needed to envision the final picture.

Activists aim to overrule Sac City school board on Bell’s replacement | Sacramento Current

Activists aim to overrule Sac City school board on Bell’s replacement | Sacramento Current:

Activists aim to overrule Sac City school board on Bell’s replacement

Posted on December 6, 2012 by cosmog

When Ellyn Bell made public her intention to leave the Sacramento City Unified School District board of trustees–so she could live closer to her new job in San Francisco–her colleagues on the school board decided it was too late and too expensive to call an election to fill her seat.

So they plan to pick their own replacement to represent Area 1 (Land Park, Curtis Park, the Grid), and to serve the remainder of Bell’s term, which ends December 2014. The board is scheduled to pick from eight applicants, and to make that appointment this December 20.

That decision may be overruled by voters, however. Community activists and district labor unions are now calling for a special election to replace Bell. And they’re threatening a petition drive that would force an election, even if the board makes it’s own pick.

Annette Deglow is one of the folks leading the effort–she was also one of the community activists who helped to write and pass Measures J and K, which brought area elections to the district and replaced the old at-large system in 2006.

Deglow says the school board’s decision to appoint a new board member, rather than

Diane in the Evening 12-11-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Jindal: Vouchers Will Provide Excellence for All

by dianerav

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal used his platform at the Brookings Institution to argue that vouchers were the best way to provide excellence for all children.
Joy Resmovits of the Huffington Post wrote an excellent description of his presentation, noting that a court in Louisiana had just called the funding of vouchers unconstitutional. Jindal assured her that decision would be overturned on appeal.
She also pointed out that some of the state’s voucher schools refused to accept students with disabilities and

Sandra Stotsky: The Leading Critic of Common Core

from Diane Ravitch's blog by dianerav

I just posted an article written by David Coleman and Susan Pimentel, explaining that the Common Core standards are not antagonistic to literature and fiction, and that they promote a higher quality of both fiction and nonfiction.
Within minutes, I received a post from Sandra Stotsky, expressing her vehement opposition to the Common Core standards. Stotsky was in charge of the development of the highly praised Massachusetts standards. The English standards in that state were especially strong on literature. Stotsky is still upset that Massachusetts

David Coleman Clarifies Role of Fiction in Common Core Standards

by dianerav

In response to a loud outcry about the place of fiction in the English classes, David Coleman and Susan Pimentel have written a description of the requirements for reading in the standards. Susan Pimentel was co-writer with David Coleman of the English language arts standards in the Common Core State Standards.
Coleman and Pimentel insist that fiction and literature will continue to be central in English classrooms. They expect that English teachers will not only teach Shakespeare and poetry, as they have in the past, but literary nonfiction as well.
As readers may know, articles have appeared in the international press about the removal of well-known works of

Karen Lewis: Where Corporate Reform Is Going

by dianerav

A Comment from Karen Lewis about the simultaneous deluge of “reforms,” none of which is grounded in research or experience:
“Any decent researcher knows that when you change more than one variable in an experiment, you have to do some pretty heavy lifting in order to determine which one had more effect than another. So in Chicago we have a new evaluation, Common Core, a longer day and year, a new contract, school closings and the usual suspects

Teacher: Please Hear Me, Mayor Bloomberg

by dianerav

In his weekly radio interview, Mayor Bloomberg said that wants to hold teachers’ feet to the fire. He wants them evaluated by the scores of their students and he wants their ratings published. He is furious that the union has been unwilling to agree to a pact. He says he will cut the budget if they don’t comply.
This teacher read the post and replied:
“I can not believe his language. Evaluation is something every professional adult is subject to, provided that the evaluation is done in good faith, by a fair measure, by trustworthy evaluators. The minute you say you want to

Randi Weingarten: VAM Is Junk Science

by dianerav

The United Teachers of Los Angeles reached an evaluation agreement that minimizes the use of test scores.
Perhaps they were burned by the inappropriate public release of teacher ratings devised by the Los Angeles Times.
I don’t understand how their evaluation system will work, but this is the key takeaway: AFT President Randi Weingarten called value-added modeling (VAM) by this term: “junk science.”
You read it here and here and here
This is the method whereby a teacher may be voted “teacher of the year” and rated “ineffective,” all at the same time.
You go, Randi!.

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-11-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Why Is Big Brother Watching You? by dianerav When I worked in the federal Department of Education twenty years ago, I recall getting blizzards of postcards and letters from individuals and groups that were worried that the government was collecting too much information about them or their children. I pointed out repeatedly that the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was in my tiny domain, did not collect information about individual students or their families. There was no vast federal ... more »

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

California Department of Education Responds to California State Auditor Report

New Interim Administrator Appointed for Inglewood Unified School District

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