Punitive and Unsympathetic: Mathews is SOOOO Wrong on KIPP | Cloaking Inequity

Punitive and Unsympathetic: Mathews is SOOOO Wrong on KIPP | Cloaking Inequity:

Punitive and Unsympathetic: Mathews is SOOOO Wrong on KIPP

Jay Mathews is an education talking head, columnist, blogger and huge cheerleader for KIPP schools. KIPP is under fire for their attrition again— this time due to discipline in D.C. Mathews’ explanation and justification for KIPPactions were punitive and unsympathetic. Jay Mathews is clearly not an expert on this issue, so I asked someone who actually knows something about school discipline to respond. Here are Heather Cole’s thoughts. —Julian

A few days ago, The University of Texas at Austin hosted a special conference on trauma-informed care and at-risk youth. The purpose of the conference was to talk about different approaches to addressing the needs of young people in various systems including schools, home, foster care and treatment facilities. The keynote speaker was Dr. Bruce Perry, a trauma expert and the founder and director of the Child Trauma Academy. Dr. Perry spoke at length about the inability of society to meet the developmental needs of our children. He made several critical comments about the ways our schools are organized and the failure of teachers and administrators to identify the cognitive and emotional developmental stage of students. This lack of awareness and knowledge feeds into their inability to understand that for many children, the demands being placed upon them are simply not achievable. This does not mean that with assistance, demands, both academic and behavioral can be met. However, when 

Connecticut's teacher evaluation plan - even worse than we thought (by Wendy Lecker) - Wait, What?

Connecticut's teacher evaluation plan - even worse than we thought (by Wendy Lecker) - Wait, What?:

Connecticut’s teacher evaluation plan – even worse than we thought (by Wendy Lecker)

by jonpelto

When you take a break from digging out from the “Great Blizzard of 2013,” I strongly urge you to take a moment today to read Heart Newspaper columnist and fellow blogger, Wendy Lecker’s, latest commentary piece entitled “Connecticut’s teacher evaluation plan – even worse than we thought.”

Wendy’s article is the clearest description to date of the dishonest, disastrous and counter-productive evaluation system that Governor Malloy, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, and his State Board of Education are trying to foist upon the teachers, administrators, students and parents who are part of Connecticut’s public education system.

The waste of time, energy and money associated with this abomination is staggering.

Even in a time of unlimited public resources, the program the Malloy and his Department of Education is pushing would be inappropriate, but now, as Connecticut continues to struggle through the greatest economic troubles of our times; their plan is nothing short of 

Longer school days: why? « Deborah Meier on Education

Longer school days: why? « Deborah Meier on Education:

Longer school days: why?

by debmeier

“Answer: so the kids have more time to learn and because they’ll have less time to get into mischief, hang out around with bad influences–like family and neighborhood.” Or somethng “comonsensical like tht. What we must do (see Ed Week, 12/12 by Nora Fleming.) is ensure that “every minute of the schoo day is well spent.” (Idle hands, et al) Oddly enough, our “competitors” abroad have shorter student work days and hours, and more time for professionals to gather and hone their craft. And all this on a shorter/lesser budget! And more money spent on testing. And…. How will we know if time is well-spent? That’s where more and more testing fits in well. So, you can guess what the extra time will be devoted to…. I knew you’d get it.
In Finland the teachers teach four hours a day–ditto for Japan, et al. We don’t count lawyer’s hours or doctor’s hours by the minutes spent with clients–and they generally have one client at a time! So why do we think 

Daily Kos: A different kind of Saturday reflection

Daily Kos: A different kind of Saturday reflection:

A different kind of Saturday reflection

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

for one thing, it is afternoon, not morning
for another, I did not teach this week, nor did I teach last week, since I have been caring for my wife, last week in the hospital, this past week at home
that has given me a lot of time to think, to ponder, to reflect, particularly when she sleeps
I do not pretend that the resulting thoughts are of great insight
I do not know if sharing them will be of value to anyone except me - in writing them down I clarify some of my own thinking
I invite you to keep reading, and upon conclusion of reading perhaps to share some thoughts of your own

‘Atlas Shrugged’ Should Be Required Reading | toteachornototeach

‘Atlas Shrugged’ Should Be Required Reading | toteachornototeach:

‘Atlas Shrugged’ Should Be Required Reading

by aristotlethewise

‘Atlas Shrugged’ Should Be Required Reading For Students, Republican Says

By John Celock
A Republican state senator in Idaho has introduced legislation that would require all high school students in the state to read an Ayn Rand novel that has become popular with the Tea Party movement.
State Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde (R-Coeur d’Alene) introduced legislation Tuesday that would require the reading of Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by every high school student in the state, and the passage of a test on the book, in order to graduate, The Spokesman-Review reported. Goedde said that he only introduced the bill as a way to send a message to the state over a series of recent decisions, and not to force the reading of Rand’s book.
“It was a shot over their bow just to let them know that there’s another way to adopt high school graduation 

Diane in the Evening 2-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

How Teachers Can Stop the Organized Attack on Teaching

by dianerav

Teachers often feel powerless in the face of the assaults against their profession. Often they are directed to do things that they know are educational malpractice, and they have no choice but to comply.
The best way to resist is through collective action, like the testing boycott of the Seattle teachers. One person standing alone is admirable but will be fired. What is necessary is for entire faculties to speak as one. Think of the Chicago Teachers Union. Their detractors changed the state law to prevent them from striking, raising the requirement for a strike vote to 75%. Their enemies, organized by Jonah Edelman of the notorious Stand for 

My Advice for Obama’s State of Union Speech

by dianerav

I was invited by the Bill Moyers’ show to write the section on education for President Obama’s State of the Union address. Not to write what I think ke WILL say, but what I think he SHOULD say.
Read it here
and please add your comment.

Good Things Happening in Green Bay!

by dianerav

Amanda Brooker writes about the good work in her school and district. It is important that everyone recognize that the effort to make public schools intolerable and to privatize public education is national. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Tony Bennett, and Michelle Rhee are among its leaders.
Dr. Ravitch,
My superintendent Michelle Langenfeld and I feel like we know you on a first name basis, as we are avid readers of your blog. I am proud to say that I am working in a school district that is reforming on our own (and not RheePhorming) under the leadership of Dr. Langenfeld. The Green Bay Area Public School District has almost 60% students on free or reduced lunch, the highest ELL population in the state (20%), and 45% minority . Our 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 20 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] The Dehumanization of Education by dianerav As the politicians and bureaucrats debate how to recalibrate their ideas about reforming the nation’s schools, it’s a good time to read what a teacher wrote about what Washington is doing to them. Maybe some thoughtful person could enter this into the record of the NCLB hearings. Is there no one in Congress who hears the voices of educators? Why don’t they invite real teachers, real principals, and real superintendents to testify instead of DC think tanks and sta... more »

UPDATE: Madder Than Hell About Common Core Missouri Education Watchdog: EPIC: Student Data Should Be Protected

Missouri Education Watchdog: EPIC: Student Data Should Be Protected:

Teacher is Madder Than Hell About Common Core Standards

by stlgretchen

Time for teachers to form a rebellion against Common Core?

A teacher wants to start a nationwide rebellion against Common Core Standards. From the San Leandro, CA Patch Teacher Is Madder Than Hell And Ain't Gonna Test Kids Anymore:

(Jerry Heverly is an English teacher at San Leandro High School. He has written before about how theCommon Core State Standards, a new federal mandate, will affect students and teachers.)

I’m starting a new organization at San Leandro High School.

It’s called the Common Core Resistance Army.

It would be sort of like those 60’s radical groups that were run by ex-con’s.

I’ll need a pretty young woman to be my deputy, of course. We’ll preach mass resistance to standardized tests.

Why does he dislike CCSS?

In researching this column I learned a few things about the Common Core that I didn’t know 

EPIC: Student Data Should Be Protected

by stlgretchen

This is from an article from Policy Matters Amassing Student Data and Dissipating Privacy Rights. 

From test-performance scores to student financial data to statewide longitudinal data systems, there has been a dramatic increase in the collection of students' sensitive information over the last decade. Both the U.S. Congress and the presidential administrations have touted the amassing of student data as beneficial and necessary to a 

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee On Stewart: A Final Thought

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee On Stewart: A Final Thought:

Rhee On Stewart: A Final Thought

by Duke

What does Michelle Rhee want to do to fix our "failing" schools?

It's not a secret: you can find the policy prescriptions for her Republican money funnel education reform organization, StudentsFirst, right at their website. The basic plan is as follows:

• Use standardized tests and Value-Added Models as at least half of the evaluation for teachers and principals; this should not be subject to collective bargaining.
• Dilute the credentialing and training of teachers.
• Install merit pay and eliminate tenure and seniority.
• Use much more computer-based instruction (not computer-assisted, but

Fax the Speaker of the House? Fax him? Fax? | Reclaim Reform

Fax the Speaker of the House? Fax him? Fax? | Reclaim Reform:

Fax the Speaker of the House? Fax him? Fax?

by kenpreviti

His Arrogance Mike Madigan holds the position of Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. How can he represent you if you are told that you cannot email him?
“You may Fax him,” was the response of the person who answered his phone when a retired teacher friend asked her how to get a message to him.

Fax? How quaint. We all have them in 2013, right?
Arrogance and lack of representation go hand in hand regarding the man who leads the attempt to pillage Illinois pension systems.
Please let him know how you feel about him and his Democratic super-majority legislators who want to “underfund” and undercut pensions (earned benefits) again and again.

Springfield Office:

300 Capitol Building

Springfield, IL   62706

(217) 782-5350

(217) 524-1794 FAX

District Office:

6500 South Pulaski Road

Chicago, IL  60629

(773) 581-8000

(773) 581-9414 FAX

The Secret To Fixing Bad Schools - NYTimes.com

The Secret To Fixing Bad Schools - NYTimes.com:

The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools

By DAVID L. KIRP

Published: February 9, 2013

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WHAT would it really take to give students a first-rate education? Some argue that our schools are irremediably broken and that charter schools offer the only solution. The striking achievement of Union City, N.J. — bringing poor, mostly immigrant kids into the educational mainstream — argues for reinventing the public schools we have.

Tim Lahan

Related in Opinion

More on Education »

Union City makes an unlikely poster child for education reform. It’s a poor community with an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average. Three-quarters of the students live in homes where only Spanish is spoken. A quarter are thought to be undocumented, living in fear of deportation.

Public schools in such communities have often operated as factories for failure. This used to be true in Union City, where the schools were once so wretched that state officials almost seized control of them. How things have changed. From third grade through high school, students’ achievement scores now approximate the statewide average. What’s more, in 2011, Union City boasted a high school graduation rate of 89.5 percent — roughly 10 percentage points higher than the national average. Last year, 75 percent of Union City graduates enrolled in college, with top students winning scholarships to the Ivies.

As someone who has worked on education policy for four 

Schools Matter: It's the Poverty Stupid

Schools Matter: It's the Poverty Stupid:

It's the Poverty Stupid

by Judy Rabin

More empirical evidence that poverty is at the root cause of education problems in the United States.  Will this important information and science continue to be ignored by politicians and the business community as they dismantle a public education system that took 200 years to build? Chicago is just latest city where students are begging to keep their community, public schools open as charters and for-profits move in to take over. They starved the beast, the public schools and the teachers unions, and now they can go in for the kill.

Stanford Report, January 15, 2013

Poor ranking on international test misleading about U.S. student performance, Stanford researcher finds

A comprehensive analysis of international tests by Stanford and the Economic Policy Institute shows that U.S. schools aren't being outpaced by international competition.

What Three Things Bother You Most about the Common Core? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

What Three Things Bother You Most about the Common Core? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

What Three Things Bother You Most about the Common Core?

by Nancy Flanagan

Question of the Day, from Jean Schutt-McTavish, a principal in New York who is briefing a political candidate on education issues:

What are your top three criticisms of the Common Core?
Schutt's gotten some pretty amazing responses, including this one--Won't Get Fooled Again-- from my Michigan buddy and rational math teacher extraordinaire, Michael Goldenberg. Mike doesn't hold back:

It is another doomed attempt to bring about meaningful change through a top-down, punitive system that will be badly misunderstood by many - even if everything in it were good, which is far from the case - and resented by those who for good reasons or bad view it as a wrong-headed path. Much research indicates that such reforms are fated to fail badly because few at the ground 

School Tech Connect: Today's Policy Event

School Tech Connect: Today's Policy Event:

Today's Policy Event

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Today's Policy Event

Uno and the Charter School Movement

A teach-in by Steve Serikaku and colleagues.
2:30 PM- 4:30 PM

Rogers Park Branch Library
6907 N. Clark Street
Upstairs Meeting Room

This will be a fair and comprehensive look at Chicago's charter movement with a special focus on the Jowls of Patronage. Ok, I just made that last part up. It will be a good policy event, not a harangue.

I'm running around like a madman; I hope people were able to get to the CEFT meeting and the other things going on around the city.

Schools Matter: The Dummy American

Schools Matter: The Dummy American:

The Dummy American

by Storm

It is tempting, always, to try to explain why some things are important, important to every single soul of us...those of us here or those of us reading blogs that same the exact opposite of what this one does.  However, the rule of change is that it must come from within.  As in a chemical reaction, there may be a catalyzing agent, like the match that starts the bonfire...but what catches and flames must be "ready" to become a conflagration.  Otherwise, the match is wasted and the brief spark is extinguished.

That is to say, if an explanation be necessary, it is often because the material is not primed to flame.  And often enough it is the explanation that dampens t

UPDATE Saturday coffee + Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution. Owns no books. « Fred Klonsky

Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution. Owns no books. « Fred Klonsky:

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

They will bury Hadiya Pendleton today.
Michelle Obama has come to attend the services.
There will be lots of other politicians.
Including the Mayor.
There were five hundred funerals for victims of gun violence in Chicago last year.
There will be more than that this year.

Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution.

by Fred Klonsky

Illinois Representative Joe Sosnowski, According to his official photograph owns no books. See book shelves on right in photo.
On Wednesday I gave the week’s Biggest Loser Legislator award to State Representative Joe Sosnowski.
Today Glen Brown, blogger and defender of our constitution, responds to Representative Sosnowski.

JRCA0011—Joe Sosnowski. Proposes to amend the General Provisions Article of the Illinois Constitution. Repeals a provision that specifies that membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or 

Ken Previti: The Speaker is unlisted.

by Fred Klonsky

Ken Previti’s blog:

His Arrogance Mike Madigan holds the position of Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. How can he represent you if you are told that you cannot email him?
“You may Fax him,” was the response of the person who answered his phone when a retired teacher friend asked her how to get a message to him.

Fax? How quaint. We all have them in 2013, right?
Arrogance and lack of representation go hand in hand regarding the man who leads the attempt to pillage Illinois pension systems.
Please let him know how you feel about him and his Democratic super-majority legislators who want to “underfund” and undercut pensions (earned benefits) again and again.

Springfield Office:

300 Capitol Building

Springfield, IL   62706

(217) 782-5350

(217) 524-1794 FAX

District Office:

6500 South Pulaski Road

Chicago, IL  60629

(773) 581-8000

(773) 581-9414 FAX

“They are asking us to plan our own funerals.” VIDEO.

by Fred Klonsky

Sarah Chambers, teacher at Saucedo Academy at last weeks school closing meeting in Pilsen – Little Village. Video: CTUNET.
Popout

Debate Over Federal Role in Public School Policy - NYTimes.com

Debate Over Federal Role in Public School Policy - NYTimes.com:

Amid Deluge of Waivers, Goals of No Child Left Behind Are Questioned

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: February 9, 2013

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As Congress contemplates rewriting No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature education law, legislators will tussle over a vision of how the federal government should hold states and schools accountable for students’ academic progress.

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Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, says the states should be allowed to set their own public school policies.

At a Senate education committee hearing on Thursday to discusswaivers to states on some provisions of the law, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal government to get out of the way.

“We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State. “Why do I have to come from the mountains of Tennessee to tell New York that’s good for you? Why can’t you decide that for yourself?”

Dr. King argued that the federal government needed to set “a few clear, bright-line