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Saturday, October 5, 2013

The Network For Public Education | The Network for Public Education endorses Suzie Abajian for North Pasadena School Board

The Network For Public Education | The Network for Public Education endorses Suzie Abajian for North Pasadena School Board:

The Network for Public Education endorses Suzie Abajian for North Pasadena School Board

endorsement abajian
The Network for Public Education, a national organization that fights to preserve and strengthen our public school system, has endorsed educator Suzie Abajian for South Pasadena School Board.
In deciding to make an endorsement in this local California race, The Network for Public Education took into consideration Dr. Abajian’s experience as an educator at both the K-12 and college levels. Throughout her career, Dr. Abajian has been a steadfast proponent of public education – as a math educator in the public schools of South Pasadena and at Loyola Marymount University. Dr. Abajian holds a Ph.D. in Education from UCLA and will bring to the South Pasadena School Board a profound understanding of education policy, effective teaching, and education research.
Also important to The Network for Public Education is Suzie Abajian’s stance on issues related to school reform. She believes in the importance of small class sizes in all grades K-12. She promises to promote the education of the whole child by supporting dual language immersion, arts, theater, and athletics. The Network for Public Education learned about Dr. Abajian’s candidacy from our members in California. NPE ally, Dr. Tina Trujillo, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley remarked, “Dr. Abajian will bring an ideal blend of qualities to the South Pasadena school board. She is steeped in the research on the deleterious effects of privatization and high-stakes accountability in public education, and she understands the significance of retaining local control of schools for educators and communities.”
The Network for Public Education is pleased to endorse Dr. Suzie Abajian for South Pasadena School Board and we encourage those who care about public education to do the same. Find out more about Dr. Suzie Abajian at http://suzieabajian.com.
For more information about The Network for Public Education, please visithttp://networkforpubliceducation.org.

NPE endorses three candidates for Bridgeport, CT Board of Education

NPE endorses three candidates for Bridgeport, CT Board of Education

The Network for Public Education, a national organization that fights for the preservation of our public school system, has endorsed three candidates for the Bridgeport Board of Education – Andre Baker, Dave Hennessey, and Howard Gardner. The September 10th primary in Bridgeport – Connecticut’s most populous city – looks to be a key contest in the battle for control of the school board. In recent years, politicians and school officials have enacted damaging reforms in Bridgeport and a change in the make-up of the board is necessary to correct the course of the school district. Andre Baker, a four-term Bridgeport City Councilman, brings political experience and a history of ... »
Koch Brothers Enter the Douglas County Race

Koch Brothers Enter the Douglas County Race

NPE-endorsed Candidate Faces AFP-Backed Tea Party Candidate  This week, it was announced that the Koch brothers have become involved in the School Board race in Douglas County, Colorado. The Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP), which is run by the Koch brothers, is the largest free-market organization in Colorado. AFP so far has spent $50,000 on an ad campaign featuring Denise Denny, a prominent figure in Douglas County’s local Tea Party. In recent years, the School Board in Douglas County has promoted and initiated corporate reform policies. The district’s controversial voucher program has been pushed into legislation with the help of ALEC. And AFP is working hard – ... »
Marie Corfield for New Jersey State Assembly

Marie Corfield for New Jersey State Assembly

Teacher Marie Corfield, Ready to Shake Things Up in New Jersey The Network for Public Education has endorsed another candidate. Marie Corfield is running for the state assembly, in an election that will take place on June 4th. Marie became an art teacher in 2001, and has taught at Robert Hunter Elementary School in Flemington since 2004. She Vice President-elect of the Flemington-Raritan Education Association and is also the legislative chairperson. After challenging Governor Chris Christie at a Flemington town hall meeting in 2010 about his derisive rhetoric about public education and teachers, the governor posted the video on his You Tube channel where it went viral. The students of New Je... »
Sue Peters Will Go On to General Election

Sue Peters Will Go On to General Election

NPE-endorsed Sue Peters overcomes the odds, wins 41% of vote Last week, we announced our endorsement of Sue Peters for School Board in Seattle and asked that you help us support Sue and get out the word about her campaign. This week, we are pleased to announce that all of your help paid off! Despite being targeted by negative advertising and outspent 6-1 by her opponent Suzanne Dale Estey, Sue won 41% of the vote in the primary election, and therefore will continue on to the general election in November. In response to the primary results, Sue told NPE: “[I] extend my deepest thanks to NPE for the timely and meaningful endorsement of my candidacy [...] I am confident that my positive a... »

NPE Endorsements
Our New Endorsed Candidate, Ronda Scholting

Our New Endorsed Candidate, Ronda Scholting

Help Support Ronda Scholting for Douglas County School Board This week we announced on our website our endorsement of Ronda Scholting, a candidate in the race for Douglas County School Board. As a parent of two public school graduates, Ronda has always been committed to supporting public education and believes that “quality education is the base of a strong community.” Ronda has a solid record of working to protect our children. In her capacity as an investigative journalist, Ronda brought to light a scandal regarding international adoption that instigated a U.S. Senate hearing on the matter. She also works with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, an organization dedi... »
Network for Public Education strongly endorses Sue Peters for the Seattle School Board

Network for Public Education strongly endorses Sue Peters for the Seattle School Board

Network for Public Education strongly endorses Sue Peters for the Seattle School Board. Seattle is an important battleground between the forces of privatization and corporate reform and progressive policies to protect and strengthen our public schools. Sue is a public school parent with nearly ten years of experience with the Seattle Public Schools.  She is a national leader in education advocacy and a founding member of Parents Across America.  She is an eloquent voice for smaller classes, a strong curriculum, student privacy, and against privatization, high-stakes testing and school closings.  She believes in embracing & celebrating the individuality and diversity of each child.  She h... »
Join the #CorfieldMoneyBomb

Join the #CorfieldMoneyBomb

Pledge your support for NPE-endorsed candidate Marie Corfield Marie Corfield is a teacher, parent, and NPE-endorsed candidate running for New Jersey Assembly. Corfield is holding an online campaign event today called #CorfieldMoneyBomb. The event is being held via Twitter and other social media, emphasizing the important role that grassroots organizing has played in Corfield’s campaign. The #CorfieldMoneyBomb officially begins at 4:20 AM on July 24, with Marie Corfield announcing a list of different actions that supporters can take to participate. These actions include: pledging small contributions on the moneybomb website changing your profile picture to the moneybomb avatar using the... »
Monica Ratliff, a Teacher, for Los Angeles School Board

Monica Ratliff, a Teacher, for Los Angeles School Board

The Board of Directors of NPE has voted to endorse Monica Ratliff in her runoff election for Los Angeles school board. The election will happen on May 21st. We asked both Ratliff and her opponent, Antonio Sanchez, to complete a detailed candidate questionnaire. Monica Ratliff’s responses revealed someone who is a working 5th grade teacher, well acquainted with the challenges faced by the schools of Los Angeles. Sanchez did not respond. Ratliff understands that testing has gotten way out of control. She told us: “Teachers constantly check for understanding. LAUSD spends too much money on periodic assessments and other tests that waste money and, more importantly, precious instruct... »

Chris Rickert: Control no predictor of quality in public education : Wsj

Chris Rickert: Control no predictor of quality in public education : Wsj:

Chris Rickert: Control no predictor of quality in public education

The dean of the School of Education at the state’s flagship university dismissed the notion of university-authorized charter schools this week while drawing an unusual comparison between PK-12 education and college.
“I wouldn’t want local school districts to be granting undergraduate and graduate degrees,” Julie Underwood told this newspaper when asked about a legislative proposal that would expand the ability of UW System campuses to authorize charter schools. “Similarly, I don’t think universities should authorize and manage PK-12 schools. It is not what we do best. It is not within our primary mission.”
It’s a sentiment indicative of how some education advocates can seem more interested in who controls public education than in whether it’s good for kids.
I wouldn’t want local school districts granting college degrees, either, because public schools don’t know enough college curricula to be granting them.
College education professors, though, should know more than enough about what to teach in public schools and how best to teach it. College is where public school teachers and administrators go to learn how to do their jobs, after all.
Underwood, who said she is not opposed to charter schools in general, explained her comments to me this way:
“I do believe that the officials we elect to be responsible for


Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/columnists/chris-rickert/chris-rickert-control-no-predictor-of-quality-in-public-education/article_9c3611af-1f20-556b-b51c-85d14e6de9bc.html#ixzz2gt5UIWDR

Diane Ravitch: On How to Save Public Education | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Diane Ravitch: On How to Save Public Education | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Diane Ravitch: On How to Save Public Education

Filed under: Ravitch — millerlf @ 4:36 pm 
Following is a section of an article by Diane Ravitch from the Progressive Magazine.



Saving Our Public Schools, October 2013
Pregnant women should see a doc­tor early in their pregnancy and have regular care and good nutrition. Poor women who do nor receive early and regular medical care are likely to have babies with developmental and cog­nitive problems. From the day they are born, young children need a loving caregiver, good nutrition, and medical care; theirparents should get the help they need to learn how to care for their babies.

Children need pre-kindergarten classes that teach them how to social­ize with others, how to listen and learn, how to communicate well, and how to care for themselves, while engaging in the joyful pursuit of play and learning that is appropriate to their age and development and that builds their background knowledge and vocabulary.

Children in the early elementary grades need teachers who set appro­priate goals for their age. They should learn to read, write, calculate, and explore nature, and they should have plenty of time to sing and dance and draw and play and giggle. Classes in these grades should be small enough—ideally fewer than twen­ty—so that students get the individu­al attention they need. Testing in the early grades should be used sparingly, not to rank students, but diagnosti­cally, to help determine what theyknow and what they still need to learn. Test scores should remain a pri­vate matter between parents and teachers, not shared with the district or the state for any individual stu­dent. The district or state may aggre­gate scores for entire schools, but should not rank individual students by test scores or judge teachers or schools on the basis of these scores.

As students enter the upper ele­mentary grades and middle school and high school, they should have a balanced curriculum that includes not only reading, writing, and math­ematics, but also the sciences, litera­ture, history, geography, civics, and foreign languages. Their school should have a rich arts program, where students may learn to sing, dance, play an instrument, join an orchestra or a band, perform in a play, sculpt, or use technology to design structures, conduct research, or create fanciful artworks.

Every student should have time for physical education every day.
Every school should have a library with librarians and media specialists.
Every school should have a nurse, a psychologist, a guidance counselor, and a social worker.

And every school should have after-school programs where students may explore their interests, whether in athletics, chess, robotics, history club, science club,