Anti-Common Core Lawsuit Filed in Utah | Truth in American Education

Anti-Common Core Lawsuit Filed in Utah | Truth in American Education:

Anti-Common Core Lawsuit Filed in Utah

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on February 7, 2014• 0 Comments

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A lawsuit has been filed in Utah against the Alpine School District.  This is the second lawsuit related to the Common Core that I am aware of.  The first was in Kentucky.  The petition contains:

1. Allegations of sustained emotional abuse towards mother and 11-year old son.
2. Allegations of retaliation for exercising parental right of participation in Public School
3. Allegations of retaliation for utilizing professional help linked to “Anti-Common Core” advocacy.
4. Allegations of unethical and invalid use of psychological testing to conform to predetermined outcome.
5. Allegations of ignoring parent’s desperate pleas for assistance for son.
6. Allegation of callous attitude towards parents as exhibited in 50 pages of “obtained” Alpine District inter-office/district emails.
7. Forwarding files/petition and evidence to Utah Attorney General’s Office for investigation.
8. Civil Suit for Tort damages pending.
9. Obtained District Email Thread over past 8 months.

Oak Norton of Utahns Against Common Core is more familiar with the case, but I was emailed last night about it as well.  Here’s an excerpt from Oak’s article on it.

In this instance a child in Alpine School District who is very bright and academically advanced, was prevented from advancing to his appropriate skill level and has been psychologically damaged as a result of the public education system’s insistence on pounding square pegs into round holes to make all children common. Common Core hurts children both at the upper and lower end of the learning spectrum by forcing them to advance at the pace of the group. It is true conveyor belt education in the worst possible way. In speaking with Dr. Gary Thompson (this family’s psychologist) and Ed Flint (their attorney), about their 45-page 

Universities Are Cutting Tenured Faculty While They Load Up on 'Non-Academic' Administrators - The Wire

Universities Are Cutting Tenured Faculty While They Load Up on 'Non-Academic' Administrators - The Wire:

Universities Are Cutting Tenured Faculty While They Load Up on 'Non-Academic' Administrators

SHUTTERSTOCK

As the cost of college remains exorbitant, recent trends indicate schools in the United States are trading tenured professors for non-academic administrative staff. It's pretty clear where American colleges have their priorities, and it's not in academics. Students are paying more to attend schools that are spending less to teach them, and instead spending that tuition money on administration.

According to a new report from the New England Center for Investigating Reporting, “the number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years.” Meanwhile, full-time tenured faculty positions are at the lowest rate in 25 years, while the prevalence of adjunct professors – part-time, non-tenured professors – is at its highest. In fact, according to the American Association of University Professors, “more than three of every four (76 percent) of instructional staff positions are filled on a contingent basis," meaning without tenure.

The rise of adjuncts and decline of tenured professors has been ongoing for decades:

American Association of University Professors 

The reason that non-tenured professors are so much more popular than tenured faculty is simple: they’re cheaper. Adjunct professors, especially, make very little

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire corporate school reformer Mandel, buys a 'pipeline' to CT Governor

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire corporate school reformer Mandel, buys a 'pipeline' to CT Governor:

Billionaire corporate school reformer Mandel, buys a 'pipeline' to CT Governor

Stephen Mandel, Jr. Net Worth $1.8 B (Forbes)

If you're a billionaire hedge-funder and corporate school reformer like Stephen Mandel, and you want a direct line to the governor's office, you buy one. 

Mandel, the founder of the Lone Pine Capital hedge fund in Greenwich, is one of the biggest financial backers of CT Gov. Malloy, having  spent over $500,000 supporting the governor's agenda.

He's also chairman of the board of trustees at Dartmouth College and a member of the Harvard Business School’s board of dean’s advisers as well as member of the board of directors at Teach for America. Mandel, a one-time Goldman Sachs analyst, became a managing director at Tiger Management, a now-closed hedge fund whose especially high returns often made headlines. Business writers as a result often have referred to him as a “tiger cub” since his founding of Lone Pine Capital in 1997.

Gov. Malloy

His private foundation is paying three “fellows” to develop public policy in Malloy's office and two state departments.The foundation and its executive director, Meghan 

More on Collaboration: Essential Ingredients | Connected Principals

More on Collaboration: Essential Ingredients | Connected Principals:

More on Collaboration: Essential Ingredients

by dhatch • February 7, 2014 • 0 Comments

This is a cross post from my personal blog.

I experienced an overwhelming response to my posts (here and here and here) about collaboration in schools. From my thinking and from the comments of others, I have come up with the following list of essential ingredients for collaboration in schools. When I say this, I am referring to collaboration of all learners (staff and students). I tried to write the following items so that they could be applied to students and staff.

Thanks to Maureen, Bruce and Shawan for their comments.

1. Adults as the lead learners – It is so important for adults to model good collaboration. As educators, we all must understand what it means to collaborate and how collaboration is different from group work and delegation. We must model good collaboration for our students and our fellow colleagues. Administrators must model the collaboration process for their staff. If you want your teachers to collaborate, you must show them how.

2. Shared vision – when a group is collaborating, each member must understand where the project is going and they must also understand how the piece that they are working on fits into the project, as a whole. Each member of the group should be able to speak about the project and each of its part…even though they may not have worked directly on a 

NV, TX, OH, UT, NM, AZ, PA, OR, FL, and AR should be Ashamed of Charter School Achievement! | Cloaking Inequity

NV, TX, OH, UT, NM, AZ, PA, OR, FL, and AR should be Ashamed of Charter School Achievement! | Cloaking Inequity:

NV, TX, OH, UT, NM, AZ, PA, OR, FL, and AR should be Ashamed of Charter School Achievement!

The Texas Insider recently reported the following about the Stanford CREDO charter school study:

The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average, and that charter schools are benefiting low-income, disadvantaged & special-education students,’’ said Director Margaret Raymond of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) language learners more than their peers in other groups, a study shows.

Overall, charter school students are faring better than they were four years ago, surpassing those in traditional public schools in reading gains and keeping pace in math, notes the Stanford University Report, which calls closing low-performing schools ‘‘the strongest tool available to ensure quality across the sector.

Maybe the Texas Insider thought that we might not click on the link to the actual study and look at the statistical results. Well, a Cloaking Inequity reader brought Table 14 in the report to my attention. This table shows how students in charters are performing overall state by state. CREDO sorted the state alphabetically, but I have sorted the states by the the amount of impact. I will begin with the reading results.

If I was a Nevadan, I would be piping hot because charter reading achievement is negative 108 days (See Table 1). Wow. In Texas, Oregon, Arkansas, Arizona and and Pennsylvania, charters have more than 20 days of negative impact on students. Ohio, Florida and and Utah are not far behind in terms of negative impact on reading. New Mexico and New York City are a push, no improvement.

Table 1. Charter Impact on Reading by State

State	Reading Charter Impact	Reading Days of Learning
Nevada	-0.15**	-108
Pennsylvania	-0.04**	-29
Arizona	-0.03**	-22

(Part 2) Attack on Teacher Pensions: IRTA Sues for Rights – Sarasota, FL meeting update | Reclaim Reform

(Part 2) Attack on Teacher Pensions: IRTA Sues for Rights – Sarasota, FL meeting update | Reclaim Reform:

(Part 2) Attack on Teacher Pensions: IRTA Sues for Rights – Sarasota, FL meeting update

Posted on February 7, 2014by Ken Previti

The attendee questions answered by President Bob Pinkerton, Executive Director Jim Bachman and IRTA Lobbyist Andrew Bodewes at the Feb. 5 meeting revealed both what the teacher retirees were concerned about and where the Illinois Retired Teachers Association was headed with its lawsuit to protect pensions.

Since a few attendees still sought for and believed the pension information printed by the Tribune Company and its affiliated radio and TV stations via their Media Services Syndicate, those attendees needed to be reminded that Illinois is NOT broke. Legislators annually give away to multinational corporations double the amount owed to state retirement funds.
(All of the following responses to questions are paraphrased.)

“What does IRTA say should be cut rather than our pensions?”Jim answered: Some legislators ask me the same thing. That’s the wrong question for us. Legislators are elected to handle the budget. Suggesting that IRTA wants to take money from children, the mentally ill or big contracts awarded by certain legislators is misleading and disingenuous. The state of Illinois owes teacher retirees the money. The state needs to 

Arts group recruiting parents to push LA Unified to produce tardy arts education budget | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Arts group recruiting parents to push LA Unified to produce tardy arts education budget | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC: "
ABOUT THE BLOG: PASS / FAIL"

Arts group recruiting parents to push LA Unified to produce tardy arts education budget

Mary Plummer | February 7th, 2014, 12:28pm

Mary Plummer/KPCC

Shana Habel, Los Angeles Unified's Dance Demonstration Teacher, leads a class of teachers at Cortines high school during a training in summer 2013.

Frustrated at the Los Angeles Unified School District's seven month delay in producing a budget for its much ballyhooed arts plan, the advocacy group Arts for LA, is encouraging a parent letter-writing campaign to school board members, demanding the budget be released. 

"Access to a complete education that includes the arts is an equity issue, especially in LAUSD, where years of budget cuts have created deep rifts of inequity for our most vulnerable students," the letter states. 

It goes on to call for school board members' help: "Please keep equity and access to a complete education your priority by calling immediately for a budget for arts education."

The website gives parents the option to change the letter or write a new one themselves. About 225 letters have been sent since the launch Wednesday.

"How many letters does it take to get a budget?" said Arts for

The Daily Censored » Educational Management Corporation: for-profit disaster school may give up the ghost

The Daily Censored » Educational Management Corporation: for-profit disaster school may give up the ghost:

Educational Management Corporation: for-profit disaster school may give up the ghost

featured pciture of former Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe and formerMaine Gov. John McKernan, Snowes husband

Education Management Corporation (“EDMC”)  is a Goldman Sachs operation, extracting as much from the working class as they possibly can.  The stock has dropped nearly 60% in th last four months as enrollements drop (and consumers learn more about the fraud perpetuated by these schools).

As I wrote last year, in March regarding Olympia Snowe, former Senator from Maine::

“Snowe’s announcement she will not seek another term in the Senate may have little to do with “civility” or “loss of the center” within contentious politics and more to do with the fact her husband is knee-deep in controversy over an educational for-profit college chain know as Educational Management Corporation or Wall Street ticker (EDMC).

Snowe’s husband is former Maine Gov. John McKernan, and he is currently the chairman of the board of directors of EDMC and former CEO of what is the second-largest owner of for-profit colleges in the country.

The for-profit educational retail chain has been sued by the Justice Department 

This School Is Not a Pipe

This School Is Not a Pipe:

This School Is Not a Pipe

Friday, 07 February 2014 09:14By Josh Neufeld and Adam Bessie, Truthout | Graphic Journalism

 

continue reading: This School Is Not a Pipe:

Rightsize this! When simple, ignorant solutions & simulations just don’t cut it | School Finance 101

Rightsize this! When simple, ignorant solutions & simulations just don’t cut it | School Finance 101:

Rightsize this! When simple, ignorant solutions & simulations just don’t cut it

Posted on February 7, 2014

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Recently, TB Fordham Institute released a report by AIR researcher Michael Hansen on “Rightsizing” the classroom. Hansen based his analysis on data from the state of North Carolina, using distributions of teacher value added scores and class sizes to derive conclusions about how “great” teachers could be given larger classes, thus reducing students exposed to “bad” teachers, leading to overall benefits in terms of student outcomes. This dreadfully oversimplified, a-contextual (even taken out of the constraints of its actual context) extrapolation has since made the rounds across reformy outlets.

The solution to all of our woes is simple and elegant. Just follow these steps.

• Step 1: Identify “really great” teachers (using your best VAM or SGP) who happen to be currently teaching inefficiently small classes of 14 to 17 students.
• Step 2: Re-assign to those “really great” teachers another 12 or so students, because whatever losses might occur in relation to increased class size, the benefits of the “really 

2-7-14 Schools Matter - KIPP Has Low Friends in High Places

Schools Matter:

Portland Teachers Strike Time To Get Rid Of Testing And Hire More Teachers

Portland teachers are leading the way people.Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, teachers, parents and students are united.http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/06/us-usa-teachers-portland-idUSBREA1507V20140206Portland, Oregon, teachers vote to authorize strikeBY TERESA CARSON, Reuters

by freetoteach / 1min 

KIPP Has Low Friends in High Places

Another example of KIPP's effective use of billionaire corporate welfare artists to bulldoze a path into communities to set up their total compliance reform schools.  From the Chicago Sun-Times, by Tim Novak:Last Modified: Feb 4, 2014 02:14AMSarah Howard thought Bruce Rauner was an angel who would rescue her financially troubled, academically struggling charter school in East Garfield Park.Instead

by Jim Horn / 32min 

2-6-14 Schools Matter - Two Decades Is Enough to Show Value-Added Is a Scam

Schools Matter: Two Decades Is Enough to Show Value-Added Is a Scamby Joey Garrison at The Tennessean:Tennessee’s largest teachers union has turned against the policy of including student learning gains in the evaluation of teachers, a flip that shows its growing discomfort with a major Race to the Top reform.When Tennessee applied for $501 million in federal Race to the Top funds in 2010, a criti

by mike simpson / 12min 

Is “secret sauce” headed for the back burner? Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Is “secret sauce” headed for the back burner?:

Is “secret sauce” headed for the back burner?

Today’s Tribune suggests that CPS may require charter schools to agree to more progressive discipline policies in order to win or renew their contracts.

CPS has been changing its discipline code in large part because of a powerful student-led campaign by Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE), with the support of its affiliate community-based groups. VOYCE has been working to dismantle CPS’s zero tolerance discipline code and replace it with a more effective policy that actually contributes to student learning,

This has got to be bad news for the Noble Charter Network. The recipe for Noble’s “secret sauce” – much loved by Mayor Rahm – is three parts oppressive discipline, one part sky-high fines, and one part push-out route for the unwanted student. The sauce may be headed for the back burner.

From the Tribune story:

Two years ago, Parents United for Responsible Education, which is against charters, released a report that showed that one of the district’s largest charter networks, the Noble Network of Charter Schools, had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from disciplinary fees.

CPS has “a real public relations problem with some of the charter schools” that have used such tactics, said Julie Woestehoff, PURE’s executive director.

Here’s what I said at a 2012 press conference with VOYCE where we first exposed Noble’s oppressive discipline policies:

• It isn’t “noble” to treat teenage students like two-year olds.
• It isn’t “noble” to impose an arbitrary discipline system in which anyone can be punished and

- See more at: http://pureparents.org/?p=21133#sthash.csqFQ7a8.dpuf

2-7-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Clarifying role of ‘caretaker’ for LaMotte’s school board seat

The LA Unified school board on Tuesday is expected to approve a list of proposed responsibilities and job qualifications for a temporary, non-voting board member to fill the seat of Marguerite LaMotte, who died in December. The recommendations grew out of a meeting this week chaired by Steve Zimmer, the most vocal school board member to support installing an interim appointment. A document (see be

2 4h 

Vergara trial: Tears fall over challenges of minority students

Kareem Weaver In an abbreviated day of testimony in the trial Vergara v. CA, a suit that is challenging teacher dismissal laws in California, Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu heard from two witnesses who described their personal disappointments with California’s public education system and the laws regulating teacher employment. Testifying on behalf of the plaintiffs, Kareem Weaver, an award winning

by Vanessa Romo / 18min 

iPads going home? ‘That’s concerning to me,’ says Ratliff

iPads may be heading home again Some LA Unified schools may be moving closer to allowing students to take district-bought iPads home again, and that has caught district officials by surprise. The district put an end to the practice in September after students figured out how to bypass the device’s security filters. But school board member Monica Ratliff, chair of the district’s technology committe

2 by Vanessa Romo / 21min 

Morning Read: iPad curriculum off limits to LAUSD

L.A. school officials barred from access to curriculum for iPads Los Angeles school officials have failed for now in their efforts to get full access to a digital curriculum that the school system purchased in June. The curriculum, developed by Pearson for use on district iPads, is off-limits because Pearson is likely to bid on a separate contract with the L.A. Unified School District, and distric

14min 

2-6-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): Schools failing to protect students from abuse, US saysVia EdSource | By Jane Meredith Adams The failure of U.S. schools to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel is a story of district cover-ups, lack of training, incomplete teacher background checks and little guidance from the U.S. Depa

by mike simpson / 22h 

2-7-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

There are pro-education choices in the Democratic primary. Like Jay Travis.

  Jay Travis for the Illinois House. There are pro-education, pro-pension choices in the March 18th Democratic primary. Jay Travis is running against the incumbent to be the State Representative in the 27th House District. Jay has been endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and promises a strong pro-pension statement in the next few days. We will post it here. You can find her Facebook page here.

by Fred Klonsky / 3h 

The pension cost shift. A red herring.

Fred, I disgree with your concern on the cost shift. Anon makes excellent points about the cost shift. If the cost shift were put in place Boards of Education would have had to take a serious look at what they were doing. In the past, at contract time rather than giving decent wage increases reflective of the cost of living, they often put language in to sweeten retirement. It was not too terribly

by Fred Klonsky / 1min 

2-6-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Aldermen Bob Fioretti (2nd), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Brendan Reilly (42nd) and John Arena (45th). That’s it.Aldermen Bob Fioretti (2nd), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Brendan Reilly (42nd) and John Arena (45th). That’s it. Those are the names of the Chicago aldermen who voted against Rahm’s plan to add an

by mike simpson / 5min