6-8-14 Jersey Jazzman Why Is Bill Gates Making $#!+ Up? Chartery Snake Oil: Tennessee Grade

Jersey Jazzman: Chartery Snake Oil: Tennessee Grade:

Why Is Bill Gates Making $#!+ Up?

Bill Gates gave a rather prickly interview last March that apparently has only been released this weekend. Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post questioned an increasingly defensive Gates about his patronage of the development of the Common Core State Standards.I'll leave it to others to dissect the particulars of Gates' answers about the CCSS and instead address a small but still, to my mind, ver

19 by Duke / 3h 

Chartery Snake Oil: Tennessee Grade

You know what really bugs me these days? Especially in the world of education "reform"?Smugness.I'm not talking about pride. Pride is great (to a point). Everyone who works at a school should be proud of their students, their staff, their leaders. If you talk up the good things happening at your school -- charter or public -- that's fine with me.And I'm not talking about confidence. Hey,

20 by Duke / 1h 

6-7-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekSo Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?Remember the "amusing" story of how Michelle Rhee, in her first year of teaching in Baltimore, taped her students' mouths shut? How she tried to find the "humor" in making her second graders bleed? Remember when Alex Russo told us, when he heard about the story: "I'm not s

by mike simpson / 13min 

Common Core Does Include Data Collection. It’s the Foundation for the Data & Accountability Systems. | Missouri Education Watchdog

Common Core Does Include Data Collection. It’s the Foundation for the Data & Accountability Systems. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Common Core Does Include Data Collection. It’s the Foundation for the Data & Accountability Systems.

inShare

Put away those tin foil hats.  It’s confirmed.  Data tracking will be done (if it’s not already) on your child without your permission.  Here’s a memo to the Common Core proponents: stop telling us the Common Core State Standards Initiative is “only standards” and has nothing to do with data.  From the lead in to Big Brother: Meet the Parents:

(click on graphic to enlarge)

What the Politico piece doesn’t answer is HOW this data will be gathered.  It will be gathered by the common coded data sets and assessments ready to be rolled out when education is homogenized via the CCSSI.  Remember the 2010 document from Achieve stating the real reason for the standards?  From a previous post:

Politico notes:

The amateur activists have already claimed one trophy, torpedoing a privately run, $100 million database set up to make it easier for schools to share confidential student records with private companies. The project, known as inBloom, folded this spring under tremendous parent pressure, just 15 months after its triumphal public launch.

Now, parents are rallying against another perceived threat: huge state databases being built to track children for more than two decades, from as early as infancy through the start of their careers.

Promoted by the Obama administration, the databases are being built in nearly every state at a total cost of well over $1 billion. They are intended to store intimate details on tens of millions of children and young adults — identified by name, birth date, 

Common Core Does Include Data Collection. It’s the Foundation for the Data & Accountability Systems. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Just My Imagination Running Away With Me (A Post-CCSS World) - The Jose Vilson

Just My Imagination Running Away With Me (A Post-CCSS World) - The Jose Vilson:



Just My Imagination Running Away With Me (A Post-CCSS World)

The Temptations

I‘ve seen this article in my e-mails and feeds no less than ten times this morning. Much of this is old news for me since, if you’ve put all the pieces together for the last four years, it’s fairly obvious just how invested Bill Gates has been in getting Common Core State Standards moved across different desks. It’s also obvious how many folks, from union leaders to business leaders, have put their hat in at least some part of the CCSS ring. The publishers, as I expected, are having a field decade with the CCSS because, they don’t necessarily need to care whether people get it. Districts will unconsciously still pay up for outside expertise.

Yet, the push-and-pullback against the CCSS has been palpable. Opponents on the left and right have joined forces on a small set of issues related to CCSS, specifically the overemphasis on testing and student data privacy, things that pre-date CCSS, but that have been conjoined with CCSS implementation agreements. State after state keep dropping from CCSS allegiance. Regardless of “who” you root for in the CCSS debate, it seems that there needs to be a conversation about what happens if CCSS collapses.

What will you fill the CCSS “gap” with if it goes away?

This question has the feel of “Well, what’s your religion?” There’s a whole set of educators who’ve been following the Dewey-Meier model for some time already have an idea of where things might go. Others who lean on the E.D. Hirsch / Core Knowledge works may still fall back on a CCSS-like structure because that framework depends on a knowledge base from which learning arises. There are so many frameworks to choose from that it begs the question as to why these two are the only camps that have actually proffered theirs.

In other words, we can’t just say no to everything.

From a math lens, as much as I dislike the way CCSS came about, I also don’t want children of color (!) to only learn multiplication tables in the 10th grade. In literacy, we need a balance of fiction and non-fiction texts, but they can’t all be from the “normal” canon, meaning we need more diverse books, not just from one dominant perspective.

As my readers know, I have legitimate concerns about the Common Core. But, in the midst of protests and pullbacks, I’m

- See more at: http://thejosevilson.com/just-imagination-running-away-post-ccss-world/#sthash.xyOjr8uO.dpuf

Rift Deepens Over Claims of Infiltration by Islamic Extremists in British Schools - NYTimes.com

Rift Deepens Over Claims of Infiltration by Islamic Extremists in British Schools - NYTimes.com:

Rift Deepens Over Claims of Infiltration by Islamic Extremists in British Schools

A dispute over how to combat the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism in British schools has provoked a political crisis, prompting the personal intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron, a public apology from one senior minister and the resignation of an adviser to another.

The rift followed allegations that Islamic fundamentalists had plotted to infiltrate and take over schools in Birmingham, home to a significant Muslim population.

The claims are as yet unproven, but they have divided ministers on whether they should concentrate on tracking suspects thought most likely to commit acts of terrorism or wage a broader cultural battle at the community level against the spread of fundamentalist theology.

The disagreement within government underlines the sensitivity of the issue in a country in which Muslims radicalized in British cities have committed acts of terrorism, including the brutal daylight murder last year of a soldier, Lee Rigby, on a street in south London.

Like many European nations, Britain has debated how to assimilate minorities while maintaining freedom of religion. One issue is the extent to which schools should tolerate symbols and clothing associated with religious beliefs, such as Muslim headscarves. In British schools, much discretion remains with head teachers.

Last year, the Birmingham City Council received an anonymous document outlining a plan called Operation Trojan Horse, in which fundamentalist parents would raise concerns about the staff and curriculum, particularly over issues like sex education, infiltrate the governing bodies of the school and then promote a leadership sympathetic to their views.

It is unclear what steps schools took in response to the document, and several governmental bodies are looking into the case. In all, 21 schools are being investigated over claims that male and female pupils were segregated, that sex education was banned and that, in one case, a cleric linked to Al Qaeda was praised in a school assembly.

While one leaked report from school inspectors appears to have flagged concerns, evidence of a conspiracy is scarce. According to news reports, the leaked report from the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, or Ofsted, detailed several criticisms of one school, Park View, and said it had done too little to warn pupils about the dangers of extremism.

The issue spilled over into Mr. Cameron’s cabinet last week in a briefing published in The Times of London, which the prime minister’s office now acknowledges came from the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, suggesting that the department of the home secretary, Theresa May, had Rift Deepens Over Claims of Infiltration by Islamic Extremists in British Schools - NYTimes.com:

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform:

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association

Posted on June 8, 2014by Ken Previti

Part of continuing conversation among retired teachers, activists and bloggers Fred Klonsky, John Dillon, Glen Brown and me. This conversation is cross posted on each of our blogs.

Mr. Rogers gave valuable adult lessons to children, parents, teachers, and all of us.

“I like to be told
If it’s going to hurt, 
If it’s going to be hard, 
If it’s not going to hurt.
I like to be told. I like to be told.”

Active and retired teachers in Illinois and across the nation are besieged with attacks on basic teacher rights, salaries, working conditions, evaluations based on the scores of classes they never taught and students they never had in class, pillaging earned compensation (present and future pensions), and much more.

The technical ability to mass communicate today has never been better or easier. Are teachers being told what they need to know by their own leadership?

Illinois and Chicago have two separate teachers’ union leaderships. Chicago has the Chicago Teachers Union led by Karen Lewis. Illinois has the Illinois Education Association led by Cinda Klickna…

With SBI in court, which cuts earned income for retired teachers while continuing to mandate that teachers pay 9.4% and more into a system which is intentionally robbed (underfunded) as a quasi-legalized form of wage theft, Klickna and IEA send automatic Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform:

Stop Holding Us Back - NYTimes.com

Stop Holding Us Back - NYTimes.com:

Stop Holding Us Back

By ROBERT BALFANZ

 This month, more than three million high school students will receive their diplomas. At more than 80 percent, America’s graduation rate is at a record high. More kids are going to college, too. But one-third of the nation’s African-American and Latino young men will not graduate.



In an era when there is virtually no legal work for dropouts, these young men face a bleak future. It is not news that the students who don’t make it out of high school largely come from our poorest neighborhoods, but the degree to which they are hyper-concentrated in a small set of schools is alarming. In fact, according to new research I conducted with my colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, half of the African-American boys who veer off the path to high school graduation do so in just 660 of more than 12,600 regular and vocational high schools.



These 660 schools are typically big high schools that teach only poor kids of color. They are concentrated in 15 states. Many are in major cities, but others are in smaller, decaying industrial cities or in the South, especially in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.



This seemingly intractable problem is a national tragedy, but there is a solution. In the high schools where most of the young men are derailed, the number of ninth-grade boys who desperately need better schooling and extra support is typically between 50 and 100. Keeping many or even most of those boys on track in each entering ninth-grade class in 660 schools does not seem impossible.

If we know where to focus our efforts, we can put strategies in place that have shown promise, particularly over the last few years. Whileearly childhood is critical, the most treacherous time for young African-American and Latino men is from ages 11 to 21. At the very moment they are the most developmentally vulnerable, the response from schools, foster care, the health system and child protective services gets weaker, while the response from the justice system is harsher. Their family responsibilities grow, and their neighborhoods turn meaner. Their middle and high school experience becomes make or break.

But the secondary schools these students attend are not specifically designed for them. It is not unusual for up to half the students to miss a month or more of school, and often more students are Stop Holding Us Back - NYTimes.com:

6-8-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Seattle Schools Math Adoption Update

Here's the latest that I have gleaned from various sources:- Michael Tolley did indeed, in front of Director McLaren, say that "in effect there is a dual adoption."  This is stunning. I believe now that if this push to have schools - in effect vote on which math curriculum they want - blows up in staff's collective faces, they will then say, "Oh, we interpreted the Board vote as dua

by Melissa Westbrook / 6min 

Seattle Schools Happenings - More than Math Adoption

There were some other key, important things said at both the School Board meeting last Wednesday and the Board retreat yesterday.  I'll just group information under headings but note by M (for meeting) or R (for retreat) where I heard it.Principals (M)To note, both of the Washington State Principals of the Year, for high school and K-8, came from Seattle Schools.  Keven Wynkoop, principal at Balla

by Melissa Westbrook / 3min 

Seattle Schools' Math Adoption: What's Happening at Your School?

A reader suggested that we start a thread and try to keep track of what is happening at all the K-5/K-8s vis a vis the math adoption.  There are 59 elementary schools and 10 K-8s so I'm not going to try to list them all here. In the Comments Section, note your school, what you are hearing at your school via principal/PTA/schoolyard, and the input that you gave your principal. I'll put updates as I

by Melissa Westbrook / 27min hide  //  save

Seattle Schools This Week

Monday, June 9thCurriculum and Instruction Policy Committee Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm.  AgendaA large agenda for various policies and includes an update on Creative Approach schools, Advanced Learning update, the BARs for the Highly Capable Program Annual Plan and Seattle Teacher Residency.  At the end of the agenda, just added - Math Adoption Update. If you do one extra thing this week (besides writi

by Melissa Westbrook / 46min 

6-7-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum:Seattle Schools Community ForumSeattle Schools and SecurityA reader put up a letter from Queen Anne Elementary principal, David Elliott, that was written in light of yesterday's Seattle Pacific U shootings (QA Elementary is fairly close by as is Coe Elementary).  Mr. Elliott calmly explains what they did once the event became known to this (and this happened as scho

by mike simpson / 38min

Parent Horror Stories from BASIS: Corporate Charter Hurting Children? | Cloaking Inequity

Parent Horror Stories from BASIS: Corporate Charter Hurting Children? | Cloaking Inequity:

Parent Horror Stories from BASIS: Corporate Charter Hurting Children?

Today I am blogging about two parent horror stories from BASIS. Let me just warn you, after hearing parents talk about what happened to their children at BASIS, you will likely be in a surly mood learning about this corporate (quasi-for profit) charter chain. The BASIS corporate charter chain is now a very unfavorite of mine. Who/What is  BASIS? Wikipedia describes the BASIS corporate charter schools:

BASIS Schools, Inc. is an Arizona charter school operator. It operates eight schools in Arizona and one in the District of Columbia….BASIS recently announced plans to add three more schools for the 2013-2014 year: one in Ahwatukee, one in San Antonio, Texas, and a new K-4 program near their original location in Tucson.

I first blogged about BASIS in the post What BASIS?: Nepotism and aggrandizement in charters? (One of the interesting things about the first BASIS post is that 50-100 people read that post each day) I am always curious where that traffic is coming from.At the time I included Charter School Scandals uncovered about BASIS:

The schools are the brainchild of Michael and Olga Block, who envisioned a college-prep curriculum that would rival the best countries. The first school opened in 1998 in Tucson. A second followed in 2003 in Scottsdale.

For years, the Blocks worked for and were paid by the non-profit schools. Michael was the chief operating officer and treasurer, Olga the chief executive officer.

The Blocks later formed a separate, for-profit company and in 2009 signed a service agreement with the non-profit that provides Basis’ six schools with most everything they need to operate: school directors, teachers, accounting, technology, human resources, public relations and Michael and Olga Block…

Basis Inc. denied a request from The Arizona Republic to review a copy of its agreement with the 

Parent Horror Stories from BASIS: Corporate Charter Hurting Children? | Cloaking Inequity:

Capitalism vs. education: Why our free-market obsession is wrecking the future - Salon.com

Capitalism vs. education: Why our free-market obsession is wrecking the future - Salon.com:

Capitalism vs. education: Why our free-market obsession is wrecking the future

Market-based education reform has become a mainstay of American politics — and it's a disaster waiting to happen

Michelle Rhee, Karl Marx, Michael Bloomberg (Credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang/Wikimedia/Jonathan Ernst/Salon)

The 2014 State of the Union address was billed as the speech in which President Obama would finally reveal himself as the progressive champion we’d been promised. In the weeks prior, senior administration officials leaked word that the president would use his platform to declare income inequality the “defining challenge of our time,” a claim he’d first made two years prior, in a highly touted speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. Then, in early February, news came that the phrase “income inequality” had been scrapped from subsequent drafts, replaced by an emphasis on “ladders of opportunity.”

In Osawatomie, the president decried runaway inequality as a threat to the legitimacy of American democracy. In the State of the Union, he paid lip service to the divergent fortunes of “those at the top” and of average wage earners, before transitioning into boilerplate calls for improving education and cutting taxes on domestic manufacturers. As the “ladders” metaphor suggests, the speech framed the crisis facing the vaunted middle class as one of economic mobility, rather than inequality. The word “inequality” was spoken only three times, “opportunity,” thirteen.

Even in Osawatomie, after describing in bracing detail how automation and globalization devalued American labor, producing an economy where weak demand is propped up by credit card debt, the president transitioned from diagnosis to prescription. Not with a call for robust income redistribution, or a proposal for aggressive government hiring, but by declaring, “We Capitalism vs. education: Why our free-market obsession is wrecking the future - Salon.com:

Mother Crusader: Guest Post: Melissa Katz Debunks JerseyCAN's Common Core Cheerleading

Mother Crusader: Guest Post: Melissa Katz Debunks JerseyCAN's Common Core Cheerleading:

Guest Post: Melissa Katz Debunks JerseyCAN's Common Core Cheerleading

On June 4th, the State Board of Education convened for another fun round of discussion about the education reforms proposed (and partially implemented already) to drastically change the face of education as we know it. The State Board of Education held (and is still holding – check their website for more dates) public comment/hearings on the re-adoption of the Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCSS) which includes the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math and language arts, and a proposed overhaul of the science standards to move to the Next Generation Science Standards. While only two women spoke (both representatives of their organizations), the second speaker caught my attention immediately – Janellen Duffy, from a group called JerseyCAN, spoke on behalf of the organization.

Janellen Duffy

JerseyCAN, the New JerseyCampaign for Achievement Now founded in March of 2013, is “a part of 50CAN: the 50-state Campaign for Achievement Now. [They] are a non-profit organization that launched in March 2013, and [they] advocate for a high-quality education for all New Jersey kids, regardless of their address. JerseyCAN is working to create learning environments that best meet every child’s needs by focusing [their] work on starting earlier, expanding choices, aiming higher, cultivating talent and reaching everyone”. Former Governor of New Jersey Tom Kean is the co-chair of New Jersey’s branch JerseyCAN’s board.

Executive Director of JerseyCAN Janellen Duffy, as reported by NJ.com, stated, “We believe in using data to guide decision-making in education, whether it's decisions parents are making about schools or policy decisions that are being made at the state and local level”.

Data. It always comes down to data, because in education reform today, if it isn’t quantifiable and measurable, it isn’t important. The impact of outside factors on students and education? Who cares! Poverty? Ha!! Sweep that one right under the rug because no one wants to talk about that elephant in the room! For a deeper analysis on the “data-guided decision-making” process, seeMother Crusader: Guest Post: Melissa Katz Debunks JerseyCAN's Common Core Cheerleading:

Teachers Putting Reforms into Practice: “The Implementation Problem” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teachers Putting Reforms into Practice: “The Implementation Problem” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Teachers Putting Reforms into Practice: “The Implementation Problem”

Guess who wrote these paragraphs.

I’ve been struck of late by how would-be reformers have been reacting when things go awry. After all, even some of those bullish on Race to the Top have privately conceded that maybe it didn’t turn out quite like they’d hoped. Champions of teacher evaluation are busy explaining, “Well, that’s not what we meant!” when hit with complaints, lawsuits, and concerns about the reliability and validity of some ill-conceived systems. Common Core advocates are busy explaining that the goofy homework questions and worksheets don’t accurately reflect their handiwork.

In each case, we’re assured, the underlying ideas are sound–it’s just a matter of confusion or inevitable “implementation problems.” Now, it’s true that change is always hard…. But the fact that implementation problems are inevitable doesn’t mean they’re okay. More importantly, the severity of these problems is not a given: it varies depending on how complex and technocratic the measure is, whether it’s being pushed from Washington, on the breadth and depth of political support, on whether the plan is fully baked, and on the incentives for effective execution. I’ve seen precious little evidence that advocates have done much to minimize the problems.

Those championing teacher evaluation, School Improvement Grants, or Common Core frequently sound as if they think no one could have anticipated or planned for the challenges that have emerged. To my ear, the Teachers Putting Reforms into Practice: “The Implementation Problem” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Morning Wink 6-8-14 AM Posts #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 6-8-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: SCHOOL BOARD RIVALS MUST ACT QUICKLY: George McKenna, Alex Johnson seek funding, endorsements in L.A. Unified race; Two unions face tough choiceBY HOWARD BLUME, LA Times |  http://lat.ms/1uEMAYH George McKenna, above, and Alex Johnson are headed for a runoff. Published 8 June 2014 ::  The top two finishers in this week's election for the Los Angeles Boa

by mike simpson / 1min 

6-8-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: New Student Motivation, Engagement & SEL ResourcesOur school year will be over in four days and, after a brief rest, it will be time for me to complete the third volume in my student motivation “trilogy” that should be published early next year by Routledge. It’s tentatively titled Building a Community of Self-Motivated

by mike simpson / 4min 

6-7-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: The well-meaning liberals of the world aren’t going to like the front page of the Washington PostHow Bill Gates bought us the Common Core. Thank you, and it wasn’t even my birthday. As a matter of fact, our right-wing brothers and sisters might not like this either since they believe this is a massive communist conspiracy. I’m also doubting, however, that many teachers know about

by mike simpson / 8min 

6-8-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”The image of Franz Kafka that captures most clearly Kafkan for me is the one of Kafka himself coming to consciousness in the morning, numbed from the waist down after sitting in one spot writing all night. He, of course, was

by mike simpson / 11min 

Answer Sheet 6-8-14

Answer Sheet: Just ask the teachersOne of the central features of corporate school reform is that those driving it haven’t bothered to seriously ask teachers to offer their solutions to improving public education. Meg White, an assistant professor in the School of Education at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, looks at this omission in the following post.   […]by Valerie Strauss / 30min 

by mike simpson / 19min 

6-8-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Chicago Teacher Adam Heehan On How Common Core Threatens Good Teachingfrom Chicago SunTimes:I teach Financial Literacy as a semester-long social studies course in a Chicago public high school. This quarter we focused on professional skills. My students must find living arrangements on a fixed salary, then explain their plan to the class.Students must calculate their biweekly net pa

by mike simpson / 22min 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-8-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Peter Greene: Why Conservatives Should Oppose School ChoicePeter Greene says that there are at least four good reasons why conservatives hold oppose school choice. Before I tell you what his four reasons are, I will tell you that there are even more reasons for conservatives to support public schools. Conservatives generally are no

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Video: Sean Ahern at the PEP on Diversityby ed notes online / 1h  6-7-14 Ed Notes Online WeekEd Notes Online: Ed Notes OnlineFred Smith Calls Farina on Field Test Waste of Learning TimeFrom Schoolbook. Go Fred. No time now but I will add to this later about the Bronx teacher who was fired years ago because 4 of his 8th grade classes refused to take the field tests. Search ed notes

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-14 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.: Previti, Dillon, Brown and myself: A conversation regarding the leadership and membership of the Illinois Education Association  Part of continuing conversation between retired teachers, activists and bloggers Ken Previti, John Dillon, Glen Brown and myself. This conversation is cross posted on each o

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Alliances Across the Political Spectrum in the Movement Against Common Core Have Antecedents in the Depression Era Labor MovementMany of my friends on the left, with the best of motives, have raised questions about my wilingess to work with Conservatives and Libertarians in the movement against Common Core and other top down attacks on public education. They think that alli

by mike simpson / 1h 

Stephen Krashen Blog 6-8-14

SKrashen:Say What?" (Bill) Gates has said that one of the benefits of common standards would be to open the classroom to digital learning, making it easier for software developers — including Microsoft — to develop new products for the country’s 15,000 school districts. In February, Microsoft announced that it was joining Pearson, the world’s largest educational publisher, to load Pearson’s C

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-14 empathyeducates

empathyeducates: Study Shows Why Standardized Test Scores Aren’t Just About SchoolsFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched Fwd.us, which will lobby for higher education standards. (David Paul Morris, Bloomberg ) Will we ever learn that philanthropy is really not impressive. Nor is money the cure for what ails us. A practiced philosophy that promotes caring human connectivity brings […]by empathy

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-13 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Schooling for Wretched People in a Miserable WorldThe Council of the Great City Schools (yet another group apparently set up to make money by shilling for the Core) has created a marvelous promotional video for the Core. Done in the style of those high-speed marker-drawing videos that the interwebs love, and narrated by a possible-non-caucasian lady narrator, it does a fabulo

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-8-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Bill Gates Exposed For All To See As An Arrogant, Whiny ElitistOkay, it's official:We're onto a new phase of the fight against the CCSS. News media outlets are no longer buying and using pro-Common Core boilerplate rhetoric in stories on the Common Core, they're no longer framing the CCSS the way CCSS proponents want the standards framed, and they're no longer buying into th

by mike simpson / 1h 

Oh to be a Teacher… | Connected Principals

Oh to be a Teacher… | Connected Principals: Oh to be a Teacher…by dkerr • June 8, 2014 • 0 CommentsSo I went for a run yesterday through a park close to where I live. It was a gorgeous summer-like day, and it felt like the entire neighborhood was out enjoying the sunshine…families having picnics, people fishing in the pond, runners, old men and women doing Tai Chi, but most of all…children laughin

by mike simpson / 1h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: How world's richest man bought school reform

Schooling in the Ownership Society: How world's richest man bought school reform: How world's richest man bought school reformWaPo reporter Lyndsey Layton tells the story of how Bill Gates bought and paid for so-called school "reform".  He even got NEA and AFT leaders to buy-in to Common Core. On a summer day in 2008, Gene Wilhoit, director of a national group of state school chiefs, and

by mike simpson / 1h 

NYC Educator: But Mister, I'm Not Using the Phone for That

NYC Educator: But Mister, I'm Not Using the Phone for That: But Mister, I'm Not Using the Phone for ThatThere are a whole lot of reasons why we grab our smart phones. I'm as guilty as anyone. Though I wear a watch, I don't trust it anymore. My phone has atomic time or something, and it's always accurate. I will pull it out of my pocket in class to check the time.Students have different reasons the

by mike simpson / 1h 

YESTERDAY

How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution - The Washington Post

How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution - The Washington Post: How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolutionThe pair of education advocates had a big idea, a new approach to transform every public-school classroom in America. By early 2008, many of the nation’s top politicians and education leaders had lined up in support.But that wasn’t enough. The duo needed money

by mike simpson / 13h 

Nite Cap 6-7-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

James Baldwin said it best: "For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAPMore questions on evals’ accuracy | Albuquerque Journal NewsMore questions on evals’ accuracy | Albuquerque Journal News:More questions on evals’ accuracyPrincipal Robin Hoberg had no answers when teachers at Double Eagle Elementary School asked

by mike simpson / 15h 

More questions on evals’ accuracy | Albuquerque Journal News

More questions on evals’ accuracy | Albuquerque Journal News:More questions on evals’ accuracyPrincipal Robin Hoberg had no answers when teachers at Double Eagle Elementary School asked her to explain what they believed were errors on their new teacher evaluations.Nor could she explain inconsistencies in how teachers were graded on attendance and student performance.Despite controversy surrounding

by mike simpson / 16h 

6-7-14 solidaridad - #TeamMcKenna

solidaridad: I'm on #TeamMcKenna because ALL students in LAUSD need representation, NOT just the few attending CCSA's lucrative charter outletsI'm on #TeamMcKenna because ALL students in #LAUSD need representation, NOT just the few attending @CALcharters' lucrative charter outlets.— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) June 7, 2014by Robert D. Skeels ... / 13min PESJA: When we say Eli Broad controls LAUS

by mike simpson / 16h 

House Of Cards - Corporate Deform in America - Trailer by BATA

House Of Cards - Corporate Deform in America - Trailer by BATAPublished on Jul 12, 2013House of Cards is a series of short videos created to bring to the forefront the key players in the corporate reform movement. Each week a new player will be featured along with information concerning their words and actions that have been aimed at the destruction of our public schools. Video created by Terri Mi

by mike simpson / 18h 

Can California Offer a New Model for Accountability? Or Are We Still Chasing Test Scores? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Can California Offer a New Model for Accountability? Or Are We Still Chasing Test Scores? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Can California Offer a New Model for Accountability? Or Are We Still Chasing Test Scores?By Anthony Cody on June 7, 2014 11:23 AMA couple of weeks ago, Linda Darling-Hammond and Randi Weingarten offered an interesting take on the path forward regarding Common Cor

by mike simpson / 18h 

Morality, Validity, and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests by David Berliner |

Morality, Validity, and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests by David Berliner |: Morality, Validity, and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests by David Berliner A recent article in Education Week was written by David C. Berliner, Regents Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University. As pertinent to our purposes, here, I have included his piece in full below, as well as the dire

by mike simpson / 19h 

6-7-14 Saturday Matinée Double Feature "Just Sayin' " and "Corporate ED Reform: Something's Fishy!" News Breakout

Saturday Matinée Double Feature "Just Sayin' "  and "Corporate ED Reform: Something's Fishy!" News BreakoutOne percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatization - Salon.comOne percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatization - Salon.com: One percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatizationOutsourcing government not only leads to poor

by mike simpson / 19h 

One percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatization - Salon.com

One percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatization - Salon.com: One percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatizationOutsourcing government not only leads to poor services -- it's killing the middle class, an expert tells SalonJamie Dimon, Donald Trump, David Koch (Credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas/AP/Dan Hallman/Evan Agostini)As most experts and layman enthusiasts will te

by mike simpson / 20h 

Marie Corfield: NJ GOP is not stronger than Superstorm Christie

Marie Corfield: NJ GOP is not stronger than Superstorm Christie: NJ GOP is not stronger than Superstorm ChristieFor those readers old enough to remember, this image is a parody of the fierce reaction to President Gerald Ford's infamous but false response to NY City's 1970's financial crisis. Even though he never said those words, he might as well have because his reaction to the city's request for

by mike simpson / 21h 

Do not celebrate when a state pulls out of the Common Core tests – of the state’s brand. | Reclaim Reform

Do not celebrate when a state pulls out of the Common Core tests – of the state’s brand. | Reclaim Reform: Do not celebrate when a state pulls out of the Common Core tests – of the state’s brand.Posted on June 7, 2014by Ken PrevitiThe multiple brand names for water and high stakes standardized tests are misleading – to say the least.Do not celebrate when a state pulls out of the Common Core tests

by mike simpson / 21h 

NYC Educator: The Waiting Is the Easiest Part

NYC Educator: The Waiting Is the Easiest Part: The Waiting Is the Easiest PartIt's been over five years since any NYC teacher has seen a raise, despite the nonsense purveyed by tabloids. I've repeatedly read arguments that step increases are raises, from Bloomberg and various teacher-bashing op-ed columnists. That most other city workers got not only step increases, but also actual raises, was nei

by mike simpson / 22h 

An Incentive Program for the Feds | Missouri Education Watchdog

An Incentive Program for the Feds | Missouri Education Watchdog: An Incentive Program for the FedsinShareRace To the Top was the Federal Incentive program for states to adopt common core and the assessments. Maybe what they need now is a state developed incentive program for them to clean up their act.Utah lawmakers are considering dropping their request for an extension of their No Child Left Beh

by mike simpson / 22h 

2nd Banana 6-7-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post #EDchat #EDreform #RealEdTalk #p2

BIG EDUCATION APE 2ND BANANARECAP OF LAST WEEK'S BEST POST       We, the undersigned, demand the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation divest from corporate education reform. | Teachers' Letters to Bill GatesWe, the undersigned, demand the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation divest from corporate education reform. | Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates: We, the undersigned, demand the Bill and Melinda Gates

by mike simpson / 23h 

6-7-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Notorious Phd on the New Orleans Charter DistrictIt started under Bush,But Duncan Loved It,The City of New Orleans,Told teachers to shove it,When Katrina struck,They brought charters in,With TFA to staff them,Saying students would win,But 9 years later,The schools may be worse,What looked like progress,Is just the reverse.A privatized district,With revolving door staffWhere

by mike simpson / 23h 

Oregon Save Our Schools: Sen. Ron Wyden Doesn't Get It On Common Core

Oregon Save Our Schools: Sen. Ron Wyden Doesn't Get It On Common Core: Sen. Ron Wyden Doesn't Get It On Common CorePat Eck, an OSOS member, recently wrote to Senator Ron Wyden concerning the Common Core State Standards. Here is Wyden’s responding email which is confusing as he recognizes that many constituents have raised concerns to him, yet he continues to think Common Core and the testing to be

by mike simpson / 23h 

Morning Wink 6-7-14 AM Posts #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTS6-7-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All WeekJersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekSo Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?Remember the "amusing" story of how Michelle Rhee, in her first year of teaching in Baltimore, taped her students' mouths shut? How she tried to find the "humor" in making her se

1 by mike simpson / 1d 

2nd Banana 6-7-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post2nd Banana 5-31-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

2nd Banana 5-24-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

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2nd Banana 5-10-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post 

2nd Banana 5-3-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post 

2nd Banana 4-26-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

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