Edgewood education dean Tim Slekar: Politicians using Common Core as a distraction : Ct

Edgewood education dean Tim Slekar: Politicians using Common Core as a distraction : Ct:

Edgewood education dean Tim Slekar: Politicians using Common Core as a distraction

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August 10, 2014 3:00 pm  •  By Todd D. Milewski | The Capital Times

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Tim Slekar, dean of education at Edgewood College

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Tim Slekar, the dean of the School of Education at Edgewood College, has a message for politicians when it comes to the Common Core State Standards:

Do your job and let us educators do ours.

In an appearance on WKOW-TV's "Capitol City Sunday," Slekar took officials to task for making a political tactic out of the change in education standards while neglecting the basic issues of readiness for learning.

Slekar, who has commented on education issues for The Huffington Post and the education blog @ The Chalk Face, said the argument over educational standards is a distraction from issues of equity like health care and access to books.

"All of those issues are never discussed because we're too busy talking about Common Core standards, Wisconsin standards, national standards, world standards," Slekar said. "Standards by themselves have absolutely no causation or correlation to achievement because they're just statements.

"We need to get off of this discussion because it distracts us, and in fact I think it distracts us purposely, away from holding politicians accountable for what it is that they should be doing to provide for the opportunities that kids don't have when they enter school. What are you doing to prepare and to make sure that these kids are ready to learn? Because I'm telling you right now: Insisting on changing standards, rewriting standards in January does nothing to prepare a kid to be ready to learn."

In the midst of a close race for reelection, Gov. Scott Walker last month called for a special session of the Wisconsin Legislature in January to replace Common Core with standards decided by state residents. That shift in position for Walker was panned as an election-cycle maneuver.

The Common Core standards are largely decried by the tea party and have been a touchy subject for Republican governors.

The argument misses the point, Slekar said.

"It really shouldn't be your side versus my side," he said. "I'm not arguing against Common Core standards. I'm telling you that the reform movement based on standards, based on tests, based on curriculum, based on punishing kids and teachers doesn't do anything to guarantee that that child

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Bobby Jindal Discusses Common Core Lawsuit | Truth in American Education

Bobby Jindal Discusses Common Core Lawsuit | Truth in American Education:

Bobby Jindal Discusses Common Core Lawsuit

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on August 11, 2014• 0 Comments

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I was at the FAMiLY Leadership Summit where Iowans were able get a sneak peak at prospective 2016 presidential candidates.  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal held a press avail after the Summit.  He and I have discussed Common Core before, but I wanted to ask a question about the current lawsuit his office is embroiled in over his executive order on Common Core and PARCC.

You can watch his answer below:

Bobby Jindal Discusses Common Core Lawsuit | Truth in American Education: 

Lunch lady rises to teachers union leader and takes on all comers, bluntly - The Washington Post

Lunch lady rises to teachers union leader and takes on all comers, bluntly - The Washington Post:



Lunch lady rises to teachers union leader and takes on all comers, bluntly





 

On Sept. 1, Lily Eskelsen García becomes president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country. She was photographed at the NEA building in Washington. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

By Lyndsey Layton August 11 at 6:02 PM  

It is an unlikely story: The lunch lady rises to run the nation’s largest labor union.

That’s what will happen in three weeks when Lily Eskelsen García, 59, a telegenic, guitar-slinging firebrand takes the helm of the National Education Association, which is facing the most daunting political challenges in its 157-year history. She is already fighting back with blunt talk, urging teachers nationwide to revolt against “stupid” education reforms and telling politicians to leave teaching to the professionals.

Her first priority: Putting the brakes on standardized testing, an issue she believes will resonate not only with her members but also with parents — important potential allies for the political clashes she sees ahead. García believes the country is in the grip of testing mania, the quest for high scores killing joy, narrowing curriculums and perverting the learning process.

“I’ll be damned if I will sit quietly and play nice and say diplomatic things about something that has corrupted the profession I love,” García said.

Stepping in as the first new president in six years, García is taking over a union that is at war with old antagonists and increasingly sparring with its longtime allies.

Lily Eskelsen greets a supporter on Election Day in November 1998. Eskelsen ran for a House seat that year in Utah, losing to the incumbent, Republican Merrill Cook. (Ravell Call/Deseret (Utah) Morning News)

While Republicans are aiming to weaken teachers unions through policies such as private-school vouchers and legal battles over dues collection, the unions also are colliding with Democrats who arechallenging bedrock labor rightssuch as seniority and teacher tenure. High-profile Democrats, such as Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, shocked teachers in June when they applauded a Los Angeles judge’s ruling that found California’s teacher tenure laws were unconstitutional. Last month, former CNN anchor Campbell Brown organized a similar lawsuit in New York and has pledged more to come in other states.

The NEA, which represents about one out of every 100 Americans, has been increasingly at odds with the Obama administration over testing and teacher evaluations, among other issues. That tension reached a boil in July, when the NEA — historically the more reticent of the two major Lunch lady rises to teachers union leader and takes on all comers, bluntly - The Washington Post:

8-11-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: A Bronx View of the Killing of Michael Brown

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Containment, Confinement and Death- The Plight of Many of Our Youth

There are so many ways we are treating our young people, especially young people of color, as suspects, threats, dangers to the social order.They are heavily policed in their schools and neighborhoods-often subject to arbitrary search and seizureThey are the targets of zero-tolerance disciplinary policies in schools which have become little more than test prep factories.They are arrested and jaile

by Mark Naison / 6min 

A Bronx View of the Killing of Michael Brown

The Bronx is full of young people who take what happened to Michael Brown very personally. They go through metal detectors in schools. Get stopped and frisked in the streets. Are looked at with suspicion and contempt when they head into Manhattan. They see themselves in Michael Brown, as they did in Ramarley Graham who suffered a similar fate in the Bronx two years ago. They are in pain right now

by Mark Naison / 1min 

8-9-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Love Letters to the BATS

With A Brooklyn Accent:What We Want and Need- A Friday Afternoon Message to Arne Duncan:We Need to show appreciation and respect for public school teachers and make them an integral part of every education policy making body.We need to develop strategies to attract and retain great teachers- teachers for life.We need to ramp up efforts to recruit and retain teachers of color.We need to transform s

1 by mike simpson / 32min 

8-11-14 The Whole Child Blog — Learning and Health are Symbiotic (and Global)

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:

Learning and Health are Symbiotic (and Global)

This week Education International—the world's largest federation of unions, representing 30 million education employees in 170 countries and territories—signed onto the Global School Health Statement developed by ASCD and the International School Health Network. The Global School Health Statement was developed out of the first Global School Health Symposium, a multi-level, multi-sectorial discus

by Sean Slade / 16min 

 

8-9-14 THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog How Did You Reflect and Recharge This Summer?Summer for educators is often a time to look back on the past year—and look forward to the coming one. What worked, what didn't, and what will you change? Educating the whole child and planning for comprehensive, sustainable school improvement requires us to be "whol

by mike simpson / 40min 

Voter Guide: 5 Differences Between LAUSD Candidates Alex Johnson and George McKenna | The Informer | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly

Voter Guide: 5 Differences Between LAUSD Candidates Alex Johnson and George McKenna | The Informer | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly:

Voter Guide: 5 Differences Between LAUSD Candidates Alex Johnson and George McKenna

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By Hillel Aron 

Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 6:27 AM

Categories: Education, Election

• McKenna, left, Johnson, right

Little known fact: there's an election tomorrow! A very special election! A special election, that is, for the District 1 L.A. Unified Board of Education seat, which pits political aide Alex Johnson against longtime administrator George McKenna. Turnout is expected to be depressingly low, perhaps less than 10 percent of registered voters.

There's been some media coverage in the last few weeks, but most of that has focused onthe negative ads flowing back and forth between the two candidates (pretty run-of-the-mill campaign stuff if you ask us: this guy has no experience; this guy was working for this thing when this bad thing happened, etc.)

"Issues" have been harder to come by, in part because there hasn't been a single debate in the runoff. But that's not entirely uncommon in school board races — most voters don't know enough to know what questions to ask. So candidates often keep things general (you won't find an "issues" section on either candidates' website).

So if you can't make up your mind who to vote for (or root for), we got your back. Here are five key differences between the two LAUSD candidates:

• Denzel Washington as George McKenna in the George McKenna Story

1) Experience
Most of the campaign back-and-forth has centered on experience. McKenna says he's got it and Johnson doesn't. Johnson says he's got a bit more than people give him credit for, and George's experience isn't all it's cracked up to be. You can read all about the thrilling charges and countercharges in the Times, or listen to this episode of Which Way LA.

Suffice it to say, the 73-year-old McKenna is older, and has way more experience — half a century as a public school administrator. His stint as head of George Washington Prep was immortalized in a made-for-TV movie starring Denzel Washington. He's also spent time at various levels of school district bureaucracy.

The 33-year-old Johnson has, naturally, less experience, but also different kinds of experience. Johnson fancies himself a policy wonk, and he's worked as L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas' education policy advisor. Before that he worked for the New York City School District – as one of its lawyers.

These two men come from very different generations and have very different resumes. George McKenna brings a school administrator's perspective. Johnson brings a Voter Guide: 5 Differences Between LAUSD Candidates Alex Johnson and George McKenna | The Informer | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly:

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 8-11-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

AN E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM GEORGE McKENNA: “What kind of school board member do they deserve?”

from4LAKidsNews smf: I was just about to hang up the keyboard and give it up for th’ day, to stop the blizzard of tweets and endorsements and lawn signs and damnable campaign mailers in the war for District 1. Tomorrow the voters decide, and that is how it’s supposed to be. The voters. May God bless them and show them the way to the polls. The voters. Not the bloggers or the billionaires or

by smf / 42min 

La Opinión: McKENNA FOR LAUSD

Editorial Endorsement by La Opinión- laopinion.com  | http://bit.ly/XYeO5B PUBLICADO: Aug, 10, 2014 12:01 am EST  ::  The results of the last primary election for the District 1 seat in the School Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) showed that only one candidate, George McKenna, has strong support from the community. McKenna garnered this support because he has a lot of

by smf / 3min 

Politico: TUCK MAY HAVE A SNOWBALL’S CHANCE IN HECK + ATLANTA TEST CHEATING CASE TO GO TO TRIAL

from the Politico Morning education report of Aug 11 | http://politi.co/1kXFspC FIRST LOOK: TUCK'S PATH TO VICTORY? His own internal polling shows former charter school executive Marshall Tuck lagging far behind incumbent Tom Torlakson in the race for California state superintendent - yet with huge numbers of voters undecided, Tuck is convinced he can win. His staff

by smf / 20min 

PE = National Security: OLD WAR HORSES LOBBY FOR FITNESS OF THE YOUNG

by Alisha Kirby, SI&A Cabinet Report ::  http://bit.ly/1B9ImfL August 11, 2014  ::  (District of Columbia)  ::  They’ve stormed the beaches at Normandy, held fast during a Cold War and survived the jungles of Vietnam. But for a special group of retired military executives, there are still battles to fight here at home, one being childhood obesity. Mission: Readiness, a nonpartisan, national

2 by smf / 1h 

The Board District One Election: KNBC’s “ALMOST A DEBATE” + The LA Weekly’s “VOTER GUIDE ON 5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JOHNSON & McKENNA”

“George McKenna brings a school administrator's perspective. Johnson brings a politician's.” McKenna, Johnson make their election cases on KNBC by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1r5LIhy Posted on August 11, 2014 11:45 am  :: George McKenna and Alex Johnson appeared yesterday in the KNBC Sunday talk show, “News Conference,” and it was as close to a debate as the candidates for LA Unified’s

by smf / 3min 

George McKenna for LAUSD School Board District 1

Home | George McKenna for LAUSD School Board District 1: LA County Democratic Party Endorses George McKenna For LAUSD District 1JULY 09, 2014The campaign of retired superintendent and decorated educator George McKenna for the vacant LAUSD District 1 school board seat got a huge boost Tuesday night with the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.“I am proud to be the only candidate

by mike simpson / 1h 

LAUSD’s AP EXAM PARTICIPATION RATE CONTINUES TO RISE

L.A. Unified saw a 62% increase from seven years ago in the number of AP tests taken by students, pass rate stays static at 39% to 42% by Sara Hayden, L.A. Times |  http://lat.ms/Vd0qEU Students listen to Advanced Placement teacher Daniel Jocz lecture on 19th century American history during a class at the Downtown Magnet High School in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

by smf / 6min 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 8-10-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CLASS CUTBACKS AT WALTER REED MIDDLE SCHOOL RILE PARENTS + smf’s 2¢By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1pJXFpv Walter Reed Middle School will open on Tuesday with students attending six periods instead of seven, and some parents are unhappy about the change. Andy Holzman Staff Photographer   Posted: 08/09/14, 6:48 PM PDT  ::  As lead

by mike simpson / 17h