9-14-14 Curmudgucation - The Antidote to Money

CURMUDGUCATION:

The Antidote to Money

Money has poisoned many of the conversations in this country, shaping the debates about everything from wars in foreign lands to the future of American public education. Money has an unprecedented power to control the public discussion simply by taking control of the major media (which are, after all, contained within just six corporations).Ironically, today there is also unprecedented power for o

1 by Peter Greene / 5min hide  //  save

Education Next Plugs Research Proving Not Much of Anything

This week Education Next ran an article entitled "The First Hard Evidence on Virtual Education." It turns out that the only word in that title which comes close to being accurate is "first" (more about that shortly). What actually runs in the article is a remarkable stretch by anybody's standards.The study is a 'working paper" by Guido Schwert of the University of Konstanz

25 by Peter Greene / 1h

9-13-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:Curmudgucation WeekWhy So Politicized?!Education Post is beginning to look like an organization dedicated to the proposition that it takes an entire village to replace She Who Will Not Be Named. Though they have not yet announced plans to run a large urban school district into the ground, they are laboring mightily to make themselves a clearinghouse for all the top talking points fo

1 by mike simpson / 32min 

Weingarten Hearts Cuomo (By Proxy); Willing to Undercut Teachout via Last-minute Robocall | deutsch29

Weingarten Hearts Cuomo (By Proxy); Willing to Undercut Teachout via Last-minute Robocall | deutsch29:

Weingarten Hearts Cuomo (By Proxy); Willing to Undercut Teachout via Last-minute Robocall

September 14, 2014

Like my writing? Read my newly-released ed “reform” whistle blower, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education

NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE.

On September 9, 2014, New York State democrats voted in a primary election that turned out to be an embarrassment for incumbent Andrew Cuomo.

His most viable opponent was a relatively unknown Fordham University professor with no political machine behind her, Zephyr Teachout.

Teachout lost, but not without taking a notable bite out of Cuomo support.

As the Associated Press reports:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Incumbent governors with national aspirations, a long list of accomplishments and flush bank accounts typically don’t worry about primary challenges, especially one mounted by a little-known professor who moved to the state five years ago.

So it was unusual when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo found himself facing a spirited fight from rebels in his own Democratic party — environmentalists, unhappy public workers, critics of Albany’s insider culture and voters disturbed by Cuomo’s dismissive treatment of his opponent, Fordham University professor Zephyr Teachout.

Cuomo claimed a comfortable 62 percent in Tuesday’s Democratic matchup, but Teachout’s 34 percent — she won half of the state’s 62 counties — stunned observers who had predicted she would win a 20 percent protest vote.

Voter Vivien Traiman said Cuomo’s stance on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, or fracking, topped the reasons she voted for Teachout. …

Teachout’s biggest margins came from more rural areas, winning 78 percent of the vote in Columbia County in the Hudson Valley, 71 percent in Schoharie County west of Albany. She also picked up three counties — Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer — that are home to many state workers. Teachout was endorsed by the Public Employees Federation, the second-largest state worker union.

The governor and his supporters have tried to minimize Teachout’s numbers, noting turnout for the election was a low 10 percent. And the

Weingarten Hearts Cuomo (By Proxy); Willing to Undercut Teachout via Last-minute Robocall | deutsch29:

Why hide costs from education investment panel?: Editorial Agenda 2014 | OregonLive.com

Why hide costs from education investment panel?: Editorial Agenda 2014 | OregonLive.com:



Why hide costs from education investment panel?: Editorial Agenda 2014

Gov. John Kitzhaber presides over the Oregon Education Investment Board in January 2012. (Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian)

 The Oregon Education Investment Board, created by the Legislature in 2011 at the governor's request, is so ... Kitzhaber. We mean that in a good way. Mostly.

As a key element of the governor's push to change the way Oregon funds education, from early childhood through college, the 13-member board is supposed to drive efficiency and rationality into a process that could use more of both. Improving upon a funding model that distributes money based largely on enrollment, the thinking goes, is necessary for the state to achieve its new and ambitious educational goals.

The very language of Senate Bill 909, which established the OEIB, is instructive. The legislation teems with words like "streamlined," "connected," "integrated," "targeted" and "strategic investments." It even calls for a data system that will "monitor expenditures and outcomes to determine returns on statewide education investments."

Editorial Agenda 2014

More jobs for Oregon

Position the Port for the futureMake Portland a city that works

Keep people moving

Build a culture of student success

Move forward on tax reform

Protect and expand personal freedom
_______________________________

Read more about the editorial board's priorities for Oregon.

All of this is characteristic of the governor in that it reflects the identification of a big issue (or problem), followed by the creation of ambitious processes and structures designed to make everything work more rationally and efficiently. The approach is smart, calculated and data-driven.

But reforms conceived at a 30,000-foot level have a maddening way of running into mountains as they approach the ground.  We will not name the defining plane crash of the governor's current term, but only because doing so isn't necessary. Oregonians know well what happens when a complicated piece of bureaucratic machinery loses its bearings.

The OEIB isn't necessarily headed toward Mount Hood, but the flight recently hit a significant patch of turbulence involving, of all things, data – or the lack thereof. A five-member subcommittee, the Outcomes and Investments Subcommittee, spent many hours hearing and discussing potentially expensive educational proposals pitched by various agencies.  After careful consideration, the committee was supposed to make recommendations to the full OEIB, which would affix its stamp of approval and send the lot to the governor, who will make budget recommendations for the 2015 Legislature.

Problem is, as The Oregonian's Betsy Hammond reported, the education officials pitching ideas to the investments subcommittee were prohibited from sharing cost information. Why withhold cost information from a subcommittee explicitly charged with weighing investments? Because, says, Kristin Gimbel, communications director for Chief Education Officer Nancy Golden, "the role of the OEIB is really to recommend a slate of investment concepts to the governor."

Actually, as spelled out by law, the role of the board is to provide, through the use of good data, strategic investment recommendations. How strategic can you be when nobody will tell you what anything costs? Among the subcommittee members who made this point was Ron Saxton, who told The Oregonian editorial board he's frustrated by "the inability to provide good advice and prioritization about what's the most cost-effective use of limited resources."

At one point during the committee process, as Hammond reported, a Kitzhaber education adviser urged members to weight proposals using "different intelligences" than a cost-benefit analysis. We've read SB 909 a couple of times and can't find "different intelligences" anywhere.

Echoing Saxton, OEIB member Julia Brim-Edwards told the editorial board she's "concerned that the board would be asked to make recommendations without really specific information about the cost per-student" of various programs. Brim-Edwards and other members of the full OEIB will soon vote on an unweighted laundry list of ideas approved by the investments committee.

The OEIB is still a relatively new entity, and it would be overly optimistic for the public to expect it to operate flawlessly. But deliberately denying cost information to a board expected to recommend strategic investments isn't the sort of thing that can be dismissed by saying "oops." It suggests that the process is heading off-course, and it demands some clear corrective action – or at least a believable explanation – from the guy who's supposed to be in the cockpit.

Otherwise, why should Oregonians believe that the governor has the ability, or commitment, to bring any other ambitious reform, no matter how intelligently conceived, to a safe landing?Why hide costs from education investment panel?: Editorial Agenda 2014 | OregonLive.com:

PUBLIC Education Nation Event Registration Survey

PUBLIC Education Nation Event Registration Survey:

PUBLIC Education Nation Event Registration

 

This survey is for the purpose of registering in advance for the PUBLIC Education Nation event coming up on Oct. 11, 2014. For details and to make a donation, please go here: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/

You can also sign up for the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/719542494783057/

Please follow the Network for Public Education on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/NetworkPublicEd

and coming soon: the PUBLIC Education Nation Twitter feed at @PublicEdNation

PUBLIC Education Nation Event Registration Survey:

Geaux Teacher!: Helping Reynoldsburg Teachers Helps Our Own

Geaux Teacher!: Helping Reynoldsburg Teachers Helps Our Own:

Helping Reynoldsburg Teachers Helps Our Own

Support Reynoldsburg Teachers We don't email our supporters often, we know you receive too much already, and we also know that most of our supporters follow us closely on Facebook,Twitter and our blog, but by now you have probably heard that the Columbus suburb of Reynoldsburg has become the front line in the fight between two very different visions for the future of education in our state. On one side, a well-connected Superintendent, hand-picked and groomed by State Superintendent Richard Ross, a deeply divided school board, and the management attorney involved in 8 of the last 12 teacher strikes in Ohio is pushing an anti-public education agenda. On the other side, the 364 educators of the Reynoldsburg Education Association and the strongly supportive Reynoldsburg community are standing up for the future of public education in Ohio.   This was a fight that was picked intentionally and with a purpose. The board’s first proposal, was an appalling list of concessions and corporate reforms; no language on class size, planning time to be spent in meetings rather than teacher self-directed planning time, the end of a traditional salary schedule to be replaced by merit pay without defined criteria for obtaining it, the end of traditional employer health insurance by shifting all employees to the Affordable Care Act. Nothing was offered by the board to address the fact that one in five teachers left the district after the last school year. The list read so much like a corporate reform playbook we’ve brought to light over the past few years on Join the future.    The Reynoldsburg teachers message to the community is clear and simple: We are fighting for the schools Reynoldsburg students deserve, including class size limits and addressing runaway teacher turnover.    The community has responded in a huge way. Six hundred supporters, community members and REA members packed board meetings. Parents swarmed the Superintendents “office hours” causing the Superintendent to escape out the back door of the board office and refuse media questions. Two thousand “We Support Reynoldsburg Teachers” yard signs were distributed and gone in less than 48 hours and now dot lawns across the city. On the night when teachers rejected the board’s “offer” by 97%, more than 50 students and community members waited three and a half hours outside the meeting to chant, greet teachers, and show their support.   Despite all of this pressure, the board remains dug in. September 8th, teachers issued a 10 day strike notice for a work stoppage to begin September 19th. Now Reynoldsburg teachers need our help. Here’s what we can do:   o   “Like” the Reynoldsburg Education Association Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/ReynoldsburgEA o   “Follow” Reynoldsburg teachers on Twitter: @standstrongrea   Events Attend the massive Solidarity Rally on Saturday, September 20 at 11:00 a.m.Huber Park (7232 E Main St, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068)   Reynoldsburg Community Members o   Please put a “We Support Reynoldsburg Teachers” sign in your yard o   Email the BOE members and urge them to settle a fair contract. o   Please support businesses that post a “We Support Reynoldsburg Teachers” sign in front of their stores. With your support, Join the Future will continue to fight for great public schools and the people who dedicate themselves to providing a quality education to Ohio's students. Thank you for your continued support of public education and the dedicated people who work in it. Forward this email to a Friend  Facebook  Twitter

Foster care youth: Faces of the invisible achievement gap

Foster care youth: Faces of the invisible achievement gap:



Faces of the invisible achievement gap

Rayvon Spencer (photo by Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

 In Colorado, homeless students are nearly twice as likely to graduate from high school as children in the foster care system.

That startling statistic is the crux of our Sunday story that examines the academic hurdles facing foster-care kids and Colorado’s efforts to turn that around.

Here, we hear more from four impressive young people who overcame those odds and have bright futures.

Rayvon Spencer, 22, now studying at the Community College of Denver

At 2 years old, Rayvon was taken from his parents and put into the foster care system. He was adopted at 5 but things only got worse under the influence of drug-addicted parents who fought daily, he said. He and his adopted brothers were kept in a basement. His sisters lived upstairs. He ran away at 17 and eventually earned a GED.

On isolation as a foster care child:

“A person’s mind isn’t there, especially coming out of foster care, because no one is there to be there for them through the thick and thin. No one is there through life, teaching what being mature is.”

On the ideal setting for foster children:

“Each foster child should have one specific home, for one specific child, so that way, you don’t have an adult focused on so many different things, so many different kids. One or two or three (children), not a group of people. That makes it so much easier for that foster parent and for those kids to get to where they want to get.”

Latisha Barrington (photo by Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

Latisha Alvarado Barrington, 21, studying at CU Denver

When Latisha was 8, her parents left her and her siblings home alone. Her baby brother was crying and wouldn’t stop. The children found a nipple, filled a Gatorade bottle with formula and fed him. Then, a firm knock on the door. Two Denver police officers. Latisha said she was the babysitter. “How old are you?” they asked. She said 13. So began a journey through the foster care system that took her to a dozen placements in a few short years.

On how her biological parents influenced her schooling and her Foster care youth: Faces of the invisible achievement gap:

9-14-14 Jersey Jazzman - Once Again, @tomamoran Gets Charter Schools Wrong

Jersey Jazzman:

Once Again, @tomamoran Gets Charter Schools Wrong

So long as Tom Moran, Editorial Page Editor of the Star-Ledger, insists on publishing pieces about education full of omissions and half-truths, I have no choice but to continue to set the record straight and correct him.Today's piece from Moran is about Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa), a dual-immersion language school I have studied previously and know quite well. Says Moran:The core d

20 by Duke / 41min 

9-13-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekUnder @GovChristie, State Control of Urban Schools Is a DisasterThe fiscal failures of Chris Christie are well-documented at this point: huge budget woes, no payments to the pension that were required under his own plan, bond ratings in a downward spiral, and the withering of Atlantic City's gaming industry have all occurred on Christie's watch.But we

1 by mike simpson / 29min 

Differentiation and Common Core—A Strange Combination for Gifted Students:

Differentiation and Common Core—A Strange Combination for Gifted Students

SEPTEMBER 14, 2014 BY NANCY BAILEY LEAVE A COMMENT

In looking at different cities and their plans for gifted students, there is one thing most of them now have in common. They advocate differentiation and Common Core. The real buzz word is differentiation!

Differentiation sounds soothing, like it will give every parent what they always dream of, personalized attention for their child. It advertises that every child’s differences will, in fact, be considered. Differentiation takes the edge off the word Common.

We all want our schools to care and address the unique needs of our children. But with this differentiation, there is a caveat. With Common Core State Standards, differentiation leads everyone to the same goals!

Carol Ann Tomlinson is the education professor who devised the thinking behind differentiation, and I have much respect for her, and, to some extent, classroom differentiation is good teaching.

Differentiation has also been around for a long time. It is often discussed in regard to inclusion. In the past, most teachers varied some of what they taught to reach the differences all children bring to the classroom. However, most classes were more homogenous and possibly smaller. A teacher can alter their plans for a few differences easier than preparing for a wide variety of differences—some serious.

Such a class also requires much preparation, and schools don’t always think much about grouping students when they set up classes. Most teachers don’t know the Differentiation and Common Core—A Strange Combination for Gifted Students:

Romano: A stand against school testing is long overdue | Tampa Bay Times

Romano: A stand against school testing is long overdue | Tampa Bay Times:

Romano: A stand against school testing is long overdue

The voice of the revolution is calm. It is kind. It is the voice of a 59-year-old kindergarten teacher who cares more about her students than her paycheck.

his is why Susan Bowles is refusing to give a standardized computer test to a class of 5-year-olds at a Gainesville school this month, a stance that violates her contract and puts her three-decade teaching career in serious jeopardy.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south, the Lee County School Board voted to stop giving state-mandated tests before it reversed a week later. School boards in Brevard and Palm Beach counties had similar discussions.

In the Miami-Dade School District, the largest in Florida, the board has asked the state for a delay in implementing a new high-stakes test.

And Opt Out Orlando, a grass roots group that helps parents navigate loopholes in the state's rigid standardized testing program, is expanding into other districts.

Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho described these developments as a "tsunami of growing consciousness'' across the state.

"Tsunami" might be a little overstated. But it is safe to say that after years of grumbling about the state's fanatical devotion to testing, we are seeing tangible signs of protest. Of, dare we say, revolt.

The question now is this:

Will Tallahassee ever listen?

"How much more preposterous does this have to get,'' Bowles asked, "before the legislators stop and say, 'What have we done?' "

Bowles did not arrive late to this party. She's had concerns about the quantity and quality of state tests for years. This was just the tipping point.

The state Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, which is given to kindergarten students three times a year to help determine placement and progress, has to be administered one-on-one with a teacher Romano: A stand against school testing is long overdue | Tampa Bay Times:

Lead, Follow or Get the Hell Outta Our Way. FL: A stand against school testing is long overdue

Folks making choices that they never expected these days. Stand together … Or get the hell out of our way. Quote : ” The voice of the revolution is calm. It is kind. It is the voice of a 59-year-old kindergarten teacher who cares more about her students than her paycheck.” http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/romano-a-stand-against-school-testing-is-long-overdue/2197607

by gatorbonbc / 29min 

9-13-14 All NEW Living in Dialogue - Time For a New Conversation Indeed: PUBLIC Education Nation is Here

Home - Living in Dialogue:

Time For a New Conversation Indeed: PUBLIC Education Nation is Here

By Anthony Cody. In 2014, most of the communications media is carrying messages sponsored or controlled by the wealthy. When speech is redefined by the Supreme Court to include the spending of money, then those with unlimited money have a nearly unlimited ability to speak via the airwaves. This week I described how that money, often funneled through “philanthropies,” has been used to create recent

10 by Anthony Cody / 1min 

Rebel Girl: Fighting for Student Rights

Rebel Girl from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo. Newark Student Union leader Kristin Towkaniuk, injured last week by police during a student walkout, has long been a thorn in the side of Gov Christie. From leading walkouts to mixing it up at the state legislature, she is a force of nature for student rights. Here she speaks at the EmpowerEd conference at USC last March on student voice and political pow

30 by Vincent Precht / 1h hide  //  save

Making the Grade: What is Our Goal?

By Larry Graykin. My son Alec, a junior at Concord (NH) High School, shared a fascinating tidbit with me recently. His school has shifted to a new way of grading. Homework’s value in this new system? 0%. That’s not to say that the school has abolished homework. On the contrary; he has as much or more assigned as ever…it just doesn’t count — at all. His teachers insist the homework is very importan

35 by Anthony Cody / 1h 

9-13-14 All NEW Living in Dialogue

Home | Living in Dialogue:Gates Money Attempts to Shift the Education Conversation to SuccessesIn 2010, a stark image was broadcast around the nation. It showed a child seated at a school desk surrounded by absolute devastation and ruin. That image was used promote the movie, “Waiting For Superman.” The movie was boosted with a $2 million advertising grant from the Gates Foundation, and was furthe

1 by mike simpson / 21min 

9-14-14 Wait What? - Another MUST READ article by Connecticut professor Dr. Yohuru Williams

Wait What?:

Another MUST READ article by Connecticut professor Dr. Yohuru Williams

Yohuru Williams is Chair and Professor of History at Fairfield University.  Dr. Williams is also a powerful, leading voice for public education, both at the national level and here in Connecticut. His latest column for the Huffington Post is entitled, Lies My Corporate Ed Reformers Told Me: The Truth About Teacher Tenure and the Civil […] The post Another MUST READ article by Connecticut professor

7 by jonpelto / 5min 

9-13-14 Wait What? - All Week Breaking: Pelto/Murphy Register as Write-In Candidates for 2014

Wait What?:  Wait What? All WeekPelto/Murphy Register as Write-In Candidates for 2014“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you will cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”                                                                      […] The post Pelto/Murphy Register as Write-In Candidates for 2014 appeared first on Wait What?.100+ by jonpelto / 20h 

2 by mike simpson / 43min 

9-14-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Legal Rights of Linguistic Minorities

First submitted September 13, 2014 to Peoples College of Law "We therefore live in a period where the prevailing Zeitgeist is at least receptive to the notion that we do not have to be identical ethnically or linguistically." — Dr. Fernand de Varennes In an era where right-wing millionaires use their obscene wealth to finance arch-reactionary legal firms like Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

1 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 12min 

Indy's John Harris Loflin and José Evans' Big Gig at International ED Conference

By Doug MartinBelow is, first, a press release from public school activist John Harris Loflin, director of education and youth issues at the Black and Latin@ Policy Institute.  (Loflin's research has appeared here at Schools Matter in various forms, in my blogs, as well as a guest blog posted by Douglas Storm which was picked up by the Washington Post Answer Sheet.)  Following Loflin's press relea

4 by Doug Martin / 2h 

9-13-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter:  Schools Matter All WeekThe "middle skills" shortage: The common core will make it worseSent to the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2014"German robots school U.S. workers" (Sept. 10) is the most recent of a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal on the substantial shortage of job applicants with "middle skills," requiring less than a college degre

1 by mike simpson / 1h