That Was the Week That Was - Bridging Differences - Education Week

That Was the Week That Was - Bridging Differences - Education Week

That Was the Week That Was

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

What an amazing week in New York City! I was babysitting my 4-year-old grandson on Nov. 9, when my cell phone starting ringing as reporters called to say that Joel Klein was stepping down as chancellor of the city's public schools. At first, I didn't believe it, because I had heard the rumor many times in the past. But this time, it was real. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a press conference that Klein was leaving after eight years in office and would be replaced by a prominent business leader.

The mayor decided to replace Klein with Cathleen Black, the chairman of the Hearst Corporation. Unfortunately, Ms. Black has no education experience, but the mayor saw that as a plus. What he wanted was a manager, and education experience was not important.

I decided to write a blog about the history of the New York City superintendency, rather than join the chorus of people applauding or condemning the mayor's choice. Although the mayor believes that Klein served longer than any superintendent in the city's history, this is not accurate: Three served longer, one for 20 years, one for 11

Tuesday churn: Weighing in on vouchers | EdNewsColorado

Tuesday churn: Weighing in on vouchers | EdNewsColorado

Tuesday churn: Weighing in on vouchers

by Nancy Mitchell

What’s churning:

Parents and community members in Douglas County get their first chance tonight to weigh in on a voucher proposal being mulled by school board members.

Board members spent much of Friday and Saturday hearing reports from seven subcommittees of a School Choice Task Force, but vouchers – also known as option certificates – dominated the conversation.

Tonight’s board meeting begins at 5 p.m. and the community hearing is set to start at 7:15 p.m. An hour has been allotted but Susan Meek, the district’s communications director, said speakers may be allowed to run over that time or asked to complete their remarks at the end of the meeting.

The meeting is at district headquarters, 620 Wilcox in Castle Rock. The full agenda is here.

In case you missed it, here is an evening update from yesterday’s churn:

Denver Public Schools contract attorney Martin Semple countered an opinion from attorney Mark Grueskin saying that three school board members facing censure did, in fact, attend a meeting closed in violation of the

Schools Matter: NCATE "to incubate a whole new form of teacher education"

Schools Matter: NCATE "to incubate a whole new form of teacher education"

NCATE "to incubate a whole new form of teacher education"

by Jim Horn

During the Bush/Spellings years, Spellings exercised old-fashioned intimidation against accrediting agencies, using threats to withdraw federal funding and federal recognition from accreditors unwilling to line up behind the antiquarian notions of the scary clown in charge of the Spellings Commission, Charles Miller. None of her threats, however, brought the desired results of turning colleges into the same kind of useless corporate data mines that have stripped K-12 schools of their educative potential.

With hundreds of billions in education dollars at stake each year, and with the deliriously loony mantra broadcast constantly that the U. S. is going to educate itself out of the economic meltdown that education had no part in creating, the educational testing complex has quickly shifted its strategy away from empty threats. They have taken the inside track that clearly expresses the strategy of, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em--and then beat 'em.

One of the remaining stumbling blocks to the total corporate takeover of K-12 has been the university teacher education programs that have often stubbornly clung to scholarship, best practices, humane values, and a long-standing democratic ethos in the face of tremendous pressure from the education industrial complex. This

"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO) | TakePart - Inspiration to Action

"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO) | TakePart - Inspiration to Action

"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO)

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'You can send me to detention, but my mom will close you down!' (Photo: Reuters Pictures).

The Wall Street Journal called it "The Radical School Reform You've Never Heard Of." California's teachers' unioncalled it a "lynch mob provision."

The Journal and the teachers are talking about "parent trigger," the next political hand grenade in the battle to reform our nation's public schools.

In January, California became the first state in the nation with a "parent trigger" law. Under the provision, if 51 percent of parents at any given school sign a petition, they can trigger a transformation of the school: inviting in a charter operator, forcing administrative changes, or shuttering the school altogether.

To qualify for a parent trigger petition, a California school must have failed to make "Adequate Yearly Progress" toward improving test scores for four consecutive years.

The Journal reports that 1,300 schools in California fit that criteria.

Parent trigger is the brainchild of a California group called "Parent Revolution" that "aims to transform public education rooted in what’s good for kids—not grown-ups—by empowering

The corporate takeover of American schools | Paul Thomas | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The corporate takeover of American schools | Paul Thomas | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The corporate takeover of American schools

The trend for appointing CEOs to the top jobs is symptomatic of a declining commitment to public education and social justice

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  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 November 2010 13.00 GMT
  • Article history

Joel Klein, the outgoing chancellor of New York schools. He is joining News Corp as a vice-president and adviser to Rupert Murdoch; his successor, Cathie Black, is chair of Hearst Magazines. Photograph: Lisa Carpenter for the Guardian

The top positions in state education across the US – for example, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, recent chancellors Joel Klein (New York) and Michelle Rhee (Washington, DC), and incoming Chancellor Cathleen P Black (New York) – reflect a trust in CEO-style leadership for education management and reform. Along with these new leaders in education, billionaire entrepreneurs have also assumed roles as education saviours: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Geoffrey Canada.

Gates, Canada, Duncan, Klein and Rhee have capitalised on their positions in education to rise to the status of celebrities, as well – praised in the misleading documentary feature Waiting for Superman, on Oprah, and even on Bill Maher's Real Time.

What do all these professional managers and entrepreneurs have in common?

Little or no experience or expertise in education. (Instead, they have degrees in government and law, along with nontraditional entries into education and strong ties to alternative certification, such as Teach for America). Further, they all represent and promote a cultural faith in the

California out of sync with Common Core | Thoughts on Public Education

California out of sync with Common Core | Thoughts on Public Education

California out of sync with Common Core

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Will the state have tests years before textbooks?

Posted on 11/15/10 • Categorized as Common Core standards, State Board of Education

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

In July 2009, the Legislature suspended the work of the Curriculum Commission, which screens textbooks and course materials, for four years. It may have been out of spite – a slap at the State Board of Education, to which the Commission reports. It may have been to save money for the state and school districts, which could use textbook money for other purposes. It may have been both.

Whatever the motivation, that decision is jeopardizing the state’s ability to prepare students and teachers for Common Core standards in math and language arts, which the State Board adopted in August. If the timeline isn’t changed, the state will have tests in Common Core subjects two years before it has approved the textbooks that students need to learn those

Win for illegal immigrants and state - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

In 2001, the Legislature agreed that undocumented immigrants who completed three years of high school in California, got their high school diplomas, and applied for citizenship would be entitled to in-state tuition at state colleges. HB 540 was a reward to students who persevered against the odds. It was also a smart investment for a [...]

Stile: Christie can be a bit sloppy with scapegoats - NorthJersey.com

Stile: Christie can be a bit sloppy with scapegoats - NorthJersey.com

Stile: Christie can be a bit sloppy with scapegoats

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2010, 7:23 AM

By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST

display story on 1 pagePage 1 2 >>

Governor Christie has built the most formidable stable of scapegoats and political piñatas in New Jersey history.

FILE PHOTO

It's a lonely and unforgiving place for late-career patronage hires, late-career school officials and a former governor who spent $100 million sorting out a mid-life career crisis. He has branded them as selfish or cowardly caretakers of the public weal. They are beyond redemption.

Trotting them out for a news-cycle slam has its pitfalls. Christie can be sloppy, diving into diatribes without always having his facts in order, as we learned in the "Race to the Top" fiasco in August. And some targets are singled out more for being Democrats, while Republican offenders are treated with kid gloves.

Here is a look at three Christie piñatas and how the attack narrative is often an incomplete, inconsistent story.

Leroy Seitz, Parsippany-Troy Hills superintendent of schools.

Seitz earned entry into Christie's Land of the Unforgiven last week after neg

North Jersey students develop interest in foodie culture

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

BY SACHI FUJIMORI

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

On a recent afternoon Jonathan Caflun, a sophomore at Ridgewood High School, raced home after school with two friends, not to play video games, but to make vanilla crepes.

The teens had recently learned in their family and consumer sciences course (once known as home economics) how to make the delicate French pancakes and were excited to test the recipe at home. "We were hungry and said, 'Let's do it tonight,' " said Caflun, a strawberry blond, shaggy-haired teen who is vice president of his school's food club.

Growing up on a steady diet of Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis, and generous portions of nail-biting cooking competitions, kids are becoming more and more passionate about food. The mass popularization of food culture has trickled down to these impressionable junior foodies, who are increasingly interested in cooking, nutrition and understanding how the food system fits into their communities.

Strict rules at Crown Heights charter school put 16% of students in detention every day

Strict rules at Crown Heights charter school put 16% of students in detention every day

BY BEN CHAPMAN

Tuesday, November 16th 2010, 4:00 AM

Lanzilote/News

Wanda Boone stands with her daughter, Gianna, who serves detention nearly every day for such infractions as failing to look at teacher in the eye or address her as 'ma'am.'

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She has served detention for slouching, humming and failing to look her teachers in the eye.

It's no surprise that former honors student Gianna Boone hates going to Achievement First Crown Heights Middle School.

The East New York Ave. charter school's strict rules have landed the 13-year-old girl in detention nearly every day this year. And her grades have dropped from an A average to a C.

"I get into trouble every time I turn around," said Gianna, an eighth-grader who has served detention at least four times every week since school began in August for humming, talking loudly in the bathroom and using a pen during math class. "It's killing me."

The five-year-old middle school hands out detention based on a system of demerits - which students earn for infractions such as putting their heads on their desks, not facing forward while walking in the hallway or going to the bathroom during class.

With every three demerits, a student must serve 45 minutes of detention.

Some behaviors are considered so bad - rolling their eyes, sucking their teeth or complaining after getting a demerit - students get an immediate 45-minute detention fo

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/11/16/2010-11-16_strict_rules_at_crown_heights_charter_school_put_16_of_students_in_detention_eve.html#ixzz15Rycd7z2

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More reasons to dump mayoral control

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More reasons to dump mayoral control

More reasons to dump mayoral control

by Mike Klonsky

Need a couple of good reasons to get rid of mayoral control of urban schools? How about Bloomberg and Daley? Narrow, self-serving political agendas have left both of their autocratically-run school systems in chaos.

With a week to go before Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman flees the coop, there is still no official word on his replacement. It's been 5 months since the system had a chief education officer. And even machine guy and front-running mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel has to preface his education platform with a slam on the current Daley-run system.

"Chicago's public schools are on a precipice. Testing indicates that 86% of our elementary-school graduates won't be ready for college. Nearly half of high-school entrants will not graduate. Teachers and students aren't learning the skills they need, and too many parents are on the sidelines." (Crain's)

Ouch!

The problem for Rahm is that all this comes after 15 years of mayoral control, including 7 years with Rahm's