Monday, December 27, 2010

During my many years of work on ASCD at the Washington State and International levels I had the good fortune to meet many state, national, and international leaders in education. A few years ago I ran across the work of Jerry Bracey and ended up as a subscriber to his listserve, the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency (EDDRA). Bracey was one of the giants of our time with extensive background in assessment and not afraid to call a spade a spade. EDDRA consisted of some of the top thinkers in the field of education who came together to identify and call out the misinformed, stupid, and out-and-out fraudulent information being promoted to the public. In Hemingway’s terms, we were a bunch of “crap detectors” bent on straightening things out.

I met many people through EDDRA, but one of the best analytical minds belongs to Michael Martin from Arizona. He is able to cut through the most obtuse argument to find the kernel of truth hidden within. I am amazed at his ability to read opposing views on a

Wix.com LS4C1 created by LS4C1CEO based on Kids Clothing

Billionaires have a special place in our

philosophy. As Myron Miner himself is a

billionaire he is sensitive to their needs and concerns. Billionaires have the clout to influence public policy in a way that few other people can. There is no better way to democratize education in this country than by bringing the voices of CEOs and hedge fund managers into the equation.

Education is a 700 Billion Dollar a year industry. We will work with you to assure you get a piece of that money. We will gladly publicize your contributions if you wish to develop a philanthropic image or we will keep your contributions anonymous with the help of the Supreme Court's recent Citizens Untied decision.

Before You Think Of Your Master Plan — The Jose Vilson

Before You Think Of Your Master Plan

by Jose

Apple's "Think Different" Posters

Last year around this time, I already looked at 2010 as that year. Unlike prior years, I came into this year willing to exert as much of my will into my goals as humanly possible. In 2008, I didn’t set any resolutions or goals whatsoever, burnt by my failure to achieve any major ones all through that year. In 2009, I switched up the

The Answer Sheet - Willingham: 3 brain facts every educator should know

Willingham: 3 brain facts every educator should know

My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” By Daniel Willingham Here are three facts about the brain that every educator ought to know. Fact 1: The brain is always changing. Sometimes an education nostrum is supported by the claim that "it actually changes the brain.” (Less often it's offered as a warning against some alleged danger, e.g., video games.) The phrase is meant to convey that the object under discussion has a powerful impact, but a change in the brain is no evidence of impact at all. The brain is always changing. Every experience you have, however trivial, leads to some change in the brain.

Hotel Stays, Flights and a $400 Bottle of Wine voiceofsandiego.org: Education

voiceofsandiego.org: Education

26Dec

Hotel Stays, Flights and a $400 Bottle of WineComments | 5:24 pm

When San Diego County Office of Education employees flew to Boston to learn more about a company they were considering doing business with, they didn't need to worry about the bill.

The company paid for their flight to Boston. It also paid for their hotel stay. And when one of the employees, Dan Puplava, picked out a bottle of wine from Napa Valley over dinner, he wasn't really sure who paid, but believes it was either the company or its marketing company. He thought the bottle cost $400.

Read the rest of this article

A $5 Children’s Book vs. a $47,000 Jail Cell — Choose One - Steve Cohen - Admissions - Forbes

Dec. 25 2010 - 9:27 am | 999 views | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

Image via Wikipedia

“Texas uses fourth grade reading scores to project the number of prison cells they’re going need 10 years later.”

I first heard that astounding pronouncement in 1995 while co-chairing a White House task force on literacy. And though I later learned that the formula for projecting the number of jail cells was more nuanced, it was not inaccurate. Moreover, Texas wasn’t alone in using elementary school reading difficulties as a

Education Week: Parents oppose NYC schools chancellor choice

Wake Schools Chief Allowed to Do TV, Web Stints New Wake County Schools Superintendent Anthony Tata can do stints as a commentator on national network news shows and conservative websites.

Parents Oppose NYC Schools Chancellor Choice

Detroit Teacher Shortage Causes Cascade of Problems More than three months into the school year, a teacher shortage is shaking Detroit Public Schools, causing a cascade of problems from overcrowded classes to report cards with no grades to the sudden transfer of students, some with autism.

Democratic Schism Opens on Fixing Schools Across the nation Democrats have begun to split over education, with a growing chorus arguing the party must move away from its traditional allegiance with teachers unions in order to improve chronically low-performing schools.

Teacher Salaries Debate Heats Up in Philadelphia Area

From AP classes to remedial ed — Joanne Jacobs

From AP classes to remedial ed

by Joanne

In their zeal to send all students to college, some high schools are pushing struggling students into Advanced Placement classes, writes Michele Kerr, a high school algebra teacher, in a San Jose Mercury News op-ed. Unprepared students usually fail the AP exam and end up in remedial college classes. Why not teach K-12 skills in high school, so students can take college-level classes in college?

Those who advocate “AP for all” argue that some students have a chance at passing, and that even a failing score can improve college outcomes.
. . . A National Center for Education Statistics study shows that remedial math placement halves

Seattle Public Schools community blog: Oh, So NOW the District is Sending Out the Pay for K Bills

Oh, So NOW the District is Sending Out the Pay for K Bills

by Melissa Westbrook

From our Open Thread Sunday. The district seriously sent out huge bills for Pay for K right before Christmas?

I just want to say that I got my $828 Pay4K bill on DECEMBER 24!! Really, SPS? I knew it would be coming, although I NEVER once got any information about it before school started - I never got a Welcome to Kindergarten packet from the district, but I have been saving my money while waiting to learn how to Pay4K- but

Schools Matter: How to Fix Bill Gates and Randi Weingarten

How to Fix Bill Gates and Randi Weingarten

by Jim Horn

Looking at the Newsweek photo, I was struck at how it might feel to find yourself in a pre-arranged motel room with the antithesis of what your chosen partner would look like.

Here is Bill, having become the richest man in the world as the result of federal tax largesse and a marketing department that has made his second-rate products standard issue for corporate America. (Did you know that Microsoft paid less in taxes on its $12 billion income in 1999 than a family of four in Kentucky with an income of $36,000? (Anyon, 2006).

And next to him across a gash of winter light from the partially-curtained window, his unlikely partner, Randi Weingarten, who no doubt is getting used to these pre-arranged econo-dates where she gives up it up (the "it"

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Learning from Finland

Learning from Finland

by Mike Klonsky

Finland is one of the few nations that have accomplished both a high quality of learning and equity in learning at

Teachers ban use of “utilize” and “implement” | theteachingwhore

Teachers ban use of “utilize” and “implement”

by theteachingwhore

In a faculty meeting at Deerborn High School, teachers voted to ban the use of certain verbs that appear repeatedly in documents from the state education department and the school’s own administration.

Faculty president Rhonda Ledbetter said, “We’re tired of being told to “utilize the available resources that the state has provided” when what they mean is ‘use the textbooks.”

Ledbetter said the issue wasn’t with what the teachers were being told to do. “We ignore that all the time anyway,” she said. “We’ve tried to explain how policies for change must start at the student/teacher/classroom

This Week In Education: Video: Cell Phone Videos Challenge School Police Account

Video: Cell Phone Videos Challenge School Police Account [image: image from cache.gawker.com] A Los Angeles high schooler is out of jail after several months, thanks in part to the notoriety his case had gained through media accounts and an Internet website called Reddit (How a Google Engineer (and Reddit) ...

AM News: "Snowpocalypse 2010" Can't Stop The News [image: News2] Hurdles Emerge in Rising Effort to Rate Teachers NYT: Once an internal measure that principals could choose to heed or ignore, the city’s teacher ranking system has been thrust into the spotlight, bringing its relevance into ...

College starts in 11th grade — Joanne Jacobs

College starts in 11th grade College will start in 11th grade at two Washington, D.C. high schools, reports the Washington Post. Two years after completing 12th grade, students will earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of the District of Columbia. That’s the plan, at any ...

Study: Seniority-based layoffs hurt students Seniority-based teacher layoffs hurt students, concludes a study by the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington. Researchers compared “value-added scores” of less-experienced Washington state teachers targeted for ...

Klein's Private Farewell to NYC Principals :: Frederick M. Hess

Klein's Private Farewell to NYC Principals I'm going to miss Joel Klein. Love him or hate him (and I love him, especially when we disagree on something), the New York City chancellor has cut a huge swath in K-12 schooling for nearly a decade. My friend Diane Ravitch thinks he exemplifies ...

The Trouble with Teaching's Circle-the-Wagons Mentality Recently, I keynoted a state Teacher of the Year banquet and said what I tend to say at such affairs, which is that I don't romanticize teaching because--while I believe that most teachers mean well--the reality, I think, is that many or most benefit...

When "Digital Natives" Discover the Encyclopedia I'm sure my friends at the Department of Education were thrilled to read in the Raleigh-based News & Observer that North Carolina school districts are using their Race to the Top funds to advance structural reform by... purchasing iPads. Durham, N.C. ...

W'Only school uniforms, patriotism and parents can rescue our violent teens'- EducationNews.org

Web's #1 Source for K12 and Higher Education News and Commentary - EducationNews.org

'Only school uniforms, patriotism and parents can rescue our violent teens'
One of the Government's top psychological advisers has called for a return to traditional values to stem the rising tide of domestic abuse by children against their parents and other adults.

With tight budget on horizon, universities studying options
Colleges also vexed by problem of how to meet demand for graduates - Two years after Texas legislators poured unprecedented amounts of money into higher education, colleges and universities are braced for an about-face during the 2011 legislative session that begins next month. ...

Program extends student teaching to 1 year
About 40 Arizona State University education majors are taking part in a pilot program that will soon become the standard for teacher training. The students are training for a full year in three school districts that joined the pilot: Scottsdale, Dysart and Kyrene. ...

Who in education says 'oops'?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and top policymakers have promoted and funded small urban high schools for nearly a decade. Then Bill Gates said in his 2009 Annual Letter that while these small urban high schools had accomplished much for students they had largely failed to improve academic achievement.

Commentaries

Important Mathematics Deficiencies in United States Grade School Teaching Practices
Richard Pan - In the present pedagogical note, a list of six (6) important examples of deficiencies common in U.S. grade school mathematics teaching practices are described, which may contribute to a significant barrier to modern mathematics thinking.

An Interview with Jason Ross: The Bill of Rights
Michael F. Shaughnessy - Bill of Rights Day became a federal observance in 1941 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 1941 marked the It was the 150th anniversary of the ratification of those first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, amendments that spelled out our freedoms as well as our rights.

An Interview with Maud van Thiel and Noks Nauta: Gifted and Talented Adult Foundation
Michael F. Shaughnessy - Our mission is to improve the climate of life of gifted and talented adults with the aim to get their talents flourish optimally and be as happy as possible. The IHBV wants - in a sparkling and colourful way - to put giftedness positively on the map, to take away prejudices and to collect and share knowledge on gifted adults

Small Ball: Small Teaching
Robert McNergney - He asked excitedly after class if I had read Michael Lewis's baseball classic Moneyball-the story of the Oakland A's, their manager Billy Beane, and the dawn of "small ball." The curious doctoral student was convinced that what I had said about teaching and learning could best be understood by Lewis's view of baseball

Queens Teacher: Standards for Teachers Lowered; Hiding Truth from Minorities

Standards for Teachers Lowered; Hiding Truth from Minorities

by Queens Teacher

Congress Lowering Standards for Teachers; Hiding Truth from Poor, Minority Parents

John Affeldt
Managing Attorney at Public Advocates,
a non-profit civil rights law firm

As I reported on this blog last Thursday and updated since, Congress seems ready to lower the standard of teacher owed every child in the country -- particularly impacting children in poor and minority communities -- and to hide that fact while they're at it.

Slipped at the 11th hour into the Continuing Resolution to fund the government, the provision at issue proposes to call novice teachers still learning how to teach in alternative preparation programs on nights and weekends "highly qualified" under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). That designation relieves districts of having to tell parents of

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Monday, December 27, 2010