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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Big Education Ape: 4-12-11 Read Ed News Now

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

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npr.org - Enlarge Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Michelle Rhee served as the head of D.C. Public Schools for almost three years. She now heads her own education advocacy group, StudentsFirst. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP ...

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huffingtonpost.com - Representative Paul Ryan, the architect of the GOP's long-term budget proposal, would hotly dispute the claim that he hates kids. He'd tell you that he's a good family man, a good father to his thr...

DianeRavitch
huffingtonpost.com - Silence is sometimes called a virtue. Silence can also be deadly.I remain convinced that teachers and administrators are in the most vulnerable of positions during this destructive reform movement ...

DianeRavitch
commondreams.org - A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and...

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bigeducationape.blogspot.com - State of Emergency State of Emergency Plan of Action Leaders Guide Member Flyer Regional Action Ideas Logo California is in “A State of Emergency” over the drastic cuts that are hurting ou...

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coopmike48 Elias: No Wisconsin here, but California unions are taking cuts aplenty » Ventura County Star - http://goo.gl/7JdZqabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Walker's first 100 days defined by unions battles, rallies, recalls - Leader-Telegram: Daily Updates -http://goo.gl/O48Nu51 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 A 21st century boondoogle: high tech testing - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - http://goo.gl/nJjVn9 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

#edu Read this paper51 MORE ARTICLES
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - NYC Educator: The Short Happy Tenure of Chancellor WalcottThe Short Happy Tenure of Chancellor Walcottby Miss EyreI was in the teachers' room at school last week when I heard that Chancellor Black ...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - NYC Public School Parents: Fireworks at Dennis Walcott's debut at the education budget hearingsFireworks at Dennis Walcott's debut at the education budget hearingsby Leonie HaimsonOn Friday, the he...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Leadership and the Internet; Aligning Practice | Connected PrincipalsLeadership and the Internet; Aligning PracticePosted by George Couros on 4/12/11 • Categorized as Parental Involvement,School Br...

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Media12

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Education158 MORE ARTICLES
gothamschools.org - Dee Alpert, a longtime special education advocate whose close analysis of official documents kept city and state officials on their toes, died suddenly over the weekend. Alpert, who also commented ...

coopmike48
nytimes.com - In a city where so many public schools are segregated by race and wealth, Public School 9 in Brooklyn is an exception. It has a substantial number of poor children, with about 75 perc...

leoniehaimson
michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - Brizard sounds like perfect candidate for Rahm According to this morning's Trib, Rahm Emanuel's short list of outsiders for new school's CEO includes current Rochester supt. Jean-Claude Brizard. E...

mikeklonsky
Politics36 MORE ARTICLES
nypost.com - Michael Goodwin "It's water over the dam, under the bridge," Mayor Bloomberg said in ducking a question about Cathie Black. But for that to be true, Bloomberg must turn the end of her tenure into a...

leoniehaimson
history.com - The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay. During th...

coopmike48
miamiherald.com - TALLAHASSEE — A Clearwater, Florida, activist has filed an ethics complaint accusing Gov. Rick Scott of using his office to benefit the chain of walk-in clinics he founded.David Plyer, 64, based hi...

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Living13 MORE ARTICLES
theuptake.org - Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman is suing the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police departments over her arrest at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul Minnesota. This past week she visited the...

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hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 2:10 am, April 12, 2011 Photo Credits: Princeton NJ ID Card For the past nine months, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Princeton-based Hispanic advocacy non-profi...

coopmike48
modeducation.blogspot.com - digg_url="http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2011/04/today-in-labor-history-april-11.html"; April 11, 1812 – 300 Luddites attacked Wroe & Duncliffs Mfg., in Rawfords Hill, England, to destroy the ...

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Stories11 MORE ARTICLES
boston.com - NEWFANE, Vt. — A fund set up in the memory of a southern Vermont music teacher killed by two escaped prison inmates has donated almost $500,000 to local groups in Vermont and New Hampshire that hel...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - 15 Things I Believe In Right Now (Including the F-Word) | The Jose Vilson15 Things I Believe In Right Now (Including the F-Word)by JoseOh, God.I haven’t done a manifesto in about a year and a half,...

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bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Geography of School | Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher DisgruntlementGeography of Schoolby mrteachbadThere is something that has been pissing me off all year…and I thought I knew what it was. It was ...

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Art & Entertainment8 MORE ARTICLES
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - “SoundCloud” & “Takes Questions” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...“SoundCloud” & “Takes Questions” SoundCloud lets you very easily record an audio message — the first 120 minutes are free —...

coopmike48
mediaite.com - videoAs the nation begrudgingly emerged from the inevitable perfectly avoidable government shutdown that wasn’t Friday night, both Democrats and Republicans scrambled to make the ordeal into some s...

coopmike48
gothamschools.org - by Philissa Cramer Two high school handball players say the city is selectively enforcing competition rules. (Brooklyn Paper) Dennis Walcott hobnobbed with students and courted the press at PS 261....

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Crime2 MORE ARTICLES
blog.angryasianman.com - Damn. In San Francisco, four teenage boys have been arrested and fifth is being sought in the death of 16-year-old Andy Zeng, as well as an alleged arson plot -- presumably in an attempt to destroy...

coopmike48
bluecheddar.wordpress.com - Let’s assume the numbers as presented by “yourguest” below are deemed correct by people with a decent night’s sleep who can check them out (this was published at approx. 11pm, I just found it at at...

coopmike48
northjersey.com - US files brief in Va. challenge of health care law RICHMOND, Va. — The government has filed its response to Virginia's bid to block the Obama administration's health care reform law. The 63-page ...

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#ucdavis1
sacbee.com - UC Davis students angry about rising tuition have staged many protests in the last year and a half – including sit-ins at campus buildings, a naked rally on the quad and a march that almost walked ...

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Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System « Teacher Reality

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System « Teacher Reality

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System

April 12, 2011 by TeacherReality

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System

by Chris Hedges http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/11A

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems

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Our Letters to Obama: the 338 Word Challenge :: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Our Letters to Obama: the 338 Word Challenge :: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action
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Our Letters to Obama: the 338 Word Challenge

by AnthonyCody

Last week, President Obama reminded us all why his election gave many of us so much hope. In 338 words he spoke of how he wanted his daughters, Sasha and Malia, to have their learning tested. He described a low-stakes, low pressure environment, with the results used not to punish them, their teachers or their school, but simply to find out what their strengths are, and where they might need extra support. He spoke of the need to avoid teaching to the test, and the value of engaging projects that would make students excited about learning. President Obama has made sure his daughters can learn this way. If only Department of Education policies would allow students in our public schools this same privilege!

President Obama needs to understand. Those of us who care deeply about our children and public schools cannot support his candidacy if he does not fix his education policies so they align with what he said on March 28th.

We have created a petition asking President Obama to support the Guiding Principles of the Save Our School

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Poverty + poor reading = dropout | Thoughts on Public Education

Poverty + poor reading = dropout | Thoughts on Public Education

Poverty + poor reading = dropout

3rd grade reading ability tied to high school graduation

Posted on 4/12/11 • Categorized as Preschool, Research

By Kathryn Baron

Sometimes you have to wonder what the tipping point is for taking education research and moving it into action. It’s been years since educators recognized the importance of third grade as the year when children move from learning to read to reading to learn. Yet, reading proficiency for fourth graders in the United States has been fairly stagnant according to theNational Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), rising four points between 1992 and 2009.

Children below basic in reading account for a third of all students, but are 63% of those who don't graduate from high school. (click to enlarge)

Children below basic in reading account for a third of all students, but are 63% of those who don't graduate from high school. (click to enlarge)

Now comes a new longitudinal report, about as unequivocal as this sort of research can be, showing a direct link between third grade reading and high school graduation. Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School

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“SoundCloud” & “Takes Questions” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“SoundCloud” & “Takes Questions” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
“SoundCloud” & “Takes Questions” SoundCloud lets you very easily record an audio message — the first 120 minutes are free — and then you can post the link or embed it where you like. They’ve also just begun a new site called Take Questions, which TechCrunch calls a “Quora for ...
“The Hook, Curiosity, and the Brain” The Hook, Curiosity, and the Brain is the title of a post over at Eide Neurolearning Blog. It describes the results of a study on what curiosity and questioning does to the brain. Here’s an excerpt: *When study subjects were interested in a question, ...
Good Short Interview With Daniel Pink “The American School Board Journal” has published a nice short interview with Daniel Pink, author of the book, “Drive.” For people familiar with his work, there’s probably nothing new in it. But it’s a nice introduction to the problems of rewards and ...
The Best Sites For Learning About The International Day For Street Children The first International Day for Street Children is being launched on April 12, 2011, by the Consortium for Street Children. Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The International Day For Street Children: The best place to start ...
Vocabulary.com Vocabulary.com is a new free site from the creators of the “Visual Thesaurus.” It’s a vocabulary game that has lots of bells and whistles, including the ability to evaluate how you’re doing and use that information to determine the difficulty of ...
Today’s Collection Of Good School Reform Posts & Articles Here are a few more good school reform-related articles and posts that have caught my eye over the past couple of days: Business and Education Don’t Mix is by Walt Gardner at Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Explaining Why Schools ...
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School Matters: Can Public Schools Really Do More With Less?, Vivian Po | California Progress Report

School Matters: Can Public Schools Really Do More With Less?, Vivian Po | California Progress Report

School Matters: Can Public Schools Really Do More With Less?, Vivian Po

by kaldveer

By Vivian Po
New America Media

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the U.S. economy continues to falter and states struggle to balance their budgets, cuts in education funding have become ubiquitous. Yet students face new pressures to remain competitive in the global market. Once again, the big question for reformers is: “Can schools do more with less?”

To answer that question, NAM education reporter Vivian Po spoke with Ulrich Boser, author of a recent report by the Center for American Progress: “Return on Educational Investment: A district-by-district evaluation of US educational productivity.” The report, the first attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country, found that some districts have spent their dollars more wisely than others—and most schools can improve their efficiency, if they try.

What does the report tell us?

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Sober and Responsible Public Leadership: Is It Too Much to Ask?

by kaldveer

By Peter Laarman

Hard times should, and sometimes do, bring out the best in us: shared sacrifice, creative solutions, and a sense that we’re all in this together. It’s very clear that people in our state and across the nation crave that kind of leadership as they struggle with the worst job market in

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Duncan contrasts New Orleans, Detroit | EdNewsColorado

Duncan contrasts New Orleans, Detroit | EdNewsColorado

Duncan contrasts New Orleans, Detroit

Written by EdNews staff on Apr 11th, 2011. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org

When it comes to education, Detroit needs to be more like New Orleans, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters gathered in the Crescent City on Friday for the annual gathering of the Education Writers Association.

Duncan hinted during a question-and-answer session that his department is developing plans to intervene in Detroit Public Schools, a district with massive budget problems and chronic achievement issues. He declined to be more specific.

“Stay tuned,” he said. “I see the progress here in New Orleans and I ask, ‘Why not Detroit?’ We don’t need to wait for a hurricane before we can reform schools. I even think Detroit can leapfrog New Orleans.”

Duncan also touched on the use of value-added measures in evaluating educators, talked about whether teacher ratings should be made public and questioned turnaround practices in some cities, including Ne

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School Tech Connect: Dear Heather Steans and Harry Osterman

School Tech Connect: Dear Heather Steans and Harry Osterman

Dear Heather Steans and Harry Osterman

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
And now, a word from the Illinois Constitution, Article XIII:


It's pretty clear to me. Michael Madigan may think that pension benefits can by reduced for current members, but anyone who understands the purpose of a constitution knows better. If it were a negotiable thing, this article
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solidaridad: Tim Delia: Who's really behind VAM

solidaridad: Tim Delia: Who's really behind VAM
Tim Delia: Who's really behind VAM *[The University of Colorado at Boulder study] drives a proverbial stake through the heart of the VAM pseudo-science, that like its cousin phrenology, should have passed off the scene long ago. — Robert D. Skeels(LAUSD District 2 Board Candidate) * ...
Comments on Hedges on Why the U. S. is Destroying Its Education System *"We have our cake, and are eating it too." — Eli Broad (Predatory Pseudo-Philanthropist and Charter School Backer)* [image: Corporate school privatization criminals Eli Broad and Arne Duncan] Chris Hedges latest enlightened essay entitled *Why the U. ...
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IL teachers and retirees. The threat to our pension is now. « Fred Klonsky's blog

IL teachers and retirees. The threat to our pension is now. « Fred Klonsky's blog

IL teachers and retirees. The threat to our pension is now.

APRIL 12, 2011
by Fred Klonsky

From the Illinois Retired Teachers Association:

Retired and current educators are going to face serious challenges over the days and weeks to come while the Illinois General Assembly is in session. IRTA is asking you to send the attached Voter Voice email to your legislators. Although we have not seen the specific language of the pension bill, we are expecting it will show its head any day now. The West Lake Shore local unit has provided some templates for

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's CEO short list

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's CEO short list

Chicago's CEO short list

by Mike Klonsky
Brizard sounds like perfect candidate for Rahm

According to this morning's Trib, Rahm Emanuel's short list of outsiders for new school's CEO includes current Rochester supt. Jean-Claude Brizard. Even though Brizard, the latest through Rochester's revolving door of school bosses, just recently signed a three-year deal, he's ONLY making $235,000 in Rochester and could be using the Chicago offer to leverage more back home. He would certainly do better money-wise in Chi-town where a broken school budget never stopped those at the top from enriching themselves or moving on to bigger and better things. He has a background in education which Emanuel thinks might placate those in the union and some community groups who have made this an issue. Plus he's married to a charter school entrepreneur who could do well in Chicago's booming charter school market.

In Rochester, Brizard is embraced by local biz reformers and despised by many teachers and parents. In
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It’s not an ethnic thing, it’s a poverty thing « Failing Schools

It’s not an ethnic thing, it’s a poverty thing « Failing Schools

It’s not an ethnic thing, it’s a poverty thing

APRIL 12, 2011
by mariasallee

We all have those members of our own social, ethnic or subculture groups that somehow manage to make us cringe in our embarrassment for them. Mexicans & Mexican-Americans may sheepishly laugh at the “nacos“; while African-Americans might laugh and roll their eyes at the “ghetto” folk; Asians at the FOBs; and the white people at the PWTs, notably “ethnic” groups, or maybe WASPs. On some level, I wonder if our tendency to notice the flamboyance of certain people of “our kind” indicates a deeper embarrassment for ourselves as viewed through the eyes of another group. In any case, usually those people that tend to embarrass the collective “us” are people a little poorer or less advantaged than “we” are, probably a little less clued in to the way

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NYC Educator: The Short Happy Tenure of Chancellor Walcott

NYC Educator: The Short Happy Tenure of Chancellor Walcott

The Short Happy Tenure of Chancellor Walcott

by Miss Eyre
I was in the teachers' room at school last week when I heard that Chancellor Black was to be no more. The attitude in the room might have been politely described as jubilant. I have yet to meet the real working teacher that was at all excited or motivated by her leadership, and no one I know seems to find her departure to be a great loss.

(Acting?) (Maybe?)-Chancellor Walcott has been in the position, I guess, for a few days, so
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