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Thursday, May 5, 2011
Newsletter www.SaveOurSchoolsMarch.org
This Week In Education: Reform: Update On Michelle Rhee's "Students First" Effort
Reform: Update On Michelle Rhee's "Students First" Effort
Wondering what that $100 you sent in to StudentsFirst a few months ago is doing to help fix the schools? Some tidbits in a recent USA Today story include the news that the Michelle Rhee organization is active in 11 states [my best info is the list includes FL, MI, OH, NJ, NV, ME, TN, and IN plus GA, NY, MN], features reform priorities including private school choice [eek, vouchers!] and candidate endorsements [TBD, far as I know]. There's over $1 million in funding raised [Broad but no Gates yet, far as I know], a staff of 21 and more than 220,000 members. The goal is $1 billion over five years, not annually – a much easier target to hit and a fraction of what other
Public Policy Blogger: Reforming the American public education system. Are we on the wrong path?
Reforming the American public education system. Are we on the wrong path?
A University of Texas physics professor looks at Texas public education data and arrives at some provocative, worrisome conclusions. (He is also a co-director of the university's UTeach program.) Very smart. Very intuitive. Looking at data. Really looking at data. Asking essential questions at a critical juncture.
In the three video interviews with Professor Marder--
Does teacher quality play the largest role in student learning? Marder says, "No, it’s poverty."
Will charter schools provide urgently needed opportunities for students to reach high levels of achievement. Marder says, "No, secondary charter schools in Texas lead to much lower levels of
Video Released: A Teacher’s Guide to Fixing No Child Left Behind | ED.gov Blog
Video Released: A Teacher’s Guide to Fixing No Child Left Behind
Test obsession, narrow curricula, blaming teachers—these are a few of the problems created by the No Child Left Behind law that are unpacked in this animated video available online now.
The video details some of the problems created by NCLB and describes President Barack Obama’s proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and solve them. Written by a teacher at the U.S. Department of Education, the video offers a vision that strengthens teaching, narrows achievement gaps, raises standards, and prepares all students for colleges and careers in a global economy. It includes video clips of Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Click here for an alternate version of the video with an accessible player.
View the video or leave a comment below.
Laurie Calvert
Laurie Calvert is a Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellow on loan from Buncombe County Schools in North Carolina and the author of the video. She is also the author of Built for Teachers: How the Blueprint for Reform Empowers Educators.
Obama: 'Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk'
'Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk'*
*Where did the phrase 'Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk' Originate?Almost certainly in England, but it's hard to say when. The earliest instance with the words 'cry' and 'spilt' in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Swift's 'Polite Conversation', first published in 1738, the quotation being ''Tis folly to cry for spilt milk'. Swift's work is a humorous work that pokes fun at cliche-ridden talk, and the phrase must therefore have been well established by that time. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs has 'No weeping for shed milk', quoted in a collection of proverbs by James Howell, published in 1638. |
Interview Of The Month: James Farmer, Founder Of Edublogs | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
Interview Of The Month: James Farmer, Founder Of Edublogs
As regular readers know, each month I interview people in the education world about whom I want to learn more. You can see read those past interviews here.
Today, James Farmer, founder and CEO of Edublogs, has agreed to answer a few questions. This blog (and all my class blogs), along with hundreds of thousands of other education-related blogs, are hosted by Edublogs. As regular readers know, I’m a big fan.
Can you tell us a little about yourself — where you live, how and why did you start Edublogs, and anything else you’d like to share?
I’m based in Melbourne, Australia where I’ve lived since January 2000 having grown up in Birmingham U
History Can’t Hide Hypocrisy | Dissident Voice
History Can’t Hide Hypocrisy
May 4, 2011 marks the thirty-first anniversary of the murders of four students by the National Guard at Kent State University in the United States. These murders by the state’s armed forces, which were followed by the police murders of six black men during an uprising in Augusta, Georgia and two more students (also black) at Jackson State in Mississippi, proved to be a turning point in the prosecution of the US war on the Vietnamese. In short, the desire to continually expand that war was no longer the consensus among those who plan such things in Washington. The war itself would continue for five more years, but Washington’s belief in its ability to win had been broken.
Of the deaths mentioned above, the six in Ohio and Mississippi occurred during protests against the US invasion of Cambodia–a clear expansion of the war in Southeast Asia. The murders in Augusta were related to the
'Fact-lets' of Education - Bridging Differences - Education Week
'Fact-lets' of Education
Dear Diane,
The alternative to getting mad for me is getting sad. The latter immobilizes me, but the former gives me the energy to keep finding it sufficiently interesting to keep at it. (I do occasionally get bored with it all and think about thinking about something entirely different.)
It was wonderful seeing and speaking with you twice in one week; especially at the University of Indiana where we stayed at the same old-fashioned inn and had a chance for informal chatting.
My grandson's graduation was an eye-opener, too, but I try hard not to mix business with pleasure. So the focus was on the latter, and it was a great deal of fun. Imagine 10,000 students graduating in that amazing football
John Thompson: How Diane Ravitch Became My Intellectual Hero
Infographic: Cinco de Mayo by the numbers | Zambombazo | Fun Spanish worksheets
So, what’s the deal with Cinco de Mayo? Find out in this neat Infographic: Cinco de Mayo by the numbers! Share it if you like it!