Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Big Education Ape:6-14-11 AM Failed Reform Edition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 contributors today

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Changes At R.I. School Fail To Produce Results : NPR

npr.org - Enlarge Stew Milne/AP Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, (center) looks on as Central Falls School Superintendent Frances Gallo (right) and Central Falls Teachers' Union President Ja...

DianeRavitch

Pa. judge: Charter schools Question: No expulsion for kindergarten touching - Boston.com

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Pa. judge: No expulsion for kindergarten touching - Boston.comPa. judge: No expulsion for kindergarten touchingBy Maryclaire DaleAssociated Press / June 13, 2011E-mail|Print|Comments (0)Text size –...

coopmike48

Opinion: Revamp No Child Left Behind - now - Arne Duncan

politico.com - Everyone responsible for educating children for the knowledge economy of the 21st century agrees that America’s federal education law is in dire need of reform. Teachers, parents, school leaders, g...

arneduncan

Fact-Challenged Policy

epi.org - EPI Research Associate Richard Rothstein posted this response on the National Journal Experts blog, on the topic of school reform efforts being promoted by Bill Gates and other prominent education ...

DianeRavitch

Enroll In Teach For America And Become A Teacher In 50 Hours!!

southbronxschool.blogspot.com - I came thisclose to not writing about what I am going to write about tonight. In my ADD state of mind tonight I procrastinated quite profusely before I started to actually type these words that y...

leoniehaimson

EducationSee all

9 percent of third through eighth graders sent to summer school

gothamschools.org - Nearly 35,000 elementary and middle school students are being told this week that they should attend summer school based on their low test scores, the city Department of Education announced today. ...

coopmike48

An educational rogues gallery at SB7 signing. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - When Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 7 into law today, there was a rogues gallery of education reformers present. The bill, amazingly supported by the IEA leadership under lame duck President...

coopmike48

We need to fix the economy to fix education - David Sirota

salon.com - Jack Miller/dianeravitch.com Diane Ravitch In the intensifying debate over the future of education, two camps seem to be emerging. On one side, there are people like New York University professor/f...

DianeRavitch

PoliticsSee all

Pentagon Papers Released 40 Years After New York Times Began Publishing Them

huffingtonpost.com - WASHINGTON — Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, the report is coming o...

mikeklonsky

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: SB-7 signed into law by Gov. Quinn

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: SB-7 signed into law by Gov. QuinnSB-7 signed into law by Gov. Quinnby Mike KlonskyClears the way for assault on Chicago's teachers“This is not a bill to attack the t...

coopmike48

GOP Debaters Talk Job Creation In Retail Nation | Resurgence

bigthink.com - Note to the Republican Party Debate Committee: you are free to appropriate the term “preseason exhibitions” from the NFL, since it looks like they won’t be using it any time soon, to better describ...

coopmike48

BusinessSee all

Chart Of The Day: For American Workers, No Economic Recovery

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com - Workers tend to bear the brunt of the American economy's boom and bust cycles. When recessions hit and unemployment rises, workers' share of the national income -- the money people earn through wag...

tbfurman

Audit to determine whether college reg was leaked to Wall Street

thehill.com - The Department of Education (DOE) will perform an audit to determine whether employees provided information to Wall Street investors who were looking to gain an edge in trading on for-profit colleg...

mikeklonsky

Say it ain't so, Arne

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - DOE Officials Accused Of Leaking Info To Short-SellersMarcus Barum blogs on Huffington Post:Did Education Department officials leak market-sensitive info to stock traders?" That's the provocative ...

mikeklonsky

StoriesSee all

Librarians Teach Us to Swim; Social Media Builds Islands

coolcatteacher.blogspot.com - Funny how fast things change. I'm finding that some incredible information and graphics are coming to me via Tumblr (see the Beginners Guide to Tumblr I produced a few weeks a go.) I sent out this ...

coopmike48

Only when someone else is looking « Failing Schools

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Only when someone else is looking « Failing SchoolsOnly when someone else is lookingJUNE 13, 2011by SabrinaI was brushing my teeth this morning when I glanced over at the bottle of mouthwash sittin...

coopmike48

How does a Teacher's attitude towards Creativity affects student creativity?

edupln.com - I have a problem with creativity and I'm afraid it affects how I teach. I'm not sure when it started, but I think it has to do with feeling like my creative efforts as a child weren't perfect enoug...

coopmike48

HealthSee all

What if the Fad Was Med Reform, not Ed Reform?

huffingtonpost.com - What if corporate honchos, politicos and other non-professionals decided to give up on education and stick their reforming noses into medicine instead? (We know that Bill Gates is already doing thi...

mikeklonsky

KOCH OUT News | www.kochwatch.org

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - News | www.kochwatch.orgThink Progress: After David Koch Leaves NIH Board, NIH Hands Down Long-Delayed Classification Of Top Koch Pollutant As A Carcinogen *-By Lee Fang* *June 11, 2011-* Large man...

coopmike48

Apples top environmental group's list for most pesticide-laden produce

californiawatch.org - Mike Ryan/FlickrApples top the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list of fruits and vegetables coated with pesticides. Hopefully, you’re a fan of onions, corn and pineapple – and not so s...

coopmike48

EnvironmentSee all

Education Department Officials Accused Of Leaking Info To Short-Sellers

huffingtonpost.com - • "Did Education Department officials leak market-sensitive info to stock traders?" That's the provocative headline from Project on Government Oversight reporting on a probe by the agency's inspect...

mikeklonsky

Sacramento Press / Top EPA official speaks in Sacramento

sacramentopress.com - The nation’s top environmental official, Lisa Jackson, expressed her view in Sacramento on Monday that federal and state environmental regulations can help create demand for green businesses and te...

coopmike48

If You Build Houses, They Will Come - E.D. Kain - American Times

blogs.forbes.com - EducationJun. 13 2011 - 4:30 pm | 0 views | 0 recommendations |By E.D. KAIN Remember this chart?Well, Matt Yglesias has another one that helps add context to all that Texas job growth. Artificially...

coopmike48

#edu Read this paperSee all

Teachers Seek Real Empowerment « City School Stories

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Notes from the Field « City School StoriesNotes from the Fieldby fmurphyTeachers Seek Real EmpowermentSubmitted by Angela Chan, June 14, 2011Angela Chan has been a teacher with the School District ...

coopmike48

KOCH OUT News | www.kochwatch.org

coopmike48

Special Guests on Pardon the Interruption: Jose Vilson and John Holland! | The Jose Vilson

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Special Guests on Pardon the Interruption: Jose Vilson and John Holland! | The Jose VilsonSpecial Guests on Pardon the Interruption: Jose Vilson and John Holland!by JosePardon the Interruption with...

coopmike48

#fixnclbSee all

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DianeRavitch

coopmike48

DianeRavitch

Photos0

Foundation offers millions to help 4 Colo. school districts implement new evaluations - The Denver Post

Foundation offers millions to help 4 Colo. school districts implement new evaluations

By Yesenia Robles
The Denver Post

POSTED: 06/14/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

UPDATED: 06/14/2011 01:00:54 AM MDT

The Colorado Legacy Foundation announced Monday it will distribute $9.7 million to four Colorado school districts for work on implementing evaluation systems and new state academic standards.

Most of the money is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other donations came from JPMorgan Chase and local contributors.

"We know there are pockets of excellence throughout Colorado, and that some of this great work in educator effectiveness is already being done," said Colorado Legacy Foundation president and chief executive Helayne Jones.

The point is to highlight those pockets, she said, targeting supports for teachers, in order to learn from them and create models of effective teaching.

Because Denver Public Schools has already been working with money from the Gates Foundation, they have been selected as one of the districts to receive money to continue that work.

Read more:Foundation offers millions to help 4 Colo. school districts implement new evaluations - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18267709#ixzz1PFfG19ho
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

New Online Resource To Answer Parent & Student Questions About College | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

New Online Resource To Answer Parent & Student Questions About College En Camino: Educational Toolkit For Families is a series of free online “modules,” available in both English and Spanish, designed to help answer parent and student questions about college. It was just unveiled a few minutes ago by the National Center ...

Excellent Resources For Beginning & Intermediate English Language Learners One of my most popular “The Best…” lists shares The Best Websites To Help Beginning Readers. I just realized that in that post I share a general link to my website, but don’t provide a direct link to the literally thousands of “talking stories” that ...

The Best Posts & Articles About Curation A lot has been written recently about the importance of “curation” in this age of information “overload.” In March, I wrote a post titled The Difference Between “Curating,” “Aggregating” & “Creating” which shares my perspective on the topic. I ...

“It Can’t Be Done” – A Dangerous Public Education Narrative

by Bill Tucker

This snippet, from Governing’s cover feature profiling new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, helps to illustrate the danger of a public education narrative framed by defeatism and a lack of creativity in approaching challenges:

[Former Mayor] Daley managed to convince not only Chicago residents, but also businesses that expended millions at his behest that it was worth investing in what had been a miserable public school system. Daley put billions into school construction and helped pave the way for a host of reform ideas that are now being promoted nationally by his former schools chief, Arne Duncan, Obama’s secretary of education. “If Daley hadn’t changed the tone about what could be

Do self-selection and attrition matter in KIPP schools? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Do self-selection and attrition matter in KIPP schools?

by Valerie Strauss

I published a post last week by Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and author of “All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice,” about the KIPP charter schools. He criticized KIPP, arguing that KIPP “skims motivated students and yet is pointed to as a segregation success story.” Yesterday Ryan Hill, executive director of four KIPP charter schools in Newark, N.Y., responded with a post arguing that Kahlenberg was wrong. You can read it here, and then come back and read this, Kahlenberg’s response to Hill.

Read full article >>

Literature study by teleconference

by Valerie Strauss

Veteran teacher Rene Moore was not convinced how teacher colloration — real or virtual — could actually help students learn, but the Mississippi/South Africa Freedom Project changed her mind.

This is the latest installment in a series on The Answer Sheet called “Faces of Learning,” a national campaign designed to explore what powerful learning environments and highly effective teachers really look like.

The campaign is designed to answer the following questions: How do people learn? How do I learn? What does the ideal learning environment look like? And how can we create more of them?

Read full article >>

School Tech Connect: Ask An Expert

Ask An Expert

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

This is going to be a mess--- and intelligent people would have figured out "the metrics" before moving forward with legislation. As an outsider, I'd like to believe that the insiders know what they're doing, but then I see a presser like this one and it just confirms that the people involved in this reform have no idea what they're talking about.

I'd like to point out that performance evaluation isn't only about how to measure the home economics teacher. There seems to be this notion that the state-mandated reading and math tests are remotely designed to gauge the quality of language arts and math teachers (when they're not), and that all we have to do is get some other kinds of tests for the social studies teacher and the PE teacher.

The only possible outcome is that kids are going to spend a heck of a lot more time being assessed, and that

NCLB waivers may benefit state | Thoughts on Public Education

NCLB waivers may benefit state - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

California could benefit from Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s ultimatum to grant states waivers from controversial parts of No Child Left Behind if Congress doesn’t act on reauthorization before the next school year starts. During a telephone call with reporters Monday afternoon, Duncan said the Department of Education is working on a package of reforms he calls [...]

White House pushes Latino college agenda - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

Juan Sepúlveda started the meeting with his usual question. “Before you got invited, how many of you knew this office existed?” Sepúlveda is Executive Director of the White House Office on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. The response was different this time. Instead of the expected smattering of recognition, nearly everyone sitting around the conference [...]

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: SB-7 signed into law by Gov. Quinn

SB-7 signed into law by Gov. Quinn

by Mike Klonsky

Clears the way for assault on Chicago's teachers

“This is not a bill to attack the teachers,” said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who sponsored the bill.

Illinois Gov. Quinn has signed into law SB7, which severely weakens the power of the state's teachers and their unions to bargain collectively. What makes SB7 different from legislation pushed by Tea Party govs and passed in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, is that the Illinois bill, now law, isn't as draconian. Public employees unions haven't been outlawed completely. Perhaps a more important difference is that the bill was passed with support from the state's three largest teachers unions, pretty much nullifying any opposition from the rank-and-file, wavering politicians, community activists or from other unions.

This "collaboration" is being hailed by corporate reformers and by some union leaders as a model for the rest of the nation and as a better alternative to the "chaos" and open class warfare in Wisconsin. We shall see whether or not that's true or whether it just makes that warfare more

NYC Educator: Sometimes There Are Good Reasons for Resisting Change

Sometimes There Are Good Reasons for Resisting Change

by Miss Eyre

One of the most frustrating things about my last year at my old school was the problem of "change for the sake of change." I worked in a school that was excellent by any measure--test scores were up, parents were happy, students were achieving and felt safe and happy. So many of the teachers at my school were never sure why the place had to be reinvented from the ground up when our new principal came, and this feeling that changes were being made simply so the new principal could assert the new authority that came with the job never went away.

Change for the sake of change should surely be the poisonous #13 on this listof why educators resist change. Coming from a blog focused on admins, it's nice to see school leaders talking frankly about how change-resisters aren't lazy or contrarian or afraid, but often have good reasons to fight back against change. That's not to say that change-resisters are always correct or that at

Modern School: Robert Reich, Scabbing On Arianna’s Plantation

Robert Reich, Scabbing On Arianna’s Plantation

by Michael Dunn

The Huffington Post has now surpassed the New York Times in online readership, Working in These Timesreported today, and their newsroom is now bigger, too, with 1,300 staff members, compared with the Times’ 1,200. However, the Times still pays their unionized writers (at least the “professional” ones), while the Post relies on volunteer bloggers for the bulk of its reporting.

In response, the Newspaper Guild and the National Writers Union have called on bloggers to refuse to write for the Huffington Post and for an electronic picket of the website. The unions are demanding a pay schedule be established for the compensation of all bloggers and that they be given greater editorial control over their work.

Not everyone has respected the picket, including Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, American Prospect Editor Robert Kuttner, Robert Creamer of Americans United for Change, and bloggers at the labor-funded Campaign for America’s Future, according to Working in These Times. Reich has argued that he is a proponent of the Creative Commons and gives his work freely to all. Yet he copyrights his books and makes a great deal of money from them. Furthermore, he is independently wealthy and does not depend on his blog posts for his survival.

The point of the Creative Commons, like all commons, is to maintain a resource that the masses can share and

LAUSD, CHARTERS, AND INSANITY - Perdaily.com

LAUSD, CHARTERS, AND INSANITY

by Leonard Isenberg

Given the unrelenting decline of American public education and the war-failed economy which is being used to justify its continuing premeditated destruction, one often hears in description of this sick farce:

"The definition of insanity is to continue implementing the same failed policies with the expectation of a different result.

While that seems to be a pretty good explanation of the militant ignorance that continues to drive public education policy into the ground, there now seems to be an even better definition:

"The definition of insanity is to continue using the same corrupt and mediocre people whose failed

Teachers Seek Real Empowerment « City School Stories

Notes from the Field « City School Stories

Notes from the Field

by fmurphy

Teachers Seek Real Empowerment

Submitted by Angela Chan, June 14, 2011

Angela Chan has been a teacher with the School District of Philadelphia for the last 8 years. She started her career as a first grade teacher. For the last four years she has been teaching 3^rd grade.

Today’s post contains an excerpt from a presentation she made as speaker at TAG’S second annual Curriculum Fair and Citywide Summit. In this address she described the challenges which Empowerment School teachers face as they grapple with the expectation that they implement a mandated curricula and focus extensively on test prep activities. She also discusses the impact this new instructional reality has on her students and fellow teachers.

As an Empowerment School, we implement the mandated scripted Corrective Reading and Math programs, and

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Foundation offers millions to help 4 Colo. school districts implement new evaluations