Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Big Education Ape: 7-12-11 AM Prescribed Failure:Atlanta Schools Cheating EDition

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Prescribed Failure:Atlanta Schools Cheating | Dissident Voice

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Prescribed Failure | Dissident VoicePrescribed Failureby Jack RandomWelcome to Lake Wobegone where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.– Ga...

coopmike48

ASCD 2011 Fall Conference on Teaching & Learning #ASCD

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - FallConference2011MainRegisterTravel/HotelsSessionsPre-ConsHandoutsGeneral InfoEnhancing Teacher Effectiveness = Improving Student LearningOctober 28–30, 2011Rio All-Suite Hotel, Las Vegas, Nev.Vir...

coopmike48

2009 report identified dozens of PA schools for possible cheating

thenotebook.org - by Benjamin Herold and Dale Mezzacappa Dozens of schools across the city and state were flagged in a study of 2009 state standardized test scores that sought to use statistical analysis to ferret o...

DianeRavitch

ZombieX: Kelly Gallagher Says Stop Readicide Now (Part 1 of an Interview)

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - ZombieX: Kelly Gallagher Says Stop Readicide Now (Part 1 of an Interview)ZombieX: Kelly Gallagher Says Stop Readicide Now (Part 1 of an Interview)by Zombie XZombieX is a 12-year old public school 7...

coopmike48

Krugman to Teachers' Union: You're Not to Blame for the Economic Crisis

danagoldstein.net - Paul Krugman just finished speaking to an annual American Federation of Teachers conference in Washington, D.C. Unlike many of his fellow Times columnists--most notably David Brooks and Thomas Frie...

fklonsky

EducationSee all

Reflecting on the Cuny cPAR Institute « Cooperative Catalyst

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Reflecting on the Cuny cPAR Institute « Cooperative CatalystReflecting on the Cuny cPAR Instituteby Kevin CrouseI had the opportunity to attend the critical Participatory Action Research (PAR) Inst...

coopmike48

Braun: Advocates of privatized education want to end public schools

blog.nj.com - Do supporters of privatized schooling — including Gov. Chris Christie — really want to destroy public schools? Is even asking the question an exercise in political hyperventilating?It’s a charge fr...

DianeRavitch

Studies highlight troubles low-wage workers face, the effects on their children

washingtonindependent.com - Education reformers who maintain poverty is often a major hurdle in teaching students received a much needed boost last Thursday. Paul Tough wrote in New York Times Magazine that school reformers r...

DianeRavitch

Art & EntertainmentSee all

The Triumph of Illusion and Spectacle: the Rise of Illiteracy in America

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Triumph of Illusion and Spectacle: the Rise of Illiteracy in AmericaThe Triumph of Illusion and Spectacle: the Rise of Illiteracy in Americaby SOURCE on JULY 11, 2011 · 0 COMMENTSin AMERICAN EM...

coopmike48

Jonah story makes it to the Washington Post. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post dedicated her column to the Edelman story today.It’s not often that we hear education reformers bragging in public about how they got the better of a teacher’...

mikeklonsky

A Tabloid Shame, Exposed by Earnest Rivals

nytimes.com - The phone-hacking scandal that is mushrooming in Britain, with arrests, skullduggery and influence peddling, would be a delicious story for The News of the World if it were not about the newspaper ...

DianeRavitch

LivingSee all

GOP Presidential Hopefuls In Spotlight For Slavery, Anti-Gay Remarks

progressillinois.com - Election season is still budding, but some presidential hopefuls from the GOP are already wilting under the political spotlight. Today, people are talking about Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum b...

fklonsky

Video: Kerry Kennedy honored by NEA with Human and Civil Rights Award

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Video: Kerry Kennedy honored by National Education Association with Human and Civil Rights Award | Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human RightsVIDEO: KERRY KENNEDY HONORED BY NATIONAL EDUCAT...

coopmike48

The disappearing black middle class - Chicago Sun

suntimes.com - BY JESSE WASHINGTON July 10, 2011 12:24AM Princeton Professor Cornel West (center) eagerly shakes the hand of President Barack Obama in June 2010. Today, West calls Obama “a black mascot of Wall St...

mikeklonsky

StoriesSee all

Have Work/Life Fit Questions? Meet the Joans! « MomsRising Blog

momsrising.org - Two of our favorite Joans (work/life fit experts!) will be speaking in the Bay Area about how both employers and employees benefit when employers make it easier for worker’s to meet their responsib...

coopmike48

Shadowboxing [To 50K and Beyond] | The Jose Vilson

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Shadowboxing [To 50K and Beyond] | The Jose VilsonShadowboxing [To 50K and Beyond]by JoseGolden Gloves Boxer, Shadow BoxingWriting these days has been an exercise in shadowboxing, fighting myself o...

coopmike48

Cash receipts $350 million behind

blogs.sacbee.com - What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.comSacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to de...

coopmike48

BusinessSee all

News Corp. Shareholders in Class Action Over Hacking - Jeff Bercovici - Mixed Media

blogs.forbes.com - MediaJul. 11 2011 - 10:47 am | 2 views | 0 recommendations |By JEFF BERCOVICI Rupert Murdoch standing by embattled News International CEO Rebekah Brooks. Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylifeAs if...

mikeklonsky

Mayor Emanuel cuts government credit cards from 500 to 30 - Chicago Sun

suntimes.com - By Fran Spielman City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com July 11, 2011 1:25AM Mayor Rahm Emanuel | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times Updated: July 11, 2011 1:42AM Mayor Rahm Emanuel is cutting from 500 to ...

mikeklonsky

PERA had good year in 2010

ednewscolorado.org - The Public Employees’ Retirement Association had a good investing year in 2010 but still is feeling the hangover of the market drop in 2008. Meredith Williams, PERA executive director (center) make...

coopmike48

HealthSee all

Hypnotist principal faces questions after suicides - Florida Wires

miamiherald.com - NORTH PORT, Fla. -- High school principal George Kenney acknowledged using hypnosis to help people: students who needed to relax before tests, a basketball player having trouble making free throws ...

mikeklonsky

BART protest causes major delays in service

democraticunderground.com - Source: SF ChronicleBART has temporarily stopped service at the Civic Center and 16th Street stations in San Francisco because of a civil disturbance that is causing major delays on the system in b...

coopmike48

Highly Acculturated Latinas, Higher Risk for Cervical Cancer

hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 12:29 pm, July 11, 2011 Photo Credits: Acculturated Latinas Higher Risk for Cervical Cancer Latina women in the United States have higher rates of cervical cancer than white women. A r...

coopmike48

#edu Read this paperSee all

Reflecting on the Cuny cPAR Institute « Cooperative Catalyst

coopmike48

The Triumph of Illusion and Spectacle: the Rise of Illiteracy in America

coopmike48

TEACH 2011 Live Streaming - AFT - #TCH11

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - AFT - A Union of Professionals - TEACH 2011 Live StreamingPrintEmail ShareThisConference InfoTEACH 2011New! Mobile AppNew! Live StreamingScheduleRegistrationHousing Information Live StreamingAll fo...

coopmike48

#ascdSee all

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Catalyst Notebook :: For the Record: Chicago Teachers Union strike votes

For the Record: Chicago Teachers Union strike votesPosted By Sarah Karp On Monday, July 11, 2011
In Teachers In a talk at the Aspen Institute in which Stand for Children’s national director Jonah Edelman laid out his organization’s crafty strategy for winning the approval of Senate Bill 7, he says that the bill will effectively kill any chance of the teachers union ever striking again. The bill, which also makes it more difficult to get tenure and streamlines for process for firing bad teachers, requires that 75 percent of the Chicago Teacher Union’s eligible voting membership authorize a strike.

Edelman describes CTU’s president Karen Lewis as a “militant and a diehard” who above all would not agree to forgo strike rights. But he called Lewis’ decision to allow the

#TCH11 AFT Chief Randi Weingarten Faults Teacher Reforms From ‘on High’ - NYTimes.com

AFT Chief Randi Weingarten Faults Teacher Reforms From ‘on High’ - NYTimes.com

Union Chief Faults School Reform From ‘On High’

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: July 11, 2011

REPRINTS

WASHINGTON — Amid one of the most contentious periods in recent memory for teachers’ unions, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, on Monday called for education reform that emanates from teachers and their communities, rather than from “those who blame teachers for everything.”

Enlarge This Image

Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times

Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers says the debate “has been hijacked by a group of self-styled reformers.”

“Let’s refuse to be defined by people who are happy to lecture us about the state of public education — but wouldn’t last 10 minutes in a classroom,” Ms. Weingarten told a crowd of about 2,000 here in kicking off the national conference held every two years b

Democurmudgeon: The Tea Party Motive for School Choice: "We think public schools should go away...discriminates against wealthier students."

The Tea Party Motive for School Choice: "We think public schools should go away...discriminates against wealthier students."

by Democurmudgeon

What’s the next move for voucher advocates? We found out when Gov. Scott Walker tried to go for all the marbles when he planned to open the program up to rich and poor...hell, everyone. He also wanted to get rid of all standardized testing too, so there would be no way to hold private schools accountable to the billions of taxpayer dollars going to them.

It appears the time is right for “disaster capitalism.”

The Independence Hall Tea Party in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania is no longer mincing words. They want to see an end to public education, slowly but surely.

NJ.com: “We think public schools should go away,’’ says Teri Adams, the head of the

“County Health Rankings” For Every County In The U.S. | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Research Studies Of The Week I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that ...

“County Health Rankings” For Every County In The U.S. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has teamed-up with the University of Wisconsin to create a pretty impressive interactive infographic ranking every county in the United States of a variety of health factors. You can also read more about it at the ...

Fuzzy SIG process distresses schools | Thoughts on Public Education

Fuzzy SIG process distresses schools
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State Board of Ed seeks one-year delay for Cohort II

Posted on 7/12/11 • Categorized as Turning around failing schools

By Kathryn Baron

The 58 schools expecting to learn if they’ll receive up to $2 million in School Improvement Grants (SIGs) for the fall term may have to wait until next spring for an answer. They may also have to reapply for the program, or just rework their current proposals. Either way, it’s possible the requirements will be more extensive. No one seems to know for sure what’s going on, and they’re hoping for answers when the State Board of Education (SBE) meets tomorrow in Sacramento.

The State Board has three items on its agenda dealing with the SIG program. The most contentious is whether to ask the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for a one-year waiver in allocating money to the schools in Cohort II, those that didn’t make the cut a year ago and are seeking funds for the 2011-12 academic year.

The SBE also wants permission to roll over the funds and combine them with the 2012-13

Money Missing From Education Reform Bill - Chicago News Cooperative

Money Missing From Education Reform Bill

by KRISTEN McQUEARY

The state budget Gov. Pat Quinn signed June 30 is missing a key component for education advocates: money.

Lawmakers stripped more than $500,000 from Quinn’s proposed budget that would have helped implement Senate Bill 7, a sweeping education reform bill lauded as a national model, partly because it eases the process of dumping poorly rated teachers. The money would have paid for a contract with a private firm to handle training to revamp teacher and principal evaluations.

Now the bill’s supporters, which include Mayor Rahm Emanuel, are turning to Race to the Top, a federal grant program that rewards states for innovative education policies. In June, federal officials announced an additional $700 million in Race to the Top money, with $500 million earmarked for early childhood education. The remaining $200 million is available to nine states, including Illinois, which did not receive anything in the previous two

Did state officials bury 2009 cheating report? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Did state officials bury 2009 cheating report?

by Benjamin Herold

New state Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis is “concerned” that a 2009 report flagged dozens of Pennsylvania schools for possible cheating – then languished for two years.

“Why the report wasn’t brought up in 2009, I don’t know,” said Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) spokesperson Tim Eller. “There’s no indication of what was done with that report two years ago.”

Featured Title:

Secretary Tomalis questions predecessors' inaction

One-third of District schools had pattern of suspicious erasures

by Benjamin Herold

The statewide study that looked for signs of cheating on the 2009 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exam flagged a total of 88 Philadelphia District schools and 11 Philadelphia charters for highly suspicious numbers of wrong answers that were erased and changed to the correct answer.

Featured Title:

State's 2009 analysis identified problems at 225 schools in Pa.

How important is class size after all? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

How important is class size after all?

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.

By Marion Brady

At a dinner honoring Mark Hopkins, president of Williams College from 1836 to 1872, President James A. Garfield said, “The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other.”

One teacher: One student.

Three or four years ago, one of my granddaughters

Isn’t it Amazing When You Pull Back the Curtain on the Deformers? « Failing Schools

Isn’t it Amazing When You Pull Back the Curtain on the Deformers?

JULY 11, 2011

by markfriedman1

Somethings you just happen to come across individuals in positions of power who show their hand and speak the truth at inconvenient moments. Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children, one of the many well-funded, manipulative organizations that play three card monte with the public dropped this revealing moment. At a recent Aspen Institute funded event, Edelman gloats over how they bamboozled their way past any ethical restraint in order to push forward unjust legislation.

Edelman reveals how eager he and others are to use the corporate money at their disposal to

School Tech Connect: Scrub Completed

Scrub Completed

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Crazy busy day here--- don't even get me started.

My only observation is that the Aspen Ideas tech people have apparently had a talking-to about the persistence of the embed code for the Edelman Moment of Truth. They've finally completed the scrub of their video server, and now the embed code doesn't work. It's even gone from the NBC site.

I'm glad I could be of technical assistance in the matter.

As you know, there are copies. My own cloud service shut me down because of all the downloads. The arc this thing is taking, with the open, unapologetic scrub of a semi-public forum (I mean, they provided an embed code

Jonah Edelman’s talk has been transcribed. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Jonah Edelman’s talk has been transcribed.

by Fred Klonsky

From Caroline Grannan:

Jonah Edelman, son of revered children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman, leads the organization Stand for Children, which began as a grassroots children’s advocacy organization in Portland, OR, but has evolved into a billionaire-funded operation moving into other states to support corporate education reform. Edelman spoke on a panel at the recent Aspen Ideas Festival (June 27-July 3, 2011) about how Stand for Children maneuvered in Illinois to get the state’s teachers’ unions to support legislation that severely curtailed their rights and their members’ job security. Edelman declares that the defeat for Illinois teachers’ unions will weaken teachers’ unions in other states.
I transcribed the key 14-plus minutes of Edelman’s talk. I’ve omitted minor asides, indicated with ellipses.
Caroline Grannan, San Francisco
July 11, 2011

You can find it here.

Jonah Edelman on outfoxing teachers’ unions: Transcribed remarks « Parents Across America

Jonah Edelman on outfoxing teachers’ unions: Transcribed remarks

by CarolineSF

Jonah Edelman, son of revered children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman, leads the organization Stand for Children, which began as a grassroots children’s advocacy organization in Portland, OR, but has evolved into a billionaire-funded operation moving into other states to support corporate education reform. Edelman spoke on a panel at the recent Aspen Ideas Festival (June 27-July 3, 2011) about how Stand for Children maneuvered in Illinois to get the state’s teachers’ unions to support legislation that severely curtailed their rights and their members’ job security. Edelman declares that the defeat for Illinois teachers’ unions will weaken teachers’ unions in other states.

I transcribed the key 14-plus minutes of Edelman’s talk. I’ve omitted minor asides, indicated with ellipses.

Caroline Grannan, San Francisco
July 11, 2011

… when Bruce Rauner [apparently Chicago venture capitalist Bruce V. Rauner] … asked

Daily Kos: 1817: the birth of a pencil maker

1817: the birth of a pencil maker

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

I was ten when I first read those words. The author, born this day in 1817, and who died in the early years of the Civil War, was named David at birth, switching his middle and first names after 4 years at Harvard, known to us as Henry David Thoreau.

His family ran a pencil factory, in which he worked for much of his adult life.

He was an educator, having taught in Concord Academy only to quit shortly after beginning because he refused

How Did They Get Those Test Results? « City School Stories

Reflections: Then and Now « City School Stories

How Did They Get Those Test Results?

Submitted by Frank Murphy: July 12, 2011

In the school world, July and August are historically slow paced and uneventful months. During these summer days, taking a break from the regular routines of the work year is the typical thing to do. This time also offers a good opportunity to catch up on work that has been put off for too long.

After a busy school year of posting book installments and topical themes, I have been looking forward to slowing the pace at cityschoolstories.com. My intention is to spend most of my writing time this summer off-line. While doing so, I plan to keep the blog active by reposting some of my favorite pieces from the past year. These will be ones I think are worth saying at least one more time.

I choose today’s selection after reading this post on the Notebook. It relates the results of

Monday, July 11, 2011

Schools Matter: The Business Roundtable's PIE: Post-Partisan Corporatism at Its Most Virulent

The Business Roundtable's PIE: Post-Partisan Corporatism at Its Most Virulent

by Jim Horn

What is PIE? If you don't know, you should. They are behind pipsqueaks like Jonah Edelman and his little charade group. They have 25 members of the PIE Network located in 18 states, and they are buying starving legislatures left and right and center. Get to know them, and never turn your back.

The PIE [Policy Innovators in Education] Network is guided by five national education policy organizations that span the ideological spectrum, but share common commitments to education reform. These leading thinkers recognize the important work that state advocacy organizations play in moving policy to implementation.Our policy partners fuel reform on a national level, disseminate critical research that helps advocates win support, and offer guidance and expertise

Cyberbullies, beware | The Education Report

Cyberbullies, beware

By Katy Murphy
Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 4:51 pm in politics, safety and discipline, violence.

Bullying is grounds for suspension or expulsion in California, whether it’s done face to face or through electronic media. And if there was any doubt that Facebook and other social networks came under the state’s definition of electronic media, there isn’t anymore.

Assemblymember Nora Campos (D-San Jose) introduced the Cyber Bully Prevention bill, AB 746, this year. Not surprisingly, it won bipartisan support and faced little opposition before Gov. Jerry Brown signed it on Friday, according to anews release from Campos’s office. (I wouldn’t imagine many politicians would vote against an anti-bullying bill, even if they didn’t like it, though some did.)

The new rule takes effect in January. Here it is: Cyber bully prevention law

Does anyone at your school or your child’s school monitor social networks? Have

SpongeBob, in first interview, talks education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

SpongeBob, in first interview, talks education

by Valerie Strauss

Nickelodeon’s new Made-for-Twitter SpongeBob SquarePants adventure gives me an excuse to give you another chance to read my exclusive interview with SpongeBob (just in case you missed it, and I know most of you did). SpongeBob’s Twitter adventure, called “The Ice Race Cometh: A Twitter-Tale,” will run from Tuesday through Friday.

The adventure is the first to be written by the SpongeBob crew exclusively for Twitter. It begins with a tweet from Bikini Bottom’s Action News about an entrepreneur offering 1 million clams to whoever wins a sleigh race. That starts a fury of tweets that can be tracked via a Twitter List or a custom tab on the SpongeBob Facebook page. The adventure ends on Friday just before the start of a new regular episode called “Frozen Face Off.”

Read full article >>

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: At the AFT conference in D.C #TCH11 .

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: At the AFT conference in D.C.

At the AFT conference in D.C.

NYT reports: Amid one of the most contentious periods in recent memory for teachers’ unions, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, on Monday called for education reform that emanates from teachers and their communities, rather than from “those who blame teachers for everything.”

In an interview afterward, Weingarten condemned the Atlanta situation but pointed to the role of the local teachers’ unions in helping uncover it. The cheating itself, she said, was a byproduct of when “targets become more important than learning” and of a

Sounds Like Things Are Hoppin’ At The AFT Conference! | Larry Ferlazzo #TCH11

Sounds Like Things Are Hoppin’ At The AFT Conference! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Sounds Like Things Are Hoppin’ At The AFT Conference!

by Larry Ferlazzo

It sounds like they had at least two great speeches at the American Federation of Teachers Conference today.

One was from Randi Weingarten, the AFT President. You can read her entire speech here, and The New York Times’ article about it here. This was my favorite quote:

“Let’s refuse to be defined by people who are happy to lecture us about the state of public education — but

Shadowboxing [To 50K and Beyond] | The Jose Vilson

Shadowboxing [To 50K and Beyond]

by Jose

Golden Gloves Boxer, Shadow Boxing

Writing these days has been an exercise in shadowboxing, fighting myself on the way to the completion of this first manuscript. Similar to my blog, I decided to stay away from topics that could hurt my professional aspirations and / or provide any openings about my past or present love life. Unlike my blog, however, I will discuss events that actually happened in my classroom and school that merit further discussion. It’s less a

NYC Public School Parents: As teachers are excessed, the bureaucracy continues to grow....

As teachers are excessed, the bureaucracy continues to grow....

by Leonie Haimson

As news spreads of large numbers of teachers are being “excessed” throughout the system because of the budget cuts, DOE is still hiring new “teams” of “talent coaches” (under the titles ofSenior Educational Research, Evaluation & Program Planning Specialist, Liii-Ea40),: each of whom will coach school leaders (6-8 schools) on implementation of a pilot teacher evaluation and development system, under the supervisions of “lead talent coaches”. Salaries will be $97,199 per year.

Talent “coaches” will engage with “network-based Talent Managers” to “inform development of systems and tools to support teacher evaluation and development across a network of 20 schools.”

· DOE is also hiring “lead talent coaches” (under the title of Senior Educational Research, Evaluation & Program Planning Specialist, Liv-Ea40) to “coach school leaders” and to

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Union Chief Faults School Reform From ‘On High’

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: July 11, 2011

Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times

Fuzzy SIG process distresses schoolsShare

How important is class size after all?

Isn’t it Amazing When You Pull Back the Curtain on the Deformers?

Monday, July 11, 2011

At the AFT conference in D.C.

Fuzzy SIG process distresses schools
Share