Big Education Ape

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Education Research Report: Republican Governors Running on Education Records as Candidates for President

Republican Governors Running on Education Records as Candidates for President

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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Three governors running for president in 2012 – (former governors) Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, and (perhaps a current governor) Rick Perry – come from states that outperform the U.S. average on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. Romney takes top honors for overall student performance in Massachusetts, and Perry can hail the outstanding achievement of Texas Hispanic students.

In an analysis of the leading Republican contenders in the presidential race,The 2012 Republican Candidates (So Far): What they’ve said and done on education in the past, and what they might do about our public schools if elected, Allison Sherry writes, “In staking out platforms in the coming months for what will likely be a feisty GOP

#SOSMarch Duncan Meets With 'Save Our Schools' Organizers, Their Dolls - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan Meets With 'Save Our Schools' Organizers, Their Dolls - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan Meets With 'Save Our Schools' Organizers, Their Dolls

by Michele McNeil

Everyone knows that cabinet secretaries are busy people, so when you want to get your message across, it's all the better to be brief—and memorable.

So when the organizers of the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action wanted to quickly convey their concerns with the direction of education reform, they presented Education Secretary Arne Duncan with an

The Treacherous Rainbow of Identity Politics in History | Mr. D’s Neighborhood

The Treacherous Rainbow of Identity Politics in History

by ldorazio1

“The thing is, you cannot judge a race. Any man who judges by the group is a pea-wit. You take men one at a time.” ~ Sergeant ‘Buster’ Kilrain, in Gettysburg (1993)

I’m always uneasy when government messes with actual classroom instruction—even when it’s for the best intentions.

The day before I left for California, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 48, an education bill designed to acknowledge the achievements of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) individuals in California and American history. Furthermore, the bill thwarts educators, administrators and school districts from advocating

Brother, Richard Chavez, Dies, Organized Grape Boycotts of ‘60s - Hispanically Speaking News

Brother of Cesar Chavez, Richard Chavez, Dies – Helped Organized Grape Boycotts of ‘60s

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Published at 2:35 pm, July 28, 2011

Photo Credits: Richard Chavez Dies in Bakersfield

The brother of Cesar Chavez, Richard Chavez has died in California at the age of 81. Richard helped his brother build the United Farm Workers to the political and civil rights force it became.

Richard was born, like his brother, a migrant farm worker who grew up during the Great Depression.

According to the Mexican-American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF):

“Richard joined the United Farm Workers of America as a young man and dedicated the rest of his life to chasing the dream envisioned by him, his brother

Taking Their Money, Stealing Their Votes: A Dispatch from the Republican War on Students « Student Activism

Taking Their Money, Stealing Their Votes: A Dispatch from the Republican War on Students

by Angus Johnston

Charlie Webster, the state chair of the Maine Republican party, has produced documents claiming to show thatover two hundred of the state’s college students have committed fraud by voting in Maine while paying out-of-state tuition.

This is a lie. It’s an evil lie. It’s just … jeez.

Here’s the deal. If you move to Maine for college, you have to pay out-of-state tution your first year. And your second. And your third. And your fourth. And your fifth. You have to pay out-of-state tuition forever, in fact, until you demonstrate that you have “established a Maine domicile for other than educational purposes.”

And as long as you’re attending college full-time, you’ll be “presumed to be in Maine for educational purposes

When Profiteering and Union-Busting Repackaged as School Reform | MyFDL

When Profiteering and Union-Busting Repackaged as School Reform

by David A. Love

Teacher's Desk (photo: Pikaluk on Flickr)

This is one of those stories that shows how far some people will go in America to make a buck—even if it means profiting at the expense of children, or exploiting the legacy of the civil rights movement.

Stand for Children is an unassuming name for an organization. Just taken at face value, one would conclude that the Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit aspires to accomplish what the title suggests. Their website says SFC is “an innovative, grassroots child advocacy organization. Our mission is to use the power of grassroots action to help all children get the excellent public education and strong support they need to thrive. Our members believe we need to stand up for our children now – particularly for their education from pre-school through high school –

Why Save Our Schools #SOSMarch is happening Saturday - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why Save Our Schools March is happening Saturday - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why Save Our Schools March is happening Saturday

by Valerie Strauss

I long wondered why public school teachers sat quietly during the decade-long No Child Left Behind era watching high-stakes standardized test-based reform take hold, leading to a host of damaging unintended consequences (narrowed curriculum and teaching to the test, just to name a few).

This Saturday, teachers, along with principals, parents and other activists, quiet no longer, are scheduled to take their concerns to Washington, D.C., with a march intended to let the Obama administration know that they are unhappy with corporate-based school reform that is obsessed with test-based “accountability,” the expansion of charter schools and other measures.

Read full article >>

Confession of a cheating teacher | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Confession of a cheating teacher

by Benjamin Herold

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook/NewsWorks

She said she knows she's a good teacher.

But she still helped her students cheat.

"What I did was wrong, but I don’t feel guilty about it,” said a veteran Philadelphia English teacher, who shared her story with the Notebook/NewsWorks.

Featured Title:

Notebook/NewsWorks exclusive

Changes coming to the Newsflash

by Wendy Harris

The Notebook has been publishing its e-newsletter, the Newsflash, for nearly a decade. We wanted to alert you to some changes to the Newsflash and ask for your feedback on the best way to share our hard-hitting news stories with you.

Writing about Teachers That Made a Difference | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Writing about Teachers That Made a Difference

by larrycuban

I recently read Mike Rose’s post about his high school English teacher. It is a beautiful piece that captures the ineffable moment 40 years ago that Rose was ready–he did not know it, of course, at the time–to dig deeper into literature and the pushing and prodding he got from Jack McFarland, his young English teacher. McFarland’s teaching, Rose said, changed “the direction of my life.”

Rose’s post reminded me of letters I had received from former high school students, those I had trained as teachers in Washington, D.C., and from doctoral advisees at Stanford. A glow of satisfaction would come over me whenever I read such letters that asserted my influence in their lives. I suspect that Jack McFarland might have experienced such a glow when reading Mike Rose’s post. As I read the compliments and how much the student attributed to me in shaping his or her life’s work, however, a small doubt, surely no more than a speck, flashed over me. That speck of a doubt had to do with the tricks that our memories play on us in selectively

Reform: The Trojan Horse Wheeling into Schools | Labor Notes

Reform: The Trojan Horse Wheeling into Schools

by Mike Dunn | Thu, 07/28/2011 - 10:51am

The attempts to crush teacher unions legislatively in Wisconsin, Indiana, and elsewhere have so far had only limited success. The enemies of teacher unions have been much more effective at weakening unions discreetly, through “education reform.”

Reforms that limit tenure, due process, or seniority protections also squelch dissent, union participation, and even advocacy for students, by making it easier to fire teachers for any reason, regardless of their skill in the classroom. Charter schools weaken union power because they are exempt from districts’ closed shop policies and are almost always non-union.

But education reform has also been undermining union strength in a more subtle way, by deskilling teachers. Deskilling is the Trojan horse that weakens unions, and schools, from the inside out.

The Original Deskiller

History shows how deskilling weakens unions. Before the Homestead Steel strike of 1892, in Pittsburgh, the

Modern School: Carnegie, Steel and the Busting of Teacher Unions (Part I)

Carnegie, Steel and the Busting of Teacher Unions (Part I)

by Michael Dunn

Note: A shorter version of this article was published today in Labor Notes.

Education bloggers have done a good job of covering how wealthy philanthropists like Bill Gates, Eli Broad and the Walton family (see here, here, here and here) have sought to privatize and corporatize public education (see here, here, here and here). Their objectives, however, are not limited solely to increasing capital’s access to this huge and relatively untapped market, though this is certainly a major goal (See No Capitalist Left Behind). They also want to crush teachers unions because they reduce profits by defending wages and benefits and by resisting privatization schemes. Additionally, Republicans and Tea Party activists want to eliminate unions because of their financial support for Democratic candidates.

Education Reform: A Union Busting Trojan Horse

While attempts to crush the unions legislatively (e.g., Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan) have

Education Research Report: Inside IMPACT: D.C.'s Model Teacher Evaluation System

Inside IMPACT: D.C.'s Model Teacher Evaluation System

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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School districts across the country are struggling with whether—and how—to incorporate multiple measures into teacher evaluation systems. In the District of Columbia, however, the decision has already been made. The D.C. IMPACT system, originally developed under former Chancellor Michelle Rhee, is a rigid, numerically based teacher evaluation system that rates teachers on the basis of classroom observations and student performance data.

IMPACT replaces a previous teacher evaluation system that rated 95 percent of D.C. teachers "satisfactory" or above. Yet NAEP scores for District of Columbia students were among the lowest in the nation.

"In the two years since this high-stakes report card was launched, it has led to the firing of scores of educators,

Can Schools, Districts, and Central Offices Find Their Way to Autonomy?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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Education Sector's new report takes a closer look at the theory behind the autonomy movement, with a particular focus on D.C. Public Schools.

When policymakers begin to think of ways to help schools improve, they often settle on the idea of giving individual schools greater independence. This led to the "site-based management" movement of the 1990s.

Home Environment Significantly Impacts Pre-K Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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In this study, Trajectories of the Home Learning Environment Across the First 5 Years: Associations With Children’s Vocabulary and Literacy Skills at Prekindergarten, children's home learning environments were examined in a low-income sample of 1,852 children and families when children were 15, 25, 37, and 63

New York City School-Based Financial Incentives Program Did Not Improve Student Achievement or Affect Reported Teaching Practices

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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A New York City program designed to improve student performance through school-based financial incentives for teachers did not improve student achievement, most likely because it did not change teacher behavior and the conditions needed to motivate staff were not achieved, according to a RAND Corporation study.

From 2007 to 2010, nearly 200 high-needs New York City public schools participated in the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program. The study, commissioned by the New York City Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers and funded by the New York City Fund for Public Schools and National Center on Performance Initiatives, is the most comprehensive study on the city's performance pay program.

The State of Proficiency: How student proficiency rates vary across states, subjects, and grades between 2002 and 2010

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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In 2007, NWEA and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute collaborated on The Proficiency Illusion, a study that illustrated the issues created by having each state set its own standards for what constitutes student proficiency for reading and mathematics tests, while holding all states to the same accountability standards. By comparing the cut scores that determine proficiency for each state, the researchers found that there was significant

#SOSMarch School Tech Connect: Good For The SOS Marchers

School Tech Connect: Good For The SOS Marchers

Good For The SOS Marchers

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I'm so proud of the March organizers; you really can't get the attention of this administration unless you're a hedge fund manager, a person who wants to eliminate Medicare and Social Security, or someone who didn't vote for you.

But the SOS people are at least getting a meeting, so good for them.

I guarantee you that the Education Department people are going to play two cards:

1. The increase in testing is actually a decrease in testing.

2. The 5% quota on school "turnarounds" is

#SOSMarch Save Our Schools Rally Kicks Off In D.C., Teachers Invited To Meet With Arne Duncan

Save Our Schools Rally Kicks Off In D.C., Teachers Invited To Meet With Arne Duncan

First Posted: 7/28/11 12:26 PM ET Updated: 7/28/11 12:28 PM ET

The four-day long Save Our Schools rally begins in Washington, D.C. today.

The Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, a joint effort of parents, teachers and community organizers, seeks to rally support for an end to controversial education reforms. The participants argue that the policies put in place under the Bush and Obama administrations leave too much control in the hands of government -- allowing those in Washington to decide what's best for those in the classroom.

The march's guiding principles and demands,according to the SOS March official website, include,

“equitable funding for all public school communities,” “an end to high stakes testing used for the purpse of student, teacher and school evaluation," "tacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies,” and “curriculum developed for and by local school communities.”

According to the blog of one marcher, career teacher Mary Cathryn Riker of St. Paul, Minn.:

I will march for a statewide teacher support and evaluation framework that intentionally

#SOSMarch Obama administration reaches out to education activists before march - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Obama administration reaches out to education activists before march - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Obama administration reaches out to education activists before march

by Valerie Strauss

Two days before thousands of teachers, parents and education activists are staging a march in Washington to protest the Obama administration’s education reform policies, U.S. officials have invited some leaders of the event to the White House for a discussion.

According to leaders of the Save Our Schools March, four of them were just invited to the White House on Friday, and the Education Department is trying to work out a meeting with a major march participant and Secretary Arne Duncan.

The march is taking place Saturday, and a two-day conference of activists began today at American University. Leaders of the march have said they planned the event because it was important to let the administration know that teachers, principals, parents and others are fed up with reform policies that are turning public schools into testing factories and unfairly evaluating teachers based on student test scores.

Read full article >>

Report: How voucher landscape is widening

by Valerie Strauss

A new review of voucher research over the past decade reveals that vouchers over all “do not have a strong effect on students' academic achievement” and that proponents have shifted their rhetoric away from academic impact and instead highlight parent choice and other issues.

The analysis, called “Keeping Informed about School Vouchers: A Review of Major Developments and Research,” was done by the Center on Education Policy, an independent nonprofit that takes no position on voucher programs. It highlights changes in the voucher landscape since 2000, when the center released an earlier reviewof research on the subject.

Read full article >>

Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Brother of Cesar Chavez, Richard Chavez, Dies – Helped Organized Grape Boycotts of ‘60s

by Benjamin Heroldfor the Notebook/NewsWorks

Reform: The Trojan Horse Wheeling into Schools

The Original Deskiller

Save Our Schools Rally Kicks Off In D.C., Teachers Invited To Meet With Arne Duncan

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook/NewsWorks