Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Database: See expulsion, suspension rates for all California schools - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Database: See expulsion, suspension rates for all California schools - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

Database: See expulsion, suspension rates for all California schools

by preese@sacbee.com (Phillip Reese)

Last year, California school districts expelled roughly 17,000 students and handed out 323,000 suspensions. That comes out to about three expulsions and 53 suspensions per 1,000 students - a rate that has fallen slightly over the last few years.

Students walk the halls filled with college banners at Sutter Middle School, Friday Oct. 20, 2006.

Are Teachers Dumb? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Are Teachers Dumb? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Are Teachers Dumb?

by Nancy Flanagan

If you want to start a lively discussion, put "Teach for America" in the title of your blog. You're sure to get a little heat, if not outright hostility. That's OK--the purpose of blogging is hosting public dialogue. The best way to herd cats is to put out bowls of tasty food-- toss some debatable issues out there, then stand back.

So it was, a couple of blogs ago. A teacher who calls herself Julia629--saying she wasn't a Teach for America corps member but wishes she'd gone that route--showed up to defend the TFA program. Her arguments centered around Andy Rotherham's phoned-in piece in Time, in which he sets up five straw men (or, perhaps, straw corps members) then knocks them down.

Julia629 also asserted that teachers are--not to put too fine a point on it--intellectually feeble, what AEI researchers described as weak in the cognitive complexity department. With such inferior colleagues, she says,

All Education Matters: New Campaign: Contact Your Congressional Leaders, Ask Them to Solve the Student Lending Crisis

All Education Matters: New Campaign: Contact Your Congressional Leaders, Ask Them to Solve the Student Lending Crisis:

New Campaign: Contact Your Congressional Leaders, Ask Them to Solve the Student Lending Crisis

by Cryn Johannsen

Last Saturday while I was spending time with a fellow activist for the indentured educated class, I had an opportunity to touch base with Nando, author of Third Tier Reality, by phone. We discussed my trip to the Hill with David Hunsicker, and the progress that we have all made as activists on behalf of student loan debtors. The project I recently carried out with Barbara Ehrenreich and others - the Mayors List - also came up.

Nando then suggested, "why don't we provide a list of Congressional contacts to debtors, encourage them to call, and get invovled? They should call and ask their Congressional leaders the following question: 'how are you

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Secretary Duncan to Hold Second #AskArne Twitter Town Hall | ED.gov Blog

Secretary Duncan to Hold Second #AskArne Twitter Town Hall | ED.gov Blog:

Secretary Duncan to Hold Second #AskArne Twitter Town Hall

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

Secretary Duncan announced today that he will hold his second #AskArne Twitter Town Hall on Monday November 14, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Veteran education journalist John Merrow will return to moderate the town hall that will also be broadcast live on ED’sustream channel.

Beginning today, Twitter users can submit questions to Arne using the hashtag #AskArne.

Read more about Arne’s first Twitter Town Hall.

Click here for a complete list of ED’s Twitter accounts.

NCLB Waivers get a Reality Check - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

NCLB Waivers get a Reality Check - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

NCLB Waivers get a Reality Check

by Anthony Cody

The trajectory of our nation's schools from the train wreck of No Child Left Behind to a new and fresh set of calamitous policies has been checked by the ways in which these so-called reforms are playing out across the country.

First, what is happening with student achievement? The latest results are in from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and they reveal that in spite of a decade of No Child Left Behind, growth in student achievement remains essentially flat. Lisa Guisbond of FairTest wrote here:

Overall, growth was more rapid before and flattened after NCLB took effect. For example, 4th grade math scores jumped 11 points from 224 to 235 between 1996 and 2003, but increased only 3 points between 2005 and 2011. Grade 8 math scores went from 273 to 278 between 2000 and 2003, but increased only 1 point, from 283 to 284, between 2009 and 2011.

Initiative Launched, Improve College Graduation Rates for Latinos - Hispanically Speaking News

Initiative Launched, Improve College Graduation Rates for Latinos - Hispanically Speaking News:

Major Initiative Launched to Improve College Graduation Rates for Latinos

Latinos are the fastest-growing student population in America and a new effort is now focused on leveraging the critical connection between their educational attainment and the future of our national economy. Today, Lumina Foundation launches a collaborative partnership designed to strengthen ventures in key metropolitan areas that show promise in improving the postsecondary attainment of Latino students.
Under the project, Lumina will provide a total of $7.2 million over a four-year period to 12 partnerships in 10 states with significant and growing Latino populations. The partnerships will leverage community leaders across key policy, education, business and nonprofit sectors to build, implement and sustain successful “place-based efforts” that capitalize on their local talents and ingenuity.
Lumina Foundation, through a national Goal 2025 movement, aims to increase the proportion of Americans with

What’s a Connected Educator? « My Island View

What’s a Connected Educator? « My Island View:

What’s a Connected Educator?

by tomwhitby

The idea of being connected in the Twentieth Century had a very different meaning than it does today. Back then being connected conjured up visions of pinstriped suits and shoulder holsters. Today, being connected brings up visions of computers, Smartphones, and tablets. A general misconception is that to be a connected educator, one needs to be a computer geek, with a vast knowledge of all things having to do with social media. Of course this is a vision that could be overwhelming to anyone who is only familiar with email, word processing and the ability to put a PowerPoint presentation together. Of course educators many have ventured onto Facebook to connect with relatives and old high school friends, so the connected thing is not a totally foreign concept. Connecting is a process that we take one step at a time. The key however is to continue to take those steps to build and improve a connected network.

Back in the day, for teachers to keep up with what was going on in education, they needed to read journals,

NY Mag: Bloomberg pushed Klein out before he was ready to go | GothamSchools

NY Mag: Bloomberg pushed Klein out before he was ready to go | GothamSchools:

NY Mag: Bloomberg pushed Klein out before he was ready to go

by Philissa Cramer

When Chancellor Joel Klein suddenly announced his resignation a year ago tomorrow, speculation immediately mounted that he had been pushed out.

But Klein insisted that he had chosen to leave the Department of Education and said Mayor Bloomberg had asked him to stay on.

Now, new details tucked into a New York Magazine profile of Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth seem to confirm that Bloomberg set the timeline for Klein’s departure — and suggest that Klein’s decision to head to Murdoch’s News Corporation was hastily made.

From the article:

On Sunday morning, November 7, 2010, Michael Bloomberg called Klein and told him that he

Modern School: Let Them Eat Exams! (Tests, Not Toys For Toddlers)

Modern School: Let Them Eat Exams! (Tests, Not Toys For Toddlers):

Let Them Eat Exams! (Tests, Not Toys For Toddlers)

by Michael Dunn

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

New York and New Jersey are on an insane mission to give mandatory school-readiness tests to children as young as 4 years old. Why? To get some of Obama’s Race to the Top money. The tests would assess children's language, math, science and literacy skills, and their emotional and physical development, Lisa Fleisher reported in the Wall Street Journal.

The (il)logic of testing kids this young is to get a baseline of each student's skill level when he or she enters the

How big was the crowd at the Oakland general strike? « Fred Klonsky

How big was the crowd at the Oakland general strike? « Fred Klonsky:

How big was the crowd at the Oakland general strike?

by Fred Klonsky

For as long as I have been going to demonstrations there have been debates about how big the crowd was. The rule of thumb is to take the number that the organizers claim and the number reported by the press and the government and split the difference.

But the Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur makes a good case for claiming that the mainstream media was shameless in its undercounting of how many people were at the Oakland general strike last week.

Check out this video:

Michelle Rhee in The City of Nothing to Lose | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View

Michelle Rhee in The City of Nothing to Lose | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View:

Michelle Rhee in The City of Nothing to Lose

Some fairly odd musings in Philadelphia these days as former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is spending quite a bit of time in Ill-town these days. Whispers sound off about Rhee, the controversial and fiery school head who led the D.C. public school system during Mayor Adrian Fenty’s (D-D.C.) tumultuous term, going to Philly and filling in for the recently ousted schools chief Arlene Ackerman.

We’d like to see how that turns out.

Take one outspoken, belligerent and ill-tempered Korean American woman who is considered the spokesperson of the “school reform” movement and put her in the rough-and-tumble working class political meat cleaver that is Philadelphia and see what you get. True: Philly public schools are like prisons (yours truly can personally attest), but not certain if an acerbic and

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Diane Ravitch on School Reform Gone Awry

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Diane Ravitch on School Reform Gone Awry:

OP-ED | Diane Ravitch on School Reform Gone Awry

by Dianne Kaplan DeVries | Nov 7, 2011 10:54pm
(0) Comments | Log in to Post a Comment
Posted to: Education, Opinion

DIANNE KAPLAN DEVRIES

“Singing to the choir because the choir needs support,” that’s what Diane Ravitch was doing in Hartford last Wednesday when she spoke to members of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. It was my good fortune to be among the few invited guests and also to enjoy a leisurely conversation with her at HFT headquarters prior to her formal remarks at The Bushnell.

No amount of praise for Ravitch’s intellectual contribution to American public education can begin to do justice to the plain-spoken wisdom of this historian and school reform critic.

Research Professor of Education at New York University, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a recipient of countless awards for her careful use of social science research to advance the public good, Ravitch is a prolific author

For all you Seattleites who wait until the last minute to mail in your ballot… | Seattle Education

For all you Seattleites who wait until the last minute to mail in your ballot… | Seattle Education:

For all you Seattleites who wait until the last minute to mail in your ballot…

by seattleducation2011

On this blog, Sue and I have many times written about the school board incumbents and the votes that they have made, how they acted in-sync with our Broad-trained superintendent, how they mindlessly stamped all of her policies and how incumbents Carr, Martin-Morris and Sundquist are backed financially by Stand for Children. For that reason, I will not repeat what has already been stated by us.

What I will do is provide this reminder.

Vote for Michelle Buetow for School Board Director.

I have worked with Michelle over the last two years as part of the Alternative Schools Coalition. She understands

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Occupy Movement: Reframing the school reform debate #ows

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Occupy Movement: Reframing the school reform debate:

Occupy Movement: Reframing the school reform debate

Taking it to the DOE

The Occupy Movement in NY has refocused the whole school reform narrative and has transformed power relationships. Where only a few months ago Mayor Bloomberg and his hand-picked administrators were able to exercise control over "public" meetings, silencing opposition from teachers, parents and community members, and dominating the mainstream media, the new movement has changed things.

Yesterday, Occupy the DOE forces made their voices

Modern School: The Pre-K Achievement Gap

Modern School: The Pre-K Achievement Gap:

The Pre-K Achievement Gap

by Michael Dunn

Good Education just reviewed a recent survey presented at the annual conference for theNational Association for the Education of Young Children in which two-thirds of kindergarten teachers say the majority of their students start school without knowing basic preschool concepts like the alphabet.

According to the survey, only 6% of kindergarten teachers said that their students were well prepared academically at the beginning of the year. Many students did not know how to hold a pencil or write their name. Less than 9% of teachers said their incoming students’ oral language skills were good.

The article does make some incorrect implications, like the idea that college educated parents are often working so much they may not spend enough time reading to their children. While they may be working longer hours and spending less time with their children than they should,

Shanker Blog » The False Conflict Between Unionism and Professionalism?

Shanker Blog » The False Conflict Between Unionism and Professionalism?:

The False Conflict Between Unionism and Professionalism

by Matthew Di Carlo

Some people have the unfortunate idea that unionism is somehow antithetical to or incompatible with being a professional. This notion is particularly salient within education circles, where phrases like “treat teachers like professionals” are often used as implicit arguments against policies associated with unions, such as salary schedules and tenure (examples here, here, here and here).

Let’s take a quick look at this “conflict,” first by examining union membership rates among professionals versus workers in other types of occupations. As shown in the graph below, if union membership and professionalism don’t mix, we have a little problem: Almost one in five professionals is a union member. Actually, union membership is higher among professionals than among any other major occupational category except construction workers.

Tweed Protesters Denounce 'Privatization' of Schools – SchoolBook #ows

Tweed Protesters Denounce 'Privatization' of Schools – SchoolBook:

Tweed Protesters Denounce ‘Privatization’ of Schools

by Chelsia Rose Marcius

They may not have been a big crowd, but they were spirited. A group calling itself Occupy the DOE — an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street — gathered on the steps Tweed Hall on Monday evening with a litany of complaints against the Department of Education.

Police officers ushered the crowd of more than 150 parents, students, teachers, aides and educators up the stairs and toward the center of the steps as voices chanted and echoed one another. Their grievances were many, including a unified call against mayoral control of the school system and the privatization of New York City public schools.

After the Oct. 25 meeting of the Panel for Education Policy, where about 200 parents and teachers protested against Department of Education leadership, it was time to take a different approach, said Leia Petty, an Occupy the DOE organizer.

She said the grass-roots group started as a grade-in last month in Zuccotti Park to address a growing list of

Hooray for the Long Island Principals! - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Hooray for the Long Island Principals! - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Hooray for the Long Island Principals!

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

Sometimes it seems we are living in the worst of times for American education, given the daily news of budget cuts, attacks on teachers, and attacks on the very idea of public education. When good news comes along, we should shout it from the rooftops. So here's good news that I want to share and celebrate.

Last week, more than 400 principals on Long Island, N.Y., signed a letter of public protest against the state's new and untried teacher evaluation system. The signatories, drawn from elementary, middle, and high schools,represent two-thirds of all principals on Long Island, which includes Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Their letter is historic. It's the first time that a large number of administrators have spoken out in opposition to bad ideas. It represents hundreds of educators who are willing to stick their necks out, hundreds of educators willing to speak truth to power, hundreds of educators who put their name on a statement to the state's highest education officials, with this simple message: "Stop! What you are doing is wrong. What you are imposing on us

Inside the Penn State Football Child Sexual Abuse Scandal « Student Activism

Inside the Penn State Football Child Sexual Abuse Scandal « Student Activism:

Inside the Penn State Football Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

by Angus Johnston

In 1998 Jerry Sandusky, a prominent assistant coach on Penn State’s top-ranked football team — and a possible successor to Joe Paterno as the team’s head coach — groped an 11-year-old boy in the team’s showers. The boy’s mother learned of this incident, she reported it to Penn State police. Sandusky later admitted to police that he had hugged the boy naked in the showers.

No charges were brought, and Sandusky retired the following year, retaining emeritus status at Penn State, an office in the university’s football building, and full access to the team’s facilities.

In 2000 Penn State janitors witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a male child in the football team’s showers. They reported the incident to their supervisor, who took no action. The janitors, fearing that they would

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