It Turns Out That Being an Effective Parent’s Not That Difficult | GeekDad | Wired.com

It Turns Out That Being an Effective Parent’s Not That Difficult | GeekDad | Wired.com:

It Turns Out That Being an Effective Parent’s Not That Difficult

• By Dave Banks
• 
• November 22, 2011 |
• 6:00 am |
• Categories: Science and Education

Image by Flickr user Neeta Lind, used under CC Licensing

Educators and parents have been saying for years that parental involvement is one of the most important factors in a child’s education. But what does that mean? Cooking brownies for a bake sale? Attending PTA meetings … or something else? Two recent studies spell out which parental behaviors have the most impact on a child’s performance and, while this has long been suspected, the fact that there is now proof is truly exciting news.

The studies were highlighted in Thomas Friedman’s column in the New York Times this past weekend and are a beacon of light in what has been n otherwise dismal news year. The results of the studies show parental involvement can give children a marked performance advantage, regardless of the family’s socio-economic background. Plus, it turns out that the actions that create positive achievement don’t require a lot of time or effort.

The first study, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), was conducted by the

CAP/C-SPAN Panel on Student Involvement in University Governance Now Online « Student Activism #OWS

CAP/C-SPAN Panel on Student Involvement in University Governance Now Online « Student Activism:

CAP/C-SPAN Panel on Student Involvement in University Governance Now Online

by Angus Johnston

The panel discussion I participated in yesterday at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC is now online. It was a good discussion, I think, and particularly timely given the events of the last week in California.

http://www.americanprogress.org/images/rd2/flash/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf

Along with myself, the panel included Tiffany Loftin, vice president of the United States Student Association, and PIRG campus organizer Dan Herb. Louis Soares of CAP and White House education policy advisor Zakiya Smith gave opening remarks, and the panel was moderated by CAP Policy Analyst Julie Morgan, lead author of

Former Marine, Officer Calls Pike “Cowardly” in Open Letter - Davis, CA Patch #OWS

Former Marine, Officer Calls Pike “Cowardly” in Open Letter - Davis, CA Patch:

Former Marine, Officer Calls Pike “Cowardly” in Open Letter

Captain Souza,

My proudest accomplishment in life was earning the title United States Marine. Today, I continue to espouse the Marine qualities of honesty, integrity and courage.

I have worked many protests as a DC policeman and as a United States Marine fighting in Iraq. I am perplexed as to how a non-violent demonstration would necessitate police in riot gear or their use of pepper spray.

I understand that Lt. John Pike was a U.S. Marine.

The vast majority of former United States Marines would never have taken the cowardly action of pepper spraying non violent, sitting protestors. Former Marines should carry their Marine training, ethos, and Marine attributes

Nonviolence, Resisting Arrest, and the Student Movements of the Sixties and Today « Student Activism #OWS

Nonviolence, Resisting Arrest, and the Student Movements of the Sixties and Today « Student Activism:

Nonviolence, Resisting Arrest, and the Student Movements of the Sixties and Today

by Angus Johnston

A recurring theme in criticism of the students pepper-sprayed at UC Davis last week is that in forming a ring around police and their fellow activists they were violating the principles of nonviolent resistance. “A fundamental tenet of civil disobedience is to accept arrest when protesting injustice,” Berkeley Daily Cal columnist Casey Given wrote yesterday, and so the UC activists of today have no right to “compare … their struggle to … the Free Speech and Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.”

Casey Given is right that civil rights activists mostly submitted to arrest willingly (though one of the movement’s greatest unsung heroes did not). But to invoke the Berkeley Free Speech Movement as an example of this supposed rule of nonviolence is a deeply strange choice.

The Free Speech Movement at Berkeley was christened on September 30, 1964, at a sit-in following the citation of eight students for violating the university’s leafleting policies. The very next day, on the morning of October 1,

Hechinger Report | Should value-added teacher ratings be adjusted for poverty?

Hechinger Report | Should value-added teacher ratings be adjusted for poverty?:

Should value-added teacher ratings be adjusted for poverty?

by Sarah Garland

In Washington, D.C., one of the first places in the country to use value-added teacher ratings to fire teachers, teacher-union president Nathan Saunders likes to point to the following statistic as proof that the ratings are flawed: Ward 8, one of the poorest areas of the city, has only five percent of the teachers defined as effective under the new evaluation system known as IMPACT, but more than a quarter of the ineffective ones. Ward 3, encompassing some of the city’s

More on Rocketship Charters « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students! #OWS

More on Rocketship Charters « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

More on Rocketship Charters

by millerlf

A Retro-Rocketship to the Future: Corporate Education Reform Blasts Off in Silicon Valley

Written by Adam Bessie The Daily Censored, Nov 18, 2011

Rocketship is blasting off in Silicon Valley, with great fanfare – and no, it’s not a new tech start up, propelled by the genius of another 22-year old wunderkind who has invented the latest, most innovative way to virally spread videos of silly cats playing pianos. Yet, looking at the applauding coverage of Rocketship, you’d be hard-pressed to not think you’re watching a business profile of a rising star: Rocketship’s facilities are freshly-designed, modernized, and color-coordinated, the team members enthusiastic (and color-coordinated), and team

Governor Scott Walker Not Allowed to Speak at Chicago Business Breakfast

by millerlf

The Occupy Chicago movement prevented Scott Walker from speaking at a business breakfast November 3rd in Chicago. Take a look.

To view Walker’s humiliation to to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KET6XK1E4CQ

Education Research Report: Formative Assessment Initiatives in Two States

Education Research Report: Formative Assessment Initiatives in Two States:

Texas school districts teaching about contraception along with abstinence in sex education classes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω


Report Shows Big Increase in Public Schools


A new Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (TFNEF) study shows a big increase over the past three years in the percentage of Texas school districts teaching about contraception along with abstinence in sex education classes.

This encouraging shift away from failed abstinence-only policies is especially important because Texas has one

Formative Assessment Initiatives in Two States

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

As schools and districts work to improve student learning outcomes, demand has grown for information on efforts to promote formative assessment and strategies that support its implementation. Formative assessment has been defined by a national group of education leaders and researchers as an ongoing instructional process rather than a discrete event. Using formative assessment, teachers collect feedback daily and systematically with students to inform adjustments to instruction to help students reach learning goals.

This study examines two state-supported initiatives (in New York and Vermont) that seek to promote this

Texas New History Standards Fail on College Readiness

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

A new report for the board that manages higher education in Texas confirms that the State Board of Education (SBOE) recklessly put politics ahead of getting students ready for college when adopting new social studies curriculum standards for public schools last year, the president of the Texas Freedom Network said today. This new report follows a scathing review earlier this year in which the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute called the standards a “politicized distortion” of American history filled with “misrepresentations at every turn.”

The new report for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and the Social Studies Faculty Collaborative (which includes college and university faculty and was established by the coordinating board) warns that the public school American history standards adopted last year are “ineffective,” “fail to meet the state’s

Anti Teachers’ Union Activity in the State of Washington | Seattle Education #OWS

Anti Teachers’ Union Activity in the State of Washington | Seattle Education:

Anti Teachers’ Union Activity in the State of Washington

by seattleducation2011

Have you seen this in your inbox yet?

Dear School Board Director,

RE: NONUNION PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR ASSOCIATION

Because you are a leader in your community’s education system, we wanted to inform you about Northwest Professional Educators (NWPE) and
our work supporting your mission to provide students with the best possible education.

NWPE is a state partner of the Association of American Educators (AAE), the fastest-growing

Teachers union leader says battle's just begun - Washington Times

Teachers union leader says battle's just begun - Washington Times:

'

Teachers union leader says battle’s just begun

Predicts labor inroads against GOP

20 Comments and 0 Reactions|ShareTweet|Email|Print|

By Ben Wolfgang

-

The Washington Times

Monday, November 21, 2011

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel isn’t holding out much hope that sweeping changes to education laws can be enacted before the 2012 presidential election. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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The head of the nation’s largest labor union says Republican efforts to restrain the power of unions has produced a middle-class backlash across the country that could cost Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP politicians their jobs.

National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel told editors and reporters at The Washington Times that Mr. Walker, OhioGov. John Kasich and other Republican politicians who have moved to rein in the bargaining power of teachers, firefighters and other public employees instead will galvanize working men and women nationwide. Such a movement is already under way in Wisconsin, where a week-old petition drive to recall Mr. Walker has garnered more than 100,000 signatures.

Mr. Van Roekel said the initiative has a good chance of succeeding. He noted the recent voter repeal of Ohio’s law limiting collective bargaining rights of public employees as proof that a major fight is brewing.

“It goes way beyond labor unions,” he said. “It was the people who said

Blue Jersey:: Occupy Education Reform #ows #edreform

Blue Jersey:: Occupy Education Reform:

Occupy Education Reform

by Jersey Jazzman

Cross-posted from Jersey Jazzman.

In America today, students who peacefully question the status quo can expect this:

Obviously, these kids never learned to conform, which demonstrates a failure of our public education system. Because schools are not supposed to produce critical thinkers capable of independent thought who can see past the corporate propaganda our media grinds out every second. No, schools are there to produce "21st Century workers" - people who are smart enough to do the work but not smart enough to challenge the system. Even our "liberal" president thinks so.

We need an education system that indoctrinates students to produce uniformity of thought. The best way to do this is to put all of our teaching emphasis on secretly designed and implemented standardized tests, whose sole function is to determine whether students' thoughts have been "standardized."

Remembering Mayor Harold Washington. « Fred Klonsky

Remembering Mayor Harold Washington. « Fred Klonsky:

Remembering Mayor Harold Washington.

by Fred Klonsky

Friday will mark the 24th year since Harold Washington died.

Harold was the first elected Black mayor of Chicago and its most progressive one.

By the way, you always called him “Harold.” It was no disrespect. In fact, he would always joke, “Everywhere you go, London, Paris, Rome or China, they will ask you the same thing: How’s Harold?” And he would break into his great grin and laugh.

Those born over the past quarter century may not know much about this great progressive politician. But there is much to learn from him.

As I said, he was the first African American elected as Chicago’s mayor. The Chicago Democratic Machine opposed him at every turn. The City’s legislative body, the City Council, was made up of a corrupt bunch led by

Art in the Ownership Society

Art in the Ownership Society:

Art in the Ownership Society

by Sam

If you’re looking for the latest signs of America’s cultural descent into inanity, look no further than this weekend’s Sunday Styles section in the New York Times, and its review of Maria Abramovic’s performance piece at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s recent fundraising gala.

What you’ll find is a double-dose of a certain kind of worship; on one hand, there’s Abramovic herself, whose willingness to serve as the evening’s “benevolent despot” stems from her own love of the power to make powerful people do her bidding amidst a surreal backdrop of human centerpieces, heads emerging through holes in tables, and mandatory white lab coats being donned by partygoers whose fancy outfits were intended to provide their own form of artistic expression. And then there’s the Times review itself, which is less about journalist Guy Trebay’s assessment of Abramovic’s ability to surface submerged truths through her art, and more about his own infatuation with the event’s outer trappings, from its 800 socialite and celebrity attendees to Abramovic’s “$1,500

Schools Matter: Tata and Tedesco's New High-Poverty Segregated Walnut Creek Elem. Bulging at the Seams

Schools Matter: Tata and Tedesco's New High-Poverty Segregated Walnut Creek Elem. Bulging at the Seams:

Tata and Tedesco's New High-Poverty Segregated Walnut Creek Elem. Bulging at the Seams

by Jim Horn

When the resegregationist Gang of Five was elected in Wake County, NC in 2009, they set about to dismantle the most successful socioeconomic school integration plan in the U. S. Fortunately, the voters of Wake County recently booted the Board Chair and three of his lieutenants, thus restoring sanity to educational decision making in Raleigh.

During the brief reign of the neo-racists, however, a new elementary school was completed to serve as the first full-scale return to segregated schooling in Wake County. At a price tag of $25 million, the new Walnut Creek Elementary was designed with a capacity of 780 children. On September 22 of this year, the enrollment was