StoryCorps: Join StoryCorps. Thank a Teacher on November 25! #edreform

StoryCorps: Join StoryCorps. Thank a Teacher on November 25!:

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Join StoryCorps. Thank a Teacher on November 25!

Is there a teacher who changed your life?

This Friday, November 25, marks StoryCorps' 4th annual National Day of Listening, and we are asking everyone to take a moment to thank the teacher who made all the difference.

It only takes a few minutes. You can write a dedication post on Facebook (@storycorps), send a "thank you" Tweet (#thankateacher), record a video tribute, send an email, call--whatever works for you. It's that simple!

NPR and StoryCorps will Retweet some memorable posts, so be sure to shine a spotlight on your favorite teacher November 25!

Here at StoryCorps, we thanked our favorite teachers too. Check it out!

Daily Kos: 99.9 versus .1 - Krugman explains the top 1/1000th #ows

Daily Kos: 99.9 versus .1 - Krugman explains the top 1/1000th:

99.9 versus .1 - Krugman explains the top 1/1000th

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

His column is titled We are the 99.9% and it is very much worth your time. As he writes, according to a CBO report which only examines data up to 2005 (and it has gotten worse)

between 1979 and 2005 the inflation-adjusted, after-tax income of Americans in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. The equivalent number for the richest 0.1 percent rose 400 percent.

And if we look at Capital Gains taxes, currently at only 15%,

taxes on capital gains are much lower than they were in 1979 — and the richest one-thousandth of Americans account for half of all income from capital gains.

Given this history, Krugman asks a very basic question, why do Republicans advocate further tax cuts for the very rich even as they warn about deficits and demand drastic cuts in social insurance programs?

Please keep reading.

Democrats divided over re-election support for Mayor Kevin Johnson - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com

Democrats divided over re-election support for Mayor Kevin Johnson - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com:

Democrats divided over re-election support for Mayor Kevin Johnson

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By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

Last Modified: Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 - 6:35 am

Kevin Johnson faces a political puzzle in his bid for re-election.

As he seeks a second term as Sacramento mayor, Johnson has accumulated the support of some of the most recognizable politicians in California's Democratic establishment – names like Brown, Steinberg, Pérez, Feinstein, Lockyer, Harris and Newsom.

But what still eludes Johnson is the support of Sacramento's major Democratic organizations.

What's more, the mayor's campaign is not counting on the support of some of the area's most

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/25/4078969/democrats-divided-over-re-election.html#ixzz1ejEdQAFo

Thank you, Mr. B! - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Thank you, Mr. B! - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Thank you, Mr. B!

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, November 24th, 2011 at 7:37 pm in teachers.

by thanker212, via flickr.com/creativecommons

This morning on NPR, there was a show (I tuned in late, but I think it was this segment on “Talk of the Nation”) dedicated to thanking a teacher who had made a difference in your life.

I thought of my sixth-grade English teacher, Mr. Belloumini, a quirky man who rarely stayed on topic and loved to tell long, circuitous stories. But Mr. B was the one who made me see writing as something other than a formula or a set of rules, who guided me through my first real short story and my first poem. I might have

Should value-added models account for poverty? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Should value-added models account for poverty? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Should value-added models account for poverty?

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by Sarah Garland and produced by The Hechinger Report, a non-profit, non-partisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University. This post underscores strong disagreement over value-added methods of evaluating teachers, which use student standardized test scores to assess educators. The controversy is deep enough to give pause to anyone who thinks these formulas are acceptable to use in a high-stakes fashion to evaluate anybody.

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Schooling in the Ownership Society: 'Virtual' schools #ows

Schooling in the Ownership Society: 'Virtual' schools:

'Virtual' schools

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 2 minutes ago

The Nation reports: *If the national movement to “reform” public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of “virtual schools”—charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet—as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.* *From Idaho to Indiana to Florida, recently passed laws will radically reshape the face of education in America, shifting the responsibility of teaching generations of Ame... more »

THANKSGIVING ON WALL STREET

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 14 minutes ago

Bradley Foundation: Sugar daddy for racism and right-wing school reform

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 4 days ago

Mike De SistiFrom its headquarters at 1241 N. Franklin Place on Milwaukee's lower east side, the low-profile Bradley Foundation gives away millions of dollars every year, acting like a venture capital fund for conservative ideas.Yesterday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carries a feature on the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.The Bradleys were the main source of support for Gov. Walker's assault on Wisconsin's teachers and public employee unions. Indiana's T-Party Gov. Mitch Daniels sat on Bradley's board of directors. His teacher-bashing, anti-union school "reform" initiative was ... more »

Charter schools: public in form but private in essence

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 6 days ago

** *"With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ‘I want a custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my neighbor, to pay for it.’ ”* -- Matthew Stewart, resident of upscale Millburn, N.J. There was no question about the early charter schools being public. An outgrowth of the small schools movement, these schools, usually a small number within urban school districts, were started and run by teachers who were all members of the local teachers union. The idea was to empower collaborative groups of teachers with innovative ideas about classroom practic... more »

How Zuckerberg's money is being spent

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 2 weeks ago

According to this story in the Newark Star-Ledger, records obtained by the Education Law Center in Newark show that of the first $13 million spent out of the total $148 million donated, about a third has been been spent since September 2010 to pay political and educational consultants and contractors. There's plenty to go around, especially if you're friends with Mayor Booker or Ed Commissioner Chris Cerf. The pass-through is called the Foundation for Newark's Future. Here's who's on the board (don't laugh).

More on Imagine charters, Inc.

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 2 weeks ago

This from WaPo's Valerie Strauss:* * *Essentially, Imagine sells its buildings to a company that leases them back to Imagine, which pays extremely high rent with public dollars. The paper reported that Imagine’s 2010 annual report shows that revenue grew to $265 million that year from $95 million in 2006. Furthermore, students in Imagine schools in St. Louis performed worse this year on standardized tests than practically any other school in the city. Now, Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro is urging Missouri Baptist University to close the six Imagine charters that it s... more »

Are union-bashing charter reformers sobering up?

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 2 weeks ago

NYT's *Joe Nocera *("Teaching With the Enemy") says *Steven Brill* was shocked when AFT prez *Randi Weingarten* held a book party for him at her home. To tell you the truth, I was too. But the real story Nocera tells is about Brill's own attitude adjustment while researching his virulent union-bashing book, ultimately leading him to make a u-turn and actually nominate Weingarten to become Mayor Bloomberg's next schools chancellor. *As most reviews have noted, however, as “Class Warfare” nears its conclusion, it suddenly veers in a different direction. Instead of bashing the union a... more »

Imagine, Inc.: Operating horrible charter schools for fun and profit

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 2 weeks ago

St. Louis charter school building has been sold and resold for 10 times original price. Skeptical educators often ask me how it is possible to make a profit from operating a charter school. Here's one way. *Imagine Schools Inc., the nation's largest charter school operator, runs six charter schools in St. Louis. Together, their performance on state standardized exams is worse than any school district in Missouri. Nevertheless, those schools are generating millions of dollars for Imagine and a Kansas City-based real estate investment company through real estate arrangements ultimat... more »

Chancellor Katehi Claims Her Police Force Disobeyed Her; So Why Is She Still Chancellor? | MyFDL #ows

Chancellor Katehi Claims Her Police Force Disobeyed Her; So Why Is She Still Chancellor? | MyFDL:

Chancellor Katehi Claims Her Police Force Disobeyed Her; So Why Is She Still Chancellor?

by Teddy Partridge

Linda Katehi (photo: The National Academy of Sciences)

Linda Katehi claimed in a wide-ranging Sacramento Bee interview — in her office in the still-closed-to-the-public Administration Building — that her own police force no longer respects her authority. The UC/Davis Chancellor and global handmaiden to authoritarians made the best arguments for her own swift removal. Using the royal “we” to describe the orders she gave her militarized police force, Katehi showed that her authority and leadership are hollow:

“We told the police to remove the tents or the equipment,” Katehi said in an interview with The Bee

Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale at Kaplan Test Prep!!!! | Dailycensored.com

Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale at Kaplan Test Prep!!!! | Dailycensored.com:

Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale at Kaplan Test Prep!!!!

Written by Danny WeilEducation, LifestyleNov 24, 2011

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For those that didn’t know it, the Washington Post’sblood bank, Kaplan, does not just run a for-profit diploma mill they call a privatized ‘university’; they also have three other vampire subsidiaries that fall under ‘education’ and that comprise their Kaplan educational business. Educational sales by Kaplan make up 62% of the Post revenues. Newspaper publishing, television broadcasting and other for-profit endeavors make up the remaining 38%. Without Kaplan the Post would be relegated to fish wrap.

The university side of the Kaplan syndicate is run by Kaplan Higher Education. Kaplan Higher Education is a group of institutions that offer classroom and online certificate and degree programs in fields such as criminal justice, health