Other People’s Children

Other People’s Children:

Other People’s Children

by Sam

Last week, CNN reported on recent events in Garfield Heights, Ohio, where austerity measures have led local school officials to shorten the schoolday to five hours, get rid of subjects like art, music, and PE — and send kids home before lunch.

What didn’t come out during the piece was that these drastic decisions were fueled in part by the community’s refusal, over a 20 year period, to pass a levy that would help support the schools. Like many places across the country, Garfield Heights’ residents were getting older, its younger people were moving away, and those that remained didn’t see sufficient value in a measure that would be used to support the education of other people’s

Letter from an IDEA Mother « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues

Letter from an IDEA Mother « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues:

Letter from an IDEA Mother

Posted on January 22, 2012

0

Rate This

Below are two e-mails I received from a mother whose child attends an IDEA elementary school. I am using her letter with permission. I have changed the gender of the child to neutral language and redacted certain information to protect her identity. Also, I typically do not use unsolicited, unverifiable emails. However, this person provided her name and place of employment which I was able to verify independently. Now, this person may be using someone’s name other than her own, but given the length and the repeated e-mails, that is a whole lot of trouble. So, I believe the letters to be true. I could be wrong.

I put both emails into this post. The first one sounds like any parent with a child struggling in any school. I have been in a similar situation myself. The second one is more alarming. I’ll share more

TRR INVESTIGATES: Is the Privacy of the American Student at Risk? | The Revered Review

TRR INVESTIGATES: Is the Privacy of the American Student at Risk? | The Revered Review:

TRR INVESTIGATES: Is The Privacy Of The American Student At Risk?

JANUARY 22, 2012 6:23 AM

School: A place where children learn to read and write. A place where they learn mathematics, science and history. Moreover, a place, away from home, where children are supposed to be safe.

Yet now it’s a place, across the country, where children’s hearts are being monitored, their activities are being tracked, and it’s being determined if students are obese or overweight. In addition, health risk assessments are being made on students and the information can be stored or saved as a PDF file.

In this physical education class, students are training using spin bicycles. However, in many schools, students are using Polar monitors in physical education classes. (Photo Credit: MJMonty)

Some students across the country, including in many small towns—are now wearing heart rate monitors and activity monitors—sometimes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—as part of their schools’ phys ed programs. The New York Post reported that

Diane Ravitch Rocks Sacramento

Statement by the President on Roe v. Wade Anniversary | The White House

Statement by the President on Roe v. Wade Anniversary | The White House:

Statement by the President on Roe v. Wade Anniversary

As we mark the 39^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue- no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.

Oakland schools try new way of placing teachers:

Oakland schools try new way of placing teachers

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, January 22, 2012

---

Print

E-mail

Share

Comments (109)

Font | Size:

---

22

Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

Marian Marx works with her kindergarten students at Garfield Elementary School in Oakland, where she was placed after going through the district's proposed interview placement process "mutual matching."

IMAGES

View Larger Images

MORE BAY AREA NEWS

• Parolee pleads no contest in Hillsborough slaying 01.22.12
• Six hurt in shooting at Antioch "sweet 16" party 01.22.12
• Your Lucky Numbers 01.22.12

In the world outside public education, people apply for a job they want, interview with their potential boss, compete against other applicants and are ultimately selected if they look like a good fit for the position.

It doesn't work that way in public education.

In schools, teachers do all the normal things to get hired, but when it comes to placement, seniority is what counts, not the perfect fit. The teacher with the longest tenure in a district gets first dibs on any available job at a school, with the principal - the school's boss - getting little or no input.

School district officials in Oakland want to change that, believing that it's in the best interests of students

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/21/MNRF1MRMTU.DTL#ixzz1kD6BrmWq

Black leaders to SC gov: You're a minority, too - Boston.com

Black leaders to SC gov: You're a minority, too - Boston.com:

Black leaders to SC gov: You're a minority, too

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2011 file photo, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks in Charleston, S.C. Civil rights leaders in South Carolina are taking a new tactic to fight the governor's support of law requiring voters to show identification at the poll. "Your governor, a woman of color, could not vote before ’65,” Rev. Jesse Jackson recently said to a crowd at a historically black college, referencing the 1965 Civil Rights Act. "She got the right to vote with the rest of us." (AP Photo/Alice Keeney, File)

By Jeffrey Collins

Associated Press / January 22, 2012

• E-mail|
• Print|
• Comments (0)

Text size – +

• 

  0
• 0
• ShareThisNew

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Civil rights leaders bothered by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's stance on issues like requiring voters to show their IDs at the polls are reminding the governor that she is a minority, too.

"She couldn't vote before 1965, just as I couldn't," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, referring to the Voting Rights Act that abolished poll taxes, literacy tests and other ways whites across the Deep South kept minorities from voting.

Jackson and other critics have said the law is merely a new, covert effort to take away the right to vote from older blacks and poor people, groups who historically tend to vote for Democrats and are less likely to have a driver's license or other

NCLB Blamed for Ruining Teen Oral Sex « Jay P. Greene's Blog

NCLB Blamed for Ruining Teen Oral Sex « Jay P. Greene's Blog:

NCLB Blamed for Ruining Teen Oral Sex

HT to Sara Mead for finding this incredible piece of research. It is written in a language other than English, but if I remember how to translate properly stupid BS, this study appears to be claiming that an emphasis on individual academic achievement in school “crowds out” “the pleasure, choice, and mutuality” of teen fellatio and replaces it with an emphasis on “competence and skill usually associated with achievement and schooling.” They know this from interviews with 98 girls between the ages of 12 and 17.

Here’s the abstract:

Young women’s narratives of their sexual experiences occur amid conflicting cultural discourses
of risk, abstinence, and moral panic. Yet young women, as social actors, find ways to make meaning of their
experiences through narrative. In this study, we focused

Engaging Parents In School… - Parent “Academies”

Engaging Parents In School… - Parent “Academies”:

Parent “Academies”

by Larry Ferlazzo

The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an article about a series of “PTA School Smarts Parent Academies” that are being held at a local school and others around the state. The President of the California PTA also has written a column about this effort.

I’m sure it’s a good experience for the parents involved, but it again raises concerns in my mind about how these kinds of parent academies/universities are run and their purpose. As I’ve written in Some Of These “Parent

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky:

Sunday links.

by Fred Klonsky

Romney campaign rally just prior to Saturday’s vote.

Professor Mark Naison says “data driven instruction” is just a euphemism for “teach to the test.”

“No bonus for me, thanks,” says NY teacher Arthur Goldstein in a column in the NY Daily News. Goldstein teaches ESL at Francis Lewis High School.

Pension Education’s vocabulary word of the week: Default. “We bought into the future, you know, and we purchased a good house in district during the height of the housing boom. Now, we have two children and we

Mother Crusader: Amir Khan Doesn't Want YOU to Have Local Control!

Mother Crusader: Amir Khan Doesn't Want YOU to Have Local Control!:

Amir Khan Doesn't Want YOU to Have Local Control!

by darciecima

Apparently the Khan's have not only been to Trenton to deny the LGBT community the right to marry, they have also made the trip to lobby the state to deny voters the right to control their school budgets and keep out unwanted charters. Like his.

It make perfect sense that he would be against local control.

The way the system is set up works so well for him and the other members of the Black Minister's Council, why wouldn't he defend how the state is running the show!

Check out this YouTube video, PK on 3852. Notice it's PK, not AK. This is coming to you from Pastor Khan,

School Tech Connect: Mark Carter at Crane Hearing

School Tech Connect: Mark Carter at Crane Hearing:

Mark Carter at Crane Hearing

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

"The blood of these children is on your hands."

Mark Carter

The firebrand Mark Carter spoke at the Crane phase-out hearing, bringing an entirely different tone to a meeting that was otherwise simply about a community that loves its school and wants it to stay open. Much has been written about Mark Carter, here, here,here, here, and interestingly, here. He spoke about the history of violence and murder that has resulted in the constant dispersal of CPS students into other neighborhoods.

Carter was escorted out of the auditorium by police and Malcom X security after his two minutes were up. Throughout the event, he was lobbing remarks to the CPS turnaround guy, Donald Frayne, a couple of which ("we're gonna turn you upside down") were right

Grumpy Educators: Florida Republican Primary Debate: Will there be a question on education reform?

Grumpy Educators: Florida Republican Primary Debate: Will there be a question on education reform?:

Florida Republican Primary Debate: Will there be a question on education reform?

by Sandra

On Monday, January 23, Brian Williams will be in charge of the MSNBC Florida Republican Primary debate from Tampa, Florida. So far, there has been zero questions on what the candidates positions are when it comes to education reform initiatives. Will that pattern of silence change?What is it that parents, community members, and taxpayers would like to know? Here is a Grumpy Educators short list

The Alarming Silence on the Remediation Levels Needed by Florida College Freshmen | Scathing Purple Musings

The Alarming Silence on the Remediation Levels Needed by Florida College Freshmen | Scathing Purple Musings:

The Alarming Silence on the Remediation Levels Needed by Florida College Freshmen

by Bob Sikes

Ocala Star-Banner editorial page editor, Brad Rogers correctly points out that the number of Florida freshmen who need some sort of remediation is the most crucial – and disturbing piece of education data that no one is talking about:

Over half of the incoming freshman at CF during the 2009-10 school year — 59 percent of them, to be exact — “needed some type of academic remediation to get them ready to take college-level courses.”

In other words, sure, our FCAT scores are up, most of our schools are grade “A” and our graduation rate is above 80 percent, but an awful lot of the kids graduating from Marion County Public Schools aren’t ready for the next level. They are not prepared for college, which is increasingly an educational imperative for a decent standard of living

Rogers ire is misplaced though, as he blames the Marion county school board for their cuts and spending

Weekly Update, January 20, 2012: Rent-a-preachers, teachers and a school that works | Seattle Education

Weekly Update, January 20, 2012: Rent-a-preachers, teachers and a school that works | Seattle Education:

Weekly Update, January 20, 2012: Rent-a-preachers, teachers and a school that works

by seattleducation2011

A lot has been gong on in the last two weeks nationally and I am now just getting caught up.

There is a lot going on in the state of Washington with Stand for Children, et al, trying to do an end run around the people by going directly to the state legislators to attempt to privatize out educational system. It worked in Wisconsin, as Jonah Edelman with Stand for Children proudly proclaimed in the video of him at the Aspen Institute so of course it will work in Washington, right? Well, that’s what he said would happen. He said that our state was next.

We’ll see. Stay tuned

In the meantime some very interesting events have been occurring around the country. One that I have to lead with today because it is so outrageous is Rahm Emanuel’s sleazy tactics in Chicago called the “Rent-a-

Blue Jersey:: Christie Caught In a Whopper

Blue Jersey:: Christie Caught In a Whopper:

Christie Caught In a Whopper by: Jersey Jazzman Sun Jan 22, 2012 at 09:55:30 AM EST

I'm sure you're all shocked to hear this, but a video just released this morning pretty much proves that Chris Christie lied at his town hall in Voorhees last week: That's right: Amir Khan - charter school founder, anti-marriage equity activist, and terrible speller - has been on the dais for TWO Christie "town halls." Khan says he's met with Christie "frequently." But when asked about Khan, Christie said, "I don't know who you're talkin'