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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-15-12 PM - Wait, What? EDition #EDREFORM #CORPREFORM

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:
Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 6 news spotters today

- Wait, What?

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 15 jonpeltoEducation, Ethics, Malloy, Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst Education Reform, Malloy, Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst Perhaps in Michelle Rhee’s world our Connecticut laws are “more of what...
DianeRavitch

Letters: Testing, cybertheft, voter ID rules

chron.com - Sad testimony on testing There have been many articles and news reports over the past few months about the effects of standardized testing on schools in Texas. I am a ninth-grade student attending ...
DianeRavitch

Leaders of New Group Have an "Interest" in Education

huffingtonpost.com - Few people define themselves as being a member of a special interest. That term applies to the folks on the other side -- the people you disagree with. New Yorkers got more evidence of that this mo...
DianeRavitch

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@coopmike48/big-edu-ape-news-11

leoniehaimson profile
leoniehaimson Paul Farhi on so-called 'Failing Schools' On The Media -goo.gl/hrQ9V wish he'd discussed@educationnation like goo.gl/EWN6958 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
leoniehaimson profile
leoniehaimson Chris Cerrone: why I'm opting my son out of standardized tests; they are harming pub education Buffalo News - goo.gl/OsOgE56 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
leoniehaimson profile
leoniehaimson What’s a GNESPA? - cover name for Students 1st CT? News -goo.gl/JgC9t52 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Flunking the Test  | American Journalism Review

ajr.org - The American education system has never been better, several important measures show. But you’d never know that from reading overheated media reports about “failing” schools and enthusiastic pieces...
leoniehaimson

SocietySee all

Racist past haunts Florida town where Trayvon died

articles.chicagotribune.com - (Roberto Gonzalez, Getty Images)April 08, 2012|Tom Brown | ReutersSANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - The year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African American to play...
mikeklonsky

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Daily Kos: Today is Pascha

dailykos.com - Aleut (Sugpiag): Kriiiiistuusaq Ungwektuq! Pichinuq Ungwektuq! Albanian (Tosk): Krishhti Unjall! Vertet Unjall! Anglo-Saxon: Crist aras! Crist sodhlice aras! Arabic: Al Maset'h ahm! Hat'em ahm! and...
coopmike48

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Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 14, 2012 Earlier today, in remarks at the Plenary Session of the 6th Summit of the Americas, President Obama highlighted hi...
coopmike48

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#edreformRead this paperSee all

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More Implications from NJ & MA for CT! « School Finance 101

schoolfinance101.wordpress.com - Recently, I responded to an absurd and downright disturbing Op-Ed by a Connecticut education reform organization that claimed that Connecticut needed to move quickly to adopt teacher evaluation/ten...
leoniehaimson

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV:


Going Green in BEX IV

by Melissa Westbrook
The needs for BEX IV are considerable and complex.   But we have to hope that, moving forward, the district does give a thought and an ear to more green building and sustainable buildings.  If we are spending so much on buildings, there should be thought to how to build more cheaply and create buildings that will have lower operating costs.

This is going on in districts in our surrounding areas.  One example is in Marysville where after a bond got approved in May 2007, they built their high school bigger (almost 100,000 square feet more) and yet experienced only a slight uptick in energy costs because of their building practices.  They are using a geothermal heating/cooling system that is expected to save almost $60k per year versus the conventional boiler/chiller system.  SPS is also installing some of these geothermal heating/cooling systems.

Also, Marysville used stained concrete floors (very much a new
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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Being Clear on the Real Issues around the Lowell Investigation

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Being Clear on the Real Issues around the Lowell Investigation:


Being Clear on the Real Issues around the Lowell Investigation

by Melissa Westbrook
I just wanted to make a couple of things clear on this issue and then move on.  I'm going to rely on the words from the Times' article of March 23, 2012 by Brian Rosenthal to make several points abundantly clear.

It is a very dangerous thing to have people in authority who have legal responsibilities then look away or shrug when behavior issues between staff and children are brought to their attention.  It is a danger to the accuser, the accused, the child(ren) and to our district.  Everyone needs protection and attention must be paid.

There are two huge reasons why this particular case is concerning.

One, we have past history - damning, troubling and ultimately, costly history - that this district has turned away from these kinds of investigations.  From the Times' article (bold/color mine):

The release of the report comes as district officials have recently acknowledged their current policy regarding 
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Okay Michelle Rhee – So you are the CEO of StudentsFirst BUT a lobbyist for GNEPSA?

Wait, What?:

Okay Michelle Rhee – So you are the CEO of StudentsFirst BUT a lobbyist for GNEPSA?


jonpeltoEducation, Ethics, Malloy, Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst , , ,  7 Comments




Perhaps in Michelle Rhee’s world our Connecticut laws are “more of what you call guidelines than actual rules.” 
Wait, What? readers now know that despite the plethora of Connecticut laws requiring honest and public disclosure when it comes to lobbying state officials, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst  organization failed to file any of the appropriate Connecticut forms or reports despite spending over $352,000 lobbying in Connecticut during February and March of this year.
The practical impact is that if someone went to the website of the Connecticut Office of Ethics and typed in StudentsFirst they would be under the false impression the Michelle Rhee and StudentsFirst were not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to prop up Governor Malloy’s “Education Reform” proposals.
Hold on…
Yes, it is true that seven staff members of StudentsFirst were registered to lobby in 
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Sneaky Michelle Rhee What’s a GNESPA? More Bait N Switch - Jonathan Kantrowitz - Connecticut News

What’s a GNESPA? - Jonathan Kantrowitz - Connecticut News:


Jonathan Kantrowitz

Jonathan Kantrowitz

Political activist, health nut
About Jonathan Kantrowitz

What’s a GNESPA?

April 15, 2012 at 4:17 pm by Jonathan Kantrowitz
As Jon Pelto details, here, it is a registered lobbyist in Connecticut.
But if it legally exists at all, it is clearly a cover front for Michelle Rhee’s StudentFirst.
In fact if you go to GNESPA’s website: www.GNEPSA.org the fiction is so transparent that you find yourself transported immediately to StudentFirst’s Connecticut website.
and on that website you will find the following TV ad, paid for not by GNESPA (anyone have any clue what the initials stand for?) but by StudentsFirst:
My guess: Got No Existence Special Purpose Association
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NYC Public School Parents: NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!

NYC Public School Parents: NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!:


NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!

by Leonie Haimson

As we have spoken out against high-stakes testing this year,after our family was first directly affected by it through our third-grade son,we have had the wonderful experience of connecting with like-minded parents inNew York and across the country who are also determined to put education backinto the hands of educators.
We have also heard from many teachers who, unlikeparents, are often under the direct threat of being fired for speaking outagainst run-away testing in our schools. We would like to put forward, with herpermission, the thoughts of one such teacher working in Brooklyn. What followsare her words, taken from our recent correspondence with her, with commentsfrom us interspersed in italics.
We wish this teacher’s experiences were unusual. Butincreasingly this is the norm in our public schools. Professional educatorsacross the country are being prevented from exercising their best professionaljudgment and are actually punished for responding to 
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