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Monday, April 16, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-16-12 AM Sneaky Michelle Rhee What’s a GNESPA? EDition #EDREFORM #CORPREFORM

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 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

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EducationSee all

A View of the Illinois Public Pension Dilemma, Pt. III

teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com - According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA), pension reform should not be the focus or the conversation. The dialogue s...
fklonsky

The Ongoing Sham of Teach for America: Part Two

education-radio.blogspot.com - Tania KappnerYou can download mp3's of the program here:Audioport (mp3)Internet Archive In this second of our two-part exploration of Teach for America, we'll explore TFA's larger goals and connec...
mikeklonsky

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

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 15, 2012 Courtyard Casa de Huespedes Cartagena, Colombia4:30 P.M. COTPRESIDENT SANTOS: (As interpreted.) Good afternoon to ...
coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Cannibalize the Future

nytimes.com - One general rule of modern politics is that the people who talk most about future generations — who go around solemnly declaring that we’re burdening our children with debt — are, in practice, the ...
mikeklonsky

The Fine Art of Starving the Beast

my.firedoglake.com - First they convince us that government borrowing is necessary to inhibit inflation. Then they max out the nation’s credit card, so the government can’t borrow any more. And then Grover starts filli...
coopmike48

EnvironmentSee all

Tepco’s Cheapskate Tactics Put World at Risk

dissidentvoice.org - Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. – Henry David Thoreau The system of nature, of which m...
mikeklonsky

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV: Going Green in BEX IVby Melissa WestbrookThe needs for BEX IV are considerable and complex.   But we have to hope that, moving forward, the d...
coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Share a Connected Experience. - The Educator's PLN

edupln.com - It's a great question Tom. The first time I clearly realized the power of being connected was learning about and winning the Discovery/CDWG $50,000 sweepstakes for my school. A Twitter colleague wo...
coopmike48

AdultSee all

#edreformRead this paperSee all

#corpreformSee all

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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How ducation sausage gets made: The story behind a reform story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

How ducation sausage gets made: The story behind a reform story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


How ducation sausage gets made: The story behind a reform story

By 
This was written by Jonathan Pelto, a former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives who now provides commentary on politics and public policy at his blog, “Wait, What?”, where this first appeared.
By Jonathan Pelto
When are conflicts of interest – conflicts of interests?
The Connecticut Mirror recently published a news story entitled “State Board criticizes revised education reform bill.”
It was a straightforward story about how the State Board of Education was joining other “Education Reform” advocates in blasting the changes the Legislature’s Education Committee made to Governor Malloy’s Senate Bill 24.
Speaking on behalf of the State Board of Education it quoted Allan Taylor (Chairman) Stefan Pryor (Commissioner) and board membe
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solidaridad: United Adult Students Meeting, April 21, 2012

solidaridad: United Adult Students Meeting, April 21, 2012:


United Adult Students Meeting, April 21, 2012

20120421 United Adult Students Meeting

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Posted by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene at 01:23 
Labels: , , , , , , 

¡No La Quieren Mónica García!

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
"When she needed us, to get to the position she's in, we were there for her. Now that we need her, she isn't helping us. We don't want Monica Garcia to keep her position...She is affecting the needs of our communities, our children and our families." — Enoe Terra (Parent and Adult Student)
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http://RecallMonicaGarcia.com
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solidaridad: ¡No La Quieren Mónica García!

solidaridad: ¡No La Quieren Mónica García!:


¡No La Quieren Mónica García!

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
"When she needed us, to get to the position she's in, we were there for her. Now that we need her, she isn't helping us. We don't want Monica Garcia to keep her position...She is affecting the needs of our communities, our children and our families." — Enoe Terra (Parent and Adult Student)
Popout
Learn More and Get Involved
http://RecallMonicaGarcia.com
twitter
facebook

United Adult Students Meeting, April 21, 2012

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
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ALEC Senators in the State of Washington and a Response from Senator Devlin | Seattle Education

ALEC Senators in the State of Washington and a Response from Senator Devlin | Seattle Education:


ALEC Senators in the State of Washington and a Response from Senator Devlin

by seattleducation2011
So far  Mars, Inc., the Arizona Public Service Company (Arizona’s largest electric utility), Kraft, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Intuit, and (almost) the Gates Foundation have parted ways with ALEC.
Even a legislator in Missouri publicly cut ties with ALEC. To follow is his statement:
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is not the innocuous, bipartisan organization it purports to be.  Their agenda is radical and wrong for Missouri.  I was a member and saw firsthand the sort of extreme legislation they push on state legislators around the country.
I disagree with ALEC’s extremist agenda and encourage my colleagues in the Missouri General Assembly to end their affiliations with the group.  If ALEC is too extreme for Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Kraft, Wendy’s, Intuit and the Gates Foundation, it’s too extreme for me and the people 
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Sacramento-area schools review racial imbalance of student suspensions - Education - The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento-area schools review racial imbalance of student suspensions - Education - The Sacramento Bee:


Sacramento-area schools review racial imbalance of student suspensions

By Diana Lambertand Phillip Reese
dlambert@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Apr. 16, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Apr. 16, 2012 - 12:23 am
Black students attending Folsom Cordova Unified schools were nearly five times as likely to be suspended as white students in the 2009-10 school year.
Sacramento City Unified, Natomas Unified, Twin Rivers Unified and Elk Grove Unified all suspended black students at a rate three times higher than they suspended white students that year.
Across the state, nearly one of every five African American students and one in 14 Latino students were suspended at least once in 2009-10, compared with one in 17 white students and one in 33 Asian American students, according to a report released last week from the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA.
The findings are part of a broader discussion about whether schools are suspending students to

1W16SUSPENDED.gif

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/16/4416403/sacramento-area-schools-review.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy
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NYC Educator: That Wacky Funster from New Jersey

NYC Educator: That Wacky Funster from New Jersey:


That Wacky Funster from New Jersey

by NYC Educator
Governor Chris Christie, though not a teacher by trade, has real class. You can tell, because he's brought hisALEC-inspired war on teachers straight to the classroom. It's one thing to attack teachers. That's pretty common, and has become pretty much as standard as no. 2 pencils. However, His Governorship has taken things a step further:

"There’s a lot of really great teachers in the state," said Christie. "But their union cares more about how much they get paid than they care about how well you learn."

That's why Jersey schools are short of supplies, according to Christie. It's so inconvenient for him to provide teachers with salaries that the only way he can make up for it is by pulling supplies from schools. Afte
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Beware the Education–Industrial Complex | LA Progressive

Beware the Education–Industrial Complex | LA Progressive:


Beware the Education–Industrial Complex

By 
ike Beware the Education–Industrial ComplexSometimes we can learn lessons from history–if we are paying attention.
In January 1961, as he completed his second and final term as President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower gave a farewell address to the nation. It was a remarkable and prescient speech in many ways, especially given that Eisenhower was a West Point graduate, a retired five-star general, a military hero in command of all Allied troops in Western Europe during World War II, and personally a very conservative man.
In the speech, Eisenhower warned the American people of the growing power of a “military-industrial complex,” an alliance of the military with defense contractors that he saw as a threat to democracy.
Democracy in the United States is now under a similar assault from an education-foundation-political-industrial complex. This complex takes many forms, but its primary goal is to shape state and federal educational policy in a way that maximizes private corporate profits.
What used to be called the not-for-profit sector has been virtually taken over by the complex. Non-profit no longer means non-profit. According to Dissent,“Hundreds of private philanthropies together spend almost $4 billion annually to support or transform K–12 education, most of it directed to schools that serve low-income 
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Our no-bid, win-win, Rahmadier

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Our no-bid, win-win, Rahmadier:


Our no-bid, win-win, Rahmadier

by Mike Klonsky
Marc Boucher, from left, Bombardier vice president of operations; CTA President Forrest Claypool; and Mayor Rahm Emanuel check out a new rail car in November. The cars were later taken out of service because of defects. (Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune / November 8, 2011)
When I was in D.C., an old Chicago friend asked me what Rahm Emanuel was up to back in Chi-Town. It took 
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Life in Rahm’s Chicago. $300 million no-bid contracts. « Fred Klonsky

Life in Rahm’s Chicago. $300 million no-bid contracts. « Fred Klonsky:


Life in Rahm’s Chicago. $300 million no-bid contracts.

by Fred Klonsky

Rahm takes us for a ride.
A hint on what Chicago’s mayor has in mind with his grand infrastructure rebuilding scheme can be found today in a Tribune story.
Shortly after taking office Rahm had secret talks with a company called Bombardier Transportation.

The talks over the public-private partnership continued for 10 months, “in 

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Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:


Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools

by Bob Sikes
January’s news that school districts would be ranked by FCAT data makes sense now doesn’t it? Ricks Scott and Gerard Robinson knew they could skew the numbers to make their charter schools look good. From Robinson of last week’s release of data which purports to demonstrate the superiority of charter schools:
“This report clearly demonstrates that charter schools are a viable option for parents,” said Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson. “Charter schools offer a wide range of educational environments to meet the needs of students and their families.”
Robinson long ago demonstrated he wasn’t going to be an honest broker when it came to charter schools. Last October  he said that a charter school’s past performance doesn’t matter and shouldn’t be a consideration when they apply to open another. He was a feature speaker at a charter school pep rally  held in Tallahassee during the last session. Desperate to create good news for his charter school allies, Robinson’s baked data  from schools who cherry-pick their students isn’t fooling many.
Miami-Dade officials questioned whether the new report had statistically significant results or fairly 
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HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED... ONCE YOU'VE BEEN MARKED FOR ELIMINATION - Perdaily.com

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED... ONCE YOU'VE BEEN MARKED FOR ELIMINATION by Mark Hemphill (¿Cómo se juega el juego ... Vez que haya sido marcados para la eliminación por Mark Hemphill) - Perdaily.com:


HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED... ONCE YOU'VE BEEN MARKED FOR ELIMINATION by Mark Hemphill (¿Cómo se juega el juego ... Vez que haya sido marcados para la eliminación por Mark Hemphill)

by Leonard Isenberg
Mafia.jpg
(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

If you've been reading the posts from perdaily.com over the past year or so, you doubtlessly know that Lenny Isenberg has written endlessly about the use of accusations and detention by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) as means to end the careers of veteran teachers at the top of the pay scale before they vest in lifetime health coverage.  He's also been diligent about reporting the lack of effective defense provided these teachers by the United Teachers of Los Angeles.  Most of these teachers crack under the pressure and never return to the classroom.  But a few do.

This the story of what happens to one of those who survived the gauntlet and made it back.
After having spent some months in detention courtesy of Local District 8. Valerie Moses, a director of 
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Jersey Jazzman: "Good" Schools or "Good" Students?

Jersey Jazzman: "Good" Schools or "Good" Students?:


"Good" Schools or "Good" Students?

by Duke
Well, this is depressing:
You won't find a call for school vouchers on Elizabeth Warren's campaign website. Education is listed first among the candidate's top priorities, but the website sticks to safe, poll tested platitudes calling for "good public schools, good public universities, and good technical training" as the key to a having a competitive workforce.
Yet in her 2003 book, The Two Income Trap, Warren and co-author Amelia Warren Tyagi cite the traditional public schools system, in which children are assigned to a school based on their residence, as a key source of economic pressure for families with children. Warren and Tyagi call for system-wide reforms to break the link between where a child lives and where they go to school, and specifically make the case for a fully-funded voucher program that would enable children to attend any public school. 
Is it too much to ask that we have just a few progressives advocate on the side of real reform? Or is everyone - 
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Missouri Education Watchdog: Arne Duncan's Educational Dashboard Which Measures Test Scores and Has Nothing to do with Authentic Learning.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Arne Duncan's Educational Dashboard Which Measures Test Scores and Has Nothing to do with Authentic Learning.:


Arne Duncan's Educational Dashboard Which Measures Test Scores and Has Nothing to do with Authentic Learning.

by stlgretchen


What's the difference between the student Longitudinal Data System linking the Department of Education data with the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services and Arne Duncan's newly announced"United States Education Dashboard"?

Not much.  From ed.gov:

The U.S. Department of Education today launched a new website that provides convenient and transparent access to key national and state education data, highlighting the progress being made across the country in every level of the education system and encouraging communities to engage in a conversation about their schools. The United States Education Dashboard, available athttp://dashboard.ed.gov, presents important indicators of whether the country is making progress toward the President's goal – that, by 2020, the United States will once again have the highest 
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