Chris Lehmann on educational colonialism | Dangerously Irrelevant

Chris Lehmann on educational colonialism | Dangerously Irrelevant:

Chris Lehmann on educational colonialism

by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

I am posting Chris Lehmann’s recent post almost in its entirety because it’s that important. Some pictures are below…

there are a lot of powerful folks right now who are advocating for a pedagogy that they do not want for their own children. Some of these powerful people are running networks of schools that have a pedagogical approach that is directly counter to the educational approach they pay for for their own children. Moreover, these same powerful people tend to get upset when asked about the disconnect, saying that that question is off limits.
I don’t think it is.
I think we should ask why people of power advocate for one thing for their own children and something else for other people’s children, especially when those other children come from a lower rung on the socio-economic scale or when those children come from traditionally disenfranchised members of our society. I think that’s a very dangerous thing not to question.
Because we’ve done this before in America, and when we did that to the Native Americans, it did 

Are Parent Trigger Laws a Good Idea?

Are Parent Trigger Laws a Good Idea?:

Are Parent Trigger Laws a Good Idea?

by Sam

It’s hard not to feel excited for the group of parents who successfully took over their California community’s school, and who now are dreaming of bigger things. “Our children will now get the education they deserve,” said Doreen Diaz, whose daughter attends Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto. “We are on the way to making a quality school for them, and there’s no way we will back down.”
It’s equally hard to feel confident that this story will have the ending Ms. Diaz and others envision. For starters, any proposed changes at the school won’t take place until 2013. What happens when the majority of parents who spearheaded the campaign move onto the local middle school? Will a majority of the parents who opposed the trigger seek to switch the school’s focus a second time? And with something as complex as creating a healthy school in an environment beset by poverty — 100% of the school’s students are eligible for the free lunch program — how can the members of this community become fluent around issues of teaching and learning to 

Schools Matter: Paul Toner and the TURNcoats

Schools Matter: Paul Toner and the TURNcoats:

Paul Toner and the TURNcoats

by Jim Horn

The other day one of my colleagues here in Massachusetts asked me if I knew that out in Ohio, where they have a Republican governor and legislature, teachers are about to be evaluated based on test scores.  When I responded that that was already a reality here in Massachusetts, she said flatly: When did that happen?

And so now are many teachers waking up and wondering, when did that happen, especially in the bluest of states, right?  This is the kind of stuff we 

Right wing takes aim at public education - Ted Frier - Open Salon

Right wing takes aim at public education - Ted Frier - Open Salon:

Right wing takes aim at public education

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How sad -- and suicidal - that conservatives have decided to declare open warfare on public education.

In a previous life, I played a minor role as speechwriter and special assistant to our state's Secretary of Education during the development and public roll out of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.

This landmark law, and many like it, passed during what was known as the "second wave" of education reform that came ashore in the wake of the wake-up call about America's failing public schools that was sounded by the Reagan-era report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983's A Nation at Risk.

The Massachusetts reform law was truly a bi-partisan accomplishment, hammered out between Republican Governor William F. Weld and the Democratic Legislature.

Governor Weld agreed to double the state's investment in local public schools 

Update: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH - 7-24-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

 

One School’s Secrets of Success

by dianerav

A  high school in the Bronx has figured out how to be high performing.
It’s not hard.
It pushes out kids with low test scores.
It expels them.
It works!
107 students started as freshmen,

A Dialogue with the Gates Foundation

by dianerav

Anthony Cody has emerged, in the eyes of many people, as a voice on behalf of the teaching profession.
This is quite amazing in itself because he is an experienced middle school science teacher in a high-poverty district, Oakland, California. He does not lead an organization. No one elected him. He has a regular blog that is hosted by Education Week. Last year, he was recognized by all as the driving force behind the Save Our School march in Washington. He is a leader because he speaks to the issues that concern teachers, and he is eloquent.
Anthony has just opened what he says will be a constructive dialogue with the Gates Foundation. Like many

Race to the Bottom with Cybercharters

by dianerav

In an effort to compete with the big for-profit online companies that take away their students and their state tuition money, school districts in Pennsylvania are considering the creation of their own cyber schools.
This shows the fallacy of competition and the bottom line.
It makes perfect economic sense to compete with K12 by opening another cybercharter.
It makes perfect economic sense to encourage your own students to stay home and learn online, because that

Arne Duncan Praises Tennessee and Race to the Top

by dianerav

Yesterday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had a story in the Huffington Post extolling his work in building respect for the teaching profession.
He has accomplished this, he says, by insisting that teachers be evaluated based on the test scores of their students.
Exhibit A of his success, he says, is Tennessee. Mr. Duncan relies on a report by Kevin Huffman, the state commissioner of education (former PR director for TFA, now employed by one of the nation’s most conservative 

What Do Parents in New York City Want Most?

by dianerav

Every year, as part of its customer service, the New York City Department of Education asks parents what they would like to see changed.
Every year since the question has been asked, parents have chosen as their top priority: Reducing class size.
In 2007, when the survey was initiated, the Mayor minimized parent concerns by lumping together all other choices as if they were one, to say that parents had many concerns.
This year, when the Department presented its slide show of the results, it left “class size” out of the slide.

About the “School of One”

by dianerav

One of the much-hyped new ideas of our time is the “School of One.” This is a new use of technology in the classroom.
It was declared a success in 2009 by Time magazine before it was ever implemented anywhere.
It was created by TFA alum, Broad-trained, ex-Edison, ex-NYC DOE executive Joel Rose and implemented on a

Is a Struggling School Like a Failed Restaurant?

by dianerav

Here is a blog that says that a school with low test scores is like a failed restaurant.
We know what happens when a restaurant fails.
It closes. It goes bankrupt. The hungry customers go somewhere else.
He is an entrepreneur who is now in the business of reforming schools.
Here is his analysis:
Struggling schools are like failed restaurants.  The kitchen staff are the educators. Maybe the chef is the chapter union leader.  The restaurant owner/manger is the school administration.  Customers are the kids.  And Eli Broad or one of the education agencies he funds is Gordon Ramsey.  He comes in with honest, straightforward observations, and tells you what’s going wrong.  Sometimes it’s the chef that’s the problem and 

A Personal Message from David Berliner

by dianerav

Yesterday, readers of this blog had a homework assignment. I asked  you to read David Berliner’s important article about education and inequality.
Today, I wish to share with you a letter that he wrote to a list of people who read the article. I am reprinting it with his permission.
I thought you  might want to read it because it contains an inspiring message.
Those of us who think that the current so-called reform movement is destructive of education values can take

K12 Has Found a New Market

by dianerav

K12 has found a new market. I wonder if the state reimbursement is higher to deliver online instruction to homebound children with special needs:

Ads by Google what’s this?

Special Needs: K12 K12 Provides The Support Children Deserve, w/ Free Books & Materials! www.K12.com/Florida My Blog Turns Three Months Old by dianerav I started this blog on April 24, three months ago. I began with the following entry: I decided to start my own blog because I was overusing Twitter and treating it as a miniblog, which it isn’t. My weekly blog at Bridging Differences is great fun for me, and I love the format of exchanging letters with Deborah Meier. That format creates a certain aura of informality and encourages me to speak freely in a non-academic tone, the way one speaks to a friend. So, I don’t know where this will go, and I don’t know if I will

NEWS FLASH: “It is not a conflict” says Malloy school board appointee whose family “wins” half a million dollar contract. - Wait, What?

NEWS FLASH: “It is not a conflict” says Malloy school board appointee whose family “wins” half a million dollar contract. - Wait, What?:

NEWS FLASH: “It is not a conflict” says Malloy school board appointee whose family “wins” half a million dollar contract.

by jonpelto

Not a Conflict says Malloy school board appointee whose family company will get 60 of 130 new preschool slots in Bridgeport.

The Connecticut Post has picked up on the news that two daycare facilities that are personally connected to one of the Malloy Administration’s seven appointees to Bridgeport’s illegal board of education has “won” nearly half of all the new preschool slots the state is funding in Bridgeport.

According to the CT Post, “Nearly half of the new preschool slots awarded by the state to the city are going to a program that is part of the ministry of Rev. Kenneth Moales Jr., a 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Teacher unions will be a key issue at SOS Convention

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Teacher unions will be a key issue at SOS Convention:

Teacher unions will be a key issue at SOS Convention

by Mike Klonsky

For those readers who don't know, I have spent much of the past year as an elected National Steering Committee member of SOS. It has been a difficult but rewarding experience helping guide SOS's development and transition from an ad hoc group of last year's march organizers into a viable national organization. In the remaining 10 days leading up to the SOS Convention in D.C., I will try and post some thoughts about key issues, challenges, and possibilities facing this emerging organization.

At this year's meeting, I am co-chairing a panel of teacher union activists, followed by a workshop on labor issues. Up until now SOS's stand toward and relationship with teacher unions and organized labor has been only vaguely defined and has been a 

What’s missing from congressional hearing on teachers - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

What’s missing from congressional hearing on teachers - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

What’s missing from congressional hearing on teachers

By Valerie Strauss

Congressional hearings are supposed to provide lawmakers wth information they need to make policy and legislative decisions. But sometimes, when you look at the witness lists, it is hard to figure out why legislators bother to hold them.

Take the hearing being held on Tuesday by the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, chaired by Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter from California. It is called “Education Reforms: Discussing the Value of Alternative Teacher Certification Programs.”

The official media release on the hearing lets you know that the 

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Burned-Out? Please Reignite the Flame Or Get Out the Kitchen!

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Burned-Out? Please Reignite the Flame Or Get Out the Kitchen!:

Burned-Out? Please Reignite the Flame Or Get Out the Kitchen!

by Lisa M

Usually what happens on Linkedin, stays on Linkedin, but this discussion topic warranted a post.  A teacher started a discussion regarding 50+ educators and survival tips. Many, many 50+ educators responded with wonderful, positive, ideas and comments about what they do in order to "survive" teaching. As a matter of fact, the responses weren't even those of educators who are just "surviving". Most of the teachers who responded, like me, are still passionate about teaching.

Somewhere along the line of reading the comments, one of the comments really bothered me, and this was my general response:

I think, as a teacher, when you reach the point where you can't stand your job, you should find 

The Legacy of Sally Ride, the First American Woman in Space - Education - GOOD

The Legacy of Sally Ride, the First American Woman in Space - Education - GOOD:

The Legacy of Sally Ride, the First American Woman in Space

by Liz Dwyer

In 1983 every American woman who'd ever been told that she wasn't good at science, technology, engineering, or math cheered as Sally Ride broke the astronautical glass ceiling with her journey aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride, who died on Monday at the age of 61 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, will forever be known as the first American woman in space. That's more notable than what most of us will ever accomplish in our lives, but Ride's legacy extends beyond what she achieved as an astronaut.
Ride surely faced countless obstacles along the way to that shuttle because of her gender. Nearly 30 years after her historic trip into space, girls are still too often discouraged from studying STEM and only 25 percent of jobs 

THE DEFECTIVE 2007 LAUSD PAYROLL SYSTEM IS STILL A THREAT TO YOUR RETIREMENT - Perdaily.com

THE DEFECTIVE 2007 LAUSD PAYROLL SYSTEM IS STILL A THREAT TO YOUR RETIREMENT - Perdaily.com:

THE DEFECTIVE 2007 LAUSD PAYROLL SYSTEM IS STILL A THREAT TO YOUR RETIREMENT

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

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

For some time now it has been the unexpressed goal of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to curtail its operating costs by reducing teaching staff. Of course, not so for administrators but rather the opposite. But by far their preference for departing teachers lies among the veterans. They're the ones drawing the highest salaries. They're the ones closing in on lifetime benefits while in retirement. They're the ones nearing their twenty fifth year of service which would qualify them for retirement payments for life 

Judge: Parents can’t rescind “parent trigger” signatures « Parents Across America

Judge: Parents can’t rescind “parent trigger” signatures « Parents Across America:

Judge: Parents can’t rescind “parent trigger” signatures

by CarolineSF

The parent trigger, an idea presented by the voices of corporate education “reform” as parent “empowerment,” won a round in court this week. Ironically, the court came down firmly in favor of disempowering parents, as the parent trigger’s sponsors had requested.

The ruling by a California Superior Court judge decreed that parents who have signed a parent trigger petition do not have the right to change their minds and may not rescind their signatures. The ruling cast the future of the targeted school, Desert Trails in Adelanto, in Southern California’s high desert, into confusion. The strangest part of the story is that charter operators will now be invited to bid for the school, even though Desert Trails parents on both sides of the controversy say they don’t want the school to become a charter — disempowering them even further.

California’s so-called parent trigger law was presented as allowing parents to take over 

NYC Educator: To Be an Activist

NYC Educator: To Be an Activist:

To Be an Activist

by NYC Educator

If you wish to join Unity Caucus, and participate in leadership decisions, you have to agree to support all Unity/ UFT decisions. One of those decisions, in 2002 and again in 2009, was to support mayoral control. Many of us are painfully aware of what that entails--afake school board called the PEP that rubber stamps absolutely anything our billionaire mayor desires.

In 2002 many members had reservations about giving all that power to any one person. I know I did. Giuliani had always tried to get that sort of control, but he was always pursing insane lawsuits, like the one to bring him mistress into the home he shared with his wife and young children, and no one took him seriously. Bloomberg, much smarter than his predecessor, made 

Are we leaving LGBTQ and Pansexual students behind? « Cooperative Catalyst

Are we leaving LGBTQ and Pansexual students behind? « Cooperative Catalyst:

Are we leaving LGBTQ and Pansexual students behind?

by Jabreel Chisley

Youth deserve the right to be educated, to educate, to be empowered, and to empower, regardless of their sexual, racial, religious, or ethnical identities. Youth deserve the right to feel safe and protected in an environment that lets them be themselves without any fear of intimidation or unchecked ignorance. While the US has come a long way in ensuring that those rights are protected, especially in the areas of racial and ethnical inclusion we still have a long way to go in providing children the right to be LGBTQ or Pansexual and to practice the religions that matches their ideologies.
However, youth that are LGBTQ or Pansexual are amongst the group of that much concerned should be geared toward. These youth, faced with rampant homelessness, parental abandonment, psychological abuse from adults and peers, and sometimes-physical abuse coupled with weak understanding of laws like McKinney Vento are youth that we risk leaving behind in a system that waits for no one. This risk grows when the academic 

Blue Jersey:: Cerf, Fulop, & Jersey City: What Went Down?

Blue Jersey:: Cerf, Fulop, & Jersey City: What Went Down?:

Cerf, Fulop, & Jersey City: What Went Down?

by Jersey Jazzman

The Hudson Reporter is publishing more details about a "confidential" meeting between Jersey City councilman and mayoral candidate Stephen Fulop, members of the JC Board of Education, and ACTING NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf.Some background: Jersey City schools are under partial state control. Two days ago, the Reporter published the contents of an email Fulop send titled "Cerf meeting." Among those invited to the meeting were two members of the board of education; two members-elect; Shelley Skinner, later to become Deputy Director of B4K, the 

A Letter About My View on the Common Core Learning Standards [Because "Shut Up" Isn't Clear Enough] | The Jose Vilson

A Letter About My View on the Common Core Learning Standards [Because "Shut Up" Isn't Clear Enough] | The Jose Vilson:

A Letter About My View on the Common Core Learning Standards [Because "Shut Up" Isn't Clear Enough]

by Jose

Dear Reader,
Frankly, this post shouldn’t matter.
I’m a classroom teacher first and foremost, and am often in situations where I can readily embody what most of my colleagues believe about education and the teachers’ role in education reform. It’s a privilege at times to rub elbows with union leaders, well-known activists, and other thought leaders and sharpen those elbows when their ideas go astray from my person beliefs. I have enough integrity that I can sit in the same room with someone with an opposing view without jumping across the table and threatening to choke the other person out. Or at least threatening to occupy their spaces on first breath.
All this to say that I don’t actually have an opinion on the Common Core Learning Standards, yet.
A year or two ago, I posted a couple of crosswalk documents from the New York State Math Standards to the 

A new project, on childhood asthma - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

A new project, on childhood asthma - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

A new project, on childhood asthma

Monday, July 23rd, 2012 at 6:30 pm in No Comments

Every so often, reporters have the luxury of stepping back from the routine of our daily beats and consider ways of doing work that is more ambitious, wider-reaching — to learn about what we’re not covering, but should be, or, maybe, a fresh take on an issue we’ve been following closely.
For me, that’s happening this week. Photographer Alison Yin and I are teaming up on a project for the Oakland Tribune about childhood asthma and air quality. We’ll be at USC for the next few days with other  journalists whose work is being supported by a National Health Journalism Fellowship.
The project, which the Tribune is also supporting, will explore the rising asthma rates among kids in the U.S. and its strong grip on parts of the Bay Area, particularly among African-American children. We want to look at the 

TEACHER DECISION MAKING – PRE CRISIS VS THE PRESENT « Teachers Fight Back

TEACHER DECISION MAKING – PRE CRISIS VS THE PRESENT « Teachers Fight Back:

TEACHER DECISION MAKING – PRE CRISIS VS THE PRESENT

by alkleen

A friend asked me what I thought was the biggest difference between teaching forty years ago and teaching today. There are many, but none more so than the fact that today’s teachers are solely responsible for the success of every child and yet have virtually no say in how to achieve that success.
Years ago most teachers devised their own curriculum, (I taught for 15 years before I ever heard of a curriculum director). Teachers were responsible for implementing their own goals and for selecting their own textbooks. Teachers were responsible for implementing their own discipline plans in their classroom, we never had to follow a school wide discipline plan.  Each teacher used their own motivational techniques based on the type of children they had in a given year. Teachers rarely “taught to the test” and achievement tests played only a mino

Miami-Dade Superintendent: “A Flawed Accountability System….That Needs Reform” | Scathing Purple Musings

Miami-Dade Superintendent: “A Flawed Accountability System….That Needs Reform” | Scathing Purple Musings:

Miami-Dade Superintendent: “A Flawed Accountability System….That Needs Reform”

by Bob Sikes

Influential Miami-Dade Superintendent of Schools Alberto Carvalho ripped into Florida’s entire accoutability system in an afternoon press conference today. Miami Herald reporters Laura Insensee and Michael Vasquez were there:

State education administrators, who are in charge of grading schools and students, failed to follow their own formula.
In fact, they forgot part of it.
The error means 48 schools in South Florida will get higher, revised grades: 31 in Miami-Dade and