School Tech Connect: The Lazy Lede

School Tech Connect: The Lazy Lede:

The Lazy Lede

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

I see this phrase more often than I care to:

That's from WBEZ's reporting on the press conference yesterday. I've also seen it on Chicago Tonight.

I think it would be reasonable for a reader to assume from that sentence that prior to 1995, the people of Chicago elected their school board directly, like they do in the suburbs and downstate.

The trouble is that it never happened, and I think it's a bit lazy to summarize the situation as its summarized in the example above. It's the sort of thing that lets very, very lazy alderpeople like Michele Smith believe they know 

NYC Educator: Those Who Can, Teach, Until They Don't

NYC Educator: Those Who Can, Teach, Until They Don't:

Those Who Can, Teach, Until They Don't

by Miss Eyre

I am doing some professional development this summer.  At one of these sessions, I heard from a professor at one of our city's great universities, who has done some work with high school students over the summer.  This gentleman was lovely and learned, and very respectful of and attuned to his audience, which was composed almost entirely of New York City high school teachers.  Nevertheless, I couldn't help but listen to this man's remarks and feel like a bit of a chump.

This gentleman was very proud of the work he did with his high school students, as well he should be.  His syllabus was rich and challenging; the samples of discussion we heard and writing we saw certainly looked rigorous and engaging.  And the students themselves were lively and focused.  All well and good.

This gentleman caps his class at fifteen students.  All fifteen of those students have to apply to his class. There are no grades, 

Are Florida Legislators Involved in Stalling Polk County’s At-Risk Charter Schools? | Scathing Purple Musings

Are Florida Legislators Involved in Stalling Polk County’s At-Risk Charter Schools? | Scathing Purple Musings:

Are Florida Legislators Involved in Stalling Polk County’s At-Risk Charter Schools?

by Bob Sikes

In what could turn out to be a bombshell story on Florida’s political battle over charter schools, Lakeland Ledger reporter Merissa Green writes that powerful Florida legislators may be stalling Polk counties desire to open its own charter schools to serve at-risk kids. Their reason is to get the business for one of their for-profit cronies:

BARTOW | Polk County School Board members were told this week there may be ulterior motives for the delay in permission to start the District’s at-risk charter schools.
Superintendent of Schools Sherrie Nickell said she was told by Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson there seems to be something “coloring the decision.”
Robinson was in Polk County on Monday to speak at the Tiger Bay of Polk County luncheon and at a Lakeland Chamber of Commerce forum at City Hall.

Dubious math on charter schools:

Dubious math on charter schools

By Lawrence F. Jones Jr. 

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During a recent School Reform Commission meeting, Commissioner Joseph Dworetzky decried the cost of independent charter school expansion under the Philadelphia School District's reform plan, saying district Renaissance Schools have been less costly. We at the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools disagree with the commissioner's math as well as his philosophy on education reform.

Dworetzky and others are overlooking the fact that the costs of any reforms have been exacerbated by the inability or refusal of previous commissioners to "rightsize" the district. This failure of governance has dragged the district into a fiscal hole. Ironically, as the current SRC strives to dig the district out of fiscal trouble and improve learning opportunities for children in all schools, critics continue to perpetuate the faulty thinking and math that brought about this condition.
Over the last six years, the Philadelphia School District's spending ballooned by $531 million, 

Times Higher Education - Speculation links Diane Ravitch's criticism of Romney with thinktank exit

Times Higher Education - Did partisan politics 'terminate' doyenne?:

Did partisan politics 'terminate' doyenne?

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26 July 2012

By Jon Marcus

Speculation links Diane Ravitch's criticism of Romney with thinktank exit. Jon Marcus writes

US politics has become so mean-spirited and polarised that not even the esoteric world of education policy scholarship appears to be safe.

So when Diane Ravitch, a high-profile research professor at New York University, was dismissed from her unpaid position as a fellow of the Brookings Institution thinktank after seven years, speculation quickly arose that her criticism of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was to blame.

Professor Ravitch described Mr Romney's education proposals as "a rehash of Republican education ideas" in a long contribution to The New York Review of Books blog. Just four hours after the blog was posted, she received an email from the Washington thinktank's director of 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-26-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

The Connecticut Watchdog for the Public Interest

by dianerav

A reader reminded me of a post by blogger Jonathan Pelto about Hartford, Connecticut, that shows how districts can “game the system” to meet testing target.
And that reminded me that Jon Pelto is someone you should know about. Subscribe to his blog if you want an insider’s view of education reform in Connecticut.
Pelto was a legislator for several years and cares passionately about public education. He knows how to follow the money and watches for conflict of interest and hidden lobbyists.
He has written many posts in opposition to Governor Dannel Malloy’s alliance with the hedge fund managers’

The Americanizing of English Schools?

by dianerav

This writer worries that American ideas are being imported to English schools.
The curious episode at the center of the article is the description of a conference about creating charter schools in the U.K., encouraged by the Conservative government’s Minister of Education Michael Gove:
To see where News Corp’s interest might lie, we can look to a conference organised by Gove’s department in January 2011. Gove had invited Gerald [Joel] Klein, who was then chancellor of the New York City Board of 

How to Educate the Public

by dianerav

Bruce Adams, a veteran teacher in Buffalo, New York, one of the poorest districts in the state, wrote these articles.
This one explores the Hollywood myth of the good teacher, the great teacher who takes students from basic math to advanced calculus in the course of a single year, implying that anyone could do it, if they are a great teacher.
This one shows how harmful is the practice of ranking schools from best-to-worst based on some external measure because it either reflects the socioeconomic status of the students and their family, or it encourages

Conservatives Debate Common Core Standards

by dianerav

Recently I published a comment by Jamie Gass of the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts explaining his opposition to the Common Core State Standards. I thought it was interesting as it showed the conservative argument against the Common Core.
The comment was originally part of an email exchange between Jamie Gass and Sol Stern of the Manhattan Institute, a New York City-based conservative think tank. Sol is an old friend of mine, who has been writing about education and politics for many years. Sol contacted me to say that I should have printed the entire exchange,

Whither Wisconsin?

by dianerav

Wisconsin’s leaders seem determined to degrade public education in the state. An earlier post described the expectation that the schools will produce a docile workforce. This one shows the overall plan to turn the educational system so that it meets the needs not of children, but the needs of industry.

Student Activists Take the Stage at SOS Webinar

by dianerav

A reader sent the following notice. I often correspond with Nikhil Goyal, whom I met on Twitter.
If these young people raise their voices and rally their peers, they can drive the conversation and stop the obsession with testing and the monetizing of schooling.
Please join the Webinar to talk to them and give them encouragement.
I am glad to see students participation in the education process because after all, it is THEIR future.  I believe the students in America’s schools deserve a much stronger voice in their own education.

What next for Brown’s school finance reform? | EdSource Today

What next for Brown’s school finance reform? | EdSource Today:

What next for Brown’s school finance reform?

July 26th, 2012 | Add a Comment |
By John Fensterwald

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A termed-out state senator who’s been a leader on education issues offered advice Wednesday to Gov. Jerry Brown on how to get the Legislature to pass significant school finance reform: Don’t try to jam lawmakers; ally yourself with a respected legislator who’s got more than a couple years left to serve; and implement the reforms gradually, for more buy-in from 1,000 districts that will be asking, “What’s in it for me?”

“Come back through policy process and seek someone (from the Legislature) with a runway in front of them, who can make a commitment over a period of time. That’s a better path to success,” Sen. Joe Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Alto, said at during a panel discussion in Sacramento sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California. Joining him were the architect of Brown’s weighted student formula, State Board of Education President Michael Kirst, and Catherine Lhamon, an advocate for disadvantaged children as director of impact litigation for the Public 

Bigger dashboards may not steer districts in right direction - by Charles Taylor Kerchner

by Charles Taylor Kerchner

Lately I’ve been doing some musing about educational dashboards, the displays that school districts and others are developing to provide quick indicators of success or failure. The iconography, of course, is derived from the dashboards in our automobiles, and we understand the self-correcting nature of those indicators. People who don’t heed the “tank empty” light frequently find themselves over...

School Tech Connect: After The Shipwreck

School Tech Connect: After The Shipwreck:

After The Shipwreck

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Meet Adrian Rosu, a teacher I met today who was furnishing some Romanian wisdom for the edification of the Board.

The arts are the plank after the shipwreck, that save us.
  --Constantin Brancusi



I know it matters very little what I think, but I need to point out that the reason Rahm felt he could just wave a magic wand on the longer school day is that there is segment of the 

Obama Executive Order Focuses On Black Educational Excellence | Resurgence | Big Think

Obama Executive Order Focuses On Black Educational Excellence | Resurgence | Big Think:

Obama Executive Order Focuses On Black Educational Excellence

Kris Broughton on July 26, 2012, 4:55 AM

After President Obama's announcement at the National Urban League conventionin New Orleans yesterday of his latest executive order establishing a new White House initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, all I can say is “WOW!” For me this announcement is serendipitous. A week ago, I was in New Orleans, seeing firsthand what my often woefully undereducated African American brethren were going through in a post-Katrina era. President Obama could not have picked a better place to make this announcement if he was looking for maximum symbolic impact.

From a political standpoint, this announcement gets a double WOW from me, 

Improving Black Education by Executive Order

President Obama will announce to the Urban League a new initiative aimed at black achievement.

• By: Michael E. Ross | Posted: July 25, 2012 at 3:20 PM

 

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(The Root) -- In an action certainly aimed at energizing his Democratic base, President Obama will announce today that he is signing an executive order specifically intended to improve educational opportunities for African-American students.

The president will announce the order Wednesday evening at theNational Urban League Conference in New Orleans. (Watch the live webcast at 7:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CDT.)

According to a senior administration official, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans will be a part of the Department of Education and will work with the president and Cabinet-level agencies "to identify evidence-based best practices to improve African-American students' achievement in school and college." It will also build a network of people, grassroots organizations and communities to share those practices.

In addition, the executive order creates a presidential commission on educational advancement for African-American students, with commission members advising the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on broad-stroke strategies meant to enhance educational opportunities for black Americans of all 

Missouri Education Watchdog: National School Board Association's Concern on Cost of Unfunded Federal Mandates is Valid: "We are Where We've Never Been Before"

Missouri Education Watchdog: National School Board Association's Concern on Cost of Unfunded Federal Mandates is Valid: "We are Where We've Never Been Before":

National School Board Association's Concern on Cost of Unfunded Federal Mandates is Valid: "We are Where We've Never Been Before"

by stlgretchen

Think local school district cost was bad four years ago? Just wait until you find out what those costs are now.       Graphic from http://freezethebudget.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/state-mandate-lollapalooza/

The National School Board Association's concern on local district spending was spot on:

The National School Board Association’s (NSBA) President C. Ed Massey, a member of the Boone County, Ky., school board, spoke to his local Rotary Club about the need to relieve local school systems from 

Geaux Teacher!: TESTED: WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS DON'T MAKE SENSE

Geaux Teacher!: TESTED: WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS DON'T MAKE SENSE:

RECALL BOBBY JINDAL REASON #3

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 7 hours ago

STUDENT VOICE - ZACK KOPPLIN

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 7 hours ago

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-la-halt-the-implementation-of-louisiana-s-creationist-voucher-program# 19 year-old student Zach Kopplin started this petition. Check it out. Zack testified Tuesday before the BESE board and offered research indicating that at least 20 of the approved voucher receiving parochial schools have replaced approved state science curriculum with creationism supported texts - thus making them ineligible under John White's own criteria for voucher approval. For further discussion about this issue see Diane Ravitch's blog and the comments that f... more »

ALEC BRIBES FOR LOUISIANA LEGISLATORS?

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 7 hours ago

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/07/11651/legislators-solicit-corporate-cash-attend-alec-utah-meeting Published on Center for Media and Democracy (http://www.prwatch.org) Home > Legislators Solicit Corporate Cash to Attend ALEC Utah Meeting -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEGISLATORS SOLICIT CASH TO ATTEND ALEC UTAH MEETING by Sara Jerving [1] — July 24, 2012 - 7:31am ] A letter from a Louisiana state representative asking a corporate representative for money is another example of the American Legislative Exchange Council [5] (ALEC)... more »

RECALL BOBBY JINDAL NOW REASON #2

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 8 hours ago

RECAL BOBBY JINDAL NOW REASON#1

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 8 hours ago

TESTED: WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS DON'T MAKE SENSE

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 9 hours ago

This graphic was provided by Accredited Online Colleges.com http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2012/standardized-testing/ *PLEASE PROVIDE ATTRIBUTION WITH THIS CONTENT* [image: standardized testing infographic]

90-DAY COMMENT PERIOD FOR VOUCHER ACCOUNTABILITY PROPOSAL

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 21 hours ago

*Tuesday’s vote sets in motion a 90-day comment period during which the public may suggest changes in the policy to BESE. After that period, the rules will become part of a department policy bulletin. People who wish to suggest changes can contact BESE at 225-342-5840.* This post by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers reveals a fact that completely passed my sphere of awareness at BESE's meeting during which they approved John White's new "accountability" proposal for voucher schools. Certainly proper procedure and process for BESE is often muddled and manipulated and this provisi...more »

NEGLIGENCE - BEGINS WITH BESE BUT ENDS IN THE CLASSROOM

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 22 hours ago

Personal experiences are the best way to convey the realities of life stories without the spin. My own personal experience mirrored that of the last teacher quoted in this story. The "reform" movement designed to aid and abet the privatization of public education continues to attack the teaching profession in order to achieve its goals of removing collective bargaining, moving public dollars into the private sector, and thus undermine the ability of citizens to participate in the control of their own schools and communities. Supt. White says that parents know best how their children... more »

Pension talking points. « Fred Klonsky

Pension talking points. « Fred Klonsky:

Pension talking points.

by Fred Klonsky

As we have battled for our pension rights over the past year, we have used the basic talking points provided by the IEA:

• Any changes to TRS must be constitutional.
• Any changes must bring financial stability to the system.
• Any changes must be fair to members.

These have been good. But not enough as we head into an August House session in Springfield and a veto session of the General Assembly following the November election.
Following discussions with many TRS members around the state, let me suggest these:

• We reject any plan that treats this as a benefit problem. It is a revenue problem.
• The attack on benefits will have serious consequences for the economy of the state. A cut to TRS 

21st Century PLNs for School Leaders | Connected Principals

21st Century PLNs for School Leaders | Connected Principals:

21st Century PLNs for School Leaders

by George Couros

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by krossbow
I have to admit that I was pretty excited to write my first post for the Edutopia group that has a great list of educators sharing some of their best practices.  I wanted to share the piece in my own learning space, but you can see the original article posted on the Edutopia site.
As many school administrators are enjoying their summer break, we all tend to think of ways that we can make

Getting Started with Informal Classroom Walkthroughs

by jjohnson

Of all the things I have to do each day as a principal, my favorite “task” is getting into classrooms each day to see what students are learning. I actually don’t see it as a “task” of something I “have to do,” in fact I prefer it over all the other things that are on my necessary list of to-do’s (like the stack of paperwork!)  I am very passionate on this topic and believe it is every principal’s responsibility to be in classrooms. While I could write an entire book on this topic (and hopefully will someday) this post will just be some simple tips to get started.

It is very common for a new administrator to follow an administrator that was not in classrooms, which can make it awkward for the teachers and students that are not used to this practice. Or maybe you as an administrator have never really been in classrooms and have decided that you are going to start. If you just enter the classroom without doing some initial introduction of this, you will likely end up disrupting a class. Either the 

Florida Legislative Candidates Assail Education Cuts; Urge Testing Reforms | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Legislative Candidates Assail Education Cuts; Urge Testing Reforms | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida Legislative Candidates Assail Education Cuts; Urge Testing Reforms

by Bob Sikes

From Orlando Sentinel reporter John Busdecker:

More than any other issue discussed at Wednesday’s “Florida’s People, Florida’s Promise” forum for legislative candidates, it was education that dominated the conversation.
Several of the 16 candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — who spoke called for increased funding of public education and the need to reform the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
“I think we are tremendously overtesting our kids,” said John Bush, a Republican running in House District 28, which covers most of eastern Seminole County.
For more than three hours at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, an audience of more than 150 

LAUSD IS NOT ALONE IN THEIR MILITANT AND DESTRUCTIVE IGNORANCE - Perdaily.com

LAUSD IS NOT ALONE IN THEIR MILITANT AND DESTRUCTIVE IGNORANCE - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD IS NOT ALONE IN THEIR MILITANT AND DESTRUCTIVE IGNORANCE

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I know it's not Halloween yet, but If you want to get a scary vision of the confederacy of dunces that seems to be fungible in public school districts throughout this state and the country, check out belowDr. Mary Sieu, Deputy Superintendent in Cerritos of the ABC Unified School. When asked in the following video (and others