Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Afternoon UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-8-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch


Advice from a Private School Teacher

Some people assume that private schools are inherently better than public schools.
Not really.
They select their students and remove those who don’t meet their demands.
One big advantage they have is they are free of meddling politicians.
This private school parent gives her views:


What He Learned by Studying the History of Education

David Lentini, a reader in Maine, comments (in response, I promise to do some instruction on this blog about the history of school reform, which has been an American pastime for over a century):
I started reading about the history of education reform in America about 10 years ago, when our national insanity was becoming too extensive to ignore under the reign of “W”.  Wondering how a country could boast both the most widely and extensively educated population in history and also have the greatest disdain—if not outright 



GERM Outbreak in Australia

Please read the latest news from Australia.
The Prime Minister Julia Gillard is obsessed with test scores.
She has a serious case of what Pasi Sahlberg of Finland has called GERM (the Global Education Reform Movement of testing, accountability, and choice).
She is disheartened that Australia is not number one on PISA.
She wants the children pushed, prodded, test-prepped, whatever it takes, until Australia moves up in the ratings 



The Most Segregated Big-City Districts in the Nation

Thanks to a reader for sending this story from the New York Times. It has a graph showing the most racially segregated big-city school districts in the United States.
The winner of this disgraceful award: Chicago.
Second place: Dallas
Third place: New York City
Fourth place: Philadelphia
Fifth place



Why The Chicago Teachers Union Deserves Support

http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2012/09/press-statement-on-chicago-teachers.html


Press Statement on Chicago Teachers Strike
Dr Mark Naison, Fordham University

The Chicago Teachers strike is an incredibly important development because it is a the first 



A Hero For Democracy

The public schools in several poor communities have been under state control for more than a decade, proving that state education departments don’t know how to run schools while obliterating democracy.
State Senator Ron Rice has called for a restoration of democratic control in Newark, Jersey City, and Patterson.
The state has been in control of Newark since 1995, Patterson since 1991, and Jersey City since 1989.
He has joined a coalition of local groups and clergy to call for an investigation of the state education department.



Why Texas Does Not Need Vouchers

Sara Stevenson, librarian at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, Texas, is a tenacious, fearless writer of letters and articles about education. She has been the kind of stand-up leader that every community and every school needs. Here is her latest.
                       The Texas GOP and Pro-Choice in Education
“If a students feels, a family feels they need a better opportunity,



Did Deval Patrick Sell Out to Profiteers?

A reader asks: did Deval Patrick sell out?
I feel ashamed for Deval.  I am one of his many, many progressive supporters, and we’re all baffled by how he got into this situation.  I worked harder for his election than I did even for Obama, and I never doubted his integrity or strength.  

Through all the vicious attacks on him during that first campaign, he stayed steady and clear. 



Florida Charters Slam the Door on Children with Disabilities

I missed this article when it was published several months ago.
It says that 86% of charters in Florida have no students with severe disabilities.
Thats not right.



A Hero Legislator for Public Schools

State Representative Reggie Fullwood is a hero for public education in Florida. He is encouraging the state board of education to select a state commissioner who will advocate for the state’s beleaguered public schools, not vouchers and rapacious charter entrepreneurs. He also wants a sane testing system that is not high stakes.



Common Core in Connecticut

Will it matter?
Common Core focuses on cognitive skills.
It neglects non-cognitive skills?
Can it succeed with a narrow focus?
Or do students need more?



What No Teacher Ever Said

Pithy sayings collected on Twitter by Larry Ferlazzo.
What no teacher ever said.



Non-Cognitive Skills Are Just As Important as Test Scores

I recently blogged a new study by economist Henry Levin about the crucial importance of non-cognitive skills.
What matters most? Persistence, motivation, reliability, team work, the ability to work well with others, 

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Cool Cat Teacher Blog:



Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 09/08/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 5 hours ago
- Context and the Calendar: An Introduction to Chronofencing Chronofencing is the principle of delivering contextually important information at the right time. It is like geofencing (triggers of contextual information at a location) but perhaps more useful. Learn to understand this term as it has important implications in education. For example, students can have triggers before leaving school reminding them what books to take home - or reminders of what to take to school - these time based reminders could be combined with location as with the... more »

Collaborative Writing in the Cloud: A collection of resources for writing teachers

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
I've begun work on the website companion to Collaborative Writing in the Cloud: An essential guidebook aligned with Common Core standards that will be published this winter. (The draft is due now.) I'm referencing some of these pages in the book and am asking for your help if you're involved in teaching writing, collaborative writing, or helping teachers. Right now, I've drafted the pages on Twitter hashtags, chats, and lists for writing teachers and also networks where teachers can join. You're invited! The next page I'll create will be open collaborative writing projects. Feel fre... more »

IdeaConnection: Open Innovation success story: Open Innovation: Goldcorp Challenge

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
"The Goldcorp Challenge was launched in March 2000 and 400 megabytes worth of data about the 55,000 acre site was placed on the company’s website. Everything that the company new about the Red Lake mine was a mouse click away. Word spread fast around the Internet and within a few weeks submissions came in from all over the world as more than 1,000 virtual prospectors chewed over the data." There were 100 sites identified, 50% of them unknown to the company based upon this data. Goldcorp became one of the most profitable in the industry. This is an example of open data and collaborat... more »

Tweak My Blogger: Hide Widgets/Gadgets

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
Some code to put items only on the homepage of your blogger blog. This code still has a few issues but I'm figuring out how to do it now. via Diigo http://www.tweakmyblogger.com/2010/07/hide-widgetsgadgets.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Blogging from iGoogle and Gmail - Blogger Help

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
This blogger post gadget scares me witless. I could see a student posting to cool Cat Teacher if I left my igoogle page unattended. Not happening here! ;-) via Diigo http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143415 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

LinkWithin - Install Widget on Blogger

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
Richard Byrne recommended the Link Within widget and I've installed it on my blogger blog. It recommends related posts. Cool tool. via Diigo http://www.linkwithin.com/install?platform=blogger&site_id=1173259&url=http%3A//coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/&email=coolcatteacher%40gmail.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

National Writing Project: National Community open to anyone #engchat

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
The National Writing Project (NWP) has a community open to anyone who is interested in writing. If you teach writing, you should consider joining this community. They also have a "Twibe" (for sharing tweets) that you can use to disseminate tweets on the topic of writing. They've always been on the forefront of writing and research. Great organization and some great conversations about common core as well. via Diigo http://connect.nwp.org/national This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

How to Hide or Remove Blogger Navbar at Digital Inspiration

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
via Diigo http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/12/disable-hide-blogger-navbar.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Cool Cat Teacher Comment Feed

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
via Diigo http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

How do I change my site feed settings?

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
via Diigo http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42662&query=comment%20feed&topic=&type=f This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

How to Hide Blogger Navbar in New Blogger Beta at Digital Inspiration

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
via Diigo http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-hide-blogger-navbar-in-new.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Blogger Tips and Tricks

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 6 hours ago
via Diigo http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-prepare-post-to-be-published-in.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Stinky cleats and stinky attitudes: both should be tossed

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 1 day ago
It is like cutting onions. One whiff of my son's football cleats and you're crying. It was so bad this week, my youngest son and I drove with the windows down and our heads out the window in a rainstorm because they were tossed in the backseat before we left school. Yesterday I was at my desk and I was like "oh my goodness, what is that?" Looking around for the dead rat, I looked behind my door and he had stored... you guessed it, the stinky cleats. Good glory, what's the story? So unsavory, why is this worth discussing? Because some people have stinky cleats for an attitude. Their... more »

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 09/07/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 1 day ago
- Amazon's new Kindles: Everything you need to know (FAQ) | Tablets - CNET Reviews Lots of Kindle options now including the new Kindle paperwhite are shared in this rundown post from cnet - the best I found today on the topic. eBooks are here to stay. Textbook companies can wake up or be left in the wake of an epaper revolution that is shredding the traditional book publishing industry. We've yet to see a great interactive textbook but that is coming. tags: news education ebook - Grandparents Day! | Cyber Seniors Documentary... more »

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 09/07/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 1 day ago
- Amazon's new Kindles: Everything you need to know (FAQ) | Tablets - CNET Reviews Lots of Kindle options now including the new Kindle paperwhite are shared in this rundown post from cnet - the best I found today on the topic. eBooks are here to stay. Textbook companies can wake up or be left in the wake of an epaper revolution that is shredding the traditional book publishing industry. We've yet to see a great interactive textbook but that is coming. tags: news education ebook - Grandparents Day! | Cyber Seniors Documentary... more »

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 09/06/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 1 day ago
- WALLS 360 BLOG » Periodic Table Wall Graphics from Yiying Lu. Plus FREE Periodic Table Design Downloads! Free periodic table downloads with QR codes to use in your classroom. tags: education teaching qrcode - Grandparents Day For Grandparent's Day, this organization is asking people to committe to do something grand. Here are some ideas. tags: education grandparents teaching lessonplans grandparentsday - Cyber-Seniors Corner - YouTube Here's the Cyber Seniors corner where Grandparents teach others how t... more »

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 09/05/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 2 days ago
- SocietyOfDigitalAgencies I'm an Adobe Education leader and just found out about this competition. "The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) http://societyofdigitalagencies.org/ and Adobe wish to throw out a challenge your students so they might show their creative flair by submitting their best HTML animation work using Adobe Edge Animate. The competition is called the HTML5-Off Challenge! Registration cut off is Oct 20 and the work submission cut off is Nov 9. In the short term students will be required to use Edge Preview offered (f... more »

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 09/05/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 3 days ago
- New Research Finds Most Top Torrents Are Monitored Most torrent sites like Bit Torrent are logged and your ip address is being tracked.Best advice, don't try to download things for free that aren't supposed to be free. Be wary, wise, and share it with your students. tags: news privacy security - September Lesson plans aligned with Common Core Lesson planning sites are proliferating. Here's a set of 135 lessons all relating to events in September aligned with Common Core from Sharemylesson.com. Plan ahead. (You can also upl... more »

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 09/04/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 3 days ago
- 2012 Back-to-School Bulletin Board Contest A pinterest based bulletin board contest where you can win prizes for the most "likes" and "pins" for your bulletin board. Some of you will be interested in this because I've seen your amazing boards on Pinterest. tags: education pinterest teaching contest Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Most Popular Posts of August 2012: Cool Cat Teacher Blog

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - 5 days ago
[image: lesson plans from 1979] We've come a long way on our lesson plans - Look at this one from 1979 (Photo credit: Fuschia Foot) August was a busy month with many of us heading back to school. Looking over my stats for this blog, I thought you might want to see the hottest posts of the month for your weekend reading: 1. 50 Teaching and Lesson Plans that Rock 2. QR Code Classroom Implementation Guide 3. 15 Fantastic Ways to Use Flipboard 4. 89 Lesson Plans and Ideas for Teaching Math 5. 10 Ways to Be a Terrible Teacher 6. 62 Ideas, Lesson and Humor for Engli... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Local School Districts and States Don't Set School Policies...They're Controlled by the White House.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Local School Districts and States Don't Set School Policies...They're Controlled by the White House.:


Local School Districts and States Don't Set School Policies...They're Controlled by the White House.


"The ultimate outcome of Obama’s education scheme will actually be economic: a sweeping redistribution of suburban education funding to the cities".



At the link is an article by Stanley Kurtz about how your local and state school boards are useless in the educational direction of the school you support with your local taxes.

Should the White House control what your kids learn?, adapted from "Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, Kurtz not only raises the question of not onlySHOULD the White House control what your kids learn, he also explains:
  •  HOW the White House is controlling what your kids learn 

Schools Matter: A Former KIPP Teacher Shares Her Story

Schools Matter: A Former KIPP Teacher Shares Her Story:


A Former KIPP Teacher Shares Her Story

A Former KIPP Teacher Shares Her Story
Jim Horn

Ever since KIPP students were recruited to do a skit at the National Republican Convention in 2000, KIPP has been the darling of venture philanthropists, Wall Street hedge funds, corporate donors like the Fisher family (of Gap fame), and corporate foundations, including the Gates and Walton Foundations.  Hundreds of millions of dollars have poured in to the KIPP home office in San Francisco, and tens of millions more are raised each year to support a charter chain that claims to have found the solution to urban schooling, a solution that entirely ignores the exploded lives and oppressive conditions of the people living in 

New York Principals Fight Continues

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 13 hours ago
From Sean Feeney and Carol Burris: We thank you for your support and would like to provide you with an update on activities since the end of the 2011-12 school year. As always, the most recent version of the APPR Position paper (with all signatures) is available at: http://www.newyorkprincipals.org/appr-paper. Given that the paper with signatures is over 140 pages long, we have also created a separate link for the four-page paper alone. As of the beginning of this new school year, over 1500 New York State principals have signed the letter: that's nearly one-third of all principals i... more »

Weingarten Patrolling the Web to Urge Patience for Obama/Gates Agenda

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
This morning Mark Naison posted a thoughtful response to the President's corporate kowtowing and hope-turned-hype speechifying, and who else besides AFT's own CEO, Randi Weingarten, quickly responded with this: Mark- I normally agree w/ you-and as you know even in our endorsement of the President we specifically raised our concerns w/ the national policy's fixation with testing. What I don't get is when the President and the party promotes a platform that at least sounds like they are listening, why not give him the benefit of the doubt. You are so right ant teachers being demoralize... more »

More Tests Don't Make Children Better Prepared for Life or College

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
From the Chalkface, by Tim Slekar September 6, 2012 by slekar Today, in the *Morning Call *(A newspaper in the Lehigh Valley) an article ran detailing the roll out of the new Keystone exams that 11th graders will be required to take in Pennsylvania this academic year. Students will be required to take Keystones (High Stakes Standardized Tests) in Algebra, Literature, and Biology. Great. New tests to replace the old tests. And why has Pennsylvania decided to get new high stakes tests? According to the spokesman for the Pennsylvania DOE Tim Eller, “We have heard from the higher ed... more »

Bloggers Beware: The Online Bedbugs Want to Hitch a Ride

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 2 days ago
The fat bedbugs that run the online diploma mill business are unrelenting. They write lengthy friendly comments to blog posts, and just underneath some of the verbiage, they attach their swollen transparent red blood-filled carcasses in hopes that some unsuspecting reader will take their links home. That is how their blood-sucking infestations spread, and once victims have given them an opening, it is too late. Another trick they use on bloggers is to write emails inviting themselves to write articles for your blog on, who knows, how to be happy when covered with bedbugs, or ho... more »

A Child-Centered Nation (Hint: Not the U.S.)

P. L. Thomas at Schools Matter - 2 days ago
Those of us who are decades into our careers as educators and educational scholars/historians are likely more than exhausted by and deeply skeptical of (if not cynical about) international comparisons. More often than not, international comparisons connected to U.S. public education are oversimplified at best and unforgivably misleading at worst, but our exhaustion, skepticism, and cynicism must be tempered when international comparisons offer authentic and complex evidence of how entire nations are committed to child well-being through their social and educational commitments—espec... more »

Orlando Sentinel reporter responds to a letter I submitted about Pre-K testing but that wasn’t published. I answer back.

skrashen at Schools Matter - 2 days ago
On the Orlando Sentinel Education blog, Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal responded to a letter to the editor of the Sentinel that I submitted but that wasn’t published, at least not yet. Her post is below and also at: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2012/09/fls-new-pre-k-test-set-to-debut-amid-some-complaints.html/comment-page-1#comment-5344 Since Postal did not provide readers with a link to my letter, here it is: Stop treating 4 and 5 year olds like children Sent to the Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 5 Pre-K testing is a step in the right direction (“Time for another ... more »

Rehire Professor Mandeloni

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 2 days ago
From UOO: On June 7th, 2012, we posted the following: This week United Opt Out National stands in solidarity with the UMass teacher educators and the sixty-sevenstudent teachers at UMass Amherst School of Education who together chose toboycott the Teacher Performance Assessment field test via Pearson. Barbara Madeloni, lecturer at UMass and one of the teacher educators who joined the boycott, has recently been told that her contract will not be renewed. Today we share an interview with Barbara Madeloni as she shares her views on the TPA, Common Core and education activism. *The res... more »

Stop treating 4 and 5 year olds like children

skrashen at Schools Matter - 3 days ago
Sent to the Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 5 Pre-K testing is a step in the right direction (“Time for another test — this one for 180,000 pre-K children,” Sept. 3). Required (not “voluntary”) testing is what we need to toughen up pre-school, and make sure it includes a full dose of pre-phonics (phonemic awareness) and math. We should require all children to know the alphabet and be able to spell their names as a condition for entering kindergarten. And let's insist that parents properly prepare their children for pre-school. There is no hope for the US is to compete internationally if we c... more »

Stop treating 4 and 5 year olds like children

skrashen at Schools Matter - 3 days ago
Sent to the Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 5 Pre-K testing is a step in the right direction (“Time for another test — this one for 180,000 pre-K children,” Sept. 3). Required (not “voluntary”) testing is what we need to toughen up pre-school, and make sure it includes a full dose of pre-phonics (phonemic awareness) and math. We should require all children to know the alphabet and be able to spell their names as a condition for entering kindergarten. And let's insist that parents properly prepare their children for pre-school. There is no hope for the US is to compete internationally if we c... more »

Investors Seek to Profit from Privatization of Public Schools

Judy Rabin at Schools Matter - 1 week ago
From Real News Network

Jane Watson: "Doublethink" is alive and well

skrashen at Schools Matter - 1 week ago
Sent to Yakima Herald-Republic (WA) for "Saturday Soapbox" By Jane Watson August 31, 2012 “Doublethink” is alive and well. In 1948, George Orwell wrote 1984. “Big Brother is Watching You” was born. So was “doublethink,” the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. TVs watch YOU. Language is paradoxical. Less is more. War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. The organization Stand For Children endorses gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna and Charter Schools. Who doesn’t want to Stand For Children? Who wants C... more »

"Who else would title it?": Scripting Students to Death

P. L. Thomas at Schools Matter - 1 week ago
While it may seem to be little more than semantics to argue about whether teachers are the most important factor in student learning or teachers are the most important *in-school* factor in student learning, there is now little room to debate that how teachers are being mandated to treat students is inexcusable. The rise of "no excuses" assumptions and practices are creating charter and public schools that provide for "other people's children" a culture of shame, but we often fail to recognize as well that the last thirty years of accountability have created schooling as an endless ... more »

Judge allows more time for 'complex' charter school fraud case - Philly.com

Judge allows more time for 'complex' charter school fraud case - Philly.com:




Judge allows more time for 'complex' charter school fraud case

September 07, 2012|By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer

Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

A U.S. district judge has ruled that a fraud case against charter school mogul Dorothy June Brown and four codefendants is so complex that he will allow more time to begin the criminal trial.
In a decision signed Thursday, R. Barclay Surrick said that because of the multiple charges, number of defendants, and volume of evidence, additional time was needed so attorneys could prepare.
No trial date has been set.
The U.S. Attorney's Office had asked Surrick to designate the case as "complex" to allow more time. None of the defense attorneys opposed the government's motion.
Story continues below.