Why We Need Common Core: A Parody - The Educator's PLN

Why We Need Common Core: A Parody - The Educator's PLN:

Why We Need Common Core: A Parody

• Added by Thomas Whitby on October 4, 2012 at 9:48am
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A parody on our current educational system...:)

Modern School: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Testing Kindergartners

Modern School: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Testing Kindergartners:

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Testing Kindergartners

by Michael Dunn

Kindergarten Entrance Exam (image from Flickr, by emrank)

It is already crazy how much we test high school students. In addition to the usual internal quizzes and exams used by teachers to assess whether their students are grasping the concepts and skills being taught in their classes, there are increasing numbers of high stakes standardized state and federal exams like No Child Left Behind and high school exit exams.

The teacher-initiated exams generally take up less than a class period and are a useful self-check of learning and teaching. The high stakes exams, on the other hand, take up days or weeks of instructional time and have little or no benefit to students or teachers. They are almost entirely a manifestation of right-wing paranoia that teachers are spending instructional time 

Thanking Teachers | Taking Note

Thanking Teachers | Taking Note:

Thanking Teachers

by John Merrow

Have you done so lately?

For those in the NY area: John will be speaking live with Merryl Tisch, the Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, on October 24th at the JCC in Manhattan (Upper West Side). You can purchase tickets here.

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The bumper sticker “If you can read this, thank a teacher” is a clever way of reminding us that teachers deserve our thanks. I agree and wish I had taken the time to thank Mr. Sullivan, my high school English teacher many years ago. He taught me that I had some ability and convinced me — after a long struggle — that it would be disgraceful, even sinful, to waste whatever talent I possessed.

I happened to mention my regret to one of my colleagues, producer Cat (neé Cathlin) McGrath, and a day or two later she shared a story with me. She had gone home that night determined to thank her special teacher, Mr. Roberts, who taught her in fourth grade. Through an internet search she learned that he is now a school superintendent in a Chicago suburb and that he had earned three advanced degrees, including his doctorate from Teachers College in New York City. Cat wrote to tell him that she still had a book he gave her, Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” signed with a lovely inscription. In her e-mail thank you note she told Mr. Roberts that she often read it to her young daughter.

It's so easy to reach out and say thanks to one of your favorite teachers. If you do, tweet us @lmtv and tell us how it went.

He responded immediately, as follows:

Daily Kos: Delusion and Negligence: The Two-Party System in the U.S.

Daily Kos: Delusion and Negligence: The Two-Party System in the U.S.:

Delusion and Negligence: The Two-Party System in the U.S.

byplthomasEdDFollow

 With Twitter, texting, and hundreds of cable stations surrounding me, my goal last night was a Herculean one: Avoid at all costs the waste that was the so-called presidential debates.

I've now crested the first half of a century and am sliding into whatever portion of the second half this existence allows me. On the other side of 50, I have vocally joined the late George Carlin in my public denouncing of both political parties, a problematic thing to do for someone associated with the Left. While we may have stereotyped (accurately) conservatives and Republicans as intolerant, few wraths are trumped by a Democrat/progressive scorned.

In the last few years, I have also come to recognize a joint failure between Democrat/Republican politics and the dichotomous educational leadership shared by traditionalists and progressives: The faux-debate between the delusional and the negligent (or as Ben Folds Five would call it, the battle of who could care less).

Delusion and Negligence: The Faux-Battle of Who Could Care Less

Let's Find Issues to Unite Around - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Let's Find Issues to Unite Around - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Let's Find Issues to Unite Around

by Deborah Meier

My Dear Pedro,
Actually, I was only responding to one paragraph of your Nation piece. It probably suggests disagreement, but hardly would lead me to conclude that you were anti-teacher or anti-union.
I may even be more open to closing large, failing schools than you—if we could do it as well as we did with Julia Richman High School in New York, with the union's support as we had there. But the way closing schools is now being used, we both agree, is as a tool on behalf of another agenda: privatization.
For a while I felt we were being paranoiac about claims that this was part of a conspiracy. But I have discovered that it really has been a conscious PLOT. Not, of course, for all the charters.
So what's my beef with that paragraph of yours, which said, among other things: "The teachers [in Chicago] have been bold in their denunciation of the high-stakes testing that has been used to rank students, schools, and now teachers. But they have been less clear about what should be done to promote change and improvement"?
I just don't know how much you can expect teachers' unions to do! They supported our Annenberg Challenge 

Obama and Romney debate: Guess who floated the far-left education idea?

Obama and Romney debate: Guess who floated the far-left education idea?:

The Far-Left Education Idea Floated in the Debate by ... Romney?

By Dana Goldstein

 | 

Posted Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, at 11:30 PM ET

Mitt Romney at the first presidential debate on Wednesday

Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

Mitt Romney has floated the most radical, furthest left idea currently in the mainstream education debate: to allow poor and disabled schoolchildren to move their federal education funding across district lines. Romney first outlined the idea in an education policy white paper he released in May, and he reiterated the proposal during the Wednesday debate.

Coming from a Republican, this is a big deal: Historically, affluent and white parents and school districts have gone to great lengths to keep poor, nonwhite kids out of their own kids’ classrooms. Those of us concerned about the resegregation of American schoolshave long advocated for more partnerships between urban and suburban districts, through magnet schools and voluntary busing programs. But this is typically understood as such a lefty proposition that not even the Democratic Party will embrace it. The Obama administration’s signature school reform program, Race to the Top, did nothing to encourage school integration or allow children to attend schools outside of their home districts—an important right, since many failing schools are located in districts where 

Learned Humanity « Cooperative Catalyst

Learned Humanity « Cooperative Catalyst:

Learned Humanity

by Jason Flom

While in DC a couple of weeks ago for the Bammy Awards I had the chance to tour the Holocaust Museum with a few colleagues. It was powerful, moving, and saddening. I left convinced more than ever that what we do matters, and matters mightily.

Wandering the beautifully and hauntingly constructed museum, the visceral taste of blind bigotry seared images 

Testing, Graduation, and the Numbers Behind Charter Schools in Chicago - The 312 - October 2012 - Chicago

Testing, Graduation, and the Numbers Behind Charter Schools in Chicago - The 312 - October 2012 - Chicago:

Testing, Graduation, and the Numbers Behind Charter Schools in Chicago

Posted October 3, 2012, at 4:36 p.m.

 

By Whet Moser

The Chicago teachers strike was settled relatively quickly, but it's almost certain that it was merely a preview of issues to come: school closings, pensions, and the expansion of charter schools, for example. Ben Joravsky has been writing about the last of these for awhile, and he takes another shot across the bow this week on what's certain to be a point of contention in the coming years.

There are 541 elementary schools in Chicago. Based on the composite ISAT scores for 2011—the last full set available—none of the top ten are charters. None of the top 20, 30, or 40 either.

In fact, you've got to go to 41 to find a charter. Take a bow, CICS Irving Park!

Most of the 49 charters on the list are clustered near the great middle, alongside most of their unionized neighborhood schools.

It's not that Joravsky is instinctively anti-charter; in a 2011 piece about how charters have the ability to kick out, flunk out, or lose students by attrition—failing students have to pay $140 for makeup courses 

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Why Is Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Trying To Buy Elections?

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Why Is Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Trying To Buy Elections?:

OP-ED | Why Is Failed DC Chancellor Michelle RheeTrying To Buy Elections?

Education reform was the major issue of the last legislative session. It took months of discussion among all stakeholders to ensure the legislation we passed would improve education for all children in Connecticut, not just a select few.

You know who wasn’t at the table for that discussion? Michelle Rhee. Two months into the legislative session, Rhee showed up with her anti-teacher organization, Students First, calling for reforms that have been found to be deeply flawed. When it became apparent that no one was interested in her faulty ideas, Rhee quickly formed a front group called Great New England Public Schools Alliance (GNEPSA) which spent over $800,000 trying to pass education reforms no one wanted.

Rhee lost but she didn’t go away. During the August democratic primary for the 19th State Senate seat, GNEPSA pumped more than $42,000 into independent expenditures in support of Tom Reynolds’ campaign against union president Cathy Osten.

Reynolds immediately responded: “I want to be clear that my campaign and I never 

We were the zinger we have been waiting for. « Fred Klonsky

We were the zinger we have been waiting for. « Fred Klonsky:

We were the zinger we have been waiting for.

by Fred Klonsky

We are in Union Pier for a few weeks, enjoying the Fall colors by the Lake. It is Eastern Time, so the debate started an hour later than in Chicago. That combined with the unrelieved boredom of the 90 minute exchange made keeping our ours open somewhat difficult.
We had been promised some zingers coming from Mitt.
Who would of thought that the zinger would come from Obama and aimed squarely at every teacher watching?
It was barely a few minutes into the debate that President Obama brought up Race to the Top as a positive 

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Ain't Too Proud to Beg? Parent/Teacher Communication!

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Ain't Too Proud to Beg? Parent/Teacher Communication!:

Ain't Too Proud to Beg? Parent/Teacher Communication!

by Lisa M

I attend the same church as one of  my students' parents. I know her mom very well.  After service she made, I guess what she thought was a joke, and said, "I have never had a teacher email the parents as much as you do! I asked my mom if you have a life?"
I didn't think it was funny.

I told her that I have a life, it doesn't take me that long to send an email, and that I had only sent three emails that month. I guess I answered a bit tersely because she hastened to let me know how much she appreciated the fact that I kept in touch with my parents.

On the other hand, at Open House a parent applauded the fact that I used technology to keep in touch with the 

solidaridad: First Community Based LAUSD District 2 Candidate Forum Announced

solidaridad: First Community Based LAUSD District 2 Candidate Forum Announced:

First Community Based LAUSD District 2 Candidate Forum Announced

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

I am honored to have been invited to this event and am looking forward to discussing critical education issues. Many thanks to the District 2 Neighborhood Coalition for organizing these forums.

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down"The idea of “choice” has been manipulated by the corporate reformers and spread by groups like ALEC, who seek to use methods such as the Parent Trigger to turn public schools over to privately-managed charters. This is not real choice; nor is it parent empowerment." — Parents Across America.
My commentary in response to: Gloria Romero: 'Parent Trigger' fight hits the big screen. First published onSchools Matter on 2012-10-04.

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The corporate charter trigger film is a shameful farce, and it isn't just film 

UPDATE: McKenna Speaks on Public Education Seattle Schools Community Forum: I-1240 Debate Featured in Tomorrow Night's Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: I-1240 Debate Featured in Tomorrow Night's Forum:

McKenna Speaks on Public Education

by Melissa Westbrook

Over at The Stranger Slog, they gave over several threads to the McKenna campaign to discuss various issues.  (This is incredibly generous of The Stranger and I give them full credit.)

Here's his education thread entitled "A New Direction for Washington's Public Schools" wherein he recites tired ed reform phrases and yet says absolutely nothing specific about what he would do.

He says this:

At the same time, we cannot spend more money on existing public school programs that are underperforming without first reforming them. Washington is regarded nationally as an education reform backwater, coming in near the bottom in the President's Race to the Top competition, and only one of handful that does not authorize charter schools. This failure is utterly unacceptable in a state which generally is considered innovative. We must learn from our failures, fix what is broken, promote competition, and move forward rapidly to catch up to, and then surpass, our sister states.

I-1240 Debate Featured in Tomorrow Night's Forum

by Melissa Westbrook

One of the wider-ranging discussions of I-1240 tomorrow night is sponsored by the League of Women Voters.  They are having a number of events and this one features 1240, R-74 (marriage equality) and the tax initiative.  I will be the speaker against 1240 and Tim Ceis, the former deputy mayor of Seattle under Nickels will be representing the yes side.

What is interesting is that the LWV has decided to devote nearly an hour to discussion of I-1240.  I was told that this is because it is a complex issue (and indeed it is).  So this should be interesting.

It will be taped so it will be available for viewing as well (I'll put a link afterwards).  

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the discussion of I-1240 up first at 7 p.m.

Seattle First Baptist Church

1111 Harvard Ave

Seattle

This Is What I Am Talking About with I-1240

by Melissa Westbrook

From Publicola, a thoughtful op-ed from former Thurston County legislator, Brendan Williams, on why he opposes I-1240 and the creation of a charter school system.    He has some choice lines like:

Our schools are inadequately funded because Washington has the most regressive tax system in the nation.

I-1240 is no grassroots movement: Thurston County, where I live, has accounted for just $40 of its funding.

How will charter schools not dilute soup that is already mere broth?

In Oregon, districts are looking to save schools by converting public schools to charters, paid for with federal grants and exempt from many state and district regulations. That’s survival, not innovation.

I-1240 is a social science experiment funded by the 1% that the 99% will ultimately pay for, and a distraction from real school funding issues.  

Schools Matter: ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

Schools Matter: ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down:

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"The idea of “choice” has been manipulated by the corporate reformers and spread by groups like ALEC, who seek to use methods such as the Parent Trigger to turn public schools over to privately-managed charters. This is not real choice; nor is it parent empowerment." — Parents Across America.
My commentary in response to: Gloria Romero: 'Parent Trigger' fight hits the big screen

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The corporate charter trigger film is a shameful farce, and it isn't just film critics that have realized that the Murdoch/Anschutz financed propaganda piece is a joke. Daniel Barnz's Won't Back Down holds the dubious distinction of having the WORST opening weekend for a wide release (2,500-plus screens) in the last 30 years. Audiences aren't interested 

NYC Educator: Skedula Sucks

NYC Educator: Skedula Sucks:

Skedula Sucks

by NYC Educator

In our school, we have a new system. It's new and very glitzy looking. And you can enter grades and attendance on it, if you dare. We used to have a system called Daedalus, with which we could look up student schedules, and phone numbers, and things like that. You can do that in Skedula too, with only a few more inconvenient steps.

Daedalus had a big calendar you could pull up and show to parents. All the cuts would show a sea of pink, if I recall correctly. It was a very dramatic thing to show a parent. Skedula does something, but not that. In my school, there are a lot of technophobic teachers. 

Modern School: Democracy is No Place for the People

Modern School: Democracy is No Place for the People:

Democracy is No Place for the People

by Michael Dunn

Americans love democracy so much that some will kill or attempt to harm those who they think oppose it.

(Image from Flickr, by dahnielson)

Yet what is it that they love so much?

If it is the notion that “The People” get make the social and political decisions that most impact their own lives, they are in love with a fantasy that has never existed. Democracy is about voting for others who get to make these decisions and almost always in the interests of the wealthiest subset of “The People.”

Yet even the part of democracy that does include “the people,” (e.g., voting or speaking at 

AFT prez sees best, worst in DPS, Dougco | EdNewsColorado

AFT prez sees best, worst in DPS, Dougco | EdNewsColorado:

AFT prez sees best, worst in DPS, Dougco

by Rebecca Jones

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, viewed her visit to Colorado on Wednesday as a kind of tale of two cities, with lots of Dickensian overtones.

AFT president Randi Weingarten and members of the Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals and Nutrition Service Employees, who helped design an incentive plan with the help of a union grant.

On the one hand, there was her lunchtime visit to Denver’s Cole Arts & Science Academy, where she met with members of the Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals and Nutrition Service Employees. The Denver union received an AFT Innovation Fund grant last year to create a model employee incentive pay program called “The 

'Parent trigger' law divides struggling school, community | California Watch

'Parent trigger' law divides struggling school, community | California Watch:

'Parent trigger' law divides struggling school, community

by Natasha Lindstrom

Anonymous

David Pardo/Victorville Daily Press Desert Trails Elementary School Principal David Mobley (left) receives 465 signatures representing nearly 70 percent of students at the Adelanto, Calif., school. The signatures are part of the state’s “parent trigger” law to force dramatic overhauls at underperforming schools. 

Doreen Diaz left the red carpet movie premiere of “Won’t Back Down” in New York City last week feeling encouraged.
But then the 47-year-old mom, a key figure in the education movement that “inspired” the feature film, headed back to the tiny desert city of Adelanto, Calif., and her tract home near Desert Trails Elementary School. That’s 

An Education: How Prop 32's Backers Have Tried to Ditch Public Schools | California Progress Report

An Education: How Prop 32's Backers Have Tried to Ditch Public Schools | California Progress Report:

An Education: How Prop 32's Backers Have Tried to Ditch Public Schools

by callen

By Matthew Fleischer
The billionaire backers of Proposition 32 are an eclectic bunch–from bow-tied Tory parodies like Charles Munger Jr., to Bible-thumping fire-breathers like Larry T. Smith, to old-fashioned oil tycoons like the Koch brothers. Over the years members of this crew have combined to push a number of conservative pet projects through the halls of Sacramento's Capitol - on every issue from stripping gay rights to dismantling environmental protections.
read more

Prop 31: Takes Away Funding From Schools, Doesn't Fix What's Broken in Sacramento

by callen

By Steve Maviglio
Just how flawed is the complex maze of new laws proposed by Proposition 31? It's so convoluted that even some of the people who helped put it on the November ballot are now opposed to it.
Several members of the California Forward Action Fund, which has spent $4.5 million so far in support of the initiative, resigned from the organization out of protest, saying the proposition "contains serious flaws" and "will further harm California."
read more

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: "A victory for students, communities and our profession"

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: "A victory for students, communities and our profession":

"A victory for students, communities and our profession"

by Mike Klonsky

CTU members voted 79.1 percent to accept the strike-won contract, which reportedly was the highest approval rating for any contract in the  CTU’s history. Of the 20,765 valid ballots submitted, 16,428 were for the new agreement and 4,337 were against it. More than 80 percent of CTU members voted on the contract.

CTU President Karen Lewis hailed the vote:

“This shows overwhelming recognition by our members that this contract represents a victory for students, communities and our profession. Our members are 

Gimme Some Truth

NEA to Expand STEM Teacher Training Program

NEA - Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM):

Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Leading the STEM Challenge

From the Huffington Post: NEA President Dennis Van Roekel

If the United States is to hold a competitive edge in a rapidly changing global workforce, bolstering the nation’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is essential.

The nation needs to connect students to jobs of the future by reengaging them in these important fields, says NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, and we must have the teachers to help get them there.

Watch the official announcement here: 

NEA - Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM):

STEM Resources, ideas and articles:

SMILE Website Offers 1,000s of Searchable Science & Math Lessons

Science Superhero Michelle Shearer

Gender Gap in STEM Fields Persist

Building 21st Century Skills

The 21st-century learner is here–is your classroom ready?