Living Through Loss | Maria Shriver | The Open Field Network

Living Through Loss | Maria Shriver | The Open Field Network:

Living Through Loss

By Maria Shriver

I appeared on the TODAY Show this morning to talk about loss and grief in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There are millions of people who woke up today with their own private grief and who are living through some kind of painful and personal loss -- whether it's the loss of a loved one, the loss of a livelihood or the loss of an entire way of life.

Isn't it true that we're all grieving in some way or another?

That's why I wrote yesterday that "compassion, empathy, gentleness, love and presence" is the most valuable gift we can give this holiday season.

When we are living with loss, we need time and a safe place to process our grief and 

A Connecticut parent’s letter to President Obama | Parents Across America

A Connecticut parent’s letter to President Obama | Parents Across America:

A Connecticut parent’s letter to President Obama

by pureparents

Parents Across America grieves with the community of Newtown, Connecticut over the loss of their precious children and educators. The following letter, sent yesterday to President Obama from the founder of Parents Across America-CT, expresses some aspects of what many of our members are feeling at this difficult time.

Hon. President Barack Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

As a public school parent of three in Stamford, Connecticut, I wanted to thank you for lending your support to the devastated community of Newtown. I listened intently to your remarks at the memorial service last night, especially to the questions you raised: “Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?”

You indicated that you were reflecting on these questions, alluding to the issue of gun control. I hope also, that these questions caused you also to reconsider your approach to education reform.

As you said last night, “our most important job is to give [children] what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear.” You described in vivid detail how skilled the 

NYC Public School Parents: Juan Pagan: Warning to NYC mayoral candidates about the personal damage done by closing schools

NYC Public School Parents: Juan Pagan: Warning to NYC mayoral candidates about the personal damage done by closing schools:

Juan Pagan: Warning to NYC mayoral candidates about the personal damage done by closing schools

by Leonie Haimson

A few weeks ago, there was an education rally at Harlem’s First Corinthian Baptist Church,  in whichspeaker after speaker explained why the next mayor MUST take a different direction and stop the juggernaut of school closings, co-locations, and budget cuts that are laying waste to the education of our 1.1 million public schoolchildren. But the most eloquent speech came from a parent leader named Juan Pagan, whose daughter attended Legacy HS, one of the schools that the DOE decided to phase out despite a spirited battle by its students, teachers and parents.   

 

Mayor Bloomberg has criticized parents like Juan who oppose the closing of their children's schools, saying they just don't understand the value of a good education.  Sadly, it is the mayor who doesn't understand the damage his agency has wreaked on thousands of NYC children.  Juan's observations about the lack of services and classes available to his daughter echo the observations made by teams sent by the State Education Department about other phase out schools, likeJamaica HS in Queens.  Here is Juan's speech:

photo credit: The NY Times

My name is Juan Pagan. I'm a single father of a teenage daughter. As any single parent can tell you, that's a tough job in 

New Political Terrain Holds Promise for California Schools | California Progress Report

New Political Terrain Holds Promise for California Schools | California Progress Report:

New Political Terrain Holds Promise for California Schools

Posted on 18 December 2012

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By Lisa Schiff

My daughter came home from school the other day frustrated and angry. She had been excited the evening before because she'd learned that having finished The Odyssey her ninth-grade English class was now going to tackle Beowolf. We discussed the different translations and decided to compare the version we had at home with the one her class was going to read once she got the book. The next night she handed me, with a gesture of disgust, a used double-sided photocopy of the classic; no "real" book, just a set of rather worn stapled pages.

Trying to be positive, I read a few passages and commented that the translation wasn't bad. But from her perspective the quality of the translation was secondary - the more important thing was that this wasn't really a book. Apparently there wasn't enough money in the school budget to buy a full set, so they had to read these passed-down copies instead. She understood the tight finances, but even so, she felt dismissed and unimportant. To her the message was that students didn't matter enough to make sure they had actual books to read.

All of us involved in supporting public education in California have maddening stories like these to share, stories that have provided much of the fuel to our work for gaining more resources for our classrooms. Such incidents provide the living detail to the well-worn saga of the decline of public school spending in California, a decline that for the 2010-2011 school year had our state ranked at 46th out of 50 in per-pupil spending.

What's Wrong With Standardized Tests? Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: What's Wrong With Standardized Tests?:

What's Wrong With Standardized Tests?

by Black Educator

Common Core Assessments: More Tests, But Not Much Better

Submitted by fairtest on September 10, 2012

Under No Child Left Behind, states set standards and developed assessments. NCLB’s failure to spur achievement or close achievement gaps led to unproven claims that national or “common” standards were the missing piece of the education puzzle. With millions in federal Race to the Top money and NCLB “waivers” as incentives, all but a few states have adopted the Common Core standards. Two multi-state consortia—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)—won federal grants to develop tests to measure the new standards. These tests will be in full use in the 2014-15 school year. Since most states have joined a consortium, it is important to understand what the new exams will mean for our schoolchildren.

More grades will be tested, with more testing per grade. NCLB triggered an unprecedented testing explosion (Guisbond, et al., 2012). The Common Core will compound the problem. SBAC (2012) and PARCC (2012) will continue mandatory annual English/language arts (ELA) and math testing in grades 3-8. In high 

What to Do About School Shootings - Bridging Differences - Education Week

What to Do About School Shootings - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

What To Do About School Shootings

by Pedro Noguera

Dear Deborah,
Like you and most people throughout the country, I am overwhelmed with sorrow over the shootings that occurred in Newtown, Conn., last Friday. Given the enormity of what has occurred I can't think of anything more important to write about now.
After a tragedy of this magnitude the questions we are all now pondering are: Why did this happen, and what can be done to prevent something like this from occurring again?
Our deep fear of course is that they can't be stopped, not with more police or tougher security measures, or even more restrictive gun control.
How do you stop a deranged killer determined to harm innocent people? This shooting wasn't rational. As far as we know, it wasn't carried out with a political motive. It is the very randomness of the act that confounds and 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-18-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

The Privatizing of San Antonio Schools

by dianerav

A big foundation in Texas is creating a $50 million fund to open 145 new charters for 80,000 children in San Antonio. The city already has one-quarter of its students in charters. One of the chains likeliest to grow there are Great Hearts, BASIS, KIPP, AND IDEA.
It seems that the goal is to create a privatized system of schools in San Antonio, with whatever public schools remain enrolling the kids the charters don’t want.

Teachers Are First Responders

by dianerav

Connecticut blogger and political consultant Jonathan Pelto points out that teachers are first responders.
He commends teachers for their daily dedication.
But he puts his reflections in the recent plague of teacher-bashing, which was in vogue until December 14. Pelto writes:
“….we’ve seen a growing trend in which politicians have used teachers as pawns or even scapegoats in a terrible game of political pandering and maneuvering. Unfair, inappropriate and mean-spirited verbal attacks on teachers and their unions have become commonplace.
“It wasn’t long ago that a Democratic state legislator in Rhode Island called teachers, “pigs at the public trough” 

Last night’s Twitter Kerfuffle

by dianerav

Last night I posted a tribute to “The Hero Teachers of Newtown,” briefly describing each of them , noting that they were members of a union, they were career educators, and that the attacks on career educators and unions should stop.
Shortly after, a TFA officer demanded on Twitter that I retract the post, calling it reprehensible.
I was baffled. The post made no reference to TFA.
Someone then wrote on the blog that I was casting aspersion on non-union teachers, which I was not. I was

In Defense of the Common Core Standards

by dianerav

Roz Linder is tired of reading uninformed rants against the Common Core standards. She says most of the comments come from people who have never read them.
she says that it would be a worthy exercise to read the Common Core standards as informational text before making unfounded claims about what they recommend.
You can find them here. Please read them.

Junk Science in Florida

by dianerav

This year, Florida rolled out its shiny new teacher evaluation program.
In Alachua County, a teacher of the year was rated unsatisfactory.
Officials realized there many errors, and they revised the scoring.
Now 99.5% of the county’s nearly 1,200 teachers are effective or highly effective.

Veteran Teacher in Pittsburgh: We Are the First First Responders

by dianerav

A veteran teacher in Pittsburgh explains what she does every day to serve and protect her students. She is a special education teacher.
Looking at the courage of the Newtown teachers, she sees in them the ethos that career educators share: we protect our students.
She writes: “Yet these same teachers are members of a profession that is increasingly being attacked for what we don’t do, for how much money we make, for how powerful some of our unions have come to be. After the dreadful tragedy in Newtown, it is time to reestablish our faith in our nation’s teachers.
“We need to remind ourselves why teachers do what they do, how they care for our children, how they are co-guarantors, along with parents, of our future. Far beyond instruction, fidelity to curriculum, Common Core State 

NYC Value-Added Ratings Released, No Fanfare

by dianerav

The New York City teacher evaluations were released, and there was nearly no media coverage.
Mayor Bloomberg noticed. Ad Peter Goodman points out on his blog,
“The mayor didn’t like the original law, didn’t like the law which protected teachers from the public release of the scores and doesn’t like the requirement that the details of the plan must be negotiated with the collective bargaining agent, the union.
“On his weekly radio program he made it clear – he has no intention of negotiating a plan – he’ll accept the $250 

The Most Common Spelling Error When Writing on a Computer Keyboard

by dianerav

Anyone who writes on a computer–as almost everyone does these days–is subject to two kinds of dangers.
One is auto-correct. This feature, which I frankly loathe, will take a minor spelling error made in haste and substitute completely different language that changes the meaning of what you wrote.
The other is that if you make a mistake and leave out a letter, the word may make sense yet be embarrassingly wrong.
The most common spelling error for anyone who writes often about education is to type the word “public” as in 

2,000,000+ Page Views!

by dianerav

Thank you, readers of this blog.
Last week, this blog has passed the mark for 2,000,000 page views.
I started it on April 26, 2012. It reached one million hits in mid-September. And reached a new milestone a few days ago.
The number of page views, however, is far less significant than the fact that the blog has created a space where educators, parents, school board members, and many others concerned about the future of schools tune in. We have become a community, a place to discuss issues, a place where the voices of educators and parents are heard and respected.
I moderate everything myself. I don’t censor any opinions, although I do not permit cursing and as a matter of 

StudentsFirst Silent on Michigan Bill to Allow Guns in Schools

by dianerav

StudentsFirst has decided to remain neutral on a bill just passed by the Michigan legislature to allow concealed guns in schools.
Most of the candidates supported by StudentsFirst in the recent election voted for the legislation.
“Asked about its stance, StudentsFirst spokeswoman Ileana Wachtel said, ‘StudentsFirst believes that schools have to be a safe haven for kids. It is incumbent upon our elected officials to ensure that every single child is protected, particularly those under the care and direction of our public schools.’”
Most of the legislators supported by Michelle Rhee’s group are far-right Republicans. Their idea of making 

Diane in the Afternoon 12-17-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: Most Absurd Comment on the Massacre by dianerav Mike Huckabee said that the murderous spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School happened because we have “systematically removed God” from the schools. So, let me get this right: If the children had been praying every day in school, the killer would never have entered the building? I don’t follow the logic. Public figures should get their facts right before they sound off. Michigan GOP Wants Concealed Guns in Schools and Churches by dianerav Eclectablog reports that the lame duck legislature in Michigan was set t... more »

Bias in Texas Growth Measure and Implications for Austin and IDEA Charter « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues

Bias in Texas Growth Measure and Implications for Austin and IDEA Charter « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues:

Bias in Texas Growth Measure and Implications for Austin and IDEA Charter

by Dr. Ed Fuller

One of the often over-looked factors that influence achievement are peer effects. There is a growing body of literature that concludes peer effects have fairly substantial effects on individual achievement. However, it is incredibly difficult to disentangle peer effects from all the other factors influencing student achievement. (1) The preponderance of the research is pretty clear in this area–students placed in classrooms with peers with greater achievement will likely benefit from positive peer effects while those placed in classrooms with students of lower achievement will likely suffer from negative peer effects. Moreover, lower performing students benefit more from positive peer effects than other students while higher performing students suffer more from negative peer effects than other students.
This plays out in assessments of teachers and schools when judgments are made without controlling for the incoming ability of students. And, even when incoming ability is controlled for in the statistical analysis, peer effects are often so difficult to capture in a statistical model that the results end up being biased with respect to incoming ability. Bias simply means that the end result of the analysis is still associated with some characteristic of the teacher or school not under the control of the teacher or school personnel. For a great 

UPDATE: Should students evaluate teachers? The best and worst in education

Should students evaluate teachers?:

1947 video on school discipline

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 18, 2012 at 3:15 pm

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 Here’s a 1947 video on school discipline that you will find either illuminating or amusing, or both. It’s one of the videos that Sacramento high school teacher Larry Ferlazzo has on his 2012 list of best videos for educators, which you can find here on his blog.

Actually, some of the information from 1947 is still true: Most classroom behavior problems are minor discipline infractions, and within the control of a trained teacher.

Should students evaluate teachers?

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 18, 2012 at 4:00 am

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First it became something of a national obsession for teachers to be judged by standardized test scores. Now increasingly we hear about students helping to evaluate teachers for purposes that include pay and effectiveness ratings. Is this a good idea? Larry Cuban looks into it. Cuban was superintendent for seven years, a former high school social studies teacher for 14 years and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. This appeared on his school reform blog.

By Larry Cuban

Should K-12 student surveys of their teachers be used to determine whether they get a boost in salary or be judged effective or ineffective?

The emerging answer, according to Amanda Ripley’s recent article in The Atlantic

The best and worst in education and labor: 2012

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 18, 2012 at 9:00 am

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Chicago teachers on strike (Sitthixay Ditthavong / AP)

Here Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research organization, writes about education and labor during 2012. This appeared on thefoundation’s blog.

By Richard D. Kahlenberg

The biggest news for education and labor watchers in 2012 was, of course, the reelection of a president far more supportive of investing in students and worker rights than his opponent.  But 2012 also saw important setbacks for public school advocates in Louisiana and Indiana and for workers and labor unions in Wisconsin and Michigan.

On the plus side of the ledger, 2012 witnessed the revival of tough and innovative teacher union leadership in Chicago and Washington; the emergence of center-right interest in