Schools Matter: The Dummy American

Schools Matter: The Dummy American:

The Dummy American

by Storm

It is tempting, always, to try to explain why some things are important, important to every single soul of us...those of us here or those of us reading blogs that same the exact opposite of what this one does.  However, the rule of change is that it must come from within.  As in a chemical reaction, there may be a catalyzing agent, like the match that starts the bonfire...but what catches and flames must be "ready" to become a conflagration.  Otherwise, the match is wasted and the brief spark is extinguished.

That is to say, if an explanation be necessary, it is often because the material is not primed to flame.  And often enough it is the explanation that dampens t

UPDATE Saturday coffee + Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution. Owns no books. « Fred Klonsky

Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution. Owns no books. « Fred Klonsky:

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

They will bury Hadiya Pendleton today.
Michelle Obama has come to attend the services.
There will be lots of other politicians.
Including the Mayor.
There were five hundred funerals for victims of gun violence in Chicago last year.
There will be more than that this year.

Springfield’s Biggest Loser wants to undermine the constitution.

by Fred Klonsky

Illinois Representative Joe Sosnowski, According to his official photograph owns no books. See book shelves on right in photo.
On Wednesday I gave the week’s Biggest Loser Legislator award to State Representative Joe Sosnowski.
Today Glen Brown, blogger and defender of our constitution, responds to Representative Sosnowski.

JRCA0011—Joe Sosnowski. Proposes to amend the General Provisions Article of the Illinois Constitution. Repeals a provision that specifies that membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or 

Ken Previti: The Speaker is unlisted.

by Fred Klonsky

Ken Previti’s blog:

His Arrogance Mike Madigan holds the position of Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. How can he represent you if you are told that you cannot email him?
“You may Fax him,” was the response of the person who answered his phone when a retired teacher friend asked her how to get a message to him.

Fax? How quaint. We all have them in 2013, right?
Arrogance and lack of representation go hand in hand regarding the man who leads the attempt to pillage Illinois pension systems.
Please let him know how you feel about him and his Democratic super-majority legislators who want to “underfund” and undercut pensions (earned benefits) again and again.

Springfield Office:

300 Capitol Building

Springfield, IL   62706

(217) 782-5350

(217) 524-1794 FAX

District Office:

6500 South Pulaski Road

Chicago, IL  60629

(773) 581-8000

(773) 581-9414 FAX

“They are asking us to plan our own funerals.” VIDEO.

by Fred Klonsky

Sarah Chambers, teacher at Saucedo Academy at last weeks school closing meeting in Pilsen – Little Village. Video: CTUNET.
Popout

Debate Over Federal Role in Public School Policy - NYTimes.com

Debate Over Federal Role in Public School Policy - NYTimes.com:

Amid Deluge of Waivers, Goals of No Child Left Behind Are Questioned

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: February 9, 2013

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As Congress contemplates rewriting No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature education law, legislators will tussle over a vision of how the federal government should hold states and schools accountable for students’ academic progress.

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Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, says the states should be allowed to set their own public school policies.

At a Senate education committee hearing on Thursday to discusswaivers to states on some provisions of the law, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal government to get out of the way.

“We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State. “Why do I have to come from the mountains of Tennessee to tell New York that’s good for you? Why can’t you decide that for yourself?”

Dr. King argued that the federal government needed to set “a few clear, bright-line 

Global education market reaches $4.4 trillion — and is growing:

Global education market reaches $4.4 trillion — and is growing

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 9, 2013 at 11:25 am

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Good news for those who see school reform as a way to make big bucks: A new report says that the global education market is now worth $4.4 trillion — that’s TRILLION — and is set to grow a lot over the next five years.

The report, issued by the London-based investment bank IBIS Capital, said the fastest-growing sector, not surprisingly, is e-learning, which is expected to grow some 23 percent by 2017.

Here’s a graphic with some of the stats that IBIS gave to Education Week:

How fast has the global education market grown in the past decade? Early in the new 

A warning to college profs from a high school teacher

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 minutes ago

For more than a decade now we have heard that the high-stakes testing obsession in K-12 education that began with the enactment of No Child Left Behind 11 years ago has resulted in high school graduates who don’t think as … Continue reading →

Global education market reaches $4.4 trillion — and is growing

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 minutes ago

Good news for those who see school reform as a way to make big bucks: A new report says that the global education market is now worth $4.4 trillion — that’s TRILLION — and is set to grow a lot … Continue reading →

Beyond ‘Beloved’: books that are commonly challenged

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 22 hours ago

Back in 2010, a Culpeper County Public School parent wanted a version of Anne Frank’s famous Holocaust diary — the one she wrote while hiding from the Nazis before dying in a concentration camp — removed from its eighth grade … Continue reading →

Common Application changes college essays for 2013-14

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

The Common Application, widely used for college admissions by high school seniors at nearly 500 colleges and universities, has changed its essay prompts for 2013-14 and increased the number of words allowed for the essay from 500 to 650. The … Continue reading →

College Board markets midweek SAT testing to schools

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

The ACT college admissions test overtook the SAT for the first time as the most popular college admissions exam by a margin of a few thousand students.The College Board, which owns the SAT, has been watching the ACT’s ascent for … Continue reading →

N.C. governor attacks higher ed, proposes funding colleges by graduates’ jobs

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

There’s a new voice in the continued and rather tired trashing of higher education and the liberal arts by conservatives: North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. Just a few weeks after he took office, more than 12,000 people have already signed … Continue reading →

Why Is Obama’s Agriculture Department blocking school integration?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

(Correction: Fixing date of letter and details on free and reduced price lunch policy.) The previous post looked school desegregation history, and this one looks at current events. It was written by Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century … Continue reading →

Why some black families led the charge against school desegregation

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

In 2007, a court case filed in Louisville, Ky., was argued before the Supreme Court. The decision changed how American schools handle race and undermined the most important civil rights cases of the last century. In “Divided We Fail: The … Continue reading →

Seattle teachers face sanctions for refusing to give standardized test

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

Seattle high school teachers who are refusing to give students a state standardized test that they say is fatally flawed now face sanctions, and students are taking the test this week by order of state officials who demanded that administrators … Continue reading →

Students can’t Google everything: Why knowledge matters

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

The United States isn’t the only place where the education reform debate is heated — and, it turns out, the core issues are pretty much the same. Here’s a look by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, professor and director of graduate … Continue reading →

For the mega-rich: $80,000 trip to bond with college chums

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

I received in the mail a glossy travel brochure from the Northwestern Alumni Association with an offer to join a three-week trip to Africa and South America. The journey, called “Cape to Cape: An Expedition by Private Jet,” looked so … Continue reading →

Is parent involvement in school really useful?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

It’s one of those things in education that everybody takes for granted: parent involvement is good and necessary. But is it, and if so, what kind? Here is an analysis from Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education … Continue reading →

Is school reform making America less competitive?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

Many school reformers say that their efforts are aimed at helping to improve schools so Americans can be competitive in the 21st Century economy. Here’s an argument saying that school reform is doing exactly the opposite, from David Bernstein, a … Continue reading →

Why education ‘research wars’ leave no winners

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

There isn’t a day that goes by that someone in the world of education isn’t issuing a report, data point or other form of research to make a point that conflicts with another point that also has a report, data … Continue reading →

Tennessee lawmaker wants to cut welfare benefits for bad report cards

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

There seems to be no end to the number of wacky school reform ideas. Now a Tennessee state senator wants to cut welfare payments to families whose kids get really bad report cards and test scores. State Sen. Stacey Campfield … Continue reading →

How online class about online learning failed miserably

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category, here’s an amusing piece about the failure of a MOOC (massive open online course) that was designed to teach more than 40,000 students the fundamentals of how to create an online course. It was written by … Continue reading →

Why growing concentrated poverty dooms school reform

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Until very recently, policymakers ignored the effect that concentrated poverty has on student achievement. Here’s a look at why more attention must be paid to the problem, written by Greg Kaufmann, who reports on poverty for the Nation, and Elaine … Continue reading →

Jon Stewart tests Michelle Rhee, defends teachers (update with video)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Jon Stewart invited Michelle Rhee on “The Daily Show” Monday night and, while he didn’t skewer her the way some Rhee critics would have liked, he kept challenging her about whether her brand of school reform unfairly targets teachers. He … Continue reading →

Michelle Rhee’s memoir: What you can learn from reading it

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Michelle Rhee’s memoir, “Radical,” is coming out Tuesday and you may be wondering what, if anything, you could learn from reading the book. Plenty of things — like, for example, how the first time she fired someone was as a college … Continue reading →

350 out of 4,150 college presidents sign gun control letter

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, appearing today with college presidents, students, administrations and mayors to demand congressional action to curb gun violence, said Congress needs to be forced by Americans outside Washington D.C. to do the right thing. Duncan appeared on … Continue reading →

Smacking Down Florida Charter School’s Outrageous Waiting List Claim | Scathing Purple Musings

Smacking Down Florida Charter School’s Outrageous Waiting List Claim | Scathing Purple Musings:

Smacking Down Florida Charter School’s Outrageous Waiting List Claim

by Bob Sikes

Outrageous Waiting List Claim

Miami Demorat Representative Kionne L. McGhee didn’t let Florida charter school lobbyist Jim Horne off the hook during this week’s public testimony on the Florida House’s latest charter school bill. Horne, whom sources say wrote the bill, made the claim that there are 80,000 children on charter school’s waiting lists.
(The exchange begins around the 30 minute mark of the February 6, 2013 archive found here)
When McGhee inquired about the numbers, Horne quickly began back-pedaling with vague responses. Sensing Horne’s evasions, he asked two more questions about the numbers forcing  FLDOE’s Michael Kooi  to the podium to sheepishly admit the numbers were coming from the charter schools. Miami Dade official Iraida Mendez-Cartaya followed Kooi with testimony pointing out that in her district, students are likely to appear on 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Looking for Something to Do With the Kids?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Looking for Something to Do With the Kids?:

Looking for Something to Do With the Kids?

by Melissa Westbrook

It's a busy Saturday.  Info from the Times:

Neighbor Appreciation Day
Events include open houses for visitors at 21 fire stations around Seattle, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday; free (www.seattle.gov/fire); the sharing of stories about good neighbors and other activities, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Wallingford Center, 1815 N. 45th St., Seattle, free; snacks in the lobby and public swims, 1-2 p.m. Saturday, Southwest Pool, 2801 S.W. Thistle St., Seattle (206-684-7440) and 12:30-2 p.m. Saturday, Ballard Pool, 1471 N.W. 67th St., Seattle; $2 (206-684-4094 or www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/neighborday/events.htm).

Lunar New Year: Dragon/Lion dances, food walk with $2 tasting menu, children’s costume parade, music and dance performances, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Hing Hay Park, 409 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, and surrounding 

The Weekly Cheddar : blue cheddar

The Weekly Cheddar : blue cheddar:

The Weekly Cheddar

February 9, 2013

By bluecheddar

February 3 - 9, 2013

Greetings cheeseheads and out-of-state agitators. This is my weekly collection of important political news and views from around the state. If I missed a biggie, leave me a note in a comment, please. Thanks!

Give me triple the sales tax in Wisconsin and hold the income tax… Oh wait. No. Not just yet. Mike Ivey has a bit more on this at Huebsch floats sales tax hike idea; Walker shoots it down

Wisconsin is one of the top 10 states people are fleeing right now. It’s just not working, Scott.

Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota made a little joke about Scott Walker in his state of the state address. I have the video ready to go over here for you.

Groups come to Capitol building to ask Scott Walker to accept federal $ for expanded 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Diane Ravitch: WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT STEVE ZIMMER FOR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Diane Ravitch: WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT STEVE ZIMMER FOR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD:

Diane Ravitch: WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT STEVE ZIMMER FOR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD

BY DIANE RAVITCH, FROM HER BLOG | HTTP://BIT.LY/14JHCGF

Dr. Ravitch is the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Undermine Education – the best selling indictment of of the charter school/corporate privatization driven School ®eform agenda. She is a former Assistant Secretary of Ed in the Bush I Administration and is now Research Professor of Education at New York University

1 February, 2013  ::  The billionaire boys club wants to beat Steve Zimmer so they can proceed with dismantling public education in Los Angeles. Steve had the nerve to say there should be some oversight of charter schools, so the privatizers are out to get him. They raised over a million dollars from corporate types in just a few days.
There are many reasons to support Steve Zimmer. His courage, independence, and integrity are good reasons. Another is his passionate support for the arts.

FROM A STRONG SUPPORTER OF THE ARTS IN LOS ANGELES:

Dear Friends of Arts Education,

Please read the forward below, from Karen Wolfe, a Venice parent.

I would add a few things to the list of reasons to vote for Steve Zimmer in the upcoming election for School Board.

1. He is a crusader who has devoted his entire career to public education and knows schools inside and out.

2. He is by far the most “hands on” board member, in schools ALL THE TIME, asking the important questions and supporting