MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Tim Slekar: Rhee’s Biggest Lie

by dianerav

Tim Slekar is a tireless advocate for public education and teachers.
He was upset that Michelle Rhee got a chance to sell her book on the Jon Stewart show, because Jon is one of the best friends of public schools and teachers on national television.
Tim knew that Rhee would use the opportunity to say how much she loves teachers, and that she loves them so much, that she wants to fire more of them.
He was even more upset that she went unchallenged when she repeated her usual claim that teachers are the 

Ten Excellent Ideas for President Obama

by dianerav

Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in New York, has some excellent ideas for President Obama. Ten of them, to be exact.
He believes in putting first things first, in thinking clearly about what the federal role is and doing that role well. He believes in career professionals. He believes that the corporate types who think they know how to run the schools need a reminder that the factory model of the 1950s doesn’t work for them and doesn’t work for schools either.
Read and enjoy some good sense and good advice for the President.

Paul Thomas: Do Not Become a Zombie

by dianerav

Paul Thomas, our collective voice of conscience, explains the way that zombies take control. When your leaders are zombies, do not follow them. They will make you a zombie too.
How can you recognize a zombie? They talk about data, not individuals. They always say they put “kids first” or

The Corporate Reform Cult of Rhetoric and Riches

by dianerav

To understand the tentacles of corporate reform, you must read this post
Here Mercedes Schneider continues her review of the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. As her research deepens, she uncovers the links among the big-money investors and their plans to privatize education, turn teachers and children into assets, and monetize public education.

Who Are the Zombies?

by dianerav

On Wednesday, a large group of high school students staged a zombie protest in front of he Rhode Island Department of Education. They said that the state’s high-stakes testing would turn them into the undead.
New York has zombies too. They are running the State Education Department and they fervently believe that testing is the very essence of education. They think that testing will help poor kids. The zombies think that testing will close the achievement gap. No one ever explained to them that standardized tests are based on a bell curve and the achievement gap is designed into the curve: IT NEVER CLOSES.
There are some brave humans on the New York Board of Regents who are among the living. They are Dr. 

Diane in the Evening 2-14-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: L.A. School Board Candidate Speaks Out by dianerav Robert Skeels is a pro-public school candidate in Los Angeles. He has raised $15,000. He will not get anything from Eli Broad or Michael Bloomberg. He comments: The LA Times asked me for a quote on Bloomberg’s $1 Million CSR donation. Here’s my response: “As a community candidate who has raised over $15,000 through myriad small contributions from local parents, community members, and classroom teachers, I find it dismaying that a single out-of-state billionaire has a greater voice in our school board elect... more »

High School Allows Same-Sex Valentines After Controversy | toteachornototeach

High School Allows Same-Sex Valentines After Controversy | toteachornototeach:

High School Allows Same-Sex Valentines After Controversy

by aristotlethewise

Utah High School Reverses Policy, Allows Same-Sex Valentines 

By Meredith Bennett-Smith
A Utah high school has reversed course this week, after controversy arose over a potential ban on same-sex Valentine’s Day messages.
The issue at Copper Hills High arose earlier this month, when members of the school’s choir handed out fliers announcing that there would be “No Same-sex Delivery” of their singing Valentines, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.
The flier was reportedly considered offensive by at least some students.
Dylan Lukes, co-president of the Copper Hills gay-straight alliance club, told The Tribune it “upset a lot of the 

Shame on districts seeking to perpetuate funding advantages | EdSource Today

Shame on districts seeking to perpetuate funding advantages | EdSource Today:

Shame on districts seeking to perpetuate funding advantages

February 14th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Affeldt

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John Affeldt

Kudos to Jerry Brown for proposing to end the inequities in California school funding – and shame on the districts that seek to fossilize the advantages they have enjoyed for decades now.

Brown is the first governor in recent times to acknowledge what the education community and funding experts have known for years: Our public schools are funded irrationally and inequitably based on outdated formulas bearing no relation to student need. As the Getting Down to Facts studies and the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence acknowledged, similar sized districts with similar student demographics receive widely varying amounts of state support for no rational reason. A recent Education Trust–West analysis concluded that California’s highest poverty districts receive $620 less per student from state and local sources than the state’s wealthiest districts. Individual district comparisons evidence disparities running to thousands of 

Obama’s expanded preschool plan likely to be costly - by Lillian Mongeau

by Lillian Mongeau

President Barack Obama has yet to issue any cost estimates for his proposal to expand access to preschool for 4-year-olds, but there is one certainty should Congress approve the program: It will be expensive. California currently serves about one in five of the state’s low-income 4-year-olds in state-funded preschools at a cost of $3,820 per student, according to the California Department...

Community colleges to release scorecard rivaling the president’s - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

Students planning to attend one of the nation’s 4,500 colleges and universities have a new interactive College Scorecard touted by President Obama in his State of the Union address as a tool “to compare schools based on a simple criteria – where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” Community college leaders say the focus on costs and graduation rates is a flawed lens for...

The Innovative Educator: Strengthen the home-school connection right from your phone with Cel.ly

The Innovative Educator: Strengthen the home-school connection right from your phone with Cel.ly:

Strengthen the home-school connection right from your phone with Cel.ly

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)

School guidance counselor Willyn Webb says that Cel.ly has made a positive improvement for her school’s Parent Accountability Committee (PAC) which meets once per month.

Celly is a free, mobile social network that works via group texting.  It is instant, private, and secure. There is never an exchange of personal cell phone numbers, yet everyone is connected in the ways that work best depending on the need.  

Each cell is it's own mobile social network that works with any mobile phone or device. Members can join instantly with one text and exchange

Open letter to Arne Duncan from Chicago teachers:

Open letter to Arne Duncan from Chicago teachers

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 15, 2013 at 4:00 am

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Arne Duncan                                                        (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

A coalition of teachers from public and private schools — including the school that Education Secretary Arne Duncan attended as a child and where President Obama’s daughters were enrolled before they moved to Washington — are releasing an open letter to Duncan expressing concerns about department policies that they say promote the overuse of standardized tests. Among the signees are teachers from the Ariel Community Academy, a public school that was founded by a team of people that included Duncan.

The letter is being released the same day that President Obama is speaking in Chicago about his second-term policy initiatives, including a push for gun control. That appeal has special resonance in the city, which had more than 500 homicides last year and is reeling from the shooting of a star teen student just after she had performed with her band on Obama’s inaugural ceremonies in Washington D.C. Duncan attended her funeral last week, along with First Lady Michelle Obama.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Mr. Duncan,

As primary, secondary, and university educators who are passionate about the importance of a liberal arts education in building and maintaining a democratic society, we are very 

What is Gov. Bobby Jindal talking about?

by Valerie Strauss

School reformers love to talk about the charter-dominant  Recovery School District in New Orleans as an example of how great the charter sector is. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talks about it on his travels around the country, including on a … Continue reading →

UPDATE: When you want the right answer, ask the right question… Take the Survey - Wait, What?

When you want the right answer, ask the right question… Take the Survey - Wait, What?:

Another great lesson about the art and science of interpreting public opinion surveys

by jonpelto

Yesterday, the Hartford Courant’s Rick Green posted an article entitled, “Malloy Approval Ratings Up, Support For Re-Election Still Tepid.”  Green wrote, “A new poll by the Yankee Institute finds that Mayor Dannel P. Malloy has his highest approval rating ever among voters…And while it looks like he faces a tough re-election fight, the governor is no longer trailing an un-named Republican opponent.”

The observation is not necessarily wrong, but it hardly provides the whole picture.

The “election question” was, “If Governor Malloy runs for re-election in the year 2014, will 

When you want the right answer, ask the right question… Take the Survey

by jonpelto

Yesterday, ConnCAN, the charter school advocacy group released the results of a “public opinion survey” that determined that Connecticut voters overwhelming support Governor Malloy’s “education reform” proposals.

The poll was done by Global Strategies Group, the company that Roy Occhiogrosso, the Governor’s former chief advisor returned to last month. According to a memo released by the Global Strategies Group, “There is broad support for continuing education reforms. Connecticut voters are overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the education reforms passed last year (73% support). Support for reform crosses party lines (79% Democrat/64% 

Did Don Gaetz Get the OK From Jeb Bush to Slow Accountability Reforms? | Scathing Purple Musings

Did Don Gaetz Get the OK From Jeb Bush to Slow Accountability Reforms? | Scathing Purple Musings:

Did Don Gaetz Get the OK From Jeb Bush to Slow Accountability Reforms?

by Bob Sikes

So the most powerful lobbyist in Florida who strangely doesn’t have to register as one, made a trip to Tallahassee to talk education with legislators. This from Michael Van Stickler in the Miami Herald on Jeb Bush’s little visit:

Bush hasn’t visited the Capitol since 2010, so he was asked why he was meeting with lawmakers. Bush said as the head of the non-profit Foundation for Excellence in Education, he was there to “say hello to friends and advance the cause of rising student achievement.”

Gaetz met with Bush for more than 20 minutes – twice as long as he met with Weatherford – and 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The closing of Jay Cooke Jr. High

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The closing of Jay Cooke Jr. High:

The closing of Jay Cooke Jr. High

by Mike Klonsky

Philly activists pack a City Council hearing on school closures. (City Paper)

Now it's Cooke K-8 in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia. I was transferred there in 1956, when it was Cook Jr. High, because I was a white kid, one of the last in my North Philly neighborhood, about to attend all-black, segregated  Fitzsimons Jr. High. But after a minor scuffle with a group of kids over lunch money (mine), the system decided that the all-white Cooke would be a better place for me. So instead of walking to school, I had to 

Jersey Jazzman: What's Wrong With Paterson?

Jersey Jazzman: What's Wrong With Paterson?:

What's Wrong With Paterson?

by Duke

Paterson: home of reformyness, and Lou Costello!

Paterson is the third-largest city in New Jersey. It's one of the poorest cities in America with a nearly 40% child poverty rate. Its schools have been under state control for 22 years.

And Paterson is now, apparently, the new center of reformyness here in New Jersey.

Start with the pressure teachers in Paterson are feeling to accept merit pay. According to the local teachers union, the latest contract offer is unprecedented in that it calls for doing away with all raises except for those tied to performance evaluations (and, inevitably, standardized tests). Incredibly, the president of the board of education doesn't even know the details of this offer, demonstrating just how little control the local citizens actually have over their schools.

Paterson also looks to be on the crest of a new wave of charter

UPDATE:Pensions are contracts.+ Daniel Biss’ fuzzy math + From Chicago’s teachers: Dear Secretary Duncan + Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President. « Fred Klonsky

Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President. « Fred Klonsky:

Pensions are contracts.

by Fred Klonsky

Daniel Biss’ fuzzy math.

by Fred Klonsky

“I may not know about the constitution, but I know math,” State Senator Daniel Biss told us at the town hall he and State Representative Robyn Gabel held in Wilmette last week.
Biss, a formeer math professor at the University of Chicago, never fails to mention his math credentials when making his proposals to ignore the state’s pension promises and obligations. It appears he may not know much about the constitution or his pension math.
Following the Pension Summit called by the We Are One, the state’s public employee unions, Biss was 

From Chicago’s teachers: Dear Secretary Duncan.

by Fred Klonsky

February 15th, 2013
Dear Mr. Duncan,
As primary, secondary, and university educators who are passionate about the importance of a liberal arts education in building and maintaining a democratic society, we are very concerned with the impact of standardized testing on humanities curricula. The widespread trend of teaching to the test is undermining primary and secondary education. Social studies, history, the fine arts, the study of literatures and languages, drama and music; these and other subjects not assessed in the standardized tests of “No Child Left Behind” are subjects that are themselves being left behind as administrators pressure teachers to raise narrowly conceived test scores in a few core areas.
We seek to build respect for the democratic process, critical thinking skills, writing skills, and understanding 

Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President.

by Fred Klonsky

President Barack Obama comes to Chicago today.
Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President.
His stop was originally planned as part of a three-day post State of the Union tour to speak about the economy. The national scandal that the level of violence in his hometown has become has changed those plans somewhat.
He will speak at Hyde Park Academy High School at 6220 S. Stony Island around 1PM this afternoon.
Is Obama concerned that his hometown of Chicago and his home state of Illinois have become Bizarro World?
There are many issues, including the causes of Chicago’s violence, that the

Missouri Education Watchdog: Missouri Files Anti-Common Core House Bill

Missouri Education Watchdog: Missouri Files Anti-Common Core House Bill:

Missouri Files Anti-Common Core House Bill

by stlgretchen

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 616

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES BAHR (Sponsor), JONES (110), KOENIG, FUNDERBURK, SPENCER, LANT, SCHARNHORST, CURTMAN, BRATTIN, PARKINSON, FRAKER, MARSHALL, CRAWFORD, FITZWATER, JONES (50) AND DIEHL (Co-sponsors).

0394L.01I                                                                                                                                                  D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

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AN ACT

To amend chapter 161, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to the Common Core Standards Initiative.

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

            Section A. Chapter 161, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 161.855, to read as follows:

            161.855. Notwithstanding any other law, the state board of education shall not adopt, and the department of elementary and secondary education shall not implement, the Common Core State Standards developed by the Common Core Standards Initiative. Any actions taken to adopt or implement the Common Core State Standards as of the effective date of this section are void. Common Core State Standards or any other statewide education standards shall not be adopted or implemented without the approval of the general assembly.

THE ASSAULT: ON PUBLIC EDUCATION, ON TEACHERS, AND ON DUE PROCESS by Susan Lee Schwartz - Perdaily.com

THE ASSAULT: ON PUBLIC EDUCATION, ON TEACHERS, AND ON DUE PROCESS by Susan Lee Schwartz - Perdaily.com:

THE ASSAULT: ON PUBLIC EDUCATION, ON TEACHERS, AND ON DUE PROCESS by Susan Lee Schwartz

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

Many years have passed, Lenny Isenberg, since you and I  talked about breaking the enormous silence that surrounds the assault on teachers, -- the first round in ending the national institution of public education. In order to lie and rewrite history, an uninformed ignorant citizenry is required.  To citizens who know The Constitution as the Founding Fathers envisioned it, the  liars and ranters who fill the media with their outrageous false narratives would be unable to hold sway.

The puppet masters who are in control of our country  NEED the schools to fail, because education offers the single ingredients that makes critical thinking