Dennis Walcott Proves He Is A Puppet.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Dennis Walcott Proves He Is A Puppet

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

Amazing that I and The Crack Team are still able to get these super duper secret emails that Sock Puppet Chancellor Walcott send out to his centurions, er, I meant principals. The emails are now harder to get, yet through quite nefarious mean, still quite obtainable. Attached to the email is a letter to hand to parents for them to prepare for low scores as well.

So to summarize, Dennis' email he appears to be greasing the skids for the abject total complete shitty scores the NYC DOE is expecting because the tests are "harder." Well, what else can one expect when there is bullshit curriculum being used and implemented across the city. Do you think the parents of Roslyn, Scarsdale, Upper Saddle River, or Rye or being told to expect low scores? Noooooooooo!!!!!

Funny thing I notice, in Dennis' email he suggests that parents be directed to EngageNY or Common Core 

solidaridad: Community Candidate speaks out against out-of-state billionaires buying elections

solidaridad: Community Candidate speaks out against out-of-state billionaires buying elections:

Community Candidate speaks out against out-of-state billionaires buying elections

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Montecito Heights Precinct Walking — Robert D. Skeels for School Board

Montecito Heights Precinct Walking by Robert D. Skeels

Schools Matter: Media's Misguided "Miracle" Meme

Schools Matter: Media's Misguided "Miracle" Meme:

Media's Misguided "Miracle" Meme

by P. L. Thomas

Paul Tough has built a career on "no excuses" approaches to teaching "other people's children" in the charter school racket, most recently touting the importance of "grit" (see "Paul Tough Is Way Off-Base. And Stop Saying 'Grit'" by Katie Osgood to understand why Tough is misguided).

More recently, David Kirp has offered a call to re-invest in public education, not charter schools, by triggering the same "no excuses" argument embedded in a favorite meme among journalists, the "miracle" school!

Tough and Kirp follow in the footsteps of David Brooks, who literally christened the Harlem Children's Zone the "Harlem Miracle."

While political leaders, the media, and the public remain enamored with "miracle" memes, several educators and 

Portland public schools teacher's ouster sparks uproar over state tests | OregonLive.com

Portland public schools teacher's ouster sparks uproar over state tests | OregonLive.com:

Portland public schools teacher's ouster sparks uproar over state tests

by Special to The Oregonian

The recent midyear dismissal of a much-loved Japanese language immersion teacher atRichmond Elementary School in Southeast Portland is fueling a long-simmering debate about teacher licensing tests.

Upset parents say the third-grade teacher was one of the school's best but was tripped up by a standardized teacher-certification test given statewide that they suspect has cultural and linguistic biases.

"This was the best teacher we ever encountered," said parent Amy Hall, a graphic designer who lives in Northeast Portland and has had two children in the Richmond program, including one taught by the teacher. "Our children made the best progress in her class under her guidance and individual attention. It broke my heart to hear that someone whom we consider the best teacher we have ever seen was let go on a technicality."

State officials, though, say the federal No Child Left Behind law requires all 

The Diversity Crisis in Taxpayer-Funded Education « Cooperative Catalyst

The Diversity Crisis in Taxpayer-Funded Education « Cooperative Catalyst:

The Diversity Crisis in Taxpayer-Funded Education

by Jabreel Chisley

With the happenings of “white flight,” unconstitutional school funding systems, the School-to-Prison Pipeline, the consequences of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and anti-grassroots corporatized School Choice…the education community in the nation has arrived at a point of hostility toward diversity. Constantly, diversity within the school has become something that governmental and societal action actively discourages from happening, even when the benefits are far more beneficial than perceived risk conceived out of prejudice.
When education has a segregation problem, education also has a teaching and learning problem and it prevails as long as the former subsists. When children have a lack of diversity in the classroom and within communities, whether they are macro or micro communities, opportunities of learning about different cultures and communities do not occur, thus allowing for stereotypical, racist, sexist, classist, xenophobic, and nativism attitudes to

Dangers Within The Student Voice Movement

by Adam Fletcher Sasse

Disrupting status quo, challenging social norms, and radically transforming schooling forever are some of the wonderful dangers that excite students and adults who advocate for student voice today. However, threats to the education system withstanding, many of the dangers to the student voice movement are within the movement itself. This article explores five dangers within the student voice movement.
Wrangled into an adult-driven system by force, students are almost always neglected in educational leadership. When they are asked, they’re usually last and their voices are generally tokenized. Despite this, like never before we can hear students’ opinions about topics like the achievement gap, charter schools, privatization, rural education, violence and safety, and year-around schools. They’re rallying outside state capitals, speaking in school board meetings, and demanding change specifically from students’ perspectives.
More than a decade ago, I began a campaign to promote more than student voice. Studying thousands of 

Pass / Fail : LAUSD issues guidelines on teacher evaluations, sparking new controversy | 89.3 KPCC

Pass / Fail : LAUSD issues guidelines on teacher evaluations, sparking new controversy | 89.3 KPCC:

LAUSD issues guidelines on teacher evaluations, sparking new controversy

by Vanessa Romo

(AP Photo/Nick Ut) Credit: Nick Ut/AP
L.A. Unified on Friday unveiled its plan for how principals will incorporate the results of student testing in teacher evaluations--and union officials said they were stunned by the details.
Superintendent John Deasy said 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on a mix of individual and school-wide testing data starting next year. The remaining 60 percent will be comprised of “classroom observation and other similar factors.”
“These guidelines are a vital step in our continuing effort to provide students with the highest-performing teachers,” Deasy said.  “I look forward to working with the teacher’s union and principals in successfully implementing this system.”

Earlier this month, the school district and the teacher's union agreed to use student test data in evaluating 

ConnCAN signs $200,000 contract with major Connecticut lobby firm - Wait, What?

ConnCAN signs $200,000 contract with major Connecticut lobby firm - Wait, What?:

ConnCAN signs $200,000 contract with major Connecticut lobby firm

by jonpelto

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, Inc. (ConnCAN), the charter school advocacy group that was created by the founders of Achievement First, the state’s largest charter school management company, has signed a two-year, $200,000 lobbying contract with Connecticut government relations firm, Gaffney, Bennett and Associates.

In addition, ConnCAN staff will continue to lobby on behalf of Governor Malloy’s education reform initiatives.

Last year, ConnCAN and its sister organization, the Connecticut Coalition for Advocacy Now, Inc. (ConnAD) spent more than $693,000 lobbying for Malloy’s education bill.  Along with Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and other corporate funded education reform groups, ConnCAN’s lobby levels broke all previous records for legislative lobbying.

In the month of January alone, ConnCAN spent more than $15,000 on its government 

Jersey Jazzman: As Falls Paterson...

Jersey Jazzman: As Falls Paterson...:

As Falls Paterson...

by Duke

Paterson: Home of Lou Costello and reformyness!

The NJDOE declares that Paterson is the new home of reformyness:

The state education department announced on Friday that it has approved two new charter schools in Paterson.

The new schools will be Paterson Arts and Sciences, a kindergarten through grade 8 school with an approved enrollment of 540, and Paterson Collegiate Charter School, a kindergarten through grade 5 school with approved enrollment of 548, according to a press release issued Friday evening. The Arts and Sciences school will be eligible to open in the 2013-2014 school year, while the Collegiate school has a scheduled 2014-15 opening.

The announcement did not say who the owners of the new schools would be, nor where they would be located. Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the education department, said the schools’ applications, which would contain many details about their plans, will be available next week.Officials said the operators of the two schools had a "proven track record of success.'' The 

Daily Kos: A teacher affects eternity . . .

Daily Kos: A teacher affects eternity . . .:

A teacher affects eternity . . .

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

On this anniversary of his birth in 1838, it seems an appropriate time for me to reflect upon his famous statement, A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
I am again, for now, out of the classroom.  Perhaps this time it will be for good, perhaps I will come fall again step into a classroom.  I simply do not know.
I can look back on 17 or so years in classrooms with some satisfaction, but also with some trepidation, because of the second clause of that quote, of not knowing where my influence as a classroom educator stopped.
Since my role as a writer is also often one of teaching, I can have a similar concern about the words I express, for certainly by now we never know where the words we offer online might next appear, who might see them, how those who see them might react.
To teach therefore is a combination of arrogance and humility.
The arrogance is to believe that those of us who teach can make a difference not only in what our students knows, but help them positively take ownership of their own learning and thinking.

An update on my wife

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

In one sense things are going well.  But it is still difficult
Monday we attended a class to orient us towards chemotherapy, which will begin on Tuesday.  The following day was her last day of radiation therapy - as had been scheduled at that time.  Because she was doing so well, but also because he saw how much she was walking, her radiation oncologist decided it was important to be aggressive and worked out a schedule with her regular oncologist and she will be doing chemo and radiation in the same time frame.  The positive aspect is that we have a better chance of moving more quickly until her underlying cancer is in remission and the surgeons will be able to deal with reinforcing her spine.  We remain unsure of the impact upon her of not having several days to rest completely between rounds of chemo, because radiation is every weekday.
And I have to add something - before we headed to the hospital for that last session of radiation, she insisted we stop by a flower shop.  She wanted to give a flower arrangement to the people who had been treating her in her radiation therapy.  I'll bet that was a first, but it is so much like my loving spouse.
We are hopeful that she will not lose her hair.  Friends who have had more modern approaches in chemo have on occasion not, and her oncologist is hopeful she won't.  She has decided that even if she does, she does NOT want me to shave my head in solidarity -  which is good, since there is a glaringly obvious flat spot in the back of my skull!
There is more, for both of us.

Missouri Education Watchdog: PTA Receives More Money to Push Common Core Standards

Missouri Education Watchdog: PTA Receives More Money to Push Common Core Standards:

PTA Receives More Money to Push Common Core Standards

by stlgretchen

From Marketwatch.com and GE Foundation Grant Helps National PTA Expand Common Core Work:

ALEXANDRIA, VA, Feb 15, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- National PTA announced today that it received a one-year $240,000 grant from the GE Foundation to further its efforts on the Common Core State Standards. 

National PTA will expand its Common Core work by creating state-specific assessment guides for every state that has adopted the Common Core State Standards. The resource will be a key supplement to National PTA's popular Parent's Guide to Student Success which has been used throughout the nation by community partners, school districts and departments of education.

 "As the largest child advocacy organization in the country, National PTA has played a leading role in educating families and communities about the Common Core State Standards for years, creating a groundswell of support for this historic reform," said Betsy Landers, National PTA President. "The need for creating awareness of the standards remains a high priority. We believe 

The "Achievement Gap"- A Seductive but Dangerous Euphemism for Poverty and Inequality

The "Achievement Gap"- A Seductive but Dangerous Euphemism for Poverty and Inequality:

The “Achievement Gap”- A Seductive but Dangerous Euphemism for Poverty and Inequality

by Server

The “Achievement Gap”- A Seductive but Dangerous Euphemism for Poverty and Inequality.

Originally Posted by Mark Naison on “With A Brooklyn Accent.” February 8, 2013
Any time I see an advertisement or a fundraising appeal for an organization whose goal is to shrink the “achievement gap,’ I immediately put that organization on my personal “enemies list.” *******No phrase is more symbolic of our society’s efforts to avoid dealing with real life impact and consequences of rapidly growing poverty and inequality, which arrogantly presumes a profound collective tragedy can be eased by raising test scores. *******The “achievement gap” is a form of linguistic magic that erases what it means to be young and poor in the United States, and the stress that fear that involves, such as ******worrying when the lights and gas are going to be turned off ******or whether you are going to be evicted from your apartment *******or whether you are going to eat during the weekend when there ******is no longer breakfast or lunch in school ******or whether it 

Top Content this Week - 2-16-13 The Educator's PLN

Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN:

1	Building Your School Culture...1 Relationship at a Time Added by Bill Burkhead on February 11, 2013
2	RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us Added by Thomas Whitby on October 30, 2012
3	Are you that teacher? Teach through learnership Added by Scott Kinkoph on February 8, 2013
4	15 Education Technologies To Check Out in 2013 Added by Tess Pajaron on January 15, 2013
5	Following Your Mother's Advice - BE NICE Added by Scott Rimes on February 12, 2013
6	Awesome Administrators Added by Bill Swartz on October 19, 2009
7	Multicultural Day Posted by Yoon S. Lim on October 23, 2009
8	MAN Added by Thomas Whitby on February 3, 2013
9	Top 10 Reasons to Use Loop-Based Music Software in Music Class Added by Andrew Garcia on October 18, 2009
10	Follow Me on My PLN Journey Added by Kristina-Maria Paspalis on February 7, 2013
11	Glogster in the Classroom Added by Chris Roche on May 28, 2011
12	Introduce Yourself... Posted by Bonnie Frampton Faust on October 21, 2009
13	The Basics of Blended Learning Added by Thomas Whitby on February 6, 2013
14	Classroom Contract Added by Carrie Mack on February 12, 2013
15	educations.com - Problem Based Learning at Stenden University Added by Thomas Whitby on March 13, 2011
16	Why did your school bother with a strategic plan? Added by Phillip Tascone on February 14, 2013
17	Ten Activities for Establishing Classroom Rules Added by Lacey Smith on February 10, 2013
18	video252599_3159108 Added by Gérard Gatoux on February 11, 2013
19	Creating Classroom Rules Added by Lacey Smith on February 14, 2013
20	An Introduction to Project-Based Learning Added by Esther Kang on February 13, 2013