UPDATE: cats, quilts, and healing - an update on Leaves on the Current Daily Kos: Fears of a new generation

Daily Kos: Fears of a new generation:

cats, quilts, and healing - an update on Leaves on the Current

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

As we come to the end of another week free from chemotherapy, we now know the pattern. The beginning of the week was rough - Monday night the last of the chemo cycle, Tuesday and Wednesday morning were difficult.  But as the week went on Leaves felt stronger.  During the week we got sandwiches from our favorite The Italian Store in Lyon Village.  We also stopped by District Taco since one evening she had a craving for their products.  Given her health she is not strictly abiding by fast regulations to ensure she gets enough nutrition.
There are ups and downs, as is true in any week.  But Saturday represented a major milestone:  she went out completely on her own in her car to Nordstrom's at Tyson's Corner and to Bedazzled in Falls Church to look at things she might want to get. In the latter case, one of our dear cats had run off with one of her makeup brushes which she had to replace. She was out for several hours and while a bit tired when she came home, felt good about the day.
So when she lay down, we decided it was time to bring out the quilt given her by the Daily Kos community, and guess what happened . . .

Fears of a new generation

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

IT’S PERSONAL. It’s random.It can happen to anyone, and it can happen anywhere — on an airplane or a city street, in a second grade classroom or at a midnight movie screening, on a college campus or in the middle of a shopping center parking lot.

That is the beginning of Fears of a new generation, a column in today's Boston Globe (paywall still down) by Joan Vennochi.The intent of the column is to explore how different the fears are of today's younger people compared to those of us who, say grew up in the 1950s and 1960s with the ever-present threat of nuclear war as a dominant fear.
If you are 18-23 today, you have certain dates/events that are burned into your memory the way November 22, 1963 is for those of us around those ages on that date.  The searing memory of 9/11/2001 is now joined by the events of last Monday in Boston.
That is important.
But it is not why I choose to share this column by Vennochi.

Video from MA State Police Helicopter

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

was posted on Youtube by the Lowell Sun.
It is a bit over 3 minutes, and includes the thermal imaging

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Jersey Jazzman: Something Is Very Wrong With Merryl Tisch

Jersey Jazzman: Something Is Very Wrong With Merryl Tisch:

Something Is Very Wrong With Merryl Tisch

by Duke

Am I the only one who finds this sort of behavior borderline sociopathic?

Rockville Centre on Long Island had an unusually high number of students who skipped the exam, Superintendent Bill Johnson said. Mr. Johnson said 338 of the district's 1,650 third- through eighth-graders didn't take the test.

Mr. Johnson said he thought there were "serious problems" with the test, in large part because teachers are just beginning to learn the approach required under the new benchmarks, known nationally as the Common Core State Standards.

"We had a couple of kids who got sick, who started throwing up," he said. "We 

The basic business principles school reformers ignore:

The basic business principles school reformers ignore

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 21, 2013 at 10:10 am

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School reformers have for years taken a business approach to changing schools, meaning that they believe that running public schools like businesses would improve student achievement. It hasn’t worked. Here, Robert D. Shepherdexplains the mistakes the reformers have made in applying business principles. He is a writer and editor who has produced, over a 30-year career, more than 100 textbooks for students, K through college, in writing, grammar, literature, social studies, computer science, and mathematics.

By Robert D. Shepherd

There’s an old story that business people tell. You’ve probably heard it. I’ve heard it many times and have no idea where it came from. (All these stories end up being attributed to Warren Buffett, who is, of course, a masterful storyteller.) A grocer buys a hundred watermelons for $8 a piece. He puts them on display for $10. No one buys. He lowers the price, first to $9, then to $8, then to $7. The watermelons sell out. Wow, the grocer thinks, if only I had bought a hundred more of those melons! The moral is clear: When something isn’t working, doing more of the same is a stupid mistake.

But that is precisely what we are doing with the new Common Core State Standards, high-stakes tests, and teacher evaluation systems being rolled out around the country. We’ve had 10 years of failed mandatory state standards, high-stakes tests, and evaluations of educators based on test scores, of an accountability policy that has turned our K-12 schools into test prep factories. In schools across the nation, now, a third of each school year is spent doing test prep, taking practice tests, and taking high-stakes tests. That’s failed. It has clearly, utterly failed. And so we’ve decided to do a lot more of that.

What’s behind the push for ratcheting up standards, high-stakes tests, and evaluation systems based on those? Well, a lot of very powerful politicians and business interests want to apply a business model to bring about education “reform.” They are attempting to apply 

RNC Common Core Resolution Indicts Jeb Bush and Florida’s Republican Policy-Makers | Scathing Purple Musings

RNC Common Core Resolution Indicts Jeb Bush and Florida’s Republican Policy-Makers | Scathing Purple Musings:

RNC Common Core Resolution Indicts Jeb Bush and Florida’s Republican Policy-Makers

by Bob Sikes

I find every read of the Republican National Committee’s resolution against Common Core State Standards (CCSS) more stunning than the last. Beyond the “on-size-fits-all” criticism are supporting details so condemning that they cannot be walked back now that they’re out. Let’s take a look at a few:

WHEREAS, the NGA and the CCSSO, received tens of millions of dollars from private third parties to advocate for and develop the CCSS strategy, subsequently created the CCSS through a process that was not subject to any freedom of information acts or other sunshine laws, and never piloted the CCSS……….WHEREAS, the NGA and CCSSO in concert with the same corporations developing the CCSS ‘assessments’ have created new textbooks, digital media and other teaching materials aligned to the standards which must be purchased and adopted by local school districts in order that students may effectively compete on CCSS ‘assessments’

In a radio interview this week, Florida Senator Marco Rubio – a presidential hopeful – was critical of his own party 

NYC Educator: Reformier and Reformier

NYC Educator: Reformier and Reformier:

Reformier and Reformier

by NYC Educator

The Daily News is all excited about the advent of the Common Core. Never mind that it has never been tested anywhere, ever. The vital thing is that we implement it immediately. Doubtless the editorial writers, should they ever fall ill, would want to be treated with experimental medicines that have never been tried on anyone, and hope for the best. Because that, in fact, is pretty much what they're advocating for our children, amazingly, as just what they need.

The hero of their story is reformy John King, who's not afraid to do whatever it takes to bring more testing to our children. The villain, of course, is that awful teacher union, who wants to delay it. Apparently, NYSUT, full of radical unionists, is not of the opinion frustrated unprepared children are a net plus.

The News, though, says King is "fighting the good fight."

It is conceivable that the pass rates could fall well below 40%, with some local districts down even into the single digits.

And this, to the minds of the Daily News editorial board, is somehow helpful. Of course, since teachers are now 

Nina Simone: The Ignored, the Silenced Voices of Protest | the becoming radical

Nina Simone: The Ignored, the Silenced Voices of Protest | the becoming radical:

Nina Simone: The Ignored, the Silenced Voices of Protest

Posted on April 21, 2013 by plthomasedd

As a political and public debate, the state of U.S. public education—and all of the Commons—as well as what education reform is needed overlaps and intersects with debates about whose voice matters and what words and tone are acceptable or appropriate.

Powerful and essential discussions about race and racism, about deficit assumptions concerning people in poverty, speak to Arundhati Roy’s “We know of course there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

Nina Simone’s voice demands that we confront debates about language and tone as they contribute to and detract from political and public struggles with democracy, the Commons, liberation, and the often unnamed plights of racism, sexism, and the persistent culture of violence that defines America:

Public Schools First NC | Advocating for high-quality public schools for North Carolina.

Public Schools First NC | Advocating for high-quality public schools for North Carolina.:

Public education is undergoing a death by 1,000 cuts. It's been happening slowly, surely, over time. For four consecutive years, the state budget for K-12 public education has been cut. We are currently operating under a budget that is 11 percent less than was spent in 2007-08, despite the fact that student enrollment has grown by approximately 16,000 students. As noted in the Public School Forum of NC's recent school finance study, "If public education were funded at the same percentage of the General Fund as it was in FY 1969-70, schools would have an additional $2.7 billion for our students." Now we see a series of bills that, if passed, will drain the life from North Carolina's public schools. Some folks might not even notice what is going on, because it's been happening in small measured steps. But if you put all the pieces together, it's simply appalling.

No more pencils, no more books.  Teaching positions have not grown at the same rate as our public school student population. Since 2009, the number of total full time public school personnel has been in a steady decline. Our public schools havelost 17,278 positions and laid off 6,167 people--35 percent teachers and another 33 percent teaching assistants; not to mention other central office, school administration, and teaching positions eliminated by local school districts.  All of this has occurred as we transition to the Common Core curriculum, new tests, a new school accountability model, and the number of high-needs students requiring additional resources climbs. Since 2009 we've even seen the textbook fund cut by 80 percent. 48 out of 50, just ahead of Mississippi We have the sad distinction of being ranked 48th in both per-pupil spending and teacher salary. As NCAE President Rodney Ellis said, "North Carolina was once at the national median (25th) in teacher pay in 2008 when teachers earned an average salary of $48,648. Now, the average North Carolina teacher earns nearly $3,000 less per year and it is hurting our state's ability to hire and retain quality educators."  In fact since 2008, more than 4,000 educators have left the profession during their first three years of teaching. More students, more challenges, fewer resources. Despite the odds, teachers are doing more with less--and succeeding. Graduation rates are up; dropout rates are at their lowest level ever.

The dam is about to burst. Little by little, recent legislation is threatening to further de-fund our already strained public school system. First, a 2012 bill lifted the cap on charter schools, opening the floodgates to unregulated schools--many with spotty academic results. This year alone, 70 applications for new charter schools have been received. In the current legislative session we have seen:     • Homeschool Education Income Tax Credit: would drain at least $200 million from our public schools by offering a $1,250 tax credit per semester for every home schooled child meeting the criteria.     • Start-up Funds For New Charter Schools: sets aside $1.575 million for an interest-free revolving loan fund for new charter schools.     • Children with Disabilities Scholarship Grants: Awards a $3,000 grant per semester for students with disabilities to attend any nonpublic school and to receive special education and related services. A low figure to adequately educate students with disabilities, the bill has no requirement to show academic growth. ​These programs will take hard-earned tax dollars out of our public schools and will weaken their ability to serve ALL children.  And there are many other bills coming, including a broader proposal for vouchers. High-quality public education is the best tool we have to create the most opportunity for the most people across North Carolina. We cannot keep cutting funding to public education to create two separate and unequal systems--one public, one private. Let's not abandon the 1.5 million students, 90,000 teachers, and 2,200 teaching assistants who are the heart of public education. It's time to demand an end to more cuts and to restore public school funding.  We can continue to improve and move forward if we keep our public tax dollars invested in public education! ----------------------------- Our thanks to: NC Policy Watch, NCAE, NCGA Fiscal Research Division, Public Schools Forum of NC, NC Department of Public Instruction, and Progress NC for helping us to present the facts.

Read our op-ed in the Raleigh News & Observer School Vouchers: A Threat to Our Very Foundation by Karey Harwood & Patty Williams Have a favorite teacher? Please share this survey! What makes a teacher stay in the classroom and what causes a teacher to make a change?   The NC Department of Public Instruction has partnered with Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy to develop a brief survey for teachers.  All responses are anonymous. The deadline for completing the survey is March 22 at 5 p.m. Link to the survey here.

Catch up on previous issues of our newsletter

Education Reforms in Mexico:

Canada Beware, Corporate Education Reformers have found Bad Teacher and Failing Schools in Mexico ( it's all the fault of a nasty old teachers union)

Israel Ortega

April 21, 2013 at 7:00 am

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ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom

Since taking office as Mexico’s newest president, Enrique Pena Nieto has quickly made it a point to anger one of the most influential interest groups responsible for blocking Mexican progress: teachers unions. Predictably (and not unlike in our own country), the teachers unions are upset over a number of ambitious education reforms aimed at increasing accountability into Mexico’s education system.

As we have been reporting, Mexico seems poised for education reform, as evidenced by the release of last year’s documentary titled De Panzanzo (loosely translated to “Barely Passing”), which exposes a decrepit Mexican public school system prone to corruption. Among the most troubling findings of the film was a decades-old practice of buying and selling teaching jobs.

Teachers unions have responded to the changes by staging large, disruptive public protests 

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Shocker: The PTA and McDonald’s?

by dianerav

A report from Melissa Westbrook, parent activist in Washington State:
“Here in Washington State, our state PTA is joining with…McDonald’s. We are supposed to believe that because McDonald’s now has apple slices that all their food is good for kids. They are even allowing the McDonald’s Director of Nutrition to speak at the state convention.
One other interesting thing is that several of our Seattle schools PTAs are weighing whether to leave the

Chicago Youth Organize to Fight Back

by dianerav

This just in:
My name is Emma Tai (@emmachungming) and I’m the Coordinator for Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, an organizing collaborative for education justice led by students of color from across Chicago (www.facebook.com/voyceproject).
Yesterday, some of our students went public with stories of being demoted from junior to sophomore status in March, a month before the PSAE state exam which is administered next week and only given to juniors, and which Mayor Emanuel has made major efforts to link to school closings and principal and teacher evaluations. Two VOYCE student leaders were on a list of 67 juniors in total who were demoted in March at a southwest side

Suggested Reading for Bill Gates

by dianerav

A superintendent in New York, read the interview with Bill Gates. He has a suggested reading for Bill:
“Perhaps if Mr. Gates started with students instead of trying to fix teachers and shrink high schools he’d find answers. He should start by reading Jane Healy’s Endangered Minds. First line here is most powerful sentence he may ever read.
Healy writes:
“Now, when I walk into a classroom of twenty students, be they four or forty year olds, I remind myself that I am trying to teach twenty individual brains that are probably as different in their learning patterns as my students faces are in appearance.
“As a teacher, I must accept the fact that their level of success – and thus their motivation – will be directly

Jeb Bush Salutes David Coleman and Common Core

by dianerav

The Republican Party is divided about the Common Core standards.
The Republican National Committee has come out in opposition to the Common Core, calling it “an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control” education. Senator Charles Grassley wants to defund the Common Core.
But Jeb Bush is one the loudest cheerleaders for the Common Core. When his sidekick Tony Bennett lost the state superintendent job in Indiana, In part because of Tea Party opposition to Common Core, Jeb Bush made sure he landed on his feet as state commissioner in Florid.
Now Jeb has declared in TIME that David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core, is one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Jeb adores the Common Core. So do the high-tech corporations that back Jeb’s Foundation for Educational Excellence.
The Republicans will have to duke this out over the next few years. Do they support federal control or local

What Data-Sharing Means for YOUR Child

by dianerav

The intersection of Common Core, inBloom, and the deregulation of federal privacy law is no accident.
Pay attention.

More Embarrassment for Pearson Tests

by dianerav

An article by journalist Yoav Gonen in the New York Post reveals that the Pearson Common Core tests given last week in New York include at least half a dozen plugs for brand name products.
In the fil industry, corporations pay to have their brand mentioned or shown.
In the world of standardized testing, it is usually forbidden to use brand names.
This is a huge embarrassment for Pearson.

Join The Fight to Save Public Education in North Carolina

by dianerav

If you live in North Carolina, join with parents, teachers, and other citizens, join the fight to save public schools. Join Public Schools First North Carolina.
And please attend this meeting:
To educate or not to educate in NC
Apr 12, 2013 | Written by Patsy Keever OPINION
Our rulers in Raleigh are answering that question for us with bills that they could vote into law to change everything from how Carolina and State are funded, to whether tax money ought to be used for church schools, to whether or not “Hamlet” needs to be taught to “tech” kids. If our local legislators do not hear from us, they will 

Indiana: How Tony Bennett Conned The Public and Helped Corporations

by dianerav

Readers may recall that outgoing Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett left behind a videoconferencing system that cost $1.7 million and was utterly useless because it was incompatible with the department’s existing technology. The expensive technology was purchased from Cisco Systems, which by happy coincidence employs Bennett’s former chief of staff Todd Huston.
Karen Francisco of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette notes that the useless videoconferencing system is symptomatic of Bennett’s most important legacy: a full-bore assault on Indiana’s public school system.
She asks:
“Is the spin that is used to justify the questionable $1.7 million deal any different from the claims he used to 

Can You Answer a Question about Boston Consulting Group?

by dianerav

This reader has a question.
I am aware that BCG recommended mass school closings in Philadelphia and handover of students to private organizations.
Can you help?
“Which cities has the BCG done this work in so far: Memphis, New Orleans, Cleveland, Philadelphia… what about chicago/DC/Detroit??? Was that BCG work too? The BCG never released their criteria for evaluating which 

Is This Why National PTA Showed “Superman” at Its National Convention?

by dianerav

A reader sends this information:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/parenting&id=7147532
SEATTLE (AP) – December 1, 2009 (WPVI) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving the National PTA $1 million to teach parents about education reform. [Common Core]
http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2013/02/pta-receives-more-money-to-push-common.html
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 [General Electric] to further its efforts on the Common Core State Standards.

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-20-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Being a Reformer Means Excuses Are OK for You, Not Students by dianerav Here is teacher Arthur Goldstein, at his sardonic best, explaining why reformers never make mistakes and if they do, it is not their fault. Clueless Bill Gates, Redux by dianerav In the year that I have had this blog, I have never posted the same article twice. I posted this one yesterday, and I am posting it again, to draw attention to some curious statements made by Bill Gates in the cou... more »

Framing the School Technology Dream | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Framing the School Technology Dream | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Framing the School Technology Dream

by larrycuban

I wrote the following commentary for Education Week. It appeared on April 17, 2013. The printed ads appear in a slideshow. See below.
For more than a century, educational technology ads have glistened with hope. Newly invented devices from the typewriter to film projectors, from the overhead projector to instructional television, from the Apple IIe to the iPad, have painted pictures of engaged students who will learn more, faster, and better. They have pictured teachers using new technologies to teach effectively. Of course, it is the nature of advertising to promise a rosier future, appealing to what policymakers, administrators, and, yes, parents yearn for … a better, easier, and even enjoyable way for teachers and students to teach and learn. And that is what these ads do. They assure readers that both teachers and students will be better off using these machines.
Take the Royal Portable typewriter ad from over a half-century ago that shows a joyful teenager looking at a 

Ed Notes Online: 6 Insulting Things NYSED Keeps Repeating/ Growing the Resistance

Ed Notes Online: 6 Insulting Things NYSED Keeps Repeating/ Growing the Resistance:

6 Insulting Things NYSED Keeps Repeating/ Growing the Resistance

by ed notes online

NYState, John King, Merryl Tisch and their band of merry deformers are taking a beating in the blogging world while the simpering mainstream press remains -- well, simpering. As does the UFT.

Here are some of our local guys taking a few shots:

NYC Educator: Authentic Assessments

RBE: John King Takes His "Tour Of Fear" To Suburban Districts

Below this great piece by Kris Nielsen @TheChalkFace are some comments from NYC activist parent Lisa Donlan.

6 Insulting Things NYSED Keeps Repeating

APRIL 20, 2013 BY KRIS NIELSEN 5 COMMENTS

Every time the media reports a story about brave and caring parents who are allowing their kids to refuse the state tests, the reporters go ask NYSED officials to comment (in the name of fairness).  What the officials of our education department offer are soundbytes and talking points that are ridiculous, at best, and completely insulting, at worst.  Without further ado, here are the six most insulting things that NYSED keeps repeating in the media.

#6  Parents don’t care about their kids’ progress