Clearwater Revival Festival

Clearwater Revival Festival:

Clearwater Revival Festival

by saveourschools

On Saturday and Sunday, June 15th and 16th, SOS was represented at Pete Seeger’s Clearwater Revival Festival in Croton, NY. In addition to spreading the word about this fall’s Campaign for Artful Resistance, these photos and our Tweet board started it off.
                                                                         

They Asked for It

by stevew

Artist: (awaiting reply on anonymity)
They asked why I do what I do – just the other day
And at first, I found my words amiss – I had little to say.
But it’s not because I did not know how or when to commence
It’s just that some of the things I do make no practical sense.
And they told me, “those that can, do, those that can’t . . .”
Well you know the rest.
So I really tried to explain things to them, tried to give it my best!

Charter performance improving, but still varied | HechingerEd Blog

Charter performance improving, but still varied | HechingerEd Blog:

Charter performance improving, but still varied

by Sarah Butrymowicz

Since Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released a report on charter schools in 2009 that prompted questions about how well these schools were serving students, the sector has continued to grow. In the past four years, national charter school enrollment has increased by 80 percent to 2.3 million students.
CREDO’s latest comprehensive report checks back in with the charter movement and concludes that charter performance has improved since 2009 – but finds charter schools that outperform traditional school districts are still the exception rather than the rule.
The original CREDO study, which looked at charters in 15 states and the District of Columbia, made headlines with the finding that just 17 percent of charter schools significantly outperformed their district counterparts in math. Charter school students performed worse in both math and reading than their equivalent peers in the 

Is Personalization in Education About Students or Profit? | Education on GOOD

Is Personalization in Education About Students or Profit? | Education on GOOD:

Is Personalization in Education About Students or Profit?

This is the fourth post (read part one, part two, and part three) in a series on the purpose of education.
The end-run of the logic of the "free market model" of education—and its application to schools—is simple: the repudiation of schools as we have come to know them; the abandonment of democratic principles on which they are based; and the service of a technocratic vision of education as matrix of individual relationships with private providers. In recent years, this vision takes the form of crude assertions that online learning platforms might not only extend or enrich the learning that takes place in schools, but might obviate the need for the "school" as we know it.
This claim is supported by politicians, pundits, and policy wonks—the vast majority of whom would make vitally different decisions for their own children's education, than they might for yours or mine. It's obvious to educators that we should embrace the opportunities provided by digital tools, services, and platforms to supplement and to inform the learning that takes place in a school, but we should beware the growing and disturbing focus on the 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: AN OPEN LETTER TO PEARSON

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: AN OPEN LETTER TO PEARSON:

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEARSON

by smf

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEARSON

BY JACOB TANENBAUM IN EDUCATION WEEK |  HTTP://BIT.LY/15AVLUI

Pearson PLC is a British multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London. It is the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world | http://bit.ly/146qCkx   Pearson is a prime developer of the Common Core State Curriculum and the Common Core State Standards tests to assess student progress. Pearson is also the single-source supplier of content/software under Phase 1 of the Apple Common Core Technology Project (iPadsForAll) Contract with LAUSD.

Published Online: June 4, 2013  ::  Dear Pearson and, by extension, McGraw-Hill, and the rest of the companies that produce standardized tests for our classrooms:
Schools all over New York state just finished giving the tests you designed for us. I read that you got $32 million for those. Wow.
Recently, my colleagues and I sat in a meeting at our school learning how to score the tests using your materials. I hear these products are really helpful, and lots of teachers I know who use your grading software to track tests say it's really easy to work with, so thanks for selling all of it to us. New York state and its districts paid a lot of money to buy those tests and the accompanying resources we need to prepare our students and process the scores. You guys made a bundle, but I have one question for you: Can I have a little of that money back for my classroom?
See, I used to have a teaching assistant, but we can't afford her anymore. Our librarian was laid off, and we don't know who will maintain ou

iPADS FOR SCHOOL KIDS: Blushing at unanswered questions? ….or leveling the playing field for the poor?

by smf

By Doug McIntyre, L.A. Daily News columnist | http://bit.ly/12fH1TJ 6/22/2013 04:40:07 PM PDT  ::  At first blush, it seems crazy. The perpetually destitute Los Angeles Unified School District will spend $30 million to purchase thousands of iPad tablets to give away to students at 47 LAUSD campuses. At second blush, it seems crazier. This purchase all but commits the nation's second largest

SUIT BY RESTAURANT HECHO EN MEXICO ACCUSES DISCREDITED ACADEMIA SEMILLAS CHARTER SCHOOL OF TRESPASS, HARASSMENT, DESTROYING BUSINESS

by smf

LAUSD also named in lawsuit GLOBE NEWSWIRE - Source: Hecho en Mexico Authentic Mexican Cuisine LOS ANGELES, June 24, 2013 (A popular restaurant in the El Sereno section of East LA is seeking more than $1 million in damages in a lawsuit against a controversial charter school and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The suit by Hecho en Mexico Authentic Mexican Cuisine and its

We Party Patriots » GROSS: Pollsters Suggest Gov. Corbett Use Philly’s Teachers Unions as “Wedge” to Get Re-Elected

We Party Patriots » GROSS: Pollsters Suggest Gov. Corbett Use Philly’s Teachers Unions as “Wedge” to Get Re-Elected:

GROSS: Pollsters Suggest Gov. Corbett Use Philly’s Teachers Unions as “Wedge” to Get Re-Elected

by Chaz Bolte

As Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett is struggling in the infancy of his re-election bid, a new poll taken by Public Opinion Strategies suggests that he should attack Philadelphia teachers unions in order to bolster his approval rating.
Considering major education cuts have been a driver of a low approval rating thus far, the recommendation comes as a bit of a surprise. Under the guise of “reform,” the Philadelphia School Reform Commission is seeking 

Duncan indicates support for district waiver, praises Brown’s funding reform | EdSource Today

Duncan indicates support for district waiver, praises Brown’s funding reform | EdSource Today:

Duncan indicates support for district waiver, praises Brown’s funding reform - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in San Francisco. (Source: Public Policy Institute of California).

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan set aside years of acrimony and disagreements with Gov. Jerry Brown and sang the governor’s praises during an event Friday night in San Francisco.

“I’m really impressed with what the governor is trying to do here. I think he’s showing real vision, real courage,” Duncan told about a hundred educators and education advocates when asked about Brown’s success at passing a historic school funding reform plan that provides additional money for English learners and low-income students. “For me it’s like common sense, but it’s actually revolutionary.”

Duncan’s gesture toward a new era of amicability came during a conversation with Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit research organization.

During a wide-ranging interview, Duncan also gave his strongest indication to date that he’s 

Perdido Street School: Who Will Bill Thompson Turn On?

Perdido Street School: Who Will Bill Thompson Turn On?:

Who Will Bill Thompson Turn On?

by reality-based educator

The Wall Street Journal looks at the broad coalition of supporters mayoral candidate Bill Thompson enjoys - from Regents chancellor Merryl Tisch and some in the corporate education reform and charter school movement to Randi Weingarten and the UFT - and asks which one of those groups Thompson eventually screws.

A teacher in the article really gets to the crux of the conundrum for me:

Ben Wides, a Manhattan high-school history teacher, is leaning toward supporting Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. He said the role of Ms. Tisch, who launched more rigorous standardized tests that angered teachers, in the Thompson campaign gives him pause.

"As a teacher it makes me suspicious, very suspicious of Bill Thompson," he said. "I don't understand how someone could have Merryl Tisch as their campaign chair—who has been pushing relentlessly the implementation of these state tests that UFT members myself included have been very upset about—and then say that he's going to represent the interests of the union."

With Tisch as his co-chair, Al D'amato as one of his chief campaign bundlers, and a host of charter school and 

The solution to US public schools is not corporate America | toteachornototeach

The solution to US public schools is not corporate America | toteachornototeach:

The solution to US public schools is not corporate America

by aristotlethewise

The solution to US public schools is not corporate America

We’re slashing K-12 funding and teachers and then turning our
schools over to private operators. This is hardly good ‘reform’
by Daniel Denvir

America’s K-12 schools are being hollowed out, dismantled and converted to private management. It’s the ultimate outsourcing of our children’s futures.
In Philadelphia, one of America’s largest school districts, layoff notices were recently delivered to 3,859 teachers, aides, administrators and other staff. In Chicago, 850 teachers and staff are being let go. Nationwide, a staggering 335,100 teachers and other local public school jobs have been lost from June 2009 to May 2013, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
It’s easy to blame those layoffs on the sour economy, but that’s only part of the story. The education “reform” movement, a code for privatizing schools, has been using the economic crisis to push its agenda. After the 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: School house to jail house

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: School house to jail house:

School house to jail house

by Mike Klonsky

My students are just getting into Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow. We're trying to understand the connection between the mass incarceration of young people, particularly African-Americans and the worsening conditions for poor and children of color in the nation's schools.

Furman Univ. prof, Paul Thomas, writing in Truthout makes the link between Reagan's War on Drugs, which began filling the jails in the 1980s, and corporate-style school reform.

For three decades, the War on Drugs has led to mass incarceration, primarily impacting African American males, the racially defined "others," and the education reform movement based on high-stakes accountability has targeted "other people's children"  in ways that suggest market-oriented education reform is a school-based component of the New Jim Crow grounded in the criminal justice system.

Mass incarceration and market-oriented education reform share more than their genesis in the 1980s, since both have been shown to cause far more harm than good and to further marginalize 

Cartoons about Life at Lincoln Middle School (Diana Bledsoe) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons about Life at Lincoln Middle School (Diana Bledsoe) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Cartoons about Life at Lincoln Middle School (Diana Bledsoe)

by larrycuban

For my monthly feature of cartoons, I offer a few created by Diana Bledsoe. I met Diana through my blog. I readhers and saw that she did cartoons about a fictitious middle school. I thought readers would like to see some of her renderings about life in middle school for kids, teachers, and administrators. She told me that she is a “cartoonist who has been in the education field for over 15 years: first as a volunteer, then a teacher and currently as an administrator. My cartoons are inspired by my daily interactions with students and educational professionals.“

Schooling in the Ownership Society: How many more of these studies do we really need?

Schooling in the Ownership Society: How many more of these studies do we really need?:

How many more of these studies do we really need?

by Mike Klonsky

Well, it's another week and there's another study showing once again that charter schools fail to perform better than the traditional public schools they are being touted to replace.  Of course the whole premise behind comparing and rating large categories of schools, based on a selected group of standardized test scores makes no sense and needs more debunking.

This latest study, coming out of Stanford's CREDO group finds:

56 percent of the charters produced no significant difference in reading and 19 percent had worse results than traditional public schools. In math, 40 percent produced no significant difference and 31 percent were significantly worse than regular public schools.

Pearson

Charters actually come out slightly better in this year's CREDO study then they did in 2009. But charter school cheerleaders like Scott Pearson, are downright giddy over reportedly (I always add in that word when talking about D.C. test scores in the post-Rhee era) improved charter reading and math scores in the District. Pearson, who comes out of Arne Duncan's Dept. of