7-10-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Getting personal with me.

There was a lot of discussion at the NEA RA about whether criticisms of union leadership actions are focused on the person or the policy. Jersey Jazzman posted his thoughts the topic other day. Daine Ravitch wrote about it this morning. Be sure to read the comments that follow her post. Here’s my friend NYC Educator’s take on the matter. Let’s be clear. If I were going to get a bobblehead it woul

by Fred Klonsky / 59min 

Springfield is lawless.

(youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC1_tdnZq1A) Following the General Assembly’s failure to pass an unconstitutional pension bill, the legislature assembled The Gang of Ten to try and put something together. Governor Squeezy ordered the committee to come up with something by yesterday. Chairman Raoul told Squeezy’s representative, Budget Director Jerry Stermer that he was offended that Squeez

by Fred Klonsky / 15min 

More weird thoughts from Park Ridge District 64′s Dr. Dathan.

  Park Ridge school board member, Dr. Dathan Paterno. Dr. Dathan Paterno is the psychologist recently elected to the Park Ridge board of education. As a psychologist, Dr. Paterno is often paid to represent those taking legal action against the Park Ridge school district. And he has a compulsion to use Twitter to share his thoughts. We should thank him for his transparency, if not for his ideology

by Fred Klonsky / 4min 

Representing.

NEA Board of Director Rainy Kaplan sent over these pictures from the NEA Retired Conference and Representative Assembly.   Me, former NEA President Reg Weaver, IEA Retired  members Bob Kaplan and Pearl Mack.   Serious talk with NEA Retired Membership Chair Mae Smith.   During a break in the action the RA floor. Bob and Pearl. That’s me and IEA VP Griffin in the background. She was being very p

by Fred Klonsky / 44min 

Rahm’s recess: Keep it quiet, in the hallways and sell it to a private management firm.

  Recess at Revere. One of the few positives in Rahm Emanuel’s demand for a longer school day was the inclusion of a twenty minute recess in the elementary schools. Many Chicago public schools hadn’t had recess scheduled as part of the school day for years. If you thought CPS students now had twenty minutes for supervised free play, think again. Catalyst reports on what has happened to Rahm’s rec

by Fred Klonsky / 16min 

7-9-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Dick MellReblogged from Fred Klonsky:

by mike simpson / 10h 

7-10-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

NEA Resolves to Do Nothing to End Its Embrace of High Stakes Tests and Common Core

Here’s a couple of my favorite resolutions from this year’s annual hoodwinking: That NEA develop a comprehensive strategy to affirm our opposition to the excessive and inappropriate use of high stakes tests. This strategy will be accomplished through advocacy to and the education of the public and elected leaders, support of efforts by local and […]

by Jim Horn / 45min 

Catharsis in exiting numerous, ridiculous Facebook groups

I have no idea how in recent weeks that my sidebar of Facebook groups and pages exploded.  Well, actually, I do: others can add us to anything, that’s why. But I fed the beast. I actually participated in discussions, or whatever you want to call them. Something was dragging me down this rabbit hole. I […]

by Chalk Face, PhD / 1min 

If it reads like a script and sounds like a script…

The New York State Education Department has been aggressive with its reform agenda over the last year, including a new teacher evaluation system (APPR) and implementing the Common Core.   The process of adopting the Common Core has been pushed forward at lightspeed giving educators a feeling of helplessness.  Last spring’s state assessments were Common […]

by Chris Cerrone / 2min 

Sign BAR’s Petition: Anti-Racist Educators Should Not Issue Ghetto Passes To Teach For America

‘If this is how “anti-racism education” works – giving cover to organizations and policies that hurt people of color more than anybody else, it might be time to re-think that whole contraption as well.’ — Bruce A. Dixon Black Agenda Report (BAR) has been a consistent and principled opponent of neoliberal education reform for as […]

by rdsathene * Rober... / 5min 

#edweek. Education News or Common Core Propaganda?

It is the crap above that makes me question why I even subscribe to #edweek email alerts. At Road Maps to Common Core Success, district leaders, curriculum developers, and other experts, provided actionable plans to help education leaders like you find your way around obstacles that can hinder your route to success. How is it […]

by Timothy D. Slekar / 5min 

Blinded by the Stereotype Spotlight | the becoming radical

Blinded by the Stereotype Spotlight | the becoming radical.

by plthomasedd / 34min 

The Not-so-Hidden Path to School Improvement

Closing the Opportunity Gap, edited by Prudence Carter and Kevin Welner, shows how accountability-driven, competition-driven “reform” has failed educationally. On the other hand, it recounts the political advantages that corporate “reform” enjoys as it seeks to use competition to improve schools. Carter and Welner submit an ironclad case for evidence-driven school policies.  Most of the […]

by John Thompson / 13min 

7-9-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: My response to the response of the initial response on the @aftunion “survey” @rweingartenI can’t do this on Twitter. I just can’t. I wrote this yesterday about the AFT survey. My concerns in that post were not necessarily related to the methods of Hart. That’s already been addressed. I was responding to a Facebook comment, whereby an educator referred to the surve

by mike simpson / 8h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-10-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

A Shocking Display of Common Sense in Syracuse

Michael Gilbert, a school psychologist at Meachem Elementary School in Syracuse, New York, offers words of wisdom to his fellow citizens. Please read and share them. He writes: ….Much of what is happening in public education “reform” is not about what is in the best interest of students and schools. It is about politics, power, special interests and money. All children in public schools are ri

by dianerav / 5min 

Cash In on the Education Market Now!

Here is an event you won’t want to miss, if you can pay the price of admission. So many opportunities to cash in on the emerging market of education. There are, as the ad says, lots of needs to address: “This is a long-overdue shift the public has been clamoring for — measuring quality by what students are able to master, not by time spent in a classroom — and the private sector is offering numer

by dianerav / 12min 

Achievement First: Boot Camp for Kiddies

Achievement First prides itself on its high test scores, but recent stories report that these charters are also distinguished for startlingly high suspension rates. Half the 5-year-olds were suspended last year. Dacia Toll, the Ivy League-educated leader of the charter chain, promised to cut the suspension rate in half. Instead of suspending the kids, apparently they will get even tougher on them

by dianerav / 43min mark as read  //  save

Walmart Refuses to Pay a Living Wage in DC

Walmart, owned by the fabulously wealthy Walton family of Arkansas, has told the city of Washington, DC, that it will not build stores there if the City Council passes a “living wage” bill. The members of the family are billionaires and at the very least multimillionaires. Walmart wants to pay only the minimum wage of $7.50 an hour. The City Council wants a “living wage” of $12.50 an hour, reflect

by dianerav / 44min 

Teacher: Idaho Doesn’t Care about Education

A billionaire family in Idaho has been running ads (“Don’t Fail, Idaho”) disparaging the schools as failures. The Albertson family wants to promote online learning, which will save money but provide worse education. A member of the family invests in K12. A sad story from an Idaho teacher: I live in Idaho. I have seen public education dollars drop so low, that we are seeing our largest district i

by dianerav / 28min 

Wendy Davis, a True American Hero

The world knows Wendy Davis as the state senator in Texas who filibustered for 11 hours straight against an bill that would restrict abortion. Unlike Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” she was not allowed to take a drink of water or go off-topic or even lean on the speaker’s desk. What you may not know is that this was not her first filibuster. That was in 2011, when she filibustered

by dianerav / 12min mark as read  //  save

My Friend, Randi Weingarten

I have known Randi Weingarten for about 15 years. When I met her, she was president of the UFT in New York City. Over the years, we have shared many important life events, including birthdays, weddings, and funerals. Randi and I first wrote an article together in 2004. It was a protest against the autocratic way that Michael Bloomberg was running the NYC public schools. The title of the article i

by dianerav / 1h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Which State Has the Highest Graduation Rates?Graduation rates change every year, and the definition is not always exactly the same. In the most recent federal survey of state graduation rates, published in October 2011, the data are correct as of 2009. At that time, the average for all reporting states was 75.5% and the states with

by mike simpson / 10h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's gun violence epidemic worse than L.A. or New York

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's gun violence epidemic worse than L.A. or New York:

Chicago's gun violence epidemic worse than L.A. or New York

Greg Hinz at Crain's has an interesting column today on Chicago's gun violence scourge. Hinz asks U of C researchers and other experts why Chicago leads New York and L.A. in homicides? The answer he comes up with sounds simple and obvious -- the relative abundance of firearms here compared with the two coastal cities -- but it isn't. The U of C people tell him, "it's complicated" (I agree) and that they're still looking at it.  

For one thing, it doesn't explain a 40% jump in gun violence last year on the heels of Rahm Emanuel's election as mayor. I don't have any explanation for that either, but the question is certainly worth asking. A year later, Rahm and Chief McCarthy are cynically high-five-ing the 

Standardized testing scores the public never sees:

Standardized testing scores the public never sees

By Valerie Strauss, Published: July 10, 2013 at 7:00 amE-mail the writer

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D.C. public school students take a lot of standardized tests, but, it turns out,  the scores are never released. You may think they are because city officials do turn out some numbers, but they aren’t actual scores — and the District is not the only place this happens. Here to explain is Matthew Di Carlo, senior fellow at the non-profit Albert Shanker Institute, located in Washington, D.C. This post appeared on the institute’s blog.

By Matthew Di Carlo

We’ve entered the time of year during which states and districts release their testing results. It’s fair to say that the two districts that get the most attention for their results are New York City and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), due in no small part to the fact that both enacted significant, high-profile policy changes over the past 5-10 years.

The manner in which both districts present annual test results is often misleading. Many of the issues, such as misinterpreting changes in proficiency rates as “test score

 

The perfect summer read — about reading

I don’t usually recommend books, but while on vacation, I smiled all the way through 117 pages of a novella about the unadulterated joy of reading. “The Uncommon Reader,” by English dramatist Alan Bennett, first published in 2007, is an … Continue reading →    

by Valerie Strauss / 3h

Goodbye Big Brother, hello local control … maybe | EdSource Today

Goodbye Big Brother, hello local control … maybe | EdSource Today:

Goodbye Big Brother, hello local control … maybe

July 9th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Affeldt / commentary

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California’s new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) signifies a welcome shift from the “no excuses” education “reform” crowd and their D.C. dominance. Contrary to Washingtonian rhetoric about addressing poverty by getting tough on bad teachers and closing bad schools, California proposes to address poverty by, well, addressing poverty.

Indeed, the LCFF reform shifts the conversation back to a focus on the extra resources and support that low-income students and English Learners need to succeed. And rather than shutting down low-performing schools first and asking questions later, LCFF proposes to send schools that have high concentrations of low-income students even more resources.

LCFF also pushes much more decision-making to the local level, rather than having policymakers decide how best to serve students. And when it comes to holding districts accountable for improving student achievement, LCFF signals a significant shift away from defining achievement solely along the lines of a standardized test score.

Instead, the new law calls for a new system based on a “holistic, multidimensional assessment” of 

Despite drop in number of foster youth, significant educational obstacles remain - by Kathryn Baron

Children’s advocates are welcoming a new report showing a sharp drop in the number of foster youth in California, but also caution that less isn’t necessarily a sign of improvement. This is especially the case in education, where most schools still have not figured out how to help foster youth succeed academically. “The truth is that schools and school districts have not historically... [[ This i

by Kathryn Baron / 4h